Why Can't We Live There???

Buckle your seat belts and get ready for a photo dump! We've been home from our Colorado vacation for some six weeks, and I haven't done one single thing with our hundreds of photos. Consider yourself warned....

Yes, we went to Colorado for two weeks in early August. We began our trip at our family cabin near Pagosa Springs, where we stretch our legs on some acreage nearly every year.

The boys are always happy to hit the ground running, whether it be hiking, fishing, digging in the dirt, or whatever mood may strike them. Occasionally, we'll catch them in a loving mood.

Liam (8), Jackson and Garrett (6)

A new activity for us this year was shooting the boys' new BB gun. Everyone tried it out. Even moi.

Let's just say that it's a good thing we don't have to survive on what we shoot.

And let's also say that some of us look better in the safety glasses than others.
Although our "lake" was low enough to be called a pond, we did try to fish.
But this dead minnow that Garrett caught is the only fish we have to brag about.
He was so darn proud of that minnow! He carried it around until we told him we couldn't keep it. "But WHY?," he asked. "Because it's DEAD," we explained.

Marshall might have killed something for dinner.
Isn't that a great photo?! The hunting magazines will be calling me to post it in their latest and greatest; I know they will. I'm trying to decide if I should ask for big bucks or for a new home for the dog.

To clear things up: 1. No, that furry thing in Marshall's mouth was never living. It's his play raccoon. 2. The dog is not for sale at the moment. I do change my mind frequently, however. 3. He was an absolute angel on our trip, because he could run and romp all day long in the mountains. Now that we're back home where it's hotter than hades, he's anything but an angel. 4. Do you want him?

Another new activity for the boys this year was building this tepee.
They wanted a tree house or a fort of some kind, but Daddy nixed the idea and convinced them that a tepee was even better. It did turn out to be quite cool, and the boys spent hours out there.

One evening, we took a drive to look at other properties in our community. We ran across this mama deer and her THREE babies. I have never seen a deer with so many young! My heart went out to her as she frantically tried to keep them at her side while we snapped pictures from our car. It's tough work wrangling three little ones, and I speak from experience.
Of course, we hiked on a few different days. I can't remember the name of the hike that took us to the beautiful lake, but it was picturesque, to say the least.
The Archuletta County Fair took place while we were in town, so we took Jack to meet Jack.
For the record, it was Rick's idea to take a picture of his son next to a donkey. Son, I would never do such a thing.

Each of the boys took a try at the fake bull thing. (What's it called?) They all enjoyed it, but Garrett had the best belly laugh. When he lets loose and has a good laugh, it's the best medicine for me.
Liam played and won the hula hoop contest.
Yes, he did have competition, but I didn't take their pictures.

Mid-way through our vaca, we took a few days to stay in Ouray. Let me tell you something. I COULD LIVE THERE! It is so amazingly beautiful with mountains all around and every activity within walking distance.

On our way to Ouray, we stopped to get some pics. I believe this is near Georgetown, but Rick will correct me if I'm wrong. (I'm terrible with geography, people. And my memory failed me about the first day of motherhood, so trying to remember a specific geographical location 6 weeks after the fact...forget it!)

Anyway, we took various photos near Georgetown, and but this one cracks me up.
We wanted Marshall to sit nicely next to Liam, but as with all Labs, he thinks he's a lap dog and tried to climb into every one's lap.

But here's proof that he really was an angel.
He's so cuuute when he's being cute.

(No, that's not a muzzle around his snout. It's a gentle leader and works like a horse's halter. In other words, it's a life saver when I'm trying to walk him and don't want him to pull off my arms.)

Probably our favorite activity of the entire trip took place in Ouray. We paid for a driver to take us up to Imogene Pass in a four wheel drive truck.
Along the way, we were able to enjoy amazing scenery. This dilapidated mining home made us grateful for our own home.
The pictures don't do the flowers any justice at all. When Rick took this picture, we could literally see nothing but flowers all around us. I'm pretty sure this was a little slice of heaven.
A hairy and bumpy ride took us to the top, where winter greeted us. We were warm in our shorts at the beginning of the tour but teeth-chattering cold at the top with sleet falling on us.
This is where my mom will ask why we didn't wear pants and heavy coats. Ask your son-in-law.

