Fire

This has been a roller coaster week. Last Sunday a wildfire started in Coronado Monument and this last week it has just blown up. CJ doesn't think we're in any danger and our neighborhood hasn't been under pre-evac or evacuation at all, but seeing the black billowing smoke almost every afternoon has been pretty nerve wracking. The majority of our ward has either been evacuated or been in pre-evacuation and church today was only an hour, in order to let those who were in pre-evac stay close to home in case they had to evacuate, which most of them did. It's a terrifying looking fire, thanks mostly to how little water we got this winter and the 40+ MPH winds we've had this week. The Monument Fire, as the news is calling it, has burned over 20,000 acres and at least 47 homes, and they're saying it's going to be awhile before it's out. If you are the praying type (which I hope most of you are) please say a prayer for the brave firefighters out there fighting this. It's been a very unpredictable fire and they are all putting their lives on the line for us here in southern Arizona.
The news outside of southern Arizona hasn't really said anything about Arizona's wildfires right now, even our "local" news in Tucson didn't really talk about the Monument Fire until a few days ago when it jumped the highway. It's frustrating to feel ignored like that, like we're not big enough news. So many people are displaced right now, the animal vets and pet hotels are overflowing with pets that had to be evacuated, the riding club is housing over 200 horses whose owners had to flee the fire. This is not a minor event, at least not to us. But the Sierra Vista community has pulled together so amazingly. There's so many acts of service everyday, the first day that they put out a call for things for the firefighters they actually had to say "no more" because they got such a response.

The first night of the fire:




Tonight's fire: (it's gone through 3 canyons since the first night, possibly four)


Mercy's been fascinated by the fire. It caused her horse camp to be cancelled, and ever since then it's all she talks about. Well, that and her new library card. Go figure.

Playing Catch Up...

Oh man. Did I ever drop from the blogging world hard!

Okay, what we've been up to...

Porter graduated from Pre-Kindergarten!! He'll start Kindergarten at PdS in August. Crazy... he really loved Pre-K and his teachers and classmates, he's such a social kid now and loves to draw! He draws the most amazing robots. He also finished up his first year of t-ball and forgive me for bragging but... he ROCKED it. He's definitely his father's son in how athletic he is; he's built for sports. He'll do soccer again this fall, and he's really excited for it again.





Mercy finished 1st grade!! We're really lucky where we live, that our elementary school won a national Blue Ribbon award this year for excellence. The teachers are all amaaaaazing, and Mrs. Faust is just the most perfect 1st grade teacher I could have ever hoped for. Mercy blew up in reading and math, the kid keeps pestering me to let her do math work and stays up late reading Geronimo Stilton, Thea Stilton, Babysitters Club Little Sister and Ramona books (talk about a blast from my past!) She finished her ballet for the year with her spring recital, where she danced her two dances beautifully, we're so proud! Now she's started horseback riding, for now she's doing Western seat but I have dreams of her starting English soon. Who knew watching your own kid learn to ride would give you heart palpitations though, my nails are shot. Part of me wishes it was me teaching her and part of me is glad that someone else gets to deal with it.





Jameson is potty trained! Waaaa. HOOOOOOOOOOOOO. I only have one kid in diapers, that's freaking awesome. He just clicked one day, and has been sporting his Thomas and Buzz Lightyear underwear ever since (maybe my threat of no preschool in the fall finally worked...) He's even waking up dry most days, but he's not quite ready to ditch the nighttime diaper yet. Or maybe I'm not quite ready for him to do that... He's really excited to start preschool at Cactus Wren this fall, he loves Mrs. Jenn already and I've already told her to do whatever she needs to to get that boogerhead to listen. I love him but he's definitely my child, his stubborn streak is a mile wide.





Quinn is almost 3 months old. Frick, time is flying. She's my little squishy, I just adore her, I'm so glad Heavenly Father sent her to us. She smiles all the time and has started laughing at us too. She loves when people blow raspberries at her or stick their tongues out, for some reason that's hilarious to her. She's pretty easy going, has no problem being passed around at Church, I think I only hold her when I have to nurse her there, she's so loved! She's starting to outgrow her 0-3 month clothes which makes me sad, but I'm trying to see the bright side which is, shopping time!







CJ's still loving his job. He's training new trainees again, which he loves doing. He gets done at the end of June, just in time for us to go on our Road Trip 2011 to NorCal. He recently got called to the Elders Quorum Presidency and he really likes the guys he's with, and lucky me, I love their wives! He played in a basketball tournament in Tucson in April and managed to break (he says it's not a break, it's a chip) his ankle but it wasn't a bad break and he healed up quickly. We had a blast styaing in Tucson for a few days anyways.



I'm still trucking along, still adjusting to four kids. It's crazy sometimes and I feel like I'm a complete wretch by 7pm, but they're such good kids to me that I know I'm really lucky. I'm enjoying my mum, who's been living down here since January but is leaving us next week; it's been so wonderful to know that I have her to help any time I need it. I'm also really lucky to have a great network of friends here, from church to school to preschool. Anytime I've been in a pickle I've had a long list of people willing to help me out, we've been truly blessed to live where we live. Our ward is amazing and I absolutely love every member, 8am church is easy to deal with when you know you're going to see so many friendly faces.

We got to have Newell, Sally, Trevor and Damien come and visit in April for Quinn's blessing and for the boys' spring break. It was wonderful, the kids really enjoyed having them here and we had tons of fun! We also got to go stay with Kenny and Myrna and see their fun petting zoo and animals and everything, they took us on a wagon ride and then made us delicious dinner. Mmm... We also got to see Shane and Nicole and their kids too, that was awesome since we hadn't seen them since we lived in Sugarhouse by each other!! Porter thought Nash was the coolest kid ever! CJ even got to have Shane take his place in the basketball tournament for a day too when he broke his ankle. We've been so lucky to see SOOO much family so far this year, hopefully we'll see even more at the Humpherys family reunion in Nevada City. Hint hint.
We had to give Mercy's cat away, Porter had an allergy skin test done last month and he's very allergic to cats, it turns out. For it to be considered an allergy the reaction had to be at least 3mm in size, and Porter's reaction to cats was 9mm. His allergist (who is amazing, I love her!) said basically if we want him to stop having breathing problems, the cat had to go. She said that the cat was probably the trigger to his pneumonia hospitalization in September. Mercy was very sad, it was a really hard thing to do, but we promised her a new pet in the fall. I'm hoping for a fish, but she's pushing for another dog. Sigh.
We're really looking forward to our vacation next month. Not as much traveling as last year, we're only going to California, but we're going to go to Monterrey for a few days and we're hoping to go to Tahoe for 4th of July. We're really excited for the reunion, it should be a great time!!
Okay, CJ just got home from work which means it's really late, so I'm going to try to go to sleep now. Whoops.