Baby toys

A week or so ago, we put Myles with the other boys to sleep at night. When I moved him into his new bed, I also moved all the toys from his old bed into the new one. His siblings had donated some items to keep him busy, and I managed to identify who went with which gift.

Walker gave this to Myles:

And this is what Morgen let Myles play with:

This is Hyrum's idea of a good toy for Myles:

Now, which toy do *you* think Myles was playing with? As a hint, it wasn't soft or furry. My darling child suffers from an iron deficit- thank goodness Hyrum was on-the-spot with a quick and effective treatment :).

Puppies

There was a gale-force wind that came through Tuesday, and blew some smaller branches and twigs off the tree in the front yard. Luckily, Jared sawed off the big diseased branches last week, or we would have lost one or more of our cars in the storm :). Anyway, I took the puppies outside in the front yard today, while I picked up the debris from the storm. Myles and Hyrum "helped" me pick up twigs and leaves, the puppies wandered about and squealed a lot, and Cali had a slightly frantic look in her eyes because she couldn't keep all her puppies in one spot! They're three weeks old now, and every day they change a bit more.

Growing

Myles
was recently shorn by his mother, after she got tired of explaining that yes, he had a beautiful head of curly hair, and no, he wasn't a girl. He didn't hold still very well, so he may have a few chunks of hair to re-grow.

The puppies are acting like puppies now- crawling over each other, biting each other, trying to escape from their kennel. Actually, they quite remind me of my own children :)

Today was a perfect fall day. A breeze, temps in the high 60's, and kids in school! Oh, and my dh planning a hunt for next week.

You know, I have a pretty good life: plenty of food [good food, too], clean and sanitary water to drink that is piped into my home, lots of warm clothes, a sturdy house to shelter me, healthy kids, free education for those kids, a washer and dryer in my own home; I take it all for granted. So I'm just saying that I am grateful for all of these blessings :)

The new Justice League!

Yep, coming to a home near you [depending on how near you live to us :)], Hyrum will be appearing as *ta-da!* ESPer Boy! Yes, dear reader, he has developed some amazing new skills.

Hyrum: Guess what, Mom?!
Me: Yes?
Hyrum: *humming* I'm reading my mind!
Me: [trying hard not to giggle] Really? Wow. That's pretty ...ummm... Wow.

this conversation was followed by random humming episodes for the rest of that day.

Puppies are beautiful, growing, trying to escape the kennel [nicer name than "cage" don't you think?] and when Cali is feeding them, they totally remind me of Myles. Because they're so intently feeding, and their little paws are just pumping and waving madly either in the air or scrabbling on the floor, depending on whether they are belly up or belly down. Myles, when we're holding him, will wave his legs and arms, and he has clawed his way up my arm and out of my lap, while I'm holding his bottle. Somehow, the taste of the milk improves every time he pinches me :).

If I could write well...

this is what I would chronicle! A friend of mine forwarded this eBay auction to me. I'm still getting chuckles from the story behind the auction.

Hope you enjoy today!
"Every survival kit should include a sense of humor." — Author Unknown
edited *Dawn [writer of the ebay auction] has a blog, thanks Amber for the info!

My life in pictures

Gailey reunion:
Sloan's the youngest, and judging from the size of his thighs, the best-fed ;) Zachary, the 4th of 5. He was working on crawling, and got some pointers from his cousins. Carson will be one in Oct; he's the 3rd of 5. He's got the cutest grin! Myles will be one in Sept. but he's the smallest of the 5. It's all good, he'll be the toughest ;) Saxon's the oldest- he just turned one. Tried to get all 5 boys in the tub; got several complaints. Still, cute naked baby pictures! An attempt to get Grandpa with all his grandkids- 10, 5 babies. Several protests were logged. These signs were everywhere- must be a chain? Although I wonder why anybody would *choose* to put this sign on their store... This sign, on the side of the livestock truck, sounds made up [there really is a town in Idaho named Wilder, though] And, there was another sign on the back: Caution- these squirrels collect nuts. A sign that should have been on our vehicle: little rabbit smiling with these words: I don't listen well.

At the concert: Myles and Luke; when you're small, making friends is simple. "Hey, you're a baby- wow! So am I!" And it's on to stealing each others' toys and comparing the grass they pull up from the lawn. Haley and Morgen- they took 5 minutes to make friends, and hung out the whole concert.

