Crossing Over

 CJ has crossed the bridge (literally) from cub scouts into boy scouts!  He is an 11 year old scout and they had the offical ceremony where he was welcomed into scouts.  He was able to participate in the ritual with his buddy Chandler Hickman.  It was pretty neat...Clay, CJ's Dad, officiated and represented the Cub Scout side (being the cub master) and Dave, Chandler's Dad, was able to welcome them into scouts (being the scout master).  So 2 boys and both Dad's participated, pretty neat night for these boys!!

IHOP or SugarRUSH?

For his Birthday, Laura took Preston out to lunch.  He chose IHOP.  1/2 way through his strawberries and creme crepes he says, "I think they should change the name from IHOP to SUGAR RUSH!"  If Preston made this comment, Laura knew that it must be super sugary...this kid can tolerate LOTS of sugar!  Oh Heaven Help his 3rd grade teacher when he goes back to school after "Lunch"

Check out those crazy eyes!!

A Social MAN

Preston is constantly asking if this person or that family can come over for dinner (it is seriously almost daily).  And then he gets upset when poor exhausted mom and dad say "Not today Buddy"  But, since it was his birthday - we decided to let him choose 1 family to come and celebrate with him and eat cake.  He chose our good friends the Hickman Family.  Preston and Jackson are 2 peas in a mischievous pod.  Silliness prevails with these 2!

Coconut= cocoyuck

Preston was so excited to try coconut milk straight from a coconut!  What he wasn't ready for was the DISGUSTING taste of it!  He did not like it one bit!!!  But alteast he can check that off his bucket list!  Done and never again!  He was able to wash down the nastiness with chocolate TruMOO (has to be trumoo) milk, rollos, kiwi and cool whip!

9 year old ROCKER

Preston loves guitars and music!  So it was no surprise when he picked a guitar cake for his birthday!  It was red velvet cake ball inside! YUM!!  Preston gave the cake 2 thumbs up and he even tried to play the strings!!  We often find Preston is his room rocking out, playing the guitar and enjoying music!

Big Spirit, Little Body

Erica is already 6 weeks old. Erica has so much personality that is just bursting!!! There is an amazing little spirit in this little body that just can't wait to talk - she is already jabbering away telling us so many important things that we wish we could understand!!! Her babbles and coos are so adorable.  We just can't get enough of her - can ya tell?

The Beastly B's

Erica is such a good baby!  We love how she sleeps- with her hands literally raised up off the bed reaching for the sky.  How she manages to sleep like this remains a mystery!!  It is in debate whether she is reaching out for a hug in snoozeland, reaching for heaven, or something completely different!!!  Being our 5th kid, we didn't expect too many surprises...however Erica has been quite her own little lady, with several unique characterists and nemesis' that we have had to figure out.  We have never had a kid that needed to burp after each feeding...sure the other kids had an occasional burp here and there but nothing like Erica...this girl NEEDS to burp after each and every feeding...if she doesn't get it up...oh heaven help the person that is holding her...it is like a beast has over came her...she fights and fights until than manly belch comes out!  We can't believe some of the noises that come from this little woman - little body, big noises!!  The next unique characteristic that has surprised us is Erica's boogers.  She gets them a lot and boy does she hate them!!!  Granted she isn't very happy when Laura shoots saline drops up her nose and then uses the aspirator to suck those babies out - but the instant look of relief on her face once those boogers are gone - is almost audible!  You can read it on her face, "Oh...thanks Mom.  Much better now"  The crying instantly stops and there is an audible sigh of relief.  So..there ya go..Erica's archenemies...BOOGERS and BURPS!  We are all glad we got those figured out!  Ready for the next curve ball!

The Daddy "DO"

...And this is what happens when Daddy gives you a bath and then "Styles" your hair!!  The Daddy hair"DO".  Clay was so proud of himself!  Poor Erica, her hair would lay down flat for days!  

Climbing Ladders

If you ask any of us "What is the one thing that you remember about Bandelier National Monument?"  We would all say THE LADDERS!  Each cave dwelling that we could enter had a ladder that we had to climb in order to get inside.  The first ones were 10-14 ft. tall and were all fun and games as we waited and took our turn to look at the homes in the caves. Well, in order to enter the last and final cave you had to hike to the end and then climb, climb, climb!!! (There was a warning posted that those who were afraid of heights or had health problems, SHOULD NOT ATTEMPT TO CLIMB IT!) The pictures don't do it justice - it was WAY UP THERE!!! Ladder after Ladder after Ladder and these weren't baby ladders either...they were BIG DADDY Ladders too!  At first, Laura stayed at the bottom with Detric, CJ,and Erica while Clay, Aparri and Preston hiked up the ladders to the top!  Laura and the kids stared in awe as they continued to climb and get smaller and smaller!  When they came back down, Laura was so impressed that Aparri and Preston went all the way to the top and weren't scared!  Laura wasn't sure if she wanted to go or not, but Clay insisted that she and CJ go.  So off they went....while climbing up ladder after ladder...Laura was even more amazed the little Aparri climbed like a champ to the top and wasn't scared....Laura was getting nervous herself!  It was quite the experience and quite the view from the top.  Wow...imagine living on top of the world like that in a cave - yikes!  Don't roll over in your sleep!