I lied.

Week 14?

We're at the pool. This is as good as it gets today most likely.

Lunchtime Authors, Part 2

Lunchtime Authors, Part 1

One of my plans for this summer was to read to the girls while we ate lunch. But then I had a better idea: we're going to write our own book. Every day for the next couple of weeks when we eat lunch at home, we're going to work on it. While the girls take their "rests" afterward, I'll spend some time on the illustrations. Not much time--they'll be pretty simple and quick , but I think it will be a fun summer project.

Here's what we have so far:

Bird Party

Would you think I was lying if I told you Ruby is thrilled to be six years old?

Me, like a month ago: Rubes, what kind of birthday party do you want?
Ruby: A butterfly party!
Me: Ugh. Allright.

For a couple of days, I let this simmer and actually came up with a cute way to construct a butterfly cake. As for activities, all I could come up with was wrapping the kids up in toilet paper, mummy style and let them break free from their "cocoons." Though that kind of sounded like fun, I wasn't coming up with much else. I'm all for letting my kids have creative reign (May's outfits are proof) but I thought I'd suggest something else and see how it went over: a bird party. I had thought of all kinds of fun things and to my delight, Ruby was into it.

I wish I took pictures of the invitations we made, but I didn't. Picture gardeny paper with a simple wool felt bird shape adhered to the front. Trust me, it was cute.

Yesterday we drew birds all over our walkway "just in case people don't know it's a bird party," said Ruby.

Olive supervised.

Ruby made sure to wear her favorite skirt, just in case anyone was still confused as to the party's theme:

Each girl got a feather clip to wear:

The activities:

We played a Baby Bird Game: Each girl partnered up and all were given a string wrapped around a gummy worm. They took turns while one girl held the string up while the other girl ate the gummy worm like a baby bird. (If you ever do this, I suggest you have the strings tied around the gummy worms before the party starts, otherwise you'll be frantically tying strings onto wiggly worms while 20 bouncing little girls majorly invade your personal space.) I wish I had gotten a picture of this but I was busy tying strings and having my personal space invaded.

We made bird feeders:

the supplies:

the finished product:They went on an egg hunt: also not pictured. But Go and his buddy Dan (who held Olive the entire party, bless that man) hid a bunch of candy-filled plastic eggs outside. Some of the bigger girls got out the door before the rest so some ended up with tons and others ended up with very little. I'm still feeling badly about this...

Then we ate cake:
(Can you tell what I was aiming for? A nest with eggs inside?) And yes, I know the Peeps came out back around Easter but luckily for us, they have a shelf life roughly of the same life span of a giant redwood tree. Or Barbara Walters.

Then we played.

After that, we went back inside for present opening and more playing. When it was time to go, everyone left with a bird house filled with chocolate eggs.

I think she had a good time.

Week 13

She'll be 3 months tomorrow.
Bizarre.

If You Have the Means, I Highly Recommend Picking Yourself Up a MayMay

She just woke me up. She was QUACKING in her sleep. I'm not even
joking. I hope you all have a MayMay- equivalent in your own life.

We Went Strawberry Picking Yesterday

"Dis strawberry has a weird bottom, Mama."

When you're missing your two front teeth, eating on of the side of your mouth is out of necessity.

Behold: yesterday's outfit. Not pictured: very old white patent-leather church shoes.

She Sleeps Like Her Daddy

Happy 8 Years of Mah-wage to Us

Dear Go,

I not only love you, but I really, really like you as well.

Love,
Me

Lindsey Buckingham, I Applaude You, Your Crazy Fingers and Your Girly Name

I've never really been into Fleetwood Mac,
but how on earth have I lived almost 29 years
without being aware of this RAD song?

Still Shooting Up the Place

I know I haven't said anything about photography in awhile, but I'm still doing photography gigs when I can. The photography blog has now been updated after a hefty hiatus. There will also be more to come as I have four more shoots in the next couple of weeks. Splendid! Click the "annie reynolds photography" link on the sidebar if you dare. Or if you care. Bear. Share. Mare. Hair. La-la-la-la-la.

