HUNTING EGGS

Today was Li'l Brats Easter egg hunt and party at school. He was very excited when I left him there this morning. He couldn't wait for me to come back, and for his party to begin and kept reminding me to come back for his party.

LB's school is actually part of the high school and the students there come down and help out with the daycare. When I arrived for the egg hunt and party, the high school students had placed the plastic, candy filled, eggs all over one end of the football field in anticipation of the kids.

The kids got their buckets and headed outside to"hunt" eggs. LB was very excited and ran ahead of everyone else. He couldn't wait to get to the field and start hunting Easter eggs. When the word was given, off the kids ran to pick up eggs. There were so MANY eggs scattered around on the field that most of the kids really didn't know what to do. We kept having to tell them "pick up the eggs". They darted here, there and everywhere, skipping over eggs here to pick one up there. The bigger kids did very well and made sure to leave plenty of eggs for the babies to find.

The kids ran around and around picking up egg after egg until they were all gathered. LB filled his bucket quickly and then decided to help out his li'l friend "Dude" - and yes that's what they seem to call each other. The two of them crack me up walking around saying "hey Dude". When all the eggs were gathered it was time to head back inside and have some lunch.

Sandwiches, chips, pasta salad, fresh veggies, cookies, cake.....everything a kid could want and more. LB decided on a pb&j, chips, fresh broccoli and a little pasta salad. He HAD to sit next to "dude" so they enjoyed their lunch, talking to each other about the eggs they'd found and other stuff that I'm not really sure about. I have to admit that most of the kids were too excited to really stay in their seats and eat, and it was a challenge to try to coax them into eating a little more food before they could have cookies & cake.

It didn't take long until eyes were being rubbed and heads began to bob. LB said his good-byes, wished everyone a Happy Easter and we set out for home and his own nap. He didn't fight it too hard and it only took a few minutes of rocking until he was out like a light. Probably dreaming about all the eggs he found and all the candy he'll get to eat when he wakes up!

A Funny on BD

O.k. as most of you know from reading this blog, there are two main characters featured....BB & LB. Well tonight I got the biggest laugh, not from either of them but from BD. I just had to share this with everyone because I know that ya'll will double over laughing just like I did.

So I'm sitting in what has been deemed "the computer room" blogging away while the boys were all doing different things. LB was in his room watching "The Sand Lot" on t.v. while BB and BD were in the living room playing the xbox360 game "Gears of War". I'll admit that I don't totally "get" all the war games out there, but they seem to enjoy playing them and enjoy them even more when playing together. Hey - it's father/son bonding so who am I to say anything.

Well I'm sitting here at the computer typing away, just half listening to them talking back and forth, planning their strategy. I can tell the game is getting very involved from the tone of their voices. The adrenaline is kicking in.....the pulse rates going up, they're REALLY getting into this game. Well they proceed through their mission, BD taking the lead and BB bringing up the rear....barely keeping themselves alive much less the np characters that are played by the xbox itself.

I'm really getting into my blogging - organizing and uploading pictures, etc. etc. etc. when all of a sudden I hear from the living room "I died, RUN AWAY!! RUN AWAY!!!". Apparently BD had been killed by some creature unknown to me and he was yelling for BB to "run away!!". Maybe it was just me, but I found the whole thing very very comical. It SO reminded me of one of the Monty Python movies (I can't remember which) but there's one scene where someone yells "run away, run away".

I'm still chuckling, just thinking about it. I popped into the living room and yelled "run away, run away". I thought BB was going to die laughing. I looked at BD and his face got all red and he started laughing. I did warn him though. I told him "this is too funny.....it's going on my blog". So here it is......A funny on BD. Hope you all got a good, side splitting laugh from this!!

