Deer, and the morbid photo's you've been missing.

A few weeks ago, before hunting season a saw lots of these guys.

They're pretty smart, they know when hunting season starts. 

It's that time of year when they hide.

With good reason.  Justin was in the forest yesterday looking for dinner.  With one shot he got this little boy.  His antlers are quite a bit smaller, but Justin has informed me 

he is officially a real hunter.

And he's really happy I needed this swing set.  

Costco didn't tell us it was multifunctional. 

What we do in the sticks

There's a lot of enjoying the outdoors.

The kids play through the fence with the neighbors.

While going into church we stop and watch the deer. 

Note to renters: ask if there's air conditioning in the home you rent.  Seriously?  Why would I even think to ask?  We have no a/c which is fine most of the time, but not when it's freakishly hot.  I couldn't handle it any more and took off to Crescent City.  It's cold there.  It's kind of a ghetto too, but just outside of the city are some great camping spots.  Definitely will do camping next time.  For like 2 weeks.

Who doesn't need to see giant Paul Bunyan and Babe statues?  Paul even talks to you.  He knows Parker by name.  Awesome.

The kids loved eating at the Redwood Tree Restaurant.  And yes that's Parker with a jacket and diaper, no pants.  When I'm doing things on my own (Justin doesn't actually transfer until October, so I'm a single mom right now) anything goes.   If you're happy, I'm happy whether you've got pants on or not.

MacKenzie at least has her hands not on Babe's privates.  Why are they the lowest part of this animal.  It's all the kids wanted to touch.

I was too chicken to drive through this tree.  My car is a hair WIDER than this one here.  I was happy watching someone else do it.  This lady couldn't handle it either.  

The kids are learning to ride the neighbor's horses!  We worked a trade, horse back riding to my kids and I'm teaching hers piano.  Sweet.  I told my friend how much I love her animals.  They don't bother me, I don't have to feed them and yet the kids get to play like they're ours.  

In Victorville Grayson always stuck out like a sore thumb, an awesome sore thumb.  

Up here it's normal.  

Deer everywhere!  I had to pull over and take this on my way home from WalMart.  There were 3 bucks and a doe.  I've got a friend feeding her neighborhood deer apples right now.  In her words, "and then I'll murder them and they're gonna taste SO much better".  Awesome.  

She invited Kennedy to come shoot too;)

State of Jefferson

Have you ever heard of the "State of Jefferson"?  Me neither, but apparently we moved right into the heart of it.  I should learn more about it... later.  For now I thought I'd delight you with a few pics.  If you squint real hard you can see our neighbor down the street playing bb in his black socks and water shoes.  

Here's the over grown bushes of our new front yard.  I actually LOVE the Christmas tree though.  

Once you get past the bush front there's a nice spot in the front yard.  

The side of brownness and the barn.  Straight back from the barn for another full acre is the rest of the property.  Everyone helping us move in kept looking for our horses.  uhh...

Back porch deck.

Down passed the black socks neighbor and around the corner are these cute things.  I enjoy seeing other peoples animals.  And those mountains are AMAZING.  In love.

But probably not as much in love as this girl.  On fire for 8 days straight now.  The kids are SO happy up here.  Parker is out in the road and in the yard all day.  MacKenzie was in "the back 40" this evening just checking things out.  She's in heaven being able to wander where ever she wants and it's totally okay.  Grayson can't get enough wardrobe changes in a day. Each time the clothing must fit the new activity.

And my favorite part is my new friends and my neighbors.  There's a young family next door with 2 girls that we love.  In fact they watched all the kids this morning while I ran to town for a while.  I've never had next door neighbors... who can handle all my kids.  I'm feeling like we're super lucky to live on this street and in this town.

OH, and when we moved in they let us know that NOBODY locks their cars.  Ever.  At church on Sunday I was given an exception to that rule, zucchini season.  If you don't lock your car this time of year, you'll find it full of veggies.  Better have my camera ready for that.  Bring it on.

Last minute moving

Yesterday we had a party with our friends the Hannons and Demarests.  The kids had a blast!

Today my other non-family-family member, Sister Garcia, is watching ALL the kids.  She has no idea how amazing she is, to her it's no big deal, to me it's HUGE!

I'm painting the inside of these nasty kitchen cabinets.

My sister Rebecca was right when she described opening freshly painted cupboards. 

"It's like sunshine in my kitchen!"

Our renter will deeply appreciate it too, I just know it!

Summer time fun

2 of my sisters came to California for a visit!

Sierra, my niece, getting her first pedicure.

My mom in grandkid heaven @ the beach.

Parker's favorite game.  

MacKenzie gets her ears pierced

I was shaking more than she was, hence the pathetic video taking, but she did it!  I convinced her she wouldn't feel a thing getting her ears pierced.  She's been begging to get them done for at least 2 years and Justin finally caved.  And by caved his comment was, "well I think she should wait until she's 12."  Lame.  I think I was more excited than MacKenzie once it happened though.

Perris Lake

Arrowhead

Took the kids up to the lake today.  Justin almost talked me into stopping at Silverwood Lake, but I really wanted to see Arrowhead.  So glad we kept going.  What a great place!  Super cute town with tons of tourist-y shops right next to the lake.  My mother in-law would die of happiness.

Baby ducks.

Even Tick was invited on the family outing.

(Bruce, that was a live band back to left.  

They were playin' your tunes.)

