I hope these things don't really come in threes

If bad things/accidents come in threes, I think it is best that I stay in bed all day today. Either that or between the hours of 5-7 pm I need to go hide in a padded room for my own safety. ha ha

It all started Monday evening as I was carrying Jackson downstairs to make dinner. When I was a little over halfway down the stairs I stepped on the very end of the stair and my foot slipped off the stair and folded under me. Luckily, I could tell I was going to fall so I was able to keep Jackson from getting hurt. He didn't get hurt in the slightest. My body took the brunt of it and I have the bruises to prove it. When I finally stopped falling my right leg was completely pinned underneath me. How I didn't break my leg or at the very least my toes is beyond me. At the time however I was more worried about the muscle that I pulled in my belly. I'd venture to say that falling down the stairs in your 3rd trimester when you are already in higher risk pregnancy, is not good. We feel very fortunate that Jackson wasn't hurt at all and that all I have are some ugly bruises and some serious stiffness and a back ache like no other.

Fast forward 24 hours. Last night after dinner I went up to my friend's house to go visiting teaching. It was such a beautiful day and she doesn't live too far away so I decided to walk and to take Jackson with me. As I got a ways up the street I saw one of my neighbors outside with her daughter and I paused to wave. What I didn't notice until it was too late was that she had a friend with her that also lives in the neighborhood and he had his evil possessed dog with him on a leash. I HATE this dog. It is a little dog but it is seriously evil and it has bitten me before. So of course the dog charges me and the kid lets go of the leash and then just stands there as the dog proceeds to attack me. When it first charged me I kind of hopped behind the stroller until I realized that it could reach Jackson so then I turned the stroller to keep it away from Jackson. Then it came around the corner and bit me. So I start yelling to the kid "GET YOUR DOG, IT IS BITING ME!" He of course doesn't do much so after it bit me for the second time I grabbed the leash myself and handed it to the kid and said "I HATE your dog!" I feel kind of bad now because the kid is only a year or two older than Garrison, but that is the SECOND time he has let go of the leash and that stupid dog has attacked me. Luckily, neither bite broke the skin. One bite did make a bruise that I already had from falling down the stairs worse but hey, it didn't break the skin so I feel fortunate about that.

By the time I got up to Amy's house I was shaking and sweating to death from being traumatized by a stupid little dog. It is a little dog but I repeat.......it is evil.

So, I suppose I need to be on my guard from 5-7 pm tonight in hopes of staying safe. ha ha.

This is for you Con

GO JAZZ!!!

I swear we really do have toys!!!

Between last week's game of Wal-mart sack races and their entertainment this weekend, you would think that our kids don't have any toys to play with.

We first start off with the game where you just put a box over your head and bump into everything and everyone.

Next, you see how many people you can fit into that same box.

Then you ditch the box, rip all the pillows off the couch and start having a pillow fight.

Then Dad decides that he doesn't want to miss out on the fun so he joins in.........and then it really gets crazy! Then Dad is so pooped out he decides that he needs a nice backrub. (He thinks it is nice, I think it looks painful!)
Who needs toys when you have a box, couch cushions, and a dad???

We start our kids young

We start our kids young with chores. First we made our 18 month old sweep the floor.

His next chore was to scrub the grout.

Then it was his turn to vacuum the floor.

OK...........so really we were taking before and after pictures for his haircut and he just happened to be playing with cleaning supplies everytime. Whatever keeps him entertained I guess.

Goodbye Little Lambs!

Hailey is done with preschool for this year. She sure is sad. She LOVES Little Lambs. I am glad that I found a place to send her that she likes and that I like as well.

They had a cute little program where they sang some songs and did some little dances. Then they had a big pizza party with all of the families as well as a slide show of the last year.

She and Garrison are both very excited that they will be going to school together next year. I just wish that they would be going to school here as I love Garrison's teacher and I love his school. He is getting such a good education here.........well besides all of the vampire, mummy, zombie talk. ha ha. I guess that will happen anywhere he goes to school though.

These are two of my friends, Maryke, and Kelli. We are all due within a few weeks of each other and they have kids that have been going to Little Lambs this year as well.

We will miss Little Lambs!

A decent family picture.......to be or not to be

I took the girls to get their pictures taken on Saturday. First of all, I have to say that it is SO much easier to get 2 kids pictures than 4. HUGE difference. With that being said, the boys (when I took them a couple of months ago) were SO much easier than the girls. Boys hair is so much easier to do and takes so much less time. Plus, if they mess it up it is easy to fix where as with girls, well lets just say it may not be fixable away from home. I won't even start on keeping their dresses looking decent.

