Brigham in August

On our way home from Bear Lake this summer (was that June or July? Who can remember?) we had to stop in Brigham to feed Alice. So we drove past the temple. And Clara said, "Can we go inside?"

 Well, funny you should ask. So August 29, 2012, we headed to the open house. You just can't disappoint that little girl (actually, I do it all the time, and it's not fun). I'd wanted to do a family home evening about the temple that week to get the kids ready. But, I forgot. So, Wednesday morning, as we were getting ready, Levi and I tried to explain the importance of the temple. Get ready guys, this is something special.

 They were over the moon when we got on the bus. Their very first bus ride! It kind of ruined the reverent sort of behavior we were trying to encourage. No seatbelts in the bus! Can you believe it? I can stand up while we're driving! There's a TV and a bathroom in here! The excitement was palpable.

And then we had to sit. The movie was cool for about five minutes. I hoped the sister missionaries didn't mind we had to break out the animal crackers we found in the diaper bag. By the time the movie was over the kids were ready to move.

I'd tried to prepare them: people will put some funny white things on your feet, and it will be okay. But Nathan nearly threw a fit when I made him put them on. Clara followed suit. Levi passed the baby off to grandma because our kids then refused to walk or speak in a civil voice. If we hadn't been hemmed in by people already, I might have bailed. How about another bus ride, kids? They would have been happy again.

 As we went through the temple they got over it, luckily. Nathan really liked the baptistry. Clara liked the "sparkly lights" and asked me, "Is that a trampoline?" while pointing at the altar. So what could have been a disaster, or a really special experience, turned out moderately successful. That's all we could ask for.

 They perked up again when rewarded with cookies and water, and, of course, a stop at Maddox drive in on the way home.

Thanks to grandma and grandpa for coming with us, and for stepping in as photographers when I left our camera in the van...

Temporary (?) insomnia

Monday morning I was up at 4 am. That's pretty early, I tell you. Alice woke up to eat (she goes through phases of sleeping/not sleeping through the night) and after she easily went back to bed, I didn't. I tried. I even tried on the couch in the living room (sometimes this works). At five, when Levi got up to get ready for work, I gave up. I got up and started cleaning.

Because, as you know, Relief Society presidents must keep their houses perfectly clean. It's a requirement.

Not because I had anything else on my mind, of course. I just needed to get my house clean.

It's still not clean (Thursday evening). This morning I was up at five, but I decided to read the Ensign instead.

I'm actually feeling a lot better about everything since I got set apart on Sunday. And I'm sure I'll start sleeping better again soon. There's just so much to think about. But it's amazing in the month since I've been called the outpouring of the Spirit I've received. It's a real thing, guys.

So that's why blogging hasn't been happening. But I promise I have Labor Day and Brigham City open house pictures. I'll get to them soon.

A thing I hate and a thing I love

Clara ruining my favorite chapstick. She was pretty sure this made her look really nice. Makeup is starting to be a fascinating thing. Whenever I do her hair she rummages through my makeup bag and asks what each thing is.

And Nathan losing the battle with crankiness on a Sunday afternoon. He had that green stick in his mouth as he fell asleep. I guess he still has some vestiges of his former binky love.

Can you tell which thing I love and which thing I hate?

And now I'm all caught up for August. Whew. Preschool starts Monday. It's going to be awesome.

Are you going to just sit there and take it?

 Why, yes she is. She is just going to sit there. I was surprised how well she sat.

 Although it wasn't so much sitting as folding in half and managing to stay upright, more or less.

And Alice, who will be five months tomorrow, is learning lots of things. She loves to get a nice handful of sister's hair. Or those green pants in the picture were pretty fascinating. Also, toys. She's getting pretty good at reaching out and holding on to toys. She tried it with dad's dinner once but didn't get too far.

Oh, and her thumb. She's discovered that thumb is really comforting. I'm hoping she doesn't always fall asleep like this, but I'm afraid thumb-sucking will be our future for some time. I was getting ready to go out to lunch, and kind of forgot I had a baby who was downstairs playing with some toys. But no problem, mom. I'll just go to sleep when I get tired. I've got this thumb.

And her final favorite thing is...her tongue. She loves to show it to everybody. It's very impudent. But what are you going to do? She's a baby.

The things we do for vanity

 I wanted to see how long Clara's hair would be straightened. Turns out, pretty long. And her hair is pretty determinedly curly. After naptime the sides and bottom were starting to spring back into little wispy ringlets.

Why am I teaching her this young about the crazy things we do to look nice?

All's fair in love and war...

...especially if your weapons are made from balloons.

We didn't get any pictures of the Weber County fair, since it was super hot and I was cranky and we were on our way to a water party and only stopped by since we had free tickets.

But the Davis County fair, we remembered the camera. We love the Davis County fair. The kids weren't too jazzed about going to another fair, until they found out they could touch a ray. Then Nathan got on board real quick.

The kids didn't want to wait in the line for the pony rides, and in the petting zoo they only would touch the tortoise (although they did enjoy watching the baby kangaroo). Nathan wouldn't go in the hen house because it smelled funny (it really really did). But we enjoyed kettle corn and watching the sub zero booth make our ice cream. And we stopped off for the clown to make us some swords. Altogether, a good fair. So nice of Davis County to let us stop by.

Summer fun with cheap crap from China

I had a realization: August is almost over. Summer is waning.

 So I hooked the hose up to this water snake. The kids had a great time with it, for about a half an hour. Then a seam split, the water streams collapsed, and the kids mourned the demise of the snake. An angry email to customer service went unanswered, because if you're selling cheap junk from China, you don't really care about a quality product. Or happy customers.

 "Look, mom, it's squirting my belly!"

 Alice didn't care for it much.

 After it broke, we still managed to have a good time. We need to get out more and enjoy these last days of summer.

No other summer will be the same as this one.