Updates on Us

Alright, this is turning out to be a monthly blog. Guess I'd better get on the ball and start living so we have something to talk about!!

The latest big thing to happen was the 4th of July. We had all of the family over for dinner and fireworks. Even Mary drove out from Salinas to visit us as Josh had to work and Johnnie is at her parents house for a few weeks. We had a potluck-style dinner, with the foods assigned, of course. Mike BBQ'd hamburgers, hot dogs and chicken. We had pasta and macaroni salad. Yummy watermelon!! Fresh green beans. And I made red and blue Jell-O jigglers for a sort-of dessert. Mmmmmmm.......makes me hungry thinking about it now.

When it got dark we all went outside to watch the fireworks that we had bought. You know, $50 doesn't go as far as it used to. And to watch it go up in smoke.....well, I digress. The kids had a ball. They all played with sparklers as a sort of finale. Sparklers are different than they used to be. They don't really sparkle. They more like flame and change colors. I kind of miss the old ones. But, I probably wouldn't let my kids hold the dangerous metal sticks that we used to set aflame. What was wrong with us? We thought it was fun!!

I found the setting for fireworks on the digital camera. I got what I think are some pretty cool pictures. The kids came out a little blurry in the sparkler shots, but the sparklers themselves look really cool, as do the fountain fireworks that we set off in the driveway.

It is so funny to watch Reece and Alicia play now. He is getting into mimicking and imitating her. (I know, that last sentence had a redundancy.) He is starting to pretend a lot more as well. It is so cute!! He is constantly bringing me "food", which he holds cupped in his hands as he lifts them up to me and says, "Eat, eat!" like a little Italian host. So I pretend to eat whatever he is pretending to hold and he gets so tickled over it. Then he hops on his bike and says, "Dye-dye!" which is Reece for bye-bye. And he pushes away and goes across the room. Mary was shocked over how much he was talking when she came up. It's as if turning 2 turned on the spigot and out spewed LANGUAGE!

My mom is visiting Josh and Mary this week. It has been kind of strange here in the house. Mike was off for a couple of days, which was nice, but when he is working it feels odd with just the kids and I. He has been working doubles, so we're all alone with just our neighbors and our phone to keep us company, not that either one is bugging us that much.

I managed to get some scrapbooking done last weekend. That is a big thing for me, so I must write about it here. I love to do scrapbooking; I would do it every day if I could, but the kids kind of get in the way of my work. They want to touch everything and be in my lap. It makes it very difficult to get anything done. I actually worked on 6 pages!! I just need to add some journaling and titling to them and they'll be done. But the layouts are all done!!

Okay, if you're still reading this and haven't passed out from boredom, I guess I'm done with the small amount of news coming from our household. Don't forget to check out the photo blog and see some great pictures from the 4th and some of the kids just playing around.