Swimming Pro

Hunter is now a proficient swimmer!  He has relearned how to navigate through the water (though slowly) and has even learned how to come up for a breath while swimming.  In fact, he became so comfortable at his lessons, that he decided to just take a break & relax on the pool deck. 

His teacher had to take charge.  He is always on his best behavior in a new situation.  Very shy & quiet.  Once he gets used to the setting, he is a whole other kid!

I love how she just tosses him in the water.

He learned his lesson and decided to do it on his own the next time around.

Thanks Miss Jody!  Hunter is more comfortable navigating the pool and even jumps off the diving board and swims over to the side.  It is a relief to not worry about him as much in the water, but I won't miss roasting out in the heat for 30 minutes a day!  I'm sure Adam & Jacob will agree!

Blackout

Our power just came back on after about 2 1/2 hours of nothing.  Having your power die on you in the middle of an AZ summer is not really a fun thing.  In fact, it can be very dangerous!  Luckily we weren't forced to endure it for too long!  I know some people who had to wait for 8 LONG hours until their power was restored.  Our blackout adventure started a bit after 2.  I know this because I was trying to sneak in a nap and I wondered how long it would take before the kids' radar would alert them that I was relaxing!  I noticed our fan was acting funny.  It would act like it was going to die, then start up again.  I assumed it was dying and that we would need to replace it.  I thought of poor Trevor who has been so overwhelmed with tasks lately.  I did not want to add more to that never-shrinking list!  Then all of the power died.  I thought the floor guys (that's right..blue carpet is history!  More on that later..) blew a breaker again.  Then I heard the kids downstairs saying, "HEY!  Who turned out the lights??" and soon found that the issue was citywide.  I was a little concerned this would turn into an all day event.  The floor guys were a little limited with no power.  They made do with whatever they could while we waited.  Hunter was SO frustrated the lights wouldn't work!  He was to the point of tears at one point..which really isn't saying a lot since pretty much any small misfortune can drive him there.  He kept asking and asking when the lights would come back on.  After a while, he gave up and said he was just going to go watch TV.  Oh boy!!  

You definitely realize how much you rely on little things and take them for granted, such as, flipping a switch to turn the light on, comfortable air conditioning blowing through your desert house, a TV to entertain kids on those restless afternoons, the Internet at your fingertips, white noise so your baby can sleep while his loud brothers run screaming through the house..needless to say, we were elated when the power came back on!  We are very spoiled and can not survive without it!

Flu Schmoo

We had a nasty bug around here and it was a doozy.  Jacob started with it on Friday, June 17th.  Luckily we had no where to be that day.  He was acting fine when he woke up.  Around 11, he was complaining about his tummy hurting.  I was on the phone when all of a sudden, he projectile vomited all over my blue kitchen carpet.  I yelled at him to get to the bathroom, followed by me grabbing one of my mixing bowls, whilst all the others landed in a crashing pile on the floor.  I was able to save myself some clean up, but not much!  Pretty soon, it started coming out the other end and it literally smelled like death.  That was not fun for him (or me, I might add).  He was sick all weekend.  On Sunday, I thought he was feeling better, he was even asking to eat.  That evening, I heard him calling to me from the bathroom.  He said he needed my help bad!!  I opened the door and gasped!  He was sitting on the toilet with a spray of vomit all over the floor around him.  As I was cleaning up that mess, I decided that sometimes it really sucks being the mom.  We got him all cleaned up and I had him go to bed as soon as possible to avoid any other bodily fluid messes that I would have to inevitably take care of.  By Monday he was feeling better and Tuesday was a normal day.  It was such a relief.  I was still worried about the rest of us getting sick, but so many days had passed already, I just assumed Jacob had gotten salmonella from his water frogs (which we decided need to find a new home..if anyone is interested). 

