A few random pictures (and a video)

Gavin has a kajillion toys but he would much rather play in the kitchen. He toddles around getting into whatever looks interesting. Here are a few pics I took of him this morning. I think he's safe around all those chemicals, as long as there is no lotion under there.

Here is his newest trick. Don't worry, he's never in the kitchen by himself, and when I cook, I stay right by the oven. I'm kindof weird about it. Here's something I don't understand: Why does the oven automatically turn off when you lock it? Is that some kind of safety feature so some psycho can't lock something inside? It seems like it would be safer if you could lock it while it's on. I Dunno.




Don't look at my dirty oven. It's strange, I can clean my whole house but for some reason, I can't ever bring myself to clean the oven. The fridge gets cleaned out at least once a week. (No rotten food here.) But I just never think about the oven. I guess it's not hurting anything, really, I mean, all that gunk down there is cooked on, right?

Speaking of cleaning, this weekend we had one of our "freaky-mommy get the whole house clean today" Saturdays. It was lots of fun. Here's how it works:

I make this list:



and we work until everything is checked off. The kids love it. (just kidding) But they do love that when the house is clean, freaky-mommy turns into happy mommy because I tell you a clean house for me is like happy drugs. Maybe next time I should add the oven as a line item.

By the way, the "Old Folks Home" is the affectionate name that we have given the room Mimi and Opa are staying in while the basement is being finished. i.e. "Let's bring treats to the old folks home tonight for our Family Home Evening activity." The kids really get into it. We love a meaningful service project.

So, Saturday after the cleaning frenzy, Riley and I went on her belated birthday shopping trip and Ricky took the boys to Cabela's. Here is Riley when we got home:We checked out the new Justice Just for Girls store in American Fork because Aunt Stacey gave her a gift card from there for her birthday. We found out that it's Limited Too's sister store sortof like Old Navy is to Gap. Riley gave it two thumbs way up. It's her new favorite.

And lastly, here is a picture that Lance took of his feet. These are his favorite socks. It's a shame that they'll probably end up in the laundry room garbage tonight. So sad. You see, I would keep them for sentimental reasons, but he'll manage to find them and wear them to preschool where he takes off his shoes and then he'll look like the poor little fourth child who doesn't have any decent socks to wear.

Look for the socks in the video.