These are some photos that my sister-in-law Stacie took last summer. Aren't they awesome? I was going to put the collage in with my birth announcement, but didn't.

Some pics of the babe...

The Latest

For all those Girl Talk fans out there... check out this MTV news article

Time keeps on slippin, slippin, slippin...

Phin in diaper -- had to wait a while for him to stop pumping all four limbs at once!

Summer is a little bit crazy. One would initially think, 'Oh, the lazy days of summer, all the time in the world to accomplish whatever didn't get done during the frantic days of winter industry; not bound by schedules and timetables; long days of early sunrise and late sunset...' But what really is happening is that there are five children here all the time, meals are erratic at best, everyone wants to go to the pool every day (no AC, it's humid, who can blame them?), the garden needs weeding, the lawn needs mowing, swim lessons, piano lessons, camp preparations, keeping the kitchen sanitary -- I was trying to make the list long, but to be honest, I really have no idea what I am doing most of the time. It took me an entire week to read a book which really isn't like me. I set a goal every day to exercise and it rarely happens. I even set out the yoga mat hopefully, but it lies there neglected and forlorn. I am on day nine of doing "8 minutes in the morning," but I have only really gotten to day 2, so do I skip all the days and get a false sense of accomplishment, or do day 3 tomorrow to be an absolutist about the whole thing? We are halfway through the third season of "Lost" so I guess the summer isn't a complete wash.

My obsession with diapers has continued with the latest culmination being the purchase of one dozen perfectly snugalicious bumgenius fleecy perfections. They are pretty pastel colors and are so soft! But their flashy exterior does not hide a shallow core -- oh, no! They are cozy and absorbent and keep Phin's bumbum happy. I saw a little t-shirt that said, "Love is gentle, Love is kind, Love is having a fluffy behind." Doesn't that just say it all? I will try to take a photo of him in one tomorrow. I told Matthew that it is so sad that we didn't cloth diaper all of the children and I am going to be sad to give up my lovely diapers when the baby is ready to use the potty. He assured me that I will be ready when the time comes and even was so uncivil as to imply that I am fickle about my compulsions and will surely be on to something else by then. They are so amazing, I am sure I can bequeath them on my grandchildren (all of whom will be cloth diapered, of course, to go along with their organic diet, only the best for my grandbabies, won't I be a lovely mother-in-law?) Now that I bought the nappies, I have already moved on to the necessary accoutrements involved -- it is truly astonishing what is out there. Designer pail liners and wetbags, velour wipes, new friends... Yesterday I found two new sites that I love: Monkey Foot Designs has bags and nursing covers and Mairzey Dotes has lovely blankies, etc. Hmmm, do you think that accounts for some of the time I have misplaced?

Happy Anniversary Mom and Dad! I am glad you got married and just look at what you have produced! Wonderful!

I had better go to bed. My incredible baby has been asleep for a while now. My husband is downstairs working hard because the record label is exploding! Exciting, but slightly manic.

We had our big yard sale on Saturday. I had been getting ready for it for weeks so it was very exciting when 30 minutes before it was supposed to begin there was instead a torrential downpour. Fortunately, I am not very on the ball so I hadn't put anything outside yet. Some of my neighbors had already put all of their things outside and they all got very wet. Just goes to show you that procrastination pays off. Eventually I got everything out as it drizzled depressingly. The traffic for our sale was not what we would've hoped since who would have a yard sale in the rain? Who indeed... We decided we couldn't bear to take everything back in the house so we pulled the van around and loaded it up to take to Mission Mart. My house felt less cluttered for about five minutes until a few neighbors came by and very kindly gave us some things that they didn't sell. Even Steven. I also stopped at some yard sales on the way home from dropping off our stuff so it is kind of an even flow, a revolving door as it were.

The rain is really great because it makes it very easy for my garden to grow. All the seeds that the girls and I planted have sprouted and are doing well. I spent quite a lot of time last week weeding, but the rainy weekend helped those along as well. The zinnia heads that I dried over the winter and then planted are shooting up nicely and the roses are all blooming. June is always so lovely and it isn't too unbearably hot. Our house has been a little toasty (well, toast is dry and our house isn't), but if one stays situated beneath a ceiling fan it is tolerable.