Wednesday started out as a normal day.  We all went to Hunter's swimming lessons that morning.  I got a babysitter for later that afternoon so I could go visit a sick friend.  I was really itching to get out of the house to see this friend but also to feel normal again.  I had been cooped up a little too long taking care of sickness.  I was gone for about 30 minutes when the babysitter called to tell me Hunter was sick.  She informed me that he had vomited and was now laying in his bed.  I got home as soon as possible to relieve her and relive the same nightmare I had just woken up from.  I got Hunter all cleaned up and situated in my room to watch a movie.  For the next 2-3 hours he was throwing up every 15 minutes.  At least each time he made it in the bucket, except the last one and that was only because he was asleep when it hit.  If there is anything worse than cleaning up vomit, it is cleaning it up off of carpet.  Does it ever really get clean?  I am still avoiding that spot 2 weeks later.  I won't even put the baby down in that vicinity.  The vomiting ceased for a few days, but was replaced by toilet visits every 30 minutes (or less).   He vomited one more time on Monday.  By this time, I was doing my best to keep my sanity in check.  I was beyond sick of cleaning up fluids.  Plus, it was so hard to watch him go through this.  He told me a few times he was tired of being sick and it broke my heart.  That is a long time for a little boy to have to suffer through this nasty bug.  He had a few nights where he was talking nonsense.  That was a bit worrisome.  It was usually after he had gone to bed and then gotten up to use the bathroom.  He lost 2 pounds, his face looked gaunt and his eyes had dark circles around them.  Luckily the nights were mostly quiet and we could all get some much needed rest.  Although I did have to change sheets multiple times for both kids throughout this ordeal.    Tuesday, the 26th was our first normal day for him.  I knew he was feeling better because I awoke to him playing downstairs with Jacob instead of laying lifelessly on the couch or in his bed.  When he tried to walk up the stairs to ask for breakfast, he had to use the railing to pull himself up the stairs.  He just didn't have any energy left.  This bug almost drove me insane.  We have never had it this bad before.  Any flu that has ever been in our house has been gone within a few days.  This was absolutely miserable.  I still wonder if it was the frogs, I guess we will never know.  Regardless, we are still looking for a new home for them!  And we are so grateful for being well again and that no one else has gotten it. 

Jedi

The Force is strong with this one.

Jacob was not amused.  I was instructed to not let Adam play with his light saber again.

Milestones

Adam has recently started sitting on his own.  He rarely falls over anymore, but still loses his balance, so I need to keep something soft behind him.  He is also starting to roll over.  He is in the phase where I put him down in his bed & I need to go rescue him a number of times before he goes to sleep.  He gets stranded on his belly.  He is still trying to figure out how to get back to his back.  He is working hard at perfecting his new tricks.  It is so fun for me to watch him grow and learn how to do things.  I love it!!  He is just over 6 months and is growing very quickly!

Happy Father's Day!

Happy Father's Day to my main squeeze!  He is such a good dad to our boys.  He always takes time out to spend with them.  Recently he went downstairs to play cars with Hunter.  Hunter took the car out of his hand and said, "Dad can you go upstairs now?"  At least he makes an effort!  Whether it's well-received or not is a different story! 

Jacob had been sick so he stayed home from church.  He actually was still asleep at 10 when Trevor left!  Hunter was excited to go to church alone with Dad.  He told me, "I'll go with Dad and you can stay home with just 2 kids." 

Jacob acted really put out when I told him he had to get dressed to get pictures taken.  Hunter was also unhappy about not being able to get right into his pajamas after church.  That probably explains his reluctance to smile.

Trevor does a wonderful job at turning family portraits into treasured family memories.  I didn't even notice these until I went back to look at them.  I was too busy focusing trying to get the right angle and making sure the bodies were in the right place!  Hunter & Trevor have matching frowns!

I spent the entire day in the kitchen making breakfast, his mom's oatmeal chocolate chip cookies and lasagna for dinner.  Luckily Adam slept very well today!  I was pretty sick of the kitchen by the time the day was through.  My Father's Day was tainted close to bedtime.  Jacob called to me from the bathroom and said he needed me "really bad."  I went in there and gasped.  He was sitting on the toilet with a spray of vomit all over the floor around him.  All over my bath mat, all over some other clothes that were on the floor in there for some reason, vomit splashed on the wall, on my shower curtain...it was horrid!  He has had some kind of stomach bug since Friday.  Apparently it is still going strong.  I decided tonight that sometimes it really sucks being the mom!!

Happy Father's Day Trevor!  I hope you enjoyed your day.  We are so grateful for all you do for our family!  We love you!!

