Oh my goodness!

My mother hasn't blogged in HOW long?

:P

Who wants to win a backyard play yard? I do!! They told me to blog this so I am!

Backyard Discovery is giving away TWO of the awesome Patriot II playsets as well as TWO of their Oasis Garden sets.

The Patriot II is awesome with a raised clubhouse, sun porch, rock wall, 10’ slide, two belt swings and a two person glider. It’s all cedar and plenty sturdy for the whole gang to enjoy. Your kids will love the Patriot II for years!

The Oasis Garden is our self-contained garden for any backyard and lets you grow fresh veggies, herbs, and flowers just outside the back door. The kids will learn about natural foods and healthy stuff and the whole family will enjoy the nutritious food!

To enter go to their Facebook page and go from there!

Stationery card

This Much Merry Christmas Card

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Jameson's Angry Bird Party!

Jameson-Waymeson is four years old!! To celebrate we threw him an Angry Birds party, his absolute favorite game. It was pretty fun, if I do say so myself. There's not much out there "pre-made" for Angry Birds so I had to get creative, which ended up being fun to do. I made a green pig pinata (my mom helped by doing the crepe paper decorating for me, at that point I was Angry Bird-ed out!), I got some red, blue and orange (for the new orange Angry Bird) balls and drew the Birds onto the balls so that we could play dodge ball, we spray painted, put nostrils on condiment cups and put elastic string on them so that all the kids could be pigs for dodge ball. We hid golden eggs around the park for the kids to find, had them decorate paper bags (with Angry Birds stickers... the only thing I *could* find in stores!) to put their candy in. We had an AWESOME Angry Birds cake made by a local lady, it was so good!! It was a ton of fun, getting creative like that. But I'm glad Porter's decided on a dinosaur theme for his party, it'll be a lot easier for my poor brain. Sorry for the lack of photos, I haven't downloaded from the camera yet, so these are off the iPhone. (the pigs in the ball photo are the thank you presents we gave out, I got them at the dollar store and spray painted them, then we put candy inside.)

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.

.:.Quinn Louise.:.

Our final four is here!! Quinn Louise was born on her due date, March 17th, at 6:11am. Yup, a St. Patrick's Day baby! I was induced the night before so the labor from start to end was just under 12 hours. I won't bore you with her birth story, just that she was a 2VBA2C, very pleased with that! We could not be more in love, truly. She's the sweetest little baby, loves to be held and snuggled all the time. Makes sleeping interesting, but there's something about looking at a sweet newborn that makes the sleepiness a little bit more bearable. Mercy, Porter and Jameson are all great with her, I was a bit worried about J because he's so used to being the youngest, but he's actually the one who wants to be around Quinn the most, always loving on her and holding her hand. Mercy is a little mother to her, and Porter loves on her when he remembers that she's here but most of the time he's too busy playing to notice.

The mouse on my desktop isn't working so I haven't been able to upload photos off my camera, but here's one off of my cell phone. Can you see why we're so head over heels?

February Already

Whoa. I feel like time is flying lately! It's probably because the beginning of the year is always so busy; getting back into the swing of things after the holidays and all. My doctor appointments are every two weeks now, freaks me out a bit. This pregnancy has flown by, I'm not quite sure I'm ready for March to be so close. But I'm reminded daily about how far along I am, thanks to the heartburn after every snack or meal, the constant need to pee every time I finally get into a good sleep. Good times, good times.
The weather last week was crazy, on Thursday we woke up to 6 degree weather. Yeah, not so typical for southern Arizona. In fact, it was pretty freaking crazy. A lot of water pipes froze, luckily not ours, and the gas company shut off gas to almost half the city because the high demand was straining the pipeline. We weren't part of the shut off, but Mercy's school was closed on Friday because they were worried about the pipes and students not being able to make it in. I was hoping the kids would take the opportunity to sleep in but no such luck. Booo.
Porter had his endocrinologist appointment last week and it went surprisingly well. They looked at his blood levels and while the specific levels tied to CAH are high, they're not as high as they typically would be with "full blown" CAH. They're going to do more blood work so that they know for sure, but right now they're thinking that he's a carrier for CAH but doesn't actually have CAH, just some of the signs of it. Does that make any sense? I'll admit, I'm confused by it, but they said that they're pretty sure he doesn't have CAH, so I'm pleased for now. Still cautious, but happy.
Mercy's been a cookie selling fool-- wait, that's probably more on my part than hers. Gotta say, I really don't enjoy this for the most part. The exercise is fine, but I wish we knew enough people in the city to sell her 250 boxes within days and then we wouldn't have to go sell door to door. Booths aren't bad, the girls have fun for the most part. Plus I get to hang out with some fun moms while we're out there. But I'm ready to be done with this already, I'm just a bad Girl Scout mom.