Anyway, the girls were really good and I was so grateful. I wish we would have had a better photographer though. She missed so many good shots. I realize that I was being somewhat of a backseat photographer (or whatever you want to call it) but seeing as that I have been a photographer for a photo studio, I do at least know what I am talking about. ha ha. Oh well, they turned out decent and it definitely could have been worse. They could have turned out like our Easter morning pictures where we couldn't get a good picture to save our lives. Case in point: Jackson sliding off the stairs.

Example number two: You can't see Hailey's eyes very well with the picture this size but they are SO wide and funny. They make me LOL everytime I look at the picture.

And then we have: going, going................

and GONE.

And that is the end of Easter morning pictures at the Whetten house. What can we say........we did our best.

I do have to say however, that may favorite "bad" picture is the picture that we got taken of the 6 oldest grandkids. That is CLASSIC. The other day I pulled that baby out just for a good laugh. Mandi, do you have a copy of that on your computer anywhere? I only have it in hard copy form. Anyway, we were lucky to even have all of the kids on the table at the same time. Garrison is the oldest and he was 3 1/2 at the time so we had 6 kids 3 1/2 and under. We kept telling the photographer "JUST TAKE THE PICTURE" because we all new that it was only going to get worse. Oh boy. Fun times I tell ya!

Weekend fun

It's amazing what kids will find to do when they are trying to entertain themselves. On Friday the kids were so hyper they ended up having potato sack races in Walmart bags. I have no idea where they got this idea from but they sure had a blast (as you can see from Hailey's and Alexia's hair). I think they went through about 30 bags. Afterward Garrison said "Uh-oh! We are almost out of bags. You better go shopping Mom!"

While the older three were entertaining themselves with shopping bags, Jackson entertained himself with Daddy's Blackberry. The boy is obsessed with our cell phones. If he sees one of us using it he runs toward us screaming, reaching for it. Then when we finally relent and give him the phone he has a conversation with some imaginary person. He says "HI!" a bunch of times and then tells his imaginary friend something, although were aren't exactly sure what that is. His new thing is that he covers his other ear with his hand. That made me laugh because he got that from Conal who always covers his ear when he is trying to hear the other end of a work related conversation, but he is surrounded by a bunch of hooligans (probably having Wal-mart sack races or something similar).

On Saturday we went to a party for the baptism of a co-workers 4 year old daughter. It was a typical El Paso party complete with a jumping balloon, TONS of food and a pinata. The kids had a blast and the 89 degree weather rocked!

I hope the feeling never fades............

I don't know what is so interesting to Jackson about scrub brushes, but lately he just wants to have one in his hand at all times. Today he carried around a bucket and a grout brush forever. He even took it in the car to Walmart. I have to say it kept him entertained for a while. I particularly like this picture of him brushing his teeth with the grout brush.

I guess its better than the toilet brush.

Before he could walk he used to get out two scrub brushes and he would crawl along the floor "scrubbing" the floor with both hands. I kept telling Mandi that I should put cleaner on them so he could clean my tile for me.

Maybe he will grow up being one of those men who like to clean. For his future wife's sake.....I hope the feeling never fades.

Sorry Con!!!!

So yesterday I'm in my bedroom and I hear some splashing in the master bathroom. Knowing that it is Jackson playing in the toilet, I run in there to start the decontamination process. Low and behold, there is Jackson dipping Conal's toothbrush in the toilet. At that point I think to myself "Well, there goes that toothbrush". However, instead of throwing it away I throw it on the counter. At the time I was more concerned with the fact that I had to disinfect Jackson and then keep him occupied while I disinfect half of the bathroom. So I disinfected Jackson, I disinfected the bathroom.......and I left the toothbrush right where it was. Actually, I didn't think about it again for more than 24 hours. Of course Conal had used it twice by that time. OH GROSS! So then I think to myself "Self, should I tell him about the toothbrush, or should I just keep quiet about it and throw it away. What he doesn't know won't hurt him right?"

Well, my conscience got the better of me and I spilled the beans about the toiletbrush, I mean toothbrush. I have to say, Conal was such a good sport. I probably would have barfed on the spot (OK so it doesn't take much to make me barf these days but STILL). Instead Conal said "Ew gross! Well, I guess that makes up for the rotten milk incident!" and then he laughed and said "Go put THAT on your blog!". So here I am.

Sure love ya Con!

