A couple of weekends ago while Bo and Chullain were on a Father and Son campout we decided to help a friend sell her wares at the local Farmers Market. So I have to disclose that probably the most helpful thing that I did was to leave and take the kids home but I still learned a lot from the experience. The kids had a good time till it was like 95 degrees out and then it wasn’t all that fun anymore. Lily the dog loved it and we’ll have to plan to take her back this month so she can get used to all the strange dogs and crowds.
Aidan enjoyed the market! He’s an escape artist and if he wasn’t in my hand I was having to hunt him down. I think the stroller is a really good place for him though he’s almost figured out how to get out of it.
Lily at market. When she wasn’t attached to the stroller she was attached to Victoria.
Victoria and her friend Lora. They were having a good time until I said we had to leave and then Lora will still happy because she was coming to our house but Victoria was upset about the same. Go figure… can’t please everyone!
One of Victoria’s dear friends is moving away tomorrow morning. One of the few constants in life seems to be that it changes and this is no exception. I know that they’ll both move on and make more special friends but I also know that special friends like that retain a place in ones heart and that’s a good thing. They’ve had hours and hours of play this past year and never gotten tired of one another. I think that we might have to fit a trip to Houston into our lives in the not too distant future.
So I never could identify with my mother in law saying that if she’d had her daughter first she wouldn’t have had anymore children. Now, that we’ve been going through the 2’s with Aidan I don’t know that I feel quite that strongly but some days I do question my resolve to have another. He tries me up and down and back and forth. He is so sweet and smart but also the fastest mess maker and tantrum thrower I recall having met. This week was no exception.
Cookie bars, mmmm.
Blue finger paint! Hmm, he has had many a painting lesson. I guess it was just too tempting to turn himself into a “monster” or “spiderman.”
This week past Chullain earned his second and first class rank advancements as well as 8 merit badges. He’s been working hard to get to this point. He has 4 months waiting and 3 hours of service to complete and he’ll be done with his Star as well. I love that he loves scouts. He does a great job!
Chullain and Bo went to our stake’s priesthood encampment last week Thursday through Saturday. They worked hard and played hard. Bo went up the whole time as there were short on parent chaperons. I’m glad that he did as Chullain told me later that he really enjoyed having his Dad there with him.
One of the rotations that they did was a hike pulling handcarts so that they could experience a little of what the pioneers experienced crossing the plains. The load was the leaders which I find funny though Chullain wasn’t too amused about. Chullain’s comment to me later was that it wasn’t fair that they pulled hand carts because the pioneers were in much better shape than he and his modern friends. After all pioneers had big muscles from working on farms right? I asked about the women and children that pulled the carts and he was sure they even they were still stronger than he and his friends because they were pioneers after all. Hmm, 12 year old logic…
Since the encampment was at a ranch there were cow bones scattered all over the place. Novel and a bit gross.
Chullain went mountain biking for the first time and swears that he will never do it again. He was the “trail sacrifice” he told me and though he finished (which I’m proud of him for) he did fall off a bluff and tip over many other times he says. What an introduction to mountain biking!
Rock wall climbing was another activity that they had. Chullain has done this before and likes it quite well.
It seems like this was a really well organized and fun few days. We don’t have a picture of it but the boys built a tower using lashings and the stake president climbed up on top holding a torch and gave a speech. Talk about memorable!
Victoria has been working hard with her violin and improving. This past Saturday she was able to attend a Masters Class at the studio where she studies with her instructor and a local professional violist. She is all excited about what she learned and she was able to perform at a recital yesterday.
I love seeing all the little girls play as they’re so cute and I love hearing the bigger girls play as it sounds wonderful. Victoria has thankfully started to sound more like one of the bigger girls!
Ohh, and sorry it’s sideways, learning curve on my new phone.
I love the rainy season in the desert. This week it’s been cooler with tons of fabulous clouds and rain. I like it so much I’ll even take the humidity that goes along with it!
Rainbow.
There were huge storm clouds and then this slice of blue which I loved and had to stop and take a photo of.
