R.I.P. Jet Black Reynolds

Jackson's hamster died this week.  It was so sad.  He was such a good, sweet little pet for Jackson.  Jackson really wanted a pet for a long time.  He had to work hard to earn his hamster--convincing me and with good behavior.  He also did a great job of taking care of him.  He cleaned his cage out and always made sure he had plenty of food and water.  "Hammy"  as we nicknamed him had quite a few adventures.  He was a great escape artist and would chew his way out of his exercise ball and run it over and over again into the wall until the lid popped open and he escaped.  He also escaped once from his cage and we found him in Robert's suitcase hiding out with provisions.  I would often come into Jackson's room when Jackson was upset and find him cuddling and loving Jet to help soothe his hurt feelings.  I really never thought we would all get so attached to a Hamster but we did.  He was fun to watch and play with and we will really miss him.  

What we've been doing....

I think it's pretty obvious that "we" have not been blogging.  After a few nudges in the right direction,  I feel sufficiently guilty to actually post.  So here's what we've been doing:

I'm tired of posing for you Mom and I'm going to communicate that with my mouth.

Conquering rocks. 

Trying to get someone to slow down for a picture.

Appreciating Nevada beauty.

Taking crazy clothes day at school to a whole new level.  

Dancing to show off our craziness because we weren't sure you'd get how "crazy" we truly are just by the shorts we are wearing around our neck.  

We slept with all sorts of crazy things including our Wocket without a  pocket we made at preschool.  He was kind of a pillow hog.  

We watched and participated in a whole season of Basketball.  We also got some dirty looks for  our loud mouth shouting things we should probably only be thinking.  It's a problem we have and we are working on it. 

We inherited a great rocking chair and had it re-done.  Now it is happily living in Ella's room. 

We got very, very sick.  We had X-rays for pneumonia but those came back negative.  Diagnosis:  Infrequent intermittent Asthma.  Crappy.  

Tried to particpate in the politcal process by attending a rally with the kids and no husband.  We decided that we do not like crowds and were too worried about violating the fire code to enjoy anything.  Also, was so packed kids could not see or move.  Mom could not even get a picture that wasn't blurry. 

Went hiking in Red Rock canyon. 

Saw an amazing performance from David Gray.

Made crap-your-pants big bubbles.

We took some time to relax and enjoy our allergies  

We organized races at the park.  

We had our first big boy soccer practice.  We weren' t excited about it or anything. 

We sang songs and pretended we were famous at the Lied Discovery Museum.

We responded when duty called.  

We ate green pancakes on St. Patrick's day, pinched each other and Mom ran a 5K and came in 2nd place.  Of course, half the particpants were pushing jog strollers.  

We tried to learn how to vacuum.  

Instead, we learned it was much more fun to steal Mom's phone and take pictures of her bottom with her  underwear showing while she vacuumed.


It's been an interesting couple of months....

The Cabin and Cousins

Jackson's homework: The second grade Rorschach test.

Insight into Jackson's thought process:


His homework page tonight with instructions to solve the "riddles"  with words from the box:

Word choices:  flame, take, mistake, same, snake, make, name, brake, games, became.

1. People play them.  They are _____. (games)

2. Someone gives you something.  You______ (Jackson's answer: brake) it.

3.  This stops the wheels of a car or bike.  It is a______.


Question #3 had Jackson really frustrated so he called me over to help him.  He couldn't figure out what word it could be!  We had a talk about the difference between "break" and "brake" as soon as I could control my giggles.  It was the best thing that happened all day.

Jackson's Birthday: Lucky number 7!

Jackson prayed that I would make his cake the way he wanted it. No pressure. I am not a professional cake maker by any means but I've felt pretty confidant (in the past) in my ability to produce an edible as well as semi-attractive cake to accompany birthday festivities. But Jackson praying over his cake, well, that made me extremely jittery. Luckily, he was satisfied with the results of my effort and next year I will re-double my efforts to sell him on ice-cream or Costco cakes. I'm not sure I could handle that kind of expectation again!

No, we don't put black marks on our children when they are naughty (people would think that Jackson was BLACK). Jackson had his face painted at school and it was difficult to persuade him to wash it. I wonder how old boys have to be to like to be clean? Hmm. Anyway, Jackson chose to celebrate dinner over chinese food at China Mama's. We had a great time.

Happy Birthday, Jackson! I love, love, love you! Enjoy your lucky 7!

Jackson learns the "F" word...

It was Sunday and the weather was lovely.  Or as Ella says, "I love it when the weather is medium Mom."  And it was perfectly medium--not hot and not cold.  So we decided to take a desert appreciation walk.  Also, the kids had just sat through 3 hours of church and may have killed each other had we not left the house.  We decided to explore the desert behind our subdivision--the last frontier.  We noticed the landscape is being graded for development and wanted to enjoy the wide open space while we could.   We found desert apples, sharp cacti, and interesting rocks.  We even saw three jack rabbits!  

It was an exciting, wholesome adventure until we decided to explore the "bridge".  Jackson, who is always running ahead called back to me: "Hey, Mom what does F--- You mean?"  So thank you Punk who decided to spray paint the wall with such creative language.  I really enjoyed trying to get around explaining what that meant to my 6 year old.   I hope you have the same experience with your child some day and that your child has lots of blow-out diapers, colic and dumps honey all over your carpet and then wipes his hands on your dry-clean only couch and then finds the scissors and cuts up your favorite shirt.  The end.