Adventures in Munchkinland » Blog

Just a few snapshots from the first day of school. The Princess is loving preschool so far. She just brought the paper home to sign up for her first quarter elective – we’re keeping our fingers crossed that she gets to take “Kitchen Chemistry.” She LOVES doing science experiments, so I think she’d really enjoy the class. Her other top choices are “Money Madness” and “Puppetry.”

During our trip this summer, the girls and I drove to Phoenix with my mom to spend a few days watching my twin nephews. It was a LOT of work watching 4 children of such similar ages (particularly the 3 youngest), but we had fun. This was Sparky’s first time meeting her cousins – they were already living in AZ when she was born two years ago.

Rather than drive back to Colorado through Flagstaff, we decided to meet my brother and his wife where they were staying in Vegas. We thought it would be easier on the girls (and us) if the trip home was broken up into a couple of days. While in Vegas, my sister-in-law asked me to take some family portraits for them. It didn’t go quite as well as I would have hoped. For one thing, the kids had been in the car all day. For another thing, we were staying at a hotel with several swimming pools, and we had promised the kids that they could go swimming after their portraits were finished. All of the scenic areas with good light were within a few yards of the swimming pools. In addition, I’d spent the last week around my nephews. They were bored with me. I think a big reason behind the success of a professional portrait session is the novelty for the children involved with the portraits – it’s a lot easier to behave for someone you don’t know very well. When it’s your boring old aunt wielding a camera, there’s no reason to actually look at her.

We did manage to get a few shots before total chaos ensued. At least I have an image of the four of them sitting together and looking at the camera at the same time. I think it was the most I could hope for in that particular situation.

I love this picture of The Princess and her cousin. They had so much fun playing together when they weren’t driving each other crazy. Although, about halfway through our week in Arizona, she told me that she never wanted me to have twins, and even more than that, she doesn’t want any brothers. I told her that if we’re able to have more children, Heavenly Father gets to decide whether she has brothers or sisters.

Since yesterday’s blog post featured Miss Sparky, here’s a pic of the Princess all by herself. She was kind of annoyed with me at this point, because we were headed back to our room to get ready to go swimming, and I saw some pretty light and begged her to let me take her picture. I still need to post her back to school pictures, but I have some more client sessions to edit first.

Don’t leave cupcakes unattended in the kitchen while a certain little red-headed troublemaker is still awake. Especially when said troublemaker is a capable climber…

Anyone who knows me knows that I love reading. I was always the girl at family parties curled up on a corner of the couch engrossed in a novel rather than socializing with everyone. I’m sure most of my cousins thought I was a horrible snob – but I was just shy – and I REALLY loved books. I usually had more books on my Christmas list than anything else. I know I used to drive my parents crazy with the half-read books scattered on every surface in the house.

Now that I have a family, I’m noticing my oldest daughter is a lot like me. She gets giddy when the mail arrives with her latest copy of “The Friend” or “Highlights” magazine. She makes herself carsick reading in the car. We’re currently reading the “Ramona” books together. I’m so excited that she loves reading as much as I do.

These days, I don’t have as much time for reading. I usually get my “fix” by thumbing through my most recent copy of “Rangefinder” or “After Capture” magazine (saves time to combine two interests in one), but sometimes, I just need to read a book. I tend to read a lot of Young Adult fiction, because they read quickly and there are so many books in the genres that I like (mostly fantasy) without having to worry about some of the questionable material in other novels. That’s not to say that all adult fantasy novels are dirty (and it’s also not to say that all teen fiction is squeaky clean) – I LOVE Brandon Sanderson, and once he finally finishes The Wheel of Time series (he took over after Robert Jordan passed away), I’ll probably re-read the whole series. Or maybe I’ll listen to the books on tape – the novels are ginormous, and the paperbacks all seem to lose their covers for some reason…

I was reading one of my favorite blogs this morning, and came across a post where she mentions Persnickety Snark’s Top 100 YA Novels for 2010. I’m getting kind of tired of re-reading my current favorite books, and it’s not yet time for me to start re-reading Jane Austen, so I decided to check out the list. It’s pretty impressive.  I LOVE that “To Kill a Mockingbird” is in the top 5. There are a few books that I wish would have been recognized (I’m a huge fan of Shannon Hale’s “Bayern” series AND her stand-alone “Princess Academy”), but you can only recognize so many titles when there are only 100 slots.

