Happy Birthday, Bekah!

Is it already December?  I guess it's taken me by surprise because the cold hasn't arrived (well, not like in the mountains) and there isn't any snow. We're aren't bundled up like Eskimos every time we get into the car...just to pile the coats in the cart once we get into the store.  Ah well, it's still that time of year!

Bekah had a wonderful 5th birthday!  She got to watch me decorate her rocking horse birthday cake and even taste some of the frosting.  She was so excited!  And when she got some ponies and other horse toys to play with, she was even more ecstatic!  What a happy girl!

And They Said It Couldn't Be Done

Before, just weeds & dirt.

I am here to prove that you can, at least for one season out of the year, have soft, emerald green grass in the state of Texas.  We took our dry, barren and hard-packed dirt in the front yard and created a soft carpet of green.  Granted, there are some spots in the greenery that need filled in (I don't have a professional seed spreader) but it's green!  And once the seeds get a firm hold on the ground, they don't need watered much!

First planting's results.

The entire process took quite a bit of effort on everyone's part.  I dug up the yard; the kids removed rocks and debris.  Then, we chopped down the dirt clods and raked it smooth.  Once we had a more level surface, we spread starter fertilizer and grass seed with our gloved hands.  Some spots didn't get as much seed, so we've had to go back through and reseed some spots.

This is a perennial rye grass that survives through the cooler months of autumn, winter, and then sleeps all summer long.  It should come back next fall as the summer grass is dying off.  The plan right now is to plant some different grass seed in the Spring when the temperature increases.  But we're happy with the yard.  Much happier than when we first moved in!

Second planting and starting of third.

I'm still working on spreading some of the grass throughout the existing Bermuda grass (horrible stuff that spreads and leaves pockets of dirt underneath that when cut and raked away, leave massive spaces in the yard).  And I'm working on putting grass on the other side of the driveway as well.  Let's pray for some rain too!  I get tired of moving a hose all day long...but it's worth it to see such a beautiful color of green!

Our Firepit

We found a pit in the backyard and Shawn immediately had an awesome dream/vision of what we could put in it.  Sure, we could fill it in and put grass on top; but that's mundane.  Everyone's done that.  How 'bout we put a ring of rocks around it and put a fire in it?  Say!  That's an idea!

Remember those stepping stones from the front yard?  Well, they had to move from there when I decided to put some grass in the dirt.  Then, they had to move from their temporary home by the side of the patio when I expanded that.  So, why not ring the pit?

Sounds like a plan.  So, after a couple of days of hauling sand to make it "a bit" more level (it still dips and rises in places), we had our very own firepit.  We've cleared out dry brush that was just sitting at the side of our house begging for a stray spark or something to catch it on fire.  And then we chopped down a bunch of fallen trees that were leaning against the fence.  Three different fires; hot dogs; marshmallows; and that all equals some happy kids and parents.

Happy Veteran's Day

John wanted to send this picture to all of the veterans, or at least one of them, in our family.  I thought the easiest way to share and keep a bit of the memory for ourselves, is to post the picture on our blog for all to see.  Hope you don't mind.  John's really trying to understand, and yet celebrate all of the wonderful things our veterans do for our country and our family.  Thanks so much for all you do to ensure our freedoms!

Happy Trunk or Treat

Halloween saw a busy time this year for us.  We were working on projects around our new house and seeing Daddy off to work at night.  So, we missed Daddy during the annual collection of candy. But I got some pictures to send to you and so he could see the kids in their costumes.

We actually had a ward trunk or treat at the church parking lot the Saturday before Halloween.  The kids enjoyed playing some games like cake-walk, pumpkin bowling, and eating donuts from a string.  Joe's candy pouch was filled with powdered doughnut remnants because he was more than willing to pick up the donuts that had fallen and consume them with relish.  Several of the youth that were helping man the games were concerned with his desire to clean up but it was a bit challenging for me to watch four kids and keep him from eating fallen food at the same time.  Ah well.  A little old-fashioned dirt never hurt anyone.

Jack loved being the cowboy for Halloween.  Everyone smiled when Jack said, "Howdy, partner." and then shot them with his six-shooters.  But we walked the neighborhood looking for houses with candy.  Unfortunately, we found loads of houses but our area doesn't have many kids in it.  We decided to end the evening after Joe fell into a patch of grass that was filled with stickers (everything in Texas has sharp edges to it...thorns everywhere and stickers too!).  But we had plenty of candy.  And the kids will still pass houses and declare,


"That's where we went Trick-or-treating!"

Happy Home Depot Bear

The last project we did before moving, Jack submitted his name into the local Home Depot's Build-a-bear drawing.  And he won!  You can't tell from the picture, but he's really very excited!  He named the bear Polah Bear.  I wasn't about to argue with him that Polar Bears are white.  It was enough just to get him to look at the camera.

Can you believe it?!  He's loved that bear ever since.  Just thought I'd share his good fortune and let you smile at his frown.

