November is beautiful

This week the weather was absolutely beautiful. It is crazy how the weather can fluctuate so dramatically this time of the year. On Monday a friend, Mary, came and helped me clean my house. I had a LOT of catch up to do from last week. Cleaning, changing bedding, putting up mattresses, and lots of laundry. I worked all day and did feel caught up at the end. I even cleaned out Ace's closet and dresser, which has been needing attention for a long time. On Tuesday the kids and I went up to the lodge and cleaned it. I am tired of cleaning. It is so time consuming and to me unfulfilling, but the job's done now. I did get some time this week to spend with the kids. It was nice to focus on them, and appreciate the little things. Ace worked really hard getting lots of miscellaneous done as well.

On Monday Ace left for Texas to pick up the feed trailer we bought. He went to Roswell and watched our cattle sale, then ended up at Kaylynn and Blaire Kemp's house. He was able to watch Tristan play football. He really loved watching Blaire be the coach. Blaire is training the new Dallis Cowboys single handedly. Tuesday Ace left early and drove to a place just outside of Dallis. He picked up the trailer and drove all the way home. He got home at 1:30 a.m. It was all in all a 16 hr drive that day.

Denim, Blazen and I got to get outside this week and play. Having a yard is so nice. The sun was very refreshing. Denim and Blazen got their whips out and acted like they were chasing cattle, Sassy was the cow(I stopped that.... poor Sassy). Denim and I played catch and soccer. Blazen played with tools and tied things to the tree. I also pushed the kids really high in the swing.

Denim Bleu happy to be outside. Blazen really wanting to chase Sassy, but knowing he can't.

Denim and I playing in the toy room while Blazen takes a nap. She made a slide off the mattresses.

On Thursday the kids and I took our goat, Banana Split, to get bred. The lady who had the billy is very into goats. She has 30, and milks 5 by hand consistently. She is a biologist. It was very interesting talking to her, she taught me some very handy things. She has some very nice milk goats. I think I will buy one of hers and upgrade this fall. The kids loved her donkeys. They learned that donkeys have crosses on their backs because Jesus rode them into Jerusalem.

On Friday Ace and I went separate ways. He went to Belen to the sale to watch some of our steers and light heifers sale. He was there all day, he got home at 3:00 am. The kids and I went to Grants, we were pretty much out of groceries. We did a few errands, and shopped a lot at Wal-Mart. Getting two cart fulls, pregnant, with two tired kids is not my idea of enjoyment. We did get to go to McDonald's and get happy meals which was totally awesome. We got the kids some neat books and learning toys. We were also picking up a baby shower gift for a friend. Denim HAD to pick out a few things for her new sister, all pink of course. Blazen wanted blue, I had to veto that. Denim told me the baby HAD to have a pink towel with a princess top. After we were done, we went and visited Ina Mae and Randy. It was fun to see them. They spoiled my kids with love and candy. Ina babied me with milk, homemade jam and pb sandwiches. She has been doing quite a bit of canning this fall, and sent me home with some.

Blazen, Denim, and I eating Happy Meals and a fish sandwich for me. (I have craved those this pregnancy.) We were sitting next to some men speaking Spanish. She asked, "Mom, why are those guys talking so silly." They laughed. I got to explain that they were speaking Spanish, like Dora. Then I asked them to talk to her and teach her a word. They said, "Como se llama?" She liked that and without reservation said DENIM. Nelda bought me this really cute shirt, "to make me feel better from last week," she said. She is very kind. I was a little bit embarrassed.

You may be wondering why I got the kids such big ice creams, well, that was the smallest size. They loved them. Blazen dumped his on the ground. Good thing he was done with it or that would have been major drama.

On Saturday Ace helped his mom and dad ride at the Old McPhaul. The kids and I did some chores for Ace in the morning and then went to a baby shower. A friend of mine is due in December. She has a little girl and boy also, so it is fun for my kids to have playmates. I hadn't seen her in a long time because part of the year she lives in Alaska, so it was really nice to visit with her. She is a very strong woman, and I have tons of respect for her.

Denim Bleu all ready for church. Grandma knitted this outfit for her. She just looked so grown up with her to go bag. She picked out her boots.

*Funny Denim:
This week Denim was going to the bathroom and told me her tummy hurt. I asked her about it. She told me it was because she had eaten icicles when granny told her not to (she ate the icicles last week). She told me she needed medicine. Luckily when she got off 5 min later there was no more tummy ache. AMAZING!

*Funny Blazen:
This week when we were driving back from the lodge, Blazen did something naughty and got in trouble. He was upset and I said," I'm sorry Charlie". He broke down completely crying. I was surprised and asked him what was wrong. He said, "My name not chawlie, my name bwazen twails." It was so funny, but I really had to console him and tell him that I was sorry for calling him Charlie.

*One really nice thing about this week is that I was able to get back to "special time" (school) with Denim. We have been doing about 45min-1hr a day. She is doing really well. She is actually reading 3 letter words phonetically. We have been making words on the fridge for a while. This week I put items on the couch. ( a pig, dog, cat, jam, mop, man, bug, etc.) Then I wrote the words on a paper and asked her to put it on the item. She totally sounded out the words, and did it. I was so happy. By the end of the week she was reading as I wrote on paper all of the a,t words like cat, bat, rat, sat etc. and the a, n words like man, ran, fan etc. Blazen watches and listens to his sister so he is really learning a lot too. I try to include him whenever I can. I bought him the leapfrog phonetic letter fridge magnets. They are great!! I put out A,B,C,D, and E for him. He could do those in a day. They use the same lingo as the leapfrog DVD's, so he loved it and danced. I LOVE LEAP FROG. Denim is learning a lot from the word factory DVD now too.

*It is so awarding when your children put their arms around you and tell you they love you, which both of my kids did this week. One evening after scriptures, and prayers, Denim put her arms around me and said, "Mom you are the best mom ever, I will always be your daughter, and I love you."