Field Trip

Appleseed has loved trucks for a long time so I started taking him to the truck stop gas station last year. The first time we went we stayed for over 2 hours just sitting on the grass watching them come and go. He loves it. Sometimes truckers will wave at him and every once in a while he gets a honk. We talk about what they are carrying, what their signs say, how the refrigeration trucks have two tanks to fill up. I have wanted to ask them how much it takes to fill up a tank because they can start that thing, wash the windows, the lights, the mirrors, go to the restroom, get a snack, and come back and they are still waiting for it to fill. Blows my mind. I now want to get a book on trucks so we can learn even more about them together.One of my sisters asked if there were any cute truckers. I told her that Appleseed had just taken a picture of one so I could post it for her. He was all about partying, proudly wearing his mullet. And no I have not seen a hunk yet. :) This is our typical trucker.Appleseed insisted he get a picture of his toes for you all to enjoy.And his cute face.He saw a man get a hot dog for his dog in the truck so he said he needed a hot dog too. So went and got a hot dog and some candy. He kept playing "basketball place" with the candy while we were in line. Nearly hit the poor man behind him several times.Lounging around eating his hot dog which was super good by the way.There was a grasshopper on the grate for a long time that was "watching the trucks". Every so often Appleseed would talk to him about the trucks. After he finished his hot dog he was gone. I told him that he had gone to find him some lunch too. So he is trying to see if he is down there.

My step-son and his wife came to visit us. It was so amazing to see them. This was the first time I met his wife and I haven't seen my son in 10 years or so.

My daughter was staying with her grandparents for a week so they stopped off to visit them and see her also. He got her ATV going which she loved!I was worried about Butterball as he sometimes does not do well with strangers but he did amazing for most of the time. Course it could have been the money burning a hole in his pocket that he couldn't wait to take to the Air Force Museum. The minute my son and his wife showed up Butterball was pushing us to go to the museum. Thankfully they were game to go along.Appleseed was so cute with them. He would walk right up and reach for their hands. I loved seeing it.After the whirlwind tour of the museum from Butterball we took them out to dinner. It took a long time for it, it felt like. Here is Appleseed waiting for his pizza.Butterball bought a plane that you wind up and it flies, or is supposed to. It has been a very frustrating toy for him and has caused a lot of tantrums.After visiting I gathered them for pictures of course. My oldest son with his wife and my youngest son. I love it.After a long and very stimulating day Butterball was done. We had forced him out of his room, from under his bed, to take pictures. After I saw these it made me sick. I will never willingly force him like that again. He was tired and had had a lot going on that day and had had enough. It breaks my heart to look at his face in this picture.My husband with his son's. I thought these pictures would be like all the others with Butterball where he is usually crying but these just tear me to pieces looking at how miserable he is.I am so thankful they took their time to come and visit us. My son is only 3 years younger than me but started calling me Mom awhile ago. I have really loved it. And he is always good at calling me on Mother's Day. It warms my heart. We love you both!

School Days

I am too tired to correctly edit these photos in the order I wanted so I will give you the story anyway. Hopefully it makes sense.

My kiddos started school today! Waahooo! My daughter is in 3rd and my son in Kindergarten. I was so nervous the whole morning. But they both did amazing. My biggest problem? The youngest one in this photo thinks he needs to go to school too and complains every day. I tell him that he has school at home and that I am the teacher. It is not cutting it.Notice the sneaky hand holding in the first picture? Butterball discovered that Appleseed was holding.....gasp! An ItCh BoMb!!!!!And this was supposed to be picture one. Ugh. Butterball insisted on wearing his belt to the very last hole so it is scary tight on him. And Butterbean informed me that she thinks she actually looks cute in uniforms.OK, back to the frightening story of the ItCh BoMb! Butterball insisted on throwing it away explaining to Appleseed that that is what he thought gave him hives (He has had hives for 4 days prior). As you can see, Appleseed did not like that idea.Now we are still explaining how bad the itch bombs are to him. It looks like he is seeing the light from the great wisdom of Butterball. :) And just so know one worries. It was the tight little dried up ball thingy, not the big puffed out bomb.Then we were finally able to move on to get my favorite picture ever. I want this one as an 8X10 on my wall. I love it!As I drive them to school, a nervous wreck as I had to swing back to grab a school lunch, my predictable Butterbean can't leave things calm and peaceful. She starts in saying that her and Butterball need to find some sort of a meeting place at school where he can wait for her if he is having a problem with bullies. I told her that he can't just sit somewhere and wait for her but that if he did have a problem he could tell his teacher and his parents. She said, "But what if someone is making fun of how he looks?" I told her that she needed to stop right now, she LOVES to freak him out. She of course got furious and started to plug her ears when he was explaining that maybe they just wanted to ask him to be his friend. Cute little positive guy. So I tried to click a picture but she wasn't happy about me trying to get a picture of her very grumpy, I know more than all of you and you are so out of it face. Oh yes, I can not wait to see that face when she is a teenager. NOT!!!Oh brother! Just saw this one. How in the world did they get posted so wrong! Appleseed is trying to explain that it was not yucky! Poor guy, so misunderstood.And that was our day. I missed them something terrible. Apparently they missed something else. Butterball came home and started picking on Appleseed in a BAD way! Thankfully it was nap time for Appleseed. Then Butterbean came home......I have a tendency to plug religious music on before she comes home because she is such a negative person. She immediately went on the rampage about what the other two may have got or done while she was gone, or how unfair it all is, or slamming the door and yelling about how mean we are. And then Butterball joined with how "Wude" I am. Yes, I can not WAIT to send them back! :)

