You're the Rescue Hero!

The other day I helped Hewy and he turned around, gave me a great big hug and exclaimed loudly -
"You're the Rescue hero Mommy!"

Little things (maybe a tear jearker)

This week friends of ours lost their baby.
I obviously want to be very sensitive to this. I don't want to be disrespectful or inconsiderate in anyway. But it has been such a consuming and influential part of my life this week that I have to write about it.
I now know more than I ever hope to need again about infant death and burials.
I have strongly felt the love of our Savior as I have served this family this week.
I have had much help from my family and friends as I have needed to spend so much time away from my home and children this week - I feel indebted and blessed.
There is a very touching story about these socks - but I feel it too sacred to share on the blog. But I wanted it recorded so that I could remember. Remember the feeling of this week. Remember the power of the service I have given this week. Remember the sacredness of life. Remember no matter how small - life is precious.


I made these socks for the baby.
They fit on my thumb.

Front Row Center

My husband is cool.
Whenever Alec golfs in a tournament he always calls on his way home and I say "So what did you win?" He "always" wins the longest drive contest and often wins the closest to the pin contest. But there was this one time he seemed really excited... he had won front row center court tickets (2) to see the Spurs.
(can you hear the heavens singing?)
So last Saturday was the big night.
Front Row Center Court

Did I mention front row center court?

Oh, and the value of this prize?
The ticket value on each ticket was
$1,000.00

Snoozer

The other night I went in to take a shower and Hewy came in and asked if he could shower with me. I said "No this is a Mommy only shower." as nicely as I could. So he sat down on the pile of dirty towels that hadn't made it to the washer that week and started to jab away. He asked questions and told me stories. And then it was quiet. I have to admit, I thought he had slipped out with me noticing. Funny, he did slip out - to sleep!



And here he is sleepin' in his boots.

Cowboy Breakfast

Every year there is "the" Rodeo here in San Antonio.
I grew up in small towns in Utah, and we had Rodeos. But let me tell you, they were nothing compared to Rodeo here. It's a big deal and everyone gets involved in some way. The first couple years here, we were of the thinking - it's a Rodeo and we are not Rodeo people. And then we went. Hooo-weee. We love the Rodeo!
It's a show, it's a circus, it's a rodeo and it's all that and a basket of bar-b-que too!
For the past four years The San Antonio Rodeo has won the title "Large Indoor Rodeo of the Year" from the Professional Rodeo Cowboys Association - and I am guessing those cowboys [and cowgirls] know a thing or two about Rodeos.

Today was the kick off to Rodeo.
The Cowboy Breakfast.
The largest free breakfast in the country.
Free, yeah, I said free.
We had to get up before dawn, because that's what cowboys do, and it was freezing and it was crowded - but it was free.
Free breakfast tacos in all the varieties, free Oak Farms OJ/milk (in all it's colors and varieties), free coffee (none for me thanks), free loaves of Mrs. Baird's bread, free tamales, free. All that you wanted. free.

But it was free-zing!



Alec looks forward to Rodeo because he can wear his wranglers, boots and hat.
This year Grandpa let Noble wear Great Grandpa Simpson's felt hat and Liam wear his leather down under hat to the breakfast. Maybe they can borrow them again to wear to the Rodeo when we go in mid February as a family.

Liam was excited about the free mechanical bull rides. He held on pretty well even wearing his Christmas gloves.

Noble thought he was going to freeze to death. I promise these kids are from Utah! Noble had on an undershirt, a long sleeve shirt, a sweater and his wool lined coat and he still had to borrow Grandpa's Olympic coat from Grandma.

I tried to tell Liam before we left that he should wear his wool coat, but he wanted to wear his cougar jacket. True blue, literally, to the core!

It was fun. Not something to do everyday, but once a year might be okay!

tale of the tape

(let's remember that this is our family blog, I record information here that might not be so entertaining to everyone)

Over the past week we have gotten all the kiddos in for Well Child appointments, and one not so well appointment squeezed in there too.

