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!

Joan of Arc

We are learning about Joan of Arc, a little more hands on than a text book and Kennedy is ecstatic. She's gone through her family history and found a family member who was within a days walk of where Joan fought for France. Kennedy's reply was, "Good. I don't want to be English, they're mean." Ha!

This is the girls piano teacher, Giselle, as Joan.

We all had to dress in 1400 time period clothing. Grayson was beyond happy to be involved and pretending to be in France. However he wanted me to know he was "Merlin" and not a boy wearing his sister's stretchy pants and his mom's shirt.

Kennedy loves learning history. All she can talk about is what Joan might have done when she was alive. It's only been a week, but MacKenzie has decided she wants in. At first she couldn't give up her Mrs. Hobson, but after she saw these pictures she's been beside herself with envy. She's joining homeschool starting this morning. (Wait, what? Did I just say we're home schooling out loud? Yes, I did.)

The Swing Set

We have gone back and forth over swing sets for years. Wood will rot, cheap ones are cheap. It's got to be heavy duty to survive our family and 300*-10* weather changes in the high desert. So that leaves you with nothing to choose from in our price range. And then I was on Costco.com... I saw this and bought it immediately. Couldn't help myself and I'm SO excited. Even better we had it up and working in about an hour!

Pure joy. How could you not smile at that face?

Nothing says good morning like sleeper jammies and boots.

Justin can't handle all these new changes. Cats, swings... he got this weenie dog for free last night to even it all out? We're calling him "Hotdog" (the dog, not Justin).

Shootin' at the range

I'm really good at trash talking, but for real I'm kind of a wimp. The first gun I ever shot about ripped my shoulder off. The second made me deaf and turned me off altogether. When the girls kindergarten teacher heard about my experiences she took me under wing and had me shoot a 22 (translation: smallest bullets/least about of kick back/beginner gun)... not so bad. In fact a little bit fun for the first time. I now am excited to get out every now and then for a shooting date with my teacher friend. Here's from earlier today.

I'll leave out the part where I invited my other friends Cassie and Brandon to shoot with us today. They brought their 9mm guns (cop guns with LOTS of power) and I took one shot with Cassie's and about pooped my pants.

I'll stick with my wimpy guns for now.

Sparky the cat

Justin HATED that I brought Tiger home, until the next day. Then he was SO SAD that Tiger won't let anyone hold him (my favorite animal of all time). He took Kennedy and MacKenzie cat shopping and adopted Sparky from the pound. This animal is Justin in cat form, loves to play and socialize. The kids are in animal heaven!

A few days ago neither of us would admit it, but we're cat people. I've got my mouse hunting antisocial Tiger in the garage and everyone else has Sparky.