Alive

Yes, we're alive. I'm just a slacker.

I won't lie, the last few months of 2010 really sucked, mostly medically speaking. The endocrinologist had us test the boys for CAH, since it's a genetic condition, and it turns out that those nice little odds of us having a 1 in 4 chance of a child with CAH were wrong. Porter also has it. His pediatrician wrote us our referral to the endocrinologist but made us (me) feel a bit better by saying that it's not as "bad" in boys as it is in girls, since boys produce testosterone anyways. Dr. Price is actually more concerned about Porter's asthma. Yep, the ped was right in cautioning us that the pneumonia could cause asthma to become active, and now Porter is armed with an inhaler twice a day and a pediatric pulmonologist who's keeping his eye on him. He does fine most of the time, it's the severe weather changes that seem to spark the coughing fits, and unfortunately Arizona doesn't like to gradually change weather, it likes to drop it fast and raise it fast. He's also been referred to an allergist to see what else could be sparking his asthma. All the kids managed to catch pink eye too, around the same time as we were finding out about Porter's asthma and CAH. I caught the stomach flu three, THREE times within a month and a half (stupid flu vaccine did jack squat). Mercy caught some virus or something in the last two weeks of school before break and they ran all sorts of tests and never did figure out what it was. She missed about 7 or 8 days of school thanks to it. And then Santa decided to be a big jerkhead and I got shingles on Christmas! The only ones to make it out relatively unscathed were Jameson (whose bloodwork showed that he does NOT have CAH, woo!) and CJ, of course. CJ rarely ever gets sick, it's not very fair. Excuse my whining, but really, I've never been so glad to say peace out to a year.
2011 so far is doing well, no news is good news, right? Baby girl is doing fine, other than still remaining nameless. You'd think it would be easy to name the fourth one, but not so. So we just keep calling her baby girl. Jameson likes the name Broccoli, but that's not going to happen. Mercy likes to make up names, usually combining some of her friends' names to make one wierd one, and that's not happening either. Porter can't be bothered trying to make up names, he's too busy playing Lego/Transformers/coloring.
Mercy's doing amazing in school, I fully credit our awesome elementary school and her wonderful teacher. She's an accelerated reader now, she tests at a second grade level, we're so proud of her! She struggles with comprehension but it's slowly getting better, when we read we question her on every page and even though it makes reading time really long, it's really helped her pay more attention to what she's reading, not just the words. She still loves numbers, and is fairly fascinated with math problems. It's a bit creepy to me, because I haaaaaaate math. HATE IT. Always have, always will. I can read a book in no time, but I totally use my fingers to count still. Sigh... I'm going to be useless once she starts the hard stuff!
Porter is rocking preschool. He loves it, and I can't blame him. His teachers are so awesome, I'm so glad that I've gotten to know them! He's a funny learner, you won't realize he's absorbing what you're teaching him until one day he just busts it out like he's been doing it all along. Numbers, letters, sounds, all that. He won't show you what he knows until he's sure he has it down pat. He finished playing soccer in November and is now anxiously awaiting the start of t-ball here. We just signed him up today and I think he's asked me when it starts about 10 times already. Considering it doesn't start til March, this is going to get old. He got a bike from Santa for Christmas and he looooves it. It's a bike that will last him awhile (it better...) and we go to the park to practice riding it about every other day (the benefit of living in Arizona, 60-70 degree weather in January). He'll probably lose his training wheels within a few months. Makes me wish we'd gotten him the bike awhile ago, but with so much going on, we just didn't even think about bicycles. Favorite Porter quote as of late:
Me- Porter, your nose is filthy!
Porter- Hmm... I will have to take a closer look at that.
Jameson is my thug. Not kidding, this kid is a thug, the most loveable thug you'll ever meet. Just watch, in 15 years you'll be watching him beat the crap out of people on the football field on ESPN. He might be the youngest (for now) but he definitely doesn't take crap from anyone. If anything, Porter bows down to him! He's independent, always wants to do what he wants, when he wants, and how he wants. Oh, but the snuggles he gives... I'm so glad he's still such a snuggler. He's a Sunbeam now, and not so happy about it. I think he misses the "freedom" of nursery, how he got to play pretty much the whole two hours. This sitting in a chair, listening to a lesson thing... not his cup o' tea. I walked by his class last week and looked in, his teacher was trying to ask him what color his hair was and Jameson was just sitting there with his fingers in his mouth, pulling the corners of his mouth apart to make that funny face, and saying "I dunno" while doing it. Punk.
CJ's doing well, still loves his job despite the sadness of December. For those who don't live in southern Arizona, we lost a good man in the BP. Agent Brian Terry worked at CJ's station before he started in BORTAC, and he lived in our neighborhood. Mercy sold him Girl Scout cookies last year and even though he lived alone, he bought about 10 boxes from her and her friends. I didn't know him except for the cookies and from running into him around town when CJ was with us, but I remember CJ talking about him when Agent Terry started at Naco. He rode with CJ and I remember CJ coming home and saying that Agent Terry could be teaching CJ more than CJ could teach him anything. His death sent shock waves around the community, and trying to explain to the kids, especially Mercy, what had happened was something I wish we hadn't had to do. She remembered selling him cookies, and would ask us about him or his family often in the days after the incident. I know CJ's job is dangerous compared to a lot of other jobs out there, but I just never really expected it to hit this close to home. CJ and I were able to go to his memorial in Tucson this week, it was a beautiful memorial. Before Mercy went to school that morning we took the kids to see the procession of BP vehicles on the way to Tucson; over 100 vehicles with their lights on. Sobering, but a beautiful show of unity and brotherhood.