Road Trips & History Lessons pt.2 - Roswell & Carlsbad Caverns

After leaving Lincoln we headed towards Carlsbad Caverns, passing through Roswell. O.K. now I'm sure everyone thinks of one thing if you say Roswell, NM. Of course you do....alien crash and Area 51 - o.k. o.k. that's technically two things. Yes, I know Area 51 is in Nevada...but they had to get the alien that they're covering up from somewhere....so where did they get it? At the WalMart of course (*laughs*)

HEY - did you know they even have UFO H2O at WalMart.....at least in Roswell they do (*laughs again*)

What can I say....the people of Roswell really really get into the whole alien thing. Now I know you're wondering....did a UFO really crash in Roswell. Well I can't say with 100% certainty, but I guess people know a money maker when they see one. I'm not lying when I say that almost every store had some type of reference to aliens....shoot Arby's even had a sign that said "Aliens Welcome". So....I'll let you draw your own conclusions...but the kids got a kick out of seeing so many aliens.

We spent the night in Artesia, NM. A quaint little town with a very large oil refinery. The next morning we got up, had breakfast and headed down to Carlsbad Caverns. History lesson, history lesson.....*"in the 1800's settlers discovered the cavern, drawn to it by the spectacle of hundreds of thousands of bats rising up out of the natural entrance in the evening."

Upon further exploration of the cave many of the settlers remained and began to mine the bat guano and sell it as a natural fertilizer. Jim White, a cowboy who was fascinated by the caves, spent hours exploring the cave. He was eager to show others this natural wonder that he had found but most were sceptical until photographs convinced them.

In 1923 the U.S. Department of the Interior sent an inspector, Robert Holley, to see if the caverns were a natural scenic wonder. Later the same year, Carlsbad caverns was proclaimed a National Monument.

Upon arriving at the caverns, we proceeded into the information center/gift shop/restaurant and purchased our tickets. Now, there are technically two ways to enter the caverns.

We took the "Natural Entrance" which consist of a one mile route leading you down 750 feet into the cavern. The trip takes about an hour and let me tell you.....even though it's ALL down hill, your legs really wont thank you for this one!!!! As you descend into the cave, you enter what seems like a world of make believe. There's so much to see.

We finally reached "the lunchroom" where they had restrooms and a snack bar and little tables set up to sit down, catch your breath, and have a snack. BD bought a few bottles of water and we all sat down to plan out our next strategy. There is another self guided tour that you can take around the "Big Room" and there are also a couple of ranger guided tours you can take.

The ranger tours have limited space and there is an extra fee. The ranger tours were sold out the day that we went but when we go back we'll make advance reservations for these because there are some places that would be nice to see that we didn't get to.

The "Big Room" is a self guided tour that also is about a mile in length but takes about 1-1/2 hour to complete. The good news???? It's all fairly flat and easy to navigate which I can honestly tell you...my legs DID thank me for that (*laughs*). I can't even begin to describe the magnificent things that we saw while exploring the "Big Room". We passed through the Hall of Giants, the Temple of the Sun and passed Mirror Lake. We looked into the Bottomless Pit, and observed the Rock of Ages.

I did take lots and lots of pictures, unfortunately the better ones were taken without the flash, requiring a rock steady hand - and after hiking 1 mile, 750 feet down.....lets just say my hands weren't the only things not stable. But I did manage to get several great pictures. I wished I could share more with you here, but there's just not enough room. (If you'd like to see more pics, feel free to check out my album on Facebook)

After wandering around in the caves for over 2 hours it was time to head up and out. Now don't panic, and I know a few of you were...NO we didn't have to trek back up the 1 mile natural entrance, we did what any sane, rational person would do....WE TOOK THE ELEVATOR!! We meandered around the gift shop for a while, and YES the kids did get more than just a T-shirt (*laughs*). All in all, it was a very enjoyable day, and one that I would repeat.

We are planning to go back to the caverns sometime this summer. They have an outdoor theater set up where you can go and watch the bats enter the cave in the early mornings or exit the caves at dusk. Can you imagine??? hundreds of thousands of Mexican Free-tailed bats exiting the cave? I think that would be an amazing thing to see. We left Carlsbad Caverns and headed home. Everyone was pretty tired so much of the trip home was spent snoozing - at least me, BB & LB got in a few zzzz's. We had a wonderful weekend!!!


