One little nut...

A leaky compression nut on this valve, which is the water main to our house, caused all this damage.

You can see on the rug how far from the wall the water got.

This is what was under the sectional couches. It was worse under the carpet, which I didn't get a picture of. It's hard to tell in the picture, but there are mushrooms growing out of the carpet, as well as on the other side of the wall. All the food storage we had stored there is ruined, as well as a couple boxes of memories, and a portfolio of chalk and pencil drawings I did in college. The legs of the sectional have wicked up so much moisture that a couple of the have disintegrated. If we can't replace just the feet, we may have to get a new couch. Obviously, we've also got to get new carpeting downstairs (actually, I'm ok with that part.) I think our insurance will be good to us, but our fingers are crossed anyway.

Home ownership if FUN!

L quote: "These geysers need breath mints!"

E quote: "Rrraaaawwwwrrrr!!" We were at the Dragon's Mouth cave at Yellowstone (I may have the name wrong, but you get the picture) and E ran up to L roaring, trying to scare him. She scared everyone in the area, and one lady said, "Your daughter's roar is forever recorded in my video!"

Time goes way too fast.

This little angel is now one year old. Is it wrong that I want her to stay this way forever? (Stay little, not covered in chocolate cake.)

She brings so much love and laughter to our family. Plus, she's really, reeeaaaaallly cute. I love you, my little girl. Thanks for being part of our family.

(I had to add this at the end - this is what my engineer-to-be made while the rest of us were eating cheesecake. My other little lady is on the left, and their sweet little cousin is on the right.)

E quote: "Mommy, I need marshmallows and crappers for my tea party."

L quote: "Mommy, I like your tummy - it jiggles like a big pile of pudding." (This will come back to haunt him when he's 16 and wants to borrow the car.)

Hubby quote: "Marrying you was one of the fastest decisions I ever made - and I've been paying for it ever since!" (I make sure he pays dearly!)

Look what I got!

There may just be something to this couponing thing, because this last week I paid just $2.00 + tax for all this:

Two jars of pasta sauce,

Eight boxes of pasta,

and

Eleven bottles of body wash.

My actual cost was a little more, because I got extra coupons for the body wash from a clipping service, but you get the picture. I will only buy non-perishable stuff, toiletries, or household items because I don't like processed foods (although I'm ok with jarred pasta sauce - life's too short to make it and can it from scratch) so I won't buy a lot of the things you can get with coupons, but I figured I could stock up on the other stuff. If I can find space to store them all. Will I ever be an "extreme couponer?" No - I'm way too lazy. But I can do little stuff like this.

It's a good thing they're cute.

In case you haven't figured it out yet, I'm very boring - but my kids are cute. This blog is mostly for relatives and friends who live far away, and so I've given up trying to be clever. Just enjoy the pictures, will ya?

OK, how do you flip pictures? And how do you get them in focus?

This last picture is how we found Q asleep a couple days ago. She's now crawling, and can pull herself up to a stand in her crib, which means that if I don't get to her fast enough after she wakes up, I find diapers strewn around the room. (She grabs the clean diapers from their basket and flings them around.)

Ella quote: "Maybe if I'm quiet as a moose, I can catch a bird!" No, no typo. She said moose, not mouse.

Lear quote: "Hey you, I got you an invitation to Smack-You Land!" Said to the bad guy in a computer game.

**Too bad for you who are my friends on Facebook: no new quotes. My little brain can only hold so much info, so you might get lots of repeats.

**Gasp!** A New Post!

OK, I know, it's been a while. Sorry.

Cory's been busy with school and another top secret project. I've hardly seen him in the last month. I'll be glad when he's done with school in another year or so. We also took our home off the market - the lot we had reserved was sold out from under us by someone who was ready to build right away, so we just threw in the towel. We'll try again in a year or two. We're actually not upset about it at all. We love our house and neighborhood, so it's no great loss.

I've been working on stuff for the Utah Flute Association - we had our yearly festival a couple weeks ago, and since I'm the President, I was in charge. No pressure! I stressed about it for weeks and weeks, but it all went very well. I'm glad it's over!

