Anyhoo, I just scanned through all the pics I'd taken over the summer break and decided to dump all the random ones I never posted about on here now. There's a lot, so sorry.
I think I actually did post this one before, but whatever, it's cute.
Sometimes I can't be bothered to put Luke to bed until it's come to this.
He fell asleep "playing mama's phone". That boy is addicted to Angry Birds!
Mark takes a lot of naps, too. I take zero naps. I can't turn off my need to constantly be doing something.
On rare occasion, we wear Madelyn out enough to cause this. I think this was the day after we had done about 4,000 things on the 4th of July.
This is the cardboard house that had periodically been out for play for at least a year and a half. It was falling apart, and it takes up a ton of room, so we got rid of it last month. But Madelyn had fun decorating it with her friends and whatever family happened to stop by.
I think they were playing doctor...
Adventure Time! One of our new favorite shows. It's really out there.
Madelyn finally learned how to take showers by herself this summer (hallelujah), but she still likes to be kept company while she's in there. "Mom? Can you stay in the bathroom so we can talk about stuff?" Here Mark is reading them a book about George Washington.
Madelyn took this picture and we sent it to National Geographic Kids (which she subscribes to) My Shot. You can see it here!
The kids had a camp out in Madelyn's room. Bonus points if you can spot phantom Luke in the above photo.
I kept getting ghost shots of him because my camera was on a slow shutter speed and he can't hold still for more than .5 seconds.
Luke's in there hiding in my pillows, waiting to ambush.
The kids watched way too much TV this summer. Oh well.
Madelyn got a little carried away dumping water into her sand box and we had to bail her out. That girl has always had a great appreciation for mud.
Luke regularly consumes huge heads of raw broccoli like this. I think it is weird. I hate raw broccoli.
I spent the majority of the summer working on my etsy shop! Which I feel guilty about, of course. But I kept getting custom orders, and so I could never really be "done". I think Luke took this picture.
Madelyn is always eager to help me do anything, so I let her string a baby bracelet for me.
Mark's folks came up to visit us one Sunday. The kids were so excited to show them our garden, which has grown even more out of control since then...
Luke, being a boy. Sigh!
He does love to go play with Madelyn's doll house stuff, though.
He has finally stopped putting up such a fuss about what shirts he wants to wear and let me put one of his Beatles shirts on him! If he gets to choose, he almost always picks a green shirt--which is why I thought he'd like this one, but it took him months to come around, and now it's almost too small.
Madelyn (and her friend Ellie) tagged along with me to a Relief Society social we had at Jana Bishop's house (she is the RS President and I am her Secretary). She has THE most gorgeous back yard!!
Luke resisting bedtime again..
We had so much rain during July. During this particular storm, Cedar City got 2.2 inches in one hour, and there was flooding everywhere. Our subdivision was knee deep in some places and made it to the nightly news, apparently (I never watch the news). Luckily our house was fine, but Madelyn and Mark had to go bail a neighbor's basement out.
Luke spends a huge amount of time outside playing in the gravel. He loves that stuff!! He stuffs it in his pockets, flings it all over the porch and I keep catching him putting it in his mouth. The pebbles by the play set are polished and smooth and I guess they're fun to play with.
Madelyn's friend Emma has been over here a lot. It's so nice that she lives on the corner and can keep my kids entertained.
Luke in his "sweeping bag" and teepee that's not really meant for sleeping in.
The kids had to go without playing on our iPhones for an entire 3 hours during church. So as soon as we got home, they were back on. Can you hear me rolling my eyes from way over there?
We were all sitting together on the couch watching Harry Potter (a summer tradition to watch one of the movies every Sunday) when there was a loud CRUNCH and one of the front panels had collapsed under our weight. You can see how we'd already had to reinforce the bottom by shoving pillows under there. Then Mark had to go in and nail some new boards in. We need new couches!!!
Last Friday, Madelyn and I went to the children's theater production of Beauty and the Beast Jr. and the kids were encouraged to dress up! She loved it. It was cute.
Yesterday, we got out her school supplies to get them ready to go, and went to Back to School Night. She is so excited.
Today was our last day of "vacation", and I had meant to do something fun with the kids, but it turned out to be just another ordinary day, like so many others they had this summer.
I am just so grateful for these two kids. Most of the time they get along so well, and they're really going to miss each other when school is in. Can't believe the summer is over!
