a little lacking

so... we got a new pool for the kids in the backyard, and they have swimmed in it every day since Sunday afternoon. Yesterday ( tuesday) I realized they hadnt bathed in a bathtub since Saturday night...

does a dip in the pool count for a bath?

why am i even sharing this embarassing information...

why not?

another thing lacking is my motivation to do homework with my kindergartener...

only a few more days.. thankfully..

A close call

" She came already?" camden said, while hearing the coins jingling under his pillow, where he placed his two teeth just 30 minutes before.
The toothfairy was almost caught doing the transfer.
" Where are my teeth?" he said, while Dad ever so sly-ly placed the teeth back under the pillow, and they both tried figuring out how the toothfairy had made her entrance and quick escape.
"Let me count my coins.. $3.00.. wow.. "
"I know why the toothfairy came so quick... its because I went to sleep so fast.. "
"I'm gonna go show mom. "( who was hiding in the hallway seeing and hearing the whole event take place).. I snuck into the bathroom, hanging up a towel.

This is when my heart skipped a beat.. Wow that was a close one... Thankfully dad had quick thinking and happened to be attentive to the potential hazard of a young childs mind.
The toothfairy in our house has forgotten to leave the money once, and we wanted to make sure that wasnt going to happen again. I had bunco, and all the girls had just left. Camden went to the dentist yesterday, and had 2 teeth pulled. The dentist sent them home, so the tooth fairy could find them at our place.
" I hope you have some more cash" blades said, after he had taken the last of my cash out of my wallet to entertain the children at our local fun.. McDonalds while I had Bunco. If i would have done well at Bunco, I would of had some extra cash, but not the case... We went to our stash in the 5 gallon water jug in the closet to fish for some coins.
We placed the 12 quarters in a pink toole pouch with a drawstring and blades went in for the switcharoo..
Camden must not of been asleep all the way, and wondered if dad would cover him up.. Then he remembered the teeth, and started looking for them. The thing was, they were already in Blades' pocket, and the pouch was now under his pillow. He quickly put them in his hand and swooped under the pillow, replacing the teeth.. and that's how the toothfairy was almost caught.
He shared a quarter with Case this morning, because he woke up with a dry bed. What a nice brother... ( maybe i should get some more quarters, cause washing sheets every other night is making my washing machine work overtime).. maybe my washing machine has some extra quarters... it's worth a look.

Happy campers

The weekend of Easter, the kids were out of school on Friday, so we wanted to go camping. we didnt want to go too far away, so we chose Superstition mountain.. it was only about 30 minutes away from our house. Lets just say..

• I wouldnt desert camp again.


• The cactus alone could send any normal exploring boy screaming with stickers and thorns in his shoes..


• shade is a must


• all kinds of critters come out at night.


• desert mice are not timid


• large bugs can carry away terantulas


• being a friendly neighbor is a must


• a campfire and smores with the Palomo's was fun


• you can heat corn up, and then serve it from the can you just opened..

We found a campsite that was large enough to hold our massive 20 person tent ( its huge maybe not 20 but atleast 10).. we had some not so friendly neighbor campers next to us that told our kids to move off her campsite... which was the trash can area... she also yelled at the boys when they were excited that a mouse was scurrying by our campsite. The clock read 7:30 pm... she yelled " BE QUIET"... i then told her " um.. it's just a mouse".. needless to say we wanted to smack her.. blades wished she would choke on a hotdog and we made sure not to make any eye contact with her on the way to the bathroom... come on lady.. be happy you are in the desert and camping.. who could ask for more?

Here are a few pictures of our evening. After Blades cooked, the mice started coming out of the woodworks ( desert) they werent concerned that we were humans.. they were focused on finding food.. we stood on the picnic bench for a while, but they were around to stay. we kept seeing more and more of them. we made sure the tent was zipped so they wouldnt find a place to sleep since it already be occupied by us. the mice were nasty and ran around our tent all night too. Debra and her boys came up for dinner and smores. They had fun watching for the critters, but were glad they would make the trip home to sleep in thier mice free beds.

We made breakfast the next day, packed up and left. We didnt really want to see our neighbor camper.. it still ticks me off thinking about it..

It definitley wasnt the ideal camping trip, but maybe the kids will have some great memories of our adventure.

Case showing off his new Chex mix jewelry

the view from our campsite..

rise and shine..

blades and the boys..

Case, Mason, Tyler and Camden enjoying the fire.. ( that we had to bring.. one of those firepits)

two tired boys..

Camden and a marshmellow

was that a mouse? debra's feet up in the air :)

have you any wool?

As Camden's Kindergarten play approached, he was excited about the songs, but not so excited about the thought of dressing up as a farm animal. His school let us know about a week before the performance of the requested costume... to be something homemade, or something we already had. Halloween around here does not involve farm animals, so the thought of having something on hand was out of the question. I threw it out there on Facebook about an idea.. and heres what we got in return.. 500 cottonballs later... fabric glue and a vest we had the cutest sheep on the farm. He actually cried when I first told him my idea. saying " I'm gonna look so stupid." I tried explaining he might look more "silly" if he didnt have a costume since everyone else would. It worked!
How can you not love this sheep?
this was before we had all the cottonballs placed. We ran out and had to go get more. ( i ruined a shirt of mine while placing the furballs)

do you spy the sheep?

Case and Camden before the big performance

Camden, Chloe and Christion..

much more happy than the before picture.. Camden, Chloe and Abby

I'm biased, but I think his costume was the cutest. I may not be able to get away with it much longer.. me making costumes.. so I will take what I can get...

My little farmers..

We have been enjoying checking on our garden. We were happy to see the tomato plant had red tomatoes on them. We didnt realize we picked the salad size tomato plant, but they were about as big as a grape :)... they were tasty.. The kids thought it was fun to pick them.. the squash is about to flower, and we have some bell peppers too. This was our first attempt at greening up our thumbs, but it has been fun!

Momma's Day

I woke up to breakfast made on Saturday.. since we have church early Blades made breakfast the day before...
We cleaned up the house a bit, then headed to the movies. It was gnomeo and juliet.. a 3d movie.. the kids thought it was pretty cool.. all the stuff coming towards us. they looked cute in their oversized goggles...
We had lunch, and went to Kyndal's grave..
Sunday, I woke up to homemade cards which made me cry..
we went to church, and none of my kids had to be taken out.. which makes Mothers Day even that more nice.
I took a nap
Blades cooked dinner.. bbq steak.. yummm
got the kids ready for bed.
read them some bedtime stories.. ( are you my mother?.. figured it was fitting for Mothers Day)
we made dessert and put the kids to bed before they got their share..
i wrote in the kids' journals and our family journal..
sent blades to bed.. ( he is working super early in the am)
I stayed up and watched TV..

What a wonderful Mothers Day. I am grateful for my little boys ( who arent so little anymore)
I am grateful for my mom and mother in law. I have great ones.
I hope Kyndal was watching from above sharing in my special day.

My laundry is washing and drying.. my windows are open with a nice breeze coming through the house. When I took Camden out for carpool today, it was actually cool, so all of my windows are open. Im sure in a few hours I will have to close them, but for now the cool fabric softener breeze is nice!
Hope you all had a great Mothers Day!!!