Cousins

This is what boy cousins do when they get together....



We went to Idaho to visit my cousin and her husband, Candy and Robert, and their two boys, Taylor and Joey. Our children had never really met each other and once they got the two minutes of shyness out of them, they were off and having a good time.

Candy and I grew up together and were the best of friends (actually we still are) whenever our family would visit the Barkers in Idaho several times a year. Unfortunately, now that I have a family of my own we hardly ever go to Idaho to visit the Barker side of the family. After the weekend we spent together, however, that will change. I realized how much I miss my extended family and that I need to make it a priority to visit with them more often. And, as Candy said, "Now that my kids know that your kids exist, they'll be bugging us to get together more often!" Ditto.

"Do turtles like pizza?"

This is a question you might get asked if your a mother.

"I don't know, Kyle, you tell me!"

What's up with the broken arms?

Soooooooo, Mariah broke her arm. Yup. Another child, another broken arm. Who's next?

She fell last Friday when she thought using a scooter for a stool was a good idea and it slipped out from under her. At the time she yelled, "I think I broke my arm!" But, knowing Mariah and how dramatic she can be at times, we told her to take it easy and we'd watch her arm to see what happened. It did swell up a bit and there was no doubt an injury; we thought it was just a sprain. We went about the next few days--icing it, elevating it, wrapping it with Ace bandage. She played two soccer games, went to school, etc. The swelling went down, bruising appeared and faded, movement in her wrist was good, but every time she'd bump her arm it would hurt quite a bit. When we realized her arm wasn't getting better, we took her into the doctor.

Sure enough! She had broken the radius bone (the big one) in her arm. Poor thing--she had been running around with a broken arm for days, which made me feel like the world's greatest mother. I told her I was sorry she had to go so long with a broken arm untreated. She said, "It's okay, Mom. It doesn't really hurt that bad." I guess she's pretty tough after all!

The fruit IS my labor...

....isn't it beautiful? I got three boxes of ripe tomatoes the other day (for free!) and so frantic canning ensued. I've never canned tomatoes before, but I took advice from several people, looked up the simplest recipe I could find, and got to work! I wanted to get them processed as quickly as possible, but after finishing 21 quarts of crushed tomatoes and still having a box left, I figured I'd branch out and try to make salsa. Let me just say that salsa is a lot of work. Chopping, chopping, burning hands from the jalapenos, chopping, chopping, watering eyes from the onions, chopping, chopping, stinky fingers from the garlic, chopping...... But once the pot starts bubbling, the smell of fresh salsa is superb. There's no smell to compare and it is wonderful!

While I was preparing the first box of tomatoes, I kept finding mutilated tomatoes which Karina had obviously been "taste testing" for me.


I'll say that I'm pretty much tomatoed out at this point. I threw the remaining tomatoes in the freezer to deal with at a later date. It was a lot of work but I'm happy to have tomatoes to use in the winter for sauces and such, and there's nothing like the satisfaction that comes with seeing beautiful jars of canned food sitting on the counter at the end of the day.

Grant has his arm back!

On Monday Grant finally got to shed his cast and don a removeable splint. His arm has healed well, although he did alter the bone position a bit with his high activity level. The bones are curved a bit at this point but the doc says his body will straighten them out as he grows, and looking at the x-rays it appears to already be happening! It's amazing how the body heals itself.





So, no more bagging his arm up to get in the bathtub, no more itchy skin underneath the cast, and no more whacking his siblings with his newfound weapon! He's a happy camper and so am I!

Kyle's 4th Birthday!

For some reason, Kyle has been 4 years old in my mind for quite some time now. I don't know why, but he just seems mature enough to be that age. So, Saturday we celebrated him actually catching up to what I think he already is!

Kyle decided he wanted an ice cream cake with chocolate cake, mint chocolate chip ice cream, and green frosting. I couldn't get him to decide what shape he wanted the cake or what he wanted the party theme to be. Finally we decided to have a "decorate your own cake" party. We bought gummi worms, M&M's, candy oranges, gummie bears, etc. and Kyle decorated the big cake while the other kids had their own cupcakes to decorate. It was a hit!



Kyle got GI Joe guys, Iron Man sheets, Tonka trucks, and Star Wars stuff--all things BOY! Mom also bought him some clothes, but who cares about those?


We had a lot of fun celebrating our Kyle-ee-oh. He is such a special boy who has been a delightful addition to our family these past four years!

Tapioca pudding

The other night the kids found my bag of tapioca in the dark recesses of my cupboard and spilled it all over the floor. After that, I got a hankering for good ol' fashioned tapioca pudding, so I decided to make some. My mom used to make it when I was a kid and I've always liked it. It's just yummy!

I spent the next hour over the stove stirring and stirring and stirring. Soon, beautiful, homemade tapioca pudding was in little bowls for everyone to eat. I thought the kids would love it, but one by one, they each left the table after having only taken a bite or two.

