Love Notes

Not long ago, Lucas was feeling sad and blue.  Julia took the initiative to cheer him up, and worked on a little project for him.

Then she came to me and asked if I would write down a poem she made up.  I was so curious to see what it was all about, since this would be the first poem she has ever shared with me.

Huddle up next

Go on a date

Snuggle with love

Jump on the trampoline with Lucas

I loved it!  So did Lucas. =)

And then there was Father's Day:

More artwork, and this year, I had the kids finish a sentence telling why they like having Shane be their Papa.  I think he liked it.  =)

Julia:

"I'm glad you are my Papa because you're handsome, you work hard and I love you.  When you look at me it makes me smile."

Lucas:

"I'm glad you are my Papa because you take me to special places like Karting and because you're so fun, so nice and I love you."

Aidan:

"I'm glad you are my Papa because of your great work and how you tickled me yesterday and you are very nice."

Summer Delights

Mmmmmm!

Watermelon ranks high on my summertime list of loves.

The Tooth Fairy Visits Again...

Julia lost her tooth a couple weeks ago!  It had been loose for months.  At first, I thought it was all because Lucas lost his first two teeth recently, and she was just hoping for a loose one of her own.  You may remember all the talk about how her wish would be a pony!  (Yikes!)  But turns out her tooth was indeed loose, and before it fell out, we had another tooth coming in behind in what is becoming normal shark fashion.  It's only mildly sharky for her, though, so that makes me feel better.  

The Tooth Fairy decided to give Julia something she's been wanting for awhile; a pedicure.  Interestingly, Julia woke up in tears the next morning because she hadn't acutally wished for anything.  She couldn't make up her mind.  She was happy with the pedicure coupon but very upset that she'd missed her wishing opportunity.  This picture is her smiling through her tears because she can't think of what to wish for the night before.

So off we went to Da Vi at Walmart.  What a joy for mom.  But she doesn't know what a terrible establishment it is, and she was so excited!  We brought our own polish...

But after seeing their selection, she chose dark, sparkly blue.

Poor thing can hardly reach the foot bath!

Her little gap is pretty cute, too.  All this was very interesting to her, and she stayed quite focused on the nice lady who took care of her.

She didn't even laugh or flinch from heel scrubbing or massaging!

The lady offered to give her a little flower on her big toes, and Julia just stared at her.  So I accepted on her behalf.

Fascinating art work!

First little flower done!

Right away she munched the left toe, but the right one stayed good!  It has a little stone in the center of the flower, cute little job.

Drying her toes (and unpainted hands) under the warmer while watcing TV.

Overall, it was a nice success, and she didn't even cry when she accidentally rubbed off one flower.  I had also wrecked my big toe the first time I got a pedicure and that comforted her that we were both "the same".  =)  

Another tooth is loose, and she told me yesterday that she's just going to wait and see what the tooth fairy will bring her!  =)  It's a dollar after the first one, girl.  Keep those hopes low.  

Dead Chickens Aren't Much Fun, No, No, No

They don't come when you call....

Okay, this all happened weeks ago now, but here's the catch-up on chickens:

Crystal's chick disappeared one night when we left them accidentally locked out of the coop while we were at gospel meeting.  By the time I got back, Crystal was childless and forlorn.  I was just annoyed at myself, because chick death is something I've become hardened to lately.

The kids had a funeral for a chick that died in the shell and they opened it up, checked it out then buried it with pomp and circumstance.  They buried it right next to our french drain, which is not done and needs to be deepened and widened.  How convenient!

One nice touch is the little sign they made for a headstone.  It says "babe chic grave" and they put stickers on it to decorate.  One says "thinking of you" and the other says "get well soon".  Ever hopeful.

I went to the feed store and bought two Delaware chicks.

 I got them when Linda and Marilyn were at our house, so they got to play with the chicks, too!

 They definitely are the cutest when tiny!

I thought I'd have to keep them separate from our Rhode Island Red(named Red), who is about 3 weeks older than them.  But it turns out they want her to be their mom and she doesn't mind.  She tolerates them completely.  But she doesn't like me as much anymore!  =)  So she's the scrawny and scruffy looking teenager, while they are two cute little puff balls.

But they still aren't named by me although the kids are batting around things like Rice, Marshmallow and Snowflake.  White names!  So we'll have black Australorps and white Delaware's.  Cool!  If they live.

So that was all a few weeks ago now, and the chicks have all been living outside in the big coop behind the garden that is now IN!:

Look closely and you can see a baby chick.  She's inside the coop above the blue rabbit waterer.  They love the rabbit bottle, who knew?  I like it too, it keeps the water CLEAN!  But they also have access to a regular chicken waterer.  They just scratch dirt in it and ignore it.  =)

The kids keep their camping chairs inside the coop so they can go inside and play with the girls.  It helps keep them tame and handled.  And once the camp chair comes out, so will the detergent and scrubbers.