Hewlett
Right on the 50% line for height and weight. (But that's up from the 10% he was from age one to two) 3 feet 1 inch and 33 pounds. Very healthy. (until he got strep) Above average developmentally. Passed off all his colors, counting and physical tricks he was asked to do. (jumping, standing on one leg, etc.) He even drew an "H" for the doctor. He received one vaccination and didn't even cry or whimper. But as soon as he sat up he said, "do I get doughnuts now?" (our family tradition is if you get a shot, you get doughnuts on the way home.)

William
97th% for height and weight. Quite proportional. 4 feet 8 inches and 83 pounds. The size of an average 10 year old, but wait he's 8! Very healthy. Very smart.

Noble
Not sure what this means, but how the doctor said it: "above the 97th% for height and on the line of 95th% for weight" Average size of a 13 year old - but he's TEN! 5 feet 2 inches and 103 pounds. Noble is most excited because he is over 100 pounds and he is over 5 feet tall he can ride in the front seat of the car or van now. He also received one booster shot - the chicken pox booster, not required by law yet but will be soon, and seeings how I didn't get chicken pox until I was 18, I am 100% supportive of keeping the kids vaccinated for it! And we got more doughnuts!

Hew Hew

Hew gave us quite a scare this week. He had a high temp and was not eating or drinking. Thankfully after starting antibiotics he is back to himself... see - -

We made Frog Eye Salad today and wasn't sure what I was doing when I scraped the whipped cream container out and gave him the spoon. He shied away from it. Until he tasted it. And then there was no stopping him.

After we dropped the boys off at scouts he said, "I want dough-nuts!" So Alec took him to get doughnuts. We went in so he could see all the doughnuts in the bakery case. He wanted chocolate with sprinkles. Love this kid. love him!

Noble's 10th party

He looks so happy.
And why shouldn't he?
He got to invite 13 of his favorite people to go bowling with him to celebrate his 10th birthday.

Noble, Liam, Hewy, Momma, Dad, Grandpa, Grandmama, Rach, Parker, Danny, Jaron, Jacob, Gavin, Jared)

We had popcorn, soda and cake. What more could a bunch of boys want?

Something I haven't seen in awhile

I especially love the string in his mouth.
(he does that so that the extra string doesn't get twisted as he rotates the head around.)

One of our neighbors is a tennis player and he has been trying to get Alec to go out and hit with him. The only problem is that it has been ages since Alec has "hit" let alone played. First Alec went and bought tennis shoes. Like, real tennis shoes, not just any sneakers that lace up. Shoes made for playing tennis. Next the stringer moved into our family room. (I admit, I took a deep breath here and didn't say a word. 10 years ago Alec would have moved it in and not moved it out. But I am happy to report the stringer moved back into the garage that same night. Whew!)
When I came downstairs I was hit with one of those waves of emotion that take you by surprise. The memories of watching him string rackets, the sounds, clinking and zipping, as he turns the machine and weaves the strings, the look of mental challenge as he figures out the pattern.
And really, how many people do you know that 1) can string a racket and 2) own their own stringer?

melt my heart

The other day in a totally unrelated conversation on my friends said "....and I know that one day in the future they are all going to be cute at the same time for five seconds and...." It made me laugh and stuck with me. How true how true. I love each and everyone of them but catching them all at the same time in good moods, when everyone is getting along and I am not crying or pulling my hair out. Those are good times. Those are the "this is why I do what I do" moments or the times that I do feel, "oh yea, I am living the dream, my dream."

This afternoon, after what felt like a terribly long day, with several mishaps and minor upset, I find found myself and my three kids (and Henry) at a park as the sun was setting. It was one of those time, moments and feelings.

Who could ask for anything more than this?




