Loving the Summering

Somehow we won the Whitney lottery this year.  Devin's sister just graduated from BYU with her teaching degree.  She scored a job in UT at the school where she did her student teaching.  Since she had the summer off we convinced her that Richmond would provide the most amazing summer possibilities.  :)  She babysits my friend's one-yr-old 3 days a week and plays with me or travels the other 2.  I love having Whitney here.  It's like living with the SuperNanny.  My girls are, well, very lively.  And I'm not the strictest of parents out there.  (Don't all kids scream at their mom's all day??  The correct answer is "no".)  Whitney is whipping my girls into shape and my eardrums are thanking her.  And my girls love having a live-in Auntie.  Especially one with and iPad and an iPhone!

Devin and I had a little temple get-away a couple weeks ago since we had someone to stay with the girls.  We stayed at a hotel in Fredericksburg and had the most amazing cheese plate in the historic district.  Anyway... that night a major storm hit.  We were fine in the hotel but at home the night didn't go so well.  Either the storm or a poopy diaper woke Soph up at about 11.  The power had gone out so Whitney had to figure out how to change the diaper in the dark, then live with the smell in the sweltering heat and humidity.  Then Sophie thought she was up for the day and didn't go back to sleep until 4am!!  I felt so bad the next day.  We ended up going straight home b/c the temple was out of power.  But it was still a fun night for us.  Whitney was a trooper!

Speaking of Sophie's naughtiness...  I found this Perler bead up her nose last week.  We waited until she was asleep and miraculously pulled it out without waking her, saving us a trip to the ER.

But look how cute she is.  The girls are loving their summer evenings.  They love to run around in the field behind our house and pick flowers.  They love to play in the sprinklers and on the slip-n-slide with all the neighborhood kids.  

(Shhhhhhhhhh!!! She's sweeping!!!)

 
 We've also had fun going to the blueberry patch.  Eva asks me to go about every day.  I love always having fresh blueberries to eat.  Although this last time just about did me in.  We went to the back of the patch and the branches were much lower than I was used to.  It was the perfect height for Sophie to run through.  She took off with another little boy and I lost them.  Then I realized the row led straight out to the road.  I found a wider row and ran out to the road then across to find them.  The two of them were sitting down and Sophie was taking off her shoes to shake the dirt out.  I just felt so grateful to Heavenly Father for protecting them and putting dirt in Sophie's little pink jelly shoes. 

My friend had these darling gymnastics pictures of her daughter on her blog.  That turned out to be the most expensive blog post I've ever read.  (It's now cost me 4 months worth of gymnastics tuition.)  I decided to give Eva Gymnastics lessons for my birthday!  (Yes, I realize disclosing this ensures gymnastics lessons for all my subsequent children.)  Eva didn't like the idea at first until I showed her the leotard shop.  She found an "aquamarine sparkley" leotard and she was sold on the idea.  Now gymnastics is all she ever talks about.  She wants to stay and do gymnastics "ALL DAY!!!"  I would love that.  I love watching her.  Holy cow.  It's so cute. 

Devin has had a few adventures of his own.  This is at a USA soccer game (Friendly) against Brazil in DC.  (With a belly-full of Cafe Rio, I might add.)

Here's some pics from a 4th of July party we had at the Chelsea Square field (where most the students live in the ward.)  It was fun to hang out with all our buddies in the sweet, humid, morning sun.  I wish I was better at getting people to together for pictures.  All I get are these chicken shots of everyone from far away.  Lame.  I'll work on that. 

(Devin was excited when he saw this pic so he could study his corn-hole throwing motion.)

I wouldn't call this an action shot.  She is actually inching along like a little caterpillar.