CAT

Look what JD did today! What a little smarty pants! He's going to be a great little student when we start school in a few months.

Scorpion

One thing we were concerned about before moving here was scorpions. I'm not sure why. We were never really worried about them when we lived here before. I don't think Jerry's parents have ever had one in there house and I can't remember my parents ever having one in theirs either. 

Some of our friends who live out this way have/see them often and having a little baby who could be stung and not be able to tell us, just made us nervous I guess.

I never saw one when this house was empty or the whole time I was cleaning before we moved in. We did see one (dead) in the guest house storage room. So, we had the house sprayed right after we moved in. Out here in the "country", I was actually surprised the house wasn't crawling with them. One night, I commented that I was happy we hadn't seen even one, a moment later I walked into the kitchen and saw one in the middle of the floor. He was promptly flattened with a shoe. Now we are on the lookout.

I never walk around without shoes on. When I get up to breastfeed the baby I walk with a black light that would make any scorpions glow. Most nights I do a quick check of the kids rooms right before I go to sleep. We don't leave clothes on the floor. I always tell the boys to check their outside shoes. We found one or two more, usually right by a door. I almost picked one up while vacuuming the other day. 

Then we found one in the back hallway. He was moving pretty slow - probably due to the exterminator spray - so we decided to pick him up (on a piece of paper, not with our hands!) and put him in a jar. We kept him there for awhile. It was a fun conversation piece to show people who came to our house. If you shook the jar, he would get his tail ready to sting. Sometimes we would even take the jar into the master closet and show people how the black light makes them fluoresce. 

Knowing they eat crickets, we gave him one we found in the yard. We all watched as the scorpion attacked the cricket. The next day the scorpion was dead too. Must have been the bug spray on the cricket. There was no mourning, we just tossed the whole jar in the garbage and went on with our lives. We haven't seen another scorpion in the house since.

How old?

Annabeth's birthday is coming up and we're getting her ready for the big day...

I taught all the boys to do this just before their first birthdays too. Annabeth got it right away! For some reason the first time we showed Wesley in the morning and then Daddy later in the day she cried after she did it. A big pouty face followed by crying with big tears. I have no idea why. But after a few more times she did it with a happy face. All the brothers were very impressed!

I didn't think she'd learn it in one day or I would have waited. I'm actually in a little bit of denial that Annabeth will be one soon. I want her to stay little just a bit longer... this age is my favorite!

Dad's Day!

This is an updated/edited post from last year...

Jerry became a first-time dad almost 21 years ago at age 18. Maybe part of the reason he is such a great father is because he's been one for his whole adult life!

Jerry and Roz in August 1991

Over ten years later he became a dad for the second time, to his first son. Little did we know how many sons we'd end up with!

Jerry and Wesley in March 2002

Surprise! We doubled our number of kids (for the second time!) with the addition of twins less than two years after Wesley was born.

Jerry and Eli in January 2004

Jerry and Justus in January 2004

Jerry holding both twins for the first time!
February 2004

He's been a dad in his teens, twenties, and thirties. He's had both girls and boys, singletons, multiples, full term, and preemies. He's been dad to babies, toddlers, tweens, teens, and adult children.

Jerry and Hayden in November 2005

Our sixth child and fifth son was named after daddy. What can I say, we ran out of names! :) Two Jeremys in the house and neither goes by his given name!

Jeremy and Jeremy (aka Jerry and J.D.)
July 2007

He's now dad to two daughters (born 20 years and 10 days apart) AND five sons (all born in a less than six year span)!

Jerry and Annabeth in August 2011

He's a great father... there, not just for the big events in the lives of his children, but the little ones too. Day in and day out. Hands on. Patient beyond belief.

Happy Father's Day

Jerry!!

Angry Friends

The boys have a friend Hayden, or H.B. as we like to call him, from the old neighborhood. We love to have him and his mom over to visit and chat. Both Haydens really love Angry Birds. During H.B.'s last visit I took a few photos of the boys with their Angry Bird creations.

Our (Temporary) Pool

We are having a pool built sometime in the next month or two, but apparently the process takes a LOT longer (and costs a LOT more) than we realized. So we spent a few bucks and got a temporary play pool. I did a little online research and decided to get the pool that would be the deepest without going over JD's head.

We ended up with a 13ft x 39" easy set up pool. We weren't opposed to the ones with a frame but this was just the right height. Toys R Us had it in stock and Jerry stopped by to pick it up on the way home from work on Friday. It was pretty darn easy to set up.

Just spread it out on a flat surface (we chose the patio after a good sweeping) and blow up the ring. Multiple helpers and observers optional.

Then turn on the hose and smooth out the bottom once you have about an inch or so of water.

After Jerry gave it a few tugs all around, I got in and crawled around on the floor smoothing out the bottom.  Unfortunately, I found a very small hole. We were able to patch it and now you'd never know it was there.

