Wait, what? Brittany still has a blog?

Hey guys. I know, I know. I haven't posted here in a while. But things have been a bit crazy. Mike has officially finished school until August, which means we actually get to see him sometimes, but before that? Well, let's just say that Mike has really good grades in medical school. And that requires some . . . not relaxing very often. Yeah.

So amid the tornado that is my family, I didn't really get to blog.

BUT GUESS WHAT.

We're going on vacation on Thursday. THIS THURSDAY. We're flying to Seattle, then driving to Boise for a couple of weeks, then driving back to Seattle for a couple more weeks before flying home. I'M SO EXCITED!!!!!

At the same time, I'm going to miss all my awesome friends. We've totally settled in here and a month is a long time. Also, I have a to-do list about forty miles long. I'm almost not exaggerating. So we can't go until I do about three hundred pounds of laundry, get my house clean enough to be empty for a month, deliver my plants to my friend to babysit, pack, and gear myself up emotionally for a trip with three kids. Wow. I'm especially not ready for that one.

So really, I'm only posting now to let you know that yes, I'm still here, and that I am planning on blogging during our trip. (I mean, we're going to have some pretty great pictures of our travelling alone.)

Also, to report a couple of Katie conversations that I remembered to write down this week.

Mike: Can you count to 15?
Katie: Oh, that's a lot. That would take until the night time.*

*Please note that she can count past 30. Easily.

Katie: Daddy! You are not Abuelo's daddy. You are MY daddy.

Brittany: Katie, you are such a beautiful girl.
Katie: Mommy, you are beautiful! I love you so much. I'm going to keep you until the end of the month.

Yeah, she's super cool. Right now she's sitting next to me on the couch right after going and getting herself a couple pieces of lettuce to munch on.

Get ready for awesome vacation pics!

Plant Funeral

I have . . . I mean had (sniff sniff) . . . a beautiful dieffenbachia that I have had since just after Mike and I got married. I coaxed it into actually growing, and it was easily 3 1/2 feet tall. It's lived through 5 1/2 years of marriage and 5 addresses. But apparently, the move across the country last summer was not particularly good. I did my best to keep it in part sun and not over-water it, but it finally gave up the ghost. It was starting to look all nasty around the base of the stalk.

So when Katie and i were digging and expanding our little patio garden, we decided to get something for that pot, because I didn't think the poor thing would last much longer. When Katie and I untied it from the stake this afternoon, the entire plant broke off. When we tried to dig it up . . . there was nothing there. The roots were entirely gone. Poor thing.

But out of the ashes is brought forth my little green-thumbed daughter, who has discovered that she LOVES digging in the dirt and helping me plant. The Easter Bunny even got her a little bitty watering can. Which she loves. In fact, her love of her watering can might even negate her love of plants because she wants to use it three times a day. It's pretty cute.

And after murdering our poor dieffenbachia, we had a great time. See, yesterday after Mike got home, Katie and I went on a date to the plant store (aka the garden center at Lowe's) and went a little crazy in all the plants. Even when it started raining (the garden center is largely uncovered) we were skipping around and picking out plants and flowers while all the old ladies were hiding under the roof part and holding purses over their heads.

And then today, after we got the boys down for their nap, Katie and I went out on the back porch and fixed up our little garden. We got super dirty and maybe a little sunburned and we had a great time.

Katie specially picked the calla lily just for her.

Did I mention it's been super crazy hot here the last couple of days? I let the kids play outside for like 10 minutes yesterday afternoon, and we had to come inside pretty quick because it was like 83 degrees and humid and muggy, and everybody was getting overheated. Joshy was so red in the face that I just took his shirt off for snack time (strawberries and ice water—I'm a super cool mom). That made both boys extremely happy.

To be fair, 83 really isn't that hot. It was probably the humidity plus the fact that we're all still rather sick (except for Katie, which makes her super impatient with the rest of us).

And now, because the reason this blog still has readers is that those readers are my mom and Mike's mom and they want pictures of the grandbabies, here are pictures of the grandbabies.

Coming home from church (a couple of weeks ago).

Josh can climb almost anything. Pray for me. 

This is the best picture I could get of their super adorable shorts.

Back to the zoo with super stylin' hats!

This penguin just walked back and forth in front of Katie the whole time she was there.

So whenever you're feeling sad, just come back and look at this picture of Katie wearing a leotard (over her clothes) with a Mary Poppins hat. You can't be sad after that.