June & July 2009

So, after sitting around for three weeks eating bonbons, ( I wish) I was finally allowed to put weight on the walking cast.  So, what's the first thing you would do?  Well, I gardened.  I was so afraid I'd never get my veggies in, I went straight home and started planting seeds.  After the third day of this, my kids had gone AWOL over to the neighbors and Isaac... well, I'll just show you.

After planting all sorts of herbs, I realized Mr. Man was being really quiet.  Usually that is a bad thing.  It wasn't the usual mess, but it was a fever.  Poor kid!  He did get back to feeling better, but for me it may have been a blessing that I didn't have to hobble after him as fast while I was learning to walk in my cast.

June went by really fast.  The weather came in fits and spurts of warmth and rain.  I think it got really hot somewhere in there for about two weeks, which for this area was such a surprise... (the shortness of the heat and not the actual heat).  We ended up having such a nice cool sumer that our little pool we bought for the kids didn't get much use.  We went and picked strawberries at Eckert's Farm (I hobbled along with my crutches and cast and that made it hard to catch Isaac running across the rows of strawberry plants.)

The strawberry picking was on one of those few hot days, so the kids had pretty pink cheeks.

We also spent those hot days in the sprinklers.  Isaac didn't wait to get swim trunks on....soggy diaper city!

But who can resist the chubby baby legs?

Ava had her favorite goggles on all summer, whether she was swimming or not.  I guess she thought she had to be prepared if the opportunity arose!

The girls also got to go to a friend's "Fancy Nancy" party.  They dressed up all fancy and had a really cute tea party.  They came home so excited that each of them had gotten a Fancy Nancy book.  It's still a favorite bedtime read.  Thanks Holly!

I love it when they love each other!  Lately they've been running around playing the "huggie" game.  Ava or Amelea will say "huggie" and the other one will run over and they'll fall down hugging each other.

There was also a lot of lawn mowing going on.  In order to keep Isaac out of mischief's way, Mitch would strap him on his back in the Kelty Kiddy Backpack and mow away.  Isaac still pines for the backpack.  It's sitting in the garage and every once in a while he'll point and get all animated and want to climb in it.  I explain that Daddy is not home and it's raining and sorry.... no backpack.  It's pretty cute!

Isaac is obviously in love with his daddy.  Everytime Mitch starts backing up the driveway, Isaac is jetting out the door to greet him.

The backpack also got put to use the weekend we rototilled the front garden beds and put in all new plants.  (I'll post pics next year.  Hopefully they'll all be in full bloom and be really pretty.)  We lined all the beds with cobblestones we got from our neighbor and I think it made a big difference in how clean the front of the house looks.  Right now (Oct.) we also dug up the top half of the grass and reseeded it with fescue.  Hopefully it'll all be thick next summer.

Before it got dug up

At one point while rototilling, Mitch put Isaac in his FAVORITE spot! 

The cobblestones and after.

Also in July, Amelea and Adalynn were downstairs playing (we get to see them a lot now that Jordan and Jeremy have moved to Columbia, only 2 hours away).  Jordan checked on them and all was well.  5 minutes later, she went back down and more than half of Amelea's gorgeous red locks were cut off and thrown onto the floor..... I freaked, ran to my room and bawled.  After pulling myself back together, we went outside and gave her a very cute A-line cut.  She loves it, the hair isn't in her face anymore and since she hates getting her hair combed or put up, she's probably much better off with the cut, anyway.  But, you can probably understand why I had always balked at cutting off the gorgeous, shiny, curly auburn hair.

One of those July days, I looked out my kitchen window to see a car had plowed right up through the headstones and into a tree right in the middle of the cemetary.  Never found out what the story was, but it was quite interesting to watch all the commotion!

These are just cute pics that I loved....

Along with the hair cutting incident, there's all kinds of other mischief that occurs around here.  Amelea loves to color and obviously found her skin to be a lovely canvas.  She was quite proud of her accomplishment and was more than willing to pose for lots of pics.

this is a pic of Amelea in her favorite hat, with her favorite blankets after getting all cleaned up from playing hard outside.  She quit taking naps, but I still find her every couple of weeks passed out in random places.

Ava loves getting her picture taken and this was us dorking around with my new camera (by the way, I got the Canon digital rebel xsi for my birthday!)  So, I've kept up on taking lots of pictures, I just can't seem to get them blogged in a timely manner... sorry!

this assortment was Ava's "running away" box.  One night, Mitch was on call, I was having a hard time keeping all the kids on track and she was feeling left out and unloved.  So, she packed a box full of important things and taped it shut and told me she was going to run away. (As I sit here typing this, she just saw the pic and asked why I had a picture of her stuff when she was going to run away.  What a long memory that kid has!)  I think I got her calmed down and she felt more loved when she went to bed.  It sure gave me a good giggle when I unpacked everything.  As you can maybe see, there's a Barbie movie, my lipstick, stickers, scissors, a bike helmet, a coupon, spray bottle and a baby mobile part that makes music.  What a hoot!

