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Meg is 8 Months Old Today...

I can hardly believe it. Oh, be still my aching heart...this little one is growing up way too quickly!

Meg is such a darling and delightful wee one. I just cannot get enough of her. She has a very sweet temperament and a smile and giggle that will knock your socks off. I'm just so in love.

Here is a look at some of her 8 month milestones...Meg can sit up all by herself.
She doesn't crawl yet but will be soon. She can get herself anywhere she wants to go by rolling.

She is an early riser.... she is up by 5:30 every morning. Good thing (no, great thing) her Daddy is an early riser too! When she wakes up she talks and gurgles and plays. She is in such great spirits for that time of morning. If it weren't so darn cute it would be darn obnoxious!

She can feed herself her bottle. And she LOVES her bottle. She is not really in to food. She will absolutely NOT eat baby food and will only sometimes eat big people food.

She'd make a great little eater though, since she has SIX teeth. Two on bottom and four on top.

Her favorite and pretty much only words are: "bah bah bah" and Mommy's favorite, "blah blah blah."

She is, however, more than happy to share a sucker with her mom.

Her favorite trick is sticking her tongue out and spitting. It is awfully cute!

She STILL has a runny nose. Due to allergies the poor baby has literally had a runny nose her whole life. So sad! And yet, she is still such a sweet thing. I'm not such a happy camper when my allergies flair up!

Meg loves to have her back patted, or should I say whacked! Especially when she is super tired.

Meg is not my greatest sleeper. She seems to need less sleep than the other kids. She goes to bed later, gets up earlier, and takes shorter naps. She does get herself into quite the entanglements though, silly girl!

She loves the water. She splashes and kicks and loves to put her face in. She loves to take a bath too.

Meg, we love you! You bring such great joy to our home!

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The Ants and the Grashopper

Since Saturday I have spent more than seven hours weeding my garden. Wooh. That is a lot of weeds. I actually really enjoy weeding if my kids are taken care of and I can not be "bothered." (So, thanks to the greatest honey, who took care of Meg for five hours on Saturday morning, oh precious Saturday morning, so I could weed. Love you!) I enjoy being outside. I like dirt on my hands and feet and in my fingernails. I like the time to think, or not think if I choose. I enjoy looking at a beautiful weedless (or mostly weedless) garden. I just enjoy it.

So, on Monday as I was finishing up the weeding and truthfully enjoying it a little less with each moment (or getting hot and tired anyway) I was inspired to keep going by.....none other than an ant. This tiny little ant went marching right past me carrying a honker grasshopper leg. He would carry it on his back then pull it from the front. This guy was working hard. I sure hope he was applauded by the Mother Ant when he got back to his hill. It reminded me of the famous fable about the ants who work hard all year to be prepared for the winter and the grasshopper who teases and taunts them until winter strikes and he is unprepared because he spent all his time playing instead of working. I felt inspired to keep going. Keep weeding and trying to be prepared. I felt proud to be on the same "team" as the ant. Come winter we would be prepared. My pantry will be full of canned salsa made with home grown tomatoes, peppers and onions, my freezer will be stocked with frozen corn from the cob and delicious raspberries, we'll savor peas and green beans all winter because I was motivated to keep going by an ant. Thanks little guy! I hope the grasshopper leg was tasty!

The garden does look a little sparse at the moment. Due to getting it in late (thanx once again to my unexpected Boise trip!) and our peas and carrots burnt up due to the extreme heat and we (Kendon) replanted them and hopefully they'll come up any day! I'll post pics again later when it is looking a bit more LUSH!

Monster pile of weeds!

24 Hours...

in the life of a Mommy with sick kiddos.

7:00 pm Sirri doesn't feel well. Spikes a fever. Ibuprofen. She goes to bed.
12:00 am Sirri needs a drink.
2:00 am Fever is back. More Ibuprofen.
7:00 am Wakes up in a great mood. Seems to be feeling better.
8:30 Load up to go to the gym. Sirri cries that she is sick again and wants to stay home. Then decides she maybe does feel better and would like to try and go to the gym and Spray Park.
9:00 Arrive at the gym. Sign kids in. Sirri cries that she is sick. I give her a hug and feel that she is once again burning up. Sign back out. Go home.
9:30 Walmart run for more Ibu.
10:00 - 12:00 Sirri and Connor both want to lay down and watch a movie. Meg is asleep. Mom decides to finish weeding the garden. Utto, why did Connor last so long watching a movie. He never sits still that long. He must be getting sick.
12:30 pm Kids are hungry. Fix lunch. Now no one feels well enough to eat. Mom ends up eating their PBandJ.
1:00 Connor asks for a nap. Sirri is pretty much passed out on the couch.
3:30 Kiddos wake up. Sirri decides she is feeling better and would like to play in the pool.
3:30 -4:15 Mom gets the pool all cleaned out and set up. Now no one feels well enough to swim.
5:00-5:30 Read stories outside.
5:30 Kids are hungry. Make dinner. Kids too sick to eat again. They do drink some OJ.
6:30 Have Family Night with both kiddos vegged out on the couches hardly moving. So sad...they usually love Family Night.
7:00 Connor again asks to go to bed. Sirri once again passed out on the couch unable to get her own jammies on. Meg asleep on the floor with her bottle hanging out of her mouth. Poor baby.
7:00 Thankfully Daddy gets home because both kids want him to put them to bed.
7:45 Mommy vegges on her blog before having to clean up the dinner that no one ate!!!

I had to Call the Exterminator...

We have bugs. WHINER BUGS, that is!

Sirri and Connor have been having a tough time with whining lately. Let me rephrase that, they don't have a problem whining, they have that down great! They are having a difficult time using an appropriate voice. One that doesn't grate at their mother's ears!!

So, for Family Night the other night I told them a little story. It was about a family that had bugs. Whiner bugs! The mommy had to call the exterminator (the kiddos thought that was a pretty cool word!). The exterminator said that the only way to get rid of the whiner bugs was to have a Love Bug come live at their house. Love Bugs talk like big kids and say please and thank without having to be asked. They don't cry when they need something and Mommies and Daddies can hear when Love Bugs talk. I hope the message came through loud and clear and this last week we have been practicing being Love Bugs. Each time the kids use their Love Bug voices they get to take a Whiner Bug (really creepy spiders from the $ store-ick) out of the Whiner Bug jar and turn it into a Love Bug. When all the Whiner Bugs are Love Bugs we get to go out for ice cream. We only have a few more to go. Hurray! I think we will use the jars for one more week to really practice and enforce the concept. (We were in Utah the first week doing this and it is harder to really reinforce when you are not at home.) Hopefully our Bug problem will be solved!

Good Idea Bad Idea

Good Idea: Allowing your three year old to still sleep in his crib if he wants to.

Bad Idea: Allowing your three year old to sleep in his crib if he wants to when his little eight month old sister could really use a bigger bed!!!

Disclaimer: You can tell that she is sleeping the WRONG direction, right? And I DID NOT put her to bed that way. This was of her own devices!!!

Catching Up!

"No man needs a vacation so much as the person who has just had one." - Elbert Hubbard

With that in mind, here is a sneak peek at our great vacation to Ogden Canyon. I'll post more pics when I get all caught up (and after I get pics from my Mom and Sister!)