Chullain and 4 of his fellow scouts (from 3 wards) went to a 2 day merit badge camp that we held in Cloudcroft, NM this past week. We got up there on Wednesday evening and some of us came back Friday night and others Saturday night after the ward camp out. I have to say that even though it rained I loved the cool weather. It was a treat to get to wear jeans and sneakers and not be sweating all over the place. The boys learned a lot, earned quite a few merit badges and had a really good time. I’m glad that I was able to be a part of it and I’ll jump at the opportunity if it comes around again. I’m really grateful for the other families that did the bulk of the work putting it on and feel blessed to have people like that in our lives.
Boys after their hike on the Osha trail with a wonderfully kind and knowledgeable park ranger who gave them the forestry class for their merit badge.
Chullain’s friends Andrew and Dravyn inside of the shelter that they built for part of their wilderness survival badge. They came up with a different kind of shelter but it worked great and kept all 5 of the boys rather cozy through the night they slept there.
As part of their cooking merit badge they learned about dutch oven cooking. The cobbler I had that they did in the dutch oven was really tasty and everyone raved about the mountain man breakfast.
Some pictures of the camp site… We were only able to make a fire outside the first night as everything was wet the whole weekend. There was a fireplace inside where we had a fire the second night.
Zip line. Awesome. Need I say more?
Chloe our camp mascot. She always seemed to know where to go to get the best food.
As part of their emergency prep merit badge they put up signs around the campsite. It’s 44 acres so I think that the signs will really help out in the future.
So we’ve had puppy Lily for over 3 weeks now and I haven’t gotten around to sharing. Puppy training is hard work I tell ya’. She’s tons of fun and has gone almost two days now without an accident in the house so I’m really pleased with that. I have not taken very many pictures of her but I have a few to share. I’ll try to take more in the future.
It was a Sunday so things were a little more subdued than normal but we still had a great time. Hot dogs and beans are always on the menu and then we have to go and shoot off fireworks because we live in NM and we can. The kids had a great time with the fireworks this year. I think that we’ll have to buy even bigger ones next year. It’s funny that we have two children that are now big enough to light them off so we have to divvy them up. Aidan even wanted to help light them but he’s a little too small for that so we let him have sparklers and watch while others lit them.
Aidan went to bed by 9:30 but the older two stayed up and watched fireworks out our window that were being shot off in our neighborhood and then they went to the trampoline to watch the Las Cruces fireworks display. Even Bo and I went out to watch some of the city display and it was quite impressive.
I don’t know whether to grin or cry about this. He’s so cute and so much fun (when he’s not being trouble that is.) He was really happy about getting his hair cut this way and he’s still adorable but he looks about two years older to me. I think that we’re going to have to let it grow out from this moment on. I know that we probably won’t go back to that toddler longer hair but a little longer I think we might have to do. I’m so glad that he’s pleased with himself though.
Before
After: And I couldn’t resist the bottle sequence because he was just having too much fun with his photo shoot.
This morning we had to go and get Lily our new puppy from the airport in Albuquerque. We figured that we’d leave early and use it as a chance to go and visit the zoo there. So we left at 6 am and found the zoo by 10am. It was pretty hot so it’s good that this was a morning trip. The zoo is quite large and the kids enjoyed it. I think that we’ll have to go back as we only go to about 1/2 of the exhibits in the two hours that we had.
Victoria took this photo: The flamingos were nesting which was pretty cool to see.
This was disturbing. You had to walk under the vultures that were roosting on top of the wire mesh fence.
All three at once, that’s a major feat. I’ll have to try again as we are sorely overdue for family photos.
She’s getting so big and pretty. I think that I’m going to have trouble on my hands in a few years.
I think that this huge lizard was Chullain’s favorite thing at the zoo. He’s funny… literally and figuratively.
So we have a new family in our ward. They are named the Bird Family. We had them over as the ages of our children lined up. We like them. We received from them the gift of the flu so I guess we sorta did have Bird Flu.
