Summer Love'n

-Bug

Farmers Market

We went to the Farmers Market today. Everyone had a good time, and we got some cherries. The Snake wants to give this one to you.

Here he says, "Can I have a nutter one?"

The other two in the background think they are cherry pirates... ARG!

No, Mr. Fingers is not giving you "the finger"... it's a cherry. How could you think such a thing?

These guys are too cool for their cookies. Well, maybe just the one in the front. The one in the back is really tearing into his. One dollar for a monster chocolate cookie with M&Ms is a SWEET deal.

Un oh, The Snake broke his :'(

He said, "Can you fix it?"

I did, I ate the smaller piece.... mom taxes :) hey, don't judge me... I didn't get one.

Summer Slaves

Hello. My name is Bug Gutz, and I am a "give me that, just let me do it" cleaner. Yes, am that mom who cleans my kids rooms for them while they are at school. I fold and put away all of their laundry. I do all of this because I am too lazy and impatient to let them do it.

Until nights like tonight when I SNAP.

"I'm tired of doing everything around here. You guys are going to do some chores tonight. Mr. Fingers, you get the bathroom."


"The Snake, lets find something you can handle."



"And The Brain, it's about time I taught you how to use a vacuum."

My house is clean. I'm exhausted. That was twice as much work as if I had just done it myself... and took twice as long.... with three times as much whining.

But the family that works together...

wants to kill each other?

-no, that's not it.

still, can't think of how to end that phrase.

I'm sure it's something nice.

TV update

OOps...

I told Ryan that the TV was broken. His blood started pumping and he said, "nnnuuhh-uh." He went over to it, and turned it right on.

Seems that I wasn't holding the power button down long enough. Whoops

We did have fun at the library yesterday. We hung out for almost 2 hours. At one point The Brain asked if he could go over to the Nonfiction section by himself. I told him he could and after some time he returned with his carefully chosen books. Each weight at least 5 lbs, and he found a nice chair and dug right into one, right away. He isn't called the brain for nothin.

That reminds me...

Last week when I was "home alone," I picked up a couple of selections for myself at the Library. One of which was a collection of funny little mom things titled, "Secrets From Otherwise Perfect Moms."

I walked into the living room to find that The Brain had found said book, and was pouring over it trying to find out these mysteries of momhood. Remembering that some of the entries might not be appropriate for children I apprehensively asked, "What are you learning about?"

And he read (in his innocent little 7 year old voice), "I can tell you when my second born was conceived, because it was the only day that whole month that we had...." The book was snatch before the sentence was finished and I said, "your done with this," while I put it on top of the book shelf. So much for mommy secrets.... second OOps!!


Here is The Snake taking your picture. Say cheese!!!

Big Brother's Favorite

This is Big Brother's favorite cookie. I make sugar cookies a lot, and I'm not patient enough to refrigerate, roll, cut, cool, and frost all fancy like. So I invented a drop sugar cookie that I usually frost with jazzed up store bought frosting. Here is my recipe:

1 cup butter
1 cup sugar
1 egg
1 tsp. orange extract
1 tsp. vanilla
2 cups flour
1 tsp. baking soda
1/2 tsp. baking powder

Bake at 350 for 8-10 min.

Frosting:
1 can whipped butter cream
orange food coloring
2 tsp. orange extract

(at Christmas time I make this cookie, but substitute peppermint extract for orange, then I sprinkle crushed up candy canes on the tops.)

The Boys are Back in Town

I am so glad the boys are back. They spent the last week at their dad's house. I was very much looking forward to last week, and had lots of things I wanted to do.... but Wednesday morning my back went out and I had to spend the rest of the week in bed, watching movies. I was so bored, and lonely.... Glad that week is over! I realized that I would rather have a houseful of kids, and out of town visitors to take care of, then to be left all to myself for a week.... I know, I'm weird.

So with 5 kids in the house, and no one in school, we grabbed a couple of neighborhood friends, and headed to the pool. They loved lining up at the edge and jumping in together. It was so cute that I risked ruining my camera phone, and went in for a picture.

The Snake doesn't like to be cold.

:'(

... until you've walked 10 miles in her shoes.

On Monday I took my trusting husband out into the Mt. Jefferson Wilderness. We spent the whole day on the trail, and it was beautiful! We hiked 5 miles down to Marion Lake, then 5 miles back up to the car. I told Honey Bear we would have an adventure, and we sure did.