Liam looking cute.
Not tormenting anyone.
Not teasing a big or little brother.
Not pushing my buttons.
(Although I do have to say, Liam is always faking a broken something (ankle, leg) and gets mad at me for not taking him right to the hospital. I use Grandpa Dunn's line, let's watch it for a few days. I know someday he will really break something and I will really take him, but I can see through the fakes. So today, he kept wanting to jump off this rock that is a good 8 feet off the ground. I said no, I don't want you break your ankle. The next thing I know he comes (faking) limping around from the back. Mom, I jumped and I broke my ankle. See, someday he is really going to break something and be screaming on the ground and I am going to walk up to him and say - this is how I know you really broke something you nutty kid!)




And here is Mr. Ham Hewlett Dunn himself.
This kids is turning into a charmer. He asks his dad, "So ya wanna watch football with me" in the mornings when he wakes up. Or he says, Momma, I no mad at you. When it's me that should be apologizing to him for being upset. And today at the park he walked up to the two other women there and said "Hello Ladies." They swooned.




And the Book Worm.
What else would one do at the park?

My Decade old Child!

Here he is.
Mr. Decade

Noble celebrated his tenth birthday this week.


On top of the world.
Or so it seems to a ten year old.

Alec has had a lot of meetings for church recently and all of the boys have been missing him. Noble especially. Wednesday night Noble's scout den went downtown to see Brother Tidwell's work site where they are expanding the river. I sent Noble with his Dad's work and cell phone numbers and asked the Den leader to let him call his Dad when they were finished. It ended up the construction site was just a couple blocks from Alec's building so Alec picked Noble up on his way home. They enjoyed the Daddy-Son time in the car that night. Wednesday night we had a simple dinner and cupcakes at home and let Noble open his family presents. Thursday was Noble's birthday but Alec had yet more church meetings that night so we went downtown to have lunch with Alec as a family.

Noble chose the Hard Rock Cafe.
How cool is my ten year old?
Or how cool does he think he is? :)

(Mommy, Daddy, William, Hewy, Henry, Grandpa and Grandmama were at lunch)



Here he is with his birthday Sundea at Hard Rock Cafe
and that's his cousin Henry with him.




And the best part of his birthday if you ask him....

Is baby Elizabeth.
She was born on his birthday and he couldn't be more proud.

He already shared his birthday with Dell and Anna's Anniversary and now they all share the day with Lizzy too.

8 things

Snooping and blog stalking I found this... thought it would stretch my mental capacity, clear out the cob webs and make sure I am a whole person rather than the million pieces I feel like I am as I divide and take care of the many responsibilities at my feet.

8 favorite TV shows
1. Amazing Race
2. Mentalist
3. Chopped
4. Brothers and Sisters
5. Good eats
6. What's that new show about food science. . . the boys and I love that
7. Numbers
8. Pushing Daisies (but it was canceled)

8 things I did yesterday
1. slept in
2. prayed
3. ate breakfast tacos
4. bought Noble's birthday present
5. clean up a broken bottle of Soy Sauce that crashed to the floor ala Noble
6. Made dinner; spicy Pork tenderloin, buttered noodles and beans
7. didn't clean up the kitchen
8. Played a new computer game (new to me) Build-a-lot

8 things I look forward to
1. When my sweetheart comes home everyday
2. vacations
3. Going back to Utah for visits
4. emails from friends (real emails, not forwards)
5. September
6. going to the temple
7. being released
8. Alec going "in house."

8 favorite restaurants
1. Salt Grass Steak house
2. Pei Wei
3. Chuy's (Tex Mex for non Antonian's)
4. PF Chang's
5. Ruth's Chris
6. Le Peep
7. Cocoa Cafe
8. GBG (gourmet burgers)

8 things on my wish list
1. more sleep
2. more time with family
3. more time with friends
4. a self cleaning house, namely clutter and dishes magically back in the cabinet
5. self cleaning, folding and put away - laundry
6. self cleaning floors, sweep, mopping, vacuuming
7. personal chef
8. Celestial Glory for me and loved ones.