I asked Dallin why he didn't like the pudding and he said, "I liked the taste of it, Mom, but I didn't like the pebbles in it." Oh well, it just left more for me!

First Day of School

Don't you just love the first day of school? I can remember always being SO excited I could hardly sleep the night before. I would lay out my new clothes to wear and toss and turn trying to sleep--all the while thinking about the boys I didn't get to see over the summer and which friends would be in my class. I'm not sure my kids are as much of a nut as I am, but they were happy to go back to school, and I was excited for them. New clothes, school supplies, new backpacks and lunch bags, getting up early, ahhhhhhh, I love it!

Our last summer hoo-rah!

With one weekend left during summer vacation and the Oregon rain turning on like a faucet, we took advantage of our days off and headed east to central Oregon. The weather report promised no rain, and although it wasn't exactly warm, at least it was dry. I wasn't ready to give up summer quite yet. Sometimes Oregon weather can be so abrupt--once the rain starts, it never stops.

We decided to explore the geologic wonders of central Oregon, which consist of lava rock, lava rock, and more lava rock. I say this somewhat in jest at my experience there when I was in 8th grade. Our school decided to organize a special three-day field trip for the 8th graders at the end of the year. They took us to central Oregon and we explored the area. By the end, we all were so sick of looking at lava formations we thought we would puke. Now that I'm older, I can more appreciate the area and it was fun to revisit the places I had been in my youth.

We took the kids to the Newberry Caldera, which is the same type of formation as Crater Lake. Inside the caldera are two lakes (Paulina Lake and East Lake) and several obsidian flows. At the edge of the caldera are a pair of twin waterfalls that are very pretty. We hiked through one obsidian flow, which the kids thought was about the coolest thing ever (and it really is). The flow is a mixture of obsidian and pumice (which Dallin kept calling hummus). As you walk through it, you feel like you're walking on another planet so the boys were imagining they were superheroes gaining their superpowers from the obsidian. It was all I could do to refrain from taking home an obsidian rock for my garden.

After that we headed to the Lava River Cave where we walked beneath the earth for over a mile to get to the end. Caves are so amazing and are one of my favorite things to explore. At first, Grant was petrified and thought the cave was creepy, but we showed no mercy and he eventually got used to it. Although, he never let go of Jason's hand. Towards the end, Jason and the kids crawled on their hands and knees to reach the place where sand fills the cave and you can go no further.


The next day we headed further southeast to Christmas Valley to see even more natural wonders like Hole in the Ground, Fort Rock, Derrick's Cave, and Crack in the Ground. They were all unique formations in their own right. We rock climbed, cave explored, and go so dusty and dirty it was ridiculous. I'll say that Derrick's Cave (another lava tube) was amazing, although a bit creepy being so far out in the boonies with not a soul in sight.

My favorite place was Crack in the Ground, which was just that--a big fissure in the bedrock that created a crevice almost two miles long and up to forty feet deep. It reminded me of the canyons in southern Utah that are super narrow and fun to explore. We didn't get very far into the Crack when we realized it would be slow-going. There were lots of boulders to climb over and around and we were running out of daylight. When Karina fell into a pile of stinging nettle plants, we knew it was time to go. She was screaming and her arm, hands, and forehead were covered with blotches. I had to pack her out and scrounge in the car for Tylenol and hydrocortisone cream. It wasn't long before she was better, but it makes you realize how vulnerable you are in the middle of the wilderness with five young children!

Sometimes Moms ARE smart!

This was the conversation between me and Dallin over a gourmet dinner of waffles and strawberry syrup tonight:

Dallin (with much emphasis): How did you learn to cook this good, Mom?!
Me: It's amazing, isn't it?
D: Did you take classes on this at BYU or something?

I remember asking my mother a similar question when I was probably about kindergarten age. After I witnessed, with amazement, her ability to cut paper in a straight line, I remember asking her, "Did you take college classes to learn how to cut straight?"

I wouldn't have remembered our conversation except that her reaction is probably what burned the incident into my memory. I couldn't figure out why she was laughing so hard and what I had said that was so funny. I was serious!

Kyle says funny stuff!

Kyleeoh is so quiet and mostly content to be in the shadows of our family that I really have to make a conscious effort to pay attention to him. Poor thing. But, when I do listen to what he has to say, often times it's quite insightful and funny!

When we were visiting Jason's parents in California, Kyle walked into the master bedroom where Grandma's alarm clock was going off which was set to have the radio playing. The only other living thing in the room was the cat, Scoops. When Grandma entered the room, Kyle said, "Grandma, why is Scoops listening to the news?"

Last week we were driving in the car when Kyle and Karina started battling with each other. They were both screaming at each other and Kyle was struggling to win. He finally said, "We're gonna have to pull the car over and deal with you, Bucket!"

Last Sunday Jason pulled out the clippers to shave his head and clean up before church. Kyle saw what he was doing, went into the bedroom where the other kids were, and said, "Hey you guys! Daddy's getting out the balding thing!"