Jaaaackeeee

Alexia was taking a bath and Jackson decided he wanted to join her---clothes and all. So, he just hopped on in. I think my mom and dad have a picture of Mandi doing the same thing at the same age. So funny! The older 3 thought it was the funniest thing they'd every seen.

P.S. I think the water looks disgusting in this picture but it really wasn't........I promise!

It's all fun and games until somebody gets their eye poked out!

Why are little kids so interested in babies' eyes? Everyone one of my kids has poked the child who is younger than them in the eye when they were a newborn. They don't do it to be mean, they are just really interested in the baby's eyes for some reason. I guess it is an 18 to 20 month old thing as my older kids have never done it before.

I was looking for some pictures of Hailey as a baby (at Mandi's request) and I found this one. Garrison caught in the action:

And the very next picture:

OK, I admit it. As a mom that sad little face breaks my heart. We hadn't even left the hospital yet and she was less than 3 days old. Oh well, what could I expect. Garrison was still a baby himself when Hailey was born.

This cracks me up!

Check out this hot sauce that we found in Old Mesilla, New Mexico. First of all, its not edible. It's a "collectors edition". I didn't know that people collected hot sauce but anyway, its "Utah" hot sauce. Check out the skier, the mountains, the snow, and the SAN DIEGO temple. WHAT? We found it at the same store with the scorpion suckers. Ya know how tequilla has a worm, these suckers have a scorpion.

The hot sauce was on sale for $2 so we figured it was worth the laugh.

It's always fun when Grandpa comes, when Grandpa comes Hurray!

We had so much fun with Grandma and Grandpa and Aunt Debbie and Uncle Les. I hope that it wasn't too crazy here for Debbie and Les. Grandma and Grandpa are more used to the 4 kiddos. We went to Old Mesilla, did some downtown shopping, target practice and lookout point. We also had a ton of Mexican food. I don't think Debbie and Les will be in the mood for Mexican for a while. ha ha.

We also went to Stahmann Pecan Farms and bought a yummy pecan pie, and the Border Patrol Museum where the girls got to try out the helicopter, Jeep and 4 wheelers.


We had a great time but unfortunately it wasn't without injury and illness. Garrison got an ear infection and had an asthma attack and ended up missing a day and a half of school (I'm sure he was really disappointed that he had to stay home with Grandma and Grandpa...NOT). Alexia fell off some brick stairs onto cement at Old Mesilla. She had a fat lip and a large goose egg/bruise on her forehead. That about gave me a heart attack. Poor Alex! I'm just glad it wasn't worse! She was lucky to have Grandpa to take care of her. He kept ice on it or I think it would have been a lot worse. I guess when you have 4 kids, one of them is always bound to be sick. Besides those two things, we had a great time! Come back soon Grandma, Grandpa, Aunt Debbie and Uncle Les!

Naming the baby

This baby needs a name! Yesterday I went to the doctor and he confirmed that it is a girl and now I want to start calling her by a name. The kids are more than helpful in that aspect. Hailey has been coming up with the weirdest names that she just makes up on the spot. Skyloh and Verlona are a few examples of these lovely names. ha ha. I'll have to add a section to the blog about names the kids come up with. They are quite creative.

Cleaning

I love a clean house! Cleaning is so much easier when Conal is home to help. Instead of going twice as fast it seems to go 5 times as fast! We have had company for a week so my house was a disaster. I haven't done any deep cleaning, laundry, and beds were moved out of rooms. In a matter of hours Conal and I have all the laundry done, the beds are put back and the house is totally clean. Yeah!!! Now how do I keep it that way for longer than 5 minutes?????

It's party time!

Hailey's birthday is coming up and we are trying to decide what we want to do for her birthday party. She has had ideas ALL YEAR of what she wants to do and it changes everyday. I've thought of having a beach party where we would rent one of those big blow up water slides and the kids could play in the sand box. The girls could decorate flip flops as well. That might be a messy craft though as the girls are only 5.

What will probably end up happening is we will have the El Paso stand by party. A jumping balloon and a pizza party. This is a picture or Garrison's 2006. Hailey's party was just like that except all of the girls were dressed up like princesses. It was really cute and fun BUT something different would be nice.

Where did you get that from?

Garrison comes home nearly everyday with some new thing that he is scared of. Last week, one girl told him that her sister was a vampire. This week another kid told him about how Zombies don't have a face and they eat you. I'm assuming if they don't have a face they don't have a mouth and if they don't have a mouth how do they eat you? WHATEVER. Everyday I try to convince him that these things aren't real. This would also be the reason that he doesn't read the "Goosebumps" books anymore. ha ha.