Random Randomness

We've just got some random stuff here. First, Mareney (as Evan calls her!) and her big smile. Finally got one! It's pretty much a guarantee that you can get a smile while she's in the bath. She kicks those happy legs like they would fall off if she ever stopped.

Michael had a couple of days off around the 4th of July so we decided to do something other than sit around home and watch me work all day. We went to the zoo! Thanks, Grammy, for sharing your pass with us! We took Anton with us, rode MAX there, got to see the bird show, go on the train, see the butterflies...all the good stuff! Here is Evan with his sunglasses on. Every time we walk out the door and the sun is even remotely out, he says, "It's sunny", and insists on either his hat or his sunglasses. Last night he had his sunglasses on until I coaxed them off of him at about 8:30 p.m. Ha! Look at Maren's arm rolls. I counted five rolls on her legs yesterday. Funny thing is that at her 6 month appointment today the doctor said she wanted to get her height and weight at 8 months instead of the usual 10 month appointment because she went from 50th percentile to 25th in weight and 80th to 45th in height. We had to laugh because she is so curvaceous. She certainly doesn't look malnourished. Then again, I never have had the greatest milk production. I'm sure she'll be fine, though.

And, last but not least, our lovey picture from this morning. Evan was laying down and he wanted Maren with her. I love those sweet moments.

Today at lunch:

Evan: Mom, can I have some candy?
Me: Evan, it doesn't look like you've eaten any of your sandwich yet.
Evan: We can use our imaginations.

Ha! What a cutie. Still didn't get the candy. :-)

Stolen Social Security Number?

I just found out today that a woman is working in a Chipotle restaurant in Columbia Heights, MN under Michael's SSN. Does anybody have any idea what I should do in this case? Do I call the police? Do I call the manager? If so, what do I say? Do I start by getting a credit report to see if she's done anything else with our credit? Well, that's an obvious. I have to do that no matter what. But what else do I do?

Laptop?

This is going to be a seriously boring post...and many of you have already seen this request. Anyway, it's my blog so I'm just going to put this on here. We could really use a laptop. I am working on the computer all day and Michael literally doesn't get a chance to get on the computer to do his school work. So, we are wanting to find out if anyone has a laptop they are wanting to get rid of for little money. I won't put a dollar amount on there, but things are pretty dire around here right now so we're going to have to go picking off our money tree in the back for any priced laptop. :-) If you know of anyone, please let us know. Michael would be so grateful.

4th of July!

The 4th of July is my second favorite holiday, after Thanksgiving. Or maybe they are tied. I don't know. I just love the BBQ, I love the weather, I love the fireworks and the patriotic songs. And I love spending time together as a family. Loved going to Chaffey college and watching the fireworks with my family growing up and now we enjoy going to the Oak Hills neighborhood as a family now that I'm all grown up. :-) This year we added the Hillsboro parade to the agenda. That was pretty fun. Evan waved to most everyone who passed by. He had the most perfect parade princess wave. It was hysterical. Unfortunately, Maren was the only one with patriotic clothes. The closest the boys could get was Mickey Mouse. Works for me! Both kids enjoyed the fireworks. Maren's eyes were humongous for the first half and then closed in a deep sleep the second half (babies can sleep through anything!). Michael will say that the color is all wrong on this picture of Maren, but I am in love with it anyway. Hope you all enjoyed your day, too!

Undies

I think we are on our way to being potty-trained!! Whew hoo! Yesterday Evan said he wanted to wear his big boy underwear. Wow...okay. We haven't really tried any strategies as of yet. Just waiting for him to show that he wants to do it the big boy way. He's peed and pooped on the pot plenty of times, but this was taking it to a whole other level. But, I had decided a couple of days before that it was probably a good idea and that I was mentally and emotionally prepared to clean up any messes he made. So, we put his underwear on around 9:15 a.m. yesterday. By 10:30 he had gone through all three pairs and that was it for the day. Each time I would hear, 'Mom, I'm going pee.' I'd run over and there would already be a puddle on the floor. So, I washed his undies and we tried again today. He went the whole day (minus trip to the park) with his undies on. Yipee! The first couple times he said, 'Mom, I'm going pee', I panicked and ran as fast as I could. But he was holding it for the toilet. Granted, we were in there about every 30 minutes, but it was still a fun day. Towards the end of the day, he stopped putting his shorts back on and I just loved the sight of his cute little underweared bum running around so I had to get a picture. If his shorts didn't stay up before with the help of a bulky diaper, I don't know what we're gonna do now! Suspenders? Oh yes, can't go anywhere without those " 'rocs".

