That’s Good Stuff, Right there.

Warning!  Very random post ahead.  Just needing to update what we are up to this summer for my own memories.  Thanks for reading.  😉

I am LOVING this summer.  LOVING it.  Having the kids and Collin at home all day long…I’d forgotten how great that really is.  Mak and CB are rapidly going between periods of intense, heated battles to doing things like working together to build a fort that will become their retreat as they conquer the WORLD.  The fights can be bitter and make me so crazy that my head spins in circles…but when they are working together?  It melts my heart and I just sit back and listen to the sweet words they exchange.  Those are the times I want to remember.  Not the “You are NOT my vewy best bruver and you are NOT coming to my bufday party next year!!”  That’s the ultimate of all nasty insults that Miss CB can hurl at him.

It is SO SO HOT outside and if I’m being honest I can’t stand being out there during the day.  In fact, I refuse to go out in the middle of the day unless we are in a pool or some other body of water.  Or the slip n’ slide.  We are loving the slip n’ slide.  But we are enjoying lots of bike rides in the early morning and suppers out on the deck.  And we have fireflies in our backyard!!  I LOVE that.

We are heading out with Collin to pretty much any session that he has.  Because I am determined NOT to be psycho-bedtime mommy this summer.  I’m kinda freakish about the kids’ bedtimes.  7:30 is IT and nothing or no one will stop me from having them in bed at or before that hour.  Crazy, you say?  You, my friend, have never seen my sweet CB with not enough sleep.  It’s UGLY.  And we do everything possible to avoid it.  But this month I have been pretty chill.  And we’ve had some serious fun because of it.  And surprisingly not that many tantrums from the princess.  Could she be growing up?  Requiring less sleep?  Nah…that can’t be it.  Tonight we joined Collin as he photographed a woman who flies planes for the next issue of She Magazine.  We pulled up and Mak asks me “Where’s the pilot?”  “Right there” I respond, pointing to the woman.  “No, the one who flies the plane” he says.  “That’s her” I say again.  He looks me dead in the eyes and says “She’s a WOMAN.”  He was seriously flabbergasted that a female could fly a plane.  For Real, Kid?  I promise we are not the ones teaching him these chauvinistic ideas…

The boy cousins have been having lots of sleepovers.  I love it.  For about a week there they were just choosing a different house each night to sleep at.  I can’t wait for Tess and Caroline to get a little older so they can join in the fun.  Oh, and Tal and Tess are about six weeks away from welcoming a new baby sibling.  We are SOOOO anticipating this kid’s birth!!  The main topic of conversation when we are all together is What the heck is this kid?!?  Boy or Girl?  I’d say we’re all split about 50/50.  No one has a clue but we are all ready to meet and LOVE on this little one, no matter the sex.  Tal wants it to be a boy because he wants “junk” beds in his room.  Ummm…that would be BUNK beds.  But shhhh…we aren’t telling him it’s wrong.  We think it’s cute.  😉  I don’t know what I’m going to do when my sisters-in-law stop having new babies for me to love on.  Hopefully I have many years to go before that happens.

We are traveling to one of my very favorite places on earth next week, Collin’s parent’s Ranch.  We all love it there.  But this trip is going to be even sweeter because we will finally get to wrap our arms around Collin’s mom’s neck for the first time since she began her battle with cancer.  We CAN’T WAIT to see her in person.  Thank you to all who have been praying for her.  Things are going well.  We just can’t wait to see her in person, you know?  One thing that will be very different about this trip is our mode of transportation.  We are FLYING.  And we are NOT flyers.  But it was pretty much our only option this time due to schedules.  Mak is SUPER Excited.  He hasn’t flown since he was 18 months old and he has been begging to for years.  CB is terrified.  She’s pretty sure it’s going to “scare her tummy”.  I’m just nervous about the packing.  What do you recommend?  Checking luggage?  Trying all carry-ons?  We won’t need a ton of clothes because we can wash there and, well, it’s a farm.  It doesn’t really matter what we look like.  😉  What about the booster seats?  Carry them on the plane?  Check them?  I’m confused and it’s stressing me out.  If you fly with kids, PLEASE give me some advice!  And say a prayer for us next Monday as we are in the air!

So, there it is.  More randomness in a post.  Because I think randomness just might be all that I am capable of.  But I love these little things that we are up to and I want to remember what was important to our family in the summer of 2010.  🙂

Happy Summer, People!