Trip to Texas/New Mexico/Mexico!

Well we have finally gotten home. We are so glad to be back! It was a good trip and it was really nice spending so much time with my wonderful husband alone! But by the time it was over, I was just really, really, ready to see my kids :)

Most of our time was spent at the Dentist down in Juarez, Mexico. 10 hours the first day, 7 the second and then 3 more 2-4 hour trips down there. Juarez was actually a lot cleaner then I expected and the people we did talk to were very friendly and helpful. It is a huge city, much larger then El Paso and apparently speed limits and staying in your own lane is optional. If they can fit in between two cars, they will try, whether there is a lane there or not!. We didn't get to see much of they city, since it is so dangerous down there. The streets (other then right at the border) are pretty deserted. No one walks around unless necessary. So we saw the dentist office, the huge Mexican flag flying in the city and a little convenience store.

Just a little FYI: In Mexico if they tell you just a few minutes this can mean 2 minutes or 4 hours!

I got eleven crowns put on my top teeth and 7 teeth pulled all together. My gums are still very sore and full of stitches, but in about 3 months they will be healed completely and I can get a really good partial denture here in Casper. I am looking forward to that! Every time I look in the mirror though, it was all so worth it!

We spent most of our spare time in New Mexico. We aren't big city people one bit and the smell was horrendous! So any chance we got we headed for the country! One day was spent driving through little towns and seeing the New Mexican Scenery. We checked out some HUGE pecan orchards, a few wineries (though sadly not a lot of drinking, since I could barely open my mouth lol) and some neat shops full of Mexican trinkets.

Another day we went to Carlsbad Caverns. If you are ever in the area I highly recommend it. The pictures I took just don't do it justice. It was enormous!
Stephen in the Caverns!

My new teeth!

Halloween

The kids had a great time Trick or Treating and dressing up. Gabriel was a U.S. Marine, Sophie was the Cat in the Hat and Mary and Sara were Thing 1 and Thing 2. We went down town during the day, but ended up going that evening too. Mary and Sara were a huge hit! They had their picture taken multiple times by business owners and even by some people we trick or treated!


Only 1 more week and then Stephen and I leave for our trip to get some of my teeth fixed. I am super excited, but also getting a little nervous. More on that when we get back!

Swine Flu!

On Tuesday night I went to check on the kids before bed just like every night and found Sara burning a fever. So I took her temp, which I rarely do unless it feels super hot and she was almost a 104. It just kept going up and up and I was loading her up with Tylenol and Motrin like there was no tomorrow. I stuck her in the bath, which she did not enjoy one bit at midnight!

The next morning she was still burning a fever but it was staying around 101 with medicine, so I wasn't super concerned. Gabe and Sophie had both been sick about week ago, so I knew it was just the same bug they had. But Heidi convinced me to take her in, after she heard that one of her co-workers grandchildren had the same symptoms with Swine Flu. So I did and yep, tested positive for H1N1! Luckily, Gabe and Sophie got over it without any need for Tami Flu, but the doctor decided he would prescribe it for Sara since she is so little still and maybe to help prevent it from spreading. Then he couldn't find it anywhere! He had to call 6 different pharmacies, just to get a hold of some. The whole situation is quite disturbing actually.

Mary still hasn't shown any symptoms and the doctor thinks that maybe she won't since she just finished some antibiotics for an abscess on her tonsil. Who knows, so we are just waiting and watching her! I have already come down with it, but am feeling a little better today. So hopefully I will be able to get over it too without a visit to the doctor and no searching this town for a prescription!

Stephen isn't sick yet either, because he just got back from St. Louis for some drag line training for work. He had a good time and it sounds like he learned a little anyways :) But it was a long week for both of us. He was ready to be home, and believe me I was more then ready for him to be home! So here is pic he took of the arches on driving through St. Louis!\

Mary, Mary quite contrary!

Well, Miss Mary as some of you might know can actually be quite contrary at times. She is so incredibly stubborn but at the same time she is so honest it really just cracks me up! You never know what is going to come out of her mouth at any given moment.

On Friday when I picked her up from pre school, the teacher pulled me aside and said, "I need to talk to you for just a minute." The most dreaded words a parent can hear from a teacher.....

Apparently, Mary stuck her tongue out at one of her "friends" at school. The little boy was asked to tell Mary that it hurt his feelings and then Mary was asked if she was sorry. She promptly gave a very frank, "no!" Then the teacher asked if she would like to apologize and again the answer was, "no!"

Ugh. I went and made her apologize and on the way home from school as we were talking about how important it is to be nice to all of her friends and not make faces she says, " Mom I was just teasing him, I think he needed to just dry up!" Meaning of course that he was acting like a baby. Oh yes, she is her fathers daughter!

