I have fallen woefully behind on blogging! Pictures are a good way for me to remember what went on, so this week will be full of pictures. And here we go!
This was a super secret surprise for Hyrum's birthday. These stones are on World of Warcraft. They're called hearthstones. In the game there are inns, and if you talk to the innkeeper you can set certain ones as your hearthstone. Then to get home you just cast your hearthstone spell and it ports you back to your home. My hearthstone was set to a picturesque part of our faction's major city. It was right next to a forge where I could smelt my ore and a blacksmith anvil where I could craft armor and weapons. (Mining and Blacksmithing were the professions I chose.) Anyway, the idea is that Hyrum will have this hearthstone to take on his mission, and we'll keep the other on our mantel. Just a creative way for us to feel a connection. We've got less than a year now before he can go, and it's on my mind all the time. It's gonna be rough. But I'm happy for him. He's a good boy and he'll do well.
Also, he is taking Mission Prep, and Joshua can start going too in March. I like that they give him a chance to practice teaching little parts of the lessons there. It's been so good for him and he loves it.
We got puppies in September. We kind of figured we would again someday. All that with Buster really was so hard on Jeremy. So hard. Anyway, Jeremy's baby brother Joe has two dogs, and they had puppies. Joe loves those dogs, so he wanted the puppies to go to people he knew and loved. He gave us two. I think I discussed this already. Scout is brown and Marshmallow is white. The little ones especially were so happy to have puppies. Henry kept flopping himself down on them. He also hit them A LOT. Poor things. He's getting better. Marshmallow reacts just right, I guess, because he's received the most torture. For a while there Henry would hit him with anything he got his hands on. He's getting better, though. It was hard because we didn't want him to be mean to the puppies, and a lot of the time he was just so sweet with them. But he'd just change like the flip of a switch and start whacking them. Ugh. Anyway, Those poor puppies are afraid of brooms now. But these pictures are cute.
One morning I was looking everywhere for the Scout. I was sure he'd gotten out because I couldn't find him anywhere, and the puppies had gotten out before. I'd fixed the little hole where they got out, and I couldn't figure out how he got out. I went all around, looking and calling. I was worried and even posted on our Gila Valley Moms page on Facebook, asking if anyone had seen him. Then right after that I found him here, sleeping on the living room floor. Stinker.
Silly Timmy
This is the look Henry gives when he's feeling cozy. Sometimes it looks more like duck lips, but he lowers his eyelids like he's suddenly sleepy. It cracks me up.
Bub!
We went to the Apache County Fair with Grandma and Grandpa Badger. It was fun!
Joshua! Ha ha! He wouldn't look up. This is Benji, Hyrum, Joshua, and Bubby.
We paid for Jill to get her face painted. Lucky girl!
I liked this Badger in the crafts section. :)
Timmy loves going to see the pigs. Always gotta see the pigs!
Jill got a backpack from listening to some presentation or other.
I got a squishy light bulb and a Bible!
Check out how he's watching. Ha ha!
Carnival! Benji's in black near the middle of the picture, and Michael is in red in front of him.
Whee!
Joshua and Jill
Bubby and Timmy
Jill, Bubby, and Henry
I love this picture!
Hyrum and Michael
Papa and Henry
There were fireworks that went off while we were at the carnival. Henry is terrified of fireworks, which is a little unfortunate, since we have fireworks across the street at the stadium so often! He's gotten to where he kind of enjoys watching out the window in the yellow room, though, just not outside.
Benji
Timmy needed someone to ride with him on this little kid ride. Benji won. ;)
I got to go to Aunt Louise's funeral. It was so good. I haven't seen these people in so, so long. It made me remember how much I love them all. Here's Leah and me.
We stopped at a scenic spot in Salt River Canyon and looked at the view.
On our way home we stopped to see Grandma Burk. Joshua put Spider-Man's head in a boot. Ha ha!
I looked this up after we got home. I need to post it on Aunt Louise's page on FamilySearch. This is Aunt Louise coming into the This is the Place park the summer of 1997, with the reenactment of the pioneers' journey. I was so happy to see her!
