Back to My Roots!

So, last month was my 10 year high school reunion. I decided I was going to go just for the fun factor. lol It was also a great excuse to go back home to visit my family and those familiar places I visit in my dreams when I dream about Louisiana. This time I was able to bring all my kids too. My mom flew out to Phoenix to help me make the LOOOONG drive to Louisiana with our 3 kids, for which I am eternally grateful!

While we were there we visited the Sci-Port Discovery Center with Clint and Susie, which was built and opened when I was in Elementary School. You can tell because some of the exhibits are EXTREMELY dated and run down. And I don't think those communication disks work anymore. Well...at least we weren't able to hear Aunt Susan and Teancum from our huge saucer across the room and I specifically remember visiting when I was young and these huge things working. Oh Well! It was fun anyways. There was also this cool paper airplane launcher display. So we made our airplanes and stuck them in the launcher. As luck would have it, on first launch, MY airplane got stuck on the hoop. Some sweet little boy crawled under the display glass, climbed up and got it for me. lol

We also went to a couple of Splash Pads, one of which was on the Red River Boardwalk. Teancum LOVED the one at Brownlee Park, because he could spray other kids with water.

Susan and Clint had 4 dogs at their place, due to the fact that they rescued a whole litter of lab puppies. The kids had a blast with the two they had left. One was a chocolate lab named Gumbo, and the other, which we brought home with us, is black. We have named him Beau and he is currently being housebroken, much to his disliking. He is, however, having a good old time chasing our kitty, Araya, around the house. He thinks she's his personal high tech play toy. She just thinks he's annoying, but is very curious about him, and LOVES to tease him when he's outside by standing by the sliding glass door and staring at him. lol

We also had a blast going to Chuck E. Cheeses with Aunt Susan, Uncle Clint, Aunt Samantha, and Uncle Samuel. Thank goodness too, because I don't think I could have taken all three of the kids by myself. We would have had to leave before the fun began. So thank you my wonderful Siblings!!!

Ariele took a great liking to Aunt Susan and actually tried adopting her as her new mother. I was getting her out of the car once while we were down there and she said to me, "I want Mommy!" To which I replied, "I'm Mommy!" Ariele: "No, I want Mommy!" Me: "You mean Aunt Susan??" Ariele: "Yeah, Su-sen!" Me: :::rolls eyes::: Needless to say, whenever Susan was around, Ariele was attached to her hip. At least it gave me a little much needed space. hehe =-D

We had so much fun! And the kids were so spoiled by all of my family. We'll definitely have to make another trip down there when we can, especially since we know the humidity isn't going to suffocate us. =-D We were so excited to get home to see Travis/Daddy. We missed him alot and Sinjon especially wanted to get home to sleep "in my own bed". hehe

Enjoy the pics!

Adventures in Baking

Just a short little post here. This week I figured I'd give making homemade bread another go. Previous attempts have come out less than desirable. Let's just say they'd fit in better with a bed of river rock than in your mouth. haha After attending an enrichment night where they actually let me feel the dough (yes I'm very hands on), I felt confident enough that my bread would no longer come out dense as a rock. =-D And I was right! I actually got it right this time and didn't try packing in the flour (that made a huge difference by the way) and I didn't kill the yeast. lol The kids love it! And Teancum calls it Homey Homey Bread instead of Homemade bread. I'll have to write that one down in his journal. Maybe make a kitchen plaque that says, "Nothing's better than mom's Homey Homey bread" What do you think? Caoi!

my work station.rising in the oven
final product. YUM!

Fort Bowie with G-ma, Pa-paw, Uncle Samuel and Daddy

We went down to Wilcox this past weekend for a Smith Family Reunion and my dad being the busy body he is, couldn't sit still and decided to take the boys and Travis to Fort Bowie.


Start of the Trail.

First bathroom break.


G-ma said the boys walked the whole 2 miles!!!!!!



2nd potty break and of course, Travis had to get it on camera for posterity. haha





Resting under a big tree with Uncle Sam, G-ma and Pa-paw.








Pretty Waterfall on the Trail.


This is the big Tarantula Sinjon found as they were walking. Daddy said when he found it he yelled, "DADDY!!! IT'S A BIG SPIDER!!!!" And when it came time to walk past it he walked as far away from it as possible. Later on G-ma said Sinjon was stomping on some ants. So I think the reason he made such a wide pass on the spider is because it was bigger than his shoe. haha! Pa-paw said, "that's called Respect!" ha!







The boys LOVE Uncle Samuel (cause he has cool video games) and they followed him everywhere! I thought this picture was especially cute.



My dad in front of a Yucca Hut.






The boys in the Yucca Hut with Sam.

They got to dress up in the 1800 clothing even. how cute!

Uncle Samuel, perfect waterboy!



Trav...my hunky confederate soldier. wink wink Always loved a man in uniform haha!


Having played the trumpet himself, Travis taught the boys how to blow into the bugle. He said Sinjon was a natural!

All in all they had a blast! We'll have to check out more things like this with the kids. They LOVE it!