Aidan was sick on Saturday and threw up for 9 hours (all through the night I might add). We didn’t see any symptoms in the other kids so we got Chullain all ready for a fabulous week of boy scout camp at Arches National Park. He has been looking forward to it for soo long and was really excited. Bo drops him off Monday morning and at 7:30pm on Monday he calls us and says that he feels awful and has thrown up. We know what’s in store so we load up the van and are on the road by 8:30pm. Victoria says that her stomach hurts as we’re getting ready to leave. I internally groan to myself and pack a lot of plastic bags, wipes and towels. We drive through the night with Bo and I switching off driving and cleaning up after puking children. Aidan has been well for almost a day now so I don’t know what his deal is but he feels that he ought to throw up twice as well (I only brought him one change of clothing) so this makes for a trio of vomiting children on a long road trip. Granted, one of them is hours away and is old enough to be throwing up outside and not on himself but he’s still calling us when he does and miserable as well. So we took a 22 hour road trip with three children with the flu. I think that this will have to go down in our adventure long as one of the most memorable though not the most enjoyable. Ohh, as a side note I have to say that Aidan was so angry at us for not letting him out of his car seat (though the stops got more and more frequent the longer we’d been gone) that he wouldn’t talk to us or make eye contact. We were never so glad to be home and all went to bed by 7pm and slept till 7am. The only positive note is that the country is beautiful and Moab/Arches just want way up the list of places to visit.
At first he did think that it was an adventure and was happy to go for a road trip!
The site the scouts were camping at was just outside of Moab and on the Colorado river.
I’ve only been to the airport in Colorado and so this was an eye opener for me even just the short area we drove through. I love it and think that we need a family camping trip there next year!
We have a routine at bedtime that is pretty strict as it helps Aidan to go to sleep on his own. Well he’s been sleeping on his own pretty well of late and so we’ve gotten a little bit lax. For example we read scriptures tonight at bedtime which is a new time for that. Also, Victoria really likes to read to Aidan and so she read his book to him tonight as well. Well a few funny things happened tonight…
First Victoria came up with a whole pajama outfit and did her hair before bed. She liked it so much that added striped socks and flowered shoes to her ensemble of polka dotted pajama pants and pink tank top with winking face. Ohh, I can’t forget the corkscrew ribbon ponytail holder that she used to hold 1/3 of her hair in a jaunty pony tail above one ear.
Victoria read to Aidan like I said but then as per routine I had to read to him as well. We read Where the Wild Things Are again. When we got to the picture of the sea monster he pointed to the claws and said, “what are those,” and I told him claws of course. Well his response was, “he has angry hands.” I couldn’t helping laughing at that one. He’s also learned that if he asks “will you lay with me a minute,” after we’re done reading that he’ll get extra snuggle time.
Chullain has figured out that it really grosses Victoria out when he flips his eye lids inside out so as she’s finished with her scripture reading she looks up to that. What a spiritual way to end an evening with inside out eyelids and smart comments. I think I’m in for years of that with him being almost 13. I’d rather it to sullen silence and bickering any day though.
So Summer break is finally here. For us it only comes in week long increments but it’s been great this first week not having school. We have played with friends, cleaned the house room by room (no we’re not done yet) and worked in the yard. The kids have spent hours playing in the muddy dirt side of the yard and I didn’t even take one picture. Next time I will I promise though. I’ve been workin’ on picking paint colors for the hall and master bedroom. So far we’ve had 4 tests and 4 rejections so we’ll try 4 more probably next week. We’ve gone to an eye appt and gotten new glasses for Victoria (pictures of that later too) and we’re watching friends pets. Chesty the old bull dog is an attention loving thing and we like taking care of him and tiki the ninja cat is a crazy kitten and we like him too. We’re thinking of adding another dog to the family because we don’t have enough chaos around here and need a puppy to raise so that we can start breeding in a year or two and have more puppies and more chaos. Honestly that is the kind of chaos that I like though so we’ll see what we decide on this front in a few days. We’ve been having play dates and sleep overs and tomorrow I’ll have 8 children here all day so you’ll have to keep your eyes peeled for another post to determine whether or not I survive it. Summer is good. Life is good here in Las Cruces the land of the stellar sunset (photos of that too soon I promise.)
Get these hence or thou wilt be DEAD. He didn’t get so now he’s dead and on the ground. I can not, no will not, have a huge wolf spider looking down on me as I go in and out the front door. Eww, the arachnids are probably my least favorite part of desert life.
