This was when everyone was ready to get home and cool off. Neil was at the zoo with us. He took the photo.
Sprinklers under the trampoline.
With the famous cake I always make. Good thing the candle at least changes each year.
I just had to include this photo. She loves her little sister.
Taylor riding Grandma's new horse, "Spirit", who follows her like a dog, without a lead, as Taylor weaves her around the poles in the arena. What a sweet horse with kids!
Kortney on "Lucky" after their ride.
Rhett with Aunt Alanna.
Kortney leading Emmrie on "Dandy", the pony that about broke my toe last year.
Kortney, Taylor, Emmrie, and cousin Jeremiah on the tire swing Grandpa put up for them at the cabin.When we finally got back upstairs, and Taylor was happily playing on the computer, I got out the main vacuum, and Emmrie asked to work it, so I rested in the rocking chair for about 2 minutes and watched her until I noticed that she was obviously done, when she and Rhett started playing with the on/off switch too many times. So I told her good job, and that I would finish. Once I was done, I started on the kitchen. I had lots of crumbs to sweep up under the barstools. So I pulled them out of the way, swept up the non-stuck-on cereal bits, and realized I couldn't put off the kitchen floor anymore. I pulled out all the chairs, picked up all the shoes that Rhett loves to throw out of the basket we keep by the garage door, and started to sweep it all. Emmrie asked to have a friend over. No. Not today. I wanted a friend-free day. Of course, friends do help keep the kids busy, but I was too tired to think of that. Taylor came back upstairs, and I asked the girls to keep Rhett out of the kitchen while I swept, and to stay in the living room (why they can't just play downstairs without me sometimes just drives me crazy. All the girls' toys are downstairs, and I don't go downstairs lately unless I have to, because it just means going back up them again, and I'm not a fan of that right now). As I'm sweeping, I turn around and notice that Rhett is dragging all his toys out of his room and into the living room. I help him put them back, and ask the girls to go play downstairs. They refuse. They fight over the bouncy ball with Rhett, instead, and I put Emmrie on the couch for time-out. Rhett and Taylor try sharing it with her as she cries, but she chooses to pout, so I tell her that Santa won't bring any presents to kids that pout. She decided on coal for Christmas this year, and kept pouting. One less to shop for, I guess.
Once I finished sweeping, I made the quickest and least-messy lunch I could think of. Cheese crisps. Only they're not crispy from the microwave. No crumbs. Not really. Only Rhett found a way to make crumbs. All over the countertop and newly-swept floor. Love it. So once they're done making their mess, I shoo them all out of the kitcen again and sweep once more under the barstools. Now I had to mop. The floor was nasty.
Taylor got bored watching me mop right away, because I wasn't TV, so she asked to call Dad. I let her, and he laughed when she told him she was bored. He told her to go outside and play. WHAT? Was it a nice day out there? The forecast was wind, which my kids hate. I didn't even think of sending them out. She SOOO did not want to play outside, but I promised her that, after a half hour, she could come back in and watch TV. "Will you tell me when I can come back in?" she asked. Of course, honey. Now go.
I put Rhett down for a nap, and sent the girls out to play. The weather was beautiful. They never even asked to come in! I went to the window to check on them once my mopping was done, and saw them behind the raspberry plants, up against the back wall, so I asked them what they were doing. "Looking for rhubarb!" I totally forgot about that plant! We had conveniently planted it behind a pine tree, to hide it from sight. I asked them to bring me some stalks, so I could cut them up for a yummy dessert some day. So they started bringing some to me one at a time, and what they brought was mostly leaf, and about 3 inches of stalks, so I ended up getting a knife, squeezing around the raspberry plants and pine tree (in my slippers), and cutting it out myself. The girls asked me to peel theirs, so they could dip them in sugar to eat them. So I did. About six times. It wasn't really ripe, but they liked it just fine. I took all the rest into the house, and they followed me in, asking what I was going to make with them. Okay. I'll make it today. My sweet tooth convinced me. I chopped it all up, and they helped me get the ingredients for rhubarb crunch. They had to help measure them all out, too. It took twice as long, but we got it done, and in the oven. And I swept again.
I decided to throw some sheets in the laundry while we waited an hour for it to bake. Since it's downstairs, I made the girls' day by telling them that they could watch TV down there, too. I had plans to get on the computer to make a summer chore chart for the girls, but - you know how it goes. I checked my emails (all from my brother either about Obama or AZ immigration law), then had to check snopes.com since I didn't believe any of them (why do I even read them all? Seriously.), couldn't find any clarification on them, went to switch the laundry, and Neil called. "What are you doing?" he asked. Thankfully I could truthfully say, "laundry" instead of "wasting time on the computer" or something profound like that. He laughed. It wasn't that funny. I knew he wanted something.
"What would you think about me going golfing right now?" It was almost 3:00, and they didn't have anything else to work on that day, and one of the guys wanted him and his boss to go with him. He doesn't usually ask me these things. He usually either just tells me he "has" to go, because he got "conned" into it, flat out lies and tells me he's working late, then comes home in a polo, or I find out when he won't answer his phone, and some buddy calls for him when he's not home yet, and they ask, "Oh, is he still golfing?". I couldn't think of any good reason for him not to go, except that I was tired, and wanted a break and didn't want to make dinner. Except that he only goes golfing every Wednesday night because of some league thing his boss signed him up for (totally twisted his arm). Except that he went golfing already this week with the boys for scouts. But I guess I was being selfish, and he had sacrificed golfing this Wednesday to go to Taylor's last soccer game with us. So I decided to not give him a hard time. Kind of. I said sarcastically, "It's not like we have a date planned, so you might as well go hang out with the boys." "Okay!" He said without hesitating. Then I asked, "How long are you going to be?" I love that he always says, "Oh, it should be just a couple hours." That means more like 3, at least.
He stopped home in the work van to grab his clubs (which he normally keeps in his truck), and to change, gave hugs to Kortney and Rhett, who had just come home from school and woken up from a nap, yelled hi to Taylor and Emmrie who couldn't come upstairs to see him, for fear of missing their other favorite show, then he left again. I took my rhubarb crunch out of the oven, sat down to stare at the already-accumulated dishes, briefly contemplated dinner, stopped an argument, and the phone rang. It was Neil, asking me to close the garage door for him.
"How are you doing?" he asked. "Fine." I said. "You tired?" "Yeah." "Don't worry, baby!" he told me in his most chipper voice. "You can make it! It's just one more month!"
Taylor riding her bike, with full protective gear (this was actually a warm day, but the jacket was to protect her elbows).
Kortney and her new goldfish, Sammy, that she got from her friend Allie's birthday party.
Taylor playing indoor soccer. Good thing, too, because the weather has been so nasty this week.
This picture says so much about this boy. First of all, he's all boy- note the scabs all over his forehead; he's a very messy eater (who isn't, at this age?); he loves asparagus more than the rest of his dinner. I had to bribe him with the asparagus to make him eat the rest of his food (which didn't work, so he got the asparagus anyway).
Obviously his mother left him alone a little too long in order for him to fall asleep on the counter. Who would do that??
The girls made a "pirate ship", they said, after we took all the cushions off to clean the couch. 
My favorite people in the whole entire world.
My son's fettish with Q-tips. When a whole new box gets dumped on the floor, they don't fit back in it quite as nicely again.
And only because my sister and Hillary asked - a prego photo taken by Kortney. This is at 30 weeks. 10 loooooong weeks to go...
