2nd Lost tooth

This is the face I saw when I walked in the door. (We had to reenact to get the picture, I don't usually walk in the door with my camera ready, but maybe I should.) I knew immediately what he was smiling about as one of his bottom teeth had been hanging on for dear life for at least a month now. How can you not smile when you are greeted with this messy, toothless (ok only 2) cute grin. He lost his first tooth probably 6 months ago and then nothing. He still has what 16 more to loose but we are on our way.

Speaking of Wyatt, on Sunday the kids were playing then fighting then playing, then fighting really just driving me crazy. First they are laughing then crying and they were so loud. I was trying to read the paper so I was getting a little annoyed when I heard Wyatt say " I AM NOT A PLAY THING, I AM A HUMAN." How can you not laugh, poor Wyatt does he really think he is a play thing at times, and who really talks like that? I love my baby boy.

Rain and Wind...

I don't mind the rain, being from Arizona, I have been taught by my father that you take the rain when you get it and you never ever complain about the rain. It doesn't matter if you are camping or playing ball, rain is good. I like it because it settles the dust and it makes you slow down, practices get canceled, plans get changed and you get to sit cuddled up and read or watch TV, so yes rain is good.

Wind on the other hand is bad. We had some pretty bad wind yesterday, before the rain came. There are still lots of fields and the dust was crazy and of course I happened to be driving, taking Kyely to a friends house. I use to not be scared of the wind but then nearly three years ago ( August 2008), we were hit by two micro-burst in a month period. Since that time I suffer from a bit of post-traumatic stress syndrome. If the wind comes at night I usually curl up in a ball under the covers praying like crazy, I can handle it better during the day.

Look at these pictures. I remember sitting in my classroom and Loren happened to be off, he calls and says stay where you are it is a mess out here. Since I only have little shoe box windows I did not know the extend of the wind. He then calls back and says we have a tree through our garage. What?? Thirty minutes later when I left work I did not know what would greet me when I arrived, it was worse than I thought. How do you get a tree that has speared your garage out and how do you clean up piles of down tree limbs and debris?

Loren's sister and brother-in-law, Jody and Kurt came and helped us tie off the tree so it wouldn't fall further into the house and then we prayed. Loren says he remembers the next morning getting the kids off to school sitting in his truck thinking "how in the world am I going to get that out?" When our neighbor Brother Olsen pulls ups and says, "Looks like you need some help, I already called and I've got some equipment on the way." Sure enough two fork-lifts pull up and got the tree out and then he says, tomorrow for young men/women we will help you clean up. The next day about 30 youth and leaders show up with chain saws and rakes to help us clear our land. It was amazing and definitely a testimony builder: the Lord answers our prayers and it is often through the goodness of other people.

I love our trees, they offer us shade, a home for our owl, an opportunity to teach our kids about work (lots of leaves and pine needles to rake) and they are great protection during soft-air gun wars but when the wind blows that is another story, good thing I don't live in tornado alley.

Good Friends

Taylor and Kyley have the best group of friends. I feel so fortunate that my girls have chosen friends that build, not tear down, that laugh and aren't afraid of being goofy, that have the same standards, value good grades, have supportive families and like sports:) I am sad that Kyley's core group will be going to Williams Field while Kyley is going to Perry. Taylor went through the very same thing and she survived to find a group at Perry. The Lord has clearly answered my prayers for good friends for my daughters. (wow a little teary while I type)

Taylor and her friends were recruited to participate in a fashion show to model modest Prom dresses. Intresting - a prom dress can be modest, not at the few Proms I had to chaperon, they were cut down to there and slit up to here. The girls carried no purse but they always had their cell phones often tucked in their cleavage, I am not making this up. Taylor was excited and I was thrilled to go see. At first I thought I would miss it but things worked out, really it was sick kids, so they couldn't go to basketball on Wednesday so I could go to my class on Wednesday instead of Thursday and then see Taylor strut down the cat walk. I did have to take Ty because I finally called the doctor after 4 days of fever and he had an appointment at 7:30pm, in order to do both he had to come with me to the fashion show, pure torture for a 10 year old boy.

Taylor looked amazing I really think she was the most beautiful one there. She had straightened her curly locks then put a few curls in, she wore a little more make up then she normally does, she had just gotten her braces off a week ago and she looked STUNNING! As I watched her there was something else, she was having fun she was making eye contact with the crowd and thoroughly enjoying herself. Taylor does have the tangible beauty I mean really look at her, but she has the intangible ones as well, a good heart, a hard worker a sense of humor, a strong testimony. I am so proud of her and I love her like crazy. As the oldest she gets the shaft at times, (that is what therapy is for) but she takes it in stride. No worries Kyley your shout out will be coming soon.