Then you just let the hose run and run and run. The boys were sad to have to go to bed before trying it out. After they were asleep and it was about half way full Jerry and I got in to check it out. The water comes out of the hose at 90 degrees so it was pretty much a hot tub with no bubbles. We enjoyed sitting in it knowing that it would be too deep to sit in once it was full. When we got out the air felt freezing! It was probably still at least 85 degrees though. We turned off the water and went to bed.

Saturday morning we got up and turned the hose on right away. The boys slept like it was Christmas Eve they were so excited to get out there and swim! We let the pool fill some more while we fed them breakfast.

And then, even though it wasn't quite full, we let them in!

They had a blast! Thankfully, the water cooled off a bit over night so it was actually quite refreshing. Isn't that strange? Usually you fill a pool with cold water and wait for it to warm up. We filled a pool with hot water and waited for it to cool off!

Even Annabeth got in with Mom! She was a little nervous at first but seemed to like it after a few minutes. She didn't even cry when the brothers accidentally splashed her a few times.

After a good long swim, it was time to get out and have a snack. Of course, they wanted to get back in but it was midday and time to get out of the sun for awhile.

Here it is all full... 2,200 gallons later. It's about 31 inches deep.

We swam again in the afternoon and, once again, they were mad about having to get out. We bought a few pool toys including a raft for mom. I tried to float for a bit after they went to bed but the wind had picked up and I was actually too cold. What a big Arizona sissy I'm turning into! As long as I stayed in the water I was warm so I gave up on the raft and just enjoyed a quiet swim/squat. :) We have to get a water thermometer so we can see just how warm the water gets.

I'd say come on over for a swim but we pretty much max out this pool so you'll just have to wait until the real one is all finished. Then you can come on over anytime!!

A Quick Trip: Part 2

A Quick Trip: Part 1 can be found here.

Even though it was a short trip, we packed a lot in.

Annabeth slept great. She spent most of the night in the small portable hotel crib, but after her morning nursing she dosed back off in the big bed.

We spent some time with family. We stopped at Grandma Vern's to say hello and she even let us get a picture! We took the rental car and drove up to Grandma Linda's on Friday morning. I didn't take any pictures while we were there though. Then Friday evening we went an hung out with Abby and family including some delicious Gallagher's Pizza.

 We also hung out in the hotel room some of the time. Mostly to rest and nurse and play toys. LaForce gave us a voucher for a free breakfast, so Annabeth and I went down and took advantage of that all three mornings. Actually, Sunday morning we got to go to a really nice buffet instead of the little hotel restaurant. Grandma and Pa joined us for that before we had to say good-bye.

Jerry and I got all dressed up and went down to the LaForce dinner on Saturday evening. Which was the whole reason we came. Annabeth stayed up in the hotel room with Pa and Grandma (that will be another post). I came up several times throughout the evening to check on her and once to nurse her before bed. It worked out great.

Before we knew it we were on the plane headed home.

I took the picture below for the boys… it's a rainbow from above!

It was a great getaway! Packed with as much fun as we could cram into 3 days. I'm already looking forward to going next year.

A Quick Trip: Part 1

May is one of my favorite months... my birthday, Mother's Day, Memorial Day, the unofficial start of summer, and the annual LaForce (company) dinner. Surprisingly, moving to Arizona didn't stop us from attending this year! LaForce was nice enough to fly us and another of Jerry's co-workers in for the weekend.

We dropped the boys off with Grandma Molly and Grandpa John (thanks again guys!) on Wednesday night but since she is still nursing, we kept the baby with us. Bright and early Thursday morning, the rest of us (me, Jer, and Annabeth) dragged ourselves to the airport. We made our way through check-in and security just in time to board. [Funny side story: Jerry recognized the people behind us in the check-in line. They were the grandparents of one of Roz's DePere friends. They live here but were heading back for a visit.] Annabeth couldn't have been better on the flight. I don't think she made an unhappy peep the whole time.

First Plane Ride!

Annabeth sat on our laps. She nursed a bit, slept a (tiny) bit, read the safety instruction pamphlet, played with a few toys, and looked out the window.

We got to Wisconsin just in time for lunch (our time). We decided on Chili's. I kept waiting for a meltdown at any time since Annabeth hadn't napped more than a half hour or so since her very early wake up. But she did great! She just sat in a high chair and let us eat.

She took a quick nap on the car ride from Appleton to Green Bay but popped awake when we stopped at Festival (grocery store) for some snacks. Then it was off to the hotel to get settled. We were all off a bit because of the time zone change and since both AZ and WI feel like home to me I even got confused on the "where" as well as the "when" a few times.

Thursday night I met several friends in the hotel restaurant/bar. I'm not a drinker, but it was a good convenient location to meet up. Jerry kept the baby up in the room so she could eat her dinner then he brought her down to say hi to the gang. We had a great time visiting. No one batted an eye at the fact we had a baby in a bar past 10pm. Only in Wisconsin!

