Quote of the Day...

We were at the twin's track meet last night and while waiting with them at the long jump pit, it started raining.  Pretty hard rain.  Sam crouched down in front of me and I asked her what she was doing...

"Duh, mom. I'm hiding from the rain under your belly!"

 Of course you are.  On a baby note, this little (still nameless) man will born on July 18th at 9am.  So at least my built in rain shelter won't be around too much longer...

Pinkwood Derby 2013

Once again, our ward did a Pinkwood Derby for all the 8-11 year-old girls.  (Our ward must have the coolest primary president ever...)  This is the second year we've done it and this year, Tom had three cars to help build.  Good thing Pop Pop was there to lend a hand.

Pop Pop and Alix

 Brooke let Sam help with her sanding

 Mad genius at work...

 Cool sawdust shot of Erin blowing off her car

 We had smaller numbers this year, lots of the girls were out of town, but it went really smoothly and everyone got to race a lot of times.

 Erin is the only one of my girls who came to the photo booth at the end.  I'll have to take some more pictures of the other girl's cars and post them later.  They were pretty sweet.  Erin's car was so skinny she and Tom  had to use fishing weights on the top to make it heavy enough.  So she made them heads...

 And instead of ding dong medals, we gave the girls twinkie cars for an award.  I'm not sure who's Sam stole, but it's the only one we got a picture of... 

And, by the way, Alix took first place this year!  Nicely done.  Nicely done.

Not Excited At All...

My friend gave us some little boy clothes.  About 12-18 months size.  The girls couldn't wait to see what it would look like on...

I hope they look better on the boy...

Blogger Blahs....

Maybe I'm just in a holding pattern waiting for this baby to come...  Maybe I just haven't been downloading the pictures off my camera...  I don't really know, but life seems surprisingly un-blog worthy lately.  Boring.   But here are a few snapshots of our spring...

Playing street tennis

 Can you see Erin behind me?  She was copying my killer serve pose...

 We made chalk paint.  It's awesome.  You should totally try it.  Cornstarch and water and food coloring.  

 It gets brighter as it dries and stays for days...

 And can double as body paint.  But apparently it itches once it dries all over you...

 We've made some epic cities in our "circle".  I do the roads and the girls add stores and houses.

 We chalked our tree.  Also something you should try.  Start by soaking some sidewalk chalk in water.

 Then rub it all over the tree and brush over it with a paintbrush dipped in water.  Weeks later, of WA rain and people still ask why our tree is blue...  

 Lots of bike rides.  I look awesome following this bunch of gals around.  We kind of look like a (really friendly) gang...

 Feeding the ducks...

The girls are still in school until June 19th, so we really are in the mode of waiting.... Waiting for summer, waiting for baby, waiting for better weather, just waiting...  But we're having fun waiting...

A Little Heartbreaking / A Lot of Wonderful

On the way to Activity Days yesterday I got to listen to a wonderful conversation.  We were giving a neighbor girl a ride and she has a three week old baby brother.  Which led to the girls talking about themselves when they were born.  Sam calmly said, "I was born with medical problems."  It was kind of interesting listening to the twins and Sam explaining, in their own terms, what's "wrong" with Sam.  They have a pretty good handle on what's going on.  Sam, in this chipper, happy voice announced, "I'm going die when I'm a teenager!"  (I have no idea where or when she decided teenager is it for her.  We've talked a lot about the fact her life might be shorter than most - but I have never given her an expiration date...)  The neighbor was kind of shocked and I just kept listening and staying out it.  Sam then said, "I hope I die really fast. I don't want to miss my family."  (Oh, Sam.  We don't want to miss you either...)  But this led to the wonderful part of the conversation.  The twins and their friend quietly reassured Sam that if she is lucky enough to die before the rest of us, she will get to see Jesus first. "How great will that be?"  

I am continually amazed by the depth of understanding of children.  I am thankful for the knowledge that we have of eternal families.  We have be sealed together for time and all eternity and belong to each other forever.  Good byes are not forever.  Some of us just get to be with Jesus longer than others. I cannot write this without tears streaming down my face.  I cannot imagine life here without Sam.  I cannot imagine life here without the Gospel of Jesus Christ.  I know it's true.  I know it's real.  

(And really, Sam is doing great.  She's not anywhere near dying, any time soon...  sorry for the heavy post, it just seemed like something I needed to say...)

Humiliation...

You know how you try and teach your kids to laugh at themselves?  I believe in leading by example...

 Yesterday our family went to church.  I was wearing some awesome, yellow sandals that have a 5 inch heel  (I do love my shoes...).  I was also carrying my (super heavy) primary bag.  I'm standing in the isle of the chapel, getting the girls into our bench when my friend made fun of me for blocking the road with my giant bag.  So I stepped backwards to really block her...  I'm not sure what happened next.  It's kind of a mix of slow and fast motion.... I think I stepped on the edge of someone's foot (I'm not ruling out my own foot here...) and my shoe tipped and the next think I know, I'm flashing the benches opposite me as I fall flat on my rear...  There is a gasp of shocked breath and I'm sitting there on the floor and hear, in the silence, "Oh my gosh!  Did someone fall?!!?"  Yeah.  I did....  I was laughing so hard and feeling so stupid.  I was totally fine.  It was somehow worse, being 30 weeks pregnant, because everyone was so concerned.  And by everyone, I don't mean my family.  Tom was full out laughing.  Not doing his chuckle thing- but belly laughing.  That happens, maybe twice a year... The girls were laughing.  I was dying.  I kind of crawled over to our bench and knelt there laughing and wishing I could disappear.   Church started then and I got a major case of the giggles.  I'm trying to be discreet, because who needed more attention at that point?  But I don't think I hid it that well.  And when I got up to lead the children in singing their mother's day songs, I got several, "Be careful!  Watch your feet!" comments.  Awesome....  And I swear it wasn't my shoes to blame!

Take Me Out To The Ball Game...

While mom and dad were here we took them to a Tacoma Raniers game.  We like them better than the Mariners if we are going to take the kids.  It's a great little stadium that you have great seats at, can get autographs from the players before the game and it's a great price... Win. Win. Win.  

 Little family picture while waiting to meet some of the players.  We got 3 autographs before the game...

 I love my mom!

 Rhubarb the reindeer and the girls.  First time nobody cried when he got close...

 Grandma liked it when Sam was their heater.  It wasn't warm...

 Alix kept score the entire game.  I was pretty impressed, she figured it out pretty quickly.

 It wasn't just "not warm".  It was freezing!  And Tom wore those pink earmuffs for a while... Too bad I didn't get a picture...