Dog Days

When school first lets out, summer is a fresh promise of endless delights. June is beautiful. June is practically May, which is a fine month indeed. June is the rubbery smell of new flip flops, the smooth tightness of a brand-new swimsuit. the clean smell of freshly-turned garden soil.

In July, the summer fun reaches a fever pitch. July is gunpowder and freshly-cut grass. July is the invigorating sting of chlorine, the dazzle of fireworks, the explosion of flowers in your garden bed, the sticky juice of watermelon dribbling down your chin.

But August? There's a reason they call them the dog days of August. The novelty of summer has worn off, but temperatures (and tempers) are running high. Both the swimsuits and the morale are beginning to sag. A mother's patience wears as thin as the sole of her flip flops. Even the weeds give up and start looking a little rangy.

And then come September. The long morning shadows, the sweet inky smell of worksheets still warm from the copier, and the rustle of renewed good intentions that strike us all at the beginning of a new school year.

Well, that's almost right, anyway. School actually started on August 22nd for us this year. And Elizabeth goes to a school that is roughly as old as her grandparents, which means it's brimming with authentic retro charm but is also without air-conditioning. With the temperatures still climbing into the mid-90s, the classrooms are sweltering. I'm surprised the crayons haven't all melted. The PTA has gone all out, setting up fans and doling out Otter Pops, even putting out sprinklers at recess for the kids to cool off. Still, Elizabeth comes home each day with pink cheeks and hair plastered to her forehead. She's a trooper, though; she didn't even mention the heat until I asked her point-blank if her classroom was hot. "Yeah, even with two fans blowing it's still hot!" she brightly replied. Yup, this girl loves first grade, hot classroom and all.

Elizabeth, excited for the first day of school

Anna's preschool, on the other hand, doesn't start until after Labor Day. For the first week, she basked in the glory of having Mom and Ben all to herself--but it didn't last. Poor girl was so lonely today; she pulled out her dolls and set them up half-heartedly, then told me, "I'll wait till Nano comes home so we can play together."

Anna, all set to walk Elizabeth to school. By the time we reach home, she's already asking when first grade will be over so Nano can come home again.

Ben celebrated the start of the school year with his own new accomplishments: rolling over, sitting up, and cutting two new teeth.


For the most part he's been a happy little guy through it all, though he did have an exceptionally bad day this week: already crabby from cutting tooth #1, while he was sitting on my bed he tipped over, rolled off the edge, and face-planted in the carpet, giving himself a rug burn on the side of his nose. Ouch.

Ohhh, he's a handsome little devil, isn't he?

Despite the summer heat, Jared is plugging along in the backyard. Our original goal this summer was to put a lawn in the backyard. So far we've gotten a new fence, sprinklers in the front yard, and a beautiful new wet saw. But that's just how we roll around here. Our family motto is "Might as well", as in, "Well, since we've already got the trencher, we might as well dig up the front yard too. And since we've already got the yard dug up, we might as well put in a new patio. . ."

(Oops. Photos of the patio-in-progress are still on my camera. I'll post them later. Maybe.)

We've had to take a break from his projects this week, though; it seems like whenever we embark on a new home improvement project, something breaks on one of the cars. Along with the new sprinklers last month, I got a new radiator in my car. And Jared is getting a new fuel pump in his car along with the patio he's been working on this month.

And then there's me. Hmm, what did I do in August? Ran a 5K. Baked some really fabulous bread. Washed and folded an endless stream of laundry. Went swimming and to the zoo and to the park and to Red Butte Garden. Changed a few hundred diapers. Ate the sole cherry tomato that grew on the plant I stuck in a pot on our patio. Read two of my childhood favorite books to my girls (Little House in the Big Woods for Elizabeth; The Sleep Book for Anna). Squished Ben's chubby little thighs a couple thousand times.




Mmm, yeah. It was a good summer, dog days and all.

On Anniversaries, Checkups, and Pyrotechnics

July is nearly over, with nary a blog post from me. Oops.

