Riding

A few times this summer the kids and I have gone down to Les Bois race track and ridden around on a friend's horse, RB. I just throw on a saddle pad that is a neoprene on one side, that makes it stick to the horses back. Both of the kids love to ride.Two Saturday's ago was the first time I had allowed Azrielle on a horse, she giggled and talked the whole time. I took her on a longer ride this past week, she had a lot of fun.

Avery really likes to wear hats while we go riding, sometimes it is his cowboy hat that he got for his birthday. Two weeks ago he found one of my hats that I had picked up in Australia and decided that was the hat for the day.
I have not been on horses much in the last three years and so it is not so easy for me to jump up on a horse.  I have been having someone give me a leg up, and then Avery gets handed up to me. Well as we were trotting down the lane to the paddock area(where they saddle the horses before the race), the loose hat on his head bounced right off. We stopped and I looked down at the hat on the ground and thought of my options. I could leave it and stay on RB, I could jump off and try and get back on down at the paddock area. I chose to get my hat, which thereafter went on my head.
When we got to the paddock I decided to try and jump back on from a bench that was cemented into a pad. The cement pad was set up about 6 inches high, so it had nice corner. RB does not like to step onto a surface that is different than the one he is standing on, so I could not get him very close to the bench. Now you would think it wise to get Avery off, get on again, and then get him on. I did not think of that at the time, I tried to jump on with him still sitting on RB. Did I happen to mention the bench was situated under a pine tree, so there was not a lot of clearance overhead? I had to be careful not to jump too hard and push Avery off the other side. I jumped and I got my leg over RB's back, but not far enough. I started to slip, I then tried to push off so that Avery did not come off too, but he started to come off with me. I grabbed him on the way down, so that I could protect him as best I could. He landed on top of me, and what did I land on? The nice corner of the cement, right square on the left bottom cheek.
I was glad that RB did not run off, he side stepped two steps and looked down at us like, "What are you doing down there?" I then did what I should have done in the first place and hopped on first and then grabbed Avery off the bench next. It worked much better that way. I was very proud of him, he got right back on and was not scared.
We then went down and I let him ride all by himself in the test barn area. He had such a blast.

Dancing

We turned on the music tonight and took turns dancing with the kids. Avery is too heavy to dance with for very long, when you are carrying him. Azrielle was laughing and having a great time, as were we all.

I left the room for a couple of minutes and this is what I hear from the other room, "Daddy, would you read me this chapter book?" I think that it is so amazing that Avery loves to read so much that he would do anything just to get a book read to him.

Pink Eye

When I woke up this morning I took one look at Avery and knew that we would be visiting Dr Rutherford today. Both of his eyes were pink and goopy. I love that my children love to share with each other!

I have been feeling like my eyes have been itchy and irritated all day long. I don't know if it is just because I feel sorry for my kids or if I will have to be getting drops in too.

Azrielle takes the drops much better than Avery, who screams and wants Daddy.

Poor Baby

I am not sure if I am referring to one of our chickens or Azrielle when I say 'poor baby'. Well maybe both of them. One of our neighbors gave us two of their chickens last night (they had the city called on them because they had too many). When I went out to see how the new chickens were integrating with ours this morning, I noticed that one of our girls was hopping around on one leg. We could not find any thing visibly wrong with her, so she is going to hang out by herself for a couple of days and see if she can get healed up.

 Azrielle has been to the Doctor this week also. I can't wait for the time when she can/will go a whole month without having an appointment. I guess I should be glad we are not every single week still! She has a yeast infection and pink eye in both her eyes. I am glad that she is as cheerful as she is. She is enjoying some of the chicken food too, even though we just got done eating dinner!

Our neighbors got a new bunny last week. They had it out on a leash tonight so we went over to meet him. Very soft, the kids (me included) liked petting him. I can remember raising rabbits when I was growing up, living in Pocatello.

2012 Garden

I just had to plant some tomato plants. I did not put anything in the ground at our other place, I knew I would not get anything from it. Jeremy helped me to dig out a small section of the weeds and put in my four little tomato plants. I hope that I get something off of them, they went in so late. Can you find them?

 Avery has started to really like to ride his bike this year, I think it is because his legs reach the ground better. We found this on Craig's list and then I had Jeremy take the pedal's off so that Avery can work on balancing and turning, no training wheels.

What cute kids.

This last week, Thursday and Friday, Jeremy took Avery and met up with some of his family in the City of Rocks for a camping trip. They both had fun and came back very tired and dirty! On Saturday we held a yard sale. Did not get as much sold as we would have liked, but such is life.

Biker Ma

On May 28th, I got to collect on a gift that I had purchased in January 2011. Our ward had a service auction, were you can bid on things with the points you add up from the service that you have been performing. I bid on and won a ride on a bike with a couple in our ward (she was the previous Relief Society President). Last year I was unable to collect, as I was uncomfortable large during the warm months of the year. So they took me out this year. It was great to have the wind on my face, I did get a little too much sun, but it was worth it.

We went with the Temple Riders Ass. Took a ride up through Emmett on the old Emmett highway and then down through Horseshoe Bend.

Boise Aquarium

On May 26th, I took the kids and went with a friend to the Boise Aquarium. Azrielle wanted to touch everything she saw, lizards, frogs, birds, the water. Avery on the other hand did not want to touch anything until the very end, when he saw how much fun Azrielle was having splashing in the water, then he put his hands in the water also.

Avery looking at the sting rays and sharks.

 Avery watching Karen and Azrielle splashing in the water.

 Avery finally putting his hand in the water, he wanted to catch a fish.

They had one of the ladies walking around with a large lizard for people to pet, they also had this one just sitting on a boat. Azrielle wanted to pet both of them, I had to keep her from climbing all over the one on the boat.

We had a fun day.

Quick Update

So much has happened in the last almost two months, where do I start?

Azrielle has had a couple more visits to St. Luke's for some more testing. She went in during the first part of June and had an MRI and X-ray of her head, the results came back that all is fine. This last Thursday, I took her in and she had a sweat test to check for cystic fibrosis, which also came back negative. She has put on a little weight, she in now up to 14 lbs. She has still not gotten any taller.

 This is from the head scans.

This is from the sweat test.

In May, we took a trip down to Utah. It was a nice break. While there Jeremy and I left the kids in the capable and caring hands of Grama Kathy for a day as we went to Lagoon. That was my birthday gift this year, we rode lots of roller coasters and did some people watching. There was a dance competition going on and so it was a little busier that we would have liked it.

While in Utah, Avery started to cough on Thursday. He ran a slight fever Friday through Sunday. On Monday, I took him in to see the Dr. He had pneumonia after only four days with a cough! On the second to last day of his antibiotic he woke up with hives. The Dr. took him off the Amoxocilin on Thursday. By Saturday morning he was covered from head to feet in hives, and they were turning into bruises.

I took him back in and the Dr. put him on steroids. It took a few days before he started to look better. He has had two more chest colds since the first of June. I am glad that none of the rest of the family has gotten sick from him.

We are now living in my Mom's house. We lost ours and she has been willing to allow us to use it while Jeremy goes back to school this fall. He is going to go for a nursing degree. We are so grateful for the time that she is allowing us to get back on our feet.