Sorry, I can't come up with a catchy title

I've been meaning to post this for a few days now and am such a slacker. My cool cousin and crazy baker, Mallary, is hosting a giveaway/contest over on her blog. I know it ends today but maybe she'll extend it a few days since I'm just now mentioning it. It is definitely worth entering, whether you've met her or not, since she bakes some pretty tasty little treats. My personal fave are these.

I've been craving them for days. Hint, hint....

For Michelle

Michelle requested a few pictures of the quilt she made for Spence before he was born.

Whirlwind

The days are flying by around here and leaving me without enough hours in the day to get everything done. My head is full of good intentions from making playdough with my kids to actually posting about our vacation. I could make a huge list of the things I've thought about doing but haven't while my list of things I've accomplished that are worthwhile is really short.

I'm going to start with tonight (now last night, it's taken me forever to finish this and add pictures) and work backwards and see how many noteworthy things I can come up with...

Tonight I went to "Drums Along the Columbia" , a drum and bugle corp competition,at Edgar Brown Stadium with my mom, Lisa, Graycie, Easton, and Spencer. It was amazing. My mom had been telling the kids about my days as a band geek. She's always so proud and I'm always embarrassed. It was funny to watch Spencer try to figure out the concept of me being younger and having a life before he was born. He kept asking me if the band members were old enough to be married and if I was married when I was in the marching band. Then he went through a longer list of questions, 'Was that before you had a baby in your tummy? Was that before you were a kid? Where was dad?' It's so hard to get them to understand! Easton picked out this souvenir for me,



and Spencer and Graycie came home with miniature colorguard flags. And while I'm totally willing to give props to the guys that are in the colorguard for a great performance, I'm going to start praying now that Spencer will be more influenced by the drums or trumpets instead of the batons and flags. That's just my own personal opinion, as his mother. The performances were fantastic, I'm so glad we went!

Sunday we finished off the big 4th of July weekend by hanging out at my mom's. Last week she bought a new water toy for the kids, the Banzai Skimboard Surfer. They've had a blast on it, even though there's been a few issues with the actual product. A few of the adults have tested it out as well, let's just say, my pop's is still paying for it. I'll post some pictures as soon as I remember to take my camera!





Saturday we started off at the Pancake Breakfast and Parade, where I laughed at Sophie as she waved and yelled hi to everyone and everything in the parade, except the horses- she was worried that they were going to come eat her. We then headed to hang out with Jason's side of the family for a BBQ. The kids swam all afternoon and we had a great time visiting. We ended up at my parent's for a few hours that evening before barely dragging our tired butt's down to the river to watch the fireworks. We tagged along with the Willer's and the Jansen's and had a great time watching them light a few fireworks at the end of the night. It was a crazy, long, tiring, but great 4th.
Unfortunately, I forgot the camera in the stroller after the parade so I only have pictures from Saturday morning!






Friday my super cool cousins took Sophie and Spencer down to the river which left time for Jason and I to run some errands with Carson. We met up with them at the park and then Kimmie took Spencer to the movies. Jason and I took Sophie and Carson and walked the trail that goes through Zintel Canyon. It was fun doing something different and made us anxious to get bikes!

The rest of the week was business as usual...Jason working his two jobs, me pulling my hair out at home. I've been super busy between couponing, which I am crazy addicted too and keeping up with halloween stuff. I also had Lisa's kids for a few mornings while she helped Kaitlin teach swim lessons. The kids all had fun playing together.




Today I'm trying to catch up on laundry, and housework, and hopefully my vacation posts.

Time is seriously flying by!

Ode to my Parentals

Or better titled: Trying to make up for Mother's Day and Father's Day

As I was trying to figure out a good take on this tribute, I began feeling completely inadequate. I'm only good at this stuff when I'm having a good creative flow, and tonight, it's just not happening.

I'm super jealous of Rachael and her thoughtfulness and attention to detail. I always feel super lame when she tells me she wrote a poem for my mom, and remembers to buy things like grapes and tilla-moo's for my dad.

And then there's Lisa and her super cool picture taking skills. She always seems to get just the right shots and frames them. My parents love it.

And then there's me. I just show up with rocks with kids' names on them. But, then I remember that these rocks go in the garden, in this yard...



where we love to get together.

