WHAT did you say?

Brinkley (who is 2) and I were in the kitchen the other day - I was getting her some lunch and she was just hanging out in her chair waiting patiently. Then out of the blue she says, "mom, where do babies come from?"

WHAT???

I just told her from mommy's tummy. Good enough for now I hope. :)

Missing: Teenage Brains

While we were in Oregon, I was having a conversation with my friend Emily about kids. She was telling me that she saw on some report that studies have been done to show that teens act the way they do because they are unable to think thru things and remember things. I don't know if this sudden "mental warp" is real or if it's just an excuse we've created so our kids don't seem so...DUH...but ever since she told me about this, I've wondered if that's why our little pre-teen does some of the things she does.

Suddenly the things we say seem to make their way into, what I'd like to call, the "brain blender." This blender does a great job of keeping the key ingredients and purees all of it to create a mixed up version of what you had before. For example: A teen is asked to clean up her dirty bedroom, and while the actual bedroom looks GREAT, here's what you get.

Or your teen is outside playing with a lawn chair, a working umbrealla, and a stroller - it's time to come in so you ask your teen to put everything back away where they got it, and here's what you get.

Or you notice that your teen has the bar of body soap stuck to the mirror in her bathroom instead of in the shower where she can use it and get clean, so you ask her to put it back into the shower, and she thinks this is a much better place for it.

Now, to those of you that have a teen, pre-teen, or ever will have a teen, all I can say is: GOOD LUCK! Possibly try to remember back to your own "brain blender" days and see if you can make sense of any of it. (I have been unsuccessful at it thus far) :)

What do you get...

when you mix a 2 year old who LOVES her strawberry shortcake stickers, and a totally helpless 12 month old?


















This was just too cute - I had to snap a photo of it. Deagan just sat there nicely, letting his sister cover him in stickers. And not just any stickers, but girly stickers. :)

They are finally getting to the age where they have a few good moments together...you know, playing nicely. Those moments come in about 3 minute segments, but they are nice when they do happen. Deagan has a really strong personality so he's kind of picky about being bothered (or things not going his way). Brie on the other hand is pretty easy going (for the most part) and has gotten used to Deagan's "freaking out" - she just says "Shhhh! BE QUIET!" I am excited for the day when they will run outside and play together. How much longer will that be? I really do hope that they end up being good friends as they grow up. They already seem to love each other so much - I think they'll learn to be good buds.

I'm caught in a wind storm

A few weeks ago I was telling my mother in law how dusty/dirty my house was. She didn't really believe me that it got as bad as I was saying.

Well, we had left our windows open while we were gone and there was a huge wind storm that night. It gets SO windy out here in the country. It doesn't help that almost none of the houses around us have yards in yet, so it's all dirt. Then there's the farm fields which were recently plowed - aka - more dust. I have to clean it almost every day. So the other day we opened the door downstairs in our family to let in some cool air, and here's what we found.

SICK! I guess I should check this door more often!

We're back!

Well, we had to come back from our trip to Oregon early - Brie got sick, and the day we left is when Steve, Deagan and I all got sick too. But we did get to do a few fun things before we came home. It was really nice to see old friends and family. The kids had fun at the rose festival carnival - even Brie enjoyed the rides. Here's just a few photos from our trip.

This one was taken by Steve - I asked him to take a few "nature shots" so we could have some cool prints around the house. He is good at those kinds of photos and he would enjoy taking more to sell. If interested in supporting him in that, feel free to purchase any of the images he has taken. Just leave a comment if you would ever like one and we'll get back to you! (We will post more of his photos later.)