Chancee's Chatterings

The three oldest boy's are at scout camp this week. The oldest being Dad. SO as you can imagine, with Dad out of the house dinner time is almost non existent for a few day's. But when 6:00 pm rolled around we were hungry and since I needed a few things at the store anyway.......

So, we're walking down the isle at the store, me pushing the cart with Oaklee inside and Aubree and Chance walking along side....Oh alright Aubree was walking along side Chance was bouncing along side, riding underneath, running along side etc. at one point he runs up ahead to see the big blown up cow above the milk section that has been in the store since before he was born. As he comes running back towards the basket he misjudged the speed at which he returned and jumped on to the end of the basket, banging into it a little hard. With a grunt he flings his hand over his heart and says,

"Whoa, I just about broke my brain!"

"uh Chance" says I, "First of all that is not where your brain is. Your brain is in your head. That is where your heart is and you didn't run into the basket hard enough to break it."

"Oh" says Chance, and with no hesitation at all he states, "Well, then I almost cracked my heart."

And then the eyes, the big, BIG, eyes and I just LOVE living with this kid.

I miscarried three boys before he came along and I have a feeling it was this kid trying to come all three times. He must have been SO excited for this life and experience that he just kept trying to sneak out of heaven before it was his turn to go. His personality confirms it. He loves life!!!

(side note) for those interested, My remodeling is starting tomorrow Hopefully it'll be fairly quick and not to inconvenient.

Chancee's Chatterings/ This is What it's Like Raising Cowboys

There are times that raising cowboys comes in handy if you can get your kids thinking that cowboys are pretty much perfect.

I've used this one on all my boys: Chance was mad at Oaklee because she was doing two year old things and he was being the typical four year old. There was hitting, grabbing, and pulling "my toy" away from each other involved.

"Chance," says I, "You are not a real cowboy if you are mean to girls, even your sister. Real cowboys are NOT mean to girls. They always treat them gently and are very polite."

It didn't work, I still had to pull the two apart and put the toy on the fridge.

BUT,

Later that day we were outside helping a friend build her shed we were all working pretty hard cutting beams and putting them up, it was hot, we were just about finished when Chance came running up to me and yelled

"MOM!, Mom, guess what I'm almost a real cowboy I just drank out of Braden's hat and it tasted REALLY good!!!!!"

my first thought was OH GROSS!! Hats are like dirty socks to me UHGGG!. But my reply was:

"wow Chance, you sure are"

Chance: (with a big ol grin) That's what Braden told me, that cowboys always drink out of their hats! I am almost a real cowboy, Huh Mom?"

I look forward to the day that Chance comes running excitedly up to me and says:

"MOM MOM,guess what I'm almost a real cowboy I was nice to my sister and I shared my toys with her!!!"

I've got a feeling it's gonna be really soon, really really soon!! sigh

Trampolines and Broken Bones

Last Summer the springs on our tramp started taking flight, literally. The kids would jump and a spring would suddenly be launched into the air and the then three year old would come running into the house to tell me which spring, how far, and who dun it! It had gotten to the point that the kids would still jump but the other half of the tramp was a slide and if you hit it just right while jumping, you could really go down the slide_____fast!!! I figured it would be safer to buy a new mat for the tramp. I got on the computer Monday afternoon and found the tramp we needed and ordered it. The nice man that I talked to said " alright, well, thank you Mam your new mat will be there on Wednesday." WOW, what service!!!

First thing Wednesday morning the FedEx guy shows up with the new tramp mat and 20 minutes later I have it on. I had a very pleasant day yesterday, when the kids were here they spent their time jumping and playing outside, but they were particularly excited about the fact that they could now sleep outside for the rest of the summer.

11:00 PM finally the kids are all tucked in. Chance is in the house, he fell asleep on the couch and I was worried if I put him on the tramp he might wake up in the middle of the night confused. Oaklee layed down on the tramp for 3 minutes and then popped her head up and said

"I sleep my bed" So Braden, Caib and Aubree were left on the tramp. I took Oaklee in and was laying in bed with her. She was just about to sleep when the back door comes flying open and Braden comes running into Oaklee's room with Caib on his tail.

