Mother Nature and Father Time

Ella wanted to know this week if Mother Nature and Father Time are, "like, REAL people?" Cute!  No, they are not "real" people, but both of them are playing games with us.  Mother Nature cannot decide if winter is over or not, and Father Time is doing some kind of fast-forward mumbo-jumbo.  Slow down, Father Time, slow down!  And since I am bossing around symbolic non-real people...it is SPRING, Mother Nature.  Stop snowing! :)

The kids are dreaming more fervently about our "someday" pet dog, because I've told them often that we will not get a dog until McKinley is potty trained.  Well...big news over the last 3 weeks...someone little is wearing undies!  And she's thrilled about it, as you can see.

She's been doing great, but not too happy about having to "pause" her life to use the bathroom.  By the fourth kid I totally get that they have to decide for themselves to be potty trained, it's just a matter of how much pee I want to clean up in the process.  The last few days I think she has finally gotten on board and decided that this is what SHE wants, which is fantastic!  As far as dog news, there is no news yet but the kids are getting antsy now.

In other parts of our world...Rachel learned how to swing by herself, Ella gave a little talk in front of the entire congregation at church (and ROCKED it), and Caleb got braces.

They are only on his front 4 teeth; he had two baby teeth pulled out because, like Ella, his adult teeth were coming in behind one another instead of beside each other.  These are temporary, another step in his long orthodontic road.  He does not love them, but I think after the initial soreness subsides he will be okay.

Ella also learned how to give herself a pony tail and braid her own hair, (after just one lesson!) so there have been ZERO tears about brushing and fixing her hair now, because she is doing it all on her own, without any threats on my end to chop it off. Yay!

Kip is very busy at work, in these last few months we probably won't see him as much.  This job will be done sometime in the June-July time frame, then on to something new! (Who knows what!)

I was  very excited to stay up past my bedtime to see the lunar eclipse this week, so cool! This was about 1 hour in, roughly 12:55 a.m. mountain time, from my back porch.  So cool! 

I sort of wish I had a more awesome camera but at least I have the awesome memories.  Plus there are jillions of people who post their pictures on the internet, I can look at them for free, without buying a fancy camera!

We are so excited to be winding down our school year, only about 6 weeks to go, woo hoo!  I love summer break.  Don't we all?!