Tick couldn't help himself.  He HAD to get a duck.  Justin called him back before he swam far enough, but I think it was for show.  If there weren't other people around I'm pretty sure we would've had smoked duck for dinner.

Hand, Foot and Mouth Disease

Parker's got it.  Clearly his hands, feet and mouth are not suffering.  Thanks Parker for that blue jello all over the floor though.  Your siblings had fun cleaning that up for ya.  Ha, ha... slaves.

Note to other moms, trying every remedy imaginable on your baby's "diaper rash/yeast infection", it's NOT a diaper rash!  Apparently it's a virus.  When you're tired of nothing working and feel like your baby will die with the chicken pox, give up.  Use absolutely nothing and the rash starts to go away.  Weird.

*And if you post on facebook that your kid has a super contagious virus , that counts as getting a sub for primary chorister right?  I heard myself say, "Just post it on facebook and when you're absent in church someone will figure it out."  So that's what I did.  Justin calls it irresponsible.  I call it I don't care.  Probably the same thing.

Who's watching the kids?

I went on a jog this morning.  It was so nice to be awake and ready to exercise  while everyone was asleep.   Everyone except Justin.  I couldn't find him, but saw his car outside so I left...

A mile into my walk I realized JUSTIN WENT HUNTING THIS MORNING!  Of course his car was in the driveway, his buddy picked him up.  Almost nothing else in the world can get him out of bed that early on a day off.  And then all I could hear in my mind was Parker crying in his crib and Kennedy frantically looking for her mother wondering why neither parent was home.  

Came home and Kennedy had Parker on my bed playing with ipods happily.  No crying and I'm pretty sure no one cared I was absent.  I explained what happened to Kennedy to which she responded, "Yeah, I'm totally old enough to babysit.  You should let me babysit more often."

swimmin' with the dog

T-Ball

A few more t-ball games left and the girls are having so much fun.  I don't know why I even signed them up, I'm not a fan of baseball, but I feel like the kids should know how to play.  Anyway they were able to play AGAINST their friend Robert and loved that.  Probably the highlight of the season.

I should take a pic of MacKenzie when she's out in the field.  She rolls down her socks '80's style and turns her pants into shorts, "because it's SO HOT!"  That's my girl.

Etna, CA

Here's a little snippet of where we're moving.  Isn't it pretty?  We drove up last week for a visit and to check out the town.  We want to live in this beautiful farming valley with TONS of... deer.  The kids were in heaven our entire trip especially Kennedy every time we saw a deer, which was often.

We stayed with our friends the Bahen's who are fantastic.  They feel like cousins!  He and Justin grew up together in Taft and the Pollock's and Bahen's had family adventures together back then.  Sounds like we might make that 2 generations of Pollock's and Bahen's because our kids LOVED each other.  

So we kayaked down this river, two mom's and two 7 year olds, one boat.  Super fun.  On our float we saw bald eagles, never seen them outside a zoo, a mama goose with her goslings swimming after her, other birds and a herd of cattle in the water!  Awesome.  Can't wait to move.  

VW retro bus

I need one of these:

Wouldn't I look awesome driving a retro VW bus?  (Rebecca you could totally photoshop me in there.)  I'm really sad it's just a concept and not for real.  This is the first family sized car I'd be jumping out of my chair to drive!

We are moving up north, WAY north.  Like if we could get into Oregon we would, but something about Justin working for California...  Anyway we've had our transfer request in for a while (a year) and it went through!  We are so happy and shocked, but mostly happy.

Oh the joy, and the rain.  I'm pretty sure it's wet up there, we'll find out soon enough.  Justin can't wait for the first hunting season and Kennedy is determined shoot her own deer.  I'm ready to have neighbors who live far enough away that I don't hear their tv at night.  Watch now we'll only find apartments for rent, HA!

We're visiting up there next week and we might just see this guy on our way up.  Stole this pic from google.  This will be such the opposite moving from the hot desert!

Parker, he's 1 already!

Parker

cheetah face

Nothing says Happy Easter like a purple cheetah face.

French song

We're learning all about France.  I guess "all" sounds really cool, I should say some as our attention span isn't that long.  Anyway the kids learned a french song about planting cabbages.  You go through the song and plant it with your hand, foot, elbow, nose and head.  Here's a little snippet of that.  

Makes me smile.  Can you see how much Grayson loves being big like his sisters?  He might actually be getting this second language business.  

Temple Square, where they send all the "hot" sister missionaries

I just loved my mission. LOVED it! Nothing like workin Temple Square for 18 months with 200 of the most amazing sisters in the world. It's been 10 years since serving together and when we got together at the reunion, no time had passed. There were children everywhere, but other than that we are all still as awesome as ever. That's right, awesome.

Las Vegas

It's birthday month for my friend Kim and let me tell ya, the girl knows how to party. On her birthday she went out to eat and had a huge dance party. DJ, lights and no kids, although I'm sure the kids would have loved it. I danced like I was 12 years old sneaking into a stake dance. It was awesome. But why not enjoy a little shopping trip to Vegas as well? Our group: Cassie, Kyra, Kim... and Liz. Should've gone by my middle name to fit in?

I've never shopped so much in my life and thanks to a little Dr. Pepper and no kids I didn't even get grouchy!

Cassie originally told me she couldn't go, but I asked her husband for her and he said yes. Totally out of her comfort zone to leave her 3 year old and husband at home for a few days, but she had a blast. Can't wait to do it again!