Blackberry Picking!

Tif and I are trying to eat a little less chocolate because we both gained a little wait during the pregnancy. 

But, we can't quite give up our need for dessert. 

The kids and I found some blackberry bushes near our house while exploring, so we decided to make blackberry pie. They weren't very big so it took a long time to pick enough.

Kylee has been helping me a lot lately going to the store and cooking.

Kylee was a lot less excited about eating our pie than she was about making it. She ate the crumble crust and then told me she doesn't like blackberry pie.

And Cody didn't even try it at all.

But Tif and I liked it and you can't complain about free blackberries in your own backyard.

Big Sis

Kylee has been doing so awesome with Olivia. 

She likes to hold her and kiss her and lets Olivia hold Berta. I think it has been great having Cody around for the summer so that she doesn't miss my attention as much. Her and Cody have been great pals  and we are going to miss Cody a lot when he is in school this fall.

Sneaky Pictures

Steve asked the kids to help him get the lighting right for Livy's one month photo shoot. 

The deal was they just had to stand in one place while Steve did some test pictures. They didn't have to smile or even look at the camera. Well, it turns out Steve got some great pictures of Cody and Kylee without them even suspecting...

Pretty sneaky, eh?

Miss Livy is 1 Month Old!

It think it is so hard to get just one picture to capture a newborn. They seem to look totally different every time you take a picture. So here are the many angles of Miss Livy at 1 month...

Cody and Kylee vs the Bubbles

1. Remember how Cody and Kylee love to take baths in our master bath? Well, today they were in the bath with a mountain of bubbles having lots of fun when Cody yelled, "Hurry Kylee! Pop the bubbles! It's Cody and Kylee verses the Bubbles. We have to pop them or they will pop us!"


2. Whenever I ask Cody to get something for me in the "scary" basement or in the loft he asks Kylee to go with him to scare the monsters away for him. Kylee is usually willing and she knows her part well. If I listen carefully I can hear her yelling and growling at the monsters so that Cody is safe on his errand.


3. The other day Steve took Kylee to the grocery store for an ingredient we needed for dinner. They ended up buying the ingredients for a little dessert surprise too (yogurt pie). While they were making the pie in the kitchen Steve was trying to help Kylee keep the secret by saying things like, "we made something, but it's a surprise and we're not going to tell, right Kylee?" But while we were eating dinner Kylee caved when Cody asked her what the surprise was. Before Steve could coach her Kylee said, "it's pie!" Cody smiled and said, "Kylee! Don't let the cat out of the bag!!"

Steve and I laughed pretty hard when Cody said that. Seriously, that kid and his vocabulary.


4. We had a gift card to Outback and decided to take the kids out (yes, all three of them) on our way home from the DMV (the kids were so good for us!) So right before we went into the restaurant I decided to review a few rules about eating out so that we could avoid repeating some of our past restaurant disasters.

Me: OK. We have to be SO good in the restaurant. Do we yell or cry or whine in the restaurant?"

Cody and Kylee: NO!

Me: Do we jump or run around?

Cody and Kylee: NO!

Me: Do we say please and thank you?

Cody: YES!

Kylee: NO! We say sorry!

(Hmmm. She probably has to say sorry a lot more than she says please or thank you.)


5. Today Cody said, "Dad, we can say 'Voldemort' all we want because we're not in Harry Potter, right?"


6. Kylee doesn't really like eating sandwiches. So, when the rest of us are eating sandwiches for lunch she usually asks for 'butter and bread' instead. Yesterday after requesting her usual she said, "Mom, butter and bread loves me because they help me be healthy."

Black and Whites

Here's a little story in pictures.

It started out as Olivia's photo shoot, but when she was fed up the camera turned on the other two kids. Steve told them to make mad faces (to be like Olivia who was crying). You can see who had a little bit too much fun making mad faces. The other child wouldn't have anything to do with the camera until he got to hold his sister.

You just never know what is going to happen when the camera comes out.

calm, 

crying, 

mad, 

silly, 

uncooperative,

happy...

whatever they are at the moment we will love them forever.

Sparkler Party

We got invited to a Sparkler* Party over 4th of July weekend. We had ice cream and all the sparklers and mosquitos we could handle.

*apparently sparklers and snaps are the only kinds of fireworks you can do in this crazy state so even though it might seem like a pretty mild get-together to you we were actually pushing the edge of the law....

yeah....we're rebels like that.