BRRR!
We made it!!!
On the way down, our driver stopped and pulled the kids out. We had no idea what he was doing, but we trusted him well enough to know he wouldn't push them off the mountain. Instead, they all broke out singing "The Hills are Alive!" It was hilarious!
If you're interested in a scenic 4WD tour in Ouray, look up Keith. He was a fantastic tour guide with a lot of historical information, spot-on sense of humor, and amazing patience with kids.
No, we did not adopt a little girl. I can't remember her name (the whole memoryfailingmeproblem again), but she and her little brother became fast friends with my boys.

I gotta wrap this up and make dinner. As the song goes, back to life, back to reality. Why can't we just go back to Colorado???

By the way, aren't you glad I didn't dump hundreds of pics here?

Peace out!

Things That Make Me Go "Hmm"

If you've ever had young kids, you know how often they open the door to tell you all kinds of nonsense while they play in the backyard.

The door opens and I hear, "So and so hit me with the ball." The door closes, only to be reopened every 2.9 seconds for comments and questions such as these: "So and so threw the ball at the dog." "Are we allowed to dig in the garden?" "I hit a home run and the ball went over the fence! Can I go get it?" "Mom, do you like grub worms?" "Marshall's eating from the garden." "What are we doing today?" "What are we eating for lunch?" And two seconds later, "What are we eating for dinner tonight?"

Admittedly, I'll sometimes lock the door to stop the nonsense. Or I'll throw out the threat, "If you open that door again, you're coming in for a nap!" That one works like a charm.

Anyway, as I was cleaning my bedroom this morning, the boys and dogs were playing in the backyard. I believe they opened the door 52 times before I heard a new statement. Jackson yelled, "MARSHALL LOST A TOOTH AND I FOUND IT!"

"Okay, great. Yep, he's teething. SHUT THE DOOR," I yelled back. (I should always say 'Slam that door', since that's what they do.)

Jackson went back to play, and I didn't give Marshall's tooth another thought, until I walked through the kitchen 30 minutes later to find the lost-and-found tooth in a baggie on the kitchen counter.

I carried the tooth to Jackson and asked if he thought the tooth fairy should visit the pup. He laughed and said "No! I thought we could make a collection of his teeth."

Oh. Hmm.

Raising boys often leaves me scratching my head.

Decluttering

The blogging portion of my brain feels cluttered. So many pictures to post. So many events have come and gone without even a sentence granted on the blog. When I get this far behind in my writing, I feel overwhelmed and simply want to give up. But then I remember that I don't scrapbook for my family, nor do I simply print our photos, so if I don't blog, what do we have to show for our lives?

In an effort to declutter my foggy blog brain, here's a post of random photos.

Garrett finished out his t-ball career by being chosen as one of four from his team to advance to the All Star tournament.
His kindergarten teacher came to his final All Star game.
Mrs. Whitsell is one of a kind, and Garrett was sure to show off some of his best baseball skills in front of her. This is where I should rattle off all of his amazing defensive stats, but I simply can't remember one. Suffice it to say, he played well, very well. And he's more than ready to move on to coach pitch in the fall.

Meanwhile, Liam's Dirtbags were winning a semi-finals game the same night, and they advanced to the Championship. Garrett and I were able to make it to the final game, where the Dirtbags defeated the Giants. This win was a huge victory, because the Giants had only lost something like 3 games in two years!
Trophies all around for the Dirtbags!
On a non-baseball note, (Imagine that...something in our lives that doesn't relate to baseball!) Jackson and Garrett graduated from Kindergarten. I would love to show you some fantastic photos of my babies' graduation, but a certain someone, who will remain nameless, deleted many, and I mean MANY, pictures from my camera. So we're left with mediocrity, such as a blurred picture of Jackson receiving his congratulatory hug from his teacher, Mrs. Woods.
He blew her off like he'd blow a spider off his arm.

