Pets.....How did this happen!???

5 kids - 5 pets!

Check out the fingernails!

Daisy on Christmas Day - 4 weeks old.

I never considered myself to be a pet Mom, but apparently that's what I have become.

Santa brought Turbo the tortoise a few years ago, so all I can blame for that one is....Santa. Then came the bunnies. Brian & I were in charge of our school's Carnival's silent auction & we came up with the bright idea to donate a live bunny (it was last Spring). So I went & bought an all-white bunny the day before the Carnival. We had it less than 24 hours, yet Jake (my sensitive animal-lover) got SO attached to it he was traumatized by the thought of Petey going home with someone else. At the auction he tearfully kept guard over the bid sheet, trying to talk people out of bidding on it...the whole night!! WHAT ELSE COULD I DO? I had to re-buy the flipping bunny for $70!! Yet, the joy on that boy's face was so worth it when he realized we were taking it home.

A few months later we inherited another white bunny by mistaken identity (Brian caught someone's that had escaped & thought it was ours). But sadly, Petey "ran away" a few months ago, but we still have Snowball. And I must admit, I really like him.

Then, last summer, the boys come running in the house(dripping, of course), holding a half-drowned yellow parakeet that had apparently flown into the pool & they rescued it. I TRIED to find a home for him, but no takers. So, $80 of bird stuff later, we add Flo the parakeet to our list of pets. I was not a fan. Flo would always squawk alot right during naptime. Recently, Flo mysteriously "flew away". As you can see, my Pet Reduction Plan is underway.

Soon after Flo came to live with us, Max comes through the front door holding a little tan & white furball - a hamster. He said his friend's mom said we could have her. THANKS!! So back to Petco! This hamster has had hundreds of names, but Hammy has stuck. Hammy has a talent for escaping every cage we've put her in. And once she's out, she has no problem jumping off high countertops. She'll gnaw through a load of duct tape in one night, even bungee cords!! She figures out how to get the cage doors open. IT'S CRAZY! She has a serious need to be free. We should call her Houdini the Hamster! But she's cute and furry and we all like her...when we can find her.

So last but not least is Daisy, our beagle puppy. And I take full responsibility for this one, well, let's call it temporary insanity.

Our kids have always BEGGED for a dog - a REAL one, not a stuffed one. I honestly thought for a while that I would be depriving my children of a fulfilling childhood if they did not grow up with a dog. Last December, I was getting Christmas all wrapped up when I became OBSESSED with this vision of the kids on Christmas morning opening a beautifully wrapped box to find what they've always wished for - a puppy! I couldn't get it out of my head! I wouldn't even listen to all the puppy horror stories I heard, because it would be DIFFERENT with us! And puppies are sooo cute!! Like I said, temporary insanity.

So, I got ahold of a local beagle breeder & made it happen. Beautifully-wrapped GOLDEN box and everything! And it was an exciting, wonderful Christmas morning.

Fast-forward 6 months - Daisy is banished to the backyard most of the time because we CAN NOT get her to stop chewing everything (Couches, toys, tables, underwear!), and when the drips turn on in the backyard, it looks like a water show because she chews holes in all the drip lines! I'm buying replacement drip heads in bulk!! I just asked Zane to take Daisy on a little walk & he collapsed on the floor in whining protest! This was not part of my blissful vision!!

BUT, the kids do love her, and love teaching her tricks. They try to teach her how to swim & she HATES it. When they come out to swim, she cowers in the far corner of the yard. Poor thing!



I wanted to get a picture of the kids with all the pets before one of them "ran away" or something. It was THE HARDEST photoshoot I've ever done!!

It's never easy getting 5 kids to cooperate, but adding in these animals....it got CRAZY!

We soon found out we couldn't put the dog by the bird or the hamster or she would try to eat them. The bird would try to fly away. The bunny would scratch up whoever was trying to hold him. And the tortoise would immediately walk away from wherever we put him, and then took a huge dump in the middle of everybody!!



.......something about a fulfilling childhood....LOL!!!

Basketball Camp

Jake went to Basketball Camp in Prescott last week.