And I realized that right now, that's my favorite thing about my family. Being together. I love that my parents created a home where all of us love to be. It's been that way since we were little. Our home was always full of friends and relatives. The door was always open. And it's still that way. We still consider it the gathering place whether its just a few of us, or a lot of us. Whether it's just family, or friends. We all have our own homes, but there's still something about getting together on Rd 56.

We don't gather out of obligation, we gather because we love too. Because we enjoy being together. And our kids love it, too.

We hang out together roasting marshmallows, or playing on the newest addition to 'Landoni Park'. We gather together when relatives or friends come from out of town. We gather for birthdays, and holidays.




I am so grateful for the work and effort it takes my parents to keep our family together. It's grown a lot, there's not just the five of us anymore, now there's 18. It's not always easy. There's a lot of prep work, a lot of clean-up, a lot of groceries, and a lot of mediating. Every family has it's ups and downs and we're definitely no exception. But it's nice to know that sooner or later you'll get a phone call from either K-lando or D-lando trying to smooth out whatever issues are going on. They're both great at listening to both sides and then trying to make every one meet in the middle. They've set a great example for us that no matter what, there's no fight, disagreement, or whatever that's worth ruining our friendships. I love that we're not just siblings and sons and daughters, and in-laws, but we're all friends. Close friends.

In the just the last year, we've been through the births of two new babies, together.
Through the passing of our grandpa, together.
Opening and running a store, all together.
Then there's holidays, and birthdays, spent together.
And lastly, we survived another week spent together at the ocean.



photo courtesy of Lisa Landoni

I'm so very grateful for my parents for creating a family that loves being together. Whether as a whole, or as separate parts. It's a reflection of how we were raised, and how we all want to raise our children. Together.

I didn't forget...

that I had declared Sunday as "Parent's Day." I've just been up to my freakin' eyeballs with spreadsheets and order forms and item numbers.

I actually have my post written, I just haven't taken the time to revise it or add a picture or two.

Soon, though. Soon.

When I stop seeing things like "67522002, wrestler, forum, funworld, 388901, prop, disguise..." running through my head every time I close my eyes.

Maybe then I'll feel coherent enough to actually finish.

I'm not sure if any of this even makes sense, that's how overloaded my poor brain is.

I'm Sooo Behind....

It's hard to decide how to spend my time at the computer in the evenings after the kids are in bed. There's coupons, or halloween inventory, reading blogs, or posting, or organizing/editing photos. We took over 1500 pictures between just the three canons- that is not including my mom's, or the last day from Rachael and Lisa's cameras. Crazy!

Unfortunately, I'm on a bit of a deadline with the inventory for Let's Party, so I have to start devoting most of my time to that.

In the meantime, I've managed to get one collage done from our first day at the beach. With so many pictures, I'll probably just keep making collages. Which means more time spent playing with Picnik... Ahh, if only I could sit at this stupid computer all day.

Speaking of pictures, Jessica Sprague is offering a free photoshop editing class starting July 6. There's some kind of official button I could add but, who has the time for that?! If your interested, go to her site jessicasprague.com. Jason and I are going to try to follow along when we have some time- we both want to someday really know how to use PSE, but again, we're busy.

So, back to the real reason for my post- here's a little shot of how Carson enjoyed his very first trip to the beach. So crazy to think that I was 8 months pregnant on last year's trip!



The weather was overcast but beautiful. It was warm and not windy- perfect for taking pictures!

Somethings Never Change

I'm a huge procrastinator.

I'm also big on never fully finishing anything. Almost everything I do is about 96% complete. And I like it that way- gives things character. Or at least that's what I tell myself.

I'm also really good at having great intentions that never seem to come to pass. All these good ideas swimming around in my head, but never seem to materialize. Or I think of them too late, I'm full of "Well, I was going to do this but...."

So, in honor of me not honoring my amazing Mom on Mother's Day or my amazing Dad on Father's Day on my blog- I'm going to deem next Sunday "Parent's Day". And I'll throw in a post about Jason being a great dad sometime next week too.

I'd hate to change now, and be all responsible about doing things in a timely manner. I'm just too old for that sort of thing...besides, it would upset the balance of my nature and I can't imagine that being any good either.

Change freaks people out.