GREEN

With all the rain we have had the last couple of months everything is so green. We've only been here about 5 years but I've never seen it this green before. It's really neat! Pictures really don't do it justice but you get the idea.

The desert out by Greg and Laurel's. The mountain in the way back is Table Top.

Another view of the desert by Greg and Laurel's. That is Signal Peak Mountain in the background.

The mountain in front is Newman's Peak. Behind that is Mt. Lemmon and it has snow on it!

This is the Casa Grande Mountains. The view from the interstate.

Another view of the Casa Grande Mountains.

Poncho and Lefty

Today we took the kids over to Greg and Laurel's for a horse ride. When we left our house it was a beautiful day. When we got to Greg and Laurel's it was super windy and kind of chilly. Mike and Laurel got the horses ready and the kids all went for rides. Laura was the first to ride and she got Poncho (brown horse). Greg tried to put Maddi on Lefty (white horse) but Lefty wasn't in too much a riding mood today. He wasn't listening too well so Greg rode Lefty for a bit and then tried to put Little Man on him. Little Man went for a bit of a wild ride. Lefty was just dancing all around so Greg took Little Man off and we just stuck to riding Poncho. They think he was sort of spooked because it was super windy outside. Kenni was after Laura to ride Poncho then Little Man and last Maddi. They all had a blast hanging around the corral and being helpers with the horses.

I didn't realize it until I was sitting here doing this post but I didn't get a video of Maddi! Oops!

Flowers

Yesterday the kids and I were invited over to the neighbors to play. While we were there James went grocery shopping for us. We got home right before he did, just in time to bring in groceries and put them away. It's usually my job to put away fridge and freezer stuff. I was sitting on the floor putting away the freezer stuff and when I got up there were tulips sitting on the counter. James had gotten them for me while he was out. Also while we were at the neighbors Kenni found a orange flower and picked it for me. It was from another neighbor's yard! Oops! Since there is so much growing here Kenni has been really sweet always picking me something. Last week he picked me a whole bunch of "flowers" (weeds) from our backyard.

Flowers from James and Kenni

"Flowers" from Kenni

spring break 2010

This passed week has been spring break for the kids. Daddy even got a few days off. Unfortunately it was because he had strep throat and pink eye!!!!! We haven't really done a whole lot while the kids have been off. We have been cleaning and organizing the house mostly! Today we had a day out though. We went and got pictures taken and then to McDonald's for lunch. Pictures ended up going really well. Yesterday morning Little Man woke up with pink eye AGAIN (for the 3rd time) so I was afraid we were going to have to cancel pictures. I just kept putting drops in his eye all day and it looked much better this morning. When we got to pictures they were running late so we had to sit and wait. The kids did pretty good waiting considering the amount of time we had to sit there. When we finally got in the room to take pictures Maddi wasn't too sure what to do. We tried to make her laugh and she ended up crying. Then she got into her attitude mood and kept leaving when the lady was trying to take her picture. We bribed her with cookies and for the most part it worked. After pictures we went to McDonald's and that place was a zoo. We went later so I thought it wouldn't be so busy but I guess everyone else had the same idea. We had lunch, played, got ice cream on the ride home and that was our day! These are the pictures from today!

Pink Eye Rematch and Round 3 & 4

Sunday afternoon Little Man said he felt like there was a chunk of puss in his eye again. I looked and sure enough Pink eye was back! I don't know if I didn't put the drops in long enough and it didn't clear up all the way or what but it came back. Monday morning he woke up and it had spread to his other eye so here we go all over again! He's been such a trooper getting these drops in his eyes all the time. He doesn't like all the homework that has been getting sent home for him though! Also Maddi woke up yesterday morning and she has it now too! She let me put one drop in her eye and that was it. No more drops for her! She keeps tell me "I don't have pink eye Mom!" Hopefully these two are the last ones to have it and it doesn't spread to anyone else. Kenni says though that he wants pink eye so I'm hoping he hasn't done anything deliberately to get it! You never know with Kenni!!!!

Pink Eye Round 2

It never fails that when someone in our house gets something, they don't share it with the rest of us! This morning Laura woke up and her eye was completely crusted over. Once she got it open and we could look at it I knew for sure she had pink eye. So we immediately started the drops in her eye. It even looks like she might get it in both eyes so we put drops in the other one too.

Antelope Jack

Yesterday James and a buddy from his work, Tony, took the boys hunting for antelope jacks. They are a kind of jackrabbit rabbit found mainly in Arizona and Mexico. These rabbits look a lot like a regular jackrabbit but are bigger and have a different color to them. Also a better taste. Yuck!

Tony picked James and the boys up yesterday morning around 6 am! The place they went to was way down passed Tucson in the Sierrita Mountains. They weren't very far from Mexico at all. James said they found a gazillion backpacks, water jugs and old abandoned vans from people crossing the border.

They only saw a few rabbits and only shot one. It ended up having a worm so they left it for the coyotes to eat. They did see 2 herds of deer, very many wandering cows, a few empty horse corrals and one with about 20-30 horses in it.

Of course you can't have a day out in the desert with out an injuries. Thankfully they were all very minor. Kenni got a scratch on the cheek from a mesquite tree, Little Man got a thorn in his finger from a mesquite tree, James and Kenni both got caught by a cholla cactus, and Kenni wanted to know what would happen if he picked up a hot fire log. He sure found out and even hid it for a little bit!

From how they described it to me it sounded like a really neat place. These are the pictures James got.

While the boys were on their excursion the girls and I went and had a little fun of our own. James had the camera so I didn't get any pictures though. We went over to Greg and Laurel's and played cowgirl all day!!!! We cleaned stalls, washed horses, rode horses, fed horses, cleaned up the hay stack, rode the 4 wheeler and the girls even got to ride in a wheelbarrow! Little Miss Laura Belle is just the regular little cowgirl now. She hopped up on the horse and just rode around all by herself. She even got the horse up to a pretty good trot. It was so awesome to watch her riding!

So we all had a fun filled Saturday. So fun that we couldn't even feel that we were all getting sunburned!!! The boys got more than us though!