Today at the ranch she was playing outside and when she came in I noticed that her pants were muddy. It is actually pretty dry here at the moment so I asked her where she found the mud. She told me and then I asked her if she was supposed to play in mud. "No," she says, "but mom mud makes me happy." As I am looking at her innocent blue eyes, I am thinking to myself, well fair enough and at least I only have one child with muddy shoes and not four!

This morning we took Stephen to the airport for his trip to St. Louis. After he got in line for security me and kids headed up to the observation deck so that they could watch the plane take off. As we are waiting, and waiting and waiting, Sophie observes that this it "taking too long" (actually true for once) and Mary pipes up in a really loud voice, "Ya I bet daddy is getting crabby, he probably needs a cigarette!" Once again very honest, yet not really crucial information at that moment for the whole room to hear!

Crossing my fingers that nothing too embarrassing comes out of her mouth tomorrow!

Just a quick update!

Not much new here other then the tons of rain/snow we have been getting. The kids are enjoying Awana's and we have started attending the church in town that the kids go to. We love our church in Powder River, but the kids are getting old enough that they need more then our little country church can provide. So far we have really enjoyed it and the congregation has been very welcoming!
Sophie is going to be 6 on Friday! Every time one of the kids has a birthday, it always amazes me how fast time goes by! We aren't planning on do much, Stephen is on nights, the weather is icky and school keeps us buys. She assures me that she is ok with not having a party as long as Heidi and I will take her to get her nails painted. I suppose I can swing that!
Stephen and I are busy planning our trip to El Paso TX/Mexico to get some of my teeth fixed. My head is starting to spin, with all the details that I need to keep track of on our end and then of course stressing out about leaving the kids for over a week. I know that my mom and Heidi will take excellent care of them, I am more worried about their stress level then the kids :)
I guess that's all for now, here's a few random shots of the last few weeks.
Mary and Sara actually being nice!

Gabe and Sophie waiting for the bus....

First Bibles and Awanas

Gabriel, Sophia and Mary all started Awanas last week. In case you don't know Awanas is a non denominational Christian program for kids. Every week the kids have a new memory verse and a lesson to go along with it. Part of Gabe and Sophie's lesson is learning how to use the bible by finding their memory verses in it. So of course this led to their first grown up bibles! They were super excited. Sophie of course wanted a pink one with a fuzzy pink bible cover. Gabe wanted a bible with camo, but settled for a green one with a camo bible cover. They are both pretty sure that this means they are old enough to attend bible study with me in the summers, and that they don't need to go to Sunday school now since they have a bible like the grown ups :)

Sophie spent all evening trying to decide what color bible marker she would use to highlight John 3:16, her and Gabes memory verse for the week. Gabriel read about 3 chapters in John to me and then looked at me and said, "wow mom, God is busier then I thought. He teaches us about everything!"

Mary's memory verse is 1 John 4:8 ....God is love. So Sara and Mary have both been running around all week, "god is love, god is love.!" They make up songs to it etc. It really has been quite amusing.

Are we almost out of the Two year old stage yet?

Yes, almost! That is what I keep telling myself. Only 7 more months and Sara will be three, and although some of my kids were worse at three, I am holding out hope that Sara won't be! Just today she has

*Gotten into my mascara. Actually this is usually a few times a week occurrence. It doesn't seem to matter where I put it the little monkey finds some way to get into it!

* Spilled half a box of Special K cereal because she "can do it." She didn't even ask for help!

and

* Had three meltdowns. 1st because I put my shoes on to go put Gabe and Sophie on the bus. We go through this every morning. I literally only step off my porch and stick them in and come right back. Meanwhile Sara is sitting in the window, "DON'T LEAVE ME!"
2nd because I walked out of the living room. I even had a laundry basket in my hand, and she starts running around frantically looking for her shoes, yelling, "don't leave mama, where you going mama." When I tell her just to get the laundry she sniffles her way right behind me and back to the living room.
and lastly because Mary is home sick today and is really just messing with our routine! She had a fit all morning because Mary wanted to watch one episode of Dora before Sara got to watch Barney. Even after she was actually watching Barney she would look at Mary and say in a not so nice voice, " I watch Barney, not Dora!"


Needless to say, Sara spends a lot of time in the naughty corner and in my lap. If she is not in one of the two places then she is either A. sleeping (like right now) or B. into something she shouldn't be!


I know that logically she will eventually get through this phase, so I try to enjoy the clinging to me as much as possible and keep trying to drill it into her head to stay out of stuff! After all Psalms 127:3 says Sons are a heritage from the LORD, children a reward from him.