In the Newspaper!

Moira's teachers very kindly sent home this paper with Moira on the front page planting flowers on the school grounds. Pretty neat!

Night Mouse

When I first saw her this morning I thought someone hit her- or maybe she was stung by a bee... and then I remembered the mess we found in our bathroom last night- mainly my make up.

Bedtime to Violet is when the other kids go to bed so that she can do what she wants until Mom and Dad come upstairs.

My Dogwood Tree

I was so excited when I discovered the Dogwood tree in my yard... they are my favorite. And check out the blue sky today!

Finally! Softball!

After years of waiting, one of my girls has decided to try out softball! I can't tell you how excited I am! Maybe the exclamation points convey that?  !!!

Go Moira!

Luca the Destroyer

Don't get me wrong, my girls got into trouble, and lots of it. But when they got caught getting into said trouble, they had the decency to stop and look at least slightly ashamed.

Not Luca. When he gets caught doing something he shouldn't be (which is about every 15 minutes) he rushes furiously to finish what he started. And then he throws it, if possible. For example, this morning  he was playing with someone's cup of water they left on the table (both of which are strictly forbidden) and I walked around the corner. He saw me and frantically started spreading the water as much as he could, laughing as he did. Or, how about when I found him pre-dinner trying to eat from a glass bowl on the table. Luckily I caught the bowl before it hit the ground. I didn't make it in time for the dinner plate the night before- it shattered into many smaller pieces. The dog food is thrown at least once a day, as well as phones, pens, controllers, and his sister's toys. I often have to change his pants mid morning due to him being wet from a water adventures in the dog's bowl.  And he's never sorry; not one bit. Unless you count the trouble he's sorry he didn't get to finish.

Now if you'll excuse me, I have to go clean up a board game he just dumped as I wrote this.

When is This Phase Over?

That is syrup. There's more on the chair and table, as well.

Nothing is safe. Especially my sanity.

Ugh.

Exploring the Yard

Sometimes I watch my kids with amazement as they run all over our yard, play in the woods behind our house, and discover unique rocks they can climb; not because I didn't have that growing up (cuz I did), but because they have never had it.  They grew up as inside kids for the most part, and coming here was a huge adjustment.

At least for most of them it was.  For Violet and Luca this is all they will know. It will be so natural to them. And that makes me so happy- makes me happy that we made the decision to move away from the "big city" and raise our kids here.

So here's a picture of the two littles discovering one of our big rocks. I'm so lucky.

 

It's Time (Out)

I haven't done time-outs with the girls for so long I almost forgot about it. We're trying to curb some violent tendencies in the boy, and this seems to work, for now.

Still, so dang cute, even when he's in trouble!

Mom's Weekend Away

Kaylon's travel with the job has at least doubled, if not tripled what it used to be, leaving me a little frazzled at times (ok, who am I kidding, a lot frazzled). So Kaylon very sweetly bought me a ticket to go see my family in Arizona when he saw that he had a long weekend coming. Funny enough the reason he had a long weekend was because it was EASTER. And the tickets were nonrefundable (are any tickets refundable anymore?). So with a slightly guilty conscious that I was abandoning my children on a holiday weekend, I boarded a plane to a weekend of no-mommy responsibilities.

I love my nieces and nephews. I never expected it to be like that with my siblings kids, but it is- total unconditional love.  They fought over who would give me the first hug. They told me all about their friends and classes, and I loved it. We went to the Phoenix Zoo, which someone I had never visited before, right from the airport.

 Our attempt at a selfie.

Then things got exciting when we went to lunch and Emma fell and split her forehead open.  The poor people at Chick Fil A probably thought we were gonna sue them.  We cleaned her up and had to take her for stitches.  No temple visit, but I got to eat some pizza with the other kids.

It's interesting how playful I get when I don't have anything to do- the kids got me to jump on the trampoline quite a bit (great exercise). Of course I also got to spend time with my sister and we had the boys over at various times on Saturday. Quite relaxing.

Before I left on Sunday Ang took me to see Mom's grave for the first time since the funeral. The grass is coming in nicely and she's gotten some neighbors recently- one of them a friend who also lost a fight to cancer. I should have taken the picture closer, but I forgot till we got back to the truck.

Course poor Kaylon got stuck with a weekend of vomit- I guess no good deed goes unpunished, right? But that also meant he got lots of snuggles from the little dude. I'm grateful he is willing to do things like this for me.