Another one bites the dust (plus don't miss all the other new posts, I had some catching up to do)

Just look at these two nine short months ago...

and just look at them today! My, my how they've grown...

Matthew now has longer hair and braces

and Katie G now has shorter hair and front teeth!

Can I just say how much they've changed in such a short time? My jaw dropped when I pulled up the picture from the first day of school! (And apparently Matthew's shirt got a little wet whilst brushing his teeth this morning, in case you were wondering.)

And here we have my little yahoodilleedoodillies (as I like to call them) 9 months ago (above) what little cuties! And today (below). Oh, to be a kid again and get such pure joy out of drinking from the hose! Ok, I'm not gonna lie, I still like to drink from the hose. It brings back all those great memories of being a kid and drinking from the hose!

Colby at 9 months

Watch out for these two, they are Trouble!

This is how he greets me when I go to get him out of bed.

He is a scrounger and a scavenger on the lookout for anything and everything to put into his mouth. Including but not limited to: markers, paper, the toilet bowl brush,

cat food, legos, scraps of food under the table, etc.
He does not discriminate.


He and Rex are in cahoots to make the biggest mess possible, they thought this one was really funny. And he loved those salty potato chips, he was sucking on them as fast as his little fists could shove them into his cheeks.


But apparently it wasn't very funny when Mom got involved.
(And he still doesn't have any teeth?!?)

In a state...

Here's Matthew performing in the fourth grade Lewis and Clark play (they are kind of like celebrities around here, Lewis and Clark that is, not the fourth graders). They spent almost the entire school year preparing for this. We know because we've spent the entire school year listening to Matthew sing the Idaho county song and having him tell us bits of Idaho history. Which has left me feeling a little out of sorts since I grew up learning Arizona state history, not Idaho. I have had Kris and Matthew giving me incredulous looks of disbelief when I go into blank stare mode during the stories of Chief Joseph and the Nez Perce Indians. How can I NOT know about Chief Joseph? Which reminds me that I'm a little upset when it comes to the fact that my children are growing up learning Idaho state history and not Arizona state history. I'm having a hard time processing this reality. Chief Joseph vs. Geronimo. Then there's the fact that AZ only has 15 counties and Idaho has 44! For crying out loud, who needs 44 counties?! Although I'm pretty sure I couldn't even tell you 10 of the 15 counties in AZ, but the point is I was hoping to refresh my state history memory through my kids, but now I realize they are learning things I never learned and I'm a little sad about it. It's my AZ state pride getting in the way.

Anyway, back to Matthew's play- it was really enjoyable. We loved all the humor and songs and he did a fantastic job.

From this video you can learn all of those 44 Idaho counties! Good luck with that! Now we have the added bonus of Matthew being able to tell us where all those Idaho plates are from (Idaho license plates are designated by county, eg: 1M= Madison county)!

Oh yes, it's Lewis and Clark, Clark and Lewis...I haven't been able to get that song out of my head for months...

Great job, Matthew! We loved it!!!

Bye Bye Butterfly!

This week Gracie's class took their field trip for the year to the Nature Park. It's just down the street from the school so they walked there and the boys and I met them on the way there. We enjoyed a picnic lunch and then we walked down to the ponds and watched the ducks. We saw a momma duck with 15 of the most adorable little ducklings. 15! I shoulda snapped a picture. Then they did a little scavenger hunt and they had to find things like a feather, a lady bug, a pine cone, etc. And then it was time to release their butterflies into the wild. They had been raising them in their classroom from caterpillar stage to chrysalis to butterfly and now it was time to let them go. Their teacher let them each have a turn holding at least one before they flew away. With this being the end of the school year I thought it was an appropriate way to end it!

Rex' favorite book is Eric Carle's "The Very Hungry Caterpillar"
so he was very interested in seeing the butterflies.

The happy campers

Muddy Buddies

A few weeks ago we had a truckload of dirt dumped in our backyard to spread out in our garden and some parts of the front yard. The kids thought they were in heaven. So they have been playing on the dirt hill for several days and a couple of days ago I noticed that they had been digging a hole in it, kind of like a volcano. And apparently someone thought it would be fun to fill that volcano with lava (water). The kids had a hey day playing in that mud, we even had some neighbor kids over, hopefully their parents weren't too upset. I tried to be the cool mom and let them have their fun, but when it was time to come in I would not allow them in the house before they were hosed off. Mind you, it was still only about 60-65 degrees outside, sorta warm for us unless you are being hosed off with 50 degree water. Needless to say the kids were screaming and not very happy with me at all and I just tried to tell them this is what happens when we play in the mud. Then I had to deal with all that laundry and cleaning the bathroom after their showers, so not fun. The next day they did it again. I was so not happy. And neither were they, when it came time to getting hosed off. I'm sure the neighbors thought I was beating Gracie as loud as she was screaming. And this time I made them take off their clothes before they ran in the house. Considering the fact that our backyard is in full view of several neighbors they were mortified (even though I'm pretty sure nobody saw anything and they still had their underwear on anyway). So their mud fun has come to an end (Dad has banned them from taking the hose out to the dirt pile) and I don't have to deal with all of that crud anymore. Unless one of them decides to take his life into his own hands and tries to sneak the hose out there.