Timmy made a "Don't Eat Pete board."
Timmy's a pretty good potato peeler.
Jill made a mashed potato snowman.
I made this cupcake to be Mario's nose. It looked happy. :)
Coolest class shirt ever!!! Timmy's teacher is the coolest.
Bubby wanted a Mario cake for his birthday. The kiddos helped me. I like how he came out. :)
A fidget spinner! (Hooray for Dollar Tree!)
That evening Benji had a fundraiser dinner for his drama class so they can go to a Broadway musical in the spring. Somehow that meant that he sang with the choir, even though he's not in choir. (?) It was kind of poorly organized as far as food delivery went. Everyone was pretty much done before I even got my plate, including Jeremy and Bubby. (We took Bubby because it was his birthday, so why not?) And it was Hawaiian pork on rice and wasn't very yummy. Kind of a disappointment for $10 a plate, but what do ya do?
Timmy drew these two pictures of Plants vs. Zombies. I love seeing the things he draws!
Timmy brought this home from school.
I should mention, his teacher asked me to come and teach his class a bit about autism. I thought that was so great of her! I brought in a book and some pictures of Timmy, and we talked about some of the things Timmy likes that they like too as well as some of the differences so they can understand better about him and how they can react. I think it went well, but I was kind of terrified.
And right after that I went and withdrew Michael from school. Have I talked about that? Michael was thinking about homeschooling near the end of the school year last year, but he decided he wanted to go back when school started. He has a hard time with the kids in his class. They're just so chatty, and he's tired of getting in trouble along with the rest of them. His whole grade is just chatty. Because he decided to go ahead and go to school we made him wait until the end of the quarter before we let him be done. I found him a language arts curriculum and a math book, and he's assigned to read scriptures and write in his journal daily as well. We just do this and that here and there for social studies and science. I think it's going well. He's old enough to take the initiative and just get it done, and he is doing it.
We like to get ice cream at Thriftee! It's like $.80 or something. Yum!
One Sunday morning I came downstairs after my shower and found this (the next two pictures).
I don't remember the context of this picture. Hmmmm...
We bought this pumpkin ice cube tray at Dollar Tree, and Bubby thought it was way fun. He filled it with already-frozen ice cubes and carrots. Not sure that's really what you do with an ice cube tray, but OK. Ha ha!
This carrot reminded me of Klimpaloon. I can't remember who drew the smiley on it.
I found this caterpillar one day when I took Timmy to school. It was just hanging out on this plant by his gate.
Bubby and Henry watching movies on the ceiling at the dentist. Bubby needed some dental work, so we went to Tucson Smiles, a pediatric dentist. Long drive, but they were really nice and did good. So glad that's over! And we're doing better on brushing these days, so hopefully we'll ever be able to get through cleanings without dental treatment plans. Sigh. We've got a few, but we have to have money saved up for out of pocket costs in the Health Savings account. Not fun.
Henry in the dentist's waiting room
Gotta rubber band those blocks
Val and Jill
Having Val around has been just fine. He is super quiet and he's such a good guy. It's like having my brother staying with us or something. If you thought I was quiet, you should check this guy out. He tells me he values his peace and quiet. I guess so! He even moves quietly. It's astounding. I feel kind of bad for him because this job he got has kind of a crummy/flaky boss. He works for a guy cleaning floors and stuff. The trouble is he doesn't give him a lot of work. It's just kind of when the boss feels up to it. Val is one of two guys who work for him, and the guy pays him as sporadically and flake-ily as he works him. He'll tell him he'll give him work and/or pay him on this certain day, and then the next day he'll say the same thing because the didn't the day before. On his first official week the boss said he'd work Val so hard he'd hate him by the end of the week. Well, he didn't even give him any work until the end of the week, and then it wasn't even that much on those one or two days. It's been quite disappointing. Val has been trying to find different work, but so far hasn't gotten anything. I sure hope something comes up soon!
