Spring Flower

It is late April in Phoenix which means two things: 1-the Suns are going to break our hearts-again and 2-time to break out the white trash kiddie pool!

Sophie has learned how to push the kitchen chairs around to get her high enough to reach pretty much anything she wants now. Her favorite target lately is the forbidden scissors. She is so excited that she can cut open anything she wants in the pantry. Her target in this picture was the instant oatmeal supply. Can her hair be far behind?

Worst Reason Ever

So in my almost 7-year mom career, as you can imagine, I have been awakened in the night for many different reasons. Last night, though had to have been the worst reason ever for interrupting my sleep. I heard an ear piercing scream from the boys room that could best be described as what a person would sound like if they were say being eaten alive by a mountain lion. With my heart racing, I instinctively ran to Dylan's side to find him sitting up in bed screaming, "I can't see! I can't see!" When I told him that his eyes were closed he said, "Oh." He then immediately went back to sleep. True story. I wrote this one down to help me remember why I am I so tired.

Weekend Trip to Joseph City

We ventured out of town this weekend to go visit Grandpa Miller and Uncle Vance in Wes' hometown- Joseph City. A great time was had by all, especially the boys who loved showing off their baseball skills. Here are some statistics from our trip:
Total time away from home: 27.5 hours
Time on the road: 6 hours
Number of fast food stops: 3
Number of times our fast food order was incorrect: 2
Average amount of time between requests to pee while driving: 22 minutes
Number of times Sophie screamed "ALL DONE CAR SEAT": too many to count
Number of hours past the kids' bed time it took to get them to settle down in the hotel: 3
Number of requests by our neighboring hotel guests to be moved to a different room: 1
Number of stale donuts eaten by our three children at the hotel breakfast: 7
Time that we lasted in church after going to bed three hours late: 34 minutes
Number of times Wes used hand gestures to communicate with other drivers: 0
Number of times Wes resisted the temptation: 347 (We are all very proud of you!)

Mark's Monster Dunk

Uncle Mark shamelessly dunks over his nephews who are half his size. Do you feel like a man now, Mark? (Sorry for throwing you under the bus here, but that's what you get for not reading my blog.) But seriously, nice hops buddy!

April Photos

"Bats" superstar and ball boy/assistant coach.

Ready for church.

DB is in reality much smarter than this picture may lead you to believe.

Judge Not

Have you ever watched the 10 o'clock news on April 15 and seen the long lines of people waiting to mail their tax returns? Are you like me where you thought, "What a bunch of idiots. It's not like you didn't know that Uncle Sam would come knocking this year on the 15th. Did they seriously not think about filling out their 1040 until this afternoon?"
So this year, that was us...driving to the nearest stay open late for procrasinators post office at 9:30pm. I'm just here to tell you that sometimes circustances truly beyond your control can cause this sort of gross procrastination, like for instance your tax guy who met with you in October who promised to do your taxes suddenly has no room in his schedule and then the guy who agrees to do your taxes has a stroke a week before the deadline, then the realization is made on the 14th that we could pay a whole lot less by filing out a form that nobody in town or on the internet seems to have. That was a really bad run-on sentence, but you get my point. The worst part was the parting words of our tax preparer- who also happens to be my kind Uncle Carl, " I hope this works. I've never done this before." Me too, Carl and best wishes for a full recovery from your stroke!

Criminal Otoscoping

So I have a confession to make right here on this blog. I have sinned (at least in the eyes of the doctor types). After countless occassions of wondering if Sophie had yet another ear infection- or if her old one had cleared up, I took matters into my own hands and purchased an otoscope. I found it online for 47 bucks. That included shipping and the instruction manual that shows you all the photos of different ear drums and what they mean. Since my doctor is in Phoenix and my co-pay is $25, that is roughly the price of one trip to the pediatrician: (so I justified anyway.) The problem is that you risk arrest if you admit to having checked your child's ears yourself at home, or at the very least ridicule. I fear that once you have confessed to the doctor , that they will purposely give you the opposite diagnosis just to teach you a lesson. Since the average elapsed time of checking a child's ear by my admittedly well-trained pediatrician is about 1.2 seconds, I figure surely I could acquire this skill. I am no genius, and have some wannabe doctor tendencies so the possibilty for abuse is high, but I am willing to take the chance. Now if I could just get myself a prescription pad, I will never have to go to the doctor again!

So the otoscope is now my new favorite pastime. I will check anyone's ears that will allow it, and I am getting pretty good at it. For some strange reason, my kids love to have their ears checked and beg for it. They fight over who is next and complain if I did not spend enough time on their ears. Even Sophie will sit completely still for as long a minute or two, which is at least an hour in one-year old time. In one of my recent examinations of her right ear, I found a silver metallic looking object that looked strikingly similar to a small part of a Dannimal lid. Now I have enough sense to not try and stick anything in there to get it out myself, but how humiliating if tin foil is normal in a child's ear. At least that's what they will tell me. Wish me luck! BTW, if you want in the otoscope black market the website is www.notoco.com . Just don't tell your doctor.

Going, going, gone!

I am proud to announce Jake's first career homerun! He hit it hard deep into left field. If he hadn't stopped to watch the ball, he might have been able to round the bases twice! Good job, Jake!

"Lani like tandy"

Destined for Greatness

Jake's little league season has officially begun and he has shown himself to be a true natural. Here he is wearing his full catcher's gear. He has hit several singles and a couple doubles and is one of the few kids who actually gets outs. He has caught several fly balls which is pretty much unheard of in this age group. Must be great coaching, Wes. It's almost as if you do that for a living or something. We are hoping that he makes it to the big leagues so he can support his parents! Go get 'em Jakers!