Thursday, November 11, 2010

Sloppy Joes

Tonight we had Sloppy Joes for dinner. The kids were eating along great until I looked over and saw Adam spit a bite out of his mouth onto his plate.
"Why did you do that?" I asked.
He looked at the spat out piece and pointed to the meat. "That meat was poking me."
I checked it out and found no poking pieces. Funny kid. He did finished the rest of it though!

Thursday, November 4, 2010

Halloween 2010

I was way too busy in the month of October with PTA stuff and boy scout stuff that I didn't get to plan and pull off a fabulous Halloween party this year. I love to do parties and this is the second year in a row we've missed a Halloween party:( However, the Halloween season was still fun.
Here's our little kiddos with their Halloween costumes.
Emmee is a witch. Cassee is a ladybug. Adam is a "musclely" spiderman.

And little Andrew got to be a banana. Doesn't he look so tasty!!!

Wednesday, September 22, 2010

Cassee update again

She's bouncing off the walls this morning. Actually she was last night too.
She says neither her ears nor her throat hurt anymore. That was a fast recovery. She never took any of the pain medicine they prescribed for her. Thanks for all your prayers, they worked really fast this time!!
By the way, the adnoids are somewhere in the back of your throat somewhere. You can't see them when you open your mouth like you can with tonsils. They are very similar to tonsils too, they serve a small purpose but you can be just fine without them.
Cassee's were very large and pushing on her eustation(?) tubes causing the fluid in her ears to not have a chance to drain. Her ear drums had a lot of pressure behind them and they didn't vibrate hardly at all. They said she was hearing everything like her ears were plugged.
They scrape off the adnoids by going in through the mouth. Then they cauterize to stop the bleeding. Sounds nasty. You end up with a sore throat, although not as sore as if your tonsils were removed.
Cassee seems to feel fine and dandy already. She's a tough kid. Heck, she's had plugged ears for at least the last year of her life and never complained! We are glad it's over. (Until we see the bill!!!)

Tuesday, September 21, 2010

Cassee update

Cassee had a minor surgery this morning to remove her adnoids and put tubes in her ears. The doctor said her adnoids were HUGE. No wonder her ears had problems draining.
She did great. She didn't even cry. Her throat will hurt for a few days. Hopefully with better hearing she will improve her speech quickly!

Friday, September 17, 2010

Cowboy Adam

Look out bad guys, here comes Sheriff Adam!
Don't even think about stealin' those horses dude.

I had to get Adam a cowboy hat and some guns so that he will stop wearing his sister's dresses!!! He likes the guns by the way!

Sunday, September 12, 2010

The old and the older.

We got a new (used) piano Labor Day weekend. It's actually older than our old piano, but new to us.

Here's the old one.
It is an electric piano. It had different sound functions and could change key. It also had recorded songs in the different sounds that my kids have danced to since they were born. We are going to miss it, Emmee especially. It also had a volume control button! Mom and Dad are really going to miss that!!

Here's the new-older real piano.
It's not a fabulous style or brand, but it is a regular piano and we got it for a great price. For all those 11 students I teach, they can now play dynamics easier. The other one was harder to play loud or soft on.
It will do a fine job to fill our house with lovely music.

Tuesday, August 31, 2010

Garden Produce


Last night we went out to pick tomatoes and peppers. We ran out of daylight. I hardy made a dent on the tomato plants. They are huge! It's actually hard to find all the tomatoes. I'm almost afraid to go back out there.
The big box has bell peppers and anahiem peppers. The blue bowl is full of jalapenos. We've shared quite a few peppers already this year.
Roma tomatoes are in the yellow bowl and the "mega" bowl from Pampered Chef is full of big boy tomatoes. And my large pot is full of cherry tomatoes. And there are so many still to pick. (We wish we could share with you Stacey!) Salsa time...here we come!

Saturday, August 14, 2010

Andrew is 2 months old!


Here's our big boy. He's now 2 months old.
And then there's a little bit of our crying 2 year old in the background!

Friday, August 6, 2010

ND Petting Zoo

Just kidding, it's not really a petting zoo, but it's pretty close.
One of my best friends (Lacey) from growing up in Tuttle, ND lives on a farm in the next town over. She has two super cute kids, Kennedy (5) and Britton (2).
They have chickens, ducks, geese, 2 goats, a miniature horse, 4 dogs and lots of cats. (And little frogs from all the rain.)
We headed over one morning to see them all. My sister Sally and her family came with.

Sam and Kennedy were the first brave ones to feed the animals corn.

Here's Adam feeding one of the goats.

Here's Winnie, the little pony. He was a little feisty. Little Livia got her fingers nibbled on.

Good job Emmee.

Cassee is quite afraid of most animals. This is the closest she would get.

Adam found a new friend.

And a new toy!

Best Buds. Isn't it amazing how kids can become best friends in a matter of minutes?

They were aiming for Kennedy's mouth I believe!

Lacey, Britton and Kennedy. Thanks for letting us come to your house and for sharing your animals (and garden produce!).

Saturday, July 24, 2010

First Garden In New Mexico

This year we planted Big Boy, La Roma, and Sweet 100 Cherry tomatoes. We were very surprised to see how well they all have grown! The plant that comes up to my nose is a Big Boy. I have never seen Romas get so big either.


They got a little too big for their cages and in some strong winds a few branches almost broke off. Itried to prop them up with another cage in hopes of saving a few tomatoes.

Here are some Big Chiles that we may try roasting...I never even heard of roasting chiles until we got here to NM. When they are in season people sell roasted chiles all over the place.


Sunday, July 11, 2010

Andrew at 1 month old


Here is our big boy at 1 month old.

