Dentist

Jake and Amaya went to the dentist today. This was Jake's first actual visit to the dentist. He has gone and watched multiple times, but has never sat in the seat. Amaya has only been one other time. I know, I may be a bad parent for this, but I never went to the dentist, ever, when I was a child. Jake is 5 now, and Amaya is 7. A great time to be going to the dentist.
Amaya was excited, and even giggled while she was getting her teeth cleaned. She thought it was fun, and hey, she has NO cavities. Good girl!!




Amaya in the seat.

Dr. Weber says that Amaya has a very small upper part of her mouth, and she has a cross bite, that will have to be fixed in a couple of years. ( much like her mom )

Jake's turn. He was a little apprehensive, but asked many questions while Amaya went first. He hopped right up into the chair and finished like a champ. He even had to get xrays. Upon the initial exam by Dr. Weber, he saw NO cavities, but after the xrays......4. I can't believe it!! 4-are you kidding me? Poor little bug. They asked me what his habits are....does he drink a lot of juice (no), does he eat a lot of candy (no), drink pop (no). He eats a lot of fruit (she says that is okay). Ahhhh, it is coming back to me.....Jake used to be obsessed (well not really, but he really liked them) with fruit snacks. AKA gummies. He used to even sneak them, and I would find many, many wrappers hidden throughout the house. (under my bed, under the couches, under his bed) That is the only thing that I can think of as having a lot of sugar, and it is really sticky and stays on the teeth longer. The cavities are all hidden, inbetween each of the molars on the upper and lower teeth. (only seen on xray) Tonight, Jake said that he had many tickle spots (25 to be exact) in his mouth and the cleaning actually made him giggle.

Jake has a great alignment of his teeth, and appears to have a good amount of room for adult teeth to grow in. But, yikes, he still has 4 cavities that need to be fixed. This makes me sad.

For the love of....

For the love of horses. Amaya continues to go to horse lessons every Thursday, or "horsing", as we tend to call it. It makes no difference if it is hot out, cold out, she has been stung by wasps, and even has had her toes stepped on, but still looks forward to this day each week. It definitely is still her passion. I am so happy for her that we are able to help her in this dream of hers. She was even excited to watch the "horsing" on the Olympics today. (I personally found it very boring) She knows all the horses by name, knows there temperament and the story behind each horse there. She has told me many times that she would even like to sleep there.

Jake and Ryan love to go out there too, but we tend to not bring them that often, because it is usually a quick drop off and in the mix of dinner, Scott getting home from work, and even bedtime.

This day, her lessons were at 3pm. We stayed for a while, then went back early so that the boys could enjoy the farm a little. They, too, love it out there.

Jake, checking out the horse.

To really look at a horse, is amazing. They are such big, beautiful, strong, massive animals. I can't believe that I actually put my daughter up on one of these big things. It only takes a second to have something terrible happen (I see it enough in the ER), but I keep sending her to ride. I couldn't possibly take her away from it because I am scared, but I do think of it every time that we go to drop her off.

Even Ryan likes the horses. He even sat on one, bareback today. (with me at his side, and with the horse standing still)

Checking out Daisy.

Who knows what the future will hold for Amaya and her horse riding. Maybe, one day, she will be the one in the Olympics riding her horse, maybe she will have a farm, or even could be a vet, but I am sure this love of animals will continue. I appreciate that she loves living things, is nurturing, and caring. It is so great to see her grow into such a beautiful, loving girl who respects life.

*&$%@# Deer

This is what is left of these 2 sunflowers after a hungry little deer helped themself!!!!


This is not the first time that this has happened and I am sure that I won't be the last.

Fluffy

Scott, Ryan and I went for a short walk last night, on the way back, I noticed the cutest caterpillar crawling around on Scott's shirt. This thing reminds me of a fluffy puppy that just had it's hair done with a pretty little bow placed by it's ear. I have never seen a caterpillar like this.

He rode on Scott's back the entire way home, when we showed Ryan, he immediately knocked it off and tried to squish it with a shovel. Poor little cute pillar.

Ryan has no fear of bugs. He is always trying to pick them up, even spiders or bees. In fact, (this is really gross) when he was really little and had just started walking around, he ate a dead spider off my basement floor. I couldn't get to him quick enough when I realized what he was going for. Blah!

I am really surprised that he was just going at this pillar with the shovel. He isn't usually this brutal with the bugs!

No Pee

Jake and I went to pick up a pizza the other night. On the way there, we were driving down the road and out of the blue he asked me a question.

J: Mom, why is there a "No Pee" sign on the road?

M: What?

J: A "No Pee" sign? They don't want you to pee on this road?

M: What are you talking about?

