Zip Lining

It starts pretty innocently, with Ken helping Corban with the slackline.

Using the broom for stabilization, but not handicapping him too much. And then suddenly, daddy gets an idea.

And Voila! They are zip lining in no time!





































All in a daddy's days work.

Quest for a Family Photo

Every once in a while, I start to get an itch for a family photo. I have a hard time hiring a photographer when I've got this beautiful camera. But with the theft of my old camera went the head to my tripod (attached) so I have no tripod. But around Christmastime, I thought, I REALLLY want to be a good friend and send out Christmas cards this year, so we're going to need SOME sort of photo. We kept trying to find a time, and then one day on our way home from church we decided to kill two birds with one stone.

First bird? Go see some baby sheep that Ken always sees when he's driving on his way to a job at work. Corban has had a hankering for baby sheep for about a year now, and is always asking me when he can hold one. EVERY time he notices the picture of the Savior up in my kitchen (carrying a baby sheep), Corban NEEEEEEEDS to hold one. And so we set out to find the "baby sheepies."

And beautiful, sweet sheepies we found.

And it turns out that we did have an obstacle to holding a baby sheep (and no, it wasn't the electrified fence we jumped over to get in the field).

Check out that incredible dog. He wasn't about to let us close.

We would get close, and he would stare us down, his big beautiful no-nonsense face warned us to not come one step closer. And we didn't. I was so touched by that beautiful dog. Once he determined that we weren't there to harm his sheep, he laid down (above) and just kept an eye on us. This was when I decided right then and there, that I needed my husband to buy me a flock of sheep and a big beautiful dog like that. We were in the wrong business. Still are, come to think of it. It just felt like the symbolism of that big, beautiful white dog there, walking among the sheep and showing up only when we got too close-- it was just so powerful. I need it in my family.

Second bird- a picture that we could use for the card. Ken and I being in it was out of the question, unfortunately. I'm not the biggest fan of Christmas cards with just kids on it, but seeing that we were in a field alone, I just couldn't come up with a solution. The dog wasn't about to take the picture for me. And I couldn't take a picture with Ken and the kids, and then one with ME and the kids and send them out to our respective friends. What would people think? So it was a kid picture. I'll just let you all guess which one I ended up using:

Missing a child.

Trying not to step in sheepie dung.

Penelope cracks me up. She looks like she's been partying hard at nursery.



Just the way she likes it.


Corban's scrunched up face makes me smile and want to freeze time.




This one is just nasty.

Finally, something useable.

And there you have it. My babies.





I realized two things when looking at these pictures (and the ones that I didn't post). One, heels make me look like I have cankles. Which I don't have, FYI. But I think maybe I shouldn't wear heels. And two, I've been wearing that skirt for almost ten years. Maybe it's time to retire it? Oh my gosh, I just realized a third thing. The shirt is just as old as the skirt! And a fourth thing: I should probably invest in some sort of spray tan or something. Girl is white, white, white.

My handsome husband and the kids again.

Also, please don't be offended if you didn't get a card from us this year... turns out I should have ordered more than the minimum for my order. I ordered the minimum, thinking, we DEFINITELY don't have more than x amount of friends, and then I started addressing them without any order or priority and it turns out we have x amount times 5 amount of friends that we'd like to send some holiday love to. So sorry if you didn't get one, it means absolutely nothing about our love for you... in fact my sister didn't get one, she saw it on the fridge at my parents house and was not totally thrilled that she hadn't gotten one. Ha ha, sort of. See what I mean? I neglected an entire wing of the family. Sorry everyone. Next year (if I ever get a family picture).

I wish, wish, wish.

Tonight Ken was working through dinner, so the kids and I were sitting at the table, discussing things like only a 2, 3, 5, and 30 year old can. Among many, many, many other things, I learned that my children have some unfulfilled wishes in life.

Avery wishes that her dad and I would have named her Flower instead of Avery. No wait, she amended her statement to wish that her name was Flower Avery Noel. Best of both worlds, in her opinion. She also wishes that her mother would have long hair. While she was at it, she decided to throw in a wish for her own hair, that it would be longer, like Rapunzel.

Corban didn't hesitate even a second when I changed the subject from Avery's wishes and inquired after his. And I quote, "I wish that I had a pet alligator and that he was nice." I smiled, remembering the stories of my dad as a little boy. And then he proceeded to talk for a good four minutes of chain of thought ramblings about what he would do if he had a pet alligator. Imagination, that one has. His second wish when I was able to pull him back to reality was that (again, I quote): "That I would have a new plate that will not break but is plastic. But not like the little ones, but it would be big."

When I asked Penelope, her brother and sister immediately made up wishes for her, the first and foremost being that she wanted a little puppy. She corrected them in short order, telling them that she didn't want a puppy, she wanted a dolphin. Which is news to me, since I was pretty sure she had no idea what a dolphin was. You learn something new every day, from your kids.

