Ok, so this is Ellodie in her hat. Don't judge, it is not done yet. It still has to be blocked and lined so that the ear flaps don't flip out like the flying nun!

Here is Ellie demonstrating two things....1) she has learned to sit up on her own but only for a few seconds and 2) her new quilt I made last weekend. I know I am going to quickly gain a reputation by posting my crafts as that strange mom that knits, quilts, and makes her kids eat organic food....but whatever! I also know that this is going to discredit my excuse of " I don't have time for.....fill in the blank".

Ooooops, she fell over.....thank gosh it was on her soft beautiful quilt to shield her head!

Last Sunday we went out to eat for Scott's birthday. We had a party the night before but I keep forgetting to get the pictures from Gena to post. At any rate, we went to eat at a local Hibachi grill because Scott loves it and we thought the boys would enjoy the knife throwing and fire. Well, Ben liked it alright but Chars was not sure. I really have to agree with Chars on this one...the guy came out with a huge scar from his mouth to his ear and he started throwing around these knives but he was dropping them all over the place which is not good at all! Then he started with the fire and I got really nervous thinking everyone I love is sitting right here and we are all 2 feet away from this guy who clearly has had some sort of serious "accident" with knives in the past and now he is going to light up the entire grill!! Well, he pulled it off! I really thought we were goners!

This is a summer of "firsts" for Ben. Of course, He learned to swim, which is wonderful but he hasn't stopped there! I came home on Thursday from work to find him sitting at the table eating grilled salmon and broccoli! Of all of his accomplishments so far, this was the most surprising to me! When Scott asked him what he wanted for dinner he responded with salmon and broccoli and.......he actually ate it, all of it!! I am a proud momma! Finally!! He has also stopped using a pull-up at night! HUGE deal!!! AND.......He has learned how to ride his bike!!! For some reason this blog will only let me put videos at the end, so there is a video of him riding his bike at the bottom.

Here is a picture of Me, Ellie, and Chars in his bed. I always fall asleep first! And in Chars true form, he has fallen asleep in skeleton sunglasses.

Chars was very sweet last night and wrote me a song. He sang it all the way home from the Birdwell's house after our swim party. I missed the first half because I was messing with my phone and was trying to be sneaky so he wouldn't know I was recording it. It is a song all about how everyone was born. By the time I started recording I missed how I was born and how Ellodie was born. He talks about Asher in the song too. He loves babies! It is the second video down at the bottom of the blog post. Or, the second "arrow" to the right of ben riding his bike.

I didn't really get to blog much last week because Scott was in Colorado fishing with his dad and brother. They had a great time and maybe he will post some pictures. It sounds like they did a lot of fishing, driving around taking pictures, and eating. At least this is what I gathered from my brief phone conversations with Scott. We on the other hand were out and about. We were very, very busy. As I had mentioned in my last post, I have too many wonderful friends to count and last week turned out to be one of our best weeks ever. We spent time with Gigi, Ma, Kari, Little, and Kelly!

For example, this is a picture of Charlie after he passed out in our bed. He had a particularly exhausting day after he realized there was a hole in his penis. He was sure it was broken and was so distraught about it. He begged me to fix it over and over. Ben was the only one who could get through to him! Finally after Ben showed Chars his, he realized it was totally normal and calmed down. Of course this all happened in the shower and here he is passed out in bed all worn out!



On Friday we did the typical trip to the Y and then we headed over to Kari's apartments to swim. The pool there is awesome and the guys did great. Ben didn't use his floaties at all and is really doing great. Chars is convinced he can swim. He refuses to wear floaties because Ben doesn't. He kept running down the edge of the pool toward the deep end and jumping in. I would swim as fast as I could to get to him and be yelling the whole time to come back toward me! He said I can do it, I don't need help and would just go for it! I really wish I had some more pictures of this day because we had so much fun. We went to Kari's apartment and she had all these "texadelphia" cups. She gave the boys a drink of water in the cups and then I ended up taking one home. Well, now every time Charlie sees that cup he gets very possessive saying that this is the cup that Kari gave him and I cannot use it. Poor Scott got home and had no idea, Charlie nearly assaulted him when he caught him using it. That is "me" cup that Kari gave me! Here are the boys at the pool.