4 We started out the month with a visit from Jared's sister, Emily, and her family. We had a great time hanging out with the Swanson crew. (I don't think I saw Henry without a cape for a single second. . .you can see him in the second photo below sporting his latest acquisition). We played at Liberty Park, camped out at Mt. Timpanogos*, and had our traditional 4th of July celebration on what used to be the family farm. Thanks to the Utah State Legislature, this year's fireworks display was the best we've had to date.

Jay thought he'd save a little time and light sparklers for all of the grandkids at once. Once the first sparkler caught on, though, we quickly abandoned the idea!

"Yay, America!"

*Well, not all of us. I may be a PWC (Person Who Camps), but I prefer not to take my chances with a baby who still wakes umpteen times a night. So I sent the girls with Jared, and Ben and I enjoyed a quiet evening at home. :)

16 Yet again, we failed to celebrate our anniversary in the traditional way. Aaron and Joni were blessing their new little guy Noah that weekend, so instead of the standard dinner-and-a-show, we packed up the kids and headed out to Vernal to pay a visit. We spent the evening of our anniversary making sandcastles with the kids at Steinaker Reservoir. Back at the hotel, we all piled together in the "sitting area" of our "suite", where we watched a documentary on candy-making and I ate far more Red Vines than was prudent.

The girls were having way too much fun to look up at the camera.

Actually, as anniversaries go, it was pretty awesome. That night, after I'd bathed and jammied the kids and we were all just hanging out, I was struck by the notion that THIS was really what our wedding day had been: the first step on the road to creating this funny, wonderful, sometimes exasperating little collection of individuals we call a family.




21 July also brought checkups--a little late--for Anna and Ben. Jared and I had both noticed that Anna is feeling a lot more "solid" these days, and lo and behold, she's gained SIX POUNDS since her last weight check right before her tonsillectomy. That's a pretty substantial gain, especially if you consider her tonsils probably weighed a pound each!

Not to be outdone, Ben has also been packing on the pounds and is teetering right at the 20 pound mark. My arms have never looked so buff.

Ben and Yvette chilling in the play pen.
Yvey is no lightweight herself, but next to Ben she looks positively dainty.

24 We celebrated Pioneer Day with the Eppersons, with a barbecue and Cul De Sac of Fire. I especially had fun snapping pics of the girls with their sparklers.



It was the only time that they held still enough for pictures; the rest of the night I had to content myself with some snaps of the as-yet-mostly-immobile babies.



And that brings us to the end of July. Elizabeth is beside herself with excitement waiting for first grade, and Anna is eager for preschool to start, too. I imagine Ben will miss his sisters while they're at school, although I doubt he'll miss having to live in his car seat the way he has this summer as we run from place to place. I'm sure Jared will welcome the slightly cooler temperatures of August as he toils away on the yardwork. And as much as I've loved having the girls home with me all summer, I'm looking forward to the structure and routine that the school year brings. Maybe I'll even find time to write a few blog posts!

Handyman, Part Deux

So it's been brought to my attention that Jared feels I didn't give him a fair shake in my recent post. Specifically, he wanted to know why I didn't post more photos of things that he'd finished. I was tempted to reply, "Well, finish something and I'll blog about it." But that's a cheap shot. I thought, instead, that in honor of Father's Day I'd set the record straight.

The truth is, Jared is excellent at seeing projects through to completion--better than me, to be honest. It just takes him a long time.

Why, you ask?

Well, it's certainly not laziness. This man works long and hard. About the only time you'll find him sitting on the couch on his day off is when a) there's a blizzard outside, or b) he's holding the baby (because I tend to make a fuss when he fires up the welding torch or tries to ride the tractor while doing so).

I could make a crack here about his perfectionistic streak and his adherence to the engineering motto ("If it ain't broke, take it apart and fix it anyway"). Truthfully, this is one of the reasons why projects take a long time to get done. On the other hand, his perfectionism pays off. You can be sure that that new retaining wall is going NOWHERE, that the new fence is going to be straight as an arrow, and that you won't burn the house down when you switch on that new light fixture. I've dealt with enough ill effects of sloppy DIY work at the hands of the previous owners of our home to appreciate what I've got in my obsessive-compulsive husband.

