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As you may have known, Stephen and I went to a play last Friday night. We left Maycee with Krystal and Shane.

Half way through the show I received a picture text from Shane and this message, "This is what happens when Shane watches children and Krystal is not there to supervise."

...Maycee is chewing on a shotgun shell.

Here is my official post requesting a new babysitter.

Preferably without any shotguns.

Dirt

In our driveway we have a pile of dirt left over from our landscape project. I really need to find a place for it...anyway...it is there.

We have a few little neighbor boys who love to play in that dirt. Stephen has periodically raked the dirt to see how long it takes for little feet prints to come back.

Yesterday, Shane came over to borrow our lawn mower. Upon returning it back he saw a couple of little boys playing in our dirt. Shane knocked on my door and related to me the following correspondence:

Shane: Hey guys...what are you doing?

Little Boys: Playing in the dirt.

Shane: Can I play?

Little Boys: Uh...we're going to go home now.

Shane told me that he scared the little boys off. I'm sure they'll never step foot on that dirt again...

Unloading the Dishwasher

This is how Maycee helps unload the dishwasher.

As you can see all of the silverware that she can grab is on the floor.

AND this load happens to be still dirty.

Watching Maycee

Every Monday at 4:30 I teach piano lessons.

I have two students on Monday night and they switch off being on the piano with me and then goofing off with Stephen and Maycee. They always find things to entertain everyone involved.

At this particular time, Stephen had Austin.

They were playing with Maycee's Legos.

This is what ensued.

I think that Stephen likes piano lessons more than I do!

Commitment

Today in Relief Society and Priesthood we learned about the family unit. They talked about families in general and then the roles of mom, dad, and kids.

Numerous times this one particular item of business was brought up and I shrugged it off. I didn't feel like I could make the commitment. It would be too hard.

I've thought about this all day.

I want to do it.

I'm going to commit.

I am not going to yell at my kids.

I told Stephen about this and we discussed it for quite a while. He's going to help me. We are going to do this together.

I know that writing this down will make it even more permanent. So I am.

I can do this...with Heavenly Father's help.

Kittens

The kitty's have left.

Karli took them to their new home.

Maycee got to play with them one last time before their departure.

Krystal and Shane were the happiest to see them go.

Dad, however, was the complete opposite...he doesn't want to see kitty guts torn up in his vehicle again.

Karli...you better watch those little guys!

Indian River Part 2

Since we had such a blast in the Kuna River on Friday, Stephen and Shane wanted to take a go of it on Saturday. Shane, however, missed his opportunity because of a bad back. Darn those old football injuries!

Stephen decided to take Morgan along with him.

At the halfway point I waited next to the water for Stephen and Morgan to appear. After a few minutes I noticed that Maycee needed a diaper change.

We got back into the pickup and stripped her down. I reached into my diaper bag to grab my little bag full of wipes and diapers and found that it was missing. CRAP! It would be at least another hour before I could get home to get her another diaper.

We were going to have to test the limits of this diaper.

They appeared shortly after my diaper fiasco. I forgot to take pictures when they first took off and I didn't remember my camera at the half way point until Morgan had already left. SO here is Stephen taking off.

I patiently waited at this end point for the boys to appear. They did the first half very quickly so I figured they would get to the end sooner than I had originally calculated.

While waiting I took millions of pictures of Maycee playing with the rocks and the water. (Those are my legs and feet in the background.)

It wasn't until I looked at this picture that I realized that the rock was completely in her mouth. I panicked and got the rock out. BUT you can clearly see in one picture previous that her lips are fully enclosed on the rock.

This is where I started to panic. You can't see it very well, but this is a picture of Morgan in his kayak trying desperately to get a hold of Stephen's empty kayak. Apparently Stephen had rolled his kayak in the middle some rapids just a few hundred yards back and had fallen out of his kayak. From then on Morgan was chasing Stephen's kayak and this is where I saw him.

What seemed like hours later, but was probably only 10 minutes, Stephen showed up floating down on his rump with his oar.

Slowly but surely Stephen and Morgan got everything in the back of the pickup and we were driving home. Wow...I was a little fried after that one.

We got home quite a bit later than anticipated and Maycee's diaper was definitely pushing it's limit. I carried her over to the garage and entered our code. While the garage door was opening, I felt the damage. Maycee had peed down my shorts and leg and their was a puddle of "wet" on the cement.

Poor Maycee.

Indian River Part 1

Krystal and Shane have been wanting to float the Indian River in Kuna for a very long time. Every time they ask Stephen and I to go with them, something is already going. They went last week with another friend and then drug Dad and Karli and me along a few days later...minus Shane...and Stephen.