My Baby is 7

When did that happen? I swear it was just yesterday that Wyatt was born, he was my only child born a week early all the others were late so he was a surprise. He has completed our family. He is quick witted and funny. He "gets' things most 7 year olds wouldn't. I tell "Wyatt stories" on a regular basis to my classes. Favorites and most recent include...

• when he told me "Mom my stripe hurts" what I ask - he them turns around and points to his butt-crack. Well I guess it does look like a stripe in a mirror.

• I am so glad Wyatt came to our family he regularly entertains us and he tries so hard to be good, even though he told me once that "he doesn't know how" (to be good that it). His 1st grade teacher loves him, she says she calls on him a lot because she wants to know what he has to say, but didn't realize how often until another girls asked why she always called on Wyatt.

• The other day I asked his primary teacher how Wyatt did, they had just switched classes, and he said "good, well maybe good isn't the right word. Oh no I thought, his teacher said that he was sitting next to Kami, (Wyatt has a crush on her although he will never admit it) anyway they weren't paying attention like they should and flirting like 6 -7 year olds will and they had gotten reprimanded a few times. The lesson was on keeping the commandments and the teacher had them all write a commandment they will try to keep this week. I was hoping he wrote "honor thy father and thy mother." Nope he wrote, "Stay away from Kami".

• Just today during sacrament meeting, he leans in and tells me "I wish this was only an hour, 30 minutes for this,(sacrament meeting) 20 for class and 10 minutes for that other thing (sharing time) then I can get home and play with my toys. I tend to agree with him on things :) I love this boy of mine.

I think he had a good b-day. it started Friday when he got home from school to find a new horse just for him, Anakin. Wyatt is our cowboy and loves to ride him. Then Saturday Grandma and Grandpa Goodman came out and brought him M&M's and $14, the grand kids get twice their age. He had a few friends over that night for a party, we rode horses, played with the puppies, jumped on the tramp, had a fire and BBQ hot dogs. Then Sunday, his real birthday, he opened more presents and had more cake. Who could ask for more.

Puppies

Our boxer Brindy (she is a brindle - I know I know we are creative with our names) and Dually (it was given to us and when ever some says "Dually come here" I think they are saying "Julie come here and I wonder why they are talking to me that way:) Anyways, they had puppies December 23rd. Five weeks later the puppies are fun. I think most puppies are cute (too bad they grow up) but boxer puppies might just be the cutest. I love having puppies; we spend more time as a family outside just watching them, holding them and playing with them. We of course gave them all names, Scampi (the runt), K ( has a white K on it's belly), Nick (has a white beard and they were born 2 days before Christmas), Dots (polk-a- dotted nose), Girly (you guessed it the only girl) and Luke (I don't know why). They growl at us when we go out, bark their little puppy bark like they are so big, chase Wyatt then whine when they can't find their way back. I love it and thank goodness we live in Arizona when the winters have weather like this so we can go outside and enjoy them. Too soon they will all be sold, but for now we are loving on our boxer family.

Half Empty or Half Full?

Ty and I were watching the football game Packers vs. Bears, we both wanted the Bears and they were losing. Ty said "watch they won't make the first down." I said "aren't you the pessimist?" He said "yep." I was a little surprised that he even knew what that meant so I asked him - he said it was one of his vocabulary words (so they are learning something in school.) Anyways I say "so if you see a cup only filled half way do you say it's half full or half empty." Ty's reply is classic, he said "IT DEPENDS WHAT YOU ARE DRINKING - Is it a smoothie or just milk?" How do you respond to that, so true so true.

What's Your Sign??

If you have read the paper in depth, you know that the astrological community has a determined that the stars have re-aligned and that the zodiac signs would also need to be re-aligned to match. People were in an up roar. Not the Chesley's, I am writing because this sparked a Wyatt memory. All the kids knew about their sign's animal first before they learned the name. Taylor was a bull (Taurus) Kyley and Loren rams (Aries) and Ty and I scorpions (Scorpios) so naturally as Wyatt grew he wanted to know his sign. He asked and I told him, an Aquarius, and he says what's that, I had to think a bit and I told him water. He was MAD, what the heck I'm water, that's not fair everyone else was something cool. Well probably a year later, we really don't discuss our zodiac signs often, we were talking about what everyone was and I was a little curious if Wyatt was still angry at being water. My fears were unfounded when as we discussed what was the best one Wyatt said "well you would all die without water, my sign is the best." You can't argue with that logic like that can you :)