Friday, October 26, 2012

Lynneah's "Pacifier"

Lynneah hasn't used a pacifier for over a year now, but the baby she got for her birthday has a pacifier and she looooves it...the baby and the pacifier. The funniest part is that it's not a normal shaped pacifier, just a little nub that goes in the doll's mouth, yet she walks around with that nub in her mouth all the time. I hope she doesn't end up biting it off or it won't stay in the doll's mouth.

I know "ethnic" babies came out of a politically correct movement, but I have to say I'm glad my brown kids can have brown babies that look like them. I'm still waiting for the half Mexican baby with Asian eyes to hit the market so I can buy it for Lynneah, but till that happens I'm glad they have brown babies with brown eyes and hair for her to play with. Notice her hand is the same color as the doll. It's perfect.

Cross Country

 The boys' school has a Cross Country team starting in 2nd grade. Gabriel came home begging to join the team. Stephen was a runner and I tried really hard to be, so of course we said yes. But, he also had a agree to no quitting, and working hard and listening to the coach. He just had his first meet.
We'll go over a Track start vs a Cross Country start with him. ;) Cute though.


 And they're off! The bright red shorts really helped us keep track of where he was.

 The boys ready to cheer...or play.

 The girls ready to cheer.

Comin' in. 
As he came in you could tell he was TIRED, but he kept going and finished right in the middle. His school got first, second and third for the 2nd-4th grade group. Those first 3 kids were crazy good. The 2nd place finisher is a kid that has been in Gabriel's class a couple times. He has so much raw ability. He comes from an environment that he will have to overcome. He's a good kid and I hope so much that he will tap into and channel his energy into athletics rather than the other influences in his life. He will be able to go so far if he makes good choices. I pray he does. Back to Gabriel, he ended and was kinda disappointed that he was right in the middle of the pack. I asked what he could do to help that? He had no idea. I asked if maybe not doing quite so much running before the race started would help him have a little more energy for the actual race? The light went off and he said, "I learned a lesson! Don't run around before the race!!" He was so excited and ran around like a crazy kid for the full hour before the race. As we went home he asked if I thought he should keep doing Cross Country. I told him of course I did and now that he learned something he can use it to help him improve the next time. Another light went off.

He had both Grandmas, Papa and our entire family managed to all make it for his first race. That many won't be able to always make, but what a good cheering section for his first school competition.

Sassy!

We just had Lynneah's 2nd Birthday Party. Can you believe it? Me either. More pictures of that soon.
In the meantime this awesome shot of Aunt Sassy will have to do. I busted up when I looked over and saw this.
Bwahahaha!

Hey! No guns while holding a baby!

All About Kenzie

Cute and Happy!! All ready for church.
( I so love getting to use all the cute stuff from Lynneah again!)

The day before she turned 8 months she pulled to a stand...several times. She is now a standing pro!

The day I walked in to find this, was the day she moved into a pack n play.

Halloween decorations make fabulous toys!

Gotcha where I want ya...

Now I'm gonna eatcha!
(Have you ever heard that scary story/joke? I need to look it up for the boys.)

This is what I did instead of the dishes, laundry, toy pick up, paper sorting that I should have been doing last night.
It was so much more fun than all that other stuff.

Primary Program

The weekend of the Primary Program Practice was packed, with back to back stuff, all day, non-stop. As I went through the house on the way to the next thing I spotted this little beauty. I'm like a Pavlovian Dog...I had to have it. Stephen said to as Gabriel about it.

His eyes lit up and said, "I brought it from the practice for YOU! You like chocolate." Funny boy knows his Mama. I hadn't had breakfast and this was superb.

The next they did their parts like camps!
 
"Each Sunday as I take the sacrament I can become clean again as I renew the covenants I made at baptism."

"Listening to the Prophet helps me choose the right."

Bobcat

Gabriel earned his Bobcat last week at Pack Meeting! 
I'm working 2 long days a week this semester. Pack Meeting happens to be at the end of one of those days. Fortunately it's entertaining enough to keep the girls entertained and it only took once of missing the after meeting treat for Lincoln to realize we're not joking about sitting quietly during the meeting and not running around.
He was so excited to get it. It took a little longer for him because it involved reading a few things, but he did it!

And the millions of years of Pinewood Derbys, and achievements, and camps begin.

Good thing his Dad is into all that stuff! ;-) His Mom could do it but she is sooo not into it.

Good Job Buddy Boy! Keep working hard.

Monday, October 22, 2012

Trashy People

Just received this...

