Laiklyn's Backyard Toys

Date: May 22nd

I was just to the point of throwing away the backyard little kid toys

and wouldn't you know it I now will have another batch of little kids.

So I've been buying new ones to replace the arizona sun faded beat up toys.

Ryan is loving all the boxes that magically appear in the mail

that he has to spend hours to assemble! lol :)

Laiklyn is loving her new lounge chairs and matching sand box!

Ok maybe Anden likes it too!

Cmon who isn't a sucker for miniature kid chairs?

I would climb in there and suck on a fruity umbrella drink too

...if only I could fit! haha

Anden's Desert Project

Date: April 20-29th

Anden was assigned to build a 

Desert Diorama

based off a book they had read.

He was adamant that it had to include all the animals from the book:

Snake

Scorpion

Kangaroo Mouse

Owl

Bat
Gila Monster
Fox
etc
etc

I told him no problem I would find pictures of each animal to include.

He corrected me.

"No Mom I want a real snake and scorpion!"

I started laughing

"Honey there's NO way you can take a real snake to school!"

He again assured me that his teacher said it was ok.
I laughed again and nodded that suuuure his teacher agreed.
Well he went on a mission to find a snake anyway.

Lucky for him we live in the desert
and there's an abundance of snakes.
Not lucky for me!
As we were driving home from church the next day
I glanced out the window on the street behind our house
and wouldn't you know there was a snake laying off to the side of the road.
I quickly debated whether I should even point it out to Anden or not.
Then I decided since I thought it was dead already
that might be my best option rather than him finding an alive snake!

"Look Anden there's a snake on the road!!"
"Mom quick STOP!!"
So I pulled over and he jumped out to go see if it was dead or alive.
We couldn't figure out if it was dead or just sleeping.
It was in perfect shape, no tire marks or any damage.
Anden and Taylee wanted to grab it and bring it in the car with us home.
UH HECK NO!

So instead we went home and I gave Anden a pair of gloves and a box
and told them they could walk back and see if it was still there.
Off they went walking with their snake capturing equipment
while still in the finest best dressed church clothes.
Yes Anden in a tie and Taylee in a dress and heels.
Shortly after they returned beaming with pride at their new pet dead snake!

Ryan and I inspected him and yes he was in fact dead.
But again not a single mark on him.
We determined he must have had a heart attack?
So off he went into a ziploc bag...
and into my garage fridge
until we figured out if he would survive the 6 days until the project was due.

Each time I opened that fridge that stupid snake scared the crap out of me!!
Who really can get used to a snake in your fridge?!
Hhmm what meat should we have today?
Bacon, Chicken or Snake?

Well a few days later we started to assemble Anden's project.

He's such a laid back kid but yet very detailed.

He picked the location and placement of every item and I glued it down.

I emailed his teacher again and made sure that a REAL (yet dead and refridgerated) snake

could come to school.

She assured me it was totally fine.

I assured her it would probably stench up her whole classroom once he opened the ziploc bag! lol

Anden was more than thrilled to take his pet snake to school

but he was still adamant he wanted more real animals in his project.

And then that's when he and Ryan found this BEAST of a scorpion.

O.M.G. keep that away from me!!

And yes it was alive.

And yes Ryan and Anden mounted it to that board while it was alive.

PUKE PUKE PUKE!

And yes I did take a video of it! lol so gross

Well the Friday finally arrived that the projects were due at school.

I drove Anden to school that day and carried it on in.

I made sure that he put the gross snake in his backpack

AND

didn't take it out until we got into his classroom.

I didn't want to cause mass hysteria in the elementary hallways when kids saw it!

Anden was SO proud of his project!

Yes he did get an A on it as well!

After school that day he had his minion of friends helping him carry the project.

I just had to laugh as everyone, boys and girls, were gathered around him begging

to get a sneek peek of the snake in his backpack.

What the heck?!  How come nobody else thinks this is disgusting?! haha

And Another Addition to the Family...

Date: May 16th

Well after we upgraded to a newer boat

we decided we just might need a truck to go along with it.

One of the motivators for me would be that Ryan would stop

using my SUV as his

dump truck, home depot run, trailer pulling, boat pulling, UTV hauling, landscaping mobile.

He seriously was beating the heck out of it!

Poor ripped leather headrest from "I didn't know there was a nail on that piece of wood"

and don't forget the dent in the front bumper from "Where did that wheelbarrow come from?!"

So yes indeed it was time for him to have a manly truck to beat up instead of my car!

Enter the massive F250 Ford Super Duty.

I was worried that beast would even fit on the driveway!

(It sure has heck wasn't going to fit IN the garage!)

When I was driving it home after we bought it, 

he snapped a picture driving next to me.

I now know what it feels like to drive a semi! lol

And then of course we had to test it out and go to the lake that week also!

It passed the test.

You can't separate a man and his truck.

Ryan swears he'll never go without a truck ever again.

I swear if I have to drive it I might accidentally run over a car.

