Today's post is dedicated to the fact that I am somewhat of a joke as a parent.  Really.  Well, maybe I should rephrase that.  I am a joke as a disciplinarian.  There...it's out there. Now I will explain why.  I think that I am really good at the part of parenting where we reassure and love on the kids.  I love my kids, and I am constantly saying it, and showing it as much as I possibly can.  I love it when my kids (especially my little ones) wake up in the morning, and they have that bright and clean blue eyed freshness.  My little Mo requires me to sit and do nothing but rock him in the morning.  He still likes me to hold him while he falls asleep.  I am always genuinely happy to have my kids around.  I enjoy them, and I love to hold the baby of the family whoever that might be at the moment.  I love to rock the babies and hold their little bodies while they settle and dream.  I know that my kids know that I love them, and that they are a huge priority to me.  My teenagers know that if they call me, anytime, anywhere, I will come and get them.  If they want to do something I will try to get behind them, and help them with whatever, even if I have no clue how to do whatever it is they want to do.  However, when it comes to discipline...I require the assistance of Ryan.  He is really good at sticking with discipline and teaching my kids to be responsible, and dependable.  He is also good at teaching them how to work with their hands, and work hard.
     Well, this week Ryan has been gone.  This has left all of the discipline up to me.  Ryan had to leave at the crack of dawn on Tuesday morning.  Because he isn't really good at being quiet, he woke little Salem up as he was getting ready.  I love my guy, and this is in no way complaining, because I wouldn't change him, but he does everything in a big way.  He walks loudly, talks loudly, and he laughs loudly.  What can I say?  He lives large, works hard, and does everything to the extreme.  Anyhow Salem got up so early, and then didn't nap very well during the day.  She likes me to sit and hold her while she sleeps, and most days, I just cannot do that all day.  Needless to say, by bedtime, she was exhausted and crabby.  I got her to sleep in no time.  In fact, everyone seemed to be settling in nicely.  We had had our scripture study, and people were going to bed nicely and quietly.  I began drifting off myself, when I heard a huge ruckus downstairs.  Complete with name calling, shrieking, and slamming doors.  I groggily came staggering down the stairs to find Rooshkie and Oak engaged in a huge fight.  Oak was so upset he was bawling and shaking.  Jazz, thankfully had witnessed the fight and told me what was going on.  Apparently, Oak had drawn something that he was very proud of.  Jerusha had sat down and drawn on top of his drawing.  Naturally, this made him mad, and she just proceeded to tell him that his drawing was horrible and didn't matter anyway.  This little fight has been building for awhile.  She has been embarrassed by Oak and his appearance on the bus, and has called him a Hobo in front of her friends.  In her defense, I am sure that he has insulted her back, and her friends just for good measure.  Anyhow...all of the pent up anger came out when she insulted his drawing.  According to Jazz, he kicked her, and she slapped him across the face.  After the slap he picked up a chair.  According to Jerusha he was planning on throwing the chair at her, but according to Oak, he was merely planning on poking her in the eye with the chair.  Either which way...the chair was not a good idea.  Luckily I intervened at that moment.  (How do you poke someone in the eye with a chair?)  Anyhow, I grounded them both, tried to calm them both down and sent them to bed.  Oak didn't seem to care either way about the grounding.  He was still seething about her insults.  Rooshkie, however was very upset about the grounding.  What if my friends call?  She kept asking..."too bad if they do" I kept telling her.
     Well, the next day rolls around and about the time that school is getting out, I get a friendly phone call from Rooshkie.  "Hey Mom, you need to come and get us because we are all going to come to the house and go swimming."  Of course, it took me a moment to process that information and to remember that she was grounded.  When I tried to remind her of this she just brushed it aside and explained that she had thought of all of that and was prepared to serve out her sentence tomorrow...so no problems right?  When I tried to tell her no, she basically told me that it had all been arranged with her friends and their parents.  They had their swimming suits, and were all geared up to come and swim in our water trough.  Somehow as they all swam and splashed, I knew that I had been fast talked and duped to a large degree.  She swore up and down, that she would not only be grounded the next day, but would also clean up the whole basement and their party.  I still felt and feel fast talked and duped by my Rooshkie.  Today as she has had to clean and be grounded, there has been a lot of wails and bawling...but hey, at least I made her serve out her sentence.
