Conversation on the drive home.

Boys: Look at the moon!

Mom: Oh, it's pretty, it's almost FULL!

Bodie: What's on the dark side of the moon?

Mom: Not sure

Bodie: Maybe.... aliens! (said dramatically)

Mom: Maybe

Bodie: Peace earthlings (acting like an alien?)

Bodie: Mom, this is human peace (peace sign), this is alien peace (spock symbol).

Mom:

Speaking of funny kids,

Wyatt donned 4, yes FOUR shirts today. He's kinda odd like that. It's likely he'll double up and wear two, but today he really outdid himself. And it was kinda on the warm side... but he likes it like that. Early this evening I went out front and found he had shed his layers, leaving him in his "muscle shirt". Go figure. The weather cools off and the kid takes clothes off.

New set-up at our house...


We found it imperative to add another monitor...


Because this is what happens when your two year old takes a bat to the computer and breaks it's monitor. (Thankfully it was only the monitor that was affected and not the entire computer.) Whew. That would've been really, really. REally bad.


Needless to say there are absolutely no bats whatsoever in this house. Or any other toys. Or boys. They stay outside, outside, outside. :)

Now go say a prayer for me.

We were out back, talking to Dad as he was putting his gear away from a motorcycle ride.


Then these kiddos all hopped on their bike. "Go and get your camera, Momma." said Jess.


So I ran inside, so I could come back out and capture the moment.


Thank heavens for cameras and such cute subject matter. :) I love my kiddos.

On a side note:
-Jess is ITCHIN' to get me one of those there bikes. A little bigger of course. He says I need to start practicing now so I can keep up with the boys when they are older. *smile*. (I used to have the 'uh huh, sure' attitude - but now I am thinking this would be a very, very fun thing.)
-Bodie is LOVING kindergarten and getting "happy faces" in his agenda. And show 'n tell.
-Brock is having a pretty good time at pre-school. Not really the happy-go-lucky type. Not so much.
-Wyatt is enjoying time at home w/ Mom and Dad & getting 'time-outs' at the kids' club for being naughty despite his charm.
-And me- I am just keeping my head above water. I'm teaching 2 sections of Interior Design classes: Design Methodologies, at NAU. It's been great and I really enjoy it. So I'm doing my best at juggling being a mom (which you all know entails...wait...what doesn't it entail?), wife, small business owner, addict exerciser/food blogger & now part-time faculty member. So, come by my house any time! You can help me clean! :)

Good Times.

I look forward to this neighborhood BBQ every year.

(view from my house as it was getting started)

This year didn't disappoint. Oh the S P R E A D! There is always such a great turnout. - 20 or so families if I'm counting right... I love my neighbors and getting to know them better. The boys, of course, had the best time playing w/ all the older kids.
Next year it just may be at 510....

I just LOVE it when my boys leave me little surprises like this.


p.s. It didn't rain today!!!! Yay for warm sunshine!

So, our garden is IN. :)

I am looking at this as my 'test' garden - there are a lot of things I planted, and I have no clue how they'll turn out/if they'll survive. So it will be fun to watch and care for.

Here is the breakdown.

Behind the lilacs, we planted white and orange pumpkin seeds, as well as a watermelon plant.
To the left of the tomatoes (in the 'walls of water') we planted: cucumber, italian parsley, peppers, aneheim pepper, basil, spinach, cilantro, & beans.


To the right of the tomatoes, we planted 2 types of zucchini, yellow squash, honeydew & ambrosia mellon (?) -never had it before.


The squash and poppies.


Looking both ways...


I love watching the poppies shed & bloom.






Also-
While I was sick in bed, I let the older boys make little treasures w/ these things. (See Bodie's mostly white fish on the right?) NOT such a great idea. Just as I was headed off to slumber-land, Brock comes in and informs me he shoved one up his nose and it's 'stuck'...We had just lost power due to lightning, so I took him near a window...and sure enough there was a little bead lodged up there.


So off we went to the firestation so Dad could retrieve it and be the hero. (I wanted no responsibility in further shoving that thing up into his sinus cavity)


Dad got it! And Brock got to keep the little flashlight. Everyone happy. Mom still needing to take a nap. :)


But now I am finally feeling WELL. Although Jess and the boys (minus Wyatt) left to go fishing on THIS TRIP w/ out me...sad to miss it, but much to get done around here too. And Mr. Wyatt gets to have Nana and Papa ALL TO HIMSELF for the next two days. He is going to be in heaven.

LOVE this time of year!!!


We're all about hangin' out in our underoo's and being shirtless.


And just plain being O U T S I D E!


The boys were playing hide-n-go-seek...


The Poppies in my backyard came out today!!!! :)


And the lilacs!


Today was pretty fabulous. My good friend from high school, Becky, now LIVES HERE! :) We went to the gym together this morning and had an awesome workout...I love having her in town! Not to mention she just brought me 1/2 her closet. How much do I love hand-me-downs? -As far as I can stretch my arms, and then some.