*exert taken from the Carlsbad Caverns' tour brochure

Road Trips & History Lessons pt 1 - White Sands & Lincoln

Last weekend we decided to take an overnight trip to Lincoln, NM and Carlsbad Caverns. We got up early Friday morning and set out for Lincoln. Our trip would take us up through Lincoln, trough Roswell, stopping for the night along the way, and then on to Carlsbad Caverns Saturday morning.

Once again, let me tell you the weather in New Mexico is very nice, but highly unpredictable especially in the mountains. We set out with clear skies and headed toward Lincoln. We passed through White Sands - which was very interesting. Dunes of white sand stretched along the road for a mile or so, then.....just disappeared.

We proceeded on our way, making good time, headed towards Lincoln, winding our way in and out of the mountains. Trust me when I say ANYWHERE you seem to go in New Mexico, there are awesome views. Even local trips to the grocery store leaves me looking around in awe at the scenery. Like our previous trip to the Gila Cliff Dwellings, the higher we rose into the mountains, the more the weather changed. It wasn't long before we were running into snow once again. Onward we went.

We arrived in Lincoln, NM shortly before lunch. Here's the history lesson part - Lincoln, NM was site of the Lincoln county "war" which took place in the 1870's between two "entrenched factions" over - yep you guessed it - wealth and power! Anyone remember the movie "Young Guns"?? That movie was based on the Lincoln County war. John Tunstall, an Englishman, arrived in the New Mexico territory hoping to establish himself as a profitable cattle rancher. He soon discovered that Lincoln County was controlled both economically & politically by Lawrence Murphy & James Dolan who didn't want to give up any of their government beef contracts or the power they had established. When Tunstal was murdered by members of the Murphy/Dolan "gang" the war began. Men working for Tunstal, who called themselves "Regulators" were deputized and charged with bringing the guilty parties to justice, but instead handed out some old fashion justice of their own. They went from hunting the guilty men to being hunted themselves. One famous "Regulator" was William Henry McCarty - aka-William H. Bonney..aka-Billy the Kid. The town of Lincoln was very small but many of the original buildings from the 1870's are still in existence. The Tunstall general store was still there as well as the court house where Billy the Kid once escaped. I found this bit of history fascinating, but the "boys" didn't find it very exciting.

After leaving Lincoln....we headed down through Roswell, NM but that's a story for part 2 of Road Trips & History lessons. Part 2 coming soon!!!!

"I MADE A POOpy"

As every parent knows....potty training can be and almost always is difficult, trying and very frustrating at times. It's one of those things that need constant vigilance and constant reminders.

We have been working with LB for some time now trying to get him to understand EXACTLY what the potty is for. NO!! it's not for washing G.I. Joe, it's not for seeing which car can swirl around the bowl the fastest....it's for going potty (tee teeing and poo pooing). We've tried explaining it to him over and over, we've tried taking things away when he went potty in his pants, we tried bribing him.....NOTHING seemed to work. I'll admit I was getting a little concerned. LB will be starting Pre-K in the fall (or so I hope) but I knew he would have to be potty trained completely before this could happen.

We finally got it through to him the proper uses of the potty and he has done really well with the tee teeing part. But come hell or high water....he would NOT go poo poo in the potty. I finally asked LB one day a couple of weeks ago if I took him to WalMart and let HIM pick out his very own potty seat if he'd try to go poo poo on the potty then. "mmmhmm yes Mommy, I go poopy on the potty then". So off we went to WalMart...LB picked out his very own potty seat, and I'm thinking "finally...he'll go potty". OH!! I should have known it wouldn't be THAT simple. (*laughs*) We arrived home, set the potty seat in place and then it started all over again. Crying and screaming "I dun wanna go potty". So potty seat didn't work either. So back to the pleading and bribing.

