Birthday Girls

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Trophy Wives Club

Amanda, Lucy, and I have deemed ourselves 'The Real Trophy Wives' because after having kids we work hard for our husbands! :) We have decided to dress in Trophy Wife garb for all our races and got quite the response at the Mad Mudder. This is a four mile run (around a Marshal Mountain which is a ski hill) with an obstacle course through the mud, however, there was hardly any mud so it was mostly just obstacle course! We had fun though, and it was a good excuse to get dirty!

Update on the girls

So many changes daily! I will try and post some videos shortly but I wanted to talk about changes with the girls first. Raleigh is riding a bigger bike and playing soccer. She started pre-K a few weeks ago and loves it! Yesterday she said, "Mom... I wish I could be a hero." I said, "Me too Raleigh. There are a lot of people I would save." She said, "Ya, but we can't save them because we are all just people." I said, "True dat, sister. So true."

Mark was cleaning the garage and Raleigh begged him to make her a red sword. My mom was upstairs watching the girls and Raleigh kept yelling down the stairs, "Dad is my sword done yet?" When I got home from the weekend we were outside playing with it and she said, "My daddy made me this red sword. Mom, when you were little did your daddy make you a sword?" I said, "No. No swords for me." Then she said, "Mom, when you were little was Grandma taller like you?" Raleigh has been understanding for some time the relationships with family and she is fascinated by it. She talks about Gracy being her sister like Uncle Shay is my brother, Grandma being my mom, and K-ma being Mark's mom etc. etc. So, I could tell she was trying to conceptualize short little grandma as a mother. I said, "No, grandma was little even when she was my mom."

Raleigh and Gracyn are always fighting for 'air time' in the car. They both talk at me at once and occasionally dialogue with each other. Which is VERY entertaining to hear Raleigh lecture Gracy on the 'goings-on' of life. Gracy will respond with a, "ohhhh Raaawwwllie, Ohhhh."

A few days ago Gracy peed in the toilet uninitiated by us. She has been pretending like she poops in the toilet so when she came to tell my mom and I she had peed in the toilet we didn't pay attention. Later, my mom walked in the bathroom and said, "Uh, I think Gracy really did pee in the toilet" as it was full of pee. We celebrated with M&Ms for everyone.

Vacation

"What a BLESSING!" I thought as we pulled up to our forest service cabin on Lake Como. I also thought many other things, i.e. We don't deserve this, I can't believe we get to spend a whole week here, etc. etc. We secured this desolate cabin (only one other on the entire lake so aside from day use we were literally the only people on the edge of the lake) back in February and who except God would have known that it would be the EXACT timing and resource we needed to completely unplug from the world and get plugged back into more eternal and important endeavors?K'ma sent Pez dispensers and Silly Putty with us for the girls to play with. I don't know who had more fun- the girls playing with them or me watching them thinking of my own childhood with Pez and Silly Putty?? Between that, a campfire with s'mores, sandcastles, and Raleigh and Mark sleeping in a tent I was overjoyed with living vicariously through my children and their week of 'firsts'.

Summer update

Hmmm, where to start?? July was a crazy whirl-wind month. Tyler and Lica came for a visit to Billings and told us all they were having a boy!! Samuel Cole Garnett- what a strong name. We had a baby shower to bless the couple where Tyler was (of course) the life of the party. The muscles behind my ears hurt from smiling so much!

Mark took Raleigh to Nashville, TN for Scott's change of command. Raleigh had an amazing time playing with the cousins (even though she had strep throat) and traveling across country. I don't know why we are always surprised but Mark and I are constantly in awe at what a little 'adventurer' Raleigh continues to be.

Speaking of Raleigh- I introduced her to Kit Kats. Had I known what a Kit-Kat-Krazed demon this was going to produce I probably would have thought twice. She asks about every 15 minutes for one. She says, "Mom. I want one of those new candies. Those Kitty-Kats." or "Mom... Can I have a Kitty-Kat? Puuuuuleeeeeese?" We ran out of chocolate chips to put in her waffle (something my mommy taught me) and Raleigh said, "Well mom. You can just crush up Kitty-Kats and put THEM in my waffle." Of course. Why didn't I think of that? I could crush them up and put them in everything! P.B. and J., Spaghetti, Mac and Cheese.

And then Gracy. She could not be more two-years-old right now. She tries on 5 of Raleigh's dresses a day (it would be 15 if I didn't put a stop to it after the fifth). She says, "NO! My turn mamma" when I try to help her get the dress on. She puts it on wrong, walks around in it for a bit, then goes for another. She wants to do EVERYTHING herself (which is diff. from Raleigh) and gets screaming mad when you don't let her. She dances and wiggles her booty and talks up a storm! The other day Raleigh asked Gracy if she wanted to be a 'big girl like me'. Gracy said, "Ya, Raleigh" so Raleigh proceeded to tell her how to act like a big girl and not whine like a baby...

The last picture is Mark and his two dear friends, Brian and Nick, from high school. They took a trip to Glacier which refreshed their manly souls!!

Summer lovin'