It's 97 degrees...

...and I found both of my boys curled up in blankets this morning.

The big one refuses to smile for pictures these days.

He made a nest on my bedroom floor.

The little one smiles at everything. I love that.

Ready for autumn, no?

Moving Furniture and the Grace of Laughter

So last week the gas line was connected to our fireplace after 2 1/2 months of a big hole in our wall. Our gas fireplace was installed the same week in June that it became insanely hot for two months, and broken air conditioners are more important than my fireplace when it's 108! This has been 2 1/2 months of patience building for me with random things out of place and mantle and surround supplies sitting around.

This week Randy has begun the sheet rocking and mudding process, which I don't mind until he starts sanding. Yesterday we moved almost all of the family room furniture into the smaller living room that is already filled with furniture. No pictures, please! And today is build-a-ginormous-fort-day!

Yesterday had one of those mornings where I struggled and prayed and prayed and struggled some more with my attitude. I couldn't get anything done with two mobile small children who don't know how to play together. My house was (is) a MESS. And I let it all push my buttons!

Then Randy needed breakfast food made. Buttermilk scones with vanilla frosting. The same ones I had been assigned to make for the Women's Conference at church last week. Randy said they tasted like his mom's sugar cookies - perfect for breakfast! So around 11:30, I fed the boys an early lunch because they were hungry (and fighting). Afterward I thought, "I have time to get these done really fast before nap time. This is a bad idea." But I did it anyhow.

Randy had suggested making a double batch so we could throw some in the freezer. So I wondered, "Can I make a double batch at the same time in my mixer? Probably a bad idea, but I'm going to try."

6 cups of flour, 5 (yes FIVE) tablespoons of baking powder, and some other dry ingredients really fill up a mixer. Then I added three sticks of butter...and forgot to cut it into small pieces. Flour exploded everywhere! I knew this was a bad idea.

I cut up the butter and tried it again. Better this time. Then I started adding two cups of buttermilk. My mixer seriously started grinding. I had to be careful or I was going to burn it up (making TWO cranky Regehrs in our house - Randy would not be happy with that!) Then I realized I forgot the sugar! I kneaded the sugar in by hand and put the scones on a pan. By this time Wyatt had pulled a chair up on the other side of the counter and was watching. On that counter I had a canister of sugar, a pan of scones and a ball of dough. No touch, Wyatt!

Ryder was playing on the kitchen floor and getting cranky and tired, so I took him to bed. When I came back Wyatt had dumped a 1/3 cup of sugar on the scones and was gleefully licking sugar out of the cup. A classic Wyatt move. Thankfully, all of this was making me laugh. And it kept getting better.

I popped most of the scones in the oven then read Wyatt a story and put him to bed. Over the next 20 minutes I continued to put him back to bed and mixed up the frosting. By this time my kitchen was an absolute disaster. I frosted the first batch, and then picked them up to move them to the laundry room counter to cool, so I'd have room to frost the second batch. Of course, I couldn't carry the cooling racks one at a time. I had to carry two at once. After about three steps the scones on the right rack started sliding. Splat! Splat! SPLAT! At least four scones hit the floor, fresh frosting side down, narrowly missing all of Ryder's toys still strewn all over the floor. I laughed till I had tears rolling down my cheeks. Amazingly enough, only one broke (my lunch), and Randy managed to have 23 scones ready for his breakfast.

What a grace that laughter was! A gift from the Lord because that wasn't my heart yesterday. That comedy of errors in my kitchen absolutely made my day!

Good Idea?

I'm not sure, but the pics sure did turn out cute! Ryder thought it was funny that his brother was feeding him. And Wyatt thought he was big because he was feeding his brother.

So funny!

I stayed home from work today. No one at my office wanted me to bring whatever germs I had to them. So I sat in bed with the laptop working from home and listened to Randy and the boys play. Oh I laughed! Wyatt is saying a lot of, "Hmmmm...well? I wonder if..." and then he just stops. And it's a good thing he's too little to be sarcastic because he said, "How about no," to me today. I of course responded with a firm, "How about yes!" Oh two year old vocabs.

Ahhhhugust...

August in Kansas is supposed to be the hot month. But after two months of crazy heat, we're finally hanging out on our patio. It's getting late enough that we have to very carefully dodge flying acorns from the massive oak, but it's still beautiful!

I know it's been forever, so here's an update.

Wyatt: very much 2. very much boy. funny. silly. the other morning it was storming and he said, "Mommy, I want to turn on the light outside." Silly boy. and he loves to sing..."Zaccheaus was a mail man and a mail man was he!"

Ryder: 8 months. just got TWO teeth in TWO weeks. Fun fun. trying so hard to crawl and keep up with his big brother who doesn't always like that.

Be glad you didn't hear this rendition of Wyatt's outside voice!

Isn't he sweet!

My silly boys

What have we been up to this summer? Making stuff for an artwalk this week. Spending time with family and friends. And running after little boys.

40 birdhouses, folks. 40!

Okay, dinnertime and time to flee the squirrel's ammo.

Photo Shoot

I was going to take pictures of Ryder every month on his birthday. And then I missed month 5. Month 6 almost got away from me. But last week I stripped him down to a diaper and his cute little chest. Gave him his owl (which he lurrrvvvessss), and snapped away.

Big brother wanted to join the fun, but getting a good picture of a 27 month old is nigh unto im.poss.ible. So you get a few outtakes today.

Love love love this one!

As for the label I was going to have in each month's picture of Ryder...well, this one didn't quite make it.

Summer Fun!

We had a picnic yesterday with both Mimi and Papa's sides of the family. TWO papapas (great grandpas) and TWO mamamas (great grandmas) and tons of cousins including a FAVORITE visiting from Phoenix.

Saturday morning I found a lifejacket for Wyatt for $.75 at a garage sale. When I brought it home, he said, "Wear this." And then he refused to take it off for awhile. He was very excited when he got to put it on and go play in a lake - ahem! A pond, people. A muddy pond. And on this 100 degree evening I missed a good clean and clear Minnesota lake! But Wyatt didn't know any better and he had so very much fun!

Playing with cousins

Splashing Mimi!

Mud in a cup. A few minutes later that mud ended up on that sweet little cousin's head! Poor girl.

Ryd-Ryd slept through it all

And Wyatt made up for the fun during nap today!

Memorial Day or Labor Day?

Yesterday we played. We had two dear dear families over for dinner - one whom we haven't seen in five months (and it's sadly going to be even longer this time!) and one whom (thankfully) we still see multiple times a week.

Today we worked. Okay, Randy worked. I played (three projects complete!)

Before:

After:

Yes, this is the "after" until June 9th when new warm gas fireplace comes to its new home (professionally installed, thankfully). Then there will still be a hole in our wall until we tile the fireplace and complete the mantle and maybe a tv alcove. And when I say "we" I mean "Randy." He told me that this project ranks pretty high on the list of projects we started without knowing what we were doing. Ah, well, he'll figure it out. He always does. And he always does really well.