All Three

Ruby: It was her last day of school today. She said she's both happy and sad. Happy "that she gets to take naps again" but sad because she "won't see her friends every day." Ruby loves to sleep. She's actually sleeping right now.

The First Day of Kindergarten: August 2008

The Last Day of Kindergarten: June 2009

May: The fashionista. She dresses herself everyday, from head to toe and decides on the hair style/accessories. I never know what she'll put together and very rarely do I make her change. I do, however, insist that her bottom crack not show, which happens most of the time because she has the smallest bum ever. Oh, she sooooo got it from me. (said very, very sarcastically)

"I want to weeeear my froggy boots, Mama.
Do you want to weeeear you boots?
I wike you boots, Mama.
Do you wike my boots?
Dey have froggies on dem."

Her current favorite pose.
It looks almost natural when she's sitting down
but not so much when she's standing,
but that doesn't stop her.

Olive: This one loves attention. Oh my. The flirting with the random public has officially begun. She smiles with her whole body--simultaneous wriggling and smiling. She sings/coos to the radio and has turned into a great napper but has started waking up more in the night than she used to. She's also an early riser--ready to party at 6 am every morning, which of course is a horrible combination for me but I'm hoping this will end soon and she'll settle back into only waking up once a night or not at all opposed to every 3 hours. She's working hard on sitting up and grabbing her feet. She's just about there with the grabbing but the sitting still needs some work.

Yes, Mom. You are seeing a faint dimple there.
There's another one on the other side, too.
Rejoice!
There's that foot I was talking about.

Still trying to grab the foot.I love it when she makes this face.

I love them.

Lately

Our wedding anniversary is coming up--eight years. Most of the time, it seems to me that Go and I have been married a really long time. That wasn't meant as a hee-hee-hee-playful-yet-loving-jab-in-the-ribs; we've been through a lot during the past 8 years, so it seems like even longer than that to me most of the time.

Tonight though, I was lying on our bed with the girls, getting ready for our nightly prayer/hug ritual. We were waiting for Go and I found myself mentally putting "eight years" into different references, like "That's the length of high school and college combined!" and "That's the length between ages 11 and 19!" It was just weird, as I lay on the bed surrounded by my girls and thought about all that had happened and what had been produced in that length of time. Suddenly, it seemed like just yesterday I was standing there at my wedding reception, very young and stoked to realize that I had just married a guy who had longer hair than I did. I couldn't have been happier and neither could he.

So it's been eight years and we're still in sync, even when we don't mean to be. Today it was discovered that we had inadvertently been working toward the same goal: to be happy whatever we're doing, wherever we are.

His goal stemmed from a work/home standpoint. When he's at work, he should focus on enjoying the process of cutting people open and sewing them back together in an aesthetically pleasing fashion rather than focusing on how long he's been there, how tired he is and how many days its been since he's seen his girls. And when he's home, he needs to let go of the stresses of work and bask in the golden glory of the Reynolds women.

I, on the other hand, have been trying to live in the moment and enjoy each day, despite the issues I have with my current location. I need to quit the ever-going internal "I Don't Belong on the East Coast" pity party and realize it's not where I am, but what I am that matters. For me, this stems from the knowledge that Olive could be my second-to-last baby. That sentence sounds ridiculous, but really, just thinking about it makes me verklempt. I love my babies--I love all babies, period and I don't want it to end. If I could hold babies for the rest of my life, I'd be in heaven. I remember confessing to my room mate back in college, Katie, that I didn't really want to get married, I just wanted a baby. This was before I met Go. Oooobvsiously. Katie laughed, probably thought I was kidding, perhaps an attempted slam against the male race, which wasn't something out of the ordinary, but I really wasn't joking; I was completely serious. I wondered how many girls were there at BYU wanting a baby more than a husband, like I was. I wondered if they had the same sudden urge, when they were just walking around campus maneuvering through the sea of smiling faces, trying not to take anyone out with their giant art portfolio and of course not cutting corners, when out of the clear blue Utah sky, SLAM! they wanted, no, NEEDED to hold a baby, any baby. Right then. Did they NEED to shmush chubby smooth skin, kiss a soft velvety cheek and run their hands over a crop of fluffy hair? Did they NEED a tiny but strong grasp around their finger and to be looked at with clear, bright eyes? My whole body would just ache to hold a baby, but there I was, shlepping around Provo, totally babyless, much to my Bishop and my parent's delight/relief.

