A day for papas.

Oh, my Martin.
You deserve more than one day
to celebrate the incredible papa man you are!
Our girls know they are loved,
and every time I see you reading to them,
dancing in the kitchen (with a broadway spin or two),
taking a walk with one tiny bean up on your shoulders,
or speaking a little creole to our babies
it melts my heart.
Keep up the incredible work.

And to my daddy,
the Jazzman to beat all Jazzmen,
thank you for having the patience to raise me right.
I certainly did not make it easy,
but I am grateful everyday to have been raised in a home
with the Gospel and a righteous Priesthood holder.

(forgive the bare shoulders of yesteryear and just enjoy the sass)

I love you, papas!
This one is for YOU!

Heat Wave.

What can bring smiles,
and lots of them,
even when it is 85 in the house?

Popsicles!

I know how we'll be surviving the summer!

date night!

Dot's attempt to capture the evening:

We better stick with the timer for another year or so.

starting over

is probably a good idea when you sprinkle cayenne pepper instead of cinnamon into your little one's millet breakfast. Oops.

Girls, girls, girls! (and Marty)

Over Memorial Day weekend
we took a quick trip over to New York
to visit my sister Kristi and her family.
Her husband was out of town visiting his family,
so it ended up being a whole lot of girls
and my one handsome Martin for the weekend.

Even though it was a short trip,
we had a great time!

We loved seeing where they live
and getting to go to some of their favorite places.

The discovery center and story garden were a hit!

Dorothy loved getting to pretend to do "big people" things.

We were pleasantly surprised at how well
these two girls got along
They both have pretty strong personalities.

Don' you just want to kiss and squeeze this bean?

Enjoying a book in the garden.

A little girl in a big chair.

Yes, even the dog is a girl.
Thanks for putting up with all our girliness, Marty!

And thank you, Kruspernutter,
for one delicious weekend!

one of THOSE days.

Yes. This week I had one of THOSE days.

You know, the day where you burn up pizza dough AND the wooden bowl it was rising in when you forget it is in there and preheat the oven to 425 to pre-bake the non-wheat crust for one of your children.

The day where you just can't seem to find the patience for your oldest child who is being super grumpy and naughty and then you realize she is running a fever and just doesn't feel well.

The day where you get off the phone from a teary conversation with your mom and three piano students come walking through your front door to see your red, blotchy, swollen face because they thought they still had one more week of lessons even though lessons concluded at the end of last month and you hope they think your allergies are just acting up today.

The day where you look around and can't remember the last time your floor didn't feel sticky, your dishes were completely done, the toys were all put away, and your sanity was in tact.

The day where your husband has to leave for a meeting eating PB and J (because of said burned dinner) and you are standing in the middle of a messy kitchen with both your children crying and needing to be held and you are still trying to figure out what you, yourself, will eat for dinner.

Oh, yes. What a day it was.

But now that THAT day is over, I am glad we had a "rock bottom" kind of moment. I went to bed that night looking up scriptures on patience and praying that I could be a better mommy. I woke up the next day and, because she was sick, Dorothy slept in a whole extra THREE hours. Lucy and I got laundry done, dishes put away, and food prepped for later use. Tender mercies always seem so plentiful on the heels of one of THOSE days.

Now we have woken up to another beautiful day. Dot still has a fever but is smiling, and Lucy is just now cooing in her crib. And the three of us are off to tackle more tasks that seemed insurmountable just a few short days ago.