Pomegranate harvest

It was overcast a few days ago, really beautiful weather and we have tons of pomegranates that need picking so I got Louise a little chair and a couple of flowers...

...and I got picking. 

The kids helped for awile but got disraced before too long. 

I would get distracted too. I took something like 20 pictures of Louise and this chair. 

It will never get old. Now matter how many babies I have, everything they do will be the cutest. 

I discovered a pile of mud balls while walking around the tree. Now I know why their hands are always so filthy. 

And then we enjoyed the fruits of our labor. Sitting in the yard eating pomegranates with my kids is one of my favorite things. 

It was so nice until Gracie and Joe put a seed up their noses and Joes got stuck. Luckily I got it out after awhile. I was taking to him about trying to blow it out and he said, "what about if I bless-you?". That is still what he calls it when he sneezes - "bless you-ed". I was bummed when we didn't sell out house but I have to say I am happy to be here still, especially when the pomegranates are ripe. 

Dear Gracie

Dear Gracie, 

Right now you are 7 years old and it is hard to believe. you are excited to be baptized but even more excited to be a mom! In the past couple weeks you have said a few times, "I just can't wait to be a mom!". You actually made up a whole song about it while you were cooking dinner with me once. You make up a lot of songs and sometimes they never end, you just seem to pause them for awhile. You love singing into the ipad and making videos of it. 

You are such a big helper. You always buckle and unbuckle Joe in the car seat. And you also love to unbuckle Louise and carry her inside for me. 

You do have a gift for making a mess. You just have some many ideas of things you would like to do but rarely stop to think about the mess it will make. It usually isn't that big of a deal except right now we are trying to sell our house and keep it show ready. Making messes isn't really good for that. So I find myself frustrated with you a lot lately but I am trying to remember that you are just a child and I need to be patient. 

This is a picture I took one night when you were the last to finish dinner. You are usually the last. You are a very slow eater. I think that is because you can't eat and talk at the same time.

We were doing math one day and counting by 10's starting with 2. When we got to 102 you said "tenty-two". It was pretty funny and we both laughed quite a bit.

This is you and Joe playing Peter Pan and Wendy with a thimble for a kiss. You and Joe play so much together. That is something I have loved about home school is how much time you get to play with Joseph. you guys can play and play and play. I love how dirty your feet are in this picture. 

You are also so sweet with your baby sister. You and Louise really love each other and you love to take care of her, teach her, and help her. Here you are sharing your twinkie with her that she wanted so bad. 

One night as I was going to bed I saw this note written to me and dad with lipstick. You love to write sweet noted to people and you love to ask me questions using notes. Like yesterday in church you gave me a note that asked if we could please watch a movie when we got home. 

You have been asking for a while to learn how to sew and I finally started teaching you. You have done really well with learning to control the speed of the machine. It will be awhile before you are doing the cutting, pinning, and ironing. But one step at a time. I know you will be a great sewer because you love to create.

Here you are very proud of your knew skirt. 

You still bring so much happiness and joy to our family. 

I love you,

Mom

Dear William

It has been awhile since I have written one of these, our lives have been pretty busy lately. You are a fun kid, full of life and energy. You don't like waking up and having to do jobs first thing. You would much rather hang out in your pajamas and play with legos. Man you love legos and you are really good with them. You have a very creative mind and build a lot of cool things all on your own.

You are growing up so fast. You love to talk to dad and I (mostly your dad) about anything. Especially at night when you are supposed to be going to sleep. You have been reading some more chapter books and are doing well in school. You are doing math online and seem to enjoy that and you are cruising right a long with it. You have also started writing in cursive again and you are doing really well. 

You have gotten better at playing with Joe. It is part of your school to do list. Sometimes playing with a determined three year old can be challenging and has been for you but when you play with his and read with him he loves it so much and I can see the love between you two growing. Once while you were playing outside I heard Joe say, "I will follow him wherever he goes." I know it was part of the game you were playing but it struck me as truth. He will follow you and I am glad you are such a good person. 

You have a very extensive knowledge of the Gospel. You were asked to write your own part for the primary program and did a very good job with that. I love hearing the things that are in your mind and heart. 

Now for some pictures of some happenings over the last couple of months:

Grandma C came over to help you bake cookies for one of you scout requirements. She was kind to do that since I don't really bake. You had a lot of fun doing that with her and the cookies were delicious.

The first day at EVMCO choir this semester I volunteered to help so I got to watch you. I stood in this spot watching you for quite awhile but you never saw me because you never took your eyes off your director. You are very dedicated to choir and such a good singer. I love hearing you sing.

You are growing like I weed and I had to take you shopping because we realized all your pants were too short. You were making me laugh so hard when I convinced you to try on some skinny jeans. You did these poses all on your own.

One night at dinner you asked for more salad. After you ate that you wanted more but it was all gone so you cute up a whole head of romaine and ate by yourself. You love salad. 

You are learning how to mow the lawn and have mowed Grandpa's lawn with assistance but I know it won't be long before you can do it completely on your own. You are very good at accomplishing big jobs and are excited to be earning some money.