Backyard Projects

That single swing hanging from the tree in our backyard recently got a new friend/neighbor.  A rope had been attached to a bolt in the tree and Shawn suggested we use that bolt for a much more grand purpose.  And the above picture shows the joy Shawn created upon completion of our tire swing.  It was hard work for Daddy putting the chains, S links, and bolts in place.  But it has been worth it!

We've also been putting together a few square foot gardening boxes from remnants the previous tenants left behind.  They weren't much for gardening and had used the kits as borders for flowerbeds.  The flowerbeds didn't have anything growing in them...so I've recycled them back to their original designs.  We are hoping to get some fresh veggies out of the boxes come March and April.  There's still a lot of research we need to do to prepare ourselves for the different Texas growing seasons.

And finally, the patio.  When we moved in, we got a back step as the patio.  Since then, we moved pavers from the front yard (which were being used for a non-existent flowerbed) to the backyard and added a few more.  Voila!  C'est magnifique!  We now have a much more usable patio space.  Nothing glamorous but definitely much better than before.  Perhaps in the future we'll fill in the other space with matching pavers and finish it off the right way.  I can hardly wait!

Bekah's First Day of Pre-K

Bekah has been trying to be big just like her older siblings for so long, it's sometimes a surprise to realize she's still only 4.  Crazy!  But the elementary school that John and Kelsey attend have a morning/afternoon pre-K class that Bekah has joined.  The bus comes to pick her up around lunchtime and then I pick all three kids up after school!  Naptime has been a bit quieter with only the boys around.

And Bekah has learned so much.  She'll be playing with her dolls or coloring singing songs she's learned at school.  She can sing you a song about how to spell the color green or purple.  Way to go, Bekah!

Looking Back...

Nostalgic moment.  I found some pictures on my phone from the time when Shawn had my laptop in Texas.  Remember those summer field trips we took?  Well, we decided one evening to escape the pervasive smoke that filled Utah Valley all summer long.  We hiked up Rock Canyon just above the Provo Temple.  It was a bit strenuous for little legs (not to mention Mommy who was carrying Joe on her back).  But we breathed deeply of clean, canyon air.

The kids all drank the water in their water bottles and were only too excited to start the downhill hike back to the truck.  But every photo op they could get, they were ready to pose.  We sent a few photos off to Daddy in Texas, but failed to get an accurate picture of the cloudy mess that hung over the valley.

Hutto Hippo

For the past month and a half (for some of the family), the kids have been gaga about all of the concrete hippos in Hutto, Texas.  It is the town mascot.  All of the schools (from elementary to high school) have the exact same mascot:  a hippo.  I believe the colors are all the same too...but whatever.  It seems a little strange to me.  But it works here.

Anyway, we finally got the picture of the kids on the hippo outside John and Kelsey's elementary school.  Granted, it's a week before we pulled them out of the school to enroll them in a school closer to our new home.  But whatever!  They got to ride the hippo they'd been dreaming of since they first saw it.  Thought I'd share something you don't see everyday.

Our Little Piece of Texas

This has been a long time coming but maybe that makes it all the better.  We finally have a home!  Cedar Park, Texas is where we're at!  And we are so excited!  Here's some pictures from our moving adventure.  The kids have joined in the moving brigade and I'm impressed at what John, Bekah, and Kelsey can lift when they work together.  We got our couch inside with just three kids and Mommy!  So awesome! That left minimal work for the tough strong men.  Don't get me wrong, we appreciate all that they do too!  But it was impressive to see our little guys/girls helping move their stuff into the house/garage.

 

So, here's the details for anyone who's been on the edge of their seat waiting for us to get a new mailing address.  It's a four bedroom, two bath house with a large backyard.  The previous tenants left a swing in one of the many trees (I love the oaks!) and even a small square foot garden plot.

Shawn has his own office.  The kids share their bedrooms (boys in one...girls in another) and there's room in the closets for them to store their toys.  Hoorah!  That means very little toy mess in the living room.  That would be nice!

It's not an impressively large home, but it's ours.  And I'm looking forward to the memories we're going to make here.  It'll be wonderful to have our own place again.  Our friends have been more than gracious to let us stay with them while we looked for a permanent home.  We are truly blessed!

Oh, and I had to put this one in.  It my one successful attempt to back the trailer into the garage.  Eeek!  I'm not good at that but it made unloading much safer.

July Camping: Day Four Continued

 

After we finished in Four Corners, we took our trip north to Moab, Utah.  Arches National Monument was the last place on our "things to do" list.  We were hoping to get a campsite in the park but were told that most of the sites are taken online well before the date of arrival.  Meaning, if you don't reserve a spot in their 51 site campground months in advance, you don't stand a chance of finding a place to camp.

Oh well.  We did some of the easy hikes and had a great picnic dinner.

Kelsey's Jackrabbit

Kelsey found a jackrabbit enjoying the evening on our hike to see a lookout of Delicate Arch (across the canyon).  The rabbit just sat and watched all of the hikers go past.  On our return trip back to the truck, we noticed he'd had enough people watching and left his spot.  But I have to commend Kelsey for spotting it.  John took awhile to notice it.  Good eye, Kelsey!

