Just a spoon full of sugar makes the medicine go down...

There was no medicine involved here, though.  I'd taken out all of the ingredients to make a pie, but the girls woke from their nap before I'd actually started to bake.  I was doing whatever it is that I do, when I noticed that the house was quiet.  That makes a momma's heart stop.  I started wandering from room to room, and what did I find?  Berlyn.  Quiet as a mouse, squatting in the corner of the kitchen with my bag of sugar.  "Mom.  I LIIIIIIKE SUGAR!!!"

Such an honor

Stephanie Twaddell is one of my very bestest of friends, going all the way back to 7th grade.  Oh the stories we could tell about each other.  We will never because we've sworn each other to secrecy, of course.
I was so honored to be present for part of the laboring and the delivery on 6/12 when Stephanie delivered her sweet little boy Dallas Robert just before 10am.  He was nearly 3 weeks early and still weighed 6.10 lbs.  Stephanie was pretty much a super mom delivering him with a few grunts and one curse word, but the baby's shoulders got stuck and that doctor had to yank and pull with all her might to help get him out.  His poor little face was bruised for several hours, which is why his face is a bit blue in the photo.  He is so incredibly adorable.  It's utterly amazing that a momma can survive childbirth.  Ever.
My heart melted when I held this precious baby in my arms.  A boy?!?!  How did they do it???  I have a difficult time not just driving to Ferndale on a daily basis to go hold him again.  His big brothers and dad are absolutely in love with him, as well.  Welcome to the world little Dallas.

Sunny or not... Here we come!!!

It started out as a beautiful morning, and we got off to a slow start.  We packed our lunch and swim gear and headed south for even more sunshine.  Or so we hoped.  By the time we reached Honeydew, we realized that the clouds had blown in and it was a breezy 69 degrees.  Obviously being from  Humboldt, a bit of cool weather isn't going to stop us from having fun outside.  We played in the sand and my crazy family even spent quite a bit of time out in the river.  Not this smart momma.  It must've taken Talullah twenty minutes to lose the blue lips and stop shivering once they got out.  We all had a fabulous time.

On a roll!!!

I was folding laundry and turned around to find this little stinker.  The roll of toilet paper came out of the bathroom, through my room, and was being torn into little pieces by her busy little hands.  We laughed and grabbed the camera.  Then, I spent the next few minutes patiently rolling the paper back onto the roll.  I did NOT laugh when I came into the bathroom minutes later and found Berlyn spinning the same roll of toilet paper into a big pile.  Only cute once, and Havanna stole that round.

Helping Daddy

Nick is building a small concrete wall to build a new fence on.  Talullah spent hours outside with him, learning how to level the wall with her daddy.  She came in and told me she got 'very good' at using the tool.  Maybe it's time to hand her a broom and see how she handles that 'tool'.

Spaghetti-Oh!!!

We had spaghetti for dinner, and the girls enjoyed it so much I believe I'll make this a weekly meal.  There was no begging or pleading for them to take 'one more bite'.  We didn't have to sit at the table for thirty minutes after Nick and I had devoured our own meals, just waiting for the girls to eat enough to hold them over until breakfast.  I'll go so far as to say the meal was a 100% enjoyable experience.  Yes, spaghetti is a hit at the Downey house.  I gave Havanna a fork, and she was so proud to get some food on the utensil.  Most of her time at the table was simply spent putting on, taking off noodles from the pronged toy.  Every once in awhile she actually got something into her mouth.  Berlyn, a girl after my own heart, put fistfuls of spaghetti in her mouth.  I'm not sure she even picked up her fork at all.  I'm not big on utensils, either.  Talullah's favorite thing to do was slurp up the stringy goodness, one piece at a time.  What's YOUR favorite way to eat it?