Quotable Quotes

Last Sunday was Ward Conference. The chapel was hot...very hot. The air in the chapel has been turned off for several weeks, but it's still warm in Albuquerque... With blazing red cheeks Jared exclaimed in his not-so-quiet voice (as much as Jared tries, he really only has one volume and it is not quiet) "Mom, church is so boring to listen to!" There were smiles and quiet chuckles from the people sitting in several of the surrounding benches.

The other day Jared couldn't find something he was looking for. He exclaimed, "This is very strange and mysterious!"

And his obsession for weapons continues yet again. A few weeks ago as I was putting Jared to bed he said, "Mom, Rowdy (his little preschool friend) has like 100 swords. He has one with blue fire on it, and it is so powerful. Maybe I could have a powerful sword like Rowdy."

Mistaken Identity

Have you ever seen one of these?

Last week as we were saying good-bye to our garden for the season and pulling it out Kaitlyn and Brynn each found one of these really cool bright green caterpillars...or so we thought. They put their "pets" in a jar and were hoping to keep them until they turned into butterflies.

It wasn't until a few days later when I was describing our caterpillar to some friends that they said, "It sound's like a tomato-horn worm." And so it is. A nasty predator of the garden able to annihilate our tomato and pepper plants. And we're housing it as a pet!

When I told the girls the news Brynn responded, "Oh, gross! I can't believe I ever touched that thing!" Kaitlyn is remaining true and loyal to her plump green friend...but instead of its place in her room her jar has been moved outside.

What This World Really Needs

KAITLYN ESPLIN FOR VICE PRESIDENT!

Kaitlyn's second grade class held their own election. Kaitlyn ran for Vice President. She made a poster in class with the help of two campaign managers, and then she had to give a speech. She wrote the following speech by herself:

Hi my name is Kaitlyn. If I were vice president,
I would keep people on track.
I would help people if they were hurt.
I would be kind to every one.
And if people were scared I would help them not to be.

What a sweet little girl. She ran against two other little girls and one boy. The boy won (I'm pretty sure from the numbers that he got all the boy votes and the girls split the girl votes) but it didn't seem to phase Kaitlyn. She said she'd run again in January when they re-elect officers. Way to go Kaitlyn!

Some Good Catches

The girls are obsessed with bug and creature catching. Brynn slowly paces the sides of the field during Kaitlyn's soccer practice with her head down and fingers ready to pounce any grasshopper she can find--and she's usually rewarded with several after the hour is up. Kaitlyn and Brynn made a little contraption of two Cool Whip containers connected with a toilet-paper roll for the grasshopper's home. They cut a large hole in the lids and then coverd the holes with saran wrap so they can see their discoveries better but they can't escape. It's quite inventive..but really, grasshoppers? I have a better appreciation for "A Bugs Life" which is one of Jared's favorites. They made that ugly Hopper look exactly like the real thing!

Can you tell what Kaitlyn caught here? A huge praying mantis! Those big-eyed things give me the creeps...I don't like to make eye-contact with any bugs!

The same day they caught the praying mantis they caught a little baby lizard. Kaitlyn is so quick with the baby lizards and doesn't even flinch when she gets hold of them. The kids got a big bucket that we've used for other lizard finds and put both the lizard and praying mantis together. The lizard buried itself in the sand at the bottom of the bucket and the praying matis perched on the twig and leaves the kids got for it.

The only problem? A couple days later I learned something the hard way. Did you know praying mantis are carniverous insects! They don't like the leaves we put in there for it, instead they like to feed on beetles, spiders, grashoppers and small vertebrates like you guessed it...baby lizards! I didn't believe Kaitlyn when she told me the praying mantis ate the lizard, but the dead remains were proof to us all. Oops! It was a simple mistake. When it was all said and done, Brynn commented that she had been worried about having both the praying mantis and the lizard in the bucket together, but she was more worried for the safety of the praying mantis.

Brynn Rocks!

Brynn "rocks"...and so does everything else she thinks is cool, neat or fun. Lately she's pulled a line from some movie (I'm not even sure which one) and asks, "What am I, chopped liver?" when things don't go her way.

Brynn lost her first tooth last Monday. A few weeks ago she complained that her gums hurt when she clenched her teeth. When I looked in her mouth and told her her front bottom two teeth were loose Brynn was ecstatic. She started wiggling her teeth non-stop from that moment on. She also voiced her wish that she'd lose her tooth at school because you get to go to the nurses office and she gives you a cute little tooth box to take your tooth home in.

Last Sunday Brynn's tooth was barely hanging on. She didn't want to pull it, and she didn't want us to help her either. But, the next day at school during calendar time (the first thing they do each morning) Brynn made her wish come true by pulling her tooth out and going to the nurses office. Sure enough, she had a small plastic tooth-shaped box with a flip top lid when I picked her up that afternoon. Here's a picture of Brynn with her teeny-tiny tooth--it was so small in fact that when Brynn first saw it she thought she'd only pulled out half of it!

