Fish Lips

Josie learned how to pucker her lips, she gives awesome fish lip kisses. She is about the cutest thing ever. After Amelia's dance recital I felt pretty stressed for time. I had 400+ photos to edit/order/process before leaving for Utah. I spent Monday and Tuesday chained to the computer. I did not get the ordering done but did get all the photos culled and LightRoom edited. When we got back I had to edit group photos since my backdrop was not tall or wide enough. I also had a gifted newborn session, the baby came 3 weeks early so had to squeeze that in before we left. Her dad is a policeman so I got to hold a police utility belt, that thing weighed about 20 pounds. The baby was pretty well-behaved after she fell asleep. Josie was in a pretty happy mood after her morning nap so I snuck her downstairs for 3 month old photos. Gasp...I took the photos 3 days early. I am always amazed at how fast babies change, even in 3 days.

Amelia's school had spirit week, Monday was Manic Monday. I interpreted that as 80s day. Most kids showed up with mixed up clothes or colored hair. Whoops! Still she totally rocked the 80s with an outfit we pulled together in a couple minutes. My other favorite day was Farmer Day, she makes a cute little lady. Phillip had his last soccer game Monday night. His team won this time! Phillip earned a medal after the game. He exclaimed: "This is the best day of my life! I won a medal!" He was pretty darn proud.

Evelyn displayed her artistic talents using my eye liner pencil. She watched me apply liner to Amelia's eyes for her recital. Little discoverer climbed up a stool and grabbed my makeup basket. After we cleaned up her body Phillip gave her a black permanent marker. She decorated her legs again. Thankfully, it was cold for the wedding day so tights covered up her body art.

I packed and cleaned all Wednesday. Around dinner time our house looked like WWIII with all the stuff we laid out and the kids playing as well. I am always amazed at how our house looks when it gets cleaned. Amelia and Everett cleaned up Evelyn's room, part of their bedroom, and even cleaned up the living room! I was so impressed with their clean up I had to take a photo. My kids CAN clean!

The drive out on Thursday was pretty uneventful. Amelia sat in the front on her booster. I sat in the back to keep Evelyn from poking Josie in the eye and to nurse. Quite frankly, the captain seat back there is more comfortable than the front seat. My poor back hated when I sat in the front. We stopped once for lunch at the Thai place in Rawlins. We drove straight to the Lances and arrived there at 4:15, pretty good time for 5 kids and for leaving at 8 am. I hand-mended 4 pairs of Justin's dress pants and hemmed up a pair of Everett pants during the drive. Phillip once again filled up the red pee bottle, he even managed to pee on my arm as I held the bottle for him. He is not trustworthy enough to hold the bottle alone. I guess hazards of the job are part of the description.

We enjoyed dinner and playing at Grandma's house that evening. Justin decided to sleep with the kids on a bottom bunk. Dang! That left me with octopus girl and the baby in my bed. He gets the better sleep deal every time. True to form, Evelyn fell out of bed 4 times, flopped and flipped all over me and the bed. We woke up with red eyes from restless sleep. Grandpa is expanding the driveway (again). Some guys delivered a couple yards of gravel to line the new patch. Oh boy! The kids were in heaven watching the truck then playing in the rocks. Of course the kids had to take a ride on the fat shaker Grandpa has. Amelia took a ride and regretted it for the next couple hours. Silly girl, take care of that hip. She cried half the time at the toy store because her hip hurt so badly. We decided to spend part of the day down in Eagle Mountain with Miekka and Courtenay. On our drive down we stopped off at Toys R Us for Amelia and Everett to get birthday presents. Our kids had eyes the size of saucers seeing that many toys in one place. Guess our dinky Walmart is not very impressive. Amelia wondered why Sidney lacked stores like Toys R Us. Evelyn was quite the pill in the store. She would run away if not in the cart and scream if she was. I was not about to back down to a tantrum so let her scream. As we drove into Miekka's driveway a hail storm scuttled over the area. I stayed in the van with a napping Evelyn and Josie. Guess we brought the hail with us! Amelia and Jacob played MineCraft most of our visit. Miekka and Amy were sewing up Disneyland outfits! All the ladies holed up in the craft room to chat. The kids scattered off to play with their cousins. eventually John wandered over and we had some nice family time with everyone. Justin wisely wanted to get back to Grandma's at a decent time to get the kids bathed and in bed for the long Saturday wedding party. Phillip really loved Grandma's water whistle, it is still in one piece and entertaining kids since their time in Egypt. My Great-Aunt Shirley came with her daughter from Arizona for the wedding. We enjoyed catching up. Everett was so sweet, he remembered my cousin Amber from giving her a hug at Grandma's house. He welcomed her with a huge hug at the temple, saying how much he missed her and was so glad to see her again. That kid has a stellar, tender soul.

Phillip punched out his top right tooth with his tongue. He was quite impressed with his tongue strength. The tooth fairy missed his tooth hiding under the pillow the first night. Maybe the tooth fairy has small wings and took longer to fly back to Utah. He found a dollar under his pillow the next night. He carried the tooth and dollar around with him all day. I was impressed he did not lose his tokens! I catch glimpses of him poking out his tongue through his new tooth space.