Lots of Boys Who Get Dirty

Recently I came across some goals Mark and I had made long ago, either just before or just after we got married. Under the category of "family" we had written, "Lots of boys who get dirty." I don't really remember making this "goal", and I don't think we were being 100% serious about being committed to having only boys, but I'm sure the gist of it was that we wanted our kids to be able to "be kids" and get dirty. Easy for someone to say that doesn't have kids, right? Am I the only parent who finds myself in the midst of an inner struggle when my kids start getting dirty? Do I stop them so I don't have to worry about the disaster and cleaning it up? Or, do I loosen up and let them have a good time?

Anyway, today we were painting a box into an airplane. When the paintbrushes got out of control I remembered that at one point I wanted little boys that got dirty. So today we didn't stop childhood. We got dirty.

Memorial Day

We have had such a beautiful day. This morning Adam woke up at 6am, and Mark got up with him. I slept for an extra 15 minutes until the alarm went off, went into the family room and saw this sweet sight on the couch: Adam heard my camera zoom in and with his eyes half open and still basically asleep he said, "chee!"

He then closed his eyes and went back to sleep. But, soon I had to wake them because we were leaving for the cemetery. My mom's side of the family, the Skousens, get together every Memorial Day at the Mesa cemetery to clean the gravestones and pay tribute to our ancestors, now including my grandfather who passed away a few years ago.

The Skousen family around Great Grandma and Grandpa Peel's headstone

Dallin had fun "driving" through the cemetery from one headstone to the nextAnd, here's the four of us:After the cemetery we went to my aunt and uncle's house for breakfast and Mark and I played tag with the kids. We went home and spent the next couple of hours doing yard work. I took Adam to get his stitches removed--YEAH! Looks like he's healing all right. Mark finally got his hair cut, we had family home evening, went to the park, and had popsicles.

You know what the best part of the day was? This was the first day off that I can remember for almost three years that Mark didn't have homework to do. He's not completely done with school, but he happens to be taking a pretty easy course right now and doesn't have as much to do. By mid July he will be done!! What a treat it was to have my husband with me for the day and be able to get things done around the house like normal people do! Hopefully July comes quickly....

It being Memorial Day it is important to pay tribute to those serving in our military, particularly those that died from their service. I hope I remember the blessings that I have and, more importantly, remember that some of the greatest blessings of my life, including my freedom, was a gift given to me. Others have done the sacrificing and dying in my place so I could live and raise my children freely in this land. I LOVE AMERICA!!

A Rainy Day in May

Thursday, the day of Adam's stitches, it rained off and on most of the day. On the way home from the urgent care, Dallin said, "A rainy day is a GREAT day!" That day I was having an inner conflict: living in the desert generally I love rain, but when I have to carry my kids to and from the car between THREE urgent cares, I almost cursed it. But later in the day here are my two sweet guys out on our back porch.

This picture pretty well symbolizes the paradox of the weather. Shorts and jackets on a cool, summer day in May.

What Does a Milk Say?

Adam has a love for animals. He was probably about 14 months old when he saw a cat in the neighborhood. The cat meowed. Adam meowed. He's been meowing, neighing and barking ever since. He knows quite a few animal sounds now and sometimes Dallin likes to get in on the attention and drill Adam on his animal sounds. Though, getting this on video is another story. This video probably sums up the way things work around our house: I try to teach, Dallin tries to make jokes...



If you're wondering what Dallin is saying, he likes to ask Adam "What does a milk say?" Adam usually responds, "moo," which Dallin thinks is pretty funny. And Adam is saying "chee!" (cheese) to the camera.
Here is attempt #2...

