Meet Alice

Alice in Wonderland

and here's her sidekick, bodyguard and brother

the

rodeo clown

Sidenote: There is a special story behind Emma's costume. This dress belonged to me as a little girl and was my absolute favorite to wear to church. My mom is a "saver" of her children's favorite things (thanks, Mom) and she brought this dress over to my house about 6 months ago. Emma saw it, proclaimed it an "Alice in Wonderland dress" and decided that was what she would be for Halloween. I love easy costumes :)

Deep Thoughts by Emma

Last night Emma was on fire with the random comments to our bedtime stories. I worked really hard at not laughing at them because she didn't intend for them to be funny.

The Berenstain Bears' New Pup reads,

"Oh" said Sister...I want that one! He is so cute."

"That one is a she," said Farmer Ben.

"How can you tell?" asked Brother.

"There are ways," said Farmer Ben.

First of all, I was really irritated with the Berenstain's as soon as I read that page...like, really? Emma caught my eye as I turned the page and she had a little twinkle and a smirk on her face. I asked her, "How do you think they can tell, Emma?" knowing that having a little brother she is well-aware of the difference between boys and girls or he's and she's.

She spoke with conviction when she replied, "You just look at their eyes. The girl puppies will have really long eyelashes."

I left it at that.

Next up, Happy Mother's Day, Mami! where Dora and her friends make their mother's gifts for mother's day. Except Benny the bull. He gives his gift to his grandma.

Emma: "Are Benny's parents dead or something? Is that why he gives his his grandma the gift?"

Me: "Oh, geez, I hope they're not dead. Maybe his parents are at work or something."

Emma: "I doubt it. If they were at work he still would have made one for his mom, he would have just given it to her when she came home from work."

Both: Long pause

Emma: "Oh, well. At least he has a place to sleep at night."

Good point.

In my mind I'm going to....Colorado :)

"Are we fishing now, Dad?"

"It's biting my finger!"

stomp rockets...

Christina and I couldn't figure

out why the box said "ages 16 and up"

eating

we like fishing 'round here :)

dolores county library...awesome kid's section

Durango FAIR

hanging out

we're smiling because this is the

BEGINNING of the

11 hour drive home

Cinco de Mayo Princessa

Happy 6th Birthday to my Emma

__________________________

Last weekend we had an

"Almost Sleepover"

where we did all the fun stuff

that comes with a slumber party,

but left out the scary part

(the actual sleeping over).

We started out in the pool

then had some pizza

Changed into pj's

and watched Tinkerbell

on the projector outside.

You couldn't really see the movie

very well at the start,

but they didn't seem to mind.

Then there was

singing and cupcakes

And a little dance party to top off the night.

All the little girls

were happy to go

home with their mommies...

and sleep in their own beds.

The End.

Adventures in Motherhood

Yesterday started out painfully early. Hunter woke me at 4:37 am demanding some ice to freshen up his water from the night before. I was extremely irritated for two reasons: 1) I knew rationalizing was not going to work and 2) I had my alarm set for 5:00 to meet Heather at the park for a run at 5:30. Why is it that 30 minutes in the morning can seem to make or break a day? With a "fresh" water on the rocks I convinced Hunter to go back to bed just in time to throw on my clothes and meet Heather at the park. In fact, we pulled into the parking lot of Smucker Park at exactly the same time :)

But after my run and such an early morning I was tired. Really tired. And in case you didn't know, tired mom + tired kids = long day. We plugged along until we hit the brutal hour of 4:00 pm.


Emma was getting ready for a "tea party". She invited her friends from across the street to come over and decided they should all be "fancy". She came out in this outfit and I thought she looked just darling and had her pose by the front door.





Hunter was in the middle of a temper tantrum about (you guessed it) wanting some ice in his drink. But now we were out of ice. We used the last of it to shut him up earlier. I was pretending to ignore his screams and busy myself with cleaning up the mess we made in the dining room at lunch: edamame and quesadillas.

As I reached down to pick up a handful of fallen edamame shells I almost stepped on a small creature. For a spit second I thought, "Oh my gosh that is the biggest cockroach I've ever seen in my life!" But then I saw it's face and it's tail. It was a mouse. A teeny, teeny, tiny mouse, well, about the size of a large cockroach.

I screamed at the top of my lungs. Ran into the kitchen, then started hysterically laughing at myself for the way I reacted. Now Hunter was curious and confused and quiet (yes!). I decided I wanted to find the mouse. Where did it go? Were there others?