New Toy

Trevor has this annoying habit of finding out what I buy for him for each gift-giving holiday.  He ALWAYS knows what is coming!  So, it was no surprise to me that on Saturday before Father's Day, he was asking for his black light that he knew I purchased for said holiday.  He has been scorpion hunting in our yard recently and I thought he would enjoy some help.  Boy did he ever!  He was almost giddy when he ran inside to tell me what he found! 

Here is what they look like with the black light.  But the prize find of the night is in the next shot.

Here she is!  Proud mama of 15-20 (as far as we could tell).  They were all clinging to her back.  We have never seen this before and it was so interesting!!  We found out that the babies do not glow at all when they are this young.  They looked like brown blobs all over her back (regretting not getting a picture of that!!).

These little guys fell off mama when we decided to separate them from the other barbarians.

Here are the other boring scorpions he found that night.  We had them all together, but alas, I began to feel sorry for mama scorpion.  Trevor had accidentally cut off her stinger when he lifted her out of the Aloe Vera plant with his needle nose pliers.  She was so defensive to the other scorpions, my heart went out to a fellow mother just trying to protect her babies.  My mom scoffed at me when I was telling her about them.  "Don't feel sorry for them!!  Scorpions don't have feelings!  They are evil!!"  Even after that tongue lashing, I still had compassion towards the mother.  The final straw was when I witnessed one of the other scorpions snatch a poor defenseless baby off his mama's back and proceeded to devour it.  I was horrified!  Trevor saw how distraught I was and took pity on them (and me).  He moved the family to their own bucket.  The companion scorpion who was in with them was already dead.  He apparently did not survive the pliers.  Trevor put it in there so they would have a source of food.  We tried and tried to find crickets to feed her, but they are in short supply now for some strange reason!  Last year we had THOUSANDS of them invading our yard and home.  I'm guessing the plethora of scorpions we found tonight have something to do with this!  We did supply her with an unsuspecting beetle to tide her over while we tried to find a spare cricket.  She turned up her nose at our gift and decided to find her own form of nourishment..her babies!  I completely misjudged her defensiveness as being protective toward her babies!  I guess my Mom was right!  They are evil!  I told mama scorpion she was not a good mother.  Trevor ended up squishing them the next day.  After seeing her true character, we were no longer sympathetic.

Happy Birthday Hunter!

Hunter turned 4 years old on June 14th, also Flag Day.  I never even knew Flag Day existed until Hunter was born on the same day!  Now I remember it every year!

We started his birthday off with swimming lessons.  He was excited to bring a treat to share with his swimming friends.  We brought some fruit snacks.  Easy to transport and pass out, plus the heat doesn't affect them!  His class sang Happy Birthday to him and he got to pick out a treat when he was done. 

On the way over to swimming lessons, Jacob was a little jealous to say the least.  He does not like to pass the spotlight onto anyone, especially his younger brother.  He was pouting and telling us how it was the worst day because Hunter was being mean to him!  Sometimes I don't know what to do with that boy!

We signed up to have the Boy Scouts put a flag up on the patriotic holidays for us.  It was fun to tell Hunter they put it up for his birthday!  It made him feel special.  That night when we came home from dinner he discovered "his flag" was gone!  Nauni (Trevor's mom) stopped by to deliver Hunter's birthday present.  I don't know why I didn't get a picture of them together.  ARGH!

Hunter was really excited about his dollars.  One of our traditions is to take those dollars to Toys R Us and he gets to spend them any way he wants!  It really is a treat for my kids.  I don't buy them much at the store on regular shopping trips unless it comes from the dollar section!  It is going to be a tough trip with Jacob in tow when he is not the one that gets to pick out a toy and bring it home!  Hunter is always so happy for Jacob when it's his birthday.  It's funny how different they are! 

The Happy Birthday Boy!

Hunter's present got delivered on his birthday.  I was hoping it would come at least the day before so we would have time to assemble it before he woke up on his birthday, but I waited too long to order it.  He really wanted one of these Cozy Coupe cars.  He is almost too big for it, but I really wanted to get him one thing and not more little toys to add to our overgrown collection in the basement closet.  So it arrived that afternoon and Trevor snuck it into our room to assemble it.  We had the door locked while trying to put it together and all of a sudden the boys were knocking on the door.  We told them we were busy and couldn't open the door.  I squeezed out the door and past them to get Trevor a tool and Hunter asked who that car was for.  I asked him what he was talking about and he told me he saw it under the door!  Sneaky stinker!

