Palo Duro Adventures

We made three trips to the canyon this month, which is more visits than the last 6 months combined. Spring really is a wonderful time because even if it's windy, the temps are normally warm enough to still have fun, but it's not blazing hot yet. Hopefully we can make it back in a month or so after I recover from baby, because that's when all the wildflowers will start to bloom!

Our first trip was at the very beginning of March for a quick photo shoot of the kids (which I already wrote about), but then we also went back with friends one day after school, and then again just this week for a field trip for a break in our coronavirus isolation. 

Amarillo is flat and colorless so the canyon landscapes always welcome views

Charlie refused to walk the afternoon we went with friends so I got to carry him the whole time, which was quite the workout in my current state

Attempt at a group photo - 2 out of 5 looking and smiling is pretty normal!

The big kids hiked up through the cave while I stayed back with the little kids. Davey was really mad about being left behind, but it was nothing a fruit snack couldn't fix. 

Our visit this week was on a really warm day so we got there early to beat the heat and also avoid the crowds like good social distancing people should.

My Cactus Cutie and dusty Charlie

Taking a leap of faith - daddy was always there to catch them!

I tried to get the kids to help me build a rock tower, but they were not patient enough to stack slowly and left to go do other things after a couple attempts. Eventually Dave and I were able to make a pretty tall one!

After the tower was done, they came running back to take pictures with it :)

March Mishaps

I'm not sure if pregnancy has cause me to let my guard down, or if the extra time at home due to coronavirus is leading to mischief, but we have had WAY more "incidents" outside the usual messes and trouble over the past couple weeks than normal. No one is innocent, and luckily no one has been hurt, but I am so ready for things to calm down! These kids sure can cause trouble sometimes, which makes me wonder why we decided to add one more to our crew...

After several warnings about putting a nite lite right next to her bed because it was dangerous, Sophie finally had an "I told you so" moment. Her favorite blanket "Purple" got a little too close in the night and received a few burn wounds. We are so lucky that nothing actually caught fire or her whole bed would have gone up in flames while she slept.

We were getting ready to leave for the library when I though I heard water. I started checking bathrooms to see if a sink and been left running and found the kids' toilet gushing water. Darling Davey decided to try and flush a cup and there was water everywhere!! It took me about 20 towels to mop it up and we ran space heaters and fans for the next two days to hopefully take care of any remaining moister. I am so glad I caught it before leaving or we would have had a real flood on our hands when I got back!

I'm still not sure what happened here... I went to get Charlie in the morning and found his bed, blankets, and a few books covered in blood, yet there was nothing wrong with him. My best guess is that a bloody nose in the night may have led to him vomiting, but we will never know because he is too young to tell us.

Charlie loves to mess with things and ended up breaking the handle assembly on the toilet. Luckily it was a pretty easy fix. 

Charlie also took it upon himself to organize all our dental floss! I was shocked that only one got unwound during the process.

 Charlie (he is being featured a lot!) did some engraving on the plantation shutters in Sophie's room. He is such a quiet, happy guy but I guess we need to keep better eyes on him!

Davey decided to decorate the interior of the van with a ballpoint pen. My cleaning efforts have not been successful so far. It's faded, but the marks are all still there. A week before this happened, he also climbed in the van and actually started the car, which could have ended so badly, but he was caught within seconds of his dastardly deed.

Sophie is SEVEN!

Sophie is now SEVEN and we are so proud of the girl she is growing up to be! Sophie has become a voracious reader and goes through a chapter book a day, which means lots of library trips for me. She reads anytime we drive in the car, while she eats, at school after she finishes her work, and late into the night in her bed. Her teacher says she is also doing great at math and is a good friend and helper to her classmates.

When Sophie grows up she wants to be a vet that also cares for sea animals like turtles and fish. She has always loved all things ocean and I'm sure she would love to be a mermaid if that were an option. She also loves to play with friends, do crafts, swim and listen to music. Her brothers both adore her and she enjoys being the queen bee of the family.