In order to not end on a sad note, I will show you Jameson being Jameson.

Yes, that is a pickle in one hand and a Blow Pop in the other. GROSS.

But apparently it totally hit the spot for him.

Ewwww.

Isn't She Lovely

Walk down memory lane with that song; I used to sing it to Mercy while dancing around the living room to get her to go to sleep when she was a newborn... it doesn't FEEL like that was so long ago, but 6 years... whoa.



Anyways, the title is actually not about her. It's about this one.




Yep, we had our 20 week ultrasound, with my mum and all three kids in tow. We let Mercy ditch school because she missed the first ultrasound and really, really wanted to be there to find out if Lizard {since J was so insistent that the baby was actually a lizard, not a baby} was a boy or a girl. We had an awesome ultrasound tech who pointed everything out to us, telling us what was being measured and how it all looked. Mercy was into it, Porter was 'eh' on it and J was a bit creeped out by it. Ha! Finally she asked if we wanted to know what the baby is. I think my mum was about to jump out of her skin with excitement. So she moved the wand down to the baby's bottom area and I knew as soon as I saw.



We are definitely thinking pink here.



Mercy is over the moon excited for a sister. To be truthful I think she would have been fine with a baby brother too, she's not one of those kids that really forms an opinion and is heartbroken to find out they're wrong. She's been quite... interesting... with her name suggestions, but none is better than Jameson's idea. He thinks baby girl should be named Broccoli. After his favorite food. Erm...

We're all very happy, but we're mostly just happy that the baby is looking happy and healthy. We don't have any name for baby girl just yet, but I'm sure she'll have one within a few days of being born at the latest. I'm having a hard time believing that the holidays are almost upon us and after they're over, the next big event will be baby girl's arrival. This pregnancy is flying by so much faster than any of my other ones, which is probably good because I'm not the most patient person in the world. Plus all the junk that's been going down lately... well, I'll save that for a post tomorrow perhaps. Let's just say that when it rains, it pours, and I'm feeling quite soaked right now.