     Another example...the other morning, I was up banging around the kitchen, fixing breakfast, and packing lunches for the kids.  Mo came staggering in and wanted me to hold him.  I did for a short time, but the clock was ticking, and I needed a lunch for the elementary kids.  Because Ryan was gone, we were just having cereal.  I pulled out some sandwich stuff and some Doritos to go in their lunch.  Mo spotted the chips and began demanding some.  I offered to cook him an egg, or make him a piece of toast.  He just kept insisting on "Weedos"  Finally I knew that the weedos weren't going to do lasting damage, and that I just didn't have it in me to fight him on the issue.  There's got to be some cheese and wheat in the weedos right?  Something good...aren't we supposed to look for the good?  Anyhow, yep, he had a cup o weedos for breakfast.  This made him happy and made his breath weedowy for the rest of the morning.
     Another thing Mo did that made me frown...he tried to make himself a treat out of a cube of butter and a half cup of sugar.  He combined the two and mixed them up a bit.  He then began eating his concoction.  Chlo came tattling, but at the moment I was busy and figured hey, all he has is the makings of cookies really.  I found his abandonded treat the next morning, and have been guiltily trying to utilize it all week.  I cooked Ryan's French toast in it and I have made cinnamon toast with it....maybe Mo is onto something.
     The other day, I noticed that Mo and Chlo had been awfully quiet for awhile.  I finally crept down the stairs to try to eavesdrop on their activities.  I finally opened the bathroom door to be about knocked over by a rush of incompatible fragrances.  It smelled heavily of perfume in the air.  I guess that they were dumping all kinds of mixtures of perfumes into the toilet.  This was making Mo all sorts of happy.  In fact, when I caught them, he seemed kinda proud of their activites.  Chlo was sheepish, but Mo was quite enthused about what they had been doing.  When I had to run in to town to pick up Jams and do a little shopping their fragrance was quite overwhelming...obviously they had gotten the girls' perfume all over themselves too.
     Mo has also been impatient during prayer times this week...whenever someone is praying, he will just cut whoever it is off with a loud and boisterous AMEN!!!!  This is supposed to end the prayer so that we can eat, or go to bed etc.  Needless to say, I really want him to learn to be more reverent.  He has been saying most of the prayers so that he can control their length, but when anyone else says it...they get cut off with a rude and loud Amen.
     Salem has acted and felt much better this week, I can tell.  She is crawling and climbing, and pulling herself up to things.  She is quite happy for the most part.  The other night, when it was bedtime, she got quite upset and impatient.  She was crying loudly in Jazzerz arms, when Oak came up and was snapping rapidly in her face.  While he snapped he would say "Daddy's girl" loudly over and over.  This seemed to calm her down for some unknown reason.  It kinda reminds me of the time that he would try to calm Mo by saying "Tico Taco yah, yah, yah" over and over.
     Another example of my weak parenting...Mo likes to come with me to pick up Jamie everyday...I tell him no everyday, and yet he comes begging and bawling every day, and I always give in.  Usually I don't want to bring him because well, he is usually scantily clad.  Today he bawled and of course, I gave in.  He came and had to have a frozen yogurt when I stopped at the health food store.  He fell asleep in the melting frozen yogurt.  When I stopped, he had become fused to the seat in a small pool of frozen yogurt and I had to peel him off.  Then I wonder why he wants to come...he gets a treat for going against my wishes.
     Jams also got a party going at Bunker's pond the other day.  It was a little cold still, but the kids did last in there for a little while.  We had a few of the Lee kids come too, and a good time was had by all.  Mo was even brave enough to go down the slide.  Chlo was taken over to the trampoline by a very nice Saggers, and Salem was also treated to some splashing thanks to my Sags.