Sophie at Seven Years

• She is now over 50 inches tall (85%) and wears size 7/8 clothes. I'm pretty sure she is going to pass me up in height by the time she is 10! 
• She loves animals and learning all about them. I've been getting her big animal fact books from the library and she reads them cover to cover.
• She loves to play games, especially win she wins! We are working on being a good sport whether you win or loose, although most of the time she wins since her competition is still young. 
• Her favorite color has changed again to sea green, although she still loves purple and gold.
• This year we ended her tumbling/gymnastics career and moved on to basketball. She loved both, but with her height and lack of flexibility, basketball is going to be a much better fit down the road. She is still playing soccer as well, and is one of the fastest girls on the field!
• Her room is always a complete disaster - art supplies, stuffed animals, clothes, and toys cover the ground and I often can't even walk into her room. She has to clean up every Saturday, though, and it normally takes her at least an hour to sort everything out. Good luck future husband!
• She loves to listen to music and almost always has a CD playing in her room when she's home. Her favorites right now are Kidz Bop, High School Musical, Greatest Showman, and Primary songs. 
• Although she is outgoing, confident, and sometimes bossy with friends and family, she does get social stage fright in situations outside her normal routine like birthday parties, talking on the phone, or in primary. It's always strange to see our girl who's normally loud and bubbly suddenly become shy and silent.

SOPHIE'S BIRTHDAY CELEBRATION: Since Sophie's birthday falls over Spring Break, we decided to celebrate with her class the week before and I'm glad we did now that school is cancelled for coronavirus. On her actual birthday we had planned to play at a trampoline bounce venue, but unfortunately that had to be cancelled so we stayed home and celebrated as a family. 

For her birthday she received two new Kidz Bop CDs, a mystery pet, a bathrobe, a butterfly house, a jellyfish canopy for her bed and a new scooter since she had outgrown her old one. Unfortunately she threw up around lunch time on her birthday and spent the rest of the day laying around and soaking in the tub. Because of this, we delayed doing her donut cake until the next day when she felt better. Luckily they were still delicious on the second day. Happy Birthday Sophie!

We brought brownie bites to share with her 1st Grade class on the last day before Spring Break, which would actually turn out to be the last day for several weeks.

Ready to open her presents!

She got a Scruff-a-Luv mystery pet from Davey. It came as a blue all, but after washing and grooming it turned out to be a cat!

With her new robe and scooter, which has light up wheels

Our sweet neighbor invited her over to cut a few flowers from her yard, that Sophie now has in her room.

I found this jellyfish canopy on clearance after Christmas for just $13! We hung it in her room over her bed that night and she loves it!!

Sophie wanted donuts for her birthday - easiest cake I'll ever have to make!

Video Clips of Sophie's 7th Birthday

Davey is FOUR!

Our Davey dude turned FOUR this month! He had been counting down the days to his birthday for a long time, because he is so excited to be one year older. Becoming "big" is one of his greatest desires right now so he can keep up Sophie and other the older kids. His current goal is to grow another .5" before summer so he will be tall enough to go on the water slide at the pool and the bigger rides at Wonderland amusement park. 

Davey is about as "boy" as they come. He loves all things dinosaurs, robots, superheros, ninjas, Mario, and weapons. Anything and everything is used as some sort of weapon at our house for fighting off the bad guys. His favorites are clothes hangers (bow and arrows) and unit cube blocks that he builds into guns. When he grows up he wants to be a pirate so he can fight with both a gun and a sword. When he's not busy fighting bad guys, you will find him having dinosaur wars, creating things with blocks or magnatiles, or pestering his siblings. He also has a sweet, sensitive side though and loves to snuggle, read books, do puzzles, and have his back scratched.