Our First Stitches

Today was a sad day. We were at my sister Bethany's house. She has a large bay window in her living room with a window seat. Bethany and I were sitting up there and I lifted Adam up with us. He stood up and ran across the seat, tripped, then his face hit the corner of the window sill. It hit between his nose and his mouth and hit so hard that the wooden edge of the window sill cut his skin through. I cleaned him up, but he kept moving his lips up and down trying to feel his wound which made the thing gape open and I kind of got a little queesy because I am a wimp when it comes to my kids getting hurt. So we bandaged him and I left to go to the urgent care. I remember seeing a Phoenix Children's ER near my new house, so we drove off towards there. We didn't get very far before Adam ripped his bandage off. Fortunately, he was hardly bleeding by then, but I did not want him to drive for 15 minutes without a bandage on so I pulled over and put it back on. He continued to try to take it off, so I looked in the back of our car found some rope, and yes, I actually did tie my own child's hands together. I feel like a horrible mom, but what other choice did I have? So, we headed out, with Adam wailing in the back seat. Fortunately, he fell asleep after a few minutes. Unfortunately, it was raining outside and he woke up as soon as I pulled him out of the car at the Urgent Care. And yes, I did untie his hands before I brought him inside. But turns out, there are only specialty doctors there during the day and urgent care is only open from 5pm til 11pm. There was a doctor that saw him, said that he'd need some glue, but we'd have to go somewhere else to get it done. Fortunately, we only had to go a mile down the road to the next urgent care. By then, Mark had dropped what he was doing at work and met us at the 2nd urgent care. So, it was nice to be able to just worry about Adam while Mark stayed with Dallin. This doctor also said that he just needed glue, but so sorry, we don't have any and you will have to go somewhere else. So, we drove a few miles down the road to urgent care #3. What do you know that this one, the one that DID have the glue, would be the most inefficient and leave us waiting for an hour (with no one else in the waiting room, I might add). Finally, the doctor saw Adam and recommended stitches instead of just glue because of the location of the wound, and because Adam is young and active, he thought it would be better not to have to worry about glue ripping apart. So, I went with that, the stitches were traumatic to say the least (don't even ask) but I knew that's what needed to be done. I didn't mention that in waiting room #2 Adam had fell down and caused his wound to start bleeding again and I could easily imagine that glue not being sufficient. Anyway, sorry about all of the details. After 3 and 1/2 hours, we finally got home, we all took naps and felt much better about life. And, I didn't even cry. Nor did I throw up. Nor did I faint. But I got pretty close to all three of those things.

Haircuts!

Today my friend Kelyn came over and cut the boys' hair. It was the first time I didn't cut it myself. I don't even own clippers (or whatever they're called), so I've always just used scissors to cut their entire hair. I've done okay, but last time I kind of goofed Dallin's hair up a little. It's getting too thick now to do with just scissors. Anyway... here are the pictures:

Check these guys out....

Home-Owners' Adventures

So, we have now been living in our new home for just over two weeks. I am so not on the ball at keeping this blog up-to-date. So, sorry to those of you who have checked back wondering what has been going on in our lives.... Things have been going great. We are really enjoying our home and are kind of settling in a little now. There are still boxes to unpack and still the occasional inconvenience of not knowing which box something is still packed in, but we are getting there. I figure if all I manage to do is unpack even just one box in a day, then eventually the boxes will all be unpacked. Right? We are kind of still living out of some boxes in our master bedroom since we still need to buy a dresser. We threw out our old splintering one when we moved and we haven't managed to replace it yet. Anyone know where we can buy a nice dresser for a bargain?

Saturday we bought a lawnmower. Actually we went on a shopping spree at Lowe's. Well, we had a 10% off coupon, so we bought a whole bunch of stuff at once. We dropped Dallin off at Primary activity day at 10am, rushed to the store and went through the aisles and got a bunch of things that we needed. Then we rushed back to pick him up just in time, at 11:30. Later that day, Mark and Dallin mowed our very first lawn for the very first time. That was pretty momentous for us after five years of apartment and townhome life. Silly me, I could've cried if I let myself. It is really something to see my boys playing outside in our own backyard. When we moved in the lawn was beige and dead, and already, with just two weeks of watering it is fairly green. It makes me smile to look out the window at the greening grass. What is it about plants that elicit so much satisfaction? Not to mention these cute guys...

I had this vision of three square picture frames with black-and-white pictures of our boys on a wall in our family room. I'd talked about what I was going to do some day with Mark and so for Mother's Day he had the pictures done for me! He chose and enlarged three photos, put them in the frames, and even had some custom mats made. I was so impressed. I know, I know, you are all jealous of my husband's skills. Here is what they look like on our wall:

We'd love to have you over if you'd like to see our house!!!

Fun Times for Dallin

Our little Dallin is growing up so fast!! A couple of days ago he went to a primary activity day in our new ward. They asked the kids to dress up as missionaries and they got to go on a "plane ride" and travel to different countries. Before he left for the activity we took these pictures.

Today he went to a birthday party for our next-door neighbor, Jimmy. Dallin was so excited to go. He was in the bathroom getting dressed into his swimming suit and I could hear him talking to himself: "Yeah! Water games! That is fun! And.....AWESOME!!" I just LOVE his enthusiasm about life. Why don't I ever let myself get that excited about anything?

He colored the wrapping paper and wrapped Jimmy's gift all by himself. Then, I wrote Jimmy's name and Dallin's name on a separate paper as an example and Dallin copied it as best he could on his gift. In this picture you can see some of the letters for "Jimmy" scattered around, and "Dallin" is almost readable. Pretty good for 3 1/2 I think! When he got home from the party he was telling Mark and I all about it. Take a lesson from Dallin and get so excited about something today that you yell, "Yeah!"