A Whole Hand!

  So I'm not saying I still think of him as a BABY. Even though he was the cutest, cuddliest, most smiley baby.

 Awwwww, so sweet. 

I actually think of him more like this.

 Still snuggling in our laps or wanting to be carried around. It's not that I'm not ready for him to grow up. I love that he is past so many of the things that aren't necessarily lovely about toddler/preschoolers. But I can't help but think of him as being just a little bit younger than he is.

 No WAY he is letting us forget it though!!! He is FIVE now. A whole hand. And he is SUPER PROUD of that. Because he is five now, he can do a whole host of things he couldn't do just the week before, you know, when he was still four. He can now help me in so many ways. "Mom, I can help you turn all the lights out now, because I am five." Or "Mom, I can help carry groceries in now because I am five." And my favorite, "Mom, I can count all the way up now, because I'm five. And did you know that 10 + 10 = 20?"

He is an expert at UNO and can beat me easily. Even though he doesn't like to lose at games, he will keep playing. At the beginning of the summer he officially became a swimmer (and would proudly tell people, "Do you know what I am now? I'm a swimmer.") 

Some of his favorites include:

Food: PB&J's, Roast Beef, Broccoli, Blackberries

Games: Soccer, Aggie football, any video game

Movies: Monsters University, Despicable Me 2 and Dinosaur

TV Shows: Phineas & Ferb, Power Rangers

Another fav? His big brother. We are still counting our blessings at how well these two get along, and how much they love each other. Sometimes it takes my breath away at how much God has blessed us with when I look at these two.

My favorite is that our littlest man still wakes up with a smile, runs to find me, and gives me hugs and kisses first thing in the morning. So he is still my Lovebug, and he still loves it. Oh, and anything DINOSAUR :)

Our home away from home

 I blame my parents. They are totally and completely to blame. I am pretty sure without their influence, we would have never fallen in love with Ruidoso like we have. Although I made a trip to the Inn with my own grandparents when I was around eight years old, and have good memories, the first time we brought JW here in 2006 made us truly love being here. And we have found the home - "our home" - that we will stay in every time we come back.

The view from the front porch facing Sierra Blanca. The kids call the house "the New Mexico house." Simple, but said with lots of love.

 One of the boys favorite things to do at our house is look for deer from the back deck. There is one right below them...

 ...that Papa was feeding! He discovered they liked apples a whole lot, and one in particular, came back a couple of times. It is funny to hear the locals talk about the deer - some love them, some hate them. Very much like Texas. The town even recently fought over whether or not people can feed deer from their yards. Luckily, you still can, or Papa might have broken the law!

 The second thing the boys love about this house - the hot tub! We turn the temp down a little and they have their own private, heated pool. 

 Silly boys.

 Another view of Sierra Blanca. Sigh.

 We never really did spend much time at Funtrackers, until the last two years. When our boys discovered the wonderland that is go-carts, miniature golf and bumper boats. You can't beat the scenery and weather.

 We always take a day trip to Capitan to visit Smokey.

And then we drive down the road to Lincoln. This is the Dolan House, which is a lovely, quaint restaurant now. A couple from Washington State moved down to restore and open it. Read about the history here - and yes, Dolan, as in Murphy-Dolan, Lincoln County wars, Billy the Kid, and for those my age, Young Guns :)

 And we can't go to Ruidoso without a visit to the Flying J Ranch. If you haven't ever been, it's a treat. 

 The fairly new Cowboy Church at Flying J. They hold services here once a week for locals.

 In the past couple of years, they have added a lot out at Flying J, including shooting and gem mining. My boys were all about the shooting. This was LJ's first time. He didn't want help, but he gun was too heavy for him to hold alone.

 My two talented shooters.

Uh-oh. It's a gun fight in the streets of Bonita City (aka Flying J).

 We had a treat when our McFriends from Sterling came to stay with us for a couple of nights. We went horseback riding....

That is my big boy in the blue hat. It was bit dry but once we got up into the Lincoln National Forest it cooled down and was beautiful. We started at around 7,000 feet elevation and rode up to a little over 8,000 feet. 

We also found aliens. And the green guy is cool, too! Seriously, there are wood carvings of everything up here, especially bears. Which we didn't see, but we had one or two manage to open our dumpster for midnight snacks. Eek!

 Last day picture. All smiles here, but sad when the car pulls away.

Thanks Ghee & Papa! We loved every minute!

Camping is for the Wolves!

 Cub Scout Wolves, that is! Inks Lake, April 19-21, 2013

Our campsite, before set up! I was the lucky person chosen to arrive first at campsite. After they tried to put all five of our campsites together in a horrible, no good, awful location, I ran back to the Ranger headquarters and said no way, find something else. So glad I did, because we ended up with this AMAZING cove all to ourselves.

 After setup! We made this our "party site" and all of the tents were to the left of this picture in surrounding sites with parking and hook-ups. To the right of this picture is an open field that we had all to ourselves - well, with an occasional hiker walking through.

View from the open field, water is to the right. The orange tent is the McD Family headquarters :)

 Rock Island, as our boys called it, provided hours of imaginative fun for the kiddos. It was just off the open field by our campsite. 

