He is the Dad

Anyone who knows Nels very well, knows that he likes music. This is a happy fact considering my own love of a wide and odd variety of songs - ranging across the genres. We are both masterful at making up songs to various different melodies floating through our brains at any given time. (Something that I inherited from my mama. One of Nels' claims to fame when we were dating was his ability to make up a song about anything.) It's not unusual to hear him belting out a Doors, Melvins, Judas Priest, or Queen of the Stone Age song with his own word substitutions - to me, the girls, or just himself. It's awesome. 


That being said, you would probably be surprised at hearing him sing "Glory of Love" to his kids . . . that is, until you heard the lyric modification. "I am the Dad, who will fight, off the mon--sters!"

Friday's Fabulous Five

1. V-A-C-A-T-I-O-N. We're gonna have a ball! :)
I LOVE that school is out for the summer! It's hard for me to think about Hazel going to 1st grade next year, but I am really ready for this school year to be over. I'm so excited for the summer. And I have faith that summer will come, eventually. The Mountain West has the weirdest weather.

2. Elsie goes through phases of calling me Miss Mama. I love it. "You dance with me, Miss MaMA!?" "You like me, Miss MaMA?" Yep, Baby. I really like you. :) She's also been doing a "Dancey, dancey, DANCE!" for the past two days. Cutest thing! I'll have to see if I can get a video to share. :)

3. I love having a strong, healthy body. I love to exercise. Feels so good. Nursing makes me CRAVE sugar and carbs and all wonderful eating things, but this time around, I am going to do this! I'm not going to gain weight AFTER having a baby! I can do it!

4. My baby has been sleeping for about 3 (or more?) hours! Oh, blessed child. Thank you. She's also been sleeping very well through the night. Occasionally wakes up once to eat, but other than that, has been allowing me to get my beauty rest. :)

5. Nels is going to come home sometime tonight. I don't know when, but sometime he will. AND he {probably} will have a full two days of not working! :) What? What's that you say? 'Hello? Rachel! Monday is Memorial Day. He doesn't have to work that day! Remember?' Oh, you naive little thing. You don't know my husband. You don't know Melaleuca. However, next Thursday, we're outta HERE!

Lashes

One of my favorite features on each of my children is (are?) their eyelashes. I love pretty eyelashes. I'm so lucky to have married a husband with lovely lashes to guarantee long-lash-ed-ladies. (It kind of makes up for the fact that none of my children have inherited my dimples. Kind of.) :)

Violet's eyelashes are growing longer and thicker everyday.

Love that little face.

Lilie -- Halloween 2007

Mascara is a wonderful thing for blonde-lashed girls. :)

Hazel -- Halloween 2007

Again, mascara. Halloween is fun.

The other day, I took the girls to the zoo for the first time this year. We had a wonderful time together. Elsie especially loved chasing the peacocks. (Which, by the way, are so incredible to me. It is amazing to me the many different designs and colors that the Lord has given to birds.)

Seriously, IMPOSSIBLE for me to get a picture with all of them looking at the camera! I swear, I tell them to smile and they start staring off all over the place -- except at me! :)

Elsie has recently decided that she needs to be a princess everyday. Which basically means she wants to wear either a dress or a skirt everyday. You would think that with four girls, this is something we'd be used to by now, but no. Elsie is my first girl to really love "girly" things -- you know, for more than 2 minutes at a time. She loves to carry around a purse (complete with keys and "lists" :) and wear spart-ly (sparkly) shoes. I love it. She was VERY put out yesterday that I wouldn't let her wear the same dress that she had worn the day before and to bed that night (because she refused to take it off --- she even wore she red glittery shoes to bed). She didn't think the food smears on it were as big a deal as I did, apparently. LOL.

This is the face that she now gives me every time I tell her to smile. :)

The funniest thing about this lovely smile is that it's the same one I used to make when I was her age. I love it. 

bigger pictures

I've had a couple of people ask how I make my pictures bigger. Blogger has an updated version that allows you to choose your picture size. If you click the "Customize" button and then "Settings", under "Basic", scroll down to "Select post editor" and "updated editor".

Not a Toy

Now?? Right now? Failure to do so can result in death or brain damage???!!!

This bag was in our house for 20 minutes before we even ready this. What kind of danger were we in?? Who knows what kind of unknown damage was done in those naive 20 minutes?!