I’ve been hearing a lot about “The Hunger Games” recently, so I think that will be the next series I decide to read. Of course there’s a huge waiting list at the library, so if anyone has a copy of the first book that I could borrow, I’d be SO appreciative. I might even bake you some cupcakes or coerce Sasquatch into making you some chocolate chip cookies.

After a very busy 6 weeks in Colorado, Arizona, and Utah, the girls and I are finally back home with Sasquatch. I’m actually kind of surprised at how nice it feels to be back home. What surprises me is how this hot, humid place where we live is starting to feel like “home.” Sure, being back out West and spending time with grandparents and cousins reminded me how much I miss them all (and how much I’d eventually like to end up somewhere closer to family and mountains), but for now, I think it will be maybe a little bit easier to be content with where I live right now.

I was actually driving down the road yesterday and ENJOYED seeing all the beautiful green trees lining the sides of the road. It’s not the same as a stunning view of the Rocky Mountains or a gorgeous sunset on the horizon, but the South has it’s own kind of beauty that I need to appreciate more. It’s kind of fun having an enchanted forest for a backyard – as long as you stay away from the poison ivy.

One thing I DO kind of miss already is how it cools down in the evening in Colorado – the girls LOVED playing outside after the sun went down. One of these days, I hope we can have a fenced backyard so my kidlets can spend more free time in the fresh air.

I have lots to blog about our trip, but the house is a mess right now, and I’m hoping to have everything clean so that we can enjoy a nice, peaceful Sabbath tomorrow. A girl can dream, right? I just wanted to let my four or five blog readers know that I AM still blogging.

Sasquatch was pretty lonely while we were gone. Apparently, he was a little too lonely. He went to Petco to pick up some bedding for the “ha piggies” (Sparky’s name for the guinea pigs), and he happened to be there while there were some kitties available for adoption. He decided to adopt a kitten. After teasing me about it via text (he sent me a picture while I was in Colorado and then insisted that he hadn’t adopted a pet) and getting my hopes up, it was a nice surprise for the girls AND for me when we got home.

I never would have thought Sasquatch would be a cat person. After our failed attempts at puppy ownership (we ended up with two different puppies who started out mellow and great with children and then quickly grew into creatures that scared our girlies half to death), he insisted that we wouldn’t get a dog until the girls are much older, we have a fenced yard, etc. I’ve tried to convince him to get a cat in the past, but he always used my cat allergy as an excuse. I’m so glad he changed his mind (and Zyrtec is successfully keeping my allergies at bay).

Dash (the kitty’s name) is a great fit for our family. He’s super friendly for a cat (he likes to fall asleep on your lap), he’s great with the girls, and he LOVES to play. You can entertain him (and me, lol) for hours with a laser pointer. And the litter box is a definite bonus – one of the difficulties of owning a dog in our current house is the lack of a fenced yard – it’s kind of a pain to have to take a dog out on a leash for each and every potty break.

The only difficulties so far have been figuring out how to keep him off the kitchen table (he’s still too small to figure out how to get onto the counters), and making sure we keep him downstairs away from the guinea pigs. I’m actually a bit worried about the piggies – I think we may need to find a new home for them. They’re super cute, and REALLY low maintenance, but Dash REALLY wants to get inside their cage and play with them. If you know anyone local who might love a pair of sweet guinea pigs, PLEASE let me know. They have a nice cage, food dish, water bottle, and we just stocked up on bedding and timothy hay.

Here are some pictures of Dash. Isn’t he handsome?