Friday, July 9, 2010

Year Supply of TP

When we moved from Utah on the 6th of Aug. we had A LOT of toilet paper. That's one thing I NEVER want to run out of! It's always hard to tell how long a roll will last (especially when your two year old unrolls half of it into the toilet). I had no idea how long the amount I had would really last.
We opened the last 24 roll pack this week! I'm amazed that I actually had almost a year supply of toilet paper. It will be really close to a full year by the time this whole pack is gone. Amazing huh??
The bad part: I never counted how many we started our year with. I still don't know how much toilet paper we use in a year! I guess you are just always safe when you have a lot around, right? hehe

Thursday, July 8, 2010

Sibling Jealousy

Everyone wonders how your little kids will react to having a new baby. Will they love him? Will they be jealous? Hmmm.
Baby Andrew was a bit cranky and I was feeding him or holding/bouncing him around all morning. Well, jealousy ended up rearing it's ugly head. Was it Adam, my little two year old boy who used to be the baby?? Was it tempermental Cassidee who's happy one minute and crying the next??
No...it was my happy, big helper Emmalynn. These are the comments I heard from her all morning.
"I wish I was that little and you could carry me around all day."
"I wish we didn't have him cause all he does is eat and cry."
"I don't think you should have any more babies...ever again."
"This is the worst day ever."
Yikes, I think we need school to start again, and soon. This kid needs way more attention from ... anyone!

Sunday, July 4, 2010

More of Andrew

Little Andrew is 3 weeks and 2 days old now. Time flies!
He started sleeping through the night most of the time (knock on wood), from 10 or 11 at night to 6 in the morning. Mommy sure is lucky. He is spending more time awake, but when he is he likes to be held, bounced, or walked around. None of this sitting in a chair, or laying on the bed stuff. As Ronda pointed out, he is the fourth kid and if he doesn't make a fuss he might never get attention. Very true.
He's also going to be another binkie boy. He likes to suck on something to pass the time, and it can't be mom all day long!!

Sunday, June 20, 2010

Andrew at 1 week old.

My baby has made it through his first week of life. Amazing since his older sisters always want to be holding him (or man-handling him in my opinion) and his older brother bopping his head constantly and saying "that's baby Andrew". Yes, yes, and his going to be with us forever.
He likes to have something against his little face as he sleeps. Makes me a little nervous actually!
He's a sweet little sleeper...during the day. Mommy has had a few not-so-sleep-filled nights. Hopefully we'll get that straightened out soon.

Also my fabulous mother-in-law, Chris, came to help. She and Sydney, my niece, came the day after he was born and stayed a whole week. They did lots of dishes, cleaning, cooking, and most importantly, entertaining my other children. They did something fun everyday to get them out of the house so I could sleep and/or rest. They were awesome. I couldn't have survived without them. Thanks you two!!
Adam, you little snitcher!

Thursday, June 17, 2010

The Peacock

So, this morning Emmalynn comes running into the house and says that there's a peacock in the backyard. Yeah right, I'm thinking. She's six and obviously confused. And of course as soon as I got out to see it, it "flew" away.
But my thirteen year old niece, Syndey, was also out there and claimed it was a female peacock.
Sure enough about a half hour later Emmalynn comes running in again saying it was back.
I head out with the camera and caught this:
This is in the side yard next to the shed.

It flew to the top of the fence and went to the front yard.
Sydney took these pictures as it headed across our front yard and into the neighbors yard.
Never thought I'd see a peacock in my yard!

Tuesday, June 15, 2010

4 days old!

Here's to playing around with the camera.
This was the first picture.
Then, because of the flash in his face, he gave me a frowny face.
Then a big yawn. Living is such hard work you know.
And of course, a little sisterly love.

Sunday, June 13, 2010

Baby Andrew's first video!

Andrew's First Pictures

Sorry for the delay. Dan never quite got to it!
Here's a few at delivery:

Here are the hospital visitors:
Dan's mom, Chris, and his oldest niece, Sydney, made it just in time. We checked out about 2 hours later. We're so glad they came to help out!!!

And here's a few close-ups:
Thanks for the new outfit Nana!

Too bad that yawn didn't mean he wanted to sleep AT ALL his first night home!!!!! And yes, even though looking at it now it looks a little like a scream, it actually was a yawn. Mommy had many to match too.

Friday, June 11, 2010

Andrew Perkins Jones is Here!

Drew (we aren't sure if we will call him that yet...we'll see) was born on June 11, 2010 in Farmington, New Mexico at 4:50 pm. He was 22 inches long and weighed 7 pounds 4 ounces. He is very healthy and Mommy is doing well also. We would have posted pictures tonight if Dan remembered to bring the camera home! He left it with Leesa at the hospital. We will post soon enough.

Wednesday, June 9, 2010

The Fridge

Getting the fridge into place was quite the fun.
The island counter top ended up being about 5 inches too wide and completely changed the way in which we were able to get the fridge into its place.
Refrigerators have wheels, but those wheels only move forward and backward. Due to our kitchen dimensions and the obnoxiously large fridge we have, we needed to move it sideways through the kitchen. Enter...the dolly.
The fridge was placed in the dining room for the duration of the remodel.
Watch that ceiling!!

Not much extra space to work with.

Good thing they removed the pantry door. That curve was a little tough.

We only have to retouch the wall in a few places!

And we only ended up with two new scratches on our BRAND NEW FLOOR!

Funny...I never did take a picture of the fridge in its actual final resting place. (You can see the space right behind Dan.)

As soon as the pantry gets painted and stuff on the counters finds its way there, we'll take some final pictures!