Well about a week ago BD had a dollar laying around and LB wanted it badly. So BD told him that if he'd go poo poo in the potty he could have the dollar then take it to the store and buy a car. Well LB said o.k. and I thought for sure that it would never work. A short time later LB decides that he wants to use his new potty seat and go try to poo poo. I'm sitting in the living room, BB having helped LB onto the potty, when I hear this excited yell......."I MADE A POOPY!!!!!". I didn't want to laugh and discourage LB but it was very hard to get up from the sofa from giggling. The way he yelled it....he was SO SO proud of himself, and he yelled it for ALL the world to hear. Well of course we all crowded into the bathroom to see this "poopy" he'd made. LB had the biggest grin across his face and was standing beside the potty, almost jumping up and down saying "see my poopy, see my poopy....I made a poopy". It's one of those things that instantly erased all of the headaches, the head banging, and other fit throwing (by ME not LB - lol) over potty training.

We've had one or two "accidents" since this monumental day, but for the most part......I feel sure that LB finally understands the REAL use for the potty!

GILA CLIFF DWELLINGS

Moving to this part of New Mexico has put us within driving range to a lot of incredible sites. A few short hours away we have the "Cat Walks", the Gila Cliff Dwellings, Carls Bad Caverns, the "VLA" (Very Large Array) and many other national monuments and places of interest to visit.

Saturday we decided to take the boys up to visit the Cliff Dwellings located in the Gila National Wilderness. BD & I have both been up to the Cliff Dwellings in the past but the boys had never seen them and since the day was sunny and warming up....we figured it would be a perfect day trip to make. So we loaded up...making a quick stop at Wal-Mart to pick up drinks and sandwich stuff and off we went.

The Cliff Dwellings are technically only 42 miles from us but it takes around 2 1/2 hours to drive there due to winding in and out of many mountain ranges. We left home to sunny skies but the higher we climbed into the mountains the more clouds we encountered. It first begin to rain and then as we snaked our way up narrow winding roads that rain quickly turned into snow. We were concerned that maybe we'd picked to wrong day for our trip but we kept going and soon were out of the high mountains and out of the rain and snow.

We stopped for lunch beside the Gila river allowing the boys a chance to see the river flowing and for LB to partake in one of his favorite past times....throwing rocks into the river. The boys really enjoyed skipping and throwing rocks into the river and it was a nice little spot to stop and enjoy our lunch.

After having our lunch we loaded everything back up, and headed out for the Cliff Dwellings once again. It took us another 45 minutes to reach them, but the ride was nice and the rain seemed to be holding off so maybe it wouldn't be a bad trip after all. Let me stop here and insert a little bit of history, for those of you who may not know, concerning the Cliff Dwellings.

Almost 700 years ago, the Mogollon (pronounced Muggy-own) Indians migrated from other parts of New Mexico & Mexico through the Gila Wilderness. They came across natural caves high in the cliffs and decided to build their homes inside these caves. For some unknown reason the Mogollon Indians only inhabited these dwellings for one generation before moving on to other parts. Cattlemen and archaeologists discovered these dwellings in the late 1800's, early 1900's and they have been protected since 1907 for future generations to visit and enjoy.

We arrived at the "starting" point of our trek, a one mile loop with a "steep" section climbing up 180 feet to the dwellings, and off we go. We hike at a good pace and seem to quickly reach the "steep" part. I'll admit I had to stop a couple of times to catch my breath while my lil slave driver is yelling "come on mommy". We make it to the top of the 180 foot climb and there are the dwellings. BB is a little in awe of them....fascinated that people actually lived "way up here".

We wound our way through the caves looking at the different areas and answering what seemed like a million questions from BB and LB. LB seemed the most interested in climbing on everything so it was quit the adventure to keep up with him and keep him in one piece.

I think BB was very fascinated and enjoyed learning the different things about the Mogollon Indians who built these dwellings and once inhabited them, although getting him to admit to that fact would be an undertaking even I'm not up for. The Cliff Dwellings are very interesting and although this was my second time visiting them...I too, found the whole concept of people building their homes in caves high up on cliffs very intriguing.

