fighting naptime

It's so funny how kids fight naptime. Ansel has always taken real good naps, but now that we are putting him in a toddler bed, he has a little more freedom. We don't mind so much what he does as long as he stays in his bed (well, I guess room). I was doing a reading lesson with Isabel and Ansel came out once to get a book and we could hear him playing a lot the whole time. Anyway, we just finished and I checked on him and found this...

isabel's swim video

I was just transferring some Lake Tahoe photos from our laptop to our computer and found the video of Isabel swimming. I had forgotten about it. She was excited to try swimming without a life vest. She doggy paddles for a few seconds, it's kinda funny. Since Joseph was a swimmer and taught swim lessons, I just can't bring myself to put our kids into swim lessons. Joseph has worked with our kids on some swimming skills and I think the Lake Tahoe trip (with access to a pool) really helped both kids feel more comfortable in the water.

maren irene crosby

So, my sister Cindy had her third child on July 29th and I just had to post this cute picture of Maren. I'm so excited for her to have a little girl. Cindy's two older boys look just like her husband and I think it's SO cute for her to have a little girl that looks like her! Maren has a lot of cute little outfits and I think it's so funny that my sister has not bought one thing for her yet!

butterflies

My friend used to be a teacher and she told me how you can order caterpillars on the internet and watch them eat and get fat, make cocoons, hatch out as butterflies and release them outside. Sometimes I feel ambitious about doing fun and educational things with my kids (and then 5 mins later, I think what in the world have I done to myself). Anyway, the butterfly experience turned out to be pretty low maintenance and a lot of fun for the kids. It was crazy how every day the caterpillars looked WAY fatter. It was very exciting when we found the first one in a cocoon and even more exciting when we discovered the first butterfly was out. We even caught the last one coming out of the cocoon, Isabel thought the poor butterfly looked pretty gross. We just released our 5 butterflies in our backyard and it was fun to watch them fly out one at a time. One of them started to fly out, but then went down to the roses to eat more, and then flew out. The very last one did not fly out. He was on a paper towel and so I picked it up and put him outside the pavillion and he still didn't fly away. I decided to try to pick him up so I put my finger out and he climbed on. I passed him to Isabel and as she put him on a flower he finally flew away. It was really cool. Here are some photos...

joke

So, I was checking my cousin's blog and she posted a joke from her husband and I just thought it was so funny. I was going to email it to Joseph, but thought it would be funner to post it here so more can read it if they are interested.

A young man from Georgia moves to New York and goes to a big 'everything under one roof' department store looking for a job.

The Manager says, 'Do you have any sales experience?'

The kid says 'Yeah. I was a salesman back in Georgia.'

Well, the boss liked the kid and gave him the job. 'You start tomorrow. I'll come down after we close and see how you did.'

His first day on the job was rough, but he got through it.

After the store was locked up, the boss came down.

'How many customers bought something from you today?'

The kid says 'One.'

The boss says 'Just one? Our sales people average 20 to 30 customers a day. How much was the sale for?'

The kid says '$121,237.65.'

The boss says '$121,237.65? What in the world did you sell?'

The kid says, 'First, I sold him a small fishhook. Then I sold him a medium fishhook. Then I sold him a larger fishhook. Then I sold him a new fishing rod. Then I asked him where he was going fishing and he said down the coast, so I told him he was going to need a boat, so we went down to the boat department and I sold him a twin engine Boston Whaler. Then he said he didn't think his Honda Civic would pull it, so I took him down to the automotive department and sold him that 4 x 4 Expedition.'

The boss said, 'A guy came in here to buy a fish hook and you sold him a BOAT and a TRUCK ?'

The kid said 'No, the guy came in here to buy Tampons for his wife,' and I said, 'Dude, your weekend's shot, you should go fishing.'

sleeping

Ansel has been doing quite well with his toddler bed lately. Hopefully he will continue to at least stay in his room. We always peek at him to make sure he is still in his bed because one time at 10:30pm we found him sleeping in the hallway. So, he must have snuck out to play and then just fallen asleep before he could make it back to his bed. So, I think it's cute that he likes to sleep with his little basketball instead of puppies like Isabel. I just checked on Ansel for his nap today and thought it was funny that he fell asleep with a book on him. He just has to fight the exhaustion by hanging onto some activity for as long as he possibly can before falling asleep.