Try it, sometime. Ask a child near you what their wishes are. You might get a nice smile out of it, I'm still smiling, trying to imagine the minds of my little people. Being their mom is such a joy, it's hard to describe. It certainly is hard work and discouraging sometimes, but I must say that these past few years I have felt like I have found my happy place in life (the exception to these feelings being a once-a-month breakdown, comes pretty regularly, you know? At regular intervals. Catch my drift??). It's a happy place with my husband, and these little children. My hopes and dreams of my future have faded into a background to the point that I know who I am and that I want to accomplish something in life, but I can't imagine what on earth could be more important to accomplish than these people. I love them and I love the life that we live. And I hate it (sometimes). I sometimes look forward to them all getting a little older, going to school and experiencing more of life. But then I realize that our days of choosing where and when to go places, to spend the day at the Children's Museum, or the park, or the library, at home reading, or with friends (or all of the above in one day) is going to be over. I'll have to cherish my summer days with them, and try desperately to remember life with all three of my toddlers at home. I hope I live with no regrets, I try every day to have no regrets. To go that one more place with them. To smile at them more. To be a mom worth remembering in their memories. I sort of can't bear the thought of their growing up, but maybe that's the sad plight of a mother. To give so much to her children and then to have to let them go. But not today. Today, I succeeded in giving them a long and full day of childhood, and that's pretty much all I could ask for myself. Well, I guess I should ask myself to kindly clean the house and do dishes now that they are in bed. We'll see.

I could not not post this shot.

I wasn't going to post these pictures (considering that it's almost the end of January) but how could I not post this precious jewel of a Santa photo?

Stiff as a board. Everything about this photo makes me smile.

Not at all funny, or timely... but what the hey:





As you can see, our church group went all out for Santa at our ward party. Not. But that's not really supposed to hurt anyone's feelings. I would say that the amount of feelings that should be hurt should be in proportion the effort that one puts into something. And considering that our Santa Clause (who was really sweet, by the way) was stuck into a side room with a folding chair, I am thinking that my statement could not possibly hurt anyone's feelings. I'm just thinking that wards should go back to having an Activities Committee, no??

Amendment: I just looked back at the pictures, and he wasn't on a folding chair. So I do recognize that someone did pull the chair in from the hallway, see? Effort. Which means that maybe my words were hurtful. Except that pretty much nobody local reads my blog, so maybe I'm safe. But if not, call me if you are offended, and I'll buy you an ice cream. And while we are eating, I'll explain to you that while I don't consider myself picky or in need of a fancy shmancy atmosphere for a church activity, that I do like to invite friends to activities and at these times I remember past wards and past years where the Activities Committee had a bit of extra time and worked very hard to make ward activities special and it really showed and they were events that I was proud to invite friends to. But I agree with you that the Church is true, regardless, so why were we even discussing this, again?

Bad parenting

I had a terribly crushingly horrible parenting moment yesterday. Like big bad. I called Ken afterwards and said, "Ken, I just had one of the most humiliating and dangerous and horrible parenting moments ever, and my friend was there to see it."

He said, "Worse than barf at the post office?"

I said, "Yep. Think child running out into a busy street with mom 250 yards away in the parking lot across the field. I was trying to get them to come back, but they weren't listening. And then (friend) drives up and witnesses the matter (on her way to preschool where we were going too) and now all of the preschool moms know about it. Lets move to Alaska."

He said, "Yep, that is bad."

In my defense, I got the kids to the park before preschool (parenting bonus points). They were running and I told them to come closer but they weren't listening. I could tell they were getting close to the road, but honestly I didn't know that they were actually going into it, so I wasn't even panicked. I was engaging, trying to get them back (not ignoring) but also not desperate (my heart wasn't pounding). There are bushes and I thought they were on our side of the road, and it turns out they were on the other side of the road. Sheesh. Also we go to the park ALL OF THE TIME (more bonus points? Anyone??) and they NEVER go into the road. Have gotten close but they are deathly afraid of getting smooshed by cars so they never actually go into the road. I just could not believe that they were actually going to go into the road.

But apparently they did, and I felt so sick about it. Like sick and humiliated and unable to keep them from danger, and out of ways to protect them. I felt like Ken had better come home from work because I wasn't fit to parent. And then I dropped Corban off at preschool feeling like an idiot because I know all of the other moms already know that I can barely keep track of my people as it is and now this and then took Penny to Fresh 'n' Easy and she promptly broke a dozen eggs all over the ground and then got her leg stuck in the bottom of the cart while I was checking out and I didn't notice that either. The guy behind me came up and helped her out and said, "That was a close one." I smiled at him and tried not to cry. Not fit to be a mom. And then she spent the next 5 minutes scanning as many items from my cart as she could reach, furious if I touched them or helped her.

I'm glad I didn't post about this yesterday because a- the post would have been so much more colorful, more desperate and a little depressed, and b- I actually had a nice afternoon with the kids as they swam at the pool for 2 hours (I made sure they didn't drown), played with neighbors, had a warm bath, ate a healthy and delicious dinner, and I read to them before putting them to bed nice and early. If parenting was an "average" game, I totally raised up my average by the rest of the day. But it's not. And my kids were in danger and I didn't really realize it. But they are always in danger-- they are kids, they climb, they play, they romp, they GO. My job is to be there to protect and so far they are still alive. Thank heavens for that! Lets just cross our fingers that they keep it that way. For today, at least.

Grandma and Grandpas House

A hike up the canyon, behind my folks house. I sat on this rock many many times before I had a husband or kids. Fun to see them scramble up and down it.

Tired Ken, just got off a 70 hour work week and we drove him EARLY in the morning.

Kids climbing up to my brother and dad to the top of the rock (where Ken proposed to me, incidentally).



I love Avery's hands in these. Now that's a rock climbing little girl.

Catchin' lizards.

Uncle Kyle!

More hunting...

I found a shoe.



These pictures make Ken cringe. Why is our eldest wearing day-old makeup? Ha ha, good question.

She's supposed to be showing us the war wounds on her forehead and nose, but instead she thinks it's a fashion show. It's like she knows she's still wearing makeup.