Marchety March March

March! One month at a time, that's how I roll.  Actually I am rolling more at a pace of one day, sometimes one hour at a time. But that's only because summer has officially started around here.  A perfect time to play a little catch-up.

 Remember that saying that when your kids are small the days are long but the years are short? Boy, is that ever a true statement. 
I am trying, on ocassion, to be the kind of fun Mom to Jonah that I was to the girls when they were small.  We did stuff, a lot of stuff.  I feel like Jonah misses out on that kind of thing because we are so busy maintaining the activities of the older ones, he just gets dragged around all the time and there's no time for anything else.  But he's a happy, easy going kid so I haven't been all that worried about it.  I am embracing the here and now - and if there truly is a time and a season, then the game now is figuring out what season the kids are all in and how to accommodate that.
So I took Jonah to the Houston Fire Museum.  It was pretty interesting and even though the poor lady thought she could wrangle a dozen toddlers into sitting down for a 30 minute interactive story time when there was a huge fire engine and dress ups, we managed to play our little hearts out for the short time we were there.  Just in case you were all wondering, Jonah looks adorable as a firefighter.

Then Clark and Jonah went on their second official Father Son campout.  And for the second year in a row, Clark stayed the night and Jonah was delivered home to me to sleep in his own bed.

We have a beautiful new Young Womens leader in the ward who just so happens to be a published young adult author! She had a book signing in Houston so Megan and I made an afternoon of it by taking all of our girls out to eat and then going to the adorable real live book store for signed copies and a bag of homemade caramels.  It's called The Storyspinner by Becky Wallace.  Read it.  It's a good one.

Then we did something silly and new.  Mr. Puppy Pants is a fancy little doggy whose family all hold titles and whatnot in doggy shows (see how technical and experienced I am?!) The breeder would love to maintain her line as quality pups so we got our feet wet in the ring.  Clark and I attended a couple of confirmation classes to learn the ring (along with Rocket's brother there on the left - a fount of valuable information, the owners, that is - the dogs are of little help.)  Clark got to be the lucky one to sweat while running the pup around and trying to get him to stand right, if he would stand still at all.  We entered him in a show and everything.

Rockets Red Glare took second place!! Granted, there were only two dogs in his age group, BUT he didn't get kicked out of the ring and honestly that is all we were hoping for on his first try.
Clark did a super awesome job and it made us want to watch Best in Show really bad.
He's a pretty dog, even if he does chew everything he can get his teeth on.

Then it was Rodeo.  I love Rodeo.  I adore it.  It's one of the highlights of living in Houston.  We loaded up the cousins and went in for the day.

We did all the stuff you are supposed to do at Rodeo, mainly wear boots and hats, look at baby animals and watch 30 teenagers try to catch calves with their bare hands.  Oh and eat lots of food.  Always a good time.

Clark and I have conceded to the fact that we make adorable children, but we are not so good at the ear/nose/throat area.  Jonah is our third child to have his tonsils and adenoids out.  But as a bonus he got tubes put in too.  This happened a good three months ago and I can report now that the ears are clear and free of repeat infections but he seems to have worse allergies - I am blaming the dog.  Clark disagrees.

 He did really well, all things considering.  Coming out of anesthesia was a nightmare (imagine a strong little wiry two year old with IV lines coming out of his foot, thrashing around, throwing things and yelling for 45 minutes.)  The nurses were awesome.  We were at a facility that is typically outpatient but they have one hospital room set up for overnight observation, a requirement for someone of his age.  It was a pretty miserable night mostly because the IV in his foot was driving him crazy but he ate jello and Popsicles to his little hearts content and we watched Finding Nemo about 10 times.

The highlight for me in March, was a trip to Utah to have a Mo/Sisters weekend.  I left on a Thursday and came home on Monday.  It was perfectly wonderful except that the day I left I was taking a thing of boiling water out of the microwave and Jonah was at my feet.  I spilled the water down my hand and it splashed on Jonah's little face.  I was so upset - between the guilt of burning my baby and the pain from the burn, I think I cried for an hour.  Jonah had a couple of spots on his forehead and cheek, luckily missing his eyes and they seemed to heal more quickly than my hand.  It could've been worse but, man alive, burns hurt. (The day we hiked around St. George, I had to take off one of my socks and wear it on my hand because even the sun hitting it was terrible.)

But sitting in a quiet apartment without kids to take care of or a house to maintain, was pretty blissful for a few days.  And being with all these women in my family, perfection.
Sho and Spencer were even in town so even though Marie Laure couldn't make it down to St. George with us, I still got to spend time with everyone while I was there.

We weren't in St. George for very long but we fit in a lot of fun girl stuff - manicures, pedicures, massages, movies, good food, shopping and late nights.

 And baby hands, don't forget the baby hands.  It's not a party without creepy baby hands.

 The pink was pure coincidence.  I had never been to St. George before.  And while I don't think I could appreciate living in the desert, it sure was an amazing place to see.

These women are such a blessing in my life.  I am so grateful for a family that loves each other and that are strong and amazing examples of good things! It really is a gift and I love them!!

I'm not sure if I have made any mention yet of Hazel's horse back riding lessons and it would take far too much energy to go back and look.  So I will explain again! Hazel has been asking for riding lessons for so long I can't even think back to when she started asking.  For Christmas she got riding boots and lessons.  She loves going! We found a lovely little place that she started out at and she absolutely loved it.  As it turns out though it wasn't the best place for us as they had to cancel lessons ALL the time because of weather and no covered riding area and though the instructor was very very nice, she was also very busy and not able to accommodate us even weekly.  We have since found her another place close by and she starts there this week.

Funny Bunny Day.  Lots of plastic eggs.  Lots of cousins.  Small backyard.  Same as last year.  Lovely.

Hazel's birthday happened to fall on Easter and Conference weekend this year.  She is a sport and never complained a single word about having to share the day with other things.  She is as sweet as she ever was and we adore this baby girl to pieces.

And then this little miracle made it's debut.  From the moment I knew there would be a number 6 it's been a roller coaster of emotion and confidence.  Six is a lot of kids but knowing that there is nothing that brings us more joy in the world, we are thrilled and excited.