The McGarys : Jazzy July

As of a couple days ago...Kallie can open doors! Nooooooo! Maybe we should swap the door handle so the lock is on the outside. We sleep until 8am in this house.

For the first time I've been summoned to jury duty! Double nooooo! Fortunately I was able to excuse myself VERY easily just because I have kids. That was way cool.

They were working on something VERY important.

Sometimes I delay the start of a workout program because the thought of being sore for a week while taking care of kids is not appealing. I can totally commit to the actual work and gym time but it comes along with so much suffering.

That make shift bib was really helpful.

On one of my laundry days this month I washed all our clothes but didn't fold them for a whole week. If we needed something specific we dug it out of the laundry basket. The closer it got to the next laundry day I thought, "I'm gonna be folding laundry again in a couple days. I might as well wait." I can never have laundry washed and folded in one day anymore because I started air drying most of our clothes. I stopped using fabric softener because I learned it wears out laundry way faster. My mom always used it so I thought it was necessary part of doing laundry. I don't know what I thought clothes would feel like without it but it turns out, not much different. Especially if they've been in the dryer. Sorry Mom, but it's a total waste of money.

Jayda fell asleep on me and I wanted a cute picture so bad! Brad wasn't home to take one so this is what I got.

Kallie can eat a LOT of grapes in one sitting. I gave her a huge bowl of them with the intention of sharing with her but I had to help Jayda and came back to find the bowl empty. At times like these I think, "I know what your diaper is gonna look like tomorrow".

When Jayda talks it sounds like she's speaking Chinese. Maybe she and her cousin Emma accidentally switched places and came to Earth in the wrong bodies.

Watching funny videos while we wait for our food

I had a day this month of being sick of food and everything to do with it. I hate cooking, I hate meal planning and I hate grocery shopping. This is all because of the way my mind works. I have to put so much time, effort and thought into getting three meals on the table everyday. I love everything about being a stay at home mom except preparing food. And that's a huge part of it! The thought of being expected to deal with this everyday for the rest of my life was quite daunting for a second. But then I got over it and realized if I prepare a little more efficiently and use the slow cooker more it won't be so bad. Hopefully I'll continue to get better at it over the years and it will be more rewarding. I have made a few tasty recipes lately. One was homemade pesto pizza and cinnamon struesel dessert pizza. I'm actually pretty good at spreading pizza dough. Who knew?

She doesn't look like it, but Kallie really enjoyed the pizza.

Brad takes the scouts camping every month and always comes home with leftover food. This time we had a LOT of bananas so I made a LOT of banana bread. That's always the food I think of to use bananas but I should really get some other recipes. Preferably some with less calories.

I found this Lego hand in Jayda's diaper. I couldn't tell what it was at first so I fished it out and cleaned it off. That was a delightful experience:

For some reason we decided to go to the zoo on a Saturday. I didn't even know it was possible for a splash park to fill to capacity but sure enough we had to wait in line to get in. Instead we cooled off in a lovely fountain near the rear entrance:

We decided to go on a horseback riding trail ride (lately every time I find a good Groupon for fun physical activities I buy it. I'm making up for lost time after being pregnant or breastfeeding for three years straight) . Let me say this: I am fascinated by horses. I think they're awesome, beautiful creatures and I dream of going on a long ride through the prairie, galloping at full speed. But I'm also terrified of them. They are big, strong and dangerous. My fear is like a huge storm cloud though and I almost chickened out of this ride. I was SO nervous. As soon as my horse started to pick up one hoof I wanted to get off and watch from the bench. I couldn't remember any of the commands we just learned! As my horse was ~~starting to gallop away~~ lazily mozying around I called out to Brad, "How do I STOP?!" and sure enough, the first time I commanded he stopped. It still took me until about halfway through the trail ride to feel like I was capable of finishing (like I had a choice at that point). Ha! And I thought I needed to know all these commands. These horses were practically sleep walking through this scenic route back to the barn. The only reason I needed to stop my horse was to keep him from running into the butt of Brad's horse.