Fourth of July and on:

 Fourth of July and on:

Lyra is wearing underwear, promise.

I didn't get very good photos of this, but for the fourth of July, Barbara mixed red white and blue washable paint with some shaving cream (dad and lyra are doing just that in the picture) and then the kids painted all over the floor in red white and blue.  I think it was just a lot of purple by the time they were done, but everyone really enjoyed it.
  Oh, funny story:
Later that evening we went outside to light some kid friendly fireworks.  Our neighborhood is really friendly so the kids all had their toys out and were driving bicycles and little cars about the cul-de-sac.  Lyra, being the socialite she is, climbed into one of the cars.  And I don't know how it happened, but Cannon (a beautiful little boy about three months younger than her) came over, closed the plastic car door behind her and began to gently push her around.  He actually did it a while and Lyra LOVED it.  Ever since she has added a 'thank you' in her prayers to Heavenly Father for Cannon.  When Barbara and I asked her a little bit about it, all she had to say was 'Cannon, he's the only one' in a dreamy sort of way.

For a while she also thanked Heavenly Father for 'the man.'  He persisted in her prayers and neither Barbara nor I could figure out who on earth 'the man' was, and it was getting kinda creepy.  So we tried asking her who 'the man' was.  Let me tell you, a game of fifty questions with a three year old can be really funny and a little frustrating.  Who was this guy?  Was he an adult?  Was he a kid? Did he play with the kids?  Did he like to play with Lyra?  Was it Cannon?  Lyra found the line of questioning absolutely hilarious and barely managed to answer between her fits of giggling and rolling on the pillow.  Finally we figured out that it was a guy at church who helped us move our car and jump start it.  Phew*.

So instead of telling you about the stellar dr's appointment I had with ear-loads of 'oh it is just going to get worse' and stories of skin stretched so close to splitting that it was transparent, Oh, or the realization that they don't make maternity clothes size 'third trimester for twin' Oh, or even complain about the still puking and how food is absolutely disgusting (that was the ONE saving grace about pregnancy - food was magical... but now) .. and and and... it is a good thing that I can't blog regularly right now. Eight weeks to go...
So instead of all that, I am going to do a photo dump.  That is safe.

This year our garden did really well.  We have had so much fun mostly with the herbs and peppers, but how beautiful did the cabbages turn out?

 Then there has been so much fun in the yard with Aunt Barbara.  She has made flower crowns, blown bubbles till everyone was dizzy with delight ...

 Yes, that's right, Barbara has braved the Potty training of a set of twins.  If that is not true sisterly love...

 And along with all the pee and poo (or stinky mud as Parker calls it) she has even cleaned my barf off the floor.  Heaven knows how she is willing to spend another month here, but I seriously, seriously don't know what we would have done without her.



 This was Parker's first computer game.  Starcraft.  He loves it.  He calles it the Dinosaur game, probably because Chris plays zerg, who tend to look... dinosaur-like.