    

     So much time has gone by, and so many events.  I really regret not writing more, but it seems like every day, and almost every minute is filled with so many things that have to be done right now...the dishes, the laundry, the baby needing to be fed, etc.  I know that writing things that go on is so important, and yet at the moment, it seems less than important.
     It has been a beautiful Sabbath day.  We all went to shrsh with the exception of Mo, and a helper...Jazz and Rooshkie traded off to keep him home because he has had some horribly goopy eyes over the last few days.  Poor little Mo.  Thomas Sharpe is also staying with us, and attended shrsh with us.
     Over the past few weeks, there has been a ton going on.  We have had the Bundy standoff party, the Bundy Easter party, the fair, drill team tryouts, a track meet, and we have had Grandma Great a day, we have also had Mo's birthday.  All of this stuff has kept me as busy as all get out, especially the fair.  Really, this fair stuff is all new to me, and it was a ton of work.  Way more work here, than at the Iron County Fair.  The girls have had to keep meticulous records, make crafts, do interviews, and have their steers ready to show.  Luckily, our steers were quite reasonable this year.  The bad part about the fair, was that it was during the Bundy standoff party, and that was a huge undertaking.  I have to admit that I was little to no help, although Ryan worked on it for weeks.  He had to smooth out roads with tractors, fix flags and poles, locate sound equipment and trailers etc.  He had a ton of help from Ammon, and Briana, but yeah, I had to help the girls with steers.  And for the most part, I needed Ryan to help the girls with their steers.  I vow never to do the fair again...or to do something like pigs which seem to be a little easier, even though the girls swear they will not show anything but a steer.  Yep, we have to do the most difficult of all of the choices...so typical of my kids.
     The Bundy Easter party was fun, but was busy.  They held it on General Conference Saturday, and it just happened to be the day that the Bundy hay was needing to be hauled and stacked.  I ended up in trucks most of the day, driving around the hay field, while the men hauled the hay.  Part of the day was spent in Ardeeno's tricked out truck, and wow...it isn't the easiest thing to drive.  Especially in a hay field.  I enjoyed listening to the prophets, and trying not to rev the engine in that truck to the point of distraction.  I regret that I actually missed the cute little egg hunt that the family puts on every year.  I know Sags helped Mo and Chlo, but I believe she got 0 pictures.  This makes me frown, but I have learned over the years not to dwell and regret things that just cannot be changed.  Anyhow, Chlo and Rebecca made a cute "secret lab" in the brush by the pond and had a nice candy fest during the day.  Salem fell asleep while Kirk Sessions was holding her and had a nice long sleep, and I just enjoyed Confrence.  We did color eggs and had a hunt at home the next day.  Usually we color eggs and make deviled eggs out of the colored ones.  However, I was horrified and shocked to catch Mo feeding Aggie the eggs one by one.  He had fed her all of them but one when I found him, and I really wanted to cry.  Boo to messing with our Easter Deviled Egg tradition Mo!
     The wildflowers were out in full force for a very short time too.  That is the problem with spring in the desert....it is so short lived.  Everything is dead and brown now, but for awhile we had a beautiful carpet of green grass with beautiful splashes of wildflowers.  Ryan kept hounding us to get out and enjoy the flowers because in a short time they would dry up and die.  Finally, on a Sunday afternoon, we decided to go out and have a nice cobbler bake in the desert.  We went out to Gold Butte because that is usually where the wildflowers grow the best.  It was a serious fiasco getting out there.  Oak, is seriously a great little guy, but he delights in bugging his sisters.  Loud noises, loud sound effects, and anything to annoy.  It gets really difficult because all of the girls...especially Sage doesn't want to deal with his obvious desires to get them mad...in the process, they get mad.  I really felt like I was going to scratch my eyeballs out by the time we got out there.  We also stopped at a spot called the Devils Throat out there.  It makes me sick to my stomach, because it is a huge sink hole.  I am talking the hole is deep to the point that it is almost impossible to see the bottom.  To have my kids flitting around the Devil's Throat made my stomach tingle.  I couldn't handle the danger possibilities, and so I finally made them get back in the van.
