The Demise of Jacob's Baby Lions

So...Jacob has baby lions. They've been around for six months at least and have remained, conspicuously, babies. Yesterday I busted out the Sculpey clay and we made Jacob four "real" baby lions. I caught him on camera (sideways, I'm a dork, I know) telling me all about how his previous lions met their death. His lack of emotion cracks me up!
Here also is a running commentary by Jacob about his lions:

"...my baby lion got runned over by a car and hurt his leg and it gave him an owie and then he couldn't walk...then his mommy and daddy came and took him home then a fire was in the mommy and daddy house and then the mommy and daddy died and my baby lions like to eat little people and they run super fast and I run super fast with them and the baby had an owie and the mommy didn't give him a band aid and he died..."

So my son is obsessed with death, apparently. That's natural, right? We also have band aid issues in our home and Jacob seemed determined to slip that no band aid=death thing in there just to prove a point.
I LOVE Jacob's creativity and imagination. It is fun to have more one on one time with him now that Bekah is in school. Beau takes a nap from about 10 to 12, so I really do get some pure Jacob lovin' every morning.
And despite the randomness of it all I'm going to post a pic of a motorcycle cake I made for my bud Jaxon for his sixth birthday. He said it was very cool and he liked having his name on the license plate. It may not be pretty but it worked for him!Here's Beau with his new favorite sound, Oooooo!Have a happy day!

Anniversary Trip '09...Not knowing where you're going really takes the pressure off of getting there...

Rus is soooo not a planner.
Me...yessss, I plan.
How does this affect our anniversary trip? I worry that the demise of our short seven year marriage will be in Rus not coming up with a place that he'd like to go with me while simultaneously shooting down every place I come up with...meanwhile he doesn't worry about it at all and the night before our planned departure to ??? he announces that he'd just like to head north and "go where the wind blows us."
What do I think?
Perfect. Seriously. Phew, totally took off the pressure.
So that's what we did.
We drove north.
I bought a shoe polish pen to write "Just Hitched" on the back of our jeep.
Turns out it was clear polish.
Rus was relieved.
I wrote it anyway. Hmph.
Rus only wanted to take back roads.
We found an incredible antique store in Nambe where he bought an autographed copy of "When the Dogs Bark Treed" for his dad for Christmas (Roger---Pretend You Didn't Read This!)
I bought old buttons. I have a little fetish.
We saw a cool water bridge made out of tree trunks.We ate at a biker bar in Truchas and walked down the narrow street to take pictures of all the neat, falling apart buildings. And ourselves. I love the reflection of my arm in Rus's sunglasses. And my nose. The reflection makes it look bigger, really.(I have a thing for doorways, I found out.)
We drove straight through Taos, onto Angel Fire.We stayed at the Angel Fire Resort. I wanted to stay here. Sigh. But the resort did have wonderful rooms and big jacuzzi.
We ate great food for dinner...flying ants came with it, free.
I kissed Rus. Alot.
The next day we drove south.
I almost bought "Choke Cherry Jam" in Mora, just to see what it was. Now we all have to live in suspense about that.
We cruised through Las Vegas. Yep, there is one in NM. No bright lights, thank goodness.
Rus suffered through 32 miles of interstate. In really grates on his redneck nature to take his truck on such fast, modern thoroughfares.
We got off at Pecos (i think) and headed south, across the Something Mesa. Rowe Mesa, Rus says.Dirt roads almost made Rus pee his pants with delight. Wait, that was actually from his 3rd Dr. Pepper of the morning.
We saw some awesome abandoned homes and took muchas picturas. I wanted to jump the fence and give myself a tour. Rus didn't. I almost threw the camera case over to give myself a reason. (Um...Whoopsie...Ahh...Oh well...)We drove on a lot more dirt roads through a lot of flat country. Rus said it reminded him of growing up. Could have been because it was the same roads he drove whilst growing up.
Made it back to Abq.
Had to stop to shop a little and get some dessert, just to prolong it a little.
Decided it was finally time to go back home.
The jeep leaked Something at that thought and we cruised into the driveway with fluids sputtering everywhere.
Ha, look at that. All those dirt roads did do us some good! Rus says we have to wash it off before the neighbors start thinking we've been living in sin.
I want to take it to church tomorrow, to see what they think.