Balanced Rock was a formation that puzzled the kids.  John couldn't understand who balanced the rock like that and if it was going to fall.  It was almost impossible to explain erosion and how the rock really isn't "balanced," it's part of the rock formation.  Well, this was one of those hikes that everyone decided they wanted to try to hike--even Joe.  But we carried him because the stairs were a little much for him at times.

  

Sand Dune Arch was our last one of the day.  Everyone had sand in their shoes (some a lot more than others) but they thought it was fun to wade through the sand.  We even got to see the bats out early as the sun was setting.  That made the kids even happier.

 We made it to Green River before we all tuckered out.  A stay in a hotel for one night was welcome.  We didn't have as much to pack up the next morning and got home before naptime.  The kids enjoyed the hikes and the camping, but I think they enjoyed getting home to their beds.  I think the adults did too.  Shower and clean clothes never felt so good!

July Camping Day Three & Part of Four

I am not quite sure why I didn't get very  many pictures of the stuff we saw on day three.  Oh wait, because they were mostly pit houses and John took a ton of pictures that didn't quite turn out.  We did find some ruins of houses that had been built on previous sites.  Meaning, people built a house, abandoned it, and fifty years later, someone else built on top of it.  It was pretty interesting.

  

We were still wondering "why?" but no one seems to know.  The kids quickly went through the houses and were mostly eager to ride the Wetherill Mesa tram.  They enjoyed the little bus ride through the remains of several forest fires.

This was the day we saw the famous Long House and had lunch at the top of the trail in a covered pavilion.  We didn't know what else to do for the rest of the day so we decided to go back to camp.  We arrived just before it started pouring.  The kids enjoyed watching a movie in the tent on the portable DVD system.  The rain stopped as the movie ended.  Good timing!

 

Well, in the morning, we packed up and headed for Four Corners. The kids didn't really understand the significance of the site and it took some encouragement for them to do anything other than stand around looking confused.  But that's another moment we may have to revisit when they're older.  For future knowledge, it cost us $3/person (for those 6+) to enter the monument.  Didn't know that when we started out.

And it was off to Arches for the rest of the afternoon.  We'll get to that in the next post.

July Camping: Day Two Part 3

So we did a lot on our first official day of sightseeing.  We saw a lot of stuff, mostly from overlooks.   But that's alright.  It got the kids pumped up and excited for all the walking they did.  They even were excited to go back the next day.  But that's another blog entry.

We saw some famous tour houses like Cliff Palace from overlooks.  We didn't do the mile or so trek out to see the Balcony house from an overlook.  That was nearing the end of our day and those who hadn't taken a nap (namely the adults) were a little pooped.  The kids were nearing the end of their interest as well.  So, we missed that one.  I guess we'll have to do a return trip when they're older and actually go through Balcony House.

One of the canyons we took pictures of had so many different cliff dwellings that every crevice in the south facing cracks seemed to have some sort of ruin in it.  It was amazing!  Some of them were pretty big too!  One had a large fire pit that the description said it might have been used as a gathering place rather than where people lived all of the time.  We dubbed it "Party Central."  It was pretty cool!

We briefly circled the Sun Temple and were amazed by the fact that the structure, although unfinished and never used (according to archaeologists), had water downspouts built into the walls.  So, when the rains came, they had a way to channel the water.  Pretty cool.  You can't tell me these guys didn't know much about "technology."

Anyway, it was pretty interesting.  We were left wondering, after seeing all of these cliff dwellings and pit houses, why someone would choose to live in cliffs and on the tops of mountains when there was a green valley just to the north.  Why?  Maybe we'll never know...but I'm sure intrigued.

Camping Trip: Day Two Part 2

Okay, so we saw Spruce Tree house and it was great!  We piled everyone back into the suburban and off we went to another set of sites.  It was time to do the Mesa Top Loop.  We noticed that the loop was going to be closed at 7 pm the very same evening.  What luck!  We were already planning to make the drive and see all the overlooks we could.

Well, that's when we noticed the two little boys had fallen asleep in the back seat.  Great!  They needed it!  Poor Joe was all tuckered out after his long "hike" in the toddler backpack.  Jack had a reason to be tired:  he hiked the steep 100 foot descent/ascent on the 1/2 mile trail.  He earned his nap.

Anyway, we stopped by several quick pithouses that the Pueblo people had used before their time in the famous cliffhouses.  Although somewhat impressive, the kids were not as interested in holes in the ground.  They skirted the covered pavilions with the houses in quick succession.

We did get to see Square Tower house from a lookout (see photo at top of post).  That was fun.  Macher and I traded off going to see the sites.  She'd see some with Bekah and then come back so I could take Kelsey and John to see the houses.  I think the older kids enjoyed running ahead to see the sites without having to worry about how slow Jack was going...or if Jack was going to stay on the trail.