Last week we found an amazing price on tickets to Utah so the kids and I are flying instead of driving this year. Yea! I am so excited. Matthew didn't want to go at all so this will work out perfectly. He said that the price was worth us being gone for a bit while he works on music. I am afraid that the six of us can make quite a racket. I would like to lose some weight before we go so my goal is two pounds a week. I know that it is a simple formula of diet and exercise, but the problem is that I am just so hungry and tired! I am working hard at keeping a very large baby from the brink of starvation and I feel like eating all the time.

Charles has decided that he would like to go back to school this fall, but I feel quite uneasy about it. So is Matthew. I have really enjoyed homeschooling him, despite having dropped the ball a little after the baby. I really want to do what would be the best for Charles, of course, so I have been praying and pondering quite a bit about it. Sometimes I get the feeling that things will work out either way, but I just want someone else to make the decision for me.

The rain is clearing up so we will probably head out to the pool per our usual routine.

the boysss

::Phin with his big bro

::in his bouncy seat

girls

::Ella and Ibby at the "Cinderella" ballet

::Lucy as the rabbit in "Alice in Wonderland"

::more pictures at the ballet and Ibby's birthday

Perfection -- aaah

Okay, it is official:  I have the perfect baby.  Last night he slept from 10:00 to 5:00!  It was amazing.  Of course, we were at a park and then the swimming pool for the entire day which may have just wiped him out.  I will be realistic and not hasten to assume that he will do the same thing again tonight.   The other remarkable thing is that lately I have just been putting him down while he is awake and he'll wiggle around quietly and then just go • to • sleep.  It is astounding!  Right now he is snoozing away in the lovely sling that I made.  I will have to put a picture up -- I used upholstery fabric and it is stylin'.

Lest one become envious, let me assure that not all is perfect at our house.  I am sitting in a room with four computers in various states of usefulness.  Matthew's is from work and is the nicest.  Next there is the used Mac that we bought a few months ago on Ebay.  We got a great deal, but last week (or the week before, it is blurry) I was showing my family Jenn's funny post with the can of chinese food and while the laptop was open "someone" (no names) tripped on the cord and the computer swan dived off of the counter and landed face first on the tile floor.  Only, it doesn't have a face and doesn't bend backward like that and the monitor became disconnected from the keyboard.  Matthew connected his computer and found that the hard drive (I know I sound technical, but I really have no idea...) was still working so he brought an enormous monitor home and hooked it up to the laptop keyboard.  So I have to look to the left while I type to the right.  Talennnnt!  It looks ridiculous, but works.  Now on this "new to us" computer we could never get the e-mail to work right so we still used the old laptop.  We wanted a new laptop because the old one actually can bend backward and does at random.  So while just working away on something it would suddenly snap backward and splat the table.  Eventually the screen cracked and little by little one could see less and less of the screen.  I still need that e-mail program to do the orders for Illegal Art so I was still using it until the adaptor connector thing-y (still technical) stopped working so we had to hold it up and to the right to get the battery to work while I did orders.  Matthew then hooked up his parents old laptop so we could see the screen better and know what we were looking at.  Thus four computers and a very long and boring paragraph that I suspect no one will bother reading.  I would skip it and I ought to add a disclaimer at the beginning of it.

I bought a new table off of Craig's list last week so our old kitchen table is also in the dining room (along with the four computers, an actual dining table, a desk, two hutches, some random chairs, the guinea pig cage, and four people at the moment - oh, the vacuum is in here, too).  I really like the shape of the new table, but it needs painting, or I need new chairs...  At any rate, it doesn't match anything.

There is a flood warning right now.  And the thunder and lightning is quite alarming!  I wonder if we should disconnect everything, but I just had to google surge protectors, so I don't think we are ready to sever our ties to the outside world just yet.

I have some photos to post.  Ciao