We don’t have a flag and we don’t have a Veteran in the immediate family but we are friends with a lot of wonderful people who have served their country well. I have to say that I am very appreciative of our freedoms here in America. I love being able to worship how I please and to feel generally safe while traveling about the country. I love that we have a country where the people are generally patriotic. I love that we have a day off of work to honor those that protect our freedoms. I know that we generally take this day and make it an opportunity to have a party or picnic but I figured it’s worth taking a moment to reflect as well.
We’re for cats (obviously because we keep getting more and more of them) but are cats for us? Do cats love us who pamper and love them? In the last two months we’ve lost a cat and then found it only to have it run away again the first time it could dart between the babies legs out the door. Then, we have another cat that left as well. Now, Bella the cat in the second photo, who we’ve had for 6 years, was doing great going outside and coming back in. Then, one day she didn’t stick around and has never come back. I can’t say that I mind this too terribly much as she’s developed bad potty habits and that is why we were letting her out in the first place. Then there’s Snow… while I’m not surprised that she ran off as I believe you can’t totally take the street out of the cat, which is where she came from in the first place, I am disappointed for Victoria. I still am not convinced that one day one or both of these cats won’t just show up at the door. I will wait a long time before replacing either one of them because we learned our lesson when we got Tabatha (Snow’s replacement from the first time she ran off.) I can not keep going to the pound every other day, putting up fliers and walking the neighborhoods looking for cats that can’t be bothered to come back if they somehow manage to get out. It’s my opinion that pets ought to love us back and I’m sticking to it!
While this may not seem huge revelation given that we’re human and our blood is one of the chief sustaining elements of life it was to two of my children yesterday.
First we’re helping with a fireside for another ward at the church building. It’s time to leave and Victoria goes bowling across the parking lot eating a cookie and running full out in her church shoes. She does a toddleresque face plant sort of move. Luckily she is now old enough to catch herself with her hands but not quite fast enough because she’s scraped up her palm and one of her arms along the side. She’s also gouged her knee real good. I rescue the cookie and follow her to the car where’s she’s again raced to because she doesn’t want to cry in the middle of the parking lot. She’s crying and practically hyperventilating as she’s not accustomed to hurting herself anymore. I can’t really do anything about it in the parking lot so I try to calm her and get in and drive her home. She’s covering it with a tissue as she had to do something to try and make it feel better. She’s getting a little calmer until blood starts soaking through the tissue. Then she’s says, “there’s blood, Mom I’m BLEEDING” in this panicked sort of voice like blood enough to soak through the tissue is the end all be all in denoting a really bad wound. I assure you she is o.k. and there weren’t any stitches needed last Sabbath day. A few band-aids later and she was sleeping in bed.
I would like to say that was the end of the blood letting and cleaning for the evening but it wasn’t.
We put Aidan to be as we normally do and he got up and peeked out and saw me as he sometimes does. Best we can figure is that when I told him to get back in bed he ran and jumped into bed (we’ve often observed this) and he smashed his face on the bed frame. Well he peeked out of the door again and I said “get in bed” again. The door shuts and he starts crying. This is not normal so I go in to check and as soon as I open the door he says “I have blood.” Well this unfortunately isn’t totally abnormal as he has a history of nose bleeds so I go in a pick him up and take him to the bathroom without assessing the situation in his room. When I sit him on the sink there isn’t a trickle of blood there’s bunches of it. It’s covered both hands, his chest, his shirt and pants and the shoulder and front of my shirt as well. I call Bo in that panicked voice that says run to me now and he goes into the bedroom and says “have you seen all this blood.” He is not as strong with this as I am so I don’t really know how much blood there is from that. But he was totally on this time. It has soaked his sheets, pillows, blanket and even into the mattress. It was spotted along the carpet and up onto the door jam. I don’t recall a child ever bleeding all over to this extent before. Aidan is fine and now has permission to get out of bed anytime he’s bleeding and come to us (not that he was very long that I can tell without me this time but still.)
I stayed up till midnight and got the last bit of bloody laundry into the washer. It was an interesting evening for sure and I can tell you that without a doubt we are a family of red blooded Americans.
I know this because he told me so. He’s telling everyone that will listen that he’s super baby because he now has hand me down costumes to wear. Victoria helped him dress up and find his inner super baby so if she wasn’t before is now officially a great big sister.
