Ann and the Water Beads

So there's this awesome friend of ours.  The kids think she is waaaay cooler than I do at the moment, however.  Last fall she held an All Saints Day party.  One of the games was searching for saint medals in a bowl of water beads.  These are pretty sweet little creations......at someone else's house.  As we were leaving the party, she bagged up the beads and bestowed them upon one of my children.  After a few days of them bouncing all over the floor, rolling on the carpet and being mashed into the furniture, for some dumb reason I decided to dehydrate and SAVE THEM FOR LATER!

Later was today.  I was cleaning the top of my cabinets and discovered them, dried up into their original teensy, weensy, innocuous appearing size.  They were promptly dumped into a bowl and water was added.  A very short hour later they were bouncing all over the floor, rolling onto the carpet and being mashed into the furniture.  

A little clip of the conversation while Nickles was playing in the beads.  What the heck this conversation had to do with water beads I'll never know.

Female voice, "Oh no! There's a baby in my tummy....a yot of babies!"

Male voice, "You'll have them for a yooooooong time!"

Female voice, "Oh no! I'm falling.....the babies are poppin' out."  

You know, for that matter what does that conversation have to do with anything and do I always sound so frantic that Nickles begins every imaginary female conversation with, "Oh no!?"

I guess that's a topic for another day ~ 

Thanks Ann ~ Josh, Dom and Nickles adore you!

Little Maximo Update

Little Max is doing well.  We had an appointment with the neurologist a few weeks ago.  We had initially scheduled an MRI, but after realizing Max would need to be under general anesthesia for the procedure we bagged that idea.  He is showing huge progress with all his social skills, smiling and talkin' away, so at this point there is really no strong indication for further testing.  We will remain open and observant of his development, but he is doing so darn well that we don't have any concerns at this time.

He has Daddy wrapped so very tightly around his teeny little finger.  It makes me smile every time I walk into the room and see them chatting away.  Shannon was reading him a bear story last night.
And it wasn't The Three Bears; it was Alaska Bear Tales.  You know, the scary ones.  (That wasn't very nice of you, Shannon, it's all coming to me as I type this, YOU were the reason he was so fidgety last night.)

We LOVE you, Maximo!

Girl Weekend

My girls and I headed to Whitefish for a girl weekend last week.  It was so much fun.  It almost seemed like spring in Kalispell.  We even saw a robin!  Michaela and Katherine skied at Big Mountain while Annika, Maximo and I checked out the town of Whitefish.  It was absolutely relaxing in a funny sort of way.  I think I just needed a change of scenery or something.  Listening to Jim Gaffigan and Brian Regan with the girls and laughing for miles on end probably made our time a little more hilarious.

Kath looks totally innocent while tickling her sister. 

Michaela was trying to push Kath's hand away.

The drive was beautiful~ 

Spring  hadn't arrived on the mountain quite yet ~

Their cheesy fries had nothing on Discovery's!

We're starving!

Whitefish Lake ~ I want to return and take a swim this summer ~

You Are Amazing ~

Lately, homeschooling has been not so awesome.  Alright, it has sucked.  I've wondered why we do it. For that matter, I've wondered why we are even parents.  I'm totally unqualified.  This feeling may be due, in part, to the amount of energy a newborn requires.  I could also blame it on the time of year.  It seems never ending.  Interminable.  Desolate. 

In a funk the other day while cleaning up emails, I discovered this.  It was an email I sent to some 

friends after meeting an elderly man in the grocery store.  It cheered me up and I pray our paths cross again.  

To my daughters ~ you are amazing!  Just remember this someday when you are totally burned out 

and ready to quit your job! 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

 I was walking out of Safeway Thursday with the five youngest. An
elderly man was waving me over trying to catch us as he pushed his walker
and was holding money in his hand.  I thought, "Oh heavens, there are a
few more errands to do and the girls need to be picked up, I don't have
time to talk."  He leans down to Eric and told him that he had been
watching him be such a helper to me and that he wanted to give him a
dollar to treat his siblings. I slipped the kiddos a few more bucks and
told them to go get a bag of licorice at which point he commented that
licorice was an excellent choice.
While waiting for them to return I visited with the gentleman and this was
his story...he was 94 years old and had been married 70 years....70 years!
Isn't that awesome?!?  He was born in Butte, the second of six boys. 
When his father passed away at age 49 he and his older brother went to
work in the mines to support the family where he remained for the next
four years until he was drafted for WWII.  Following the war he went to
college on the GI bill.  When he and his wife were married in Seattle he
had $10 and she had $5.  They went to the grocery store where they picked
up some orange crates and then on to the thrift store where they bought a
pile of blankets and that was their first bed.  They had 5 sons and
daughter and he taught school in CA for 36 years.  About this time my
kiddos returned and asked him if he wanted a piece of licorice...he only ate
the black stuff so he declined since this was red, but said that for Christmas he had received
a bunch of licorice and 24 lbs of chocolate.  He mentioned that his doc
had told him to eat better but he insists that he is 94 and he'll eat what
he wants.
As we were leaving he said, "I have seen many amazing inventions in my
time...the fastest computers that can solve multiple problems in a
fraction of a second, automobiles, refrigerators, all the technology that
you see around you, but YOU are the most amazing."  I was pondering this
(actually wondering who he was talking to, as I was not feeling too
amazing!) when he concluded, "YOU can give life....ah, women are the most
amazing of all."
I feel so blessed that we did stop despite the errands still being
incomplete.  

YOU ARE AMAZING!  

I need to let it sit in my heart and embrace it!

Baby Uncle

Because there was nothing going on for five minutes.  Because Shannon was caught at a weak moment. Because the neighboring rancher had a sick calf, we are now the proud owners of a baby steer.
And because Nickles was the one that went along to pick him up, his name is Uncle.  Yep, Uncle.  Short for Uncle Dabe, or Uncle Gabe as he is typically known.

On a good note, the chickens are leaving to make room for the cow.

Welcome to our jungle, Uncle!