J: The "No Pee" sign, why do they have a sign that says that you can't pee on this road?

So as we are driving, I am looking around and see the "No P" sign.

M: Jake, that is a no parking sign, it means that we can't park cars on this road.

So funny. I am glad that he is observant, it really was a good translation for a 5 year old.

Pay your debts

We ran to Target earlier today. Amaya always wants to check out the earrings. She wanted some dangly ones and they were only $3.99 for 3 pair. It seems like I am always buying stuff for the kids, ie..she was already getting a Camp Rock t-shirt, backpack, and journal. So I told her that if she wanted to buy this with her own money that she could get them. She agreed and I bought the earrings. (We had the same scenario last week at Toys-R-Us and I bought her a horse, but never asked her to repay me) When we got home, I asked her for the money for the earrings, which she already had in her ears. We went to her room to get her money and all she had was $2.60. I told her that she needed to earn $1.40 and we would call it good. I told her about the acorn job again and she agreed. I came upstairs to find her watching TV. I told her to get to work, but she just kept whining and carrying on. I finally told her that if she didn't get the money to pay me back, that I would take the earrings back and return them. I feel like a mean mom for this, but I want her to know and learn that not everything is just given to her. She needs to learn to work hard for things and respect what she has. I feel this is an invaluable lesson. We don't make her do too much around here, and picking up acorns for some earrings isn't going to hurt her.

She went outside and went to work, after about 15 minutes, she came in with her bucket.

Amaya counting her acorns.




Amaya's "loot".

She is now very proud of her earrings and how she bought them herself.

Guess

Guess what this is................
This is what happens when you take your eyes off Ryan for just a few minutes. The kids brush their own teeth and Ryan always wants to do it when they are. I usually put a minute amount of toothpaste on a toothbrush for him (if I don't he throws a fit, because he has to be like his bro and sis). Today, I just sent the kids in the bathroom to get the job done on their own, because I had other things to do before running some errands.

Jake came and got me and says "you have to see what Ryan did".

I go in the living room to find him squeezing Amaya's princess toothpaste all over the floor.

GRRRRRRRR!!!

P.S. Pink toothpaste doesn't come out of carpet that easily!

On another note of leaving kids unattended for 5 minutes:

I worked this last Sunday. Scott tells me on the phone that night that while he was on the computer for like 5 minutes, Amaya came down the steps and said to him..."you need to look".

So, Scott turns around and sees a grape on the wood floor in the basement behind him. He goes upstairs to find grapes all over the living room floor. Not just a few, or even a handful, but the whole bowl (I had just bought them the day before) scattered everywhere. Jake decided that he would toss the grapes up into the living room fan, which is at the top of the vaulted ceiling. He wanted to see them get hit by the fan, then fly around the room. Then on top of that, you have a Ryan, who ran all over the living room having fun while he was crushing the grapes into the carpet. Sounds fun, doesn't it??

Glad that I was not here for that one.

I can't wait to show these kinds of stories to Jake when he is older and has kids of his own. He is so mischievous, but even this makes me laugh.

Random Quirks

I am following Angie's lead and taking her tagged idea of 6 quirks (or more) of myself . It is fun to see others quirks, so I dare others to do the same. Here goes;

#1. I drink water right out of the tap. Not cold, or even with ice. I get a fresh, big glass of water in the morning, then refill as needed. It sits on my counter all day long and into the night. Sometimes I drink my water from the day before. I know, it's weird, but I can drink more of it that way. If I do get ice water when we are out, but I like a straw, because the ice hurts my teeth.

#2. If I order a mixed drink....I want 2 of those little straws with it. Not one, but 2. My friend Kristen always new this about me and would always make sure that I got my 2 straws. (long, long time ago)

#3. I am a self proclaimed liberator. I LOVE to cut the vines, picker bushes out of the trees around my house. Some of them aren't even on my property, but I feel that I have to do it to save the trees. If it isn't done, the trees get strangled by the vines and die. I have even been known to take my pruners on a walk with me to liberate while walking on the bike path.

#4. I love to prune the bushes and trees around my house. Or anyone else's for that matter. (Just ask Robin or my mom) They need to be a certain way so that my gardens get the optimal amount of sunshine that they need.

#5. My second toe is longer than my 1st. (I have heard that this is a sign of intelligence-ha ha)

#6. I never thought that I would get married. Heck, I never even thought that I would have a serious, nice relationship. This is not because I didn't want it, but growing up, I never knew that relationships that are on the TV really existed. I didn't know that people grew up in households with respect, love and patience. I surely didn't see it in my house, and I didn't even see others around us.