Hewy and Mary

This is Hewy and his friend Mary. Mary is a year older (she is on a shorter stool at the counter, she is taller than Hewy). Sometimes when they play Mary says, "I'm here to babysit H." I laugh and fondly remember when Hewy was a baby and she seemed just a notch above baby, sitting on my couch holding him. She thought he was a doll, like a doll you play with, back then.
Today Mary and her brothers are here hanging out with us and I was not surprised to see that these two were the first ones to the snack counter. Of the choices: pizza rolls, pumpkin bread, apples, fruit juice boxes and M&M's. . . apples and M&M's won with these two.
Too cute.
You'd think we coordinated their outfits, but we didn't.
You'd think it was our annual Valentines party, but it's not.
You'll have to wait a few weeks for pictures of these two friends at our Annual Friends Valentines Party.

Science with Lisa

You would think that in this picture the boys are saying "Ew yuck - what it that?" But they do know what it is. It is their science experiment from earlier in the day with Lisa. She has been talking to the boys about "density" and today they did a density test liquids.



They took turns pouring different liquids into the vase and would see where it "settled". First they would guess where they thought it would end up and then they pour and then they would watch.

The experiment started off with just honey, water and oil.
And they added to it from there.

The final experiment had ketchup, liquid smoke, dish soap, syrup from peaches, vinegar, fruit juice, milk (skim milk which led us to think next week we should buy all the different kinds of milk and dye them different colors and test them).

They also dropped a nickle, a grape and a cork into the experiment to see where they settled.
The nickle sank to the bottom, even through the honey; the grape settled on top of the honey but passed everything else, the cork floated on top.

It was a good experiment.

Hewy and body parts

I write this because most people that read our blog are family or close friends. If you don't feel like we are that "close" you may want to skip this one.

First in sacrament meeting today I was drawing in Hewy's sketch book for him to help entertain him. I drew a house, tree, car and then drew a sidewalk coming from the front door. Hewy exclaimed, "Our house has legs!"

And then in his Sunbeam class they were talking about our spirits living in our bodies. You would think the teachers would know better, or at least be prepared, for the kinds of answers that three year olds would give. After explaining that our spirits live in our bodies the teachers ask, So what lives in our bodies. First one little boy said: Poop! And they should have known it would just go down hill from there in a room filled with potty training slash newly potty trained... my little boy proceeded to say "My [insert correct name for little boy part here]!" and pulls out his waistband to see his boyhood.

Did I mention that this class is taught by two men? They couldn't wait to tell Alec. I think it was a man pride thing. They laughed so hard they had tears.

Wo, is me the mother of men.

Lisa is back

Remember my Lisa days? She used to come once a week and help me care for the kids and clean up the house. Then she went away to BYU Idaho.

She is back. She has winter semester off. Oh, how I missed her.

Now she comes once a week and takes over schooling the boys. And she does science experiments with them. Lovely.

And she comes once a week to do all the things that I can't get to. All the organizing projects that if I 1) didn't homeschool or 2) wasn't Relief Society President, I would have time to do. Like sort through three growing boys clothing and organizing the pantry.

Love Lisa days. Love Lisa.

Welcome home Lisa.

Clementine Wars

So as I was sleeplessly trying to fall asleep last night and all the points of my day ran through my head again and again, one of which was my lack of blogging recently, I remember we have had something of interest going on around here.

Clementine Wars.

It started they were juggling them. You know those small oranges, Clementines. But you know, boys being boys, it soon turned into a war.

What's a mother to do?

"We don't waste food!"

They looked at me like I was crazy. They claimed to not be wasting food - they still planned to eat them.

And for the most part, that is true. They have continued to eat them, squishy or not.

Yesterday afternoon while I was tucked away in my room for a time out and some reading time I heard them at it again.

It is true ya know. Boys will turn just about anything into warfare.

Including fruit.

Do you miss me?

So it seems life is not nearly as exciting or eventful as it was over the holidays. I don't feel like I have much to say or write about - yet oddly I feel just as busy.

