The two musketeers

Maddie had all of her toys (but she calls it her "junk") lined up on the couch. Out of no where here comes Lyndon jumping up on the couch destroying her perfectly situated treasures. Disgustingly she said to him, "Lyndon, you're really kind of ruining my life right now." His reply? "Sawree, Mawee."

Last night as we were all sitting in the living room, out of no where, Lyndon looked at us and happily announced, "I kick. I kick wall." And then proceeded to do just that. He ran full speed ahead and kicked the wall. And repeating the action at least 5 more times. No idea. none whatsoever.

During lunch Maddie asks me, "Mom, do you know how you can tell if a cloud is sad? It rains." Clever, I thought. But her words of wisdom didn't end there. "Do you know who you can tell that a cloud is angry? It has thunder." And probably my favorite of all, "Do you know how you can tell if a cloud is happy? It doesn't rain or have thunder." She's very wise.

Much to our relief, Lyndon is finally gravitating toward more masculine things. But he still likes to keep one foot in girly stuff. As evidenced by his impersonation of a robot. But not just any robot. A BUTTERFLY robot. That's our boy.

Maddie is 100% sold by commercials. I'll be cooking and she'll start screaming, "MOM!! MOM!!! Come here. Hurry, Hurry. I WANT that. PLEASE!? PLEASE!!?? It's usually for a Barbie, bend-a-roos, my little ponies you know the normal stuff. But lately she has been going gaga (and even knows the catchy songs) for products such as these: The "touch-n-brush (which is a tooth brush dispenser that attaches to your wall. big. ugly.), Shoes Under (a box that is designed to store and easily fit in the unused space under your bed.) and wonder hangers (which are hangers designed to maximize and organize closet space). She knows all the catch phrases and begs me to buy them for her. If she only knew all the useless infomercials that are on late night TV. She'd be in heaven.

While I was doing the dishes Maddie comes up to me. "Mom, do you want me to show you how to play the "Nothing" game?" I agreed. Then she proceeded to just stand there very still and stare at me. Seriously. Does she think of this stuff on her own?

This is Lyndon's "scary" face. The more scared I act, the happier he is.

I noticed Jonathon reading a story to Lyndon and had to take a picture...

The two hooligans using up the last of their energy before bedtime. (yeah, right. the energy source is never dry.) Ben, (our new brother-in-law) bought this cool, but kind of creepy, monkey for Lyndon at the zoo while we were in Omaha.

We did a little craft project. I like walking through Micheal's and letting them pick out something they want to do. Maddie's tastes usually leans toward the more expensive do-it-yourself projects but I can gently nudge her in a new direction pretty easily. And Lyndon just likes to do whatever Maddie is doing. This time they each picked out a box and a piece of paper and decoupaged the paper on the box. Easy and fun.

Are you curious as to what the heck Maddie is doing to her doll? I was. I asked. "Mom, I'm blowing up her water wings." duh. It's so obvious now.

Again with the scary faces...

sucks.

The Kirby vacuum guy came around today. I just about puked when he vacuumed our mattress and out came a grossly ridiculous amount of dead skin, bed bugs and bed bug feces (as he pointed out). No wonder they don't spend any money on marketing. They're brilliant, they come into your home, show you what kind of filth you're living in (and sleeping in) then vacuum it all up with their miracle machine. Who needs fancy commercials or giant billboards? Not kirby. genius.

p.s. I want a kirby. bad.

Happy days.

It has looked this this for the past 3 days. (cloudy, rainy and not 100 degrees.) I'm so happy.

This morning at the gym I had a rush of endorphines and I thought to myself...I LOVE working out, I could do this all day only to be smacked back to reality 10 minutes later with the over-whelming feeling of wanting to throw-up. Silly body.

Let's hear it for Omaha!

It's been awhile...phew. For some reason it takes me a good week to get back in the swing of life after we return from a trip. Who knows why. But I'm finally back. (I know you've all been on the edge of your seats.)


I've got the the kids occupied with a new movie from Target...Barbie and the Pegasus. I know, it's like I WANT Lyndon to like Barbies. But honestly, he LIKES those movies and I need a few minutes to myself, so there.

Here's an over view of the trip...we'll start with Rachel's wedding. Ahhh, the wedding. It turned out absolutely perfect. Beautiful weather and all. There are more pics on my photo blog if you'd like to see others.

Much to Maddie's satisfaction, she got to be a flower girl. My Mom very graciously made the dress. Cute, huh?



The whole crew. Minus Lyndon. He fell a asleep and we didn't want to wake the beast.

You might be thinking...Humm, funny it's seems like Maddie is NEVER looking at the camera... You are CORRECT. Much to MY dismay she very rarely will look at the camera when I try to take her picture. Ugh. Not one of my favorite things.

Their reception was held at a mansion. No really, it was. It's even called, "The Mansion". It had really cool architecture and a cool vibe. Very fun for a photographer.

Keely, Jonathon's aunt, was very wise (and still is) and remembered to bring activities to occupy the kids throughout the evening. Good thing because they would've entertained themselves by going from table to table swiping the m&m's (meant for the guests). Okay, they did that a little but it really would've been out of control had Keely not come prepared.

