Kids this week

Yes, they are eating tomatoes. Yes, I know its weird. Yes, they keep trying to pick our tomatoes before they are ready because they are so excited. These ones are from the store.We spent several mornings at some different parks this week. It was so nice to get out of the house, for me and the kids, and see our friends.

Jo & I hanging out on the deck early one morning.
I love how her feet are sticking out.
Helping mom and watching cartoons.

One afternoon Nyah was playing with Sophie's nose and it caused Sophie to smile oh so adorably big, so of course we spent the next 30 minutes trying to get Sophie to do it again for the camera. We have tons of short clips with Sophie coughing, yawning, sneezing, and stoically staring at Nyah until she finally smiled again. Nyah didn't know I was doing video and so she's yelling for me to take the picture at the end. This smile wasn't as charming as the first one, but still adorable.

And because he is usually off doing his own thing and not accessible for picture taking, I snagged some of Austin this afternoon playing with his Bionicles.

Blooming!

Too often these days I find myself up with Jolie long before the sun is up. We like to sit on the back deck and watch the sunrise. In past days I have enjoyed gardening at this time of day, but I am just too tired lately. Most of these pictures are from several walks around the yard with Olivia and Jolie, and all the interesting things they found to see or chase after.

Several of my Portulaca plants are thriving!! They are on the south side of the house.

Mystery flower on wildside - I suspect I know what it is, but I'm just not thinking clearly right now.

Another mystery flower.

Cosmos!! A favorite - I have several variations growing - this is one of the larger sizes.

Jolie and a wandering dog. He belongs to someone on some street near us and escapes once in a while. He likes to come where all the kids are playing and eating snacks.

Grasshopper.

Autumn Beauty Sunflower - I love the red tinge around the edges.

I think this is a Queen Anne's Lace Sunflower, one I grew last year and saved a few heads for seeds this year. The bees are busy, busy already.

Tomatoes! Tomatoes! I have lived here for 3+ years now, but it is still surprising to me how long it takes for things to grow and get ripe. I guess it may be because June was so cold and rainy this year. I think it was last year too.

Bronze Mum

Daisy

Stray cat - one of the things chased by Jolie.

I have 2 variations of coreopsis growing, above is one I planted this year and below was planted last yera.

Icelandic Poppy growing on the wildside.

And this is a new guy in the wildside of the yard - I'm thinking its a Mexican Hat flower, but don't know for sure. I was so excited to see it. It still makes me giddy.

Me & Sophie

In a miracle of miracles all 3 of my little girls were napping for a half an hour today and the older two were out playing with friends. I sat on the couch and did nothing. Lovely :). Then Sophie was up and we were able to nurse, change her diaper, and play without 4 other people climbing all over us. Lovely :).

Blooming in the Yard

Because my little girls like to escape from the house and run away to the neighbor's trampoline, I ended up venturing outside for a few recovery missions, and spent some time examining our flowers and garden. Even though my mom graciously weeded for me a few weeks ago (thanks mom!), the weeds have returned. But we also have plenty of flowers to admire too! Daisies - happy cheerful faces!
My butterfly bushes - a favorite!!

Black Eye Susans

This one is called a Burgundy Gaillardia - daisylike flowers are a favorite too!

Icelandic Poppies - I love how these bloom different colors - pink, yellow, orangish

Lupine - love the purple and white!

My first sunflower!!! Check out all the bugs who are excited too! This one looks like an Autumn Beauty. There are lots more flower heads that are getting ready to bloom - I'm so excited to see all the varieties.

Orange Lillies

Now I just need to motivate myself to spend time weeding. That's a hard sell.

Family!

It has been a couple years since Amelia & Brent visited from South Carolina, but we made sure we were all able to get together (except Keshia who is on her mission in Croatia) while they were here. I didn't take very many pictures, but in my defense I was trying to spend time with everyone! When my fam came into town they went to Panda Express for dinner. Jesse and I met up with them even though we already had dinner. Jesse came into town the day before.

It was also Nyah's 8th birthday - her baptism will be August 7th.

My sisters and their babies.

All the cousins - 5 of them are mine - Holy Cow!

With my mom and sisters

I'd tell you all the fun things we did, but Sophie is hungry NOW!!

Fun in the Sun?

Our pool finally opened.

And I was so excited I took the kids.

And then we got there.

And I realized I made a mistake.

Chasing kids doesn't work when you can only feebly hobble after them, yelling at them to wait.

We left after 45 minutes.

I don't think we'll be going back anytime soon.

Does anyone want to be a "mother's helper" in exchange for swimming with my kids?

Ouch.

Doesn't it look so pretty today? Such lovely colors. I am trying really hard to stop feeling sorry for myself, but its hard when all I can do it sit with my foot up and try not to be lured to sleep by the Lortab. Lortab makes my foot feel so good, but no sleep - kids remember? Poor things are sick of being stuck inside with me. I'm sick of being stuck inside too. I stepped out on my deck and was so sad to see all the beautiful flowers blooming and growing so far away.

Purple butterfly bush, orange and yellow lillies, and daisies, are some.
Black eye susans, red and pink poppies, bachelor buttons, oh my.
And my sunflowers are getting so TALL! It will be so fun when they start blooming.

I can kind of see my garden area and it looks like the peppers and tomatoes are growing good. The veggies and strawberries on the deck look pretty good too, but it looks like something has squashed my onions. Kids I guess.

Broken Toe

I cannot even begin to describe how frustrating, annoying, depressing, and maddening it is to have broken my toe yesterday. I slipped on the stairs and fell on my big toe and pretty much crushed it. I went to Instacare yesterday and it is fractured pretty bad. I saw an orthopedic surgeon today and he was optimistic. It looks like it will heal on its own - as long as it doesn't start to crumble!! Can it do that? I guess so. I go back in a couple weeks for more x-rays and as long as it is healing well I won't need screws. But it will take 6-8 weeks before it stops hurting. In the meantime, it hurts a lot, I'm back on super-strength pain killers, and I get to wear an ugly boot for 2-4 weeks. And try to take care of my family hobbling around. Please tell me this is not my "new normal"!!!!

Hilarious!!!

Too much like real life!!!

Hot Summer Days

We've spent a couple mornings this week at some parks. It was wonderful to get out and spend time with our friends!

Nyah was wonderful and played with Olivia - they spent most of their time racing around the field together.

Jolie was the only one who was interested in playing in the water - She's the little girl crouching on the left.
Austin and his friends spent most of their time pouring over his Pokemon cards (Curses to whichever neighborhood kid pulled these out again this summer - if I have to listen to so-and-so's power levels or whatever one more time I am going to scream!! ).
Lunch time!

Passing out after a fun day of playing hard!!