Homeschool.

Relief Society.

Homemaking.

Hitting the gym because it is a new year ya know.

Orthodontist appointments.

Well Child appointments.

As exciting as it all is for me, I just don't think you really want to know about it all.

Bear with me. As a mother of three boys someone is bound to break something sooner or later. :)

Trans Siberian Orchastra

Last week we took the two older boys to see the Trans Siberian Orchestra.

Words cannot explain this experience. It was awesome. Awesome music. Awesome expressions on the kids faces. Awesome memories with the family.

Because we had received Guitar Hero for Christmas the kids (and Alec) were really excited about all the guitar music. At times I think I saw all of them playing air guitars.

The light show was amazing. The lasers, the smoke, the lights, the flashing. Amazing.

The music. Most of it was really good. It was also very loud! We were seated 12th row stage right and we were right under the speakers. Holy Smoke it was loud. Liam had his ears plugged for most of the concert.

Noble after having too much fun with Cousins the week before started to fall asleep. Who in their right mind can fall asleep at a rock concert?

But then...

There was fire. The lead guy said "We're going to blow this place up!" Liam was worried he was serious. I told him it was an expression. but let me tell you... there was lots of fire. Different colored fire. And lots of it. There is no way to explain just how much fire there was. But my pyromaniac children loved it.

All in all, it was a good introduction to Rock concerts for the kids.

If I missed that... what else do I miss?

So today I was here at the kitchen table answering some emails. Hewy was on the chair right next to me. He was playing with a Star Wars Storm Trooper action figure and eating his PB&J. He of course was jabbering and singing and making all kinds of noise. An interesting side note here is that Hewy has started the screaming stage. If you don't know or can't remember the toddle/pre-schooler screaming stage let me tell you. . . EVERYTHING is said in a scream, screech, borderline whine. It's enough to make a stay-at-home-Mother go insane. I can tell you from experience.

Anyhow.

I hear something that sounds like a panicked scream asking for help. When I glance over, yes glance, I realized that Hewy had somehow pushed the chair backwards and it was a good foot and half from the table and he was holding on by his toes and his body was stretched to the table where he was clinging with his arms and chin. (insert laugh here) I pulled the chair back to the table and he gave me a look that said - "what were you thinking ignoring me like that?" Only what he said (in a scream of course!) was "Mom I say you I need help and you NO help me!"

First - how do you explain to a 3 year old, if you didn't cry wolf and scream everything you said - I might respond to your screaming when you needed me rather than drowning it out with my own thoughts so I don't crazy!

Second - I am left to wonder, if I missed this, my own child in peril right next to me... what else do I miss?

Something to think about.

Cousin Visit - Rainforest Cafe

The gang went to Rainforest cafe after we walked around the river and saw the Alamo. We wanted to do a river barge - but the line to buy tickets was about 45 minutes long!!! Geesh. I think the kids and Brent would have really liked it - as it is so much better to see the River ala boat than to walk. Oh well.


Hewy, Liam, Aerie, Malachi, Noble, Coco, Sophia, Sallie and Brent.
(Alec and I were there, and my parents, Shauna stayed home because she was ill)

While we waited for our table Aerie did a great job of distracting the tired kiddos and created a treasure hunt while out by the river. Here is a picture of the loot that they found. And there was a rubber snake that Liam brought home.

Hewy was tuckered and fell asleep while we waited.
(and he chose to wear PJ's)

Brent and the kids play by the river while we waited for our table.

Cousin visit - downtown

Everyone likes to ride in the Firetruck - Brent and Shauna's huge van!
Here are Aerie and Liam. Once yesterday when we were having a hard time keeping track of all the kids downtown Brent said to me, "I believe that if you can see either Liam or Aerie you just figure the other one is there too."



All the kiddos in front of the Paseo Del Rio
Sallie, Malachi, Sophia, Noble, Liam, Aerie, Hewy and Coco


We saw the Alamo



A bridge on the Riverwalk.