Yearly date

My daughter and I had our yearly "date" last month. We did take the youngest with us this time. We went to the eye doctor, an hour away, to check on her Ptosis.Appleseed was paying very close attention to the doctor. The doctor had some new "toys" that he was testing out on Butterbean. He would ask her if they were cool or lame so he would know. It was cute.She always enjoys her 3D glasses part. Every time I go it reminds me of all the other times she has sat in that chair. My sweet girl. She didn't have to have her eyes dilated yet again which she was thrilled about. Her vision is 20/20 in both eyes also which is nice. He did ask how she feels about her eye and I told her that this last year was the first year that she has made comments about it but that it is not a self esteem issue at all. So again we decided against surgery.The kids were thrilled that during our wait times we got to watch Despicable Me! What a treat to see my cousin's movie and our favorite.And of course we all brushed our teeth while waiting too. We had a good time, minus the drive. My daughter had such anxiety that she cried almost the whole way down. On the way back she did better would ask me to move away from vehicles if there were too many on the road. Next time I will take all 3 kids so I can take my time getting back when I need to.

Hmmmm, Butterball-ish?

I think I need a new title for the things my sweet Butterball does. Suggestions?

This is how my son went to a scout meeting with me. And believe me, this was the toned down version! Where in the world did this boy come from? The other day someone asked what was up with his glove at church. Yes my son was sporting one yellow flowered glove while he went to turn in his tithing to the Bishop. I made a deal with him that he could wear it during Sacrament Meeting if he did NOT wear it during primary. He cracks me up.

More camping

So surprise surprise we had a rough night sleeping. Appleseed does not do well out of his own crib. He did give everyone a very enthusiastic rendition of I Am A Child of God in the night. He cracks me up.Right before we left we went down to the creek again and my friend convinced me to let the kids go in the creek. Something I would normally do. Darn, I hate being so overprotective and cautious now. They had a blast. Butterball found a piece of wood that he called his surf board and kept trying to get on it.Appleseed was my scary one. He kept climbing all over.While we were packing Appleseed was having his own cooking lesson apparently. He had cracked every single one of the eggs. Look at that guilty face. So cute.
When it was time to go I had put Appleseed in his car seat as he was dead set on returning to the creek while we packed the last of our stuff. It cracked me up because his friend and him are very good together but also have times of not sharing. I all of a sudden heard him in the car saying, "Mine L Mine. Mine L Mine." He and his friend L say that all the time to each other. She was no where near him at the time. We decided it was their friendship language.

Camping!!!!!

I was THRILLED when I found out my husband did not have to work the weekend that the Stake campground was open. He asked me what the name of the campground was and I of course said, "Stake campground. I am sure you can google it" I was kidding.

I had asked my husband to bring something that we could use for rain as I heard it was supposed to rain while we were up there. He was amazing! He brought a tarp for over the picnic table and a big mosquito tent also. I loved it! And it was nice when the kids were in it because you knew where they were.My kids are like me. If I let them they would be off exploring to the end of the earth. I love their desire to do so but I have become more of a worry wart lately so as long as I could see or hear then that was as far as I would let them go.There was a small creek by the campsite that we went down and threw rocks in. My kids wanted to get in and walk around and for some crazy reason I told them no. Normally I would say yes and get in with them. I am not sure if it is all the injuries I have received in the last year or my husband wearing off on my (he is more protective where I normally am more relaxed).Then we went for a walk, something I LOVE to do while camping. I have always loved exploring things and just being out in nature. We enjoyed it. At one point in the road my daughter said it looked like 1/2 of Jesus' cross.We found a playground and I let the kids play for a short time. We ran into a counselor from my daughter's old school and she said that she had heard I was moving her to a new school. When I told her that I was she said that she felt I had definitely made the right choice in doing that. Hmmmm, makes me wonder about the old school.Silly Appleseed was swinging like this and kept asking me to push him. Nut, hello you can push yourself buddy.This is what I get lately from Butterball. That kid! :)Butterball is always very good at packing his own stuff, toys and what not included. But I was curious about this. You can't see it very well but he had packed a ton of hair bows, flowers, and clips and came out of the tent wearing them in his hair.We had friends that camped with us in our site and we loved it. They are an amazing family and I always enjoy spending time with them. The Dad made homemade fries that night. I INHALED them! They were SOOOOO good and I am been dreaming of them since. I plan to make some soon.