"What in THE HECK is going on!!" Says I

I'm not going to even attempt to tell you what the boys yelled (and YES Oaklee woke up, grrrr)

But apparently Caib was mad at Braden because he kept sliding into him. Caib thought Braden was intentionally touching him and kicked him, at some point Braden accidentally kneed Caib in the nose and his nose was bleeding, and apparently Caib at some point slugged Braden in the hip. (BOYS!! sigh)

Roger got out of bed and we sent the boys down to there own beds where they spent the night.

You Know, I think the boys don't realize that they have grown A LOT!!! this last year. But they knew it when they went down to bed. They were also reminded that they were sleeping on a trampoline and, HELLO it sinks to the middle. (again sigh)

Poor Aubree, I went out and asked her if she wanted to come in or sleep outside alone. amidst a few tears and some comforting thoughts such as "Mom, I won't be all alone Molly is still out here. " Good ol' Molly. So problem solved, Aubree spent the night outside on the tramp alone...I mean with Molly, She was out there some where. Under the porch I think.

In the morning we got up got ready for and went to the dentist in Richfield. Everyone of us but Roger had a checkup and cleaning. 5 out of 6 were cavity free!!!!WOOOOHOOOO!!! But Caib spent the morning protecting his swollen left hand. At some point last night he had hurt it. I kept looking at it suspiciously and with an uneasy motherly intuitiveness. As I did so, I decided to call the clinic. They told me to bring him in. So home we went from Richfield and dentist appointments and Orthodontist appointments to the clinic.

Where they told us that yes his hand was broken and asked, "Who did you hit" I had Braden with me at the clinic and I don't think you'll see a more sheepish look then the P.A. and I did on those two boys faces. She proceeded to tell Caib that the only way he could have broken that bone the way he did was to ball up his fist and punch.

(SIGH sigh sigh)

Maybe we shouldn't have gotten the tramp fixed. They're soo dangerous!!

He gets his cast Monday.

Oaklee's Birthday SKUNK!!!!!!!

Oaklee's Birthday!!Oaklee two years old and already knows that she is a princess.

We asked her what she wanted for her birthday and her immediate response was

"Princess"

O
She got this book with a little music cd toy. She loves to turn it on and dance.

So... then we asked her what kind of a cake she wanted. Her response
"NANNA"
So she got a "Nanna cake" It's a horrible frosting job but she loved it.

And now for the SKUNK!!

We will be doing some remodeling in my house starting in a week. We're planning on expanding the kitchen into the garage and had to get the garage cleaned out and ready to begin. so there we were putting everything we could onto a trailer to store somewhere else and I reached down under a table to pull out the cover for the 4 wheeler. I quickly pulled my hand away and jumped back, there curled up in a tight little ball was a little black and white fur ball.

Me: Hey Caib, come look at this Skunk!!

Caib: (skeptically) "Is it dead"

Me: (having realized that it's just Molly) "No, It's breathing, come and look"

Caib: (Not very disturbed by the fact that there may be a skunk in our garage) "I saw it earlier But I thought it was Molly"

Me: (well, That explains his nonchalant attitude, especially since I had just seen him react to three skunks out in the alfalfa that he had almost stepped on while changing sprinklers) "Yeah, It's just Molly but for a half a second I was wondering."

Then I suggested that maybe we should stand out on the driveway until Braden and Dad came home and tell them that theres a skunk in the garage. Even that didn't work because just before Those two came back Molly uncurled and squeezed herself out of her comfy spot. Sigh, a great practical joke gone bad.

Oh well, The garage is cleaned and ready for remodeling and I even had extra help weeding my flower beds beside the garage. Roger was feeling bad because the weather wasn't cooperating with him. He wanted to go and cut hay or bail or something but instead it kept raining off and on so I got help with the garage. I loved having My Boys here to help me.