     Our cookout was nice, but we had only brought stuff for a cobbler.  The kids began climbing rocks, and we were by a nice spring.  It was obviously the site of an old homestead because there was an old corral, and an old home foundation.  The cobbler turned out almost inedible, which is surprising to a large degree.  Ryan is an excellent cook when it comes to dutch ovens.  We even did dutch oven dinners commercially for a short time.  Anyhow, he couldn't find the baking powder, and dumped in way too much baking soda instead, and the cobbler was bitter to the extreme.  We ate what we could, and enjoyed the nice evening in the desert though.  The next chance he got, to redeem himself he made another cobbler.  Seriously the best I have ever eaten too.  Anyhow, we enjoyed the flowers and each others company.  The ride home was sheer torture again.  No lie....sheer torture with all of the bawling and fighting.
     The next day Ryan took the three J's and headed to Carson City.  Ammon, had been working tirelessly to try to pass a bill in the Nevada legislature that would take back Nevada land for the people.  He has invested a ton of money and time, and effort.  He had arranged for a bus to get as many people out to show support for the bill that he possibly could.  For awhile it was the most popular bill on the docket.   Anyhow, after our lovely trip to the cookout, Ryan and I knew that we couldn't handle all of the kids on the bus for eight hours up and eight back.  It was good for my girls to see the whole state assembly and it's process.  There were people there to speak for the bill, and against it.  They all agreed after all of their hours of travel, that it was a good experience, but that the ride on the bus would have been too much for the little kids.  Unfortunately, in the end, our bill got hijacked by evil conspiring people.  They changed the whole intent of the bill with an ammendment.  It had to be killed on the floor, and fortunately it was.  We always get so much opposition when we try to make a difference in our freedom.  My kids have learned a ton.  Sage got to watch live the process in the voting, and the killing of the bill.  What a year, we have had as a family.  We have prayed and fasted together on so many issues.  I love the Bundy family.
     The fair was a ton of fun, but extremely busy.  I felt completely out of control, because so much of my focus had to be with the girls and their steers, and yet there was so much for the other kids to be entertained with, that they would scatter and I would spend most of my time trying to locate them in a panic.  Luckily Huxty was there one day, and Gary came up, and they proved to be a ton of help.  Somehow my family always steps in when I have gone past the end of my rope.  Of course Gary spoiled Jazz with an all day pass for rides, and Jazz is still talking about the fun that she had.   We also celebrated Mo's 3rd birthday at the fair.  I tried really hard to make a big deal out of him, and we rode the little train together, and I bought him an ice cream.  He also wanted a strawberry cake, and so I made him strawberry shortcake.  He also ended up scattering strawberries all over the house, and demanding that the "wrappers" (stems) be removed.  Ryan alsotook him to the little fishing booth at the fair, and it is pretty cool because they actually let the kids fish for actual fish, and not some Oriental Trading prizes.  I hope he had a great day because I felt pretty scattered and exhausted.  The girls had to show their steers for market that day, and the steers had to be in beautiful condition.  This fair stuff...wow...new to me, and kind of a trip really.  At the fair Ryan and I kept feeling like we should buy a pig from a young man that is in our Sunday school class.  I kind of argued with the spirit a little on that one, because we aren't big pork eaters, but Ryan follows promptings.  We bought Tyler's pig and we should be getting it back from the butchers in a few weeks.  Tyler was  actually a ton of help during the fair.  He bought a snow cone, and shared it with Mo, and helped me with Salem when she grabbed the ice cream off of my cone with both of her little fists.  Salem, was met up with the cold and sticky mess and howled her little head off.  He took her while she was howling, so that I could go and find some napkins to clean her up with.  There was also some random friend of Jamie's that took Salem while we were frantically trying to get the steers ready for the showmanship contest.  Helpful people who are there when I need a hand.  I don't forget that stuff.  I will always be grateful.
     Since the fair, we have just been trying to get the house work and farm work under control.  The weather from now until July will be hot, super hot, and hot and windy.  Those are pretty much the only choices.  The windy days are kinda taxing for some odd reason, plus we have had the crappy cold with the goopy eyes virus to deal with.  Little Salem has been a little crabby because of these conditions.  I cannot say that I blame her much.