Better late than never

Okay, so yeah, I'm a slacker. lol It's been 3 months since my last post. I'm sure you're all wondering how Trav's nose surgery went. The doc said it was easier than he expected. Don't get grossed out, this is just how he explained it. He said usually he has to really fight the membranes of the nose away from the septum but that trav's peeled away from his septum like an orange peel. So it only took half the time he though it would. Also meant that healing time would be a sinch! And it was. I could hardly keep Travis down for a day! And then, because he was on Vicodin, I had to drive him around, 3 kids in tow, for work the next two days. He says he can't remember ever being able to breathe better. So that's a great thing! We're all glad Daddy can finally breathe! He uses his newfound quietness to scare the living daylights out of us too, because we can no longer "hear" him coming. haha

Ariele is now 16 months old and practically running. It's amazing what 3 months does in toddlers. CRAZY! She can be a little tyrant too. Her current favorite pastime is taking her brothers toys and running away while laughing like the count from Sesame Street. Yup! Little tyrant. You wouldn't believe it from those innocent big blue eyes, but she's soooo mischevious! She has also been giving everyone and anyone she doesn't know dirty looks, especially our babysitters. lol She knows when they show up mommy and daddy are leaving. She is also talking quite a bit for her age. She's learning from her brothers very quickly and Travis and I have a very hard time not laughing when she mimicks her brothers tantrums. It's quite funny!

Sinjon is our wrestling champ. He's always grabbing Teancum and trying to wrestle him to the ground. Sometimes he wins sometimes he doesn't. He loves it none the less! He and Teancum are very much into Transformers now. And of course, just like always, Sinjon loves to do anything that Teancum does. They are rarely separated and when they are Sinjon hates it. He definitely loves his brother. He still is very protective of his little sister too and loves to give her hugs and kisses. He is by far my most affectionate child.

Teancum is growing like a weed! He will be 4 here shortly and people all over already ask me all the time if he is 5. He LOVES to draw and color, and is actually quite good at it for a 3 year old. Everyone thinks his picture of mommy is the funniest because the way he draws my hair makes me look like madussa. lol He is very creative though and I love it! He can make me Madussa anytime he wants hehe. Teancum passed the summertime swimming in the pool Aunt Jilly bought him in our backyard. He loves little swimming pools so much that when we were at Aunt Millie's he went into the backyard and started stripping down to his birthday suit so he could jump in her pool! Good thing he's still too little to care about being seen naked. haha

Travis is currently training again for another bicycle race down in Douglas, AZ in October. His bike shorts are starting to look really good on him. ::wink wink:: He's pretty excited about it, and I'm excited because it's the same weekend as our Smith Family reunion that's only about 30 minutes away. lol so we get to go to both! =-D

As for me, pretty much the same ol' same ol'. Just here with the kids taking in the memories of their childhood and trying to stay sane in the process. It's getting easier as they get older, but I know I'm in for it when they all become teenagers. lol For right now though, I'm enjoying them being little.

Here's a recent photo of the three people who run our house. =-D

As good a time as any

I figured today would be a good day to start off our blog. There's not a whole lot going on right now, but the things that are going on are big.

Tomorrow Travis is going to have surgery on his nose to fix his deviated septum. We are hoping that it will not only improve his ability to breathe but that it will extend into many areas of his life. Such as relieving allergies, sleeping better, and being able to reach his cycling goals. I keep wondering if it is going to change his voice too. He keeps saying how nasaly (is that a word?) he sounds. So we are both wondering if this surgery will take that away as well. The doc said he has the most deviated septum he's ever seen, so maybe it will make a drastic difference and maybe it will be just good enough. I suppose we will have to see.

Ariele turned 1 last month. She's not walking yet, but we think she will within the next month or so. She's been pulling herself up and walking along the furniture for a while now and she LOVES pushing her walker. She has lately found our little tykes slide to be very fun and entertaining.

We finally got grass in our backyard as well!!!! YAY! only took 3 1/2 years but it's great, because now I can just send the kids out to play and not have to worry about them throwing dirt at each other. We're not done with the backyard yet but by the time we are it will be nice and green! Anyone have a trailer we can use to haul off some mesquite branches? Oh and it's the funniest thing! For a while there Ariele didn't like the grass AT ALL! she would sit in it and cry with as little of her body touching the grass as she could manage. Meaning, she would sit on her bottom and lift up one of her legs as far away from the grass as possible, only leaving the other leg down for balance. It was quite funny. I'm happy to say she no longer cares,...especially if the slide is free of her brothers lol. If she has to get across it though, she does this little bear walk that we still giggle about.

I've started some veggies for the summer. I figured it would be a way to save some money. So far I have tomatoes (yes I know they are a fruit) and strawberries, and I've also got Serranos, bell peppers, lettuce, and jalepenos. Something has been eating our lettuce though. So I'm going to have to figure out a way to cover them so I can find out what's eating them.

Well, I've got some house cleaning to do and some dust to obliterate, so until next time...