I give in

So our trampoline has issues. The southern Arizona sun has fried it. We've only had this trampoline for a little over 2 years and it's already destroyed. What's happened is that the pieces of material that are sewn onto the mat and then wrap around the metal triangular pieces the springs attach to have been vaporized by the sun. So about half of the mat is hanging off and not connected to anything. I've been keeping the kids away, telling them they can't jump anymore. I've caught Natalie on there a few times and as soon as she hears my voice, she makes a hurried exit. But then Kelton figured out how to get on the other day and he was having so much fun. Natalie has a ton of fun on there to. So Nate and I figured, oh well. When you watch them jump you can tell that they have it under control--it's not quite as imminently dangerous as it looks. But I still hold my breath a bit. Take a look...

This is how they get on now.

This is how they get off. They just sit down and slide right off. Well, Natalie sits. Kelton goes on his belly.

I know this is probably so dangerous. But what can I do? My kids think they have the greatest trampoline in the world! It a trampoline and a slide all in one. Hopefully my next post won't be about yet another trip to the ER. We've been there twice since June. I think that's more than enough.

Kids at the store

So I know all small children are a bit of a pain at the store, but these kids of mine... So Kelton just started doing something that Natalie did when she was his age. He will let out this very loud, piercing scream/shriek at the top of his lungs. Oh, he's not upset or anything. He does it because he likes the way it echoes in the vastness of the store. He lets a new one out at about 5 second intervals. Most people usually ignore grumpy kids in the store, but when Kelton does this, everyone stares at me with a horrified look or gives me the evil eye. To make matters worse, if I try to do anything to make him stop or acknowledge him in any way, he just does it more and even louder. Crazy boy! So I ignore him and people glare. So is this just some genetic thing with my kids or do your kids do stuff like this at the store? Someone please tell me your kids do something like this too. :)

Natalie says

I just love the funny things that little kids say, whether its my own kids or someone else's. It's interresting to see how their little minds work. So here's a funny one from Natalie. Part of what makes the things she says funny is her personality. She is just so expressive. We were eating lunch and and I was asking Natalie about preschool. I told her preschool is going to be at Sister Smith's next week and she looked at me a bit funny. So I started explaining who Sister Smith is because I could tell she was confused by the name, even though she knows who she is.

Me: " You know how you were at Sister Parry's house? Well, Lila's (she is one of the little kids in the preschool) name is Lila Parry. So her momma's name is Sister Parry. And Edison's last name is Smith. His name is Edison Smith. So his mom's name is Sister Smith."

Natalie: her eyes get real big and she starts to smile

Me: "And the next week preschool is at our house. Your name is Natalie Webb. So my name is Sister Webb. So when all your friends come over here, they will call me Sister Webb."

Natalie: "Yeah! And I will call you Sister Momma!!"

Makes sense right?

Should've seen it coming...

So take a look at these pictures. Look closely. Do you notice anything? (besides the cute little boy) :)

Okay, so did you get it? Nate and I have been observing over the last few weeks and we are now pretty much sure...Kelton is left handed! We really shouldn't be shocked. My grandfather and little sister are both left handed (along with some cousins) and Nate has a left handed brother. But it's still a bit of a surprise. Now before any of you think, "now wait a minute, he's way to young to make that judgement. Kids that young switch back and forth all the time before they decide on a dominant hand," just hear me out. Natalie did that. She would sometimes use her left hand, sometimes her right. A lot of times she would switch back and forth during one sitting. But, here's what we've noticed with Kelton. He never uses his right hand. Seriously, never. When he does things like eat or color, it's always his left hand. We've tried putting the crayon right next to his right hand. He will pick it up with his right hand, but only to put it in his left. We have put the crayon in his right hand and no deal. He just moves it to the left. No matter what we do to try to get him to use his right hand, even if only for a moment, it doesn't work. The kid is left handed. Not that this is a bad thing, but how on earth do I teach him to do things completely opposite?

Softball is supposed to be fun, right?

