Category Archives: firsts

Camping Mogollon Rim

Leave a reply

We decided to be brave and take all the kids camping with some friends. It was awesome fun. They all ran around and really had a blast exploring the wild.

And then the night came, and with it our super chill Monkey girl decided that she did NOT approve of sleeping in the outdoors. She SCREAMED. ALL.NIGHT.LONG! Like she was possessed. It was so very out of character.

I had the four older kids in the tent and Jon took Monkey to the van to sleep (really to try and reduce the noise so others could sleep.). Jon and Monkey did not sleep at all.

It was a very very strong reminder to us of our never go camping with babies rule. We thought super chill Monkey girl would not be a problem. We thought wrong.
DSC06931 DSC06932 DSC06934 DSC06935 DSC06936 DSC06941 copyRyan made Jon a super gigantic cupcake for his birthday dessert.DSC06942 DSC06943 DSC06944 DSC06951

Looking super glamorous… Eh. DSC06954 DSC06961 IMG_7432 IMG_7430 IMG_7429 IMG_7428

Regan was VERY protective of his special dairy free chocolate bars. He had to keep them with him the whole time Smores where being made. Heaven forbid someone should use HIS chocolate. 😉 IMG_7426 IMG_7425

You see that smile on RJ’s face? The best. And Monkey girl trying so hard to get that mallow?

IMG_7433 IMG_7434They LOVED it.

IMG_7441 IMG_7443 IMG_7444 IMG_7445 IMG_7448 IMG_7451Monkey girl was climbing all over the inside of the van (I was with her) and she got herself a bit wedged between seat and door. She didn’t love that I took a picture before rescuing her. (She wasn’t hurt, just mad about being stuck.)IMG_7453I don’t think she actually ever made significant contact with the ground. Everyone wanted a turn holding her. It was a pass the baby kind of weekend.IMG_7455 IMG_7456 IMG_7458 IMG_7459Aside from not sleeping it was fun. The four big kids loved running around the woods with friends and roasting all the mallows. I think we brought home all the dirt. Super fun. Super tired.

The proper way to slay goatheads

2 Replies

If you don't know what a goathead is or have never stepped on one I kinda hate you. Read this info graphic that I kindly found for you. Goatheads SUCK. They are one thing I truly hate. HATE.

puncturevine-4-10-12Our backyard is infested. COVERED in the retched things. IT's bad. SO SO SO bad. We've been fighting a loosing a battle for years. We finally got to the point where we decided to just kill everything off and start over with the back yard landscapping. It needed a new sprinkler system and layout anyhow so we just stopped watering and let the deadly AZ sun do it's worst.

goatheadsEverything back there is dead now. YEA! But walking in our backyard barefoot is just asking for epic pain. Just a few feet result in shoes looking like this. And this in bare feet, YIKES. Like you just wanna die from the pain. We have a strict check your shoes policy, but they still occasionally get tracked inside and some poor soul gets it in their foot. And the screaming, oh, the screaming in pain. And the tears. It brings out my inner Mom rage. My inner rage towards a plant, not the children.

goatheads.1I just really hate goatheads. So I did what any reasonable Mom would do, I begged and pleaded with Jon to buy me a flame thrower to burn all the deadly seeds that cover our yard. He was SUPER hesitant to buy his extremely accident prone wife a flame thrower. I mean, it was totally justified. If you know me, then you know. But, Never give up, never surrender! (Name that movie!)

It was either burn the deadly seeds or spend hours scrapping them all out of the earth before we put in new grass. Um…. burn baby, burn!

IMG_7362So I won (Really practicality won, and I have a brave hubby.), and my flame thrower was ordered and delivered courtesy of Amazon (I have an online shopping problem known as: "I have five kids and therefor never leave the house for other than food shopping.") Amazon Prime is my bestie.

Tonight Jon set it all up and taught me how to use it and not kill myself. He was taking photos and standing RIGHT next to the hose. Because he's brave, not stupid. If you know me, then you know.IMG_7393I found flame throwing to be super cathartic for my inner rage towards my goathead problem. Jon had to convince me that I had enough for one night (because it's 112 during the day and nobody needs heatstroke!) and it was time to put the flame thrower away and go to bed.

Also when I as telling my girl friends about my flame thrower I had just received my super awesome and much loved WW headband (my friends love me and fully support my inner geek) and promised to wear my shirt and head band while waging war on the goatheads. I was too excited to start burning to hunt down my bullet bracelets…. sorry.IMG_7400 IMG_7401  I am seriously so excited to torch the rest of our yard. Burning up goathead seeds one flame at a time is actually fun. 🙂  Bring on a happy safe back yard for my buttmunches!!!

Swimming lessons 2015

Leave a reply

Our awesome friends have the most amazing pool. Half of it is only 3ish feet. It’s PERFECT for teaching children to swim. I made a happy deal with my friend. Her kiddos try to live in the pool during the summer. She babysits a couple of littles and so she can’t take them swimming and she doesn’t like her kids to be unsupervised.
IMG_7505

The deal was I could come over every day and do swim lessons with Kaylee and Regan as long as I also did lifeguard duty. So for over a month this summer we spent a couple of hours in the pool Monday – Friday. Man, oh MAN! The progress. The skills. The confidence.

Day one Kaylee would hardly put a toe in the water. When Gillian asked her to jump off the diving board Kaylee’s response was, “No. I’m too worried”

Gillian: Worried about what.

Kaylee: That I will drown and DIE! (It was not the first time she had uttered those words.)

Thankfully Gillian just shrugged her little shoulders and jumped and swam anyway.  Kaylee kept talking about drowning and dying and I was really worried that we would end up breaking Gillian and her fearless fish like self. But we didn’t. She kept being a little fish and showed Kaylee and Regan how fun the water can be.

IMG_7513Poor dude totally biffed it and gave himself a minor bloody nose. It kept him out of the pool for about ten minutes ant then he was back in. Diving, swimming, using his little legs and arms to shoot through the water like a shark.

I took all these photos the last day we swam before our family vacation. Our friends were leaving right after we got back, and then summer break was about done after that.IMG_7514

He was very upset to be out of the pool until the bleeding stopped.

IMG_7520Our little Monkey HATED the water at the start of our swim adventure. But by the last day she was ALL about the pool. She especially like putting swim goggles on. And the big boys were super helpful babysitting her (next to me while she was in her floatie) when I was working with Kaylee and Regan.IMG_7532Jodi’s kids are fish, and were great co teachers during swim lessons. They gave such great tips and words of encouragement. Especially for Kaylee. They really cheered her on.IMG_7546And just look at her GO! From not wanting her feet in the water to full on swimming in just over a month!IMG_7560She is swimming the width of the pool in the DEEP end. Gillian’s face says it all. We were all just SO proud of her for concurring her fears. No drowning and dying for this one. 😉

She first swam the width of the deep and them immediately wanted to swim the length. I’m not gonna lie. I was super nervous about her swimming the length. But she killed it. Swam until she could stand up! AMAZING!

IMG_7576They were all doing crazy jumps off the board into the pool I was laughing SO hard. I didn’t get nearly enough video.

IMG_7582 IMG_7588 IMG_7594 IMG_7624 IMG_7652 IMG_7655 IMG_7671After two hours of swimming we would come home shower up, get the baby down for a nap and climb into my bed for a movie. Because swimming in 110+ heat wears a person out.