#7. I can't stand sitting in traffic, and worse, I can't stand being lost, while in a car. I get so frustrated and look for ways out constantly. I'll take back roads, just to keep moving, even if I know that it will take a little longer.

#8. I can't stand my toenails being long. I keep them very short. I look at other girls cute toes, painted all cute. Their nails don't look long in actuality, but for me, they are too long. I just can't do it.

#9. I vacuum my kitchen floor everyday. Sometimes 3-4 times, depending on the crums, etc. that fall on the floor. I do not like having stuff on the tile and walking in it and having it stick to the bottom of my feet!

So there you have it. I am weird, just like the rest of the world, but in different ways.

S'mores

Saturday night, my cousin John (Christopher) and his family came over to hang out. Scott has played basketball with John since before I knew him, and the kids have known each other for a very long time, because they go to Sunday basketball with John and Scott. We don't get together very often, but when we do, we all get along so well, that it is crazy we don't do it more often. Will even ended up sleeping over at our house, Jake loved it, as it was his first time having a friend sleep over. They both slept in Jake's twin size bed and you heard them giggling for quite a while before going to sleep. It was so cute!

We just let the kids run around and play, had a nice dinner and then did s'mores. This is the first time for s'mores and the fire pit this year, which is ridiculous. We have a beautiful fire pit area with 2 cedar benches (my dad made) that we don't use near enough. I always get pics of us doing s'mores for the first time of the year. S'mores just remind me of summer. Everyone loves roasting marshmallows, then making the S'mores. My mom always comes over if we are roasting marshmallows too.

Granny doing her roasting.

Renee roasting.
Amaya and Colin making S'mores.

Ryan picking it apart and just eating the chocolate, after HE wanted to roast the marshmallow.

MMMmmmmmmm, yummy!!

MMMMMOOOOOOOO!!!!

Before we went tubing, we all met up at Country Dairy to have lunch. They had yummy food, all the milk you could drink (LOVED the chocolate milk), a playground, and COWS!! All the kids played on the playground for a little while, then went over to the cows to see if they could TOUCH one.

Amaya, Josh, Justin, Jake and Mason.

This cow just kept mooing at the other cows to come and help him. Finally a female cow came to his rescue. Justin kept asking me, "are they going to make out?"

MOOOOOOOO!

Amaya trying to touch "Bessie", as I named her.

Amaya pretending to milk the cow.

The dairy also has a tour, in which you attend Moo School to learn more about the dairy, then you go on a tour of the facility, and finish it up with a free ice cream cone ( they made the ice cream of course ). I'd like to go back on another day to attend the tour, I think my kids would enjoy it.

Tubing-Stoney Creek

Yesterday we had plans to go tubing down a river, we have had these plans for a few weeks. Joel from work set the whole thing up. Scott even had the day off so that he could go with, as we were going with a few friends from MY work. Amaya and Jake have been anxiously awaiting for Thursday to roll around so that they could go tubing. We had a babysitter all lined up for Ryan so that we, #1 wouldn't be out numbered going down the river, and #2 because he is quite young and we wanted to enjoy ourselves by relaxing as we went down the river. We woke up, the weather was gorgeous, talked with the girls who were going, then later got a call from Trish...


T: We're not going!


L: What do you mean, you're not going?


T: It's pouring here and the sky is all dark.


L: Hold on, don't make any decision yet, I'll call you back.


So, I turned on the weather channel and it showed a green blob over Muskegon and surrounding areas, but seemed to be moving south. It was small enough that I wasn't worried about it staying over where we were supposed to go. I called Trish back and all was good!


Driving up to New Era with the kids, we were driving into this storm. The sky was so dark and the rain was pouring down.


Jake: I don't think this idea was such a good idea


We started laughing, it was so funny.


So when we got up there, the weather was beautiful! The water was warm, and the river was great. It wasn't deep at all, infact, the kids could have walked just about the whole thing. We just floated down the river peacefully. Ahhhhhh, relaxing. We all want to go again.


The kids had a ball and loved it. (Lesley, Scott, Amaya and Jake. Trisha with Mason and Justin. Julie with Josh, and Becca with Baby Hunter-still in utero)
This is the crew, minus Joel's family, that went down the river. Joel was getting his family ready- (brothers, kids, and other friends that he had go)
After the float, some of us hung out at the beach. It was quite windy, but the kids still loved it.

Scott and Julie at the kiddie pool being hawkeyes. Caity with Tanner.




Jake, Scott and Amaya playing in the "kiddie pool"



Jake making a run for the deeper waters (about 3 feet)


















Joel making a sand castle, while Josh supervises.




Amaya's cool big jump.

Tuckered and cold Josh.















What a beautiful day we all had.