If you look really hard you can see a deer. We were wondering how many critters saw us, and we didn't know about it. There was one really big bird that we startled, and it startled us. I think my scream is still echoing off the mountain.

Uh, oh... the bridge was down. I told him we would have an adventure. Good news, we made it over and back the broken bridge.

When we got to the lake, Honey Bear stripped down to his skivvies and did some tanning. I got a picture of it, and it is currently taking all my self control not to post it... he looked ridiculous :) you'll never guess what happened, he got a nasty sunburn. Have you ever seen "A River Runs Through It?" with Brad Pitt?? There is a scene where this drunk couple, falls asleep naked in the woods and practically burn off both their backsides. This kinda reminded me of that scene, and made me laugh.

I was worried that we wouldn't make it back up before nightfall, but we did. It was such a nice hike, such a nice day.

P.S. I'm smart enough to keep my shirt, and the rest of my clothes on when I hike. Even if there are no people around... that's lots of flesh for the Mosquitoes to feast on. Poor Honey Bear is burnt, and itchy :(

but still cute :)

Summer Nightmare

No more teachers, no more books... that's right, you guessed it... SCHOOL'S OUT FOR SUMMER!

Now, I ask you - What would be the most terrible thing you could imagine that would ruin your summer if you were a kid? I know the answer, and this is the nightmarish reality of my children's eminent summer vacation:

NO TELEVISION

That's right, the TV is busted. We can't even watch DVD's on it right now. I'm not in a hurry to get it fixed, or replaced, so we are going to have to get creative with our summer entertainment. When I was a kid. I remember endless amounts of time in front of the TV during the summer. I even remember being so lazy that I would lay on my back on the floor right in front of the it, and change the channels with my toes. We didn't have a remote, and we only had like 10 channels (can you imagine) -gasp. Still, I managed to waste many, many, summer hours in my vegetative state. Sadly, my children will not be experiencing this same lovely, lazy summer activity.

On top of that, I have informed them that when they proclaim that they are board, I will be resolving such circumstances with chores.

Ok, lets see how the summer goes. Hold your breath. I'm holding mine.... I'll keep you posted. :)

Card Sharks

The kids have discovered playing cards in the game chest, and have had cards in their hands all week. Here, Fingers is getting some advice from Lil Sis... note, right after I took this picture, The Snake got time out for standing on the couch :(

Some of the games they have been playing:
-Old Maid
-Go Fish
-Uno
-War
-Slap Jack
-Crazy Eights (I don't even know how to play that one, they read the instructions)
-Solitaire

The Snake is too little for such games, so he liked to get out the dominoes. Not play with them, just get them out.

They are real card sharks, and would really get into it a couple of times. I had to mediate such differing opinions about the rules. I have a feeling it won't be long before they ask for a poker table for Christmas, complete with chips and all. Oh dear, better hide the stogies.

Up Hill, Both Ways

In case you don't recognize me, I'm the one in the slip/princess twirly dress. Also pictured are my Dad and his Mom.

I was thinking about my dad recently and noticed that there are a lot of little quirks in my vocabulary that I got from him. I also repeat to my children, many of his sayings from when I was growing up. He teaches the Gospel Doctrine class in his ward, and I have heard him quote his dad a lot and since Dad follows my blog, I thought he would get a kick out of knowing some of his sayings that I also say (not all of these are sayings, some are just quirky things):

"The Proof's in the Pudd'n"
"There's no such thing as a free lunch"
"A flower is a Rose, all the others are weeds"
Birthday cake = lemon cake with chocolate icing
cake is always eaten in a bowl of milk
Water = "cloud squeez'ns"
Orange juice = "citric children of Israel" (orange Jews)
All Slurpee's, icey's, slushies, etc are = squishies
"Who's piggies?" (a call to clear your spot at the table)
"lets pay a sayer" (say a prayer)
"Tuna Noodle Cass-a-roodle" = tuna casserole
the great hero of the Book Of Mormon is = Teancum, "da da da da... our hero"
When reading scripture these two terms are ALWAYS pronounced in Spanish: Iniquity = inkidades, and Lamanites = lamaneetas
Peru is the oneliest and ownliest true mission
When waking someone in the morning we sing "Rise and shout, the (insert name) are out, they're out to win for fame and glory"
And when ever you are off to clean your room the mission impossible theme is always sung.


My Dad is the happiest person, and I respect him more then anyone else I have ever known. So I'm proud to do and say some of the things he does, and if anyone were to say that i am like my dad... that would be the greatest compliments I could receive.