there is hope

Yesterday was a good day.

I felt like a good wife and mother.

Which seems like a rare thing lately.

I...

Scrubbed.

Washed.

Folded.

Vacuumed (the roomba did).

Loaded.

Unloaded.

Read stories.

Played games.

Baked cupcakes with Benson.

Let Casey golf.

Road my bike 10 miles.

Got heat exhaustion from riding.

Went to a church activity.

Rocked the babies to sleep.

Didn't complain about Casey playing soccer in the wee hours of the night.

I love days like yesterday.

They give me hope that, maybe after all, I could be a good wife and mother.

And I think it gave Casey that same hope, which he could probably use a lot of.

About Molly.

I want to write some things about Molly so we never forget how very special she is right now.

She has red hair. I never knew that I could have a baby with red hair. But apparently, Casey's mom has red hair, but it's always been blonde to me. His grandpa had red hair, but now is white, and his other grandma had red hair but is white now too. So, that's where she gets it. It is always the first thing people point out about her, and then they usually call her a boy if she doesn't have a bow in her hair... and sometimes she still gets called a boy with a bow. Having a red-head has taken some getting used to for me, I'm not going to lie, but I really love her red hair. I think she is beautiful!

She is the happiest baby. Ever. Benson was content, but she is happy. She always has her mouth wide open in a huge grin. She laughs and giggles and coos. She makes the cutest noises and even in the wee hours of the morning, I love to listen to her jabber.

She is curious. She crawls like a champ all around the house and loves to get into things. She loves to push buttons and play with all of the things she's not supposed to. She put everything straight into her mouth, which always makes her smile more.

She is sweet. Whenever Benson gets in trouble, Molly starts to fuss a little bit. She doesn't like yelling or fighting. She is always the happiest when everyone around her is happy. It is a rare thing to hear her cry. Usually if she cries, we know that Benson has gotten to her and is sitting on top of her, but as soon as he moves, she is fine. Sometimes it seems like we neglect her or forget to feed her because she just NEVER cries and so we forget that she might be needing something.

She loves to watch people. Usually she watches what Benson is doing and is content to sit for a while and watch before she tries to get into whatever he's doing. She has the BIGGEST eyes. They are a little hazel/ brownish. They are beautiful.

She loves Benson. It doesn't matter what he does to her, she is always smiling at him. He could whack her over the head and as soon as she stops crying about it, she gives him the hugest grin. Whenever he tries to play with her or give her attention, she gets so happy. He can make her laugh faster than anyone else and it never fails that when she's around him, she's happy.

She loves her dad too. She will sit and stare at him for what seems like forever, and as soon as he looks back at her, she smiles and looks away like she's shy. Casey told me last night that Molly can melt his heart faster than anything. I don't blame him for being smitten by her. She is beautiful.

Oh What do you do in the Summer-time?

Benson and Molly have been enjoying the summer so far. Benson thinks he has to wear his sunglasses whenever the sun is out. And he FORCES Molly to wear her's too.

We've had a lot of projects and we frequent the Home Depot. The kids love their "funny carts".

We have been doing a lot of photobooths. Did I ever mention that we own a photobooth company? One day, Casey decided to build it, so now we go around renting our photobooth.

Parades. Molly loves her aunt Shawnee. They had a rocky beginning, but they are good pals now. We can't wait for Brady and Shawnee's new baby to come.

During the entire parade, Benson sat there and waved to all the parade people. He wouldn't stop.

Molly has become very mobile, so she spends a lot of time in her jumperoo to keep her out of trouble while I'm busy. Luckily, she LOVES it!

Benson and Casey made my birthday cake.

(Ok, I baked it, Casey frosted it, and Benson licked the mixers)

These are the bright eyes I wake up to every morning. No, they do not sleep in my bed. Ever. I was trying to make them sleep for a few minutes longer here.

Bad picture, but look how stinkin' cute Molly's little shoes are. Thanks, Brady & Shawnee.

Benson helped (hindered) Casey mow the lawn so he could earn a dollar to buy popcorn at the movie. We saw "How to train your dragon". Benson sat through the whole thing and fell asleep for the last 10 minutes. If you ask him, he'll say he didn't like the movie.

Another photobooth. We have to sit there for the whole time, usually 3 or 4 hours. It's loads of fun... Not

The neighbor's chicken came inside our house again and pooped all over my kitchen.

I was doing laundry downstairs and Benson must have left the back door open. When I came upstairs there was a chicken sitting on my counter. I did what any rational human being would do, and I got the kids' baseball bat and chased the chicken around screaming (I was screaming, not the chicken). We went around and around the kitchen, the chicken tried to fly out the window, it's knocking things off the counters. Finally I got it to the back door and it decides to go downstairs instead. At this point I realize that I could have just picked it up and taken it outside, but touch a chicken? Won't I get bird flu? So the chicken is running/ flying around our basement while I'm chasing it with a bat. It finds a hiding spot behind the filing cabinet and stays put. I poke it with the bat over and over, but it won't move. So I get a box and after many tries, I trap that DANG chicken in the box and take him back over to the neighbors. Casey told me I should have just used the pellet gun or the blow dart gun in the basement, but then there would have been blood instead of poop to clean up. We would have had a good dinner, though.

We went to the splash pad with Casey's mom and our nephews. Turns out we went on a day that it was closed for maintainance. So we played on the swings instead. I thought it would be fun to let the kids swing together. Until Bens figured out it was a perfect time to squish Molly. Poor girl.

Molly has been VERY mobile lately. She's quite the quick little crawler.

She can pull herself up to standing by something.

She is such a happy baby. We really lucked out with her. Benson was happy too, but Molly is such a good girl. If you ever even look at her, she'll return your look with this giant smile.

I rode my bike 14 miles last night. From our house in Ogden to my parents' house in Hooper. Just over an hour. It was sooo fun. I could see myself getting into this bike riding thing.

Typical