It's been neat watching him. He's had to learn about living with lots of kids as well as a lot about the gospel. He definitely feels a lot more comfortable now interacting with the kiddos, and it's been fun to see. He's also been reading the Book of Mormon every day, and the missionaries have been coming by now and then. We had them over every other week there for a while. I suppose this would be their night to come again, but I don't know if that's set up. He comes to church with us as well and seems really receptive. I'm really glad. I know the Gospel is such a blessing, and I know it'll bless him! He even watched Conference with us. He said he really enjoyed it and learned a lot.
But anyway, whether or not he ends up joining the church, it's been nice having him here. He's kind of a calm, peaceful influence who also happens to enjoy video games. And with our guild background it really just feels like my brother is staying over or something. We also were really hoping that Lilly and Os could come for Thanksgiving this year, especially since Val was going to be here anyway, but alas, trouble has come to them once again. More on that in another post!
It was 80's day at the middle school, and Benji's teachers and classmates wanted him to do a flock of seagulls hairdo. He was quite pleased with his efforts. ;)
Hyrum in his birthday shirt. Can you believe he's 17?! I remember being 17, and it doesn't really seem that long ago. It's been almost 23 years since I was 17, though!
This kind of broke my heart. Timmy came home from school one day and drew this. Apparently, some kids (Jace and Dayson) put dirt on Timmy's head at school and told him he was a wet dog. See that sad little Timmy there? :( He said that Paisley helped him get the dirt out of his hair. I talked to his teacher later, and she said she talked to all the parties involved and found that Timmy had asked them to do it. I can see that. But still, this picture broke my heart. I guess he didn't want to be a wet dog. Ha ha!
I don't know where this picture came from, but I like it.
Happy birthday to Hyrum!
Orange slices from Grandma
A new tie - purple is his favorite color.
Hearthstones! He now carries one in his pocket. I hope it doesn't break! It's just resin.
Yummy Guadalupe Pie! (Aaron calls it Guadalupee poopy. Ha ha!)
I forgot all about the Homecoming parade, so we didn't get down the street in time to get any candy. It was fun, though.
I don't remember the story behind this. More of Timmy's artwork. Joshua has also been drawing a lot, filling up sketchbook after sketchbook after sketchbook. But he doesn't want me to look at it. Ha ha!
Harry at the bank
It still puzzles me looking at him because he doesn't look like any of his siblings.
Had to take pictures of the haircutting process. Ha ha!
Look how long I let that get! Man!
Don't worry. They both looked better when I was done!
We'd heard people talk about Gila Box, but we'd never been there. So one Sunday afternoon we took a little drive out there to check it out. Who knew there was such a pretty little green spot so close to us?! We'll have to go camping there sometime.
See down there? That's Gila Box.
Usually Henry is very territorial about this stool. It's his "table." But a few times he's shared it with Bubby like this. :)
Benji was given a flower and this note from a secret admirer! They were selling them for Homecoming.
Benji put the flower in a cup with colored water, and this is how it looked the next morning.
This is on one of the pillars at Walmart near the registers. Turkey?! Ha ha!
Timmy made a crown at school. He often comes home with things like this that he just made.
Jill holding a tiny gecko. Awwww!
These little ones fall asleep anywhere!
See that spot on the wall? It started with some peeled paint where the computer chair rubbed against the wall. It got bigger and bigger and bigger. Ugh. I wish I knew how to fix drywall. Maybe it's time to learn.
Bubby is finally old enough to not eat it, so we had Play-Doh for conference again! (He ate like an entire little tub of it that he got for his birthday last year.) Here's Benji. We had some good laughs while we listened. :)
And the other tradition is to play with these shape blocks. Fun!
Timmy and Bubby wanted me to fix their hair. Ha ha!
Timmy asked me to crochet him a crown during Conference. How could I make him one and not Jill?!
Our friends the Jensens had lunch with us and then we watched the second session together. I love those guys! Amy Jensen is definitely my best Thatcher friend. We don't see each other very often, but she's my favorite. I didn't get a picture of her, though. Darn! That's her husband Gaylon on the couch with Val.
Bubby with Sheldon Jensen