More Then Just Chatterings From Chance

I didn't mention on my last blog Chancee's little Chattering. Notice in the picture Chancee's attire. He was all decked out with gun, holster, Chaps, everything. If he's gonna be a cowboy then he don't leave nothin' out.(FYI cowboys wear action figure shirts. Especially Spider man)

When we left to go up on the mountain Saturday we knew full well that there would be way more people on the mountain then there would be in town. We were right!! tons of people were speeding around on four wheelers, fishing in the creek, and camping a long the road. As we passed by one camp with half a dozen fancy camp trailers and cars, pickups and four wheelers all over the place Chance looked at the people who seemed to be aimlessly wandering around and through all of their "camping gear" and piped up.

"Else those people saw me, a cowboy, They would want to be a cowgirl or cowboy "

Um...Yes, Chance, they most certainly would!!!

All Roger could say about all those people speeding around on four wheelers and squished in to camping spots was, "There sure are a lot of Idiots around."

Braden responded, "Well, their has to be stupid people in the world or their wouldn't be any smart ones."

How true, how true!

So for all you mothers out there Fathers, too. are you looking for unique ways to help your 11-13 year old boys feel empowered? I've found just the thing, provided they are as inexperienced as mine happened to be. Just go down to your local hardware store and buy a combination lock that they are not familiar with. (We live in a place where the lockers in the middle school have no locks on them. They haven't been needed as of yet) Give them the combination show them how to open the lock and then let them try. I actually showed Braden a few times. It didn't matter, when he finally opened the lock there was an amazing amount of confidence and power portrayed in his demeanor. I could actually feel it pumping out as he clenched both fists threw them in the air and shouted with triumph "YES!!!!I DID IT!!!"

I believe he could take on the world now.

A Mini Vacation?

We get to take a lot of "mini Vacations" as a family. Yesterday was one of those days. Dad had to do some work on his field studies in Seven Mile so we all went. It was a beautiful day Not to hot a little Windy but just enough that it was pleasant. The cows were enjoying themselves, grazing on the grass between Fish Lake and Johnson's reservoir.
The Pelicans on Johnson's were enjoying the day as well.

We headed up Seven Mile

The boys spent a short time trying to spear a few brook trout in Seven Mile Creek

While Dad Took pictures of the test cages and moved them.

We spent time taking short walks

The boy's hunted Rock chucks

Dad and Aubree went off the trail to pick one of Aubree's favorite wild flowers, the Indian Paintbrush.

There were wild flowers everywhere!!!
The girls were extremely busy trying to find one of each kind.

A wild Columbine.

Of course Mom had to make the kids pose for a few pictures.
Can you blame me. It was so pretty!!

Another family shot.

We had a great time. Except once when the mosquitoes swarmed. But the only one who really suffered from that was Braden, he ended up with 30 plus bites.

It was a wonderful day.........except for one thing.........

Just before we were getting ready to leave Dad and the brothers were Loading Lilly in to the trailer to take her down to a pasture. She was so good. They got her halter on and led her to the trailer. That's when she quit with the "being good" She decided that she was not going to get in and started pulling back. The rope broke and the little metal clasp on the end flew back and caught Roger right on the eyebrow.

So before we could go up on the mountain we had to make a quick trip to the clinic. sigh

I'm pretty sure that the whole reason Roger got nearly knocked senseless was to emphasize the theme for Primary this month. As a member of the bishopric he gets the opportunity every third month to come into the primary and introduce the monthly theme. So this month the theme was

"I can follow the example of Jesus Christ."

He proceeded to tell the kids the story of what had happened to him and why he had a black eye.

He told them that as long as Lilly, the horse, followed behind him and did what he did everything was fine, but as soon as she decided not to trust him and pulled back things didn't go so well and someone got hurt. He then explained to them that when we don't follow the savior then things won't go very well for us and it hurts the savior. He had to suffer for our sins and mistakes.

I think the kids understood why it's so important to follow the savior.

It looks a lot worse today then it did yesterday. His nose was skinned just a little bit.

But Don't you agree? It was a GREAT way to help the children understand how important it is to follow the savior.