Never a dull moment.

Watching 3 kiddos is a lot of work! We're out here in AZ and staying with my in-laws. I'm watching my sister-in-laws little boy (20 months old), Stratton who is just adorable to say the least. He giggles ALL the time! Acutally, at the end of every sentence is a short giggle. He is just too cute!
His little brother, Emerson, is still fighting hard in the NICU and has been recently been transported to St. Joseph's Hospital in Phoenix in case he needs to have surgery (at this point they are saying there is a 50/50 chance for it). The kiddos have actually been pretty good so far and I am just so grateful that Tristen is an Angel Baby otherwise waking up at 6:00 in the morning would be a lot harder, and getting all the kiddos out of the house by 8:30 every morning (because they run a day business at their house) would be a nightmare, and getting them down for naps in the afternoon would be a much longer process.
Today, in sacrement meeting, I kept thinking of my other sister-in-law, Kindra. She had her first three children within 2.5 years! That's what I was working with today at church (Kal is 2.5 years, Stratton is 20 months, and Tristen is 8 months). Of course, I must add that my mother-in-law was there to help out, but I tell ya, it was a struggle! In Albany, there are many children in sacrament meeting which means there are a lot of other mothers who understand my situation, but here in Chandler, there are either very few babies, or a lot of very well behaved babies because you could have heard a pin drop on a pillow during the sacrament if it weren't for Stratton crying for the "quiet time" book, or Tristen whining because his binky dropped, or me whisper-yelling at Kalvin to get back to our bench after crawling under my legs to the bench behind us. I thought nursery would never come! I was very tempted to just go home especially with my mother-in-law asking every 10 min if we could just go (home). Her argument was that they could be crying and acting recklessly at home as well, so why not go? I just couldn't bring myself to leave.
We've done a lot of fun things in the last few days: played with other cousin's, rode the ATV (that's at least 2x's a day), saw my mom after she finished running a half marathon and then we got to see the reptile exhibit, pet a 300 lb. python, pet an alligator (that had it's mouth taped shut), see many other venomous snakes, jump in a blow up bouncer, and help Kalvin get his head unstuck from the car window (yeah, that was funny/sad).

My Sis, Ruth, ran the 10 K (6.2 mi) way to go girl! I'm so proud to say that my mom is cool enough to run a half marathon! She inspires me in so many ways, now I have one more thing to add to my list.

Kal petting the alligator tail

Kal petting the python's tail

Stratton had just touched the snake and REALLY didn't want to touch it again, even with all my encouragement.

You can see the snakes head in there to the left of Kal's

It was just a little strange to me, that they would let this snake be so easily accessible, I mean, he is 19 feet long for heaven's sake!

I think this was a giant iguana

Stratton wanted so bad to jump in here. It was a quick 3 min. jump before they were done, but they both waited SO patiently in line for their turn.

Kal's gums were pretty cut up from getting stuck in the window. Poor kid!

In this picture, I think Kal (on the left) kinda looks like some of my kid pictures. He loves this Dora the explorer helmet and wanted to wear it on the way to visiting Stratton's mom and dad for the evening.

Every time I come to AZ I forget how bright days are (especially coming from Albany, where it gets dark so early). Kal really doesn't like to bright sun and the only sunglasses I saw close by were Grandma Ellsworths. Kal didn't mind wearing them though. They give great coverage!

And I blame the stress of our house in Albany for this nasty cold sore. This was the beginning of it. Now, it's at the nasty orange yellow bulky stage, YUCK! I don't think I've had one this bad since I was in 9th grade and went snow skiing without wearing any sunscreen.