Davey at 4 Years

• I don't have his exact measurements because his well child visit was pushed off until May due to the Corona Virus, but he is around 35.5 pounds (50%) and 41.5 inches (75%). He is wearing 4T clothes and size 11 shoes. 
• His favorite animal is a T-Rex, and the other day he asked me when I would take him to see a real one. We've talked about how dinosaurs are extinct, but in his mind they are still out there somewhere. 
• He has always been great with numbers, colors, and shapes, but he still has very little interest in the alphabet. He probably could only recognize about 5 letters, but he knows the names of lots of different dinosaurs!
• He still loves his blanket "Yellow" and takes it to bed each night along with an assortment of books, toys, and stuffed animals. 
• He loves all varieties of fruit and has an endless appetite for it. The other day I bought a cantaloupe and the store and he excitedly told me it was what he had always dreamed of and asked multiple times for the next few days when it would be ready to eat. 
• His other favorite food is noodles, and he would eat them for all his meals if we let him. 
• He is actually quite social and loves to be out doing things. His best friends are Jaxon, Nolan, Ben, and Denton. He is really looking forward to starting preschool in the fall so he can be in a class like Sophie and carry a lunchbox.
• He can be extremely stubborn, and will fight to the death (meaning time out) to get his way, even if we're offering him something he wants. We frequently hear that he is "never, never, ever going to do/eat/try _________ ever again!" We've been in this stage for awhile, so hopefully that means we're nearing the end of it...

DAVEY'S BIRTHDAY CELEBRATION: Davey wanted to celebrate his birthday at Chuck E. Cheese, and with corona virus on the rampage, we decided to go a week early before it was shut down. We made the right call because on his actual birthday it was closed. On his special day we started things off with green pancakes (St. Patrick's) before moving on to presents. From family he received a dinosaur, an action figure, a transformer robot, a Mario lunchbox, and game, and a Batman battle set. He had a great day playing with all his new gifts, although in true Davey fashion he told me before bed that he didn't like any of his presents and wanted new ones. Oh Davey....

For his cake he wanted something with dinosaurs so I made a chocolate bundt and decorated it like a volcano and put a few dinos around the edges. It was nothing special, but he loved it and was so excited about the flying pterodactyl. Happy birthday buddy!!

Green pancakes in green shirts

With his present pile, not so patiently waiting for mom to hurry up and take a picture so he could start opening gifts

With his robot that transforms into a plane

We did go see the new Pixar movie Onward as a family since his birthday was on $5 Tuesday. It was a fun show in a mostly empty theater because of the virus.

Dinner that night was Chick-fil-A, not because he loves it, but because kids eat free on Tuesdays. Davey got our food to-go and even let Davey get a side of fruit since it was his birthday.

So excited about his dinosaur cake! When we told him to make a wish, he naturally wished for more dinosaurs :)

Video Clips of Davey's 4th Birthday

Getting Ready for Baby #4

Baby #4 still does not have a name, but we are slowly taking steps to prepare for his arrival! Since this is our fourth child and third boy we really didn't need much in the way of equipment or clothing, but I have picked up a few new things (a coming home outfit and blanket) and have been replacing some worn out items.

We have also been stocking up on diapers and wipes, and I've been trying to bank extra sleep, but unfortunately that doesn't usually work out as planned. This baby loves to be active at night and I'm often up for an hour or more while he practices gymnastics at 2 am. All that's left to do at this point is install the car seat, pack my bag, arrange for emergency babysitters should grandma not be here yet, and pick a name. It will be just a few short weeks before he arrives!

My diaper bag was on the replacement list. The original was made by my sister Amy when Sophie was born and had served faithfully for almost seven years. It took me along time to finally find one that I could like as much. 

Glucose screening and rhogam shot around weeks 28 and 32 - fun times!

We also got a new double stroller! I like this one so much better than our previous stroller that was big and bulky, and nicknamed "Gigantor" because it was so cumbersome. Charlie was also excited about the new stroller, although he doesn't realize that he's going to get booted to the back seat when baby comes.

As I've pulled baby equipment out of the attic, Charlie has taken it upon himself to test it all. He sat in the bouncer for awhile and called himself "Baby Char Char."

A bump picture! I have been terrible about taking photos this time around, but finally had Dave one take one of me after church at 34 weeks. 

And here's another at 36 weeks from our day at Palo Duro Canyon. My mom says I look huge in this picture, but that's probably because a 9 pound baby is hiding in there :)

At 36 weeks we also got registered at the hospital so when delivery day comes, I'll be able to just walk straight in and get admitted.

After our hospital tour we took Davey to the "little restaurant" to choose a snack for being so good. He picked out chips and a lollipop.