Fundraiser

The children are taking matters into their own hands and are raising money for air conditioning to be installed in our house. For .25 cents you can come over and receive one whole minute of a noisy, crappy fan blowing hot air in your face. For another .25 cents, they'll give you a hello kitty water bottle to squirt in the fan for a minute of glorious mist action. It's sure to cool you off for at least 30 seconds. Clothes are optional. And yes, all dolls and stuffed animals will be charged the same fee. So, come on over and support a good cause-the line's short.

Whoever said you didn't need air conditioning in Washington's an idiot.

Small Talk

Had to update and add a few more Gwenisms that I forgot. See below.

Gwen's a talker. She started talking early. Early as in, sentences at 15 months. Clear, understandable sentences. She had a vocabulary that was huge. And it wasn't just clear to us. Anyone could understand what she was saying. And everyone was impressed.

She has a voice that is so distinct. It's deep and raspy. It's a joy to listen too. We get comments on the sound of her voice daily from perfect strangers. Really, if you could hear it, you'd want to converse with her for as long as possible. It's adorable.

And we think it makes her pretty smart.

But sometimes, she mixes things up and words don't come out right. Here are a few examples of what I like to call Gwenisms:

"Daddy didn't wrinkle out my hair." When getting out of the tub she wanted to tell me that Joe didn't ring out her hair.

"Let's make pupcakes." Possibly my favorite. We all call them pupcakes now instead of cupcakes.

"Mama, Gabs is fathering me." In Gwen language that means that Gabriella is bothering her. Love it.

"Here's Henry's burt rad." That would be Henry's burp rag.

"I see a Ted Wheeler." When she sees a semi she calls them a Ted Wheeler instead of a ten wheeler. I don't even know where she learned that they were called ten wheelers.

"Eeww. That's misgusting." We all have a hard time saying disgusting anymore, because she has been saying misgusting for so long. It's another favorite that I would never correct.

"Mama, can I have a star wars?" She would like a starburst.

"I'm listening to your eye shadow." She's holding the ear pieces of my Ipod to her ears.

"I see a helladoctor." I'm sure all children have their own version of the word helicopter, but I think Gwen's is pretty cute. I always called them hoctordoctors.

"Thank you for my angel eye dress." I made the girls their 4th of July dresses again this year, but she thought we were calling them angel eye dresses. So cute.

"I want a hangaber." One of my favorites is when Gwen wants a hamburger.

I tell ya, conversations with her are never dull.

We were on our way to a friends boat and I was asking the girls to tell me what rules they thought might be important for when we got to the lake. They both responded with appropriate rules such as no fighting, no crying, and no running. And without skipping a beat, Gwen added, "and no picking our noses."

Well, I didn't know we had a problem with that, but yes Gwen, that's a very important rule to remember. Thanks for the reminder, I'm sure our friends appreciated it.

Yikes.

Must. Sleep.

Gwen. Helper, Utah. July 11, 2009. 5:21 pm.

We just got back from Utah. We stayed up all night driving last Friday night. 18 hours of driving. Does Idaho ever end? Joe and I talked the whole way. Serious, heart-to-heart, important, life-planning, deep conversation. We arrived Saturday afternoon. We swam all day. We went to the cabin on Sunday. My parents met us there for the night. We water skied and fished at the lake. Everyday. We went to bed late. We got up early. Everyday. We saw lots of sun. We shopped on Friday. We barbecued that night. We played basketball and laser tag in the acre's of land surrounding the house in the dark. We went to bed late. We got up early. We drove to see our friends on Saturday. We stayed up all night driving again. We had more in-depth, uninterrupted conversation. We got home on Sunday, 13 hours later. We made better time. That made us happy. We had a blast. We loved every minute of it. I LOVE road trips. But now, we're t.i.r.e.d. We must sleep.

Mama Mia

Today is my moms birthday. And it's a big one. I won't say how old she turned today, but it's definitely one to be celebrated.

I wish that I could be with her right now celebrating her big day with the rest of the family. But alas, I am here and they are there.

It pretty much stinks. It would completely stink if it weren't for one little piece of heaven I have to look forward to that just might make up for the fact that, I am, yet again, missing another birthday party. A very important birthday party.

And what, might you be asking, is that little piece of heaven I'm referring to?

Oh, just a girls only trip to New York for a week.

No husbands. No children. Just my mom and my 4 sisters in the big city. Did I mention for a week? And that there will be NO children?

Yup, that's what I call a little piece of heaven.

My mom told us a few years ago that for her ?th birthday she wanted to go on a trip with just her daughters to New York. Somehow the stars aligned for our husbands to take off work, our children to be old enough, and for no one to be pregnant (unless I don't know something) for us to sneak away for a week in October.

We have been saving our nickels and dimes ever since. We can all barely stand it. We are so excited. We are very much looking forward to our first ever girls trip.

We have been researching New York, restaurants, shows to see and places to shop. We want to make the most of every minute we have there. If anyone reading this wants to share their New York "must-do's", favorites, or secret spots for us to explore, we would love the insider tips!

So hasta la vista little chickadees. All 13 of you. We love you tons, but we're leaving you temporarily to make one very important mama's birthday wish come true!

Happy Birthday mom. I love you! And I can't wait!

Girls Rule.

Boys Drool.

It's true what they say. Boys drool.

But at our house, this little guy rules too. Completely rules.

As in, he's got every single one of us working for him. And we don't even bat an eye about it.

He's the king. And we adore him.