Spring Football Season Wrap Up

Date: May 21st

The boys got home from Father Son campout
a couple hours before Anden's football tournament.

So we changed, packed up for a long evening

and headed across town.

The first game started at 3pm.
We played a team that we were pretty equal with.
The boys had high hopes
but sadly the tournament pressure got to them again
and they just didn't play their best.
So we lost.

I was chasing Laiklyn and everything else that was blowing away
in the insane winds that day.
So I didn't get any action pics.

We had 2 hours to wait until our next game.

The kids played and played in the grass and soccer nets

while the adults struggled to keep the canopies, chairs,

bags, strollers, etc from flying away in the dang crazy wind!

By the time our next game started,

the tournament nerves had worn off however their hearts just weren't into it.

It was a good game but they made more plays than we did.

So we lost again.

After the game the coaches handed out the medals and awards.
Luckily that eases the soreness of losing! lol

Each season Coach Gray's wife Kat prints out an action picture of each boy

to give to them along with their medal.

This season she designed these awesome posters instead.

They LOVED them!

So cool!!

Post Games Pic

Worn Out and Wind Blown Bronco Family!

(Laiklyn's nonstop running combined with the insane winds really gave her the nicest hair do! lol)

It was 7pm we rolled out of the park.

At that point I wasn't sure if I would pay for more food...or a hair brush!!

Now we get a whole two months off before sports start again!!

Woohoo for summer!

Rec Soccer Season Wrap Up

Date: May 21st

This past Saturday was the last rat race sports day for a few months!!

Ahh bittersweet!

I love having my schedule instantly free up during the summer

but we do miss our sports.

First up was Taylee's final soccer game.

She's done awesome this season!

She's scored a goal the last 3 games, including today also!

Again this is an 8-10 year old league.

So she's up against the big girls

They won 4-0!

Then really topped it off by having a pool/pizza party afterwards at Coach's house!

Another fun season in the books!

Team Strikers

Anthem Spring League 2016

Girls 8-10 Soccer

16 Weeks - Pregnancy Update

Date: May 21st

Well since this is the final baby tour

I guess I need to start taking pics and documenting it.

Usually I can get away until about 20-24 weeks before I start getting a baby bump.

But this time around my body is like

"Oh hey it's baby time again!  I know exactly what to do!  

Let me just pop out early and make you some extra comfy room to wiggle and play!"
(or let's be real maybe it's just the extra 7 lbs I never lost from having Laiklyn! sigh)

Maybe that's good for the baby.

But ugh long pregnancy for me to already be feeling and looking 

like I'm 6 mos prego when I'm only 4 mos!!

So here I am at 16 weeks.

As for everything else,

I'm still uncomfortably shoving myself into my normal clothes

and in denial I need to buy a bigger size of britches.

I still have acid reflux 

EVERY.SINGLE.MOMENT.OF.EVERY.DAY.

It's beyond yucky.

But my Doctor has me on 2 prescriptions.

It's help tame the beast a bit.

Some days are better than others.

If you remember with Laiklyn I had these same symptoms.

I told Ryan back then that it was a 50/50 chance

whether this was his genetics causing this

or maybe that I was just older and had taken a long baby break.

Well it's confirmed now

that this is definitely HIS fault!

I let him know routinely! ;)

2 for 2 on sickly pregnancies

Other than that I'm severely anemic.

Big surprise.

It's my nemesis in life.

And it has way too many side effects to even list.

So we're trying to get my iron levels under control

or it's back to an iron transfusion.

Now the positives,

I finally have some energy back now that I'm in my 2nd trimester!

I'm definitely feeling more human again!

No more walking zombie!

And I even wakeboarded the other day!

Um and maybe wrecked twice.

This boat has a way bigger wake!

So not only did I get my hair and make up wet (lol) when I usually don't,

I also used muscles I haven't used in a LONG time.

So yes I'm hobbling around completely sore! ha
(and yes my family quickly reminded me I'm prego and prob shouldn't be jumping the wake! oops lol)

On that note,

there's your 16 week wrap up!

Bedrooms Makeover

Date: May

You know me...

I can't sit still for too long before I start redecorating my house.

But this time it wasn't just my own wild ideas instigating it..

We can blame it on Baby #4 instead.

Bedroom swapping was necessary to accommodate a new wee one.

After much debate over who was going where

we finally decided that:

Project 1: Guest Room is moving downstairs into the Den

Project 2: Taylee is moving into the Guest Room

Project 3: Laiklyn would eventually then move into Taylee's Room

which finally resulted in...

Project 4: Baby #4 takes over Laiklyn's Room

Yes I know this is a ton of work and Ryan is mumbling under his breath.

But I lovingly remind him each time I coerce him into another project,

"Honey you're the one that talked me into this last baby.....!"

And with that he grabs a paintbrush/drill/hammer and digs into the work!

(Yes I may be milking that I have the upper hand on this one! hahaha)

Oh wait I'm the one that's miserably sick and prego.

Hhmm I guess he actually got the upper hand! lol

Anyway stay tuned for tons of makeover details coming soon....!!