The stare down

Something about this picture makes me smile which sounds weird since I look kind of mad and am holding a giant knife as I stare down my 1 year old son. That's my gardening knife. Best weeding tool ever. And it has waterproof matches and fishing line in the handle if it gets crazy. I can't quite remember what was happening. I do remember him running into the street and eating things he shouldn't have over and over. I think he was testing me. Waiting for me to let my guard down so he could do it again, and I guess I'm just letting him know that Dad's will is absolute around here. Mostly just in the garage and in the yard and around the van. Marnie is in charge of tables and pretty glass jars and inside kinds of things. It also makes me feel kind of proud that Jake even tried to match my glare. Little punk.

Our winter wonderland

I know the rest of the country raked up their leaves months ago, but ours are barely falling, and Penny loves it. Raking leaves is one of those things that drives me crazy. You spend all this time raking your leaves into piles and then transferring them into the yard waste bin only to have the wind blow the next day, covering your yard with more brown leaves. I told Stephan I want a Japanese Maple so maybe I could at least rake up beautiful red leaves. Maybe they don't grow here, I should look into it.

I've spend several days this week raking leaves into piles for the kids to jump into and throw in the air. Penny loves to throw a pile up and then run through the leaves singing a song about the snow falling all around her. She keeps saying it's like a Christmas winter wonderland and the leaves are snow. Poor girl. She'd probably freeze to death if she ever visited her cousins in Canada.

We had some "freezing" weather a few weeks where it was in the 40s for a high one day. Penny and Ginger were both in tears as they had to brave the "freezing" wind on their mad dash to the car. Penny kept whining about how she wasn't leaving the house again until it was warm enough not to wear a coat. Hah. It made me laugh, until I realized that I feel the same as them. Then, I was a little ashamed of myself.

Today, instead of wasting my energy, I just mowed up the leaves. Penny was devastated that I'd mowed all the leaves without letting her jump into any piles so I left a small portion of the yard unmowed and we raked up the leaves for her.

In the meantime, Jake found a wheelbarrow of fresh compost from our nasty compost pile and started eating it. I'm the mom that runs back inside for the camera instead of rescuing him immediately from dirt and disease. He's already growing so fast and I want to remember him when he was sweet and innocent and loved eating dirt and playing with his stick.

Random things

Stephan's still hard at work on our bathroom. We're hoping for maybe a Thanksgiving bath for the kids. Here Stephan's measuring and cutting wood for the bathroom. Jake loves to help whenever possible.

No explanation.

One Sunday morning, a few weeks ago, we thought is was so wonderful that the girls hadn't barged into our room waking us up super early, like normal. I could hear them laughing and playing in their room and I thought it was so sweet that they were playing so nicely with each other. When they did finally come in, I found this. They'd drawn on each others faces so they looked like cats. Ginger is also wearing a swimming blow up ring around her waist. She said she wanted to be a swimming cat for Halloween.

Jake's showing off his new jammies.

 

Oh man. I wish they learned to eat more cleanly than this once they're not babies but Ginger still has her moments. 

Ginger turned three recently. This is the only picture that doesn't have her birthday cake in the shot. I made one of those Barbie cakes with a cake-skirt but it turned out hideous. Seriously, it was the ugliest cake. Fortunately, the girls LOVED it. Penny told me it was the most beautiful cake she'd ever seen and asked for the exact same cake for her birthday. It's amazing what a Barbie body stuck in a cake can do. It's almost worth posting a picture just so you can see the hideousness of the cake but honestly, it's still really embarrassing that I made it.

Jake got his first hair cut. This is the before. I know, you can't even tell he needs a hair cut. See the five hairs combed over his ear? Those few hairs drove Stephan crazy and he buzzed his head. He hadn't meant to buzz it but of course Jake couldn't hold still and Stephan kept making all these nicks in his hair and then it all had to come off to even it out.

Here's Jake feeling vulnerable without his hair, and sad.

Happy birthday, Jake!

Jake turned one recently. We were in Utah at my dad's house where we had a cupcake celebration for him. I tried to take some pictures on his birthday but my camera batteries died. I feel like I should post some statistics from his one-year check-up but I can't remember any. I know he weighs at least 21 pounds and some ounces.

His head is perfectly round. Just today some lady told Stephan that our baby had a perfectly shaped head. Jake does have a nice head, but nothing compared to Penny's round head when she was a baby.

Two weeks ago Jake pulled the cord of my hot curling iron and it landed on the top of his foot. It was so sad. I felt horrible. The burn was bad but it's healing fine. He'll for sure have a little scar.

