Lydia's Father's Day Gift

Tim likes to take naps on Sundays, but he rarely gets to. Since it was Father's Day I figured he deserved a good nap. After I put Ali in bed, Lydia started to watch "High School Musical" so I figured I could fit in a short nap too. As Tim and I were snoozing, Lydia found some scissors. She came upstairs to get our opinion when she was done. Tim looked at her grogily.
Tim: Did you cut your hair?
Lydia: Yes, do you like it?
Tim: Umm, who told you to cut your hair?
Lydia: The mouses did. (The mouses are her imaginary friends. There are 3 of them and they do everything with her)
Tim: Boy are you in trouble.


Here is a side view of the damage. I think it looks like a really bad 80's haircut. As she looked in the mirror Lydia lamented, "The mouses don't like my haircut." Tim is calling her his son. I don't think it's that short, but I hope the hair stylist can work a miracle.


At least she cleaned up after herself and put all her hair in the garbage can. She is pretty sad that we have to go and get it cut today. Ah well, maybe every little girl needs to learn this lesson at some point.

What a Wonderful World!

Friday night for date night we decided to take a hike as a family. There is a trail head about a mile from our house and about 3/4 of a mile up there is a beautiful waterfall. We packed a picnic dinner and headed up.

Even though it was a short hike, there were many fun things to see along the way. There was a little pond called "Tarzan's bathtub." The girls loved throwing rocks into any water they saw. This is a bridge that crossed the stream, and of course the girls had to throw more rocks.

We also found a little cave. Lydia was afraid of snakes, but Ali went right in to explore (after I checked for snakes).

We reached the waterfall and had our picnic. It was beautiful and we enjoyed our food with a our view. The girls threw more rocks into the stream. I think the sound of the water affected Ali because in the course of our 1 hour hike she had to "go pahee" 5 times!

We crossed the stream and got a picture of our family by the waterfall. I know, we look kind of small. On the way back Ali went potty a few more times and the girls threw a lot more rocks.

We had so much fun on our hike. We had no idea there were so many great things to see so close to our house. The girls were great sports and kept going even when they tripped over the rocks frequently. We are so blessed that God made so many wonderful things simply for us to enjoy.

Toilet Troubles

Last Monday, we were giving our darling daughters a bath, when I noticed more water on the floor than usual. I thought one of said darling daughters had peed on the floor. As I began to clean it up, I looked up. It was coming from the ceiling directly above the basement toilet, but directly below the upstairs toilet. Tim touched it and it came raining down. The piped had become corroded and was leaking. I wanted to call a plumber because I wanted nothing to do with the stinky mess, but Tim said he could fix it. We remodled both the bathrooms in our previous house, so I thought maybe he could fix it. He was up until 1:00 am, but he did fix it. Tuesday night he reset our toilet upstairs (the pic is before the toilet was put back in), and Wednesday night he sheetrocked over the hole in the downstairs ceiling.

This is the new clean pipe Tim installed. Trust me, you didn't want to see the old one. It took me a couple of days to allow Tim to touch me, or anything in the house for that matter. Ewwwwwwwwwwww.

Tim did a fabulous job fixing this problem. Look, he's even smiling. The hole in the ceiling is now even covered. We just need to retexture and paint it now. That may happen within the next year...maybe not. I'm grateful to have a husband willing to learn messy things like this and I'm very glad we didn't have to call a plumber. Good job Honey!

Costa Rica Zip Line in the Rainforest

Angie and I have finally gotten around to posting some of our video from the rainforest of Costa Rica where we visted a park that offered a zip line tour through the canopy. It was probably our favorite attraction of the trip, right up there with our own beach, bungalow, snorkeling, volcano hikes, the waterfall gardens...

I jinxed myself...and aquarium...and

I often take pictures with the intention of using them on my blog, and then I don't get around to it often enough. Like I was going to post a blog after Mother's Day because Tim did an extra good job on pampering me...but it just didn't happen. So, here are a few different recent events.

This is Lydia's preschool group. She "graduated" this week. It was like a joy school group that the mothers taught. Lydia loved it and I liked that it was free and only required me to teach once every 6 weeks. They are a cute little crew.

Congrats Lydia!

It finally reached into the 90's this weekend and so Lydia spent all her time outdoors. This is Lydia, Ellie, and Gracie using the slip and slide. They were out there happily splashing for about 6 hours on Friday. Of course we used it Sat, Mon, and Tues as well. The clouds rolled in Wed and we've had rain since. Lydia still asks me if she can go swimming though.

Friday we went to the aquarium with some friends. This is a tunnel in the coral reef the kids love to play in. While there potty training was brought up as two of the little ones are in the process. I thought Ali has shown interest, maybe I should bring in the potty chair so she can get used to the idea of it. I'll wait a couple more months to train her though. So I cleaned up and brought in the potty. She started using it right away and I had 3 days where she only used the potty with only one accident. I thought I had been given a miracle! So naturally I wanted to share that miracle. I started to share with my friends that Ali had potty trained herself very easily (and at 26 months) Well...I think I jinxed myself in sharing my miracle so soon. I believe she has lost interest because she doesn't use the potty anymore. I have put her back in diapers because I really don't want this headache yet. So, all you mothers who were mad at me because of the lack of difficulty during the potty training process, fear not...it wasn't the miracle I thought it was.


I think Lydia is mad in this picture because she is jelous that Jacob is hugging Jaqueline. We had a great time at the aquarium together. It is small, but just the right size for us. We see it in about an hour, the girls are tired, and we're ready to go home. It was fun to have so many friends there too. Thanks Amber and Jessica!

Book Tag

Jessica Guernsey, whom I didn't know read my blog, tagged me to do a book tag. Here is how it works.

The rules:
1. Pick up the nearest book (at least 123 pages).
2. Turn to page 123.
3. Find the 5th sentence.
4. Post the 5th sentence on your blog.
5. Tag 5 people.

I'm currently reading "The Host" by Stephenie Meyer. "Her face was a mass of wrinkles, all of them turning down into angry lines."

So far, it is a good book, though not as much of a page turner as Twilight was. It's worth reading though.

I tag Tara, my sister, Heather D, Amber A, Stephanie M, and Audra D. I'm curious to see what people are reading:) Have fun!

Singin' and Dancin' in the Rain

Something my children have taught me is to love whatever the day brings. If it is snowing in April, they love it. If it is in the 80's Lydia insists on getting the pool out. Yesterday was one of those days. We had a blast outside. This morning Lydia woke up and saw the clouds. She was overjoyed. "Mom, is it going to rain today?" Yes honey. "Wahoo! Can I play outside with my umbrella?" At least someone was excited by the day’s prospects.

When it did rain, Lydia went outside in her dress ups with her new Ariel umbrella exclaiming, "Come on everybody, it's time to CELEBRATE!" Then she ran outside and sang her "celebrate" song.

Ali is happy to follow along behind such rejoicings. Ali loves her Dora umbrella. She sang the Dora theme song while she danced. It was fun to sit under my cover and smell and listen to the rain while my girls joyfully played in the rain. Then we came in and had hot chocolate. It did end up being a pretty fun day. I'm glad my girls help me see the silver linings in the clouds.