Okay, so I had quite the adventure last night. Some friends in my ward decided to put a team together to play in a softball co-ed city league. I was a little nervous to participate with it being co-ed. In my experience, men are generally much stronger when it comes to hitting things with a bat. Anyway, they thought they might be short handed on women for the game on Tuesday night so I decided to play so they wouldn't forfeit. So we are playing and its getting late and the game is almost over. I get up to bat and I hit it. I can see that it is going toward either the short stop or third baseman--both of which are men. So I realize that if I am going to be safe I need to look straight ahead and just sprint as fast as I can to first. As soon as I hit the bag I feel this crushing blow hit the side/back of my head. I instantly knew that the throw to first had been off and I was in perfectly the wrong place. All I knew after that was that I had no control over my movements and I was falling. The blow had actually paralized me for a short time. I guess what actually happened, so I was told, was that I kept going for a few steps before my head and upper body fell forward and I rolled over and landed on my neck. Everyone was really worried and was telling me not to move--not that I could have anyway. After a minute or so I could tell that I could move if I wanted to. Oddly enough, my head didn't hurt but my left knee was killing me. So I layed there flat out on my back for over 20 minutes waiting for the paramedics. Then I had the pleasure of being strapped to a backboard. I tell you what, over the next hour and a half or so, I grew to hate that thing more than should be possible for an inanimate object. I then rode to the hospital in the back of an ambulance--no sirens. Nate followed us there. I then waited forever for a doctor to come in. I was still straped to the backboard and the thing was causing more pain to my head and neck than I would have ever dreamed was possible. I am not lying when I say that for me, it was much worse than being in labor. I'm not sure I've ever been in that much pain before. It was amazing how instant the relief was when they took it off. By this point, a new problem has come up. The doctor was wanting me to tell him what had happened. I for the life of me could not speak coherently. I knew exactly what had happened but I couldn't get my brain to form the words. At one point the doctor even asked me if I had been drinking! Nice, huh? After he left, Nate started talking to me. He asked me what his name was. My first thought was, wow that's a stupid question, of course I know who you are. Then he repeated, "what's my name?" I went to answer and...nothing. I couldn't come up with it. After a struggle, I finally got it. He then asked my name, our kids names, middle names, friends and other famliy members. Initially, I came up blank every time. Sometimes he had to tell me because I just couldn't get it. It was wierd because even after I would get the name right, I had to have reassurance that it was correct. If he would have lied and said no, I would have believed him. It was so crazy. And incredibly frusterating. I knew who every one of these people were but there were just no names. Thankfully, that only lasted about 40 minutes. After that it started coming back to me much quicker. Anyway, they didn't seem to think anything was really wrong. My knee seems to be messed up pretty bad. They gave me a brace thing and some crutches. I can't walk on it. Also, my whole upper back feels completely out of place. That makes it hard to use the crutches to walk. I have a pretty sore spot on my head and neck and I have a nice scratch on my back. Other than that, I am great! Nate has been so helpful. He's cleaned the house and taken care of the kids and gotten me anything I have needed. I am so thankful to have him around for the rest of the week before school starts. There is no way I could take care of anything around here without him. Thanks Nate. I love you!

So I guess I learned a few lessons. Softballs are not soft. And don't play softball with men. There is no way most girls on the field could have thrown that dang ball that hard.

Sorry about the lovely picture, but this is about all I have to show for my troubles. What's funny is that this is the least of my troubles. But all of the things that really hurt look totally normal. My knee isn't even swollen.

Pre-School

Natalie went to her very first day of pre-school today! She was so excited and had so much fun. I am doing a pre-school co-op with a bunch of other moms from church. There are 8 kids total and we all take turns teaching. The pre-school is on Tuesdays and Thursdays for 2 1/2 hours in the morning. So we each teach the class once every 8 weeks! It's great--I'm really excited too. It will give me some time to get stuff done and spend some alone time with Kelton--which he rarely gets from me. It was strange not having Natalie here at home, but it was nice to only have to keep track of one child.

So in these pictures you can see Natalie all ready to go to her first day of pre-school. She fished out that backpack from the toybox and was very excited to take it with her. You can't tell in the picture, but she actually has it on upside down and it is STUFFED full of her favorite toys. Of course I had to dump them all out back in her room and have her choose just one to take for show and tell. She chose her Sleeping Beauty Barbie--not a big surprise.

And here are some pictures of Kelton. I just wanted to put them on here because they are cute. Babies and toddlers are so cute right after they come out of the bath. I think it has something to do with the hooded towel. Plus right after the bath when Kelton is wrapped in a towel is about the only time when he will actually just cuddle and let you hold him.