He loves his toy trucks. I mean, LOVES, them. He'll chase them around the house forever before he gets bored. He loves all food. He's learning to throw temper tantrums. His sisters started throwing themselves to the ground in anger much earlier than him. He's only barely learning to do that.

He loves to play hide and go seek with the girls. He'll shout out like the girls do when they count and then scream so loudly when we find Penny or Ginger. It's hilarious and so sweet. He can empty the dishwasher faster than I can load it. It makes me CRAZY. 

He's to that really annoying age, as far as church goes, where you don't get to sit through any meeting because he'd rather be crawling around the room emptying everyone's bags and eating other people's goldfish crackers.

He's a climber. I guess what 13-month-old isn't, right? This makes me sound negligent, but twice this week, I've found him on our kitchen table. His high chair is right next to our table so if left unattended for even just a second, he'll climb onto his tray and then over to the table. He always has this really pleased look on his face when I catch him.

We took some pictures after church yesterday. They're not exactly what I was hoping for but I still love them.

Happy Fourth!

We had a great Fourth of July. We went to the ward pancake breakfast, went swimming with some friends. Me and Stephan went boogie boarding in the ocean, sorry no pictures to prove it. I don't know why the crashing waves are so intimidating to me. I do just fine once I swim past all the white water near the shore, once I'm no where near catching an actual wave. I hate getting smashed by the waves and tossing and turning under the water against the sand.

You should have seen how long it took me to talk myself into finally entering the water. I stood there in the shallow water holding my little boogie board FOREVER before I mustered up my bravery. I love the beach and the kids and I go often. But, it's quite a different matter when I actually have to get in the water. Normally I'm there alone with three kids and we never get in. The girls are content to dig safely on shore while Jake just shoves as much sand into his mouth as he can. I did make it in and caught a couple waves.

Then, we had a barbecue with Grandma and Grandpa Lovstedt. And, after dark, we climbed onto our friends' roof and watched the fireworks. The Fifes live on a hill overlooking all of Camarillo and we could see three different fireworks show from way up high. The girls loved it.

This is Jake's favorite toy.

A little too much Kool-Aid.

Penny kept saying she was Rapunzel. You know how in the movie Tangled, Rapunzel swings back and forth right after she leaves the tower with Flynn.

This Penny with Adelaide, who also happens to be her swimming teacher. Adelaide and her sister Grace are trying to teach Penny and Ginger how to swim.

My handsome Lovstedt men.

Me and Bonnie. Poor Ginger looks super puffy with her layered hoodies. She's still so cute!

Here's what our Saturday looks like.

We're finally redoing our nasty bathroom. Basically we gutted it and we're starting from scratch. Stephan's working on the plumbing under the house right now. We have a raised foundation so there's less than 2 feet of space underneath our entire house. Here's the underneath of our house. Weird, uh? This is an optical illusion because it makes it look so spacious.

When we ripped up the floor, there was five layers of flooring all on top of the original subfloor: black and white checkered linoleum, yellow flower linoleum, plywood, green and yellow linoleum and then more plywood. Ugh. It was seriously disgusting. There was termite and water damage in the subfloor so we have to replace most of that, hence the big hole.

Stephan invited the girls down with him. 

Penny went down first. Ginger's excitedly waiting for her turn. Penny's standing on the ground here, just to give you an idea of just how cramped it is down under.

Then Ginger.

We should have put Jake down there because he's the only one who doesn't mind crawling around. He's such a perfect baby. He was playing in his room all by himself during all the excitement. 

Penny the Graduate

Penny's part of a pre-school program at the high school and they had a graduation ceremony this weekend. Initially I was skeptical about a silly, little pre-school graduation. But I'll be honest, it was the sweetest thing I've ever seen. Each of the high school students picked a pre-schooler and shared a few things about them. Penny's favorite teacher, Mac, said lots of nice things about Penny. Of course, I cried.

As they marched these little kids out onto the stage, Penny never smiled once. I don't know why she was so stoic. It's like she thought she needed to be serious while on stage. Even as Mac was sharing some funny inside jokes between her and Penny, Penny never cracked a smile. She just stood there all somber. Maybe she was nervous.  The ironic thing about Penny "graduating" from pre-school is that she'll be in the same program again this fall.

This is Penny and Ginger before the ceremony. Sometimes they really like each other.

This is Mac sharing some sweet things about Penny. 

It's almost like she's trying not to smile.

 

 Here's Penny looking at who knows what.