For our yard that looks like this...
Honestly! How can people live like this?!? Some people are just so trashy. 
(Can you hear the irritated sarcasm dripping from the words?)

It's a second notice, but the yard looked like this for the first notice I ignored.
It says we must reply within 10 days via certified letter, so I sent this snarky reply...
(Yes, I feel much better after writing it.)


Our patience is wearing thin with your unfounded harassing notices.

We’ve received NUMEROUS car citations. Only ONE of the vehicles was ours (NO IDEA who the other cars belong to) and it was the DAY AFTER WE MOVED IN! We hadn’t even gotten all of our boxes INTO the house and you were citing us for the truck we used to move our stuff with. Really?!?! New residents aren’t even allowed a week to move in before you sic the “inspectors” on them? Wow, amazing community ya’ll got here. Remind me to recommend this Gestapo to all of my friends and family. I didn’t even want to live in this neighborhood, but we’re cheap and low quality KB homes, with guest quarters to care for an aging parent and rooms for 5 kids, are sufficient for a cheap budget. Come on people we’re not living in high quality housing here, it’s KB junk and everyone knows it. This is a stepping stone neighborhood where people live until they can get into the neighborhoods they really want.

Now we’re being cited for our phantom weeds?!? The notice states the inspection was done on October 16. That happened to be an insanely busy week from hell for us. Your notice berating our “eye sore” of a yard was a lovely ending to it. Thank you so much for the attention.  You can imagine the warm fuzzy feeling I got when I opened my mail box to find the cursed yellow card sitting there to greet me. I grabbed it and skimmed over it’s “information” filled contents while I loaded all my kids into the car to leave. Desert Broom?? Oh crap! I’m deathly allergic to that devil weed. I loathe that horrible plant with every fiber of my being. I lose days at work every stinkin’ year due to being so sick from that nasty plant. That policy is the ONLY saving grace to this community’s stupid CC&Rs.  We spray weeds every Saturday so how this awful plant snuck through I had no idea. At the risk of being late for the appointment we were headed to I jumped out of the car for an inspection of our yard “to the left of the driveway”…and I found…N O T H I N G!!

(Picture of Yard)

So, I checked to the right of the driveway…NOTHING. There wasn’t a weed of any sort, at all, much less a Desert Broom. I figured it’d been such a busy week that we must have just overlooked something growing. Uhhhh, no, you guys are just seeing things. Due to the fact that I, along with all my kids, are so allergic to this plant we can identify it at all stages of growth. And get this; we always removed it immediately upon noticing it at our old house…wait for it… wait for it…without someone ordering us to do so. I know it’s a novel idea that the minions are capable of independent thought and action. With such a difficult concept for you to wrap your minds around, I’ll let you ruminate on it for a moment…


My husband and I are just naturally organized, clean kind of people; although, the 5 kids born in under 7 years make cleaning anything a challenge, we still do it. I’m not sure if this is just the standard “welcome to the neighborhood, now get in line” kind of harassment you bestow on all the newcomers or not, but it’s ridiculous. For heaven’s sake! Are you nothing but a bunch of robots? Did it never cross your mind to think, “Hmmm, that family moved in 1 day ago let’s give them a couple weeks and see what happens to that truck.” Or, “Oh, I notice a weed let’s give it till the next inspection and see if they are capable of self governing and get rid of the weeds on their own.”  *Or* I don’t know, maybe just maybe, in the true spirit of community why don’t you ask, “Hey, are you doing alright? Is there something so consuming going on in life that you’ve not been able to get to the weeds, bring in the garbage can, move the errant car, sweep the front walk, trim the bushes and trees, etc, etc, etc?” And here’s the best part…are you ready…this will blow your mind…ask them,  
“HOW. CAN. WE. HELP?” 
Now that’s an earth shattering concept right there.


We’d be deeply grateful if you’d calm down, take a breath, and behave like humans. If our yard ever truly becomes an eye sore I can assure you my anal retentive self will be acutely aware of it. The fact that the dead tree and scraggly ugly bush were removed within a week of moving in illustrates the fact that we, too, like “aesthetically pleasing” yards. If my yard isn’t “aesthetically pleasing” to you, it’s because life has hit a new low and we’re barely hanging on to body and soul…we’ve been there, it sucks. When our fourth baby was born with a 50/50 chance of survival and my husband was barely back into work and I was living at the NICU; we got a few weeds in our yard. Guess what? As soon as we were all back home alive we took care of them, again, without anyone telling us to. During that time a letter from someone like you guys would’ve sent us over the edge. Our baby had barely survived, my husband had barely gotten back to work, our world was turned upside-down, and I’ll be forever grateful there was NO HOA breathing down our necks about something so incredibly insignificant.

