OCD for real

it seems that i have passed on my OCD tendencies to my son. he's either genius or sick, one of the two.

i prefer to think he's genius...below he has lined the dinos up by class. he's 2, people.

sorted perfectly by color and piece. the best darn sorting i've ever seen.

sheep dogs?

so did anyone else know that there are sheepherding competitions held for the world to see? for labor day, my parents took us up to midway for the worldwide sheepherding finals. what? maybe not the funnest thing in the world, but different, right? we were all game. there were lots of dogs, good food, dogs chasing sheep across the mountain, and dogs jumping into pools. good times.

future farmer.

any cool pictures of some dogs? nope, just a random one of us walking.

chill time

that is my ipod that shawn stuck in his diaper. cute pic, but gross.

love how the ear bud is nowhere near his ear canal.

the ranch

i have learned 3 important lessons about vacationing with small children.

1. you cannot care what they eat and what they do not eat. this includes dirt.
2. you cannot care if they sleep or do not sleep. naps, bedtime, throw it all out the window.
3. you cannot care what they smell like, unless the smell includes poop.

i'm sure some of you are wondering why it took me so long to clue in. but i applied all of the above to our one and only vacation this summer and it was divine. the ranch was divine. order was restored to my universe.

the boys were in heaven. so many things to do, so many people to play with, so many ways to get utterly filthy.

i loved every second of it and can't wait to get back.

iphone pics

you ready for this? shoulda done this a looong time ago. shawn takes pictures every once in a while on his iphone and only now did it occur to me that i could download them on to the blog. do remember that this is an iphone, so quality is not so high. we are about quantity not quality. so les get down to da nitty gritty.

fyi...if there is an explanation to be had, it is above said photo.

lindon has some great city days. one evening, they had "huck fishing" where the kids got to fish in the creek. jack, surprisingly, was not into it. sam totally was. we were ill prepared, however, and he was manned only with his bucket. some nice gentleman had mercy and told his grandson to dump his 5th catch into sam's bucket. he was mighty proud.

it did not go home with us, by the way. it was released back into the wild, only to be caught in someone else's bucket, i'm sure.

jack did t-ball for the first time. loved every second of it. nailed every ball and was the only kid who could throw the ball all the way to 1st base. just like his papa.

sam went through a "phone" phase. this power bar served well for a day.

fierce, definitely fierce.

shawn and his cousin, dave. pretty sure they should've married each other.

these guys love to bowl.

i love, love, love this shot with his pants and those shoes.

uncle brad must have been super funny.

jack looks super young to me in this pic. these were taken last january.

ps

ps. don't you just love the new background? i'm seriously obsessed with quilting as of late, and this just warmed the very corners of my soul.

happy quilting:)

the fourth

mmmm. i love the fourth. i was telling shawn that besides christmas and thanksgiving it is for sure my favorite holiday and he said,"not sure what that leaves us. colombus day? you don't like colombus day?!?" he can be a smartass sometimes.

anyways. i love the fourth. bbq at grandma's, seeing cousins i never see but that i love with my whole heart, warm nights, fireworks, the parade, and i heart the balloons.

i especially loved it this year cuz it was spread out over the whole weekend. 3 wondrous days. so fun.

i love our country. i love my freedom. i love how safe i feel. i love that i feel the spirit when i hear the national anthem or recite the pledge of allegiance. i love the men and women who are brave enough to serve in the armed forces and defend all of the things i love. thank you. thank you to my brother, mike. and i thank my Heavenly Father for helping it all come to pass.

now, after all of that feeling and emotion, you would think it would be well-documented with pictures. but no. there are but two.

i was excited for the hot air balloons because this would be the first year that sammy would like it. so was jack. on the way there, he kept saying, "i'm so exciting! i'm so exciting!" ha ha! i couldn't bring myself to correct him, it was just too good. unfortunately, they couldn't fly because of the weather but we still had a good time watching them blow up.

this was the first year that the darth vader balloon joined the fest. with him came his whole crew as crowd control. the costumes were awesome, even did the cool voices when they spoke. jack was in awe. he gave this guy a high five seven times.