For Mom and Dad's Christmas present this last year all of us kids got them a class to learn how to use their kayaks. Dad is addicted to the classifieds on ksl.com and will just about purchase anything. Obviously. He purchased a kayak at the age of 50.

Dad was extremely nervous about floating this river with Krystal. Let's just say that Krystal sometimes has a tendency to get in over her head with...anything. So we all anxiously got into our allotted modes of travel. Karli and I in the raft. Krystal and Dad in their own kayaks.

As we set off, my knuckles were white from gripping my oar so hard. I was a little nervous as well...I didn't want to leave Stephen and Maycee with a dead wife/mom!

As we went over the first set of rapids, Krystal leaned back and said, "That is as bad as they get!"

Well, those first ones weren't bad so Karli and I figured that we were set.

Krystal lied.

They got way worse.

In the middle of our trip, Krystal and Karli swapped spots. Karli wanted to try out the kayak. While waiting Dad almost lost his oar. Good thing he didn't because he learned just 24 hours later that if you have to lose the kayak or the oar, lose the kayak. The oars are way more expensive.

We made it to the middle of our trek and I hopped out. I survived. AND it was quite fun! Krystal hopped into the third kayak and Dad, Karli, and Krystal held out 'til the end.

Indian River...we have defeated you. Until next time.

Dog

Maycee has known Dexter, Krystal's mini Yorkie, almost her entire life. He was born only 10 days after her. It was one of the first words that she said. "Doh."

Dogs have been the only animal that Maycee has ever seen or interacted with until Monday.

On Monday, Maycee met some cute little kittens at Aunt Krystal's house. They were crawling all over the place. Maycee kept her eyes on them and would follow after them. Maycee then began to pull their ears saying, "doh".

Today we went to Zamzows to pick up some things to fix up the yard. We saw some little flop eared bunnies. Maycee couldn't keep her eyes off of them.

"Doh! Doh!" she said.

Apparently all of the animals that Maycee sees are dogs.

Oh...My...Goodness...

Stephen had a surprise for me when he got home from work.

I was pleasantly surprised myself when I saw it...

WE ARE GOING TO SEE ANNE OF GREEN GABLES!!!!....THE PLAY!!!

My hubby is amazing.

Wink

When I saw this video that Stephen took I laughed so hard.

You have to watch it to the end.

She totally winks!

Swings

Yesterday we went to the park with some of Stephen's family.

Maycee had her very first experience on the swings.

Check it out. She is SO cute! She just giggled and giggled and giggled.

I love Ma...Call Call Call Call Call!

This last weekend we went to McCall with some of our friends, Dan and Kelli Wilkins and their girls. We had a blast with them! We weren't able to go up until late Friday night and rolled in a little before 1 am.

Saturday morning came early since Maycee wakes up at 7am no matter what time she goes to bed. BUT we woke up to an amazing view. We were staying at the Wilkins family condo and it was on a private beach overlooking the lake. It was beautiful!

We started with a bike ride to the tennis courts.

Here is Kelli pulling Halle and Jovie along with Halle's bike...just in case she wanted to ride it when we got there...then Dan and Stephen pulling Maycee.

Jovie and HalleMaycee

On our way home from tennis we stopped at an amazing ice cream shop called Ice Cream Alley.

Wow.

I had the best cookie dough ice cream I have EVER had. It was SO good.

Here is Jovie after her "taste" of ice cream. She had ice cream everywhere.

...And Halle with her ice cream cone...

After ice cream we went back to the condo to enjoy the beach. The water was a little chilly.

That didn't stop Maycee from enjoying her water. She has always loved water, but I didn't understand how much until this beach.

I put her down and she crawled immediately to the water. She loved having the water just lap up on her hands and feet. It was so amazing to watch.

Here is Dan and Halle enjoying the water...I wish I had had a wet suit. I was too much of a chicken to get all the way in the water.

Look at Maycee's cute little sandy bum! I'm sure she is going to hate this picture some day...

Jovie was definitely enjoying her sand. She was dumping that stuff all over herself. Even after her bath that night she still had a ton of sand encrusted on her scalp.

Sunday morning we woke up and went to church in McCall. I love that no matter where I go, I can always be around people of our faith. It was an amazing sacrament meeting.

After church we introduced the Wilkins to cottage cheese pancakes and butter syrup.

We then packed up and our weekend in McCall came to an end.

Thanks Dan and Kelli for such a fun weekend!