While you are such a good helper most of the time there are times where you struggle to obey when first asked and without complaint. Because we are selling the house there have been days where we have to clean everything and I ask for your help and you are not every excited about it. But we are working on it. You also love playing with your friends and get pretty disappointed if playing with them doesn't work out. You do not like to be told, "no".

You love to make people laugh and you are truly a joy. 

I love you, 

Mom

Back to school feast 2014

Since we had just had so much fun at the river on a homeschool field trip I decided to have our back to school lunch there. I packed a picnic lunch and set it all up by the salt river. 

We ate but then quickly cleaned up and relocated to another part of the river, where there weren't obnoxious drunk people. We talked about how when storms come along prayer helps us steer our ship. And there was chocolate milk so the kids thought it was awesome.

What a day

Today has been quite a day. I am sitting at Mcdonalds at 8:15 pm and wondering how I got here. Last night I got back from a moms retreat I organized up at the cabin. I will write about that when I am in a better mood. I came home feeling inspired and tired. I was planning to spend today getting our new homeschool schedule for the next little while ironed out and have our back to school dinner tonight. Well Russ hurt his back and it has been pretty debilitating. And Louise started burning up with fever last night. She was still hot in the morning. And even though I knew she was tired she would not stay asleep for a nap. So I took her swimming with the kids while Russ vacuumed the pool and before long she was too tired to do that. So I brought her in and she finally slept. Russ had to take off for a dr. Appointment to get a referral to take care of his varicose veins. I let the kids put on a movie and worked on homeschool stuff. When Russ got back I started dinner. Louise was tired and fussy and Russ was in too much pain to help. I tried to put her in the so I for a bath. She always loves that but she didn't like it tonight. Not one bit. So I took her out and for her dressed while dinner turned cold on the stove. I went back in and tasted it and realized and either the cream or broth I had used must have been bad. It tasted awful. So much for back to school dinner. I put Louise to bed and then took the other kids to get some dinner. They chose McDonald's so here I am. The good part of the day was that on the way I decided to stop by and try one of Jared Allen's eclairs he was sampling. That was delicious. And then I took some over to Tiffany Haynes for him and got to snuggle her week old Oscar. Oh my goodness was he sweet and cute and I LOVE BABIES. So now I am trying to decide if we should have a back to school lunch tomorrow (we are having a small memorial service at our home tomorrow night for Pam Branch) or if I should just put it off until next Monday and give myself time to get some more concrete plans without being rushed. That sounds nice, I may do that. That is the beauty of homeschool. I can do that. They can still do their school work but we won't officially start the new semester and school schedule until next week. Now I need to round up their kids and take them home and get into bed. I can't wait.

Pinedale cabin day 5&6

For the talent show my dad did a skit where he wore overalls. Russ decided he wanted to try them out. So that was awesome. I also love this rock Ashley painted as in the momento from our Taylor Ranch Huston family reunion 2014.

She got so excited when he put her on his shoulders.

Russ took William and Gracie fishing and Mark and Eric and I took Sam and Joe on a hike. I was a little bit nervous not knowing how they would react and figuring Joseph would probably want to be carried up the mountain but I was pleasantly surprised that these boys were tough little hikers. They both fell and scraped their knees but just got up and brushed it off. They didn't whine or complain except for the time that Joseph said, "I wish the sun wasn't real". Many times I wish the same thing except I just wish it was covered by a cloud.

That's Taylor Ranch down there in the background. Look at how high they hiked. Also check out Joseph's awesome pose.

It was really fun to hike with these boys and it made me excited to hike with them as they get older on different mountains. I don't like running but I do like hiking.

Joe was ready to head back down the mountain before Sam was so Sam and Mark hiked up a little bit higher to the very top of the mountain.

Joe and I just sat back and admired his rock he found that is a perfect sphere.

When we got back I got to sit out with this little chub while the clouds sprinkled some rain on us.

I couldn't get enough of all my beautiful views.

Joseph was so worn out that if he sat still long enough he would fall asleep.

And she was pretty happy that she got to take a bath in the sink.

The swings and that back porch got lots and lots of use in the few days we were there.

Russ found the coolest beetle, and hugest I must say. The next morning he got up early to go fishing by himself. He had some pretty nice views.

When he got back Lou was delighted to see him and to drive the car back into the driveway. She loves standing up to the steering wheel so much.

We had already started packing up and cleaning up the cabin so when Russ got back I had him take all the kids for a hike again so that way we could clean up without the kids continuing to make a mess.

These are some pictures he took.

After everything was cleaned up and packed up we headed out of Pinedale but not without stopping at the covered bridge first to take a family picture. I have never seen a covered bridge in real life before.

We headed to Showlow to have lunch at the Mexican restaurant Lachanos that my uncle Danny works for. The kids loved it because they had a fish tank with the blowfish even.

Then it was time to head home it was rainy in Showlow when we left. And it was raining in the valley when we got home. It was such a blessing to not have to come home to stifling heat after a wonderful week up in the beautiful mountains of Arizona.

 I hope we get a chance to go up again next year.