Unfortunately this was the only decent (decent as in he was at least looking at me) shot I got of Lyndon. the entire day. just this one. nothin' else. You can't tell by this picture but he had a great time...read on...

On to the dancing...Lyndon's favorite part. At least in the beginning. After he danced with all the girls he could he spent the rest of the night trying to break out of the mansion. Again Keely to the rescue and followed him in and out in and out in and out...you get the picture.

His first dance was with Keely. And Maddie danced with Jonathon.

Then Lyndon moved on to Rylee.

...and then tried to chase her down for more dancing.

...but couldn't catch her so he moved on to the other Riley.

And the night wouldn't be complete if he didn't get a chance to dance with the bride...

After the wedding the party was not over. Is it ever over at the Evan's house? The day after we all got together for dinner, games and hanging out. So fun. The kids were in love with the trampoline AND the 70 degree weather. They spent a good amount of time out here.

(See the barn in the back? Lyndon calls it "the farm".)

part of the crew.

It was such a relaxing trip. Kind of hard to come home. Maybe that's why it's taken me a week to get going...

comic relief

Often times Maddie will fall asleep first so to entertain himself, Lyndon quietly goes out in the hall and reads books. This is how we found him a couple nights ago...

We went into the kids room tonight for what we thought was going to be 10 minutes of a story, a prayer and then off to bed, but we were mistaken.

It was far more fun than we ever imagined.

We literally laughed until our sides hurt for 45 minutes. Between Maddie's magic tricks and asking Jonathon if he will "pleeeeeease marry her" and Lyndon throwing a stick across the room and telling Jonathon to "fetcccch it", not to mention an out of the blue cowboy impersonation, "giiiitty up, partner!", we just couldn't catch our breath for air.

It's fun to be the parents of two mini comedians.

Maddie was in the bathtub a few nights ago. As she laid back in the water propping her head up with her hands she sighed, "Ahhhhh, this is the life." I know I keep saying this but Where the heck does she come up with these things?

We went to a birthday party for one of Maddie and Lyndon's friends yesterday. Harry Potter was the theme so each child got to paint their own wand. (such a cute and fun idea, Erin!) Lyndon doesn't have a clue about Harry Potter or what to do with a wand (even though he could easily be mistaken for a Ron Weasley) so he has since used his wand for a) a microphone b) a drum stick (although is bugs him that he doesn't have 2) c) a guitar and d) a weapon.

Lyndon found a little mini fireball candy in the pantry. He came running to me saying, "pweeeze pweeeze, open, open." I explained to him that it was really hot and would burn his mouth. I took it from him and set it on the table. The next thing I know I go in the pantry and find his mouth all red, the candy on the floor and Lyndon looking up at me saying very slow and steady, "Dis is weeelllly HOT, Dis is weeeellly HOT." Poor kid. You'd think he'd learn his lesson from this incident.

We went bowling this week with the Adam's family. (Not Uncle Fester...) The kids had a good time. I asked Maddie what her favorite part was. Her reply, "Watching the balls come up out of that machine that makes the balls." Ahhh, it's the simple stuff in life, isn't it?

This is Gina's newest edition, Issaac. I didn't think it could happen but this little butterball is even more laid back than Lyndon was. He didn't make a peep the whole time. Just sat there and watched everything that was going on. Such a cutie.

Holiday Photo Sessions!

So yeah, it's actually time to start thinking about holiday photos...I can't believe it either. Check out my photo blog for all the awesome specials!!!

(There's even something for you Idaho/Utah people!! ...you know how I love you.)

Katie's photo blog!

Remember these?

Did you ever make a house out of blankets? I can remember my sisters and I would transform our WHOLE family room into a mansion of blankets. I can vividly remember how it looked in our blanket house because we would always use this red blanket that would make the light kind of retro looking. It was cozy in there. We would have to crawl around very carefully as not to disrupt the fragile balance act of our beloved new home. (but more importantly my sister Heather would not be pleased if we carelessly brought he whole creation down after all her, uh I mean, OUR hard work.) Awww, the sweet and simple life when I was happily content with a 10x10 square foot home.

Maddie and Lyndon needed to have so blanket house memories too. except they just got a blanket shack instead of the mansion. (It's stinkin' hard to keep those blankets up. How did we used to do it? I think I need a quick tutorial refresher course. Heather?)

Maddie had to "be the cook" of the house. So she starts by washing up. I love what a meticulous
imagination she has. She has always made sure she turns the pretend water on (counter clock wise) and turns it off (clock wise). Quite observant, that girl.
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Lyndon gets to "give orders" to the cook through the window.

Yep, now he's licking the kitchen. At least Maddie finds it funny that he's licking off about 2 years of dust. yum.










We are in the process of making a book. Maddie has written it and I took the pictures for it. Here's a little taste of what's in there:

She's always a princess at heart. Check out the tattered Aurora dress! She has litterally loved this thing to death.

Constant jumping.

Lyndon LOVES to hold Maddie's hand. He'll hold her hand when we're walking in the store over holding mine.

It's a love...

...hate relationship. :)