I climbed on top of our dining room table to survey the ground below. Hunter followed me to the king's chair (that's what we call the head of the table). I looked and looked for a couple of minutes with no luck. Then, all of a sudden Hunter calmly said, "He likes it." I followed his gaze to find that little teeny, tiny mouse right in my blind spot, not far from where I almost stepped on him. He was eating one of the fallen edamame shells. And Hunter was right. He liked it.

When I got a closer look, I saw that this little guy was actually kind of cute just munching away on that salty, green shell. The Rescuers and Stuart Little flashed through my mind. I called in Emma and we all got down to get a closer look. The mouse nibbled away and we decided that this little baby mouse was so new that he didn't know to be afraid of humans and run away. I decided that he was so tame I could probably catch him...the last thing I wanted was to leave him there and and by the looks of it, he wasn't going anywhere on his own.

I ran to my closet, grabbed an empty shoebox and ran back to the dining room. That little guy was still in the same spot! I warned the kids to get out of my way and threw the box on top of the mouse and scooped him up with the lid.

I CAUGHT A MOUSE! Here he is:



The kids were entertained for the last stretch before Tommy came home. Just watching, NOT TOUCHING the mouse.

Emma thought the mouse might like some cheese.

He did.

Right here's when they asked,

"Can we keep it, Mom?"

No. I told them Tommy would take the mouse to work tomorrow so he could find his mother in the desert. I was pretty sure it was a desert mouse. Luckily, Emma agreed with me and convinced her brother that the mouse should not be separated from it's mother.

Until the next adventure...

Happy Birthday Hunter :)

Three years old.

At this moment in time here are a few of Hunter's favorite things:

bear hugs

cowboy boots

cowboy shirts

cowboy hats

bullriders/broc riders/steer wrestlers

popsicles

gum

riding bikes

being able to stand up in the jacuzzi

peeing outside whenever given the opportunity

Olivia (the cartoon)

his role as "the brother" when playing house










I love you, Hunter.

Must. Get. Egg.

We hunted eggs at my mom's house this year...Zach and Jake helped her hide eggs for my kids. Big surprise, Emma "won" with 18 eggs found.

This was as good as it was going to get for a family Easter photo. We'll take what we can get :)

A new smile :)

Just so you know Megan Holdsworth is da bomb!

Megan and I go way back. I think our friendship began in about sixth grade...she was my best friend and good at EVERYTHING! So it doesn't surprise me that she has become this crazy-amazing professional photographer.

I will spare you the long story of why I had to cancel our session (that I'd been wanting for over a year) and my meltdown that followed the cancellation.

But being the great friend Megan is she stopped by to visit me anyway and used her mad skills on our playdate. And, guess what? She featured us on her blog! Check out the shots she took of us here. And after that, check out her website here and keep her in mind for your next special event (after October because she's having a baby).

Love you, Megan! You rock! These will definitely hold me over until our "real session" that is hopefully sooner than later :)

This weekend we hung out in the jacuzzi unable to resist the beautiful weather. I think I've decided on of my favorite smells is a child smeared with sunscreen.

We hope this summer Hunter will learn how to swim.

Last summer it was just "too thcay-wee" to go under.

I think we're making progress though...

he asked me if I would be his swimming teacher.

I felt like I was being asked out on a date.

Of course I said yes.

Mission Complete

She's a tough one to catch on camera with a toothy grin, but I got one :)

Can't believe it's almost time for another birthday...

only a few more weeks of being five years old.

Is it just me or did anyone else have a hard time

moving their child out of toddler clothing section?

I don't want to buy big girl clothes yet!

My next mission

I'm setting out to get a good recent shot of Emma. She's a tough one but stay tuned :)

There's a song...

Mama's don't let your babies grow up to be cowboys....

Not sure I'm going to have much of a say with this one.

A little tip

I just changed the format on my blog (again). You might see that on some of the posts have extra large images that look like they are cut off...if you double click on them it will take you to photobucket where you can view the whole enlarged image. Another one of my great ideas...trying to get fancy with my blog. Don't worry I won't do it anymore.

Wishing Well

Last night Emma said:

"I wish I had a wishing well. I would wish that me and Hunter could be kids forever."

2009 Good so far

Yup, us Gwynn's like to starting the year off with a bang! Tonight Hunter pooped in the potty and Emma learned to ride a bike! I thought I was taking pictures and video clips of the occasion (the bike riding) but I realized I didn't have the memory card in when I tried to load them. oops. I'll have to take some later and pretend.."Look, Emma, this was the first time you rode a bike with out training wheels". Knowing Emma she'll remember the exact outfit she was wearing and call my bluff.