4 Short Days

I don't know if I can even begin to describe how much fun our kids had with the Mortensens in town. I think if they could choose we would ALWAYS have nine children living in our house. I am trying to remember if they ever wanted me other than for a drink of water every now and then. They were much too busy playing. The Mortensens are amazing people. Wanting to have children and start their own family they went the foster care-adoption route. They have 6 children ages 8, 4, 3, 2, and 1 (that is two 1 year olds). And it blows me away how they can be all loaded up and ready in their vehicle faster than I can with my 3. Shameful. We had sooo much fun and played HARD. We got to ride the tram, go on a nature walk, go to the zoo, Balloon Fiesta, play at Burger King's play place (that was after the evening Glowdeo got canceled due to rain) go to a movie (that was a first... and... probably a last for our kids for awhile), play in the back yard, climb trees, dress up, hike up the street to our own outdoor desert wilderness, and have a slumber party!

Here are just a few snapshots, the first one is Friday at the zoo with Allie doing her napping flamingo impression. It was really funny. And pretty accurate too. See for yourself.

Below is Wesley and Luke doing their best growling lobo impression. Oooh scary! By the way lobo is wolf in Spanish and the statue behind them (with it's head cut out of the picture) is a lobo.
And this is their orangutan impression. Bunch a little primates - all of 'em. Have you ever seen 7 little children in the bathtub at one time?! H-I-L-A-R-I-O-U-S!!! And they had a ball. Who knew the bathtub could be so fun and in this case quite literally "the more, the merrier". It is also a great way to have your bathroom floor cleaned.

Globo Festival

Our friends, the Mortensens, are out from Arizona to join us for the Balloon Fiesta.
We all got up a little before 4:30 this morning to drive down to the balloon fiesta park. Note to self: put your kids to bed early when you plan on waking them up at 4:30AM or they will be very cranky. Allie took a few hours to warm up.
This clown fish was new this year...


Here is a nice severed Donald Trump head. The driver of this chase vehicle was dressed up like a pirate with a hook, pirate hat and sword. Donald will be missed.
Wesley won the Had-the-Best-Time award this year.

Luke Too

Aaaaauurrrghhh!!!!!!!!!! I love my son. I love my son. I love my son.

Life with Luke

Do you know what these are? How about another hint...
How about now? Do you know any of those people who say "Oh we never _____ (example -put locks on cabinets). We just taught are children not to do that." Well if you count the number of cheese packages in the first photo you can see the number of idiotic times I tried to teach Luke "not to do that." How about just move the macaroni and cheese to another shelf?! Great idea. How could anyone resist the sound of macaroni being dumped down the vent, even if your mom told you not to.

And the M&M fire truck? I guess it needed a new paint job. Luke brought it out to me and told me he used "mommy's paint." Also known as foundation- MAKE-UP. I guess that "paint" color didn't look that good on me anyway.

I'd like to thank Grandma Payne once again for the sample bottles of Clinic make-up remover. I love the product!

Out with the cousins

We went with my cousin's family to Elena Gallegos park this afternoon to take some snapshots. It was a dark and stormy night, but a few turned out.
3 headed, six legged boy
And here we have Mr. Wesley and his hot mama. He likes to stand these days - especially in his pouch.
Allie was dying to hop on the rock with the boys. When it was finally her turn, she played up the drama to let us know how patient she had to be...
Luke found a cactus and we had the fine privilege of picking out 30 or so "pokeys" from his leg. We wound up stopping by Smiths on our way home to buy tweezers for the remaining few. He was not impressed. On our way out of the park Allie asked "I thought we were going to a park?"

Baby Food

We wait to begin introducing food/solids to our babies- usually until they are 8 or 9 months. I know that is pretty unusual. Most people begin around 6 months and some even earlier like 4 months. We wait because we are trying and hoping to prevent things like Celiac disease and diabetes among the many other allergies that Payne intestines have- milk, ,bananas, peanuts - to name a few. The other reason that is almost equally as strong is that I don't really like feeding babies baby food. They grab the spoon, fight with you for the food, it is messy, takes longer and they always want to eat when I want to eat. That is pretty selfish- I know. It is fun maybe the first couple of times but really, I like when they can start feeding themselves. But as I said before, it is mostly about the allergies.

Ideally we begin feeding our babies around 8 or 9 months with introducing fresh wholesome fruits and vegetables, whole grains- rice, oatmeal, then wheat. No preservatives. Just wholesome fresh goodness for their little tummies to adjust to one at a time.

The reality: dried up Ramen noodles, garlic bread with butter and mayo, old bananas and banana peel, crunchy Trix (Hello yellow #5 and Red #2), Cheerios soaked in cow's milk, pieces of Fruit Roll Up (high fructose corn syrup), and peanut butter sandwich crusts. Those are just the food items I have witnessed.

The combination of early crawling and standing (the little kid table is just the right height for his chubby little reaching hands) and older siblings who are really just little kids too makes for adventures in food scavenging. Yep, the self-feeding stage. My dear sweet Wesley- may the antibodies I have given you be strong and your intestines be steel.

You know, maybe the reason that my children are such good eaters is because we make them wait for so long they are willing to try ANYTHING.

Zoo Night

Last night was Sandia National Laboratory's Division 5000's annual night at the zoo -that is a mouthful. The above photo is Luke counting to 5,000. (He got to 10). We LOVE zoo night! It is so fun for the whole family. They have hot dogs, hamburgers, chicken with potato salad and chips and all the fixin's (is fixin' a southern word?) and you eat in the beautiful green grass below the green canopy of cotton wood trees and in front of the the outdoor stage with the live music playing (usually some group of one of the employees). They were really good. And then you run around to see as many of the animals as you can before they go to bed. Which isn't many. But still, it is so fun!

I love these photos. You can see why Luke has a hard time keeping up with Allie. It is all in the length of your stride- just like your cross country coach and Pres. Kimball said.

Jason took some snapshots for the Ottesens while the rest of us looked at the animals. Here is a nice photo of Mitchell:
And now for the highlight of the evening! Jingles the Clown painted Allie and Luke's face. They were THRILLED!!! And of course did NOT want to wash their faces when they got home. Luke's little face has a blue car on it. He made me pretend it was driving all over his face last night as I was tucking him in. He loved it even though his photo below doesn't show very much enthusiasm.She was smart. She would paint on the little kids hands while painting on their face. It helps them to hold still while their face is being worked on.