This is a pic of the crew we hung out with for Independence Day.  (The Allens, Millers, McKameys and Bennetts)

At the end of July I ran over to Columbia to see Aimee's new baby be born.  It was so fun and special to be there for the delivery.  I was the official picture taker... Yeah!  He was a huge 10 lb baby and I hope NEVER to have one that huge!  Way to go, Aimee.

Parting Picture: Love ya and talk at you later!  Especially if you actually got to the end of this epic post.

Backing Up to May

This summer went by so quickly, I am sitting here, freezing, on an October afternoon wondering what happened!  In order to atleast document some of the occurrences this last few months, I'm  going to recap it all as quickly as it felt like it happened.

In April, we went home to MT for a quick visit of Grandparents, Aunts, Uncles and so forth.  As I already posted, you know that it snowed the first day after we got there.  It continued to snow all the way through that Thursday.  Mitch was able to help his dad feed the animals and was glad to have been able to be there to help out.  That Friday, we went to round up all the McKamey cattle for branding the next day.  As you can see, it is not your normal May morning in Montana.  (Although, apparently not entirely unheard of at any time of the year to see this....)

Mitch and his older bro, Mark

Even with all the snow, we hunkered down and rode up to the horses in the back of the truck.  True cowboy style, huh?

Mitch on his favorite horse, Zip.

Saturday was fun, we got to see a lot of family and Mitch had fun wrangling cattle.  I had my usual fun wrangling children.  I can't say which is harder....

That night, we gathered all the neighbors and family back again and had a realy hoe-down at the Smith River Hall.  For those not in the know, it was standard practice at the turn of the century to have a little meeting place in every little community.  Most of these meeting places have been shuttered and are falling apart... but there are a few that are still used by there little communities.  It took awhile to figure out how to get the heat going, but once Jody did, that place was toasty warm.

It was so much fun to see everyone, to dance, to sing Birthday songs, eat, talk and most of all make memories.  The kids had fun knocking down a pinata and eating cake, the adults had fun singing a rude song to Mo and Ruth (turning 40 & 50).

Merrill and Mark sang a song they composed with Mike, Matt and Mitch for their older sister, Monika. 

Amelea and I danced a lot.

In fact, Amelea danced a lot with everyone.  We didn't quit dancing until midnight.  Then, went home and slept for a few hours and got Mitch to airport at 5am.  That was a short night!

Amelea's birthday was on Saturday, so we sang to her at the dance and then had cake and icecream the next day after church. 

She wanted a Tinkerbell cake, so I did my best.

Her favorite gift had to be the Pink Cowboy Hat and the Tinkerbell PJs.

The next week the snow started to finally melt and although it never really warmed up much, we did get out to see Grandpa Les and ride Sadie.

Two days after this, the fateful Saturday.  I jumped off of a bucking horse and broke my ankle. 

The only good thing about it, is that I atleast got the cow stopped from heading back out into the field for the third time.  I also will always laugh when I think of Billy telling me I was tougher than a badger.  Never thought I'd ever be compared to a badger!  It took 5 weeks before I could put a little weight on it and it's been 5 months, and I still have some bruising and it creaks and pops every morning when I step out of bed. 

Mom flew home with me on Tuesday, to help me get from plane to plane and and back to St Louis.  I will ever be grateful that she was able to use frequent flier miles and that she was willing and able to help me. 

One story from that awful trip back to St. Louis:  I'm sitting in a wheel chair with all the bags piled around me and watching Amelea and Isaac run up and down the windows while Mom had Ava were in the Restroom.  (We'd been sitting around waiting for a new plane for three hours, since ours had mechanical difficulties). After the third run up and down the window ledge, they disappeared behind a pillar.  I wheeled around as best I could to try to get a better view of the hooligans.  I frantically looked around for help and here comes Mom and Ava.  I hollered and pointed for her to run and find the Ami and Isaac, so off Mom goes, trotting down the terminal.  Then, she's in a full out sprint... going pretty dang fast for someone her age... She caught them on the ramp for a plane going to Florida.  The gate agent was on the plane checking with the attendants just before taking off.  Holy Crap!  Can you imagine? 

Um, Yeah, my two kids are on a flight to Florida, I'm stuck in a wheelchair in SLC and my husband is in St Louis.  Great evening news fare for all the bored people of America. (That is certainly not something I ever say anymore... I'm bored!  Hah!  I wish I were sometimes!)

Anyway, we made it back all together to St. Louis and of course, there wasn't a wheel chair or a flight attendant at the gate, so I had to hobble all the way out of the terminal.  All the while, I'm yelling about the friendly skies....!

The sisters in my ward went above and beyond in taking care of us.  I was supposed to stay off my foot, so they came in shifts and took care of the kids and brought meals and helped clean the house.  I'll forever be indebted for their kind service.  There is no way that we would have survived without their help. 

Needless to say, May and June passed with me sitting in a chair watching the kids seek and destroy and whisting after all of the projects that I'd planned on doing for the summer. 

I'll post for June as soon as the kids go to bed....