Bekah Starting School and the Seven Year Itch

Yesterday was a big day! My baby girl started school. I didn't cry, promise. I didn't even think about crying, I was way too excited! And how could I help myself when Bekah was there at 6:00am fully dressed in her uniform, telling me that this was the best day ever. See that face? Bursting, impatient with excitement.She repeated that phrase over and over on the bike ride to school, "This is the best day ever!" She did take a few moments out on the ride to laugh at her silly daddy who was wearing her backpack. Purple backpack. With white polka dots and a big pink stripe down the middle. It was full of all her school supplies, so it was a little heavy for her and Rus volunteered to take it. I love how being a daddy always trumps being super manly. Love it. I also loved that Rus decided to go in late to work so he could be there for Bekah's big day. Also present was my mom. Yep, she just can't help herself...my dad went out of town and her gas pedal started to itch.
So we got to the school and Bekah locked her bike and helmet up and we escorted her to her classroom. She speed walked, hips and all, to her classroom where she was delighted to put all of her stuff in her very own cubby, with a sophisticated "Rebekah Payne" name tag saving her spot. Then she gave me a kiss and went off to play with the cool mini-kitchen.
Rus headed off to work, throwing a "Happy Anniversary!" in the wind as he pedaled away. My mom and I (with Beau hanging out in my backseat, of course) were delighted to ride our bikes the "WEEE" way home with Jacob in the lead. I tell you what, that kid was tickled green and blue to be first and to be the fastest. It was a great ride!
Like I hinted before, it was also our seven year anniversary (how did that happen?!) and I have to tell you I believe in the seven year itch now. Completely. Rus and I went last Saturday to get pet rabbits, a breeding pair, that we can use to make baby rabbits that will grow up to become Rabbit Stew and Rabbit Dijon. (Please, please, recognize that "our" new venture completely and solely stinks of Rus.) We both got attacked by mosquitos and my legs were fairly apportioned 10 bites each. And that is why I believe in the seven year itch. So here are some pics of the ma and pa...Polly (because Bekah insisted that her rabbit have a pretty, not goofy name)...Beau wants her. He is determined to have her. You can see it in his face. and TBone. Don't worry about our children's relationships with their bunnies. They will be the first to tell you that we are going to eat the babies, when they are fryer size, naturally.
And there you have it. Bekah's biggest milestone since learning how to walk. I know she is going to have a wonderful, happy experience there and I know I'll miss her being my helper here at home. Here's to you, baby girl!

Vacation Bliss

First off, I have to say that to completely appreciate my week-long vacation to St. George with my mom, my sister and her kids, and my amazing friend Lindsey, I have to repress the memory of the return trip home. That is where my sister Amy would say, if she was being nice, that I "lost it." I was a person only a sister and mother could love, and my children loved me out of pure obligation, I'm sure. I'm blaming it completely and ashamedly on Aunt Flo. You know her, girls...vicious.
Anyways, St. George was bliss. We swam a lot, but not enough, really...we visited the St. George Temple, climbed around Pioneer rock, got rocked by an amazing Mediterranean restaurant (how do you say "gyros?"), shopped DI and Tai Pan Market, and my favorite of all, had a whipped cream fight in the front yard.
Lindsey, once again was unbelievably fun. Next time we talk I'm going to suggest that she market herself as a "Vacation Companion/Photographer For Hire." You all would love her...I'm just fortunate to know her and have her for a friend. Amy and my mom fell in love with her too, but not as much as Amy's kids. I think Joshua and Luke were crushing a little on Lindsey, and who could resist her and her very forward requests for kisses?! I dare say.
And why, you may be asking, are there not any pictures of this fun adventure?! Because I had technical difficulties, what with Beau throwing my phone in the shower with me, and my camelpack distributing water into the front pocket of my backpack and thus in/out/through my camera. Sigh.
Speaking of Beau, I just have to mention that my mom has a rather...um...unseemly habit of storing her cell phone in her sports bra. Beau loves cell phones. When he saw my mom for the first time last week, he put his hand up to his ear (like a phone), babbled incoherently, and then proceeded to thrust his hand into my mom's shirt to find a real phone. HILarious. He even tried it with me later, but really since I'm done nursing, a phone in my bra would stick out like...a phone in my bra.
This is probably the funniest story from my vacation, but near and dear are the memory of Bekah peeing in the dirt on our drive (I had to step on her feet so she could lean back far enough to not get herself), and Jacob peeing in a water bottle on the drive home because I couldn't pull over. And Luke showing me his pearly white bum, which happens to be a huge contrast from his otherwise tanned skin. And shopping Harmons grocery store for "Authentic Utah Food" like Stephen's Hot Cocoa, Honey Butter, and mixes from Lehi Roller mills. Yum. Oh, and staying up late with Amy and Lindsey made for a night full of laughter. Belly laughs. I can't even remember what we were talking about, but it was fun.
And now Beau is crying and my dirty tub is calling me. (I hate it when it does that! :)

