Grandma Sally came to visit this weekend.  It was very nice and went by a little too fast.  There's something cozy to me about the end of summer weekends and it was great to share one of these breaks from the busy with my mom. No agendas, just relaxing.  I love when life allows for that.

the merri-middle-fielder

Dear boy. Puppy tails and snails for sure. Give him tools- real ones and he is happy.  I once found him with his scooter perched on Marcus' jack stands-"me fixin' my scooter!"  I know that you will not accept your high school diploma and exclaim "me did it!" but sometimes it feels like you will.  Beau, you are in danger of me not letting you grow up. I am tempted to keep my little buddy boy forever little.  So I will kiss your face lots even though you scream, because someday you'll have a beard.  And maybe even a wife.  She may frown upon that.  I guess I should start praying for her.

goings on

Gotta have one of these. This picture makes me look like a "fun" mom.  Really they ask all the time if they can get in Brooks' crib and most of the time I sneer and say "No!" The one time I said yes we had to grab the camera, of course.

Some by the front door pics of Bradie's first day of first grade.  Front door first day photo is a tradition in my family.  My mom even called to make sure we do it :) First grade?! Crazy. My children have some of the funniest expressions.  You saw some of Bradie's in the last post and now some of Beau's.

 Lining up, ready to GO!

 Here's one of Beau's last first day of preschool.  Not sure how that is possible either that my little buddy is four and a half.

I will roll over! I will!  When I feel like it.

summer wanes...

It is always with a wistful bittersweetness that I say goodbye to summer.  This has been a nice summer too! Here's one of the small group kiddos in the hot tub at "camano vuhcation" as Bradie says it.  This is roughly half the children (there are 11 now! :) and they are getting so big.  We all look at one another and say "How will we fit anywhere together in 10 years? five?!"  Who knows, but it's still lots of fun!

 I was trying to reprise a precious wedding photo that we have of Mark and Marcus taken 10 years ago... smart alecs!

 Bradie has taken to making funny faces in MOST pictures.  Her father is not pleased. However, he may be pleased if she makes these faces* when she's sixteen!

 Self-taken of me and my good buddy Christy.

 Oh Brooks.  You are cute. You need to sleep for longer than 35 minutes during the day. It would increase your cuteness severalfold.

*The kids are away with daddy, Brooks is waking infamously after only thirty minutes (I am not exaggerating!), and I am blogging with Ellen on in the background.  There was a commercial for The Voice and I typed voices instead of faces... ever do that?  I don't have to tell you that I was a poor note taker in school!

That's all, I think.

tummy time through the years

I think that having loads of kids just so you can giggle at their similarities and differences is a wrong motive.  But I bet its fun.  I am having a blast looking at only three throughout the years. I loved all three of their old-man-forehead stages.  I wish I could go back in time when I look at these and suckle their little cheeks.  Wait... I make the rules... I can still do this! It is 10 pm as I formulate this post so it's a bit late now but tomorrow they're mine.  All mine.  Watch out big kids, mama's comin' for  ya!

three months/ten years

A couple weeks ago Brooks turned three months on our tenth wedding anniversary.  We ate take-out teriyaki in our back yard on a blanket, the kids in wet swimsuits and Brooks in his bouncy seat.  It wasn't romantic in the traditional sense but it was perfect and far less stressful than lugging our three kids to a restaurant because we couldn't find a sitter...

Brooks is doing well at baby things.  This includes drooling, improving his tummy time performances, sleeping pretty soundly at night and being so gosh darn cute my face hurts.  Less than pleasant baby things include having some days of mystifying (short) nap habits, grunting loudly while nursing and not moving his bowels for 7 to 14 days at a time!

I savor these days.  Like the end of a chocolate milk shake, I suck on these baby cheeks noisily and without apology.

Would have posted some wedding pics but we're so old that we don't own the rights to publicly display our wedding photos! Yes, we were married before photog-on-every-corner-of-Facebook, digital age!  I am sure I could contact the lady we used and get her permission but I am lazy. If you want to peek at Marcus without a beard and the epitome of a child bride, come over and have a cup of coffee and you can look through them :)  You may also zerbert the baby while you are here.

the wee bairns hiking premier!

 Brooks takes a little spin in a Bumbo seat.

 Bradie has a new place to stick her tongue out through when doing silly face.

Yesterday was a beautiful day to descend into Robe Canyon along the Stillaguamish for Brooks' first hike.  He did great, all sweaty cozy in the Ergo.  Marcus said he just looked up and around for most of the hike down and felt asleep on the way back up.

Happy Summer! So excited to turn my TV on and leave it on for the next three weeks- love me some Summer Olympics! Cheerio!