Brynn started Kindergarten this year...a dream come true for her. She has been ready to start school since Kaitlyn began two years ago. She started reading this summer and loves it. She loves to do arts and crafts and is a great artist. She has been writing stories and Halloween poems lately. With the amount of paper we go through in a day, I'm sure we're responsible for the demise of several rainforest's...sorry!

Brynn's teacher told me that she loves Brynn's sense of humor. Apparently, Brynn is the only one who laughs at the jokes her teacher makes and then Brynn usually has a funny retort to give back. Brynn truly is a funny girl. I marvel at her sharp mind, and I love it when I'm reading out loud to her and she starts laughing loudly when something funny happens in the book.

Brynn got her hair cut a month or two ago...isn't it cute. She loves it, especially because now she thinks she looks like Kit, from the American Girl series of books we've been reading. Of course, now she wants an American Girl doll!

Brynn loves soccer and is quite the player. She usually scores most of her teams goals--it helps that she tends to be one of the tallest players in the league and most of the little girls stay out of her way.

We love this cute girl and are so glad she's part of our family!

Why I Love Albuquerque

We've lived in Albuquerque for 2 1/2 years now. Wow--that's almost a record for us! The first time Scott mentioned a job opening for Honeywell in New Mexico I laughed. Are you serious? Do people really live in New Mexico? I was praying that moving to Albuquerque was not the right decision...I knew it couldn't be the right decision the first time we flew into the drab airport (it has since been remodeled and looks much more up-to-date). Despite my disdain for turquoise, southwest decorating, vigas, (round logs used as ceiling beams or support beams right in the middle of the house!) and flat roof homes (which we now own) I couldn't deny moving here was indeed the right thing for us. And we love it. We love the mountains. We love the weather. We love that Albuquerque is a little behind the times. Some may think that last one is a disadvantage...not me. I love that few are hip on the latest fashion styles like you find in some areas; it makes me feel right at home.

But the best thing about Albuquerque is the annual Balloon Fiesta. What an amazing ten days!

This year 625 balloons participated. There's nothing like seeing so many balloons in the sky...you can't help but smile and be happy!


We watched these two balloons inflate and take off from the playground at the girls school.

And then I drove home and saw this balloon fly right over our house. I love when they're close enough to wave to the pilots!

We went to a balloon glow at night where the balloons inflate, and then when it gets dark they all light up. It's impressive. The best part is that most of the balloonists have trading cards like baseball cards with the stats and pictures of their balloons. The girls and I ran from balloon to balloon trying to get as many cards as we could. Scott shakes his head in embarrassment at the sight of us, but I just can't help it!

The kids had Friday off from school so we spent the morning chasing the balloons around in the car. I think this is the most exciting part of Balloon Fiesta. We watched the above balloon from Orlando, FL land and got to help put it away!

Then we raced in our car to hurry and watch the "Silver Star" from Bountiful, UT land. I discovered roads I never knew existed as I followed the balloon to see where it would land.

We helped hold down the tarp here.

And ended the morning with a picture in the basket...how perfect!

Messy Memories

I have been touched by a story of a young mother with four kids, almost the ages of mine, who was in a plane crash and has been in critical condition for several months with over 80% of her body burned. She had been keeping a blog for several years and had quite a following of people she didn't even know because of her positive attitude on life and especially on motherhood.

Reading some of her posts has made me reflect on some things I want to do better with my own children. I have felt the need to try harder to help create fun memories with my kids. It is far too easy to get into the rut of our daily routine, and I've often felt too exhausted to even try an attempt at something more.

I geared myself up, and on Conference Sunday (twice a year the leaders from our church speak to its worldwide members http://www.lds.org/) we spent every non-Conference part of the day making the messiest but most fun treat...sugar cookies! My kids love the entire process...cutting out the cookies, frosting and decorating. Because of the mess and work of it all I rarely instigate this project.

Before the first session of Conference we had all the cookies cut (we had almost 70!) and baked. I was already tired and grateful for President Monson's talk encouraging us to enjoy our moments with our young children...it gave me an extra boost to move onto part 2--frosting and sprinkles!! Sprinkles drowned cookies as children tend to do and orange and green frosting clumps clung to chairs and walls...but the kids loved every minute of it.

The best part? After our masterpieces were all decorated we piled up plates of cookies and brought them around to the neighbors. And then the excitement catapulted as we drove to some houses of friends in the ward and the kids sneakily crept to their front doors, rang the bell and ran with all their might back to the van as to not get caught. We were the "Cookie Phantoms" and I think the kids could have done that all night. It was fun for Scott and I to watch the three older kids race with such glee---Ellie almost gave us away screaming and whining because she wanted to be in the run as well. Jared was in heaven being included with the girls and was sure he could run just as fast as them since he has big muscles.

At the end of the day there was a lot of mess to clean up...but it was definitely worth it!