Vacation Fun

Last Thursday we went to Snowflake to visit family. We just got back last night and we had so much fun. We got to see a lot of family on both sides. Chad and Erica's family and also Rob, Tina, and Christian were at my parents house. Natalie was so excited to be able to play with her cousins, especially Callie. Callie is only four months younger than Natalie so they have a lot of fun together.

It was fun to see baby (6 months old) Kira for the first time. It was really cute to see the two babies together. While at my parents house, Nate and I played Bocce ball for the first time. We played against Mel and Sean, Rob and Tina, and Chad and Erica. It was a really fun game. We are definitely going to have to get Nate's parents to buy a set so we can play over there too.

On Friday night, Nate had his 10 year high school reunion. He had a good time visiting with old friends from high school. Nate even won a prize for being the youngest classmate there. On Saturday we took Natalie and Kelton to see the parade. Natalie had tons of fun collecting all the candy thrown our way. The parade was a bit long and boring, but at least we were in the shade. And afterwards, I got to visit with some of my friends from high school, Ashley and Valerie, who happened to be right across the street from us. That night we let Natalie stay up so we could take her to the fireworks. We ended up watching them from a spot that was only about 150 yards away from where they were shooting them off. Natalie had a blast--she loves fireworks! Then she fell fast asleep on the way back home.

We spent all day Monday out at Lyman Lake just past St. Johns at our first Webb family reunion. It was just Nate's parents and all of their children. Everyone was there with the exception of one grandchild. I rode/drove a sea doo for the first time. It was a blast. Maybe someday in the distant future we will buy a couple of them. Natalie really liked riding on the boats. We got her to sit on the sea doo to take this picture, but we couldn't get her to ride it with us. I later got her to go with me, but after a few minutes, she told me she wanted to ride the boats again. I don't think she was too fond of the noise the sea doo makes.So, do you think Natalie likes the water? I've known that she loves water since about the first day she was born. Just look at that face! She loved swimming in the lake. We'd drop her off the dock, and she'd swim back to shore. She loved her lifejacket.

There's some of the family sitting on the shore watching those out on the water. Tiny picture, I know, but Nate and Natalie are both right about in the middle of the picture. In the picture above, you can see one of the two boats we had there and the tube/raft things we would pull people on behind the boats. Those were pretty fun to ride on too. If you are wondering if we still have another child...we do. His name is Kelton and he was asleep in the camper most of the time. He did go swimming with me for a little bit, shortly before we left. He loves, loves, loves the water too. In fact, he fell and got a cut near his eye and the only way I could make him stop crying was by putting him in the water. Who needs medicine when you've got a lake?

Yesterday we basically abandoned our kids (and probably wore out Grandma and Grandpa Burgess) and went to the temple and then went to see Harry Potter. It was nice to get out. And this Harry Potter movie was probably my favorite in a while. I was kinda disappointed by the last two movies. But I thought they did a pretty good job on this one. However, it helps that book #6 was probably my favorite of the series.

So now we are back home and I have a monstrous mess in my house to clean. Why is it that we seem to need a vacation from our vacation?

Kelton's favorite seat

Recently this is Kelton's favorite place to sit in the house. I guess it's just perfectly his size. I will find him in here just hanging out and playing with the stuff on the counter. He gets so mad when I take him out, and unless I close the door, he goes right back. It's not that big of a deal--except for the few times that he decided to turn on the water.

New Family Pictures

As you can probably already see, we got some new family pictures tonight. The kids survived (so did we) and the pictures turned out alright. All the black may look a bit grainy because my scanner isn't very good. My better scanner is in with the sleeping baby. So here they are!

DISNEYLAND!!! (It's a BIG post, you've been warned!)

We just got back from our 4 day vacation to California. It was tiring, but we had a lot of fun. We had 3 day park hopper tickets so we spent day 1 at Disneyland, day 2 just resting and swimming, day 3 at Disneyland, and day 4 at California Adventure. Then we drove home at about 7:30 pm and didn't get home until 3:00 am! We were tired. Kelton took a 4 1/2 hour long nap today. It was getting to the point where I was starting to worry about him! (I don't think he's ever taken a nap that long.) Here are some of the highlights.