But probably the biggest reason that it takes Jared a long time because he is generous with his spare time. There are plenty of evenings where he's come home raring to get to work but instead he spends time with the kids so I can go for a jog, run errands, or just plain take a break after a long day of kid-wrangling. There are plenty of Saturday mornings that he's spent helping a neighbor prune a tree or rake leaves or roof a house instead of working on his own home and yard. Even around our house, he doesn't get to spend all his free time working on the projects he'd like to work on. Grass grows, taxes come due, pipes leak, cars break down. . .Jared isn't only my general contractor; he's also my lawn service, accountant, plumber, mechanic, and so much more.

Finally, I have to point out that so much of what goes into Jared's home improvement projects can't really be documented in photographs. I thought about posting a snippet from his to-do list (he keeps a running list on the computer, with dates next to each project as it's completed), but it's much too long. He's like an iceberg, this guy: you only see 10% of what he does, and the other 90% is hidden away under concrete/paint/drywall/dirt. For example, take this before & after:

living room, January 2007

living room, April 2011

What you see: New paint, new lights, new tchotchkes.
What you don't see: Jared repaired and re-attached the mantel, insulated the attic above the ceiling, took off the trim around the French doors and filled in the gaps around the doors with spray foam, re-attached the trim and patched up the nail holes, re-wired the electricity throughout the room, put in new electrical sockets and patched up the holes from the old ones, removed the light fixture, installed recessed lighting and patched up the hole from the old fixture. . .and a few days after I took this photo, he repainted that white patch (and another half-dozen spots on the hall and living room that needed touch-ups)

In short, I'm sorry, honey, if that last post left you feeling unappreciated. The truth is that I feel oh-so-lucky to have such a capable, generous, hard-working man as my partner in life. Happy Father's Day, hon!

Top Ten Signs Mommy Is Ready For A Vacation

Jared has been out of town this week, so it's just been me and the kids (and a mean little cold virus that refuses to leave). It's been a busy week, with school letting out, swimming lessons starting, and a visit from the Breppersons, and I'm starting to feel it. One thing I've learned since becoming a mom is that I need to keep an eye on myself. . .I'm talking about Mommy Burnout here. It happens to every mom, so it's important to be aware of the warning signs:

1. You catch yourself arguing with your kids' See 'N Say ("I'm sorry, bunnies do NOT say 'boing' when they jump. In fact, why did they even put a bunny on here? They don't make a dang sound.")

2. The closest you've come to a facial lately is being immersed in a cloud of steam as you drain the spaghetti.

3. You drive somewhere sans kids and as you pull into the parking lot you realize you were singing along to the "Little Mermaid" CD for the whole drive.

4. You volunteer to do double carpool duty, just to ensure you leave the house more than once a week.

5. Your definition of "dressed up" is a T-shirt without any spit-up, your "good" yoga pants, and flip flops.

6. Your definition of "gourmet" is hot dogs in the mac & cheese.

7. You don't like writing checks because you can't remember what year it is.

8. You eagerly anticipate your next dental visit, because it guarantees you the chance to lay down for 30 minutes in the middle of the day.

9. Your kids stop asking you to play Hide & Seek because you are the world's worst "seeker" ("Hmm, I wonder where they could be? Maybe if I lay down on the couch and close my eyes I'll be able to hear them. . .")

10. You find yourself ordering things online just so you can chat with the UPS guy. (By the way, I have the coolest UPS guy ever. He listens to NPR.)

And now, for your viewing pleasure, some pics of the kids I love so much it makes me a little crazy:




(Man, these guys spend a lot of time hanging out on my bed. I hope you all like my bedding--it gets photographed a lot!)

Anna is Four!

It amazes me that it's been four years since Anna joined our family. Sometimes I look at this silly, chatty, stubborn little creature and then look back at photos of my rosy-cheeked little Boo Bear and find it hard to believe they're the same child. . .


. . .although she's still got hair just as blond and eyes just as blue as back then.

Anna is our family's "Fancy Nancy". I can't remember the last time she wore jeans; these days it's all about dresses, well-accessorized. The other day after getting ready for church, she asked me how she looked, and I told her she looked fine. "No," she insisted, "tell me, do I look cute or do I look adorable?" Yikes.