After wandering around the Cliff Dwellings for a while, we decided to head back down, hopefully reaching the bottom before the rain decided to start. I'll admit the hike down was a lot more enjoyable than the one up - it's ALL down hill!!! The rain did hold off for us to reach the bottom and for that I was VERY thankful. After snagging drinks and snacks from the cooler we headed back home.

It didn't take long before LB's eyes began to close and his head began to bob and he was fast asleep. I soon followed him into the dream world with BB bringing up the rear, leaving BD with lots of peace and quiet for the drive back. We all had a wonderful time. We also found several ideal spots to go camping this summer....so you'll probably be seeing that here on my blog as the weather starts to warm up and we take more day trips and camping trips.

*a special "thank you" to BB for taking most of the pictures

New Additions

Our family has two new additions so I thought I'd take a moment to introduce you to "the girls".

First off let me tell you how our new additions came about. BD thought it would be a great idea to visit the animal shelter and let the boys pick out a new puppy. So a couple of months ago BD and I take a drive to the shelter to make sure they do actually have some puppies before we spring the news on the boys. Yes, the shelter does have puppies, so off we go to pick up the boys from school and take them to pick out a puppy.

When we get to the "puppy room" of the shelter we're met with 9 of the cutest most adorable puppies. NOW comes the hard part. How to get two boys to pick ONE puppy from the 9 we have to chose from. Well I never should have been worried about BB and LB....I should have been worried about BD. The boys picked out a cute little Border Collie named Cinder. They were playing with her, getting to know her when I looked over at BD.

There he was, standing in front of one of the pens with a strange look on his face and I knew right then and there it was......puppy love!!! So needless to say, the boys picked out their puppy and BD just had to have one of his own - LOL!!

So......we came home that day from the animal shelter with not one puppy for the boys, but one puppy for them and one for BD. But I will admit...."the girls" are adorable. Cinder - the black border collie - is wound tighter than a clock and seems to bounce everywhere. Bella - a chocolate lab/Sharpe mix - is the more laid back of the two. The boys seem to really enjoy having 2 puppies around to play with and "the girls" seem to really enjoy playing with the boys.

"I didn't say sh*t"

As every parent knows, there comes a time in our child's life when they cease to be our loving child and turn into a parrot. That's right a parrot....every word, both good and bad, that comes out of our mouths is soon to be repeated by our child.

LB has picked up this habit it seems but more so on the "bad" words than anything else. It's not only the bad words the might occasionally slip from our lips, but the ones that happen to escape the lips of anyone around him. One of his favorite words seems to be the word "shit".

We've explained to LB that this is an "ugly" word and should not be repeated but on occasion we still hear this word fall from his lips. Case in point.....the other week LB was in the tub taking his much enjoyed nightly bath. He was playing with one of the thousands of toys that he feels is essential for a good bath. LB was babbling, carrying on his little one sided conversations with who knows who when the dreaded word was uttered....."shit".

Knowing once again we needed to go over the "rules" for ugly words, I was about to get up from what I was doing and go into the bath to explain - once again - that the word shit was not a nice word and one that we did not use. Before I could get half way to the bath, I hear LB say (in a rather loud voice) "I didn't say shit, I didn't say shit......I say shoot". Well as you can imagine, this ruined the whole thing and I had to stop since at this point I was doubled over with laughter.

So remember to watch what you say because who knows what little parrots may be listening.

GET OFF MY BACK......ALREADY!!!

Once there was a sister
and all she did was Nag
Then you couldnt recogonize her
She'd turned into a hag!!!

I'm just kidding. O.k. O.k. already...I'm blogging again. Hope this makes you very very happy!!

I really do try to keep up with things....but it seems like life moves faster and faster the older we get. Personally I never understood that, when we're young life just creeps by but as we get older it speeds up. Being older you'd think that we'd all have more sense and take time to just meander down the path and stop to smell the roses. O.K. enough about that!

Life does get hectic and chaotic and before you know it you blink and it's been 2 weeks......or that's the way it seems with me. I admitt I havent been very good lately about keeping up with my blog.....so my deepest apologies my dear sister, I will try to follow your example and MAKE time to blog and keep everyone up to date!!