Sticky, icky, ooey, gooey mud

They have died and gone to mud heaven.

Matthew's pants were slipping off because they were so

heavy with mud and I couldn't help laughing at him.

But he is very modest and he did NOT

want me to take this picture, I couldn't resist.

Owen covered from head to toe.

My Oldest Growing Older

As this school year winds down I am realizing how old Matthew is getting. Next year he will be going to the middle school which scares me a little bit. For someone who was in elementary school thru 6th grade I don't really like the idea of middle schools. My little 5th grader is going to be in a school with all those big bad 7th graders, there is such a huge difference between 5th grade and 7th grade! He's going to be getting a locker for crying out loud! Oh well, there's not a lot I can do about it short of homeschooling (not gonna happen) and moving (not in the plans). So I might as well just embrace and accept this new phase of his life and hope for the best.

Last week he (and all the 4th graders in the district) had a concert with the 8th grade chorus class and I was so proud of him, he was so excited for it and he did great! They did it in the high school gym and it was soooo hot. Packing several hundred people in there with no AC was not a good idea, but we enjoyed the concert in spite of that. Matthew's favorite song was a Disney Medley that they did and more specifically the "Bare Necessities" part of the song. I uploaded a few videos, my first time figuring out how to do them on the camera, and I am so happy I figured out how to do it! He's right in the middle, right behind the tall, blond haired boy in the front row.

The Ladies Man before the show

The Overheated Observers

Also, he mowed the lawn for the first time last Saturday and I thought this was a huge milestone in his life. He was so excited to do it and was so proud of himself when it was done.

Yellowstone

The Saturday before Mother's Day we took our first trip to Yellowstone for this season. Kris has been chomping at the bit to go since it opened in April and we finally got to go, even though it was only for half a day. We took it pretty easy and enjoyed a nice relaxing day. We loved seeing the Grand Canyon of Yellowstone from a different viewpoint and we took a long walk around the Norris Geyser Basin that we had never done before. All in all it was a nice day. In looking at some of these pictures it was the first time that I have ever thought that Gracie and I looked a little bit alike.

We saw these two crossing the road and I thought it was appropriate for Mother's Day

The beautiful Grand Canyon of Yellowstone

I am always fascinated by the boiling water in the midst of snow and cold.

This one had beautiful colors- yellow, purple, blue

Rex said "Dad, take a picture of me!"

The kids at the "Green Dragon" spring, it's near impossible to get them all smiling good at the same time, oh well.

Blue Man Group

My kids aren't often matching but on Sunday I thought it would be cute if all the boys wore their blue church pants and a blue shirt. I thought they looked pretty handsome. I wonder if anyone noticed? They weren't super matchy-matchy but they were my little blue man group!

Rex, being the good little dooby that he is, was getting dressed for church and slipped these pants on wherein he promptly exclaimed, "Mom! These are shorts!" I looked over and laughed, he had put on Colby's pants! That tells you what a little skinny butt Rex is...

And I couldn't part without posting a pic of Gracie's new 'do. She is sooo in love with it, I think mostly because she doesn't have to put up with me brushing her hair anymore. She used to call me the "Meanest Hair Brusher Ever!" It's about 5 inches shorter than I requested, but I guess that's what we get for going to the beauty college... Still turned out cute though, I think.

It's Getting Hot In Here!

Our cat is in heat, again. Can you hear the sighs of frustration? She is just weird when this happens. I don't ever really remember what our cats were like when this happened while I was growing up but it is seriously driving me crazy. We need to get her fixed but we just haven't done it yet. Hopefully it's not too late. After they get fixed do they stop going into heat? I sure hope so.

The first time it happened was a few weeks ago and the kids were really concerned. She was acting seriously wonky. Making those strange noises and sticking her butt in the air. It's gross I know, I've been having to listen to her all the time. The kids kept asking me what was wrong with her. Matthew was especially concerned. This cat is like his baby, even though it is technically Owen's cat, she really took a liking to Matthew and he to her. She sleeps by his head every night but when this started up she didn't anymore. He came to me and said "Mom, I think something is wrong with Cookie." Uh-huh, yep, sure is. It's not really something that I wanted to explain but it was kind of hard to avoid with her acting so out of sorts. Owen was also concerned, "Mom, I think Cookie is sick." I said, "Well... yeah, she's in heat." He said, "Oh, yep she does have a fever." (As he feels her forehead and I laugh to myself.) I finally told Matthew that she was in heat and that meant that she was maturing, growing up, turning into an adult. What else could I say? He responded, "I sure hope she gets over it soon. I want the old Cookie back." Me too, Buddy. Me too.

Maybe, in a year or two, when we need to have the "birds and the bees" talk with him this experience will come in handy. Remember when Cookie was in heat...ahhhhhh I don't even want to think about these things!!!