They're still cute when they sleep...

One of the sweetest things about little babies is watching them sleep. Maybe it is partly because they aren't crying when they sleep, but they are especially adorable when they're all cuddly and peaceful. As they get older I've still really enjoyed watching them sleep. Here are a few pictures from the other night of them sleeping. Luke has moved into a big boy bed and Jack wanted to sleep down there with him. I was surprised how well it went and they're doing it again tonight. Leah looks like she's having an upsetting dream!

My posts have been a little lacking lately. I'm trying to commit to getting school going with a good schedule and regular patterns so I've been spending a lot of time on re-working schedules and grinding through with the kids to get used to this school thing again. We've been out of it really since April when we found out we were moving and had to take care of all the things that were involved with it. Praise God that things are really going well overall with the school work and the other things we've been doing.

We've had some fun distractions since school started, too! We were able to go with Derek up to Santa Clarita for a night and a couple of days. (That's where we used to live for those who don't know.) We hung out with Kenny and Kathy a little and also saw the Rolley's for a park marathon :) and lunch. It was nice to be in familiar places with familiar faces. Kenny and Kathy came back down with us that night to pick up some baby furniture that was in our garage and stay the night, then it was back to school work. On Friday we went to the PRCA Rodeo that was in town. The kids had a blast. Stier wrestling, stier roping, bronco riding, and other events were all hits with all the kids. We really like Norco for that kind of thing. Tomorrow, to celebrate the start of school, we're heading down to Disneyland. Derek took the day off and we're going to see how long we last. We decided to do annual passes since they're a pretty good deal for Southern California residents... I think we'll have a lot of fun there this year.

I have to prepare for tomorrow and do some laundry and paperwork so I'd better get off this computer. Good night!

School!

Everyone is sending their kids back to school about this time of year! Anna started 2nd Grade, Jack is officially in Kindergarten and the others are just along for the ride. We're still working out some kinks, but we'll get there.

Summer Grilling and Visitors

Our back yard faces west and it cools off nicely in the afternoon and the shade from the house. When we left California a couple of years ago we gave away our grill since our AZ house had a built in so we returned to California without a grill. When Derek's Mom, Mark and Alex were here over the weekend, Alex offered to cook a meal on the grill (and assemble it!)... if we only had one! We moved it up on the priority list-- how often do you have free assembly help and a nice dinner cooked by someone else?? Here are a couple of the pictures of the guys putting it together. I think the basic arrangement was that Derek read the directions to Alex as he assembled, but I missed a picture of that part.

Somehow I managed to NOT get any other pictures of their visit, so this will have to do. I added the cute kids to make up for it :).

Not Quite a Swimming Pool

We're in the 'hot' summer days here. It's getting into the 90's during the day, sometimes mid to upper 90's.

We left behind having a pool when we left Arizona, but I'm pretty sure Chris, Beth and the kids are making very good use of it this summer! In order to be outside in the summer and enjoy anything you're doing in Arizona, you almost need to be in a pool, or wet at least. Not so back in beautiful Southern California ('God's Country' as our friend calls it, although many of you would take issue with that). But the days do get hot, so we pulled out the old stand-by swimming pools... those plastic bins! They have a lot of fun with the water and sprinkler and as evening sets in, or the shade starts to cover their playing area, they actually start to get cold! Yes, the wonderfully cool summer nights make the warm days very bearable.

For those of our friends in Arizona who are reading this, we miss you all dearly in many ways! I may knock the heat of the Arizona summers that feel like they last 7 or 8 months, but you all made it well worth enduring the heat! We miss the swimming, too, but we'll get back to doing more of that some day. For now, we're enjoying very much what we have.


Jack in the biggest pool.

Endless things you can do with water and buckets and toys.

Fun with trucks.

Trying to go around the sprinkler so it doesn't get it their eyes!

Fiddler Jones

E.L. Masters

The earth keeps some vibration going

There in your heart, and that is you.

And if the people find you can fiddle,

Why, fiddle you must, for all your life.

What do you see, a harvest of clover?

Or a meadow to walk through to the river?

The wind' in the corn: you rub your hands

For beeves hereafter ready for market;

Or else you hear the rustle of skirts

Like the girls when dancingat Little Grove.

To Cooney Potter a pillar of dust

Or whirling leaves meant ruinous drouth;

They looked to me like Red-Headed Sammy

Stepping it off, to "Toor-a-Loor."

How could I till my forty acres

Not to speak of getting more,

With a medley of horns, bassoons and piccolos

Stirred in my brain by crows and robins

And the creak of a wind-mill-- only these?

And I never started to plow in my life

That someone did not stop in the road

And take me away to a dance or a picnic.

I ended up with forty acres;

I ended up with a broken fiddle--

And a broken laugh, and a thousand memories,

And not a single regret.

A throwback to the good old days and friends!

Another Local Attraction

Another 'find' this week was a four foot snake under one of the Yucca plants we were removing from the front of our house. Derek took it like a man when a snake slithered out fron under the plant he was trying to remove! I wish it weren't so close to our house, but there didn't seem to be a good way to get rid of it so he's still out there somewhere. Anyone know what kind of snake this is? It wasn't rattling :) at us!

Local Attractions

Norco has a self-imposed nickname... "Horsetown USA". For being in the middle of urban sprawl, this is a very horse-minded and animal friendly community. In fact, every parcel of land has what they call a designated 'PACA' area, or an area specifically designed to house animals. We've see the traditional horses and goats, roosters and chickens and also ducks, ostrich, peacocks, emu (I think) and various other creatures in peoples yards and sometimes wandering the streets. The 'welcome kit' from the city described how to properly dispose of manure, there are horse trails in front of our houses (no sidewalks) which we see lots of horses on, almost daily, the parks have riding areas along with the swings and slides, at the crosswalks there are buttons to press in order to get a walk light both at the normal level and a few feet higher so you don't have to get off your horse to press them, and business (including the Post Office) have small corralls to hook your horse up in when you go take care of your mailing/shopping/whatever.

Anyhow, to join in our community we went to the Bull Riding at the event center very nearby out house. They had mutton bustin' (read: sheep riding by the 7 and under crowd) and traditional bull riding. All the kids loved it, especially Luke who would sit transfixed on the next slot where the sheep or bull was going to come out next. Jack and Leah might actually try some of that mutton bustin', too! Anyhow, here they are all decked out to go. There is a rodeo in a couple of weeks. I think we'll be trying that out, too!