This is Charlie the next morning eating cereal. I typically don't buy this stuff and this is why.....both he and Ben eat it like freakin animals! They won't use spoons nor do they want milk in it! They just eat it out of the bowl like little dogs!

Aaaaaand the fun continues.......after breakfast is cleaned up, which took a while, Hays, Kelly, Mattie, and Little came over Saturday morning to play. Mattie is just too sweet to be running around with these guys. She is so cute trying to sit at the table with us girls and talk! Meanwhile........

Well, it is really no wonder that she would rather sit and chat with us! Otherwise she is going to get karate chopped in the head! Here is Hayes, Ben, and me too dressed as iron man, spider man, and captain american girl (this is what chars calls him). Of course the dressing up is nothing new. They just love it but their new thing is talking about the super hero's duties. I cannot remember how it started but I said something about Ironman's duties and I thought Ben was going to pee his pants. Apparently I say doodies instead of duties and they absolutely love it. They don't get it at all! They keep asking me about what doodies they have to do today and laughing hysterically. Ben said, Ironman is really busy, he has two jobs, one with the super-hero squad and one with the avengers, He must have a lot of doodie and then he cracks up! OK, I digress, It was a great morning and the kids were great! Kelly looks beautiful as always! She is pregnant with another boy and I am so excited for her. Little is just Little, the best friend any one could ask for! She even came back over later that afternoon so I could go to the grocery without the kiddos.

Hmmmmm, what else did we do while Scott was gone????? Not much really! We just went to bed late and all slept in the same bed and watched too much TV and ate dessert every day!

Scott got home and we were so happy cause we were getting out of control with all of our rule breaking! We were in need of discipline! and a schedule! You gotta love my list makin, rule followin, budget creatin husband! He brought the boys home dream catchers for their rooms which was very sweet and Ben really took an interest in how it actually catches bad dreams and burns them up with fire! Very, very cool!

I ended up working this whole week so there wasn't much too exciting to share. Scott and I went on a date night which was so fun, I really love just hanging out with my husband. Today is Saturday and it was a relaxing one. We got up and Scott rushed off to give a talk to the "cast tech society" or something like that. I decided to knit Ellodie a hat for this winter. The boys wanted to help so I gave them their own needles and yarn. They did well I would say!

It's kind of like a big bowl of chinese noodles huh? They just kept tossing the yarn around.

I finished her hat tonight but she was already asleep, so I will have to post a picture next time.

After knitting we decided to bake Dad's birthday cake for his party tomorrow. It was really hilarious because I had Ellie on my chest in the baby carrier and the boys were cracking eggs left and right before I could stop them! Sometimes I am laughing so hard at them that I can't say "stop, stop"! So Charlie was trying to crack and egg and just kept smashing it as hard as he could on the counter! So funny. I am sure we used 6 eggs to make this cake. OK, well here they are making the cake and then of course afterward eating the batter out of the bowl.

It was pretty obvious as the day went on that the boys were exhausted. It was also pretty obvious that they were not going to take a nap! By dinner time Charlie was a disaster! I can honestly say that I have never seen him quite like he was tonight. Even Ellodie was laughing at him.....

His laughter soon turned to crying for no apparent reason. He was just so tired that he could not control his emotions! We were all just looking at him at dinner, like what chars, what, what can we do? He kept trying to tell me something but I just couldn't make out what he was saying because he was crying so hard. Blah, blag, glablah, goodoglab... What chars, what was that, I don't understand....FINALLY I understood....after 10 minutes.....wait for it....something was wrong with his sandwich I made him.....oh, what charlie....you want the mayonnaise on the outside of the sandwich? Oh, ok, I can do that. Yes, indeed, that was all he wanted. So I spread the mayo thick like icing all over the top and he was content. He ate it like a piece of pizza. Here it is.

And then he exploded again, freaking out....Oh NO, he had mayo on his hands...911 emergency...Help! He was so upset by this he threw himself back in his chair and completely flipped over. Well you know Sophie the vulture swooped in and ate that stupid sandwich! The whole family was laughing so hard at him that we couldn't swish her away. He literally stopped breathing when he saw she got the sandwich....

So Scott made him a new sandwich with the mayo on the outside and he sort of recovered before a VERY early bed time! Oh gosh, they are so funny! I never knew that you would laugh so much as a parent.