My sister lives in the area and my parents were in California at the same time, so we all went to Disneyland together on our first day. This is us (not me, I'm behind the camera) waiting in line for the newly renovated It's A Small World ride. It was really fun and was Natalie's most requested ride. We ended up going on it 4 times. This was the only time we actually had to wait in line. Kelton really liked this ride too, although he got really mad every time the ride ended and I wouldn't let him get out of the boat and swim in the water.

Princesses and Fairies!

We thought we might skip the huge line to see the princesses this year after waiting 1 1/2 to 2 hours last year. But Natalie kept asking to see them so we did it. This time we made it through the line in a record 45 minutes. You kinda have to just get lucky because you don't know which three princesses will be inside when you go in, but Natalie got to see her favorite (at this particular time)--Sleeping Beauty. We got a bonus because Ariel came to trade with Sleeping Beauty while we were with her, so we got pictures with her too. We also saw Belle (Natalie loves her too) and Jasmine. We also waited in line at the new Pixie Hollow to see some fairies. Silvermist and Tinkerbell were inside. They are Natalie's two favorites from the movie.

Winnie the Pooh, and Tigger too! (and Rabbit) :)

Kelton was sooo excited by these big, huge, fuzzy, moving animals. He didn't stop laughing the whole time and screamed as soon as we started to leave. Natalie was so excited to see Tigger, she could hardly stand it. They put Tigger at the end of the line and she couldn't wait to get to him.

We had some rough patches with Kelton still needing to take naps, but we got a few in.

So even though most of our pictures are ones with characters in them (and we saw more than what I listed on here), we really did spend most of our time riding rides. It's just much harder to take pictures of that. Natalie had a lot of fun on most of the rides. The first thing we went on was the mini rollercoaster and she loved it. But the next day, we took her on Pirates of the Carribbean, which officially broke her. The very first drop on that is bigger than you think and it's in complete darkness. She was in tears after that and then she didn't want much to do with anyting too scary looking--including the rollercoaster she had already been on and loved! As I already mentioned, her main request after that was "Small World, because those boats don't have any drops." Anyway, here are a few pictures of rides. (Astro Orbiter, Teacups, and the Tuck and Roll ride--Natalie loved being able to drive on that one)

Beautiful sunset

So I was driving home from in town and turned a corner and was stunned by this beautiful sunset. The whole western sky was filled with huge puffy clouds that were a firey pink with the setting sun shining through the places between them. We get some good sunsets, but this is the best one I've seen in a while. Of course, all I had was my crappy camera phone so needless to say, the pictures just don't do it justice. (plus I was trying to drive at the time) There was WAY more pink and not so much yellow. It was ten times better in real life. But the pictures are still really pretty.

Little artist

So I wanted to post something other than horrible pictures of dog bitten faces--but I'm too lazy to get up and get my camera and take a new picture of Natalie right now. She is doing good though. The stitches came out last Friday. Now we will just have to wait and see how well it heals. Anyway, up until recently Natalie has just been a scribbler. She doesn't really draw anything and doesn't even try to color in the lines. Well, all that is changing now, and it's so fun to see. She is really into drawing people and the piles of pictures are starting to stack up. So I scanned some of my favorites so that I wouldn't feel bad about throwing them out--when she is not looking of course--and I even have to make sure they aren't showing in the trash or she will dig them out and ask me why her baby brother threw away her pictures. Here are a few that I was particularly proud of.

"Malefocent in the Fire"

(from the end of Sleeping Beauty)

I must admit, I was really proud of this one.

Funny story: I accidentaly ran the vaccum over this one today. The heat of the vaccum actually melted this nice orange crayon onto my carpet!

"Ariel

"Snow White"

This one is a bit abstract, but I reall liked it.

When will it stop?

This poor little girl. So yesterday morning's swelling was nothing. It's even worse today! Natalie wasn't wanting to take her medicine when she woke up so I took her to the mirror so she could see why she needed to take it. She looked in the mirror for a few seconds and then said "mom, my eye is broken!" I assured her is wasn't, but I'm not sure she was convinced. So, when is this swelling supposed to stop? Anyone??

Swollen

So Natalie's face is a bit swollen this morning. I probably should have been expecting that, but I wasn't. It's just so sad!! You can see in the pictures that she can't quite smile right. The first thing she told me this morning was "Momma, it still hurts." She's doing okay though. We went to Walgreen's this morning to fill her perscriptions and I let her get a new Princess coloring book. So she's actually pretty happy!