heidi's homecoming

I am so excited! Heidi is coming home from girls camp today. Although we no longer live near each other, we still talk at least four to five times a day. When I lived in Queen Creek Heidi was over at my house alsmost every day. With her husband working at the ranch in New Mexico and my husband working in Prescott, we spent alot of time together. We had a great system. We both would make dinner, both of us would clean up- I guess those polygamist had a good gig when it came to the daily routine. Now, our conversations are usually about nothing but it is still nice to pass the time. Anyway, Heidi left for girls camp on tuesday and this has been the longest week ever!

aspiring artists

So for the summer I wanted to be a good mother and do an art project or a craft each day during the week with my boys. I made this art display for them out of an old cabinet door and some bulldog clips. I thought it would hold all of the art projects for the week. But what you see here is not a week's worth of projects but just one day's worth. We can't just do ONE project we have to do at least three a day. My boys absolutely love it! Unfortunately each project only takes about five minutes hence why we do at least three. We are currently working on painting rocks. We went for a walk one day to select the rocks, and now today we are going to paint them. I'll let you know how this works out.

Hip hip hooray!

We do not have air conditioning in our house here in Flagstaff. While many people say you don't need air up here because it doesn't get that hot, I am here to tell you they are wrong. Yes, it doesn't get that hot... compared to Phoenix. But right now I am sitting upstairs at 9:30 at night and it is 87 degrees in our house. Colby and I moved into this house assuming there was air conditioning. In fact, when it started to warm up I tried to turn on the air and all that was blowing was warm air. That dang home builder, building a faulty house- oh wait, Colby works for them. We quickly discovered we actually had no unit. So for the past three months we have endured many warmish nights (well really only the past month). Apparently Colby had had enough because today a worker was digging a trench for our new air conditioning! Hip hip hooray!

million dollar question

What's the point of a Wal-Mart if there is no "super" to it? Here in Flagstaff we have a walmart, not a super walmart, just a walmart. There is no produce, no a huge selection of dairy, and the snack isle is combined with the soup isle and the cereal isle and the mac'n'cheese isle (you get my point). I am a Target-aholic. I will always go to Target before I choose Walmart when looking for "the good stuff", but for the necessities why wouldn't you go to walmart?! I can dress and feed my entire family from one store- brilliant! From diapers to "big boy" cuecas and formula to a gallon of milk. Not here in Flagstaff. I was floored the first time I went to wally world here. I had a huge list, having just moved to a new house; we needed to restock the fridge, not to mention we needed more storage solutions. Anyway, I have tried to boycot Walmart up here since my first visit but I needed spray paint and they don't have a True Value or an Ace or any other local hardware store besides Home Depot up here (a whole 'nother story). Walking in just made me bitter. What a waste of time for me since I coincidentally needed to go grocery shopping also. Today's outings leads me to my next million dollar question...
Why are kids so intrigued with public bathrooms. We get into walmart and the first thing Reed says is "I need to go the bathroom" which reminds Blue he needs to go also. After the Prescott incident (one of my previous entries), I am leary of letting Reed go in by himself. So we park our cart and the four of us go in the restroom. Trust me, it took a lot longer than it did to type that sentence... So after walmart, we go to goodwill. The boys spot the bathroom and all of a sudden they have to go again. All they have there is a handicapp toilet which is sort of amusing to watch Blue go since he is a little on the short side. One more time... We are at Reed's karate lesson (you should see his skills!) and Blue has to go potty. Surprise, surprise. He is barely able to squeeze a few drops out but still sighs a long sigh and says "That feels much better".

All I can say is thank heaven for the little bottles of hand sanitizer.

o-e-o's and milk

It's amazing how different my three boys are. They were eating oreos and milk (o-e-o's as Blue calls them) and I noticed that each of them had their own system of eating them. Beau, not being able to drink out of a "big boy" cup, had a bottle of milk. He would take a bite of an orea and then take a swig of milk. Pretty ingenious, huh? Then there's Blue. He has figured out a way to consume the most amount of oreo's in the least amount of time: He "accidentally drops them in his cup of milk when dipping them. Once he has about three or four of them sitting in his cup of milk, he just chugs it all down. There's no hiding the fact that Beau and Blue have just had oreos. Reed, on the other hand, shows no sign of oreos on his face. Reed is careful to dip just half of the cookie in the milk (not the entire thing because that would cause it to smoosh in his fingers) and then take a bite. Not surprising, he once told a friend that he "wasn't allowed to eat cheetos" when really he doesn't like them because they get his fingers all dirty. Each of them unique in their own special way!

Numero Uno

Happy Birthday to Beau! He turned one year old yesterday. Beau was born in Queen Creek and this is where he learned to cry. We moved to Prescott shortly after he was born. He learned to sit,crawl, eat solid foods and perfected his cry in Prescott. We now live in Flagstaff. He learned to climb stairs and walk. His cry has been elevated to a high pitch scream which seems to be working out for him because he gets most anything he wants. But we sure do love him! Beau's hobbies include playing in the toilet, pulling all the clothes out of his big brothers drawers, and "cribbing". While cribbing for a horse only entails the horse gripping parts of his stable with his teeth when he his bored, Beau takes this to the next level by gnawing on his crib. He has worked his crib over pretty good and has moved on to the window sills around our house. We love our baby Beau!

Spending the day in Prescott

We were to spend what I thought was all day yesterday in Prescott, swimming for a few hours then playing with friends Taylor and Avery Rhoton. After a little over an hour in the car, we arrive at the pool around 11:15. Blue fell asleep on the way and did not want to wake up, or walk by himself. Finally with Beau in one arm and our bag of towels, lifejackets, goggles, sunscreen, etc. in the other arm I somehow manage to carry/drag Blue to the pool deck. Beau has already started whining because he has been up since 6am. I was hoping he would nap on the drive from Flagstaff to Prescott (wishful thinking). After slathering my "fair little angels" with 50 spf suncreen from the top of their heads (literally) to their toes and adjusting lifejackets and goggles Reed and Blue are ready to swim! The water seems to be making Beau happy so I go change into my swimsuit. This happiness was but a brief moment because when I came back out Beau was screaming. After calming him down, it was Blue's turn to cry. He said the wind was making him cold. I wrapped him up in a towel and had him sit on a lounger. Just as I was about to sit down myself, Reed is whimpering in the pool saying he has to go the bathroom but it's too cold to get out. So I help him take off his lifejacket and send him the the bathroom. All is well for about five minutes when I realize Reed still hasn't come out of the bathroom (not to alarming, for he has been known to spend quite a bit of time there). I crack open the boy's bathroom door and there he is: big tears rolling down his cheeks and shivering like crazy. The door was slightly stuck and he couldn't get it open. He says he wants to go home. Blue starts in also. So now it has been 45 minutes since we arrived and Reed and Blue are crying to go home. Beau is just flat out crying. Without any warning, I start to cry also. Tess and Amber, my two friends, try to convince the boys they don't want to go all the way back to Flagstaff but just to Tess' house (in the neighborhood where the pool is). No luck. My boys were ready to head back up the hill. With the help of Tess and Amber (for I am in no condition to do it on my own), we gather all my stuff and my three boys and load up. Beau falls alseep before we can get out of the parking lot and we are home in time for lunch. So much for spending the day in Prescott.