Sweet Music

We had our niece, Melissa, over today and Anton was here for a few hours, too. I love it that kids like to be at our house...especially the tweens! :-) I've decided I really like 10-year-olds. They are just wonderful. Anyway, Evan pulled out his musical instruments and they all got together to make some raucous music. Even Maren got involved. It was pretty cute.

Critters

Yesterday Anton brought his new baby lizard over for us to see. Evan enjoyed getting to hold it, although Michael made him stand in the bathtub to do it. He's a fast little critter and if he had jumped out of Evan's hands in an uncontained environment, we would've never seen him again.

Now today was hysterical! Michael found a beehive in our Asian pear tree. There were literally thousands of bees buzzing around. We weren't sure what to do besides look dumbfounded out the screen door at them. But Anton wanted to "suit up" and go check them out. He said his dad had "suited up" before when they had a hive. So, after spraying them with cold water, Michael and Anton "suited up". Yes, I'm beating that to death, but it just cracks me up. So, Anton comes over with a sweatshirt on, a face mask, long pants and shoes. He asks to borrow some gloves and some tape to tape them shut. Michael puts long clothes on as well and then says to Anton that 'bees are attracted to dark colors. Look what you're wearing. That's why I'm putting this sheet around me.' Ha! Okay, weirdo. Oh, man. I can't type this post without busting a gut. Is this one of those you-had-to-be-there moments, or what? So these two buddies go outside and they're checking things out. Bees are swarming everywhere! Come to find out, it wasn't a beehive at all. They didn't have a hive. The over one foot long "hive" was actually a humongous mass of bees. Wow! So they collected bees and then sprayed them. They were out there probably half an hour. I told Michael that if he got stung 100 times and needed to go to the hospital, he'd have to phone a friend because I had too much work to do. Ha! That was mostly because I told him he was a total geek to go outside and do that. Well, wouldn't you know it, they didn't get a single sting. Neither of them! I would've gone into anaphlactic shock with my 500 stings, I'm sure. I thought the sight of them out there was too good to pass up. I like Michael's ghostly look. Oh, what a day! Never a dull moment around here.

Kids

I just love the way my kids interact! Maren absolutely adores Evan and I was surprised to see this happening so soon. Her favorite things are when he sings the ABCs, dances, or jumps around. She just busts up like it's the funniest thing ever. Then we can't help but crack up! Well, he was up to his regular antics the other night and had her going so we got out the camera to finally get a big-smiled picture of her. They all turned out terrible because it was dark in the room. Ugh. We'll have to try again. But then Evan cutely hopped up on the couch and put his arm around her and there he stayed for a good five minutes. It was so sweet!

Fathers & Sons

Evan and Michael went to our ward's Fathers & Sons activity on Saturday and had a great time. The house that it was at has a large play structure, a humongous sand box, motorized kids cars, and all sorts of other niceties. They had a yummy dinner and a fire. Evan liked putting sticks in the fire. They stayed until 10:00 p.m.! Of course, me being the paranoid wife and mother that I am, I started calling around at 10:00 to try to make sure they were okay. I'm excited for them to go again next year. Maybe next year it will be an overnighter!! :-)

Happy Father's Day!

Look at my sweet family! I so love them. We had a great Father's Day today. We gave Michael a tie with a matching one for Evan and a matching dress for Maren. Boy was he surprised!! He loved it and got lots of attention today from friends and strangers alike. I must say a huge THANK YOU to my sister, Danica, and my mom for "helping" with the sewing. Ha! That just means that they did everything. I cut a few pieces, did some pinning and ironed on the...well, i don't even remember what it's called now. Anyway, sewing would not be listed as one of my talents so I sure appreciate them taking the time to help me out with this fun project! Anyway...

Reasons why we love Dad so much:

He is a handsome guy who helps make really cute kids.

He is super funny...makes silly voices, crawls around like animals, hoots, hollers and brings all sorts of fun into our home.