Adam got to help deliver the present.

Hunter was waiting here with his eyes closed.

He was excited..until we told him the car was for Adam.

He didn't like that one bit!

We finally stopped teasing him and let him have his birthday present.  He LOVES it!  When he was going to bed that night, he resisted because he wanted to play with his car still.  I told him he could play with it tomorrow.  He asked, "I get to keep it forever??"  Awh!

Dinner did not turn out like I planned!  I had planned for us to go to Chili's.  They were having a special where kids ate for free that night and I thought that would be the perfect place for Hunter's birthday dinner.  I had been looking forward to it all day!  Somehow right before we left, Hunter was asked where he wanted to go for his birthday dinner and he decided he wanted McDonald's.  We could not do ANYTHING to change his mind, unfortunately.  Trevor even offered to have Chili's that night and then go to McDonald's another day.  He didn't budge.  I was VERY disappointed, but finally stopped having a bad attitude about it.  The Birthday Boy should get to choose where we eat on his birthday!  Blah!!

Gotta have a birthday cake on his birthday!  Not as fancy as the one I made for him, but it was free!!

I love this picture.  It just catches the essence and simple pleasures of a child. 

I am trying really hard to remember to take a family shot on all of our holidays!  I like having one with everyone together.

Happy Birthday Hunter!  I hope your 4th birthday was a good one!  We love you!!

Firsts

Adam enjoyed his first sucker...a cherry Tootsie Pop.  He did not make it to the center.  I had to finish the job for him.  I have to do everything for my kids!!  I guess it is just one of the delicious parts of being a mom!

Hunter's Birthday Party

We celebrated Hunter's 4th birthday with a Cars/Water party.  Hunter LOVES cars & about the only outdoor activities you can do in June need to include water. 

Kimball, Hunter's friend from church, arrived before we were dressed.  He wasn't able to come to the party but dropped by early to give Hunter a present.  

We started the party with coloring a Cars character.  It was a good distraction while I finished up some last minute party preparation!  The kids were more excited to color their pictures than I thought they would be!

Trevor asked me if the only reason I throw parties is for the pictures.  I like to take lots! 

It is my new tradition to get a picture with all of the guests so my kids will remember who was able to come celebrate their birthdays.  I decided to get one with Hunter & each of his guests as well.

Chase

Alek

McKenzie

Zachary

Up until this point I was making them pose nicely & smile.  Then I decided it would be more appropriate to let them pose how they wanted.  It turns out I like the silly poses better!  It shows more character.

Favorite Older Brother

Chase

Blake

The only one who posed nicely without even being told to!  He's obviously older!

I turned our ordinary slide into a water slide with a slip 'n slide at the bottom.

When I asked Hunter what water games he wanted to play, the first request was the Water Balloon popping game where you sit on a water balloon & pop it.  We played this last year and it was a big hit.  Obviously my kids like to repeat things!  Notice in the back how there is only one balloon on the fence?  They were popping like crazy!  Must have been the heat!

Grandma & Grandpa stopped by to deliver a birthday present for the Birthday Boy.

I am pretty proud of how this cake turned out.  I found the idea online and figured it would be easy enough for me, a complete amateur when it comes to decorating cakes.  It was very easy and I didn't regret taking this journey even once while I was doing it!  (I usually wonder 'what was I thinking?' during the creation process for major projects).

Present time!

EVERY present was (Disney) Cars related.  EVERYTHING!  He was a very happy boy!

We even had a Cars pinata.  It was one where you pull the strings to set the candy free, but it seemed like the strings were all falling out so easy.  I just opened it for them and shook all the candy out like rain falling on their heads.I heard a few cry "ouch!" while I was doing this. 

Another game we brought back from last year, the Pop Your Friend's Balloon Game.  They all LOVED this game!  Some of the guests had already left before I remembered to execute game, but it worked out since some of the balloons had popped during the party.  It ended up being an exact amount for the kids who were left!

I wanted a family shot, but Adam had settled down for a nap during the party.

Hunter had such a fun birthday party!  Thanks to all the family & friends who came to help us celebrate!  It's fun when Hunter gets a turn in the spotlight that Jacob frequently steals for himself!