Why?

It has begun. Elena figured out that dreaded word.

We had the following conversation as we left the park:

Mom: Come on, Elena. We need to go home.
Elena: Why?
Mom: Because you need a nap.
Elena: Why?
Mom: Because you're tired.
Elena: Why?
Mom: Because you woke up at 6:30 this morning after staying up late last night.
Elena: Why?
Mom: Funny - I found myself asking the same question when you woke me up this morning.

Oh joy. On the upside, she also often answers herself so I don't have to. I'll hear her saying "Why?....Because....Oh, ok."

On the move

I don't have time to write, but here's a video of Sam crawling after his cousin, Laney.

Last year this was a garage

Last summer Seth helped his parents convert their office into a dining room (pictured below) and their attached garage into a sitting room (above). Believe it or not, he actually installed those ceiling trusses by himself one day last summer - and he only put one hole in the wall. I seriously mean that last part as a compliment, by the way.

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This summer he built pillars and colums to divide the two rooms and he just finished installing them last Saturday. As you can see, they turned out beautifully. Good job, Seth!

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Now he's ready for the next project....I hope it's at our house this time:)

Like I said...all the time

I swear these are not posed.

If you missed the first 2 pictures, they are here and here.

"It's not working."

Every 2 years, Seth's parents and siblings all get together for a weekend at a lake cabin. Below are a few pictures, and here is the funny quote of the weekend:

While talking with Seth's mom, Elena happened to pass gas.
So of course, she commented, "I tooted!"
She then proceeded to toot a second time and exclaimed, "I tooted again!"
After going for a third time without success, she looked at Grandma and said, "It's not working."

On to the pics:


Ian and Sam - can you tell they're cousins?


Madison, Seth and Elena on the jet-ski.

Elena and Riley, reading books

All 14 grandkids with Grandma and Grandpa!

The girl cousins (minus little Kelly)

Growing up

I continue to be amazed at how quickly my babies are becoming kids. Sam continues to army crawl and has started trying to pull himself up on furniture, although he ends up getting hurt quite often because he lacks the coordination to actually hold himself up. Elena never did pull herself up on furniture. Until she was absolutely sure she could do something well, she wouldn't really try it. Not the case with Sam - if he wants to do something, he just goes for it full throttle. He's going to be quite the toddler!

By the time I get around to putting up a video of Sam crawling, he will be walking - but you can see him moving around a bit in this one. He continues to love watching Elena - he's starting to try to copy what she does (luckily he wasn't attempting to do this:)

Sleeping In Sync: Take 2

Somehow close proximity seems to be a factor in Sam's uncanny habit of assuming the same sleep position as Seth. I don't think they do this all night, but whenever I put Sam next to Seth in the morning to sleep in, I come back to find something like this:

My apologies!

I know it's been awhile since I've written, but I have a good excuse for the last week anyway. I spent all last week packing so we could head out early Friday morning for the 10th Annual DeCock camping trip with Seth's family. Then Thursday night rolled around....

6 sheets, 2 pillows, 6 shirts, 2 pairs of shorts, 4 towels, 5 blankets, 1 carpet, half of my hair: that's a list of things the kids managed to saturate in puke by Friday morning.

That night, I had Elena down by 9:00 (super early for her) and Sam was just about asleep when Elena started calling for me around 9:30. I went to check on her and she said "I spit up in my bed." And sure enough, she had puked all over her bed. She proceeded to puke 3 more times before finally settling down at 1:30.

Sammy took his cue and started puking at 2:00. Between the 2 of them, someone was throwing up at least every 1/2 hour (in the beds, might I add, not in buckets) until 6:30, which is when I finally got to go to sleep.

I wasn't feeling so hot Friday so we decided to stay home from camping. By Saturday morning however, the kids and I were all feeling pretty good and Seth didn't seem sick at all so we packed up and went camping. Unfortunately, Seth got sick that evening and several family members have gotten sick since. Oops. We feel really, really bad that we went. So anyone reading this might want to avoid any Myhres or DeCocks for the next week.

As the "night-o-puke" lingered on toward dawn, I actually found myself increasingly thankful rather than frustrated. Thankful that this is not normal for us, that overall our children are healthy; thankful that one night of vomiting is considered a "rough night" for us. When I consider all the people we've been keeping in our prayers who have to watch their children go through life-threatening illnesses, I have absolutely no reason to complain.

So I don't write this to whine, but mainly to apologize to those who got sick (and to those of you who have missed the blog). Sorry!

Here's the clothesline Friday morning (this is actually the 2nd load of wash we had to do):

Aren't they cute?

Spice Families

One of the fun things about having children is watching them enjoy the same things we enjoyed as children. The other day I gave Elena a bunch of spices to play with while I was cooking supper. Right away she started to make a spice family. The big ones were Daddy and various uncles; the medium sized ones were Mommy or aunts; and the little ones were babies and cousins. It brought me back to when I was a kid and used to make families out of the spice jars as well. (They are napping in this picture)

I even sported the same business-in-the-front/party-in-the-back hairstyle.
(I'm on the right with my sister, Maria, and cousins, Jake and Ben)