A boy & his 'dinothor'...

Well... first, a boy and his big brother!


Here's Cael and the beloved 'dinothor'. I promise to get some video (had some and a child deleted it!). 'Dinothor' is his most favorite toy...


'Dinothor' is loved even when he's inanimate!

Pyramid

The little chokable Legos are banned to downstairs. The big Cael-safe Legos are kept upstairs for all to play with. And played with they are! Here's a recent creation...


What else? A pyramid.


Complete with the valley temple (middle bottom), causeway (middle path to pyramid), the sarcophagus (inside the pyramid), and boat burial pits (left & right of the causeway). Very nicely done. Unfortunately, Rhys was the photographer and is unfamiliar with the flash as you might notice in these next photos...


Proud of their accomplishment, in particular the self-timer on the camera!

I'm flunking Financial Peace University

Really. Dave Ramsey would NOT be proud. Besides being lazy about budgeting (back on track now), I've been spending my babysitting money on non-necessary things instead of paying down our debt.

I'm only watching Daniel & Christian for 3 weeks this summer. The original plan was to trade babysitting for a pool. Well, they are really missing having a pool (it's disassembled in their garage). We aren't too anxious to have a big pool. So... we ditched the swap idea and, instead, Mary Beth is just paying me. Hence, the money wasn't counted on and has no spot in the budget. It could, but I just didn't include it.

So, now I'm having a bit of fun with the money. Like the Flip Video. And now... a kitchen gadget. Yeah, I know everyone has one. We even had one (remarkably similar, in fact) and I gave it away 10 years ago. Now, we've seen the light. Actually, we've seen too many episodes of America's Test Kitchen. This is a "must have" so... now we have it (again).

Now, I have to use it right?

Actually, as part of my book group reading "Proper Care and Feeding of Husbands", we've decided to do something kind and unexpected for our husbands each week. I picked making an old-fashioned chocolate cake using a recipe from... where else? America's Test Kitchen. Yeah, well... it's got about 100 steps. Yikes! Nothing hard or weird. Just a lot more work than Betty Crocker!

What a mess the mama makes!

What a mess George makes! Stay tuned for an update and photo of the finished project. By the way, it smells wonderful in here!

Love "the" mobile...

Told you... It is the greatest! Ole doesn't hiccup much. In fact, the only time he hiccups is when he's watching under the mobile. He gets excited, laughs, gasps and hiccups ensue! Very cute!

New Toy

Gee... thanks Michelle! She introduced me to this fun little camera... I decided that we have too few videos of the kiddos. Part of the problem is not wanting to haul around the HandyCam. My digital camera does good video but it's a pain to shoot stills at the same time and 1GB only shoots 15 minutes. So... this handy little thing shoots an hour and you can capture stills from the video easily. Fits in the diaper bag. Downloads quickly. Makes the mama happy!

Swimming pool...

Boy... morning comes much too early sometimes. Cael got up rather early to nurse and didn't go back to sleep before the rest of the littles woke... Too bad for the mama.
Both Brennen and Kjersten had the same question for me as soon as their little eyes opened. "Can we go swimming now?" So, by 9am, I had the two little ones headed to the pool. Brrrr.... They had a ball. It'll be more fun this afternoon, when it's 100 degrees and the sun is actually shining on that side of the house. (Rhys and Jason are gone to karate and then paintball so Rhys will have to wait until tonite after church to dip his toes...)
No photos, because I could not juggle Cael, my book, my diet Coke and the camera while watching the kiddos. Next time...

Our trip- Part 3 (back to Spokane)

We headed back to Spokane on Monday. We had a nice dinner with Michelle, Steve, and Jack. Tuesday, Michelle, Kjersten, and I took the babies shopping. We also embarked on a futile search for Crocs for Kjersten. Found some for George, but there are none to be found in Eastern Washington for Kjesten. Argh!

Here's what I bought...

These will come in handy helping the little ones learn to swim. And they were clearanced for $5. Nice!

I was able to keep an eye on Cael all the way home with this handy (huge) mirror for the car. All he did was sleep, but I sure could see him snoozing with this one!
Yeah... I bought the mobile! After much debate... and a second trip to Babies R Us. I was debating ordering the "deluxe" model that includes a remote (for $10 more and not available in stores that I have access to...) Well, I decided whilst in Moses Lake that the non-deluxe model was more than sufficient and that's why we went to Babies R Us again once back in Spokane. (These are out of stock here in my town.) Anyhow, when we went back, there was a deluxe model with the remote on the shelf (right above the regular model's price tag). It was the only one. The others were the "regular" model. There was no different price or even a place for the fancy one. I thought, "Hey!!! That's $10 off and I don't have to order it! I'll take it!" We took it up front and the darn thing rang up another $7 less than the non-deluxe model's regular price. $17 less than regular price!!!! (It was obviously a return but we checked and all the pieces were there and hadn't been opened/ assembled.) How fun for me... I mean Cael!!!

Look what dad brought home...

NO! It's not a puppy! Jason took pity on the kids (and the mama). It's supposed to be 103 here this week and we have no sprinklers to run thru where we live... So, Jason stopped at Toys R Us on the way home and bought a little pool. It'll work well for the rest of the summer and give us an idea to whether or not we want a bigger pool next year.

It's getting dark and the water from the cistern is COLD, but the kids are happily playing in the water while the pool fills!

Look what nifty little thing I am playing with...

Jason's company picnic was tonite. It's held at one of the owner's homes. The kids swim, the adults eat and drink, and all the employees win a prize of some sort. Lots of good stuff. This year there were printers, scanners, digital cameras, a Wii (really!) and three of these iPods. Isn't it pretty? It does music and video. I haven't yet figured it all out, but I am working on it. Can't wait to download Dave Ramsey's podcasts! 30GB can hold a lot of music/ talk radio!!!!

If you give a kid a camera...

You'll get some (or 180+) silly pictures...