The Manual

Many of you have probably already seen this, but just in case you haven't, grab a tissue and turn on your sound.



Happy Mother's Day.

Lovely

I went to book club tonight. When I left, the sink was full of dishes. I was gone for quite some time.

When I got home I opened the door and saw the kitchen. I gasped.

All of the dishes were clean and drying on the table. Bryan was standing at the sink, scrubbing the removable trays from the stove. Right away, I walked over and thanked him for cleaning.

It's lovely that he doesn't have homework anymore. It's also lovely that he cleans.

Literary Selections

We went to the library on Monday after school. Peter went right for the comic books, but sprinkled in a few non-fiction animal books for good measure. Cooper gathered a stack of easy readers featuring superheroes.

What did Phoebe want?

Princess books. And pink books. And she got a ballerina book.

Seriously, where did this come from?

Candid Camera

Bryan's Grandma Barbara loved taking pictures. Specifically, she loved taking candid pictures. It was through her many pictures that I discovered something about myself: I should never take candid pictures.

Candid pictures work well if you have normal facial expressions, or if you've recently been injected with Botox. I don't fit into either category. Thus, my candid shots often feature odd, bordering on gruesome facial expressions.

Bryan took pictures during the wedding reception this weekend and I discovered a new series of crazy pictures of me. These aren't as bad as many I've seen, but they do highlight the many faces of me.

Remember, these were all taken within a few seconds of each other, you can tell because Phoebe is working on the same bite of cake in all of them. And the last picture is awesome.

Going to the Temple

We had a wedding this weekend. Bryan's brother got married in the Bountiful Temple and we spent as much time with family as we could. Oh, and apparently I have the look of someone that knows what's going on, because during the reception there were a few people that came and asked me what they should do to help and if certain things had already been done. Perhaps because I was wearing the wedding color? I don't know. I did my best to direct them and help where I could.

Phoebe spent most of the day following her new aunt around and adoring her "princess dress." The boys spent their time climbing in the fountain (at the Temple) and climbing on a big rock/water structure (at the reception). That was a long day...

We did get some good pictures out of it.

Bryan and his brother Dallin, the groom.

The groom's immediate family, plus grandparents, minus a brother on a mission. For real. Just think how full this picture will be when all seven siblings are married!

Phoebe really enjoyed the wedding cake. 

See? 

Here's a nice shot of my gigantic cold sore that arrived just in time for family pictures. Oh, and you can see Phoebe's bruise from the gardens. We shall call this our injury picture.

Remember I said that Phoebe followed the bride around? I think the photographer had trouble getting pictures without Phoebe in them. Also, Phoebe really liked her dress.

Phoebe spent much of her time chatting with family that had flown in for the occasion and wowing them with her vast vocabulary. She also performed the Phoebe song several times. I must say, it is delightful to have a child that will perform on cue.

Tulips

Last night we went to a tulip festival. This is something that I've wanted to do for the last ten years or so, but we've never gone. Since this is our last summer in this state, we're trying to do all those things that we haven't done yet.

Phoebe was delighted by all the pink tulips. I think she must have inherited whatever dormant girliness I may have possessed. Also, this is the only picture I took of the tulips. While they were lovely and there were many, many different colors and varieties, it seems I prefer taking pictures of my children.

Here the kids were enjoying the view of the gardens from a hill. Just before this picture Phoebe took a tumble while running. Shortly after this picture she took a much worse tumble while climbing over a short wall. That was followed by me running at top-speed to find ice, both boys running after me yelling "Mommy! Slow down!" and "Mom, I didn't know you could run this fast!"

I found a groundskeeper and asked where I could find ice. While I was running, he got in his cart and drove ahead. When I reached the building, he was waiting for me with a cup of ice. Then, in limited English, he told me he would drive us back in his cart. We climbed in and I held the boys tight on my lap as we drove back to Phoebe and Bryan, and we went fast. So fast, in fact, that I was afraid we might all be thrown out. The boys laughed and squealed the whole time and declared that riding in the gardening cart was by far the best part of the outing.

We held the ice on her head for some time. Phoebe seems to fine now, although she fell a third time after we got home, so she may end up with bruises on both sides of her head. And then Cooper fell. Yesterday was not a great day for coordination at our house.

Walk A Mile In His Shoes

I discovered tonight that Cooper took a whole bunch of pictures with my phone during Graduation. I thought he was coloring, but it turns out he was digitally capturing the events around him. He got some of the uncles and his siblings and grandpa, there are several action (blurry shots), and more than a few of the woman sitting behind us (perhaps he admired her royal blue pants?).

Of all the pictures he took, this one is my favorite. I'm tickled by his shoe self-portrait.

Use Your Inside Voice

I had to run a few errands today, one of which was a stop at Costco. I hadn't planned to buy anything, just ask a question, but I knew it was almost dinnertime and Bryan was home with the kids, so I decided to see if I could find some food to bring home.

I wasn't in the store for long, but when I exited with my bounty, I had a moment of not knowing where my car was. No, I thought, I remember walking on this crosswalk, it must be down here. So I started walking. More than halfway down the aisle it occurred to me that I should have seen it by now and, oh yes, it must be off to my left.

I swerved and headed off in the new direction. Again, I thought I should have seen it, could it be one more row over? No, that was too far. Perhaps I'd turned the wrong way. Once again, I changed direction, this time looping back up.

The thought struck me that I must look pretty foolish, wandering through the parking lot with my dinner.

And at that moment, I realized I was talking to myself. My inside-my-head-voice had betrayed me. So now I was the crazy lady with a big red box of frozen burritos clutched to her chest, roaming the parking lot of Costco, babbling to herself.

I found my car.

Gender Roles

We have a wedding coming up for which Phoebe will wear a purple dress. Today during lunch she was talking about how pretty her purple dress is, and how excited she is to wear it. Bryan, feeling playful, decided to tease her a bit.

Phoebe: I'm going to wear my purple dress.

Bryan: No, I'm going to wear your purple dress.

Phoebe: NO! You can't wear it! You're a boy, you wear a blue dress.

Oh dear...

Graduation

Can you find Bryan? This is before graduation on Friday.

And this is after.

Bryan's dad and brother's took care of the boys while I spent the majority of the ceremony chasing Phoebe around the halls. Of course we waited until after Bryan's name was read.

This is the only non-blurry picture we got that day.

I was pretty sad when I discovered the blurriness of the other pictures. Bryan sent out a message to his newly-graduated classmates and asked if anyone still had their graduation regalia. Luckily, a few of people did. One fellow messaged Bryan and said that they were taking family pictures on Sunday evening and we could meet them on-campus to take some pictures of our own. The gown fit, the cap was a bit snug.

Did I mention that the wife of this MBA is a professional photographer? She took pity on me and my little point-and-shoot camera and offered to take the pictures and send them to us. We said yes.

We washed the clothes that the kids wore on Friday and dressed them as they had been that day. I just wore what I'd worn to church.

This is my favorite of the kids.

I LOVE the framing of this one. See the Y in the background? And that big gray building just below the Y? That's where Bryan had most of his classes.

This is my favorite of me and Bryan. Pity two-thirds of the children are closing their eyes. And Cooper appears to be picking his nose...

During the last few days we've done... very little. My dishes are piling up and the laundry really needs to be folded, but I'm so relived to be done I've lounged around watching TV and poking about on Facebook. That's right, I've been on Facebook, a rather unusual occurrence during the past few years.

I'm sure that I'll even out soon, stop lazing about and start taking care of things. I think I'm just recovering from running at top speed for too long.