But Garrett paused for a sweet moment with his girlfriend, I mean teacher.
Yes, I must admit I teared up when I saw my babies walk across the stage. Not because they're graduating from kindergarten, but because I couldn't help but flash forward to twelfth grade in my mind. Be still my heart, what will I do when my kids all finish high school?!

After the 50,000,000 kindergarteners walked across the stage, they sang songs such as "New York, New York". How does Frank Sinatra's famous song qualify as a graduation song, you ask? The words were changed to something like this:

Start spreading the news
I'm leaving today
I'm gonna be apart of it
first grade, first grade
It was cute, and, of course, hand signals had to be incorporated.

I'm not sure who was most excited about the last day of school, the boys or me. But let me tell you, when the dismissal bell rang, we hightailed it outta there without a glance back. Woohoo, summer!

One of our first summer days was spent riding horses. I have wanted to introduce my boys to horseback riding for quite some time, and a perfect situation came up. A good friend of ours recently inherited two horses from his dad, and he invited us to meet him at the corral.

This is where I'd love to post pictures of my boys riding their first horse, but that nameless person deleted about 100 pictures of our horseback riding experience. About all I have to show you is Liam brushing Alley.
Alley happens to be the horse that also bucked Liam off. The horse decided he didn't want to be ridden and threw my boy off within two minutes. Thankfully, Liam didn't have any serious injuries, but he was sore for a few days. But he was brave and got onto another horse with me within a few minutes of his fall.

Liam tried out and made it onto the summer All Star team again. They've gone to championship level all but one tournament thus far, placing second twice and even first place recently. Summer baseball is hotter than hades, but when the boys win, it's worth the sweat.
Another big event of our summer has been Garrett pulling his own tooth.
He was so proud of himself for pulling it on his own. And I cried, because I'm simply not ready for my baby to grow up.

In other news, Marshall had his manhood and dewclaws removed a few days ago. He came home looking pretty pitiful.
Yes, we've had a grand ol' time trying to keep him from chewing his bandages. A neighbor asked why Marshall has casts on his paws. Garrett said, "We had his claws removed so he won't run away and make babies." He kind of got my explanation confused.

Now that summer is in full swing, we're enjoying a relaxed schedule. Staying up late, sleeping in until 7, no homework, play dates, swimming, etc.

We're also hitting the batting cages frequently.
Just call them the Bad Bat Boys.
And on that note, these bad boys are ready to go burn off some energy, so I better run before something gets broken.

I can't promise when I'll be back, but I hope it's before summer's end.

He's Growing on Us

Marshall, the pup, has been home for about 6 weeks now, and he only has one post on the blog? That's just not right. A good mommy brags about ALL of her children equally.

Here he is today at 3 1/2 months:
He's almost tripled in weight since we got him, and he's taller than Winston now.

How does Winston feel about it all? This look tells all:
Poor Winston! I keep telling him that he's still my #1 dog, but he remains very bitter about sharing his mommy. I can't blame him with all the nasty stunts that Marshall pulls. He won't let Winston get any of my love without jumping right in the middle of us. The brown boy likes to sneak up behind W and bite his legs at any given moment. Marshall also likes to nip at his jowls and steal his favorite toy. They go round and ROUND, even if I'm sure to give them both the exact same chew toy.

If you look a little closer at Marshall's nose, you'll see that he hasn't learned to back off.
We should have named him Scarface.

Although the two dogs still haven't figured out how to live peacefully under one roof, Marshall has otherwise settled into our family quite well. The boys love playing with him, and I enjoy training him. I'm taking him to a manners class once a week, and his trainer is very impressed with how calm he is for his age and breed.

I don't tell her that I drug him every day. I wouldn't want to give her any reason to call PETA on me.

Truthfully, the only time I drug him is when he's about to get more shots, in which case, I must give him Benadryl so that his lips and eyes don't triple in size due to another reaction. I'm not sure why, but I always end up with the high-maintenance animals.

But we love our new addition, and he is here to stay, right Daddy?