He doesn't see spending time with the kids so I can go to meetings or just have a break as "babysitting".

He is helping Evan build a really great garden, letting Evan do lots of fun stuff for it.

Just when I think Evan has pushed his last button and his frustration is going to go over the edge, he calms right down, speaks in a tender voice and always gets things worked out - I would be the one losing my cool and sending him to a time-out.

He knows a lot of sciencey things and gives Evan awesome, in-depth explanations of how things work...but on a level Evan can understand.

He does cool experiments.

He is working hard in school (and just got 100% on his first test!) so he can provide better for his family.

For all these reasons and more, we love you, Michael Bybee (Dad)!

Caught You, Goofball!

Not the first time and I'm sure it won't be the last...

Sneaky little silly guy!

Kindergarden Picture

Yesterday was Michael's first day of school. I told him I was going to take the typical kindergarden picture of him and he thought I would opt to sleep instead. Nope! I rolled right out of that bed to catch my cute guy in his new get-up. Pretty handsome, I thought. (I think the dead weeds in the background add a lot to the picture. At least they're dead, right?!?!)

Double Step Rock Step

So, tonight was the big clogging recital and it went really well. I only messed up two small times, which I thought was amazing considering I had only learned that dance about 2 weeks ago in our dining room with the headphones on in the middle of the night while everyone else slept. Michael asked me, referring to the dance that looks like we're on Speed, it's so fast, if I was out of breath afterwards. NO! Not just out of breath. I couldn't even talk for about 5 minutes. Ha! I turned a lovely shade of red and glistened with sweat. Beautiful.

Thanks to all who came to show their love and support. Apparently Nathanael and Maren (the 2 babies) were quite entranced by either the tapping or the costumes. Evan even sat really well through it, Michael said. Michael's comments were that the ballroom portions were so boring coming after ours because they were so quiet...not the loud tapping that the clogging numbers had. I thought that was funny. He also said (get your Kleenex out) that he got misty-eyed at the finale as he was watching me because he was so proud. Every one, now...aaaaaahhhhh. Sweet. On the way home we stopped at Jack in the Box and I ate two tacos, a chicken sandwich, small fries and an Oreo shake. I'm pretty sure I had already had it all burned off before I stepped foot in the restaurant.

Funny Line:

Evan has come up with a new thing he likes to say when someone is leaving. He says, "Enjoy your life." We have absolutely no idea where he got this from. The first time he said it to us it made us very upset. Did he have a premonition that he was going to die or something?!?! Guess not. He tells everyone now. It's pretty darn cute. So, enjoy your day. Enjoy your year. And enjoy your life. So says Evan.

Fun Photos

Evan LOVES to play with "water bayoons" and water weinies. He and Michael were having lots of fun outside and I was trying to snap a picture of him in all his cuteness. This is cute, but nothing like he was the half second before when I actually pressed the button for the camera to take the picture! :-)

Like father, like son, like daughter. When Michael is tired or sleeping, his hands go behind his head. You always know when Evan is sleepy in the car because you'll find his hands behind his head. Dead giveaway. Well, Maren is just like those boys. I caught her last night and had to snap the photo for proof.

These are Evan's new Crocs. We took him to the kiosk in the mall yesterday so he could find some sandals for the summer that he can put on by himself. The bummer was that they didn't have a great color selection because they haven't gotten any shipments lately. We had four colors to choose from...baby blue, orange, charcoal and turquoise (oh, yes. There were other colors, but they were definitely girl colors: purple, pink, etc.). Well, when I see the turquoise ones, I can only think of Sarah in her wonderful turquoise outfit at church with her turquoise Crocs. And Sarah is a girl! So I didn't really want Evan to get those. Well, Michael let Evan choose the color and no matter how we pitched them to him, he always chose the turquoise. On the wall, looking at all the colors: Turquoise. On the floor, all four colors: Turquoise. Mix them around: Turquoise. Pull out a completely different style of Crocs: Nope...turquoise! Well, it's grown on me. When he has them on, they don't scream out to me that they should only be for girls. However, if you don't agree, keep your comments and snickers to yourself. Ha! The good thing I could come up with for this situation is that Maren will have a really great pair of sandals in two years.