Apparently he didn't know what he was getting into. I think he had visions of 24/7 dorm room, snack-o-rama, hangin' with the guys party, with a little ball thrown in there. He was wrong. They worked those boys pretty hard!

He was calling home all the time from a buddy's cell phone, trying not to cry, trying to be brave, asking me if maybe, just maybe, I could come up & get him.

Poor guy was so homesick!

But, he toughed it out & was SO grateful to be home.

We missed him. It was just too quiet without him!

Zane's Favorites at Five

Zane is not just 5, he is "five and three quarters" as he will tell you.
He also has definite favorites and un-favorites in his little 5-year-old world.

#1 - Playing the Wii (mostly Star Wars and Mario games, the ones that don't require any bodily movement).

#2 - Best-buddy Davis. They play some serious Wii together.

#3 - Bologna sandwiches. He asks for one as soon as he gets up in the morning. He could eat them breakfast, lunch & dinner (& sad to say that has happened before).

#4 - Lego Star Wars guys. What could be better?!! OK, maybe maraschino cherries right out of the jar. That's a favorite too.

#5 - Doing "the pops". That's when I get to go out to the trampoline & jump with him (& make him go flying!) He's known to beg me TWO THOUSAND times in a single day to do "the pops"!! I don't think I'm exaggerating!

ZANE'S UN-FAVORITES AT 5:

#1 (by a long-shot!) - Any type of work/jobs. He's REALLY skilled at disappearing into thin air when it's job time.

#2 - Going to church. I think he'd rather eat a salad. He LOATHES Sundays, but I think it's mostly because there's no video-game playing allowed in our house on Sundays. Every morning he asks me what day it is. If it's not Sunday, he breathes this big sigh of relief. We really need to work on our 'Finding Joy in the Sabbath' Family Home Evening lessons!

#3 - Going to school....not big on that either.

#4 - Learning to ride a bike. He pretty much refuses. It's embarrassing that he's almost 6 & can't ride a bike! I was asking him about it yesterday & he says, "Mom, why would I want to ride a bike? Cars are so much faster!"

#5 - Peas!!!

Zane is DEFINITELY my favorite 5-year-old!

He's my FAVORITE guy to hang out with! I LOVE, LOVE, LOVE my little Zaners!!!

CHILLAX!!!

This is our motto for the summer of 2008.

Zane came up with this word. He accidentally combined 'chill' and 'relax'. I love it!

So that's what we're doing this summer - chillaxing.

I didn't want a million things going on, constantly running kids to this lesson, that class, games, meets, etc., etc. I think it's important for kids to have some unscheduled down-time, to actually be bored and have to figure out on their own something to do (that's NOT playing video games!).

So, no swim team, no classes ( well, OK, Max is taking a creative writing class for a few weeks, & Marlee did a Musical Theater thing for two weeks, & Jake is going to Basketball camp next week), but THAT'S IT! That's pretty good for us!

So we're logging alot of swim-time and working on our tans for Hawaii. After the 4th of July in Coronado, we're all heading to Kauai for the rest of July!!! I CAN'T WAIT!!!! And I can hardly sleep at night thinking of all the incredible pictures I'm going to take there!

It's definitely a good life!

MCC Musical Theater

Mars has done this every summer for the past 5 years. She LOVES it! She really comes out of her shell & loves to perform, yet the rest of the year I can't even get her to sing a hymn in church!

She can really shake it & does awesome facial expressions!

Maybe it's just because I'm her Mom, but I think she was AMAZING!!!

Body Art

He's 2 years old.

His name is Gus.

And he can sniff out markers like a dog.

We're just thrilled when they're washable!

Office Photoshoots

These are some of my favorites.

THANK YOU to all our fabulous models! You did great!!

Mr. Creative

Max is my creative one. He's always coming up with something! (drawings, amazing Lego creations, a guitar out of a Kleenex box & T.P roll, all kinds of things out of boxes). Lately he likes to write stories (with chapters) on the computer.

One time, when Brian had taken the older kids up to Utah for a ski weekend, he had followed behind as they walked through the airport, picking up various pieces of trash from the ground. When they got home, he made a helicopter out of it!! It was amazing! And so Max!