"An apple is an excellent thing -- until you have tried a peach."

I LOVE peaches. But not just any peaches. In fact, I experienced disappointment after disappointment this year as I continued to buy peaches. Too dry, too hard, too stringy....too fuzzy!

I was looking for a peach that gushes as you take a bite. So you have to kind of suck in to catch the juice coming out as you take a bite. That tastes like candy it is so sweet.

So I turned to the source of the best peach I have ever tasted....Utah. I collected my box of Utah peaches from a house around the corner and brought them home where we immediately started our diet of peaches for the next week. Although a few of them were exactly like I had hoped, the rest of the box was tasty, but not as sweet as imagined. But that didn't stop me from eating a few of them a day. Of course, there was no way we could eat them all, so, with the help of my mother-in-law and sister-in-law Diane, I turned them into this:

I tell you, peaches never looked so good to me.

Last night, after a few stories, three songs, and some snuggling and talking, I was finally closing the door to Andrew's room. This was not the first time I had tried to close the door. But each time as the door almost clicked, I would hear, "Mom!" I would open the door and Andrew would tell me one more thing.

His final important nugget was good advice for all of us,


Thanks Andrew.

In June, Andrew wrote a book. Really. He sat down, drew the pictures, wrote part of the title, and I stapled it together. Then he decided his moon illustrations were somehow lacking, so he asked me to be scribe and moon artist. If he wanted better moons, he should have asked his dad.

So here is the first publication of Andrew's book that he titled, "Moons and Trains." The words are exactly as he told them to me. And the final page is something he did all on his own. Enjoy.

John and Andrew went to the baseball game Friday night. Andrew was thrilled to be going somewhere with his dad. They put on their matching hats, went to the game, sat for one inning watching the game, played on the playground at the ball park, and came home. Andrew had his hands over his ears the entire time they were watching the game. You might say he is hypersensitive to noise.


Natalie was less than thrilled that she was not going anywhere with her dad. So John told her that Saturday would be her day to go with him. When the time came to leave with dad on Saturday, Natalie ran and found a baseball hat for her and a baseball hat for John and insisted that they wear them to......... Chuck E. Cheese.

Yep, the daddy-daughter outing was to Chuck E. Cheese (shout out to Steve who WAS Chuck once). She loved it.
These kids LOVE their dad.

Natalie now says her "ls".

Whereas a few days ago she said, "Ewwie", she now (seemingly overnight) miraculously says "El-lie". Instead of her usual (and might I add, adorable) chomma miwk, she now asks for "choc-l-ate mi-l-k".

And I wish I could adequately write how she says her "ls". Just picture the tongue curling back to the very top of the roof of her little mouth every time she wants to say an "l". No lazy "ls" for her.

It's almost too grown up, too fast, for me. I need some time to adjust. I never got a chance to say good-bye to the old "Natawie" and suddenly the new "Nata-l-ie" has moved right in.

Oh well. When she is 15 I'll look back and be glad she reached this milestone. Maybe even when she is 8.

Today Natalie screamed for 20 minutes in the car. That made for about 22 minutes of the loudest, highest pitched screaming ever heard, if you count the two minutes it took her mom to get her from the gym class to the car.

She screamed so hard, her nose bled.

"Mooommmm--MEEEEEEE!" Over and over and over.

She screamed so hard, her face was bright red and her voice was scratchy.

James was so tired, he fell asleep in spite of all the noise.

Poor Natalie. Her mom didn't even feel sorry for her. In fact, her mom was sitting in the front seat, laughing to herself, and maybe even out loud a few times. Because looking in the rear view mirror, she saw a very determined girl who likes to get what she wants. And she saw herself when she was little.

Thank goodness for lip gloss or Natalie still might be screaming.

I don't think there are many things that my kids enjoy more than water and dirt...MUD. Here is the nice clean beginning.


If you can't tell, they are squatting in the dirt, holding the hose, watching as the water spreads and spreads. James is never far away. Always wanting to be a part of the fun.


You'll just have to imagine the dirty end.
And the best part may have even been running through the hose to clean off.

In my opinion, just about anything outside is good, clean fun. Even if it is mud.

