All of May

Technically we have a week to go, and while we've had our good moments in May we will be glad to put the barfy flu that has typified this month behind us (though we still have three left who have yet to experience it- may they either do so quickly or not at all).

First, I finally have some pictures from these past months downloaded from Clay's phone. They pretty much speak for themselves- fishing, kid shenanigans, etc.

In this last one they're watching the steam train come in. Tis the season!


We're wrapping up the school year just in time to start another so we can get ahead and have some breathing room for when the new baby arrives. Tupp loved "weaving"- a project that ended up looking less like a spider web and more like a spider.

The warmer weather means more walks around town and more rides on our favorite car.

And like I mentioned earlier- the train is running!

For the first of May we constructed our own maypole and danced willy nilly around it to some favorite Celtic tunes. They still ask me to set it up for them they enjoyed it so much.

Cash finally caught his first fish at the Lyons club fish thingy. He also made the front page of the local paper and both he and Pherse scored shirts and Pherse got a free fishing pole just his size.

Teaching Pherson how to play hide and go seek.

We found an egg on our back deck. After further investigation we found the nest with one last egg. The momma robin flew away and when I went to take a picture later that afternoon we found the second egg missing as well. The kids are sad that the nest is empty and lonely now.

That same evening Clay took us fishing for Family Home Evening to a new spot. It was just right because while he and Cash fished Tuppy and Pherson and I babysat some baby ducklings.

I discovered the most amazing thing. When Cash was being mean and angry one morning I sent him off to do the dishes. Not only did he do them all wonderfully but he enjoyed it and came back happy and well tempered. Now he and Tupp fight over who does my dishes. ;)

Clay made a second batch of homemade cheese. It turned out more of a ricotta, which I used to make lasagna, but we also made homemade butter and whipped cream while we were at it. And I cracked out my homemade raspberry jam from last August. Ooooh it feels so good!

So the groundhog was right. We have had an extended winter. Luckily they are nice, warm days in between but every now and again we get a snow flurry. This was the last one we got. Lately, as you'll see at the end of this post, it's been showers and thunderstorms. We are loving it all.

So the Friday before Mothers Day we were walking to the library. Tuppy had put her hands in her pockets because they were cold. She stopped to look at a cat and got a smidge behind me. I turned around and noticed her just starting to break into a run. With the word "stop!" forming and about to escape my lips she tripped and fell face first into the pavement. Your heart just drops when stuff like this happens. Blood pouring from her mouth, we were closer to the library, so I put a baby wipe in her mouth to help staunch the bleeding, threw her on the jogging stroller (on top of Pherse who whimpered "squished") and flat out ran her the rest of the way. Luckily we were able to access ice,  I was able to put a pad of wipes in the freezer and I was able to calm her down (only singing lullabyes would work) before throwing her back into the stroller with Pherse and running all the way across town back home (thank heavens I had been running a mile a day on my treadmill!) where I got her patched up and content watching a movie and occasionally sucking on popsicles.We've kept a close eye on her front teeth but all seems to be well and she has healed up remarkably in just one week. Now she's good as new and has learned that we never run with our hands in our pockets.

We were also concerned about Tuppy's fall because Clay really wanted to visit his mom for Mother Day and we weren't sure how this would go if Tuppy was reduced to eating everything out of a staw for the foreseeable future. But after six hours the pain was no longer intense and we were coming up with solutions for feeding (and I figured if we needed to do anything teeth wise for her it was better we were near our dentist in CA anyhoo) so we loaded the kids up Saturday morning and embarked on an adventure to surprise Oma and Gigi for Mother's Day. It worked great! Oma was thoroughly surprised and Clay and Cash had a wonderful, dedicated time with Gigi. Pherson talks constantly about his ride around the neighborhood in Honey's truck.

I finally taught myself to read a crocheting pattern and made a newborn bear hat. I am still working on perfecting my skills, but they grow out of newborn stuff so fast I figured it was the best size to practice on.

The kids have missed our friends the Fowlers.  They were on vacation in Disneyland and then Pherson came down with the stomach flu so it had been about three weeks. This is the Kaeligh face and  Pherson just randomly turned to me one day at lunch and said 'Kaeligh doos." I'm so glad we have friends that are like family out in the middle of the desert.

Painting bees, reading about bees, learning about money, reading and reviewing the seasons and it's a wrap folks! Onto second grade.

The picture doesn't do the sky justice. It was so dark the other day when we got out downpours and thunder.

We used the rain to play in, to make art and my favorite was when Tuppy and Cash came home covered in mud and told me how they sang the puddles to sleep so sweetly that they didn't get a chance to eat their dinner before falling asleep. Oh how I love them and their sweet innocence.

I'm probably bigger than this now- it's been nearly a month. I did go to the doctor the other day and my test results came back as I expected- I do not have lupus or syphillus. All seems to be well, but oh how I miss my California Birth Center. Here everything is so over anylized and you're always treated high risk. I got out of peeing in a cup because I had the children with me the other day so I'm thinking to take them every time. ;) I know that they dont' want to miss anything and that they feel it's their responsibility (whether that's because of medical malpractice suites or otherwise), but this kind of experience makes it totally unenjoyable- a constant stress and lab case. Like, what can we find wrong with you today to test for? I mean, after all the lab work they were still touting how something could be wrong with me because I have some positive antibody floating around. I hated to have to bring up money, especially when the baby's safety is of course important to me, but when we are running on limited funds I can't have him ordering everything under the sun when there really are no symptoms being presented. Good times.

On a happier note, Clay just accepted a part time position with Bloch- the dance shoe company. It's right up his alley in the marketing department and will allow him to complete his outstanding projects before they evaluate whether to switch him to full time or not. There is a lot of growth opportunity and we hope this works out for him and our family.
Loves to you all!