Then I found my bomb-diggidy hair stylista match! It has been a search since I lost Kellie. Feels gooooo0d!! Even though I still will only be able to afford to get my hair done 4x a year! :)

Marilyn came up so Jess could 'detail' her car and make it like new again. We left him with that task (along w/ watching the boys) and went downtown for lunch at Mountain Oasis, had a relaxed lunch and then went to Warner's Nursery to shop for my garden. Oh, we could spend H O U R S there....so lovely. On our way back home, we stopped into the new "New Frontiers" so Marilyn could see it -Every inch of that store is pretty much eye candy. It's beautiful...somehow you feel healthy just walking the isles. (I know, wha?) AND the Pita Jungle is next door and is O P E N!!! whohooooooooo infinity! Love that place.
So, I'm pretty much on cloud nine.... can't wait to get to planting!!

STAMPS....

are not stickers...


HAPPY SPRING BREAK!!! We are headed down to warmer weather and are going to hit up both sets of grandparents. YAY!!!!

So, my MAJOR accomplishment this week was cleaning out my refrigerator!!!! The boys and I got back from a successful trip to the grocery store (they all got several high-fives on the way out) and I went to start putting things away and knew I couldn't stock my frige w/out giving it a good cleaning. (It was basically empty anyway) Seriously. I don't know HOW long it has been since the last scrub down... I took everything out and cleaned every tray, drawer & shelf...

It.

Was.

A W E S O M E! :)



And it looks 100x better w/ yummy food in it. I fell in love, and asked everything to be my Valentine. (Which, BTW, was wonderful -I hope yours was too!)


I was thinking to myself it would be wonderful to do this for myself every MONTH...and it got me wondering how often people clean their refrigerators out -like, full-on, scrub-down... Every week?? Every other week? Monthly? Quarterly, Semi-annually?? Um...only if they positively absolutely HAVE TO because they can't take the stench any longer?? What do you do??? If you are scared to let your skeletons out of the frige, just leave an anonymous comment! :)

Saturday afternoon/evening we were lucky to have the Garner's over for dinner after they came up to play in the snow. I re-connected w/ Nate at our 10yr. reunion, and met his lovely wife Heidi (who was at NAU the same time as me)... Nate brought his guitar up and played us several of his own tunes. He is gooooooooooooooooood.


The kids had fun playing together...and w/ the dad's! :) It was a really enjoyable evening! I'm glad they were able to make the trip up.


Cute family, easy and fun company! Hopefully we'll have lots more of these!

We had a great Christmas... And I still need to put it all away. Yesterday Bodie informed me that he took all the stockings and Christmas decorations & cards that were on the mantle down because "it's not Christmas anymore, Mom". Thanks buddy. Soon enough I will conquer the inevitable.
While Katie was here we got to go skiing together and that was such a FUN day. Jess was working patrol, so we were able to ski a run with him. -It was really crowded (not what I'm used to) but that fact probably saved my legs. Plus it was nice to catch up w/ Katie. It went too fast though!
Jess worked New Year's Eve & Day and I had a meeting in Jerome New Year's Eve (Which Papa babysat for me ON HIS OWN! (a first) I was so proud of him -we pulled up and he has the front door open, walks out as says, "Who's hungry?!" He whipped the boys inside for sandwiches he had made. They didn't even glance my way as I walked out the door!), so after that the boys and I went over the mountain to Prescott to spend the evening and ring in the new year w/ my parents. (After several failed attempts to mail their Christmas package, I decided it'd be easier to just hand deliver it!) We met them at Del Taco for dinner and spent I don't know how long there. The boys played, and played, and played, took a bite of food and then played some more. We were able to have a nice long visit though. After getting the boys to bed, we watch "Get Smart", and then watched the ball drop in New York. Pretty mellow. I like mellow.

Here are the boys on Christmas Eve.

gotta love brotherly love.

They were pretty excited about their new pj's from great-aunt Mary.


When we were driving back home from Prescott, Bodie said, "Mom! I had a dream! About Whales!
Whales!? I asked excitedly.
Ya! And I was on it's back and it blowed (blew) water out and shot me up and I just closed my eyes and then opened them!
What a fun dream, Bodie!
Then Brock piped up. (he is our storyteller & so dramatic) Mom! You know what? I just had a dream about piggies and I was on their backs and they just shot me to the whales (and then he proceeded to tell Bodie's dream).
kids are a hoot!


Happy birthday Ne'!

M e r r y * C h r i s t m a s ! ! !

Not at all the 'typical' christmas card photo, but it really captures how life is for us!


We are going to have a WHITE Christmas. Can you believe this? LOADS of snow...and more in the forecast! Today would be a gorgeous day to be on the mountain...the snow we got last night is like powdered sugar.

S N O W, S N O W, and MORE S N O W!!!


And it just continues to fall...

I am not going anywhere.

ALSO WHILE JESS WAS OUT OF TOWN...

Thank goodness I have little buggers to keep me occupied when Jess is gone! I was so grateful the time passed so quickly and so smoothly... (except the day I had to jump my own car due to little fingers getting in and turning lights/switches on...I was pretty proud of myself for taking control of the situation!) :)

After baths, the boys were determined to sleep in front of the cozy, warm fire...

I let them fall asleep and then took them to their beds...


Brock had LOTS of fun with the shop vac...It was out daily...since they had to clean up their messes.

So fascinating.


BODIE HAD A FIELD TRIP TO LAKE MARY...

Seriously. THIS is end of NOVEMBER?

He basically wanted to ditch what the class was doing and just hang out by the water...


AND... we even got to go to a friends house to ride horses! (sadly no pictures). That was the second time I invited myself over to someones house that week. Isn't that pretty much against all social protocols and etiquette standards? But it helped me OH SO MUCH!