 I'm not sure what is going on here, but our Den leader is the one pretending to be a rabbit. Or a bear? Anyway, this should give you an idea what our gatherings are like!!!

 The dads, the scouts and their siblings. The men folk will be taking over the den in the Fall of 2014. Yes, the mamas already have it all planned out.

 Roughin' it...lol! What I adore about our lovebug is that when he is tired, it is "lights out" and he crawls in bed even if the others are still playing (which of course, they were). Notice all of the sleeping bags, blankets, etc. It got down to 38 DEGREES in the wee hours of Friday night/Saturday morning. Still way better than trying to sleep when it's 88 degrees at night!

Ummm, our big boy is in there somewhere! He crawled down into his Eskimo sleeping bag both nights and slept so soundly.

 Saturday = hike, swim, canoe and fishing! FUN!

 Due to a very steep slope just on the other side of this rock, the little one's ended up on a hike with some of the parents, while the other parents took the big boys to a cool swimming hole. 

 Made my scout pose before he and dad went off to swim.

 Time to canoe!

 Paddle, paddle, paddle! 

This lake is gorgeous!

Our sweet campers.

My fishing buddy. No catches this time, but relaxing fun.

 Campfires when it is in the 50's at night are sooooo much better. And the kids thought it was even more fun when the flames changed colors, thanks to some magic our den leader brought along. And yes, smores were had by all, as well as some strawberries dipped in marshmallow cream and then roasted. Too busy eating to take pictures, ha!

 Early morning games after breakfast. 

 We finished our Sunday with the Dad's taking the kids paddle boating. I have the BEST video of three paddle boats coming up to our camp site, all joined together, singing the Imperial Death March. I am saving it for something special :)

Things I learned from our second camping trip - 

1. It is MUCH better to go camping and get a little cold versus camping when you are sweating through three changes of clothes a day.
2. I love being outdoors with my boys. It is a joy to see them appreciate nature and learn about where we live.
3. I wish I had been able to camp with my Granny, but I know she is watching over us and is so happy to see her great-grandsons share in her love of the outdoors.
4. We need a bigger tent, lol! No but really. Especially as these boys continue to grow. I'm thinking one of those cool, eight person with a drape to section off rooms...
5. The "Quiet Time Rules" are not suggestions at state parks. They are strict rules and are enforced even if you accidentally keep playing your music and chatting around a campfire, not realizing it's a little past 10pm. Wait, it was almost 11pm? Whoops.
6. Camping with friends is the BEST. Even if it's a little chilly the first morning, and you wake up with chattering teeth and have trouble going back to sleep. Having breakfast and fellowship with friends makes it all worthwhile.

Summer's HERE & Big Boy Update

Lovebug & Snake at Hotel Galvez - May 10, 2013

SCHOOOOOOOOOOOOOL'S OUT FOR SUMMER!

And the McD family continued our tradition of heading to the beach the day after the boy's last day of school. This year's destination? Galveston. So much fun!

Now, an update on our oldest baby. I mean, young man.

I know. He IS handsome, isn't he? This big boy is 8 years, 5 months and 1 day old. I counted it out because I can't believe it myself. My husband has always called him "Sneaky Snake" and it is funny now, because he likes it! Even though this tenderhearted little man is the furthest thing from the definition of a snake that you can get. Perhaps exactly why he likes it. ;)

Snake just finished his SECOND GRADE year in school. WHAT???? I now have a Third Grader. He is a great student and is thriving at his Christian, Classical, University Model-style school. He still attends classes at SCS on Tuesdays and Thursdays, and I am blessed to co-teach him at home on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays.

Working diligently at home. His favorite subjects are science and history. He is really gifted at math and likes it, too. His least favorite is anything having to do with writing! At the end of each school year at SCS, the teachers hands out "Character Rocks" with a characteristic written on it that the teacher believes the student has embodied all year. So far, Jacob has collected Honesty, Enthusiasm and this year, Loyalty. :) He is all of these things, plus extremely caring and tenderhearted. He is an incredible big brother and prays over his little brother every time Lovebug gets sick.

 Future Former Student, Class of '27! He loves our Alma Mater and had a blast going to football games this year. We even have video of him getting a high five from a certain Heisman winning quarterback during the Spirit Walk before the very first home game.

And suddenly, this kid has an opinion about music! One of his favorites, R5, just happened to be playing a famous little BBQ place here in town. We decided to be the cool parents and take Snake and one of his best little buddies, EK, to see them play. It was during the day and has a "kid-friendly" area so these two pre-tweeners weren't squished by all the teen girls trying to see the cuties on stage. He also likes some pop music he has heard on the radio, Christian music, and I found out recently, Crazy Train by Ozzy Osbourne. O.K...

Finally, our big boy is beyond blessed by his friends and their parents. His own super hero dad has coached his 2nd Grade Boys soccer team this Spring. Their last game of the year is tomorrow evening (due to the holiday weekend coming up). Snake is so, so, so fortunate to be playing with his four best buddies. They not only all go to the same small school together, but all five of them are in their own little Cub Scout Den. 

Den 10, plus siblings and dads :)

God has more than provided our prayer to surround our boys with exceptional people and friends. Add in our amazing family, and maybe, just maybe JM and I will survive raising these boys!