While I chatted with my friends, Jerry held Annabeth and ate at the bar. He ended up talking with a couple who owns those stuffed animal crane games you see in stores and restaurants. (Here's a tip straight from owners: Don't bother playing. You can't win!) So a bit later I look over and there sits my baby at a bar in Wisconsin with a HUGE pile of stuffed animals! Seems she had made a few friends at the bar!

Here's a picture of her with some of her new friends I took the next morning. 

We gave most of them to my mom to donate to the Salvation Army keeping only the pink puppy to bring home to our stuffed-animal-loving niece here in AZ.

To be continued...

Sleepy

to be added

Family Photo Time

When Roz comes for a visit we always have to squeeze in a family photo. We grab the tripod, round everyone up, and give a short speech about smiling nice. Unfortunately, we usually do it at the last minute when we're in grubby clothes. One of these days we'll plan ahead...

First, the whole family...

Then just the kids...

Plus a "silly" shot, just for fun...

I think Sam is wondering what he got himself into in this one.

Sweet Pickle (aka JD) requested a photo...

Roz and I got creative on this one. Here she is holding tiny Justus...

Side note: I love the mountains! See them in the background? Whenever I drive somewhere I can always find my way back home by looking for them.

Smiling Justus...

Ready, set, jump! 

Boo Boo

Annabeth is now 9 months old! She is growing so fast and learning so many new things! Here are some fun facts about our little sweetie...

In addition to Annabeth, we call her AnnaBooBoo or Boo Boo for short. JD also made up a nickname that we all use: Bob-a-gobs! We have no idea how he came up with that one, but it's fun!

She can sit by herself but doesn't crawl yet. She was a late roller and for a long time would not bear weight on her legs. Her little legs would just fold up under her. But after (finally) taking a liking to her exersaucer she now bears weight on her legs! He newest accomplishment... if you hold her hands and say "stand up" she will pull herself up. Overall she isn't very physical. She is, however, very verbal.

She says "Mama" when she wants me. I think she was the only one of the seven to say "Mama" before "Dada"! She also says "nigh nigh" when she's ready for bed. She surprised me the other day by trying to say "bath" when I was filling the tub with water for her. Speaking of baths, she hated them early on in her little life but now LOVES them. She kicks and splashes and tries to lick the water.

After sleeping through the night for MONTHS during and after our move. She decided night time visits were fun after all. Thankfully, she just nurses and goes right back to sleep and I have a comfortable recliner in her room so I don't mind that too much.

She dances to just about any type of music. She especially likes to dance to a little song I made up. Sung to the tune of Alouette:
Anna Boo Boo
Anna Anna Boo Boo
Anna Boo Boo
Anna Anna Boo

She has four teeth. The two top teeth just came in recently. She discovered she can get Mommy riled up by grinding her top and bottom teeth together. Fun! Not. She is eating various solids and cereals that her brothers lovingly call "baby mush". So far she has liked everything we've given her except peaches.

She waves bye-bye and claps if you say "clap" or say "yay". She loves to watch videos of herself doing these things on Mommy's iPad. She requested I end this post with one of her favorite episodes. It includes several of her tricks mentioned above including the teeth grinding. Wesley does the honors of singing her little song. Here it is...

Introducing...

We've added a new family member to the Shown family! Meet Sam...

He is a 7 month old Queensland Heeler. We have had a dog in the family since we got our sweet Lucky in May 1996. We were sad when we lost Buck, but didn't rush to get another dog. It worked out since moving with a pet is hard, but we knew we wanted a new dog sometime after we got settled in our own house again.

Jerry did a little research and decided he wanted a Queensland Heeler. I had never heard of that breed. It didn't really matter to me, I like all dogs! We looked at a few rescue sites online but didn't call or email them. We were at our neighbor's house for a get together and Jerry mentioned we wanted a Queensland Heeler and it just so happened a friend of a friend was looking for a home for hers! He needed more space and attention. We have both! So we emailed the friend and arranged a time to go pick him up.

He was already named Sam so we decided we liked that well enough to keep it. It worked out that Roz was here for a visit so she was here for the first week of Sam's new life with the Shown family! I think he's still wondering where she went. He looks for her every time we go out to the guest house.

He's a smart dog, but still acts like a puppy too. He is mostly house trained (he better learn to be fully house trained if he knows whats good for him!). He already knows how to "sit" and "shake". He tries to "herd" the boys when we are out running around the yard with them. He was not crate trained but figured that out after just a couple days. He now goes right into the crate on command. He seems to like it. In fact, he's sleeping in his crate right now and I didn't even send him in there.

He does really well with the three big boys. Eli especially likes to get down and wrestle with him on the floor. The two little boys have endured a few nips and tackles as Sam tries to find his place in the "pack". Since Annabeth isn't really mobile yet Sam doesn't seem to notice her too much. We were a little worried because she hasn't really been around dogs and cried whenever a dog licked her, but she isn't bothered by Sam at all!

Overall Sam is adjusting nicely to his new home and family. We look forward to teaching him some fun tricks (any suggestions?) and keeping him happy & healthy for many years to come!