Mother's Day Recap

My boys had been talking about their Mother's Day gifts for weeks. I love how their teachers took a great deal of time (2-3 weeks) to build up the day as very special. Liam and Jackson came home with gift bags similar to Garrett's, so I had three hand-made gifts to open on Sunday.
Liam made me a fan, complete with his cute mug shot, as well as a new plant. When I asked him what kind of plant it is, he said, "I dunno. It's pink or purple." I plan to replant it to see for myself.

Jackson and Garrett each made a recipe holder.
I'm not sure how well you can tell from the photos, but each little boy made a flower out of a styrofoam cup. After painting the flower, they added their photo and a clothes pin. What a cute idea! Since I use a recipe binder instead of index cards, I plan to use mine for Bible verses.

Jman and GB also made cards with questionnaires about me, which were a hoot. Jackson doesn't call me "Moma", but I think it's funny that he added it to his card.
His questionnaire reads as follows:
My mommy's name is Ami. (Check.)

She is 51 years old. (When I asked him if he really thinks I'm that old, he said, "I can't reMEMBER how old you are, so Mrs. Woods said that I should say 50-something." Thank you, Mrs. Woods.)

Her favorite thing to do is watch tv all by herself. (It's not exactly my favorite pastime, but I do enjoy it.)

She does not like to clean. (Amen!)

My mommy's favorite food is cabbage. (It is?!)

My mommy's favorite color is rainbows. (He's pretty close, because I always say that I like a lot of colors.)

My mommy is really good at cleaning. (Somebody has to be.)

My mommy loves to watch news on tv. (I do?)

I love my mommy because she is special. (Thank you!)

My middle man taught me some things about myself.

Garrett's questionnaire was in the form of a book. The first page asked how he makes me happy and he said, "When I do the dishes." (Can I get another 'amen'?)

The second page asked him what he likes me to wear, and he said "red" and then drew a picture of me wearing a red Lil Ron t-shirt that we had made with Liam's photo on it. He's also got my hair in pigtails, which I have done once for the fun of it, and all 3 of my boys think it's my best hair style.

His favorite way to spend time with me is when "gowig to the ragrs gam." (going to the Rangers game)

Finally, the last page has a list of my favorite things according to GB:
Food: ckigi pot pi (chicken pot pie)

Color: bran (brown, which I do love, especially on skin)

Movie: segutreyen (Secretariat)

Place to eat: Mexucun (Yet another 'amen' needed!)

Flower: rozess (What girl doesn't love them?)

Place to shop: wolmrt (WalMart...I think I have done an EXCELLENT job of shopping there without complaining in front of him!)

Hobby: wrc (Any guesses?)

Sport: volebol (What about baseball?)

Rick rounded out the day with some kitchen gadgets, an iTunes gift card, and dinner OUT!

I sure do love my men, and I'm grateful for the special day.

Making a Case for the Abandoned Blog

I've had a few friends ask if I'm okay, since the blog has been abandoned. I'm fine, thanks for asking. I'm just a baseball mom, and that's the way baseball go.

Garrett is playing for the Angels this year.
He is an angel in real life most of the time. Ahem.

He's loving the sport even more this year, and I think he has big aspirations for MLB someday. The MLB may want to remember him. My only request, MLB, is that you allow him to live with his mommy forever, because I'm not sure he and I will be able to part EVER. Furthermore, MLB, he's quite the leftie and making many plays this year. His favorite positions are pitcher, catcher, and 1st base. I may be biased as his mommy, but he's the best little Angel out there.

Liam is a Dirtbag again this year. Of course, he's still loving the sport. He's enjoying 1st, 2nd, and left field this year. His hitting is improving by the day, and we're anxiously awaiting his first official homerun.
It might appear that he is crying in the above photo, but rest assured that we have taught him there are no tears in baseball. Instead, he decided to use eye black to paint his number (14) on his cheeks for the first game.

Jackson, if you'll remember, chose Jiu Jitsu over baseball this year.
However, two weeks into baseball season, he was regretting his decision. Raise your hand if you could see that coming.

Yea, I know. I saw it, too, but we needed to let him try something new. But just last week, he told me that he didn't really think he would miss Jiu Jitsu, so I pulled him out immediately. Why waste the time and money? Guess who will be playing fall baseball?