She'll acquiesce to wear regular clothes when we leave the house (because Mommy makes her), but she insists on wearing one of her many dress-up outfits for breakfast at least. In fact, if we're going to someone's house she'll usually put on her street clothes but pack a spare tutu to change into once we arrive.

owl dress + monkey tights + pink cowboy boots = high fashion

Lately Anna has been talking about what she wants to be when she grows up. The top contenders so far are a mermaid ballerina, a mommy kitty, or a girl frog. I hope I can talk some sense into her soon; otherwise it's going to make for a very interesting Career Day at preschool. Just how do you dress a 4-year-old as a girl frog?


Anna loves to help out around the house. . .sort of. Her favorite jobs are to help do laundry and cook--especially treats, like apple pie.


For a long time, Anna was a complete dairy addict. One day she offered to make her own lunch and then proceeded to open the fridge and take out the milk, cottage cheese, yogurt, a brick of cheddar cheese, a bag of shredded cheese. . .Whether it was just a phase she outgrew, or whether getting those honking big tonsils removed has made it easier for her to eat, she's been eating a lot more variety since her tonsillectomy. She doesn't consume yogurt in mass quantities anymore, and her cheese addiction has abated somewhat. The next time you're at our house, though, take a peek at the butter dish and you'll see that someone or something has been nibbling away at the stick of butter. . .No, we're not overrun with mice; it's Anna. She'll open the fridge to browse for a snack, and while she's considering her options she'll pinch off bits of butter to eat.


Anna is still very much the high-spirited, full-of-smiles child she's been since she was a baby. There's a stormy side to the sunny personality, though; she can dig in her heels with the best of them, and she's a gifted little sister, knowing just what to do and say to drive her big sister crazy at times. Despite the contrariness, though, at the core she's a tender and kind-hearted critter. For this birthday Aunt Kellie gave her a watering can filled with Ring Pops, one of Anna's favorite treats, and without any prompting Anna reached into the watering can and began handing out Ring Pops to the cousins gathered around her. So sweet.


Happy birthday, Anna! You're such an important part to our family. . .We love you!

"Spring" 2011

It's been a wet, cold, sorry excuse for spring. (On the plus side, my tulips have never looked better. . .at least, the ones that didn't get eaten by deer.) But despite the lousy Smarch weather, we've stayed busy this spring. . .

April brought Ben's blessing. Grandma and I found his outfit at a store just down the street from us. Aunt Kellie says he looks like a character out of Jeeves & Wooster:


At his 2-month checkup, Ben weighed in at one ounce shy of 15 pounds, and the pediatrician remarked that he'd set the record for the biggest 2-month-old in their office. I felt pretty vindicated at this--a nurse in the hospital had hinted that I probably wouldn't be able to keep up with such a big baby. Ha. I ought to send that nurse a snapshot of his fat rolls:


In May, Jared took a day off of work to go with Elizabeth's kindergarten class on their field trip to the zoo:

They had a great time, and Elizabeth couldn't stop talking about the camels, the dinosaur statues, the snake slide. . .so a few weeks later, I took the kids to the zoo one evening. Between taking Anna potty every 20 minutes and dealing with a grouchy baby who decided he did NOT like the double stroller, it was a little stressful--but still fun. Major props to Elizabeth, who cheerfully (and competently) pushed Anna all over the zoo in the double stroller so I could carry Ben. We bought a zoo membership this year, so I've got all summer to master the art of singlehandedly taking the kids to a public venue without losing my mind. Or a kid. Maybe I'll even manage a photo or two. . .or maybe I'll leave the zoo photography to Jared. I've been to the zoo countless times and haven't gotten pics of the animals as good as these ones that Jared took:

May also brought Mother's Day. This year, along with breakfast in bed, the girls surprised me with a special message in Legos:

Anyone else reminded of old-school Nintendo games?

