Father's Day

Happy Father's Day it was indeed. I talked to my own wonderful father for a bit...even had to call him for some carpet counsel. (details below) I tried to make it a nice day for Marcus. I really did try. You'll have to ask him how he felt about it.

Marcus woke up to a nice breakfast and this surprise cake. Yeah, not the cutest, but it's the thought that counts. I didn't realize that I had 9 inch pans instead of 8 inch, and it really does make a difference.

Then, we had a little mishap. Yesterday when I asked Sammy what she was doing for Father's Day (see yesterday's post), I thought I understood her Samese. Apparently I need to study the language a bit more, because when she said "Woweee" I thought that meant "I'm making dad a cake and I'll eat it too." I guess what she really said was "I'm making dad a cake and I'll smash it too." There are so many Samese irregular verbs, I still get confused with what she is telling me sometimes. So, Marcus's cake ended up on the carpet. hmmm I've never cleaned up frosting off the carpet, and that's when I called my dad for his homecare expertise. He didn't answer because he was occupied (darn church), but I feel like my dad, being the great man that he is, has taught me a thing or two about how to fix a dirty situation. I hope we won't have a pile of ants over that spot in a couple days!

The Dad cake was pretty sad after the fall, but we all took small bites here and there. It was tasty.

The girls got all dressed up cute for church...in watermelon attire.



And boy did they get some compliments today at church.

But before we left for church, we took our Father's Day pictures. Daddy with Callie...

Daddy with both of his baby girls...

And Daddy with his lil' Samsquatch.

After church, we did dinner, and presents! Wahoo. Marcus scored big this year...shoes from my dad, a case for our GPS (thanks Mom and Dad again), an Outback gift card from my parents (mmmm my once a year Queen Victoria steak!), I Love You Daddy book from Callie -- because she loves to be read to, We Are Marshall from Sammy because football season is quickly approaching and she liked going to the games with Daddy, framed pictures of the girls, and Playstation 2. Yeah, I got that one for free. A friend who is moving and decluttering decided to declutter her playstation. I thought I'd help her, do a good deed ya know?

Here's a close-up of the framed pictures. I can't tell you how difficult it was to do this! Painting the letters, no problem. Getting the girls to hold the letters and take a cute picture? Good luck. The letter "A"? Yeah. That was the best shot we got.

Happy Father's Day Marcus! We think you're pretty great!

Hey Sammy

Hey there Sammy. What are you planning on doing for Daddy on Father's Day?

Reeeeeaaallllyyy? That's very interesting.

Sunday

I love Sundays because I get to see my cute girls in their cute dresses! :)

Series of Sammy Sam

The other night I was showing Marcus some pictures of Samantha that I had taken earlier that day. Now, Sammy is a funny subject to photograph. She's very difficult to work with...but when you get a good shot of her, it's magical. She is just adorable. I was determined to get a good picture...here was my series of attempts.

In constant motion

Woa Sammy, a bit too close

Alright, let's slow down and take the food out of your mouth

Not such a pretty face

Falling over

And this is the classic shot of Sammy making her "woa woa woa" sounds. When we were going through the series of these pictures, we were laughing, but when we got to this...Marcus started laughing so hard, Crystal Light came out his nose!

AH. That darling perfect face, big blue eyes, and little blond bob. She makes me melt.

Again, on the move

Now, there's the smile I was looking for. I love that little flip of hair by her face. See? Magic.

Callie Talking

I've been organizing our videos and came across this. Callie is so funny. This is a couple months old, but here's Callie giving some animal sounds. Marcus tried to teach her what a piggie says, but she can't quite do it -- so she's come up with her own way.

Those Darn Laws

I try my best to be a law abiding citizen. I really do. But, I admit that sometimes I knowingly break the speed limit if I'm running late -- or listening to a fun upbeat song. (I'll work on that.) And I have been known to cross the street in the middle of the road back in Provo when no cars were around. I probably should have gone the extra 150 feet so I could lawfully walk between the thickly painted white lines. But, I didn't. Laws are here for our safety. I understand that. But those darn laws sometimes get in my way! Let's talk carseats for kids.

Samantha will be 3 next week. She weighs anywhere between 18-19 lbs (depending on which doctor's scale were using.) I kept her in a rear facing carseat until she was over 2. I remember one day talking to our pediatrician about it, and I was thrilled when he said, "These laws are good and meant to be there for the kids safety. But Samantha may be under 20 pounds for a long time. Is it realistic to keep her rear facing until she's 5?" He gave me the unofficial go ahead to turn her seat around. Wahoo! It was great.

Callie is 17 months. She weighs almost 19 lbs depending on the day. About a month ago I turned her carseat around. I knew she wasn't 20 pounds, but I didn't care. To me, she was close enough and it would make it a lot easier. She was starting to really kick the seat and pull at the fabric on the car door. Turning her around changed all of that, and it made our rides more enjoyable.

Saturday, while running errands, I saw a FREE CARSEAT CHECK. "Oh good," thought I as I turned into the parking lot of our local Kmart. I've been thinking Sammy's carseat looked a little funny in our car, and I wanted to make sure it was in securely. 45 minutes later and after the entire team and Spokane law enforcement worked on our car, we got the 2 carseats out and back in our car -- REAR FACING! I kept thinking, "I should have lied." "I should have said they were 20 pounds." "When I get home I'm turning these suckers around." Then came the guilt. I know it's safer for them to be rear facing until they are 20 pounds. So, do I put my convienence ahead of their safety? Do I leave Sammy rear facing until she's 12? Will the 3 extra months we have Callie rear facing before she gains that 1 lb make that big of a difference? And, what's more important, that they are rearfacing or that the actual belts are tight enough? Because they way the carseats are in now, I can't properly tighten the straps. Grrrr Then you read articles like this.

I came home extremely irritated with the stupid seat checker people for pushing the passenger seat up uncomfortably in order to fit the carseats in and making my life miserable and with myself for being irritated that they want to make my children safe! So, for now, the girls are rear facing again and no one in the family is happy about it.

The Daddy Game

This is a small demonstration of the Daddy Game. We've never officially named it that, but I can't think of anything else. We've posted video similar to this in the past, but we thought this was pretty cute. This was taken a few months ago, but we came across it last night on our camera. She gets so excited and jumps up and down. Callie tried to get in the action a little bit too. What fun kids.