Baseball is not the only culprit for the chaos in our home. About 3 weeks ago, this photo jumped onto my cell phone, and I have no idea how this happened, but we have a new puppy.
If I blink away the fog in my mind, I seem to remember a conversation between Rick, Liam and myself. It went something like this:
Liam: Mommy, I love dogs. Can I have a chocolate lab?
Me: WHAT?!?! NO!
Rick: Mommy, hear him out.
Liam: Mommy, Winston loves you and follows you around. I want a dog that loves me and follows me and sleeps with me.
Me: Liam, we have a dog. Yes, Winston prefers me, but we don't need another dog. We are too busy with baseball and school, and two dogs are hard to travel with. Winston is the perfect dog...small, playful, loving.
Rick: Mommy, he's an animal lover just like you. How can you deny him? This would be a great way for him to learn some new responsibilities.

Yadda, yadda, yadda.

I kept saying no, but we somehow wound up with a chocolate lab that Jackson named "Marshall".

Yes, he's cute and all that. And the boys, especially Liam and Garrett, love him.
No, he doesn't sleep with Liam, because he's still waking SOMEONE up at 2am for a potty break. That someone would not be the two males that begged for him. (Now, Rick will pipe in here to say that he helps sometimes, but you and I know that I'm the one getting up MOST nights with the little darling.)

Cute?
Yes, cute.

Is he loved? Yes. Is he a lot of work? YES. Is anyone regretting this decision? Yes, but they will remain nameless and work with him to make him a well-behaved member of the family.

So now, this busy family takes a puppy and his bag of chew toys to every game.

I must run and take my new sidekick on a potty run. I'll be back with a Lil Ron update.

Jackson's Math

As we drove home from an eye appointment yesterday, the boys were talking about how many kids are in different families around us. "So and so have 3, so and so have 2, so and so have 5,...."

I simply listened and didn't add anything to the conversation.

Suddenly Jackson became very animated. "Mommy, we only have boys in our family! That's not fair to you," he exclaimed.

I laughed and asked, "What do you mean?"

"You're the only girl in our family. That's not fair. We need four girls to make it even."

"Four," I asked for clarification.

"Yes, four. Because Daddy has 4 boys and you need 4 girls."

I guess he's counting Winston as one of Daddy's boys. It's either that or we need to work on JMan's counting skills.

My Baby is Six

Yesterday was a very important day. My baby turned 6.

Excuse me while I grab a tissue.
We began the day with cinnamon rolls from a can on paper plates in our pj's and with bedheads. Only the best for Garrett.

Later in the day, he helped me slave away in the kitchen over cupcakes.
It's a tradition for my boys to help bake their own birthday cakes. They love to help and don't yet know about child labor laws.
He asked for chocolate cupcakes with chocolate icing and sprinkles. Daddy criticized with his mouth full of cupcake, "This would taste better if it were vanilla cake with chocolate icing." To which Garrett replied, "Well, it's not your birf-day."

I can't think of a smooth transition here, so I'll just jump right in and say that the boys haven't been to school since Monday because of icy roads. It seems like half the country is frozen, and we are certainly no exception this time. We only have about two inches of snow, but it rained just before the snowfall, which left our roads ready for ice skates. School has already been canceled for tomorrow, and more snow is expected in the morning. I'm so glad the Farmer's Almanac was correct in the prediction of a dry, warm winter in north Texas.

So what on earth does a mother do with wild boys stuck indoors for days on end?

We get ready for the 100th day of school, although it may not occur until June at this rate.
Each of my boys' teachers wanted the boys to wear 100 something-or-other for the big day, which was supposed to be tomorrow.
We decided to stamp a hat and t-shirts.
We've also drowned ourselves in hot chocolate.
Of course, we've also played games, watched movies, built forts, read books, wrestled, and so forth and so on.

Naturally, we've done all of this in our pj's. In fact, I probably need to do some laundry to ensure that we have enough pajamas to get us through the next snow storm.

But first, someone is begging to play.
If you're stuck indoors and need some reading material, feel free to read Garrett's adoption story on my right sidebar.