I’ve included a large picture showing the state of our yard the day of inspection and the day I received the notice. I would love it if you could circle the Desert Broom I’m supposed to remove and send it back to me…ON YOUR DIME NOT MINE.

Since only one of the errant cars was ours I’d like the $1.30 you wasted sending me a certified letter (which by the way stunk picking up with 5 kids in tow) removed from my account. Rude! Not cool charging me for other people parking in front of my house!

There IS a Desert Broom just outside my back fence in the desert owned by the HOA; I’d like YOU to remove it “no later than October 28, 2012 to protect the aesthetics of the community” desert area.

Instead of wasting so much money on postage hounding people about things they’ll probably take care of on their own anyway; may I suggest taking that money and purchasing some additional descent playground equipment. THAT would be a benefit to the community. Have you checked out the “playgrounds”? They are L A M E! If every minute of my residency here is going to be managed then I’d like the HOA to manage to give something back. All of the quality neighborhoods (think Dove Mountain and Tangerine Crossing, shoot even North Ranch) have good playgrounds. Their HOAs provide something for the residents and in turn the residents keep their yards looking nice.


Disgusted with having to live here,




P.S. We’re not quite as smart as the HOA president and board, but don’t think we don’t notice the red neck inflatable pool on the front porch AND PLASTIC CHAIRS. What’s good for the goose is good for the gander…dear leader, uh…el presidente, uh…great one, uh…whatever it is you crown yourself. I certainly hope you’re heading all the notices about those chairs. Or do you get to be an exception?

Friday, October 19, 2012

I wonder...

Such concentration! He was soaked and deliriously happy about it by the end.
He was so cute to watch...took all the activities so seriously and loved it!

Will I ever be able to help with, or watch my kiddos do, something like this without a twinge?
A twinge of anger.
A twinge of frustration.
A twinge of sadness.
A twinge of utter defeat.
A twinge of that deep underlying feeling that's not describable.
And complete revoltion with druke and green.

It's been long enough that there shouldn't be any twinges left, but I have got such an evil nature that there are. I try to be like Stephen, but his ability to just move on is a gift, and I don't have it. I am grateful for my own gift of being able to tuck all my emotions safely away behind a big toothy smile and appear like all is well. No one ever thinks of an ability like that as a gift, but it is, and has served me so well in social settings, school settings, church settings, and family settings. It is a good gift.

He was so dang cute...that helped. :-)

Saturday, October 13, 2012

Marana Pumpkin Patch

A 75 degree day should never be wasted! We went back to the Marana Pumpkin Patch this year for a day of fun and bea-u-tiful weather. I went last year, by myself with 4 kids and VERY pregnant with Kenzie, and had an enjoyable time despite being a bit of a circus. We decided to go back again this year! They have grass to keep all the dust at bay, tons of shade around, a bunch of activities included in the admission, short drive, family friendly, good food at very reasonable prices, cute and just all around great. Loooooved it!

First things first. PUMPKINS! (An orange one included with admission.)


Then the Jumping Pillow! So fun.




Off to the races...The PIG Races that is. (One of the activities included with admission.)

A visit to the petting zoo is a must. (One of the activities included with admission.)




Some driving practice with the peddle cars.



Garrett has serious driving issues. I vote Stephen gets to teach him how to drive someday. :-D


They conquered Straw Mountain. (Part of the free Kid Zone area.)

Played on the cool Giant Spider Web. (Kid Zone)

Fun Photo Ops


They LOVED the train, but I was nursing Kenzie and didn't get a picture.

Last but not least The Corn Maze (Also included in admission).


A blast was had by all and all were ready to do this, so we headed home for nap/quiet time.

This is a fantastic pumpkin patch! I'm so glad they started it; definitely recommend it.

"Cabining"

I do *NOT* camp. 
That being said I will stay in a cabin. We went cabining for General Conference. I took a ton of pictures, but these are a couple that caught my eye as I looked at them. I'll post more later...maybe...if I ever get to it. 

Lynneah was really into stalking the deer.

THIS might get framed on the wall. Oh, I love it! I could sit here and stare at it for hours.

Sometimes...

do you wonder what exactly they are thinking?

Yeah me too.


Kenzie's Trick

Crawling is so...
normal.

Now this takes talent. ;-)