Q has been super cute! She's decided she doesn't want to sleep as well as she used to lately, but she's still the best sleeper of all our kids, so we'll take it! She's not crawling yet, but she's so close! E was walking at 10 months, and frankly, I can wait for Q to get ambulatory. That way I can put off baby-proofing stuff for a little longer. She has also learned to wave at people, which I really enjoy - she waves at people at church, in the grocery store, at the dinner table - and I love seeing the smiles that immediately appear on everyone's faces when she does it.

Speaking of E, she has been occasionally letting me fix her hair. In case anyone needed proof that I do know how to fix my kid's hair, here it is! We call this the princess braids.

Not bad, huh?

L is such a smarty pants - he is reading at a 5th grade level - wow! I can't really take credit for it, other than setting an example of a love of reading. He actually says bedtime is his favorite time of day, because he gets to sit and read his books (as if he can't during the rest of the day). Cory can ask him questions in French, and even though he can't always answer in French, he does understand almost all of what is said. His teachers gave us glowing remarks about him at parent/teacher conferences.

He and my girls are such a joy in my life. We may not be rich, or have all the toys, or be doing all the things we wanted to with our lives, but having these sweet kids make up for all of it. Now, if I can just figure out how to keep them liking me when they're teenagers...

L quote: "Mommy, you sure made me some cute sisters to love!"

E quote: "Look, Daddy - there are girls playing basketball on the TV!" We felt bad that she thought only boys could play b-ball. She recently saw some "chee-litas" on the TV, too. Cory asked her if she wanted to be one of them or one of the players, and she said a player. He was very proud of that.

Deep Thoughts from My Kids

We were at a gas station in Scipio, Utah, waiting for Cory to go to the bathroom. This was our deep conversation.

E: Where's Daddy?

Me: In the bathroom, going potty.

E: He's doing his business? (This is what we tell the kids when they need to leave daddy alone in the bathroom.)

Me: Yes! (I was laughing pretty hard.)

L: Daddy's business is going poo!

Me, still laughing: So, what's my business?

E: Cleaning!

L: And taking care of Q!

Me: So, what's E's business?

L: Being cute!

Me: And Q's?

E: Being cute, too. And eating num-nums. (Num-num is what we call mother's milk.)

Me: How about uncle Bronson? (He was with us at the time.)

L: Sleeping!

A couple years ago, L told his Sunday School teacher that Daddy goes to work and brings home the bacon. So, if you're using euphemisms to describe things, be careful! The literal memory of children may just come back to bite you.

AND- one more quote from E. We went to the St. George Parade of Homes this weekend, and she said this while looking at an incredibly opulent bathroom in a four million dollar home:

"This house must cost a LOT of dollars! Like one or even two!!"

If only.

San Diego!

We dropped everything, and went to San Diego for a weekend! I've been whining to Cory (and yes, I admit, it was whining) that it seems like everyone else gets to go have fun, we always stay home, because we're too cheap/boring/busy/uber-practical. I was feeling jealous about everyone else's Hawaii/Disneyland/Tahiti/Italy/(you get the picture) vacations, so he gave in, and took us to San Diego. And it was fun! We went to Sea World and Cabrillo National Monument - and it was 70-75 degrees the whole time! Bliss! Especially after the 20-30 degree weather we've been having at home. I even got a little sunburned.

This is us at Cabrillo National Monument - it was beautiful there.

L and E touching starfish at Sea World.

I love this picture! I got lucky, because I don't usually take cool pictures like this. That's a sea turtle and a grouper in the tank. The grouper was huge - 400 pounds or so.

And Cory and Q at Cabrillo. She was such a trooper! In fact, she was the easiest kid the whole trip. Such a cutie!

L quote: "There it is - Sea World!" Said with extreme reverence and awe.

E quote: "I don't want to go home! I want to stay in Sea World!"

Me: "But Cosy and Rex (the cat and fish) will miss you."

E: "Nothing misses me at home, because nothing is mine! Rex is L's and Cosy is yours! I have nothing!"