I have really been feeling like my days consist of me dragging my children from one place to the next. And that means that my days consist of me saying, "Hurry" "Come on!" "Faster" "Please get into the car! (as I wait with the door open) "Please get out of the car!" (as I stand there waiting with my arms full and the door open). Don't be fooled--my use of please does not always mean I use a sugar voice.

The truth is, there is no fast, quick, speedy way to move three little children from place to place.

At least not my children.

Natalie likes to cart 4 stuffed dogs, a purse, a wand, and a crown with her. One thing is always dropping. I have tried to limit the number of things she can take, depending on how hurried we are, but she always manages to slip a few extra things in there. Then they also end up in the car for me to carry inside. Ideally she carries them in, but that also depends on how rushed we are, because it is always just faster to do it myself. Andrew seems to get sidetracked by just about everything. Especially the TV at the gym when I'm trying to get out of there. Ugh. And James, bless his heart, is just as easy as they come, I just have to carry him everywhere.

And it isn't just the running around. It's the fact that if I'm gone all day, when I'm home I have to be cleaning, cooking, cleaning, cooking. So I feel like I am on repeat saying, "Just a minute" "After I'm done...." "Not now..."

If I'm not rushing around, Natalie and her entourage are so cute. And Andrew with his observations, comments, and distractions is sweet. And who wouldn't want to hold James.

So today I slowed it down. After dropping Andrew off at preschool and putting James down for a nap, Natalie and I read books, glued jewels on a crown, worked on letters. After picking Andrew up, we had a lunch that wasn't rushed, made a fort out of couch pillows and read more books. Then later, we got out the finger paints and even made it outside for some bike riding and scooter riding.


What a great day. I actually ENJOYED my children! They were cute and sweet and funny. And instead of reminding them to hurry it along, I laughed and they laughed.

But now I'm faced with the same dilemma I have been thinking about for a while. How do you fit it all in? And what do you cut out? Maybe some days are just crazy, but it's important to fit in the slow ones as well.

And today, I'm glad we slowed down.

Princess Natalie attended her friend Ellie's princess party on Saturday. For her, the celebration began when the invitation, covered with pictures of Disney princesses, arrived at our house. Natalie carried it around for a week or so and took it with her to the party.


Everybody had to come dressed as a princess. There are not words to describe Natalie's delight as we dressed her up in pink and sparkles. But these pictures give you an idea.

When we got to the party, Natalie joined the other princesses in their fancy blue, green and white dresses. When I went to pick her up, I caught the princess fashion show. The excitement in that face tells me I should host a few fashion shows down our stairs.



I think she was floating all day on her princess cloud.

And the fun did not stop with the party. John's MBA program hosted a family picnic. So the princess got to make a debut at ASU.

She had a moment of thought.


But the rest of the time looked more like this. No dress and heels are going to keep this princess from following her older brother up every step, over and on every wall, and from going as fast as those little legs would take her.



I guess the fun finally did come to an end for this little princess when we got to the car after the ASU picnic. Natalie announced that she was poopy. I didn't need the announcement to recognize the fact. So, the princess dress came off and mom pulled a "change the poopy diaper in the car" trick. And luckily a garbage was found on the way out of the parking garage.

Magic.

Speaking of getting back to blogging, this blog is officially now dedicated to my sister, Angela (in the purple), who is spending the next few months in Jerusalem. Lucky dog. Because she might be feeling a tad homesick every once in a while (ya right!), I know she will be eager to read about all the goings ons here.

Like how Andrew yelled from the bathroom on Friday, "Mommy!! I just had a big poop! And it hurt!"

Or how many diapers I change every day.

Because that is the kind of stuff that happens around here and I know Angela is going to be checking this blog every spare moment to make sure she doesn't miss any of it. So to make sure she doesn't miss any of it, I will be aiming for a post a day. That is saying a lot coming from someone whose last post was August 1st. But it's for a good cause.


in almost every picture you have. Seriously. Where did I get the hats? And why did I want to wear them? Was there not one friend that could have sat me down and told me the truth about my appearance over there ;-) Granted, it was 1992, but I seem to be the worst of that 90s bunch.