In between rain showers, Jared has been toiling away in the backyard. We'd planned on putting in a new fence on the south side of the yard sometime soon, but the decision to put one in ASAP was made for us by an impressive windstorm that hit our neighborhood over the winter and knocked down the old "fence". If you've seen our yard, you'll know why that's in quotation marks; when we tore out the overgrown shrubs along that side, it revealed a rather Hoovervillian structure that was more building pallets and slabs of particleboard than actual fencing:

(summer 2009)

To say the new fence is an improvement is something of an understatement:

"Something there is that does not love a wall."

That something is not my husband.

Not having many nice days to work in the yard, I've been puttering around the house instead. I set up a new sewing area in the basement with high hopes of sewing some summer dresses for Elizabeth; ready-made dresses are just too wide and too short for my long-legged grasshopper of a girl.

Oh, and did I mention she's flexible?

I also finally got around to taking care of Ben's "cradle cap". Those of you who've had babies with cradle cap know that nothing else invokes quite the same combination of satisfaction and repulsion as going after that stuff with some olive oil and a toothbrush:


And now it's June. Anna is about to turn four. Elizabeth is done with kindergarten. I'm feeling a little verklempt, even more than I did on her first day. I mean, now we're staring down the barrel at first grade. . .Full day! Lunch at school! TWO recesses! First grade is the big leagues.

Elizabeth at her kindergarten program

But we've got a nice long summer to enjoy before I start getting too sad about my girls going off to preschool and first grade in the fall. We're kicking off summer vacation with a marathon week of visiting cousins, swimming lessons, and Anna's birthday (which I'm determined to get pictures of this year!) Stay tuned.

Handy Man

I've heard it said that boys never really grow up, they just get bigger/more expensive toys. I assumed this saying was referring to those guys who fill their garages with four-wheelers, snowmobiles, and boats. I'm learning otherwise; it's becoming apparent that Jared has simply swapped his Tinkertoys and Construx for two-by-fours and copper pipe, and that our house is his biggest, best, most expensive toy ever.

I wish I could tell you what all this stuff does.
(Short answer: it heats our house.)

I wish I could tell you what this stuff does, too.

(Short answer: Well, I know it's called a network box. . .)

My mother-in-law says that she always meant to get a sandbox for Jared, because he loved creating, building, and digging. I tell her she can stop feeling bad that the sandbox never happened, because now he has something even better: a tractor and a backyard.

Just imagine how wonderful to have your own house, where you can knock holes in the walls. . .

Inaugural Hole, circa 2007

. . .jackhammer up the floor. . .

The Great Floor Drain Migration of 2011

. . .and dig giant holes in the yard. . .

groundbreaking for The Great Wall of Ridgeview, circa 2009

all without getting in trouble with your parents. There is, however, still the issue of the wife. . .Jared deals with this by throwing me a bone every so often in order to maintain a generous WAF*

"You want recessed lighting in the living room? I can do that."

"Okay, we can use landscape rock instead of cinderblock for the retaining wall. . ."

"How about some shelving in our closet?"

So living with a handyman certainly does have its perks. Other times. . .well. . .you know how when you leave a dog home alone, sometimes they get bored and trash the house just to keep busy? Now imagine that your dog had opposable thumbs and access to a crowbar:

(When funds run low but you're hankering for some home improvement,
just remember Jared's motto: demolition is cheap. Fun, too.)

Why do I put up with it? I can think of three primary reasons:
1) I have faith that it'll be worth it. There are things I want done that I believe will be done someday, if only I can be patient for now. (Wow, that sounds almost spiritual, doesn't it?)
2) I'm cheap. Sure, my general contractor may be slow as molasses, but he works for free.
3) I love my husband, and I recognize that having projects to work on makes him unbelievably happy. Some husbands find happiness in watching "the game" every weekend, or collecting the latest techie gadgets, or spending a day on the golf course. Mine just happens to find his bliss operating heavy machinery.


*WAF = Wife Acceptance Factor, a term Jared's coworker came up with to describe the level of inconvenience/noise/mess your wife is willing to accept. The WAF is, of course, dynamic. Pregnancy tends to dramatically decrease the WAF, as does forgetting your wife's birthday--but you can easily increase your WAF through such simple acts as mopping the kitchen floor, cooking dinner, and getting up with the baby. It's always wise to double-check your WAF before embarking on a new project. Unless you enjoy sleeping on the couch.