Snap shot of a summer.

We've had a LOT of crazy things happen this summer...starting with these 11 babies born to the "sister" hamsters we got from the neighbors. They were really cute, but no.

We were so lucky to get a visit from some of our State College friends before they move to Malawi, Africa. Here they are at the zoo.


This is the day of Kylie's baptism. I can't tell you what an amazing experience that was for our family. We were so happy to have both sets of grandparents with us for that special day.

Kylie wanted a low-key party-love that girl. So she had a Nancy Drew party. Here are some of the detectives.

I'm only showing the gifts because she got so many books. It warms the heart. It really does.

One of the things we did while the grandparents were visiting was take them to Newport on the Cliffwalk where the Vanderbilts, Astors, etc. built their summer homes.

We also visited the Museum of Natural History when we took Seth's parents to New York City.

Nate has moved from a toddler bed to a twin bed and therefore got his room painted. He decided on 100 acre sky and...(drum roll) Cars bedding again. He loves that car with all of his little man heart.


What have you been doing this summer?

Happy Mother's Day

"I don't want to drive up to the pearly gates in a shiny sports car, wearing beautifully, tailored clothes, my hair expertly coiffed, and with perfectly manicured fingernails.

I want to drive up in a station wagon that has mud on the wheels from taking kids to camp.

I want to be there with grass stains on my shoes from mowing my neighbor's lawn.

I want to be there with a smudge of peanut butter on my shirt from making sandwiches for a sick neighbor's children.

I want to be there with a little dirt under my fingernails from helping to weed someone's garden.

I want to be there with the children's sticky kisses on my cheeks and the tears of a friend on my shoulder.

I want the Lord to know I was really here and that I really lived."

Marjorie Pay Hinckley

Confessions of a T-Ball Virgin

Our little Katie got the opportunity to join a t-ball team for the next two months and I was really excited for her because that girl's got some hand/eye coordination. The only problem was that we found out about it the day before the game and I, having never played ball, didn't know what to expect. Here is what I learned:

1. Must take a catcher's glove (sad, I know).
2. Girls with extremely long hair need pig tails.
3. A water bottle would also be helpful.
4. Coaches are scary.
5. Coaches with 3 kids on the team are really scary.
6. Never turn your back on whichever child has the ball or bat.
7. It is perfectly acceptable for 9 kids to all rush the ball.
8. By second base most children have forgotten why they are in the field to begin with.
9. This is going to be a lot of fun.

And the rains came down and the floods went up

...and the Dixons didn't get washed away.

When we were considering this house almost a year ago now, I remember checking the paperwork to see if it was in the flood plain. It wasn't. I mentioned it to Seth and quickly continued to peruse the paperwork.

Now that we are recovering from a 500 year flood (yup, none of this weak 100 year flood business for us), I realized just how important that little box checked "no" was. And I'm grateful for how relatively easy this emergency has been for us because that was something we paid attention to. But we were still woefully unprepared for an emergency.

Two days ago, when the rivers swelled beyond their banks we woke up with no power. I rummaged around for a flashlight and couldn't find one that fit the batteries we had available. I blame the kids. As the situation around us began to escalate I knew we were safe, but I had an unsettled feeling. Maybe because our church has been counseling us since before I was born to have some cash on hand and have some food storage tucked away-just in case.

Many circumstances are beyond our control, but I know I would've felt better if I'd been as prepared as I know I should be. It's taken a 500 year flood, but I finally realize how important this advice is.

Here is a link showing flooding that is all within a few miles of my house:

Thoughts on kids who grow up without permission

Several things have happened over this past week that alerted me to a "growing" trend.

First, Katie lost her a tooth. She's five, so it shouldn't have shocked me...but it did. Kylie has been our jack-o-lantern girl for so long that I didn't realize the torch had been passed to my baby girl. A second bottom tooth will be falling out within the next few days. My kids seem to be all or nothing when it comes to loosing teeth.

Second, after our children woke me up very early this morning (okay, it was 7 a.m. but dang it, I like to sleep in on Sunday) I sent them to go read books so I could sleep a little longer. When I got up, I looked in the girl's room and saw their beds were made. I could hear them downstairs, so I went down and found both girls dressed for church and they had made their own breakfast. My mouth fell open and I blinked a lot before I came to my senses and complimented them.

When did this happen??? I can feel that we are moving into a new phase as a family and before long I'm going to need to hide my car keys and mascara. My sister-in-law, Trisha, always says that when we do our job well as parents we eventually put ourselves out of business and this week I've seen that glimmer of independence in the girls. Thank heaven Nate is a little younger and a bit more dependent. I still need to be needed!

I know there is still plenty to do though, not just for Nate, but for the girls too. Here is the tricky thing Kylie did. After her sister put her tooth in a porcelain tooth-shaped container on the night stand for the Tooth Fairy to pick up, Kylie snuck her sister's tooth under her pillow...making life harder for the Tooth Fairy who couldn't say anything about it the next day. Don't worry, Katie got the dollar.

So a word of warning: keep an eye on your children, they might be up to this shenanigans too.

Gravitation is not responsible for people falling in love

I've been thinking about marriage for a long time, as far back as I can remember. By six years of age I had my children named. I must have been reading Ramona Quimby at the time (remember how she named her imaginary daughter after Chevrolet and thought it was the most beautiful name?) It must have been a Car & Driver era because that's how I felt about Mercedes--I couldn't imagine a better name.

In my teenage years I had ideas about the traits my husband would have: rich (yup, it's a trait), smart, a business man, handsome, a take-life-by-the-horns type or older and brooding.... I'll spare you the rest.

Then I met Seth. He was younger than me and that was a strike in my book (being a cougar in THAT sense hadn't become fashionable yet). He completely lacked in the taking-life-by-the-horns and brooding departments. He had fuzzy dice hanging from his car mirror-I kid you not. That alone almost ended it. But he was cute, smart and kind. When trouble came (as it always does) his maturity and communicativeness bested mine and not by inches, but by miles. Best of all, he treated me like a princess. And he still does.

This week I toast Seth. I love you, sweetie.

Road rage

For those of you who have been spared my ranting and raving about driving in Rhode Island--your number is up. The stories I could tell. Now, you may think perhaps I'm the problem. Consider my evidence. 1. Our car insurance tripled when we moved to this state. 2. People sent us youtube clips mocking the drivers of Little Rhodey. 3. In a national driving survey, Rhode Island drivers were found least likely to understand and implement driving laws. So there.

Yesterday was a bad day in the car for me. By time I nearly crashed into a woman that was running a red, red light (as in the two cars ahead of me had already crossed the intersection) I was crazy angry. The kind of muttering to myself that makes my kids really quiet. I could almost hear them saying to each other, "Sh, don't draw attention to yourself. She's on a rampage." It made me feel a little bad.

Fifteen minutes later and still in the car, I started giving Kylie a hard time for having no patience with her siblings and telling her how we can't control other people blah, blah blah. The epiphany came then. I had no moral high ground. Zero. Zilch. It stopped me mid sentence. I felt certain that as I learned how to model that brand of self discipline my kids would learn how to copy it.

So, I'm going to learn to count to ten and drive more cautiously. I'm going to learn to laugh so my kids can learn to laugh too.