Make it a great day!

"YOUR son!!!"

Attention husbands! It is never a good sign when you come home and your wife starts the conversation with these two ominous words..."Your son..."
In this specific case the dark cloud came in this form:
Wonderful mother that I am, I heard crying soon after I had told Jacob to lay down for a nap, but by that time I had already sweetly and lovingly asked him to get back in bed so many times that I wasn't interested in the source of his woes.
So when I went in to wake him up because we had to go somewhere and I found that there was something behind the door preventing me from opening it (originally I admit I thought that maybe he had fallen asleep on the floor...it has happened before...), and upon further inspection I saw blankets and clothes strewn all over the floor and the entire book shelf toppled over onto the nearby rocking chair...Let me just say that Jacob wasn't gently, slowly awakened. It was more like a "Jacob! What did you do?!!" It was a good thing that rocking chair was there or Jakey would have been a pancake. I'm still waiting for him to show proper remorse for what could have happened. Three year olds just don't get that.
So when Rus gets home tonight, unfortunately he's going to hear all about it. Starting with "Your son..."

Eleven Miles in the Sandias

Yesterday I got to go hiking with my hot mountain man!We were chaperoned by some of the scouts from our ward.There were some amazing views of Albuquerque...If you zoom in you can even see the temple. (just down from center)
Some amazing creatures...And eleven miles of green growth, four water bottles, two apples, one Mountain High meal, one power bar, all the m&ms from the trail mix, and one sore bum (today. I was effectively using those muscles on the downhill, apparently.)Thanks hon for the fun hike!

Jacob is the Sweetest Kid I Know

Really I mean sweatiest.
Maybe it's because we just rode two miles on our bikes. It has been our morning ritual for the past couple of weeks and it is SO fun! Bekah and Jacob ride their "big" bikes and Beau rides in the seat behind me on my bike and my mom rides with us too (I mean on her own bike. Come on, keep up!). We go up a hill to the school and then back down in the "weee!!!" place. Jacob likes to show me his tricks, like how he lifts his knees and feet up so they're not on the pedals, and how he stands up on the pedals, and my personal favorite, how he leans forward and uses his superpowers to go faster.
Bekah is amazing simply because she can go so fast. When we ride, her competitive spirit comes out and she has to be in front the whole way.
And Beau just sits behind me, sucking on the strap to his helmet and yelling at any dogs we might pass.
Speaking of Beau...this morning I burped and then he made the same noise and laughed and laughed. It was funny. Really.
Gotta love that Buddha belly.And speaking of funny, Jacob likes to tell people that he's amazing. And that you can't hug him too tight or his amazing will come out his ears.
And speaking of teeth (okay so I just snuck that one in there...) Bekah and Jacob have both had check ups and we've decided that we like Jacob better. Because he didn't have four cavities like Bekah did. (Does anyone see dollar signs when I say that?) One of which was so large it required a cap. Now Bekah has bling. On her tooth, molar to be exact.
Another cool thing about Bekah is she can wear the same size shirt as her aunt Emilee. Emilee is seventeen and sometimes buys things in miniature. Bekah thought this tank was snazzy and showed her muscles really well.
So now I have to go, but I will mention that Beau loves to talk on the phone. Every time the phone rings he puts his hand up to his ear and grunts...um, er...politely says, "yes, she is available, just one moment please..." So give us a call and Beau will happily speak caveman with you!