These are the not-quite-one-week-old puppies Cali had. 5 boys, 2 girls. They squeak :)

Pictures soon

Trip to Oregon was exhausting and fun. Myles [who was getting a tooth] woke up at either 3am, 4am, or 5am each morning, wanting love and attention. Lucky for the rest of our relatives that we were sleeping in the motor home and far away from the cabin! BTW, of the 5 baby boy cousins, Myles is the smallest and has the least amount of teeth. Oh, and all 5 have blue eyes and blond hair [if they have hair].

We went to a concert Saturday with an old friend of mine and his family. Kids loved playing together, and we got to catch up on some things. Good fun :)

Our dog had 7 puppies Thursday morning. She loves them. She has to be bribed to leave the kennel to eat, and won't leave to use the bathroom until she can't hold it in any longer [usually about 3am]. I keep thinking "just wait until the second litter" :)

Will post photos later.

List of random favorites:

Summer birthdays with pinatas, ice cream and cake, friends and family.

Anne McCaffrey- author of the Pern novels. Love her writing, still love the Dragonsong, Dragonsinger, and Dragondrums novels for YA. Wish she could write forever ;)

Brad Paisley's music- he has a tongue-in-cheek humor and a wicked way with words.

Sweet corn fresh from the cornstalk. Drizzle butter and salt on, and mmmmmmm! so good.

chocolate. Like I would ever have a "favorites" list without it ;)

iTunes. countless combinations of my favorite songs

School is starting in 3 weeks and 4 days. *doing the happy dance*

Crafts for kids, and having kids who like to do them without a lot of hands-on help from me. My job is to supervise fair distribution of supplies, and admire the results :)

making cards. Since my scrapbooking time is often limited, this gives me a chance to create something tangible in the few minutes I steal from my day.

Johnny Cash. Still love hearing his voice.

Avril Lavigne. Her latest CD is full of good music- not just a few good songs mixed with a bunch of filler music.

foreign oil?

You know, I could never get properly worked up about the US [myself in particular] being dependant on foreign oil. I mean, I try to walk wherever I can, driving only when I'm late or it's too far to be practical. However, this past week of internet woes has shown me how difficult it can be to have a problem that someone else has to fix.

A long time ago, people fixed their own things. Or their neighbors fixed their things. When I need to get my internet connection repaired, I have to call the company, spend 5-10 minutes on hold, then follow their instructions and hope that these actions will restore my link with cyberspace. After the second call in a week, I started taking notes on a paper. So *I* could try fixing the problem first, before I called and spent all that time waiting for help. And, after putting off yet another call since Monday, mostly because I was too busy to sit and wait, I called them again. While I was on hold, I thought I'd try some of the quick fixes they've told me about. Before the customer service guy had even answered my call, I was able to *on my own* get the internet back up and working! *sigh* vindication!!!

This past week, well, actually one week ago, we celebrated Morgen's birthday. My mom brought Alyson up, and my sister Emily came too. [thank you, Emily, for taking all the pictures of the party for me! And Mom, for helping supervise the kids, and watching Myles, and handing out cake and ice cream!] It was stressful for me- I really need to relax and let go of my idea of the perfect party. But it's over, and it was fun in retrospect, so I'll probably do it again next year. Having 12 kids was challenging, but not as difficult when there are a bunch of games planned for them. Have to keep that tip in mind next year for Walker's birthday party: plan about 5 more games than you think you'll need. Really, you will end up needing them ;)

And today we have yet another reunion! In Wallsburg, Utah. Which is a little town sort of by Heber. We always have the best fresh sweet corn available, thanks to Uncle Kent. Mmmmm!

Lost and found

Things I lost this past week:

* my temper [Walker dug a hole in the lawn in the front yard- absolutely forbidden, of course] ;)
* my internet connection [now fixed and working after 1 week, 6 calls to tech support, one in-person visit from tech guy, and a new cable]
* my cellphone [still missing, call Jared's number to reach me]
* my good-parent card [because of the lost temper]

Okay, so there wasn't a huge number of lost items, just very important ones in my life. And I'm planning to replace my phone this week sometime, but until then, I have Jared's. I guess what I really need to do [since this is the 2nd phone in 7 months that I've lost permanently] is have them implant the phone into my head. Sadly, this technology is not currently available.