Our puff balls are feathering out, and Red is all feathered out except her head!  She looks so goofy, but it's still kinda cute, too.  Chicks aren't supposed to be outside at night til they are all feathered out, but it's so HOT, that I took the risk and they are doing fine.  

And that's the update with pictures!

Lucas Turns 7!

Such a common thing, to be amazed every year that our children grow.  To exclaim that it doesn't seem like they should be this big!  This old!  This grown up!  But it's the first time that MY child has turned seven, and it's the first time I've parented a seven year old.  So I'm going to go ahead and be amazed. =)

Lucas turned 7 without any difficulties or trouble.  He just woke up that morning and it happened.  8:20am rolled around and *bing*!  Seven he was.  I couldn't help but think of his birth as I made breakfast, a combo that seemed natural.  There was so much I didn't know back then, including HOW to listen to my body that was supposed to guide me on this natural journey.  My body did try to guide me, but I didn't know how to listen.  Lucas was a homebirth, and he took his sweet time in arriving.  The pushing stage lasted from midnight to 8:20 the next morning, and there are few things as discouraging as the moment I saw the sky begin to lighten and I had no baby in my arms.  But no complications, really, and he was healthy and sound.  He was so tiny, just 6 lbs 12 oz and I got to cut the cord.  He was a people person from the start and there are so many things about how he was as a baby that are SO like he is today.  The talking, the cute face and expressions, the caution, the need for relationships.  He looks like his father and "emotions" like his mother. =)

He got his little party this year, with his adored buddy, Ethan and family.  His theme was icebergs and I could have done better with a little more thought.  I goofed.  He wanted a red cake, so I made a red velvet cake base and then put blue gel on it.  See?

The cookies with whipping cream on top are small ice floes.

Not really well thought out.  Needed to have white icing first!

Anyway, we mounded up cake and covered it with whipping cream and topped it with animlas from both polar regions.  Polar bears and penguins, take advantage!

Ice berg cake and homemade pizza was the birthday request!

An embarrassed glance during the singing...

Blowing out the candles!

We wanted to make ice berg punch.  We mixed blueberry juice and ginger ale, then put clumps of vanilla ice cream in it.  Don't do this.  There's a reason people put sherbet in punch and not ice cream.  It curdles the milk.  But in our innocence, we made curdled milk punch.  Mmmm.  Shane made the punch and I have to poke a little fun at him, because instead of putting clumps of ice cream in it, he mixed it in.  He was not aware of the ice berg theme, I guess.  Even though he'd been all over Albuquerque to find a plastic polar bear for the cake.  =)

This year, Lucas' main gift was a rock polisher.  As we speak, it is on week 2 with the coarse grit, tumbling away.  3 more weeks and he might have polished rock!  We'll see how often this gets used... =)

Thank-you Emma and Ethan for the joy you brought to ALL the kids!  How does it feel to be better than Santa?

We are happy to have such a little grown-up man in our lives, and it's just a constant reminder that our parenting must keep shifting with his needs.  It's getting a little harder in some ways... the accountability to myself just increaces daily.  But in other ways, it's just more rewarding and fun!  =)

Yellowstone

Hi there!  I've got lots to blog about, but WHEN am I ever going to get it up?

In the middle of May, we went to Yellowstone.  After a too-quick stop off to see my sister and her darling offspring, we met up with Shane's brother Jason.  Jason has a lovely wife and darling son and they all made our trip more fun.  They are the super relaxed kind of folks, the people that never get in a tizzy about anything and just go with the flow.  It's a good influence on Shane and I. =)

Jason with said darling wife, Kelly and Sam.  Ahhhhh!

We saw many an interesting creature....

Many an interesting thermal feature...

And had the frustrating experience of bringing a cooler full of food to grill and not a grill in the park available to grill on.  In fact, I went searching for one where a park was marked on the map and as I walked across the snow, I came upon a picnic table, and stepped DOWN off the snow onto the top of the table.  I was not sure how to then search for a fire pit.  Dig up several feet of snow all around with my bare hands?  Anyway, all this led to meeting up with a park ranger who took pity on us and ran an extension cord out the back of the ambulance bay where we cooked up most of our meat.

Bacon, Sausage, Pancakes and Potatoes.  Good fare for bums, eh?

The next day, we made a pilgrimage to a park outside Yellowstone and finished off the burgers and steak and just ate them cold for the last few days.  =)

**** 

To summarize, we saw four adult bears(one with two cubs), elk, bison and babies, big horn sheep, osprey, bald eagle, golden eagle, trumpeter swan, wolf, coyote, bull snake, white pelicans, yellow-bellied marmots and many little chipmunks.  We saw Old Faithful erupt 3 times, and a few other geysers as well.  We saw the bubbling mud pots, and it all was interesting and stinky!  And if you want to see ALL the pictures, click the link on the sidebar that says "Stafford Family Albums" and you'll find the album labeled Yellowstone.  =)  Cheers!