This feeling actually first began with a chimpanzee when I was probably 10 or so. My brothers and I were watching some show and the guy carried around a monkey in a diaper. It was like lightening had struck. I HAD to hold a chimpanzee. I physically yearned to carry around a diapered monkey. I remember professing this to John and Joe and they were both like "Yah! How cool would it be to just walk around holding a monkey?" I like my brothers. They get me.

So that's what I'm doing--realizing that what I'm doing right now, every day, is exactly what I wanted my whole life. It doesn't matter that it's not where I want to be, but it matters what I'm doing and who I am. Even though I still have never held a monkey wearing a diaper, I'm a mother of three ridiculously fun girls and I married a guy who used to have longer hair than me and I love it. This is the life I wanted all along.

Summer is approaching and I have loads of things planned. This summer, I want to teach my girls how to make the most of each day and bask in the glory that is right now and enjoy being who we are right now. This is their childhood. These are the years our family will look back on and long to have back. So right now, I think I'm going to go kiss Go and tell him that these past 8 years have been rad and I love who we are right now.

So, uh, big gulps huh?

Today I took in cookies to Ruby's classroom. I wore Olive in the
BabyBjorn (and got totally mauled by grubby little kindergartners). A
liitle boy shoved into the crowd and tugged on my shirt. I looked
down, said hello and the kid goes "My sister has a baby!" and I said
something like "You're an uncle! That's awesome!" and he's says very
matter-of-factly, "No, not really. My sister's really young. She's
only 18."

"Hiking"

This week marked the official beginning of Go's plastic surgery training and official ending of his general surgery training. These last three months, he's had elective rotations and has had an AWESOME schedule, meaning: Monday through Friday, 8 to 5. This may be normal to the rest of the modern world, but to our family, it's been a whole new world. A new fantastic point of view. Yes, it was that good. Disney-song good. It was grand. It was glorious. It was dishes being done by someone besides myself. It was having him home for dinner every night. It was having him carry the girls upstairs up to their beds at a normal bedtime hour. It was being able to stay up late with him whenever we wanted. It was, well, fantastic. Aaaand all that came to a screeching halt yesterday as he started his plastic surgery training, woke up at 5 am, worked all day and night, didn't get home until almost midnight and woke up this morning at 5 to do it all over again. This will be the next 3 years of our lives. Just stating the facts. I'm excited we're halfway through residency but will miss him after being spoiled for three months. See ya in three years, Go. It's been real.

This past weekend, we went on what Ruby kept calling a "hike," but really, it was more like "a walk somewhere besides our neighborhood." Here are some pictures from our strenuous hiking adventure. Disclaimer: these pictures were taken with a point and shoot and most of them, not by me. Not that they're bad...again, just stating facts...

"Mom! Come sit in here with us! It smells like poop!"
Well, by all means. What better place to take a rest?This shot was taken after Ruby, because her blood sugar was high, had to pee really, really bad. A bathroom was no where in sight on our hike through the forest.
I helped her hang herself over the railing and got sprayed with urine.
I'm pretty sure I know why this little hut smells the way it does.

The girls looking out the poop-hut's windows. "Look, Mom! I can see my pee from here!"

A man and his baby.

The girls.

"AAALL-LUUUUV!"
translation: "Olive!"
this shot was taken during the "luuuuv" part.

This is what I do all day long, just not usually in the middle of a forest.

Refreshment.

Aw. How tender.