     Jams also decided that she wanted to try out for the drill team.  She had actually heard someone scoff at the idea of a Bundy on the drill team.  Wams has actually been in a lot of dance classes, and did a beautiful job.  She made it and will be a VVette for the the 2015-2016 school year.  Go Wammer girl!
     We ended up at the ranch for a cookout the other evening.  We had decided that we needed to unload the horse trailer of our belongings because there is a round up scheduled next weekend.  We decided to build a fire and throw some tinfoil dinners on while we unloaded stuff.  Well, Ryan ended up irrigating until it was too late to do much unloading.  The kids had swam with Arden all evening at the headgate and everyone was hungry.  I had also brought shmallows to roast.  Rooshkie kept being really sneaky and quiet.  I could see her head peek up out of the alfalfa and I wondered why she was spying.  She had also somehow stole the shmallows and hid them in some hut that she had created in the alfalfa field.  I must admit that I saw her spying but didn't realize that she was wanting to hoard the shmallows.  She finally reluctantly brought back the shmallows.  She also joined us when we were able to pull dinner off the fire.  Chlo on the other hand refused to eat what was cooked.  She just wanted the shmallows.  Ryan finally put his foot down and told her that she couldn't roast any marshmallows until she had eaten some taters.  I knew she couldn't and wouldn't.  She basically ruined the whole evening by bawling out in the toolies the whole evening.  Seriously....it is hard to enjoy family time when one of the kids is bawling the whole time.  Chlo bawled the whole time.  No taters and no shmallows for Chlo.  Just drawn out and forlorn engine noises in the back ground while we tried to actually spend some time together.
     Some generous citrus grower in California has come to the ranch for the past two years, and brought boxes and boxes of mandarins, grapefruit, oranges, lemons, and avocados.  He believes in the Bundy fight and comes to talk with Cliven.  Seriously, I  was needing some citrus and have enjoyed his donation a ton.  I did, however, have to frown at Mo.  He was rolling the mandarins in ketchup and mustard and then rolling them across the table where they would land in the corner.  I have no idea what is going through his head when he does stuff like this.  Luckily, I was able to wersh off the excess ketchup and mustard, and the mandarins were still delish.
     Along with this yucky cold that is going around the family has been a ton of snot....yeah, I know its gross, but it is what it is.  The three little ones especially cannot seem to keep their little faces snot free.  I cannot tell you how many times they have run up to me, and wiped their noses on my pants or shirt.  Salem's little nose has gotten very sore by being wiped over and over during the day.  Sager wasn't too happy the other day while we were riding in the car.  Salem was wiping her own nose and slapping Sage in the arm with her little hand.  Sager didn't appreciate the snot slaps for some odd reason.
     Also, the kids have been kinda cranky all around.  The other morning, Mo and Chlo just kept fighting over all kinds of dumb stuff.  It was a continual round of petty arguments that was accompanied by slaps and kicks.  One of them would end up bawling and upset nonstop.  At one point I overheard Chlo tell Mo that he was following Satan's way....She needed him to follow Jesus Christ's way.  Too true my Chlo bird..we all need to follow Jesus' way.  I finally knelt down with them and told them that they should have a prayer.  Neither one of them wanted to say it, which just shows the amount of contention that they had dealt to each other all morning.  Mo usually  loves to pray, and refuses any help whatsoever.  It is really cute to hear him pray for all of his siblings one by one....please bless Jasm and Roosha, and Jamie...etc.  Anyhow, Mo finally prayed for his siblings and included Chlo, and they played happily the rest of the day.
     We ended up with a bunch of avocados for dinner last night, thanks to our California supporter.  I love avocados by the way....anyhow, all of the kids wanted to take the pits from the avocados and plant them outside.  Oak on down took pits and went to find suitable places to plant their pits.  Mo came in with his pit, that still held a little bit of avocado clinging to it.  He began begging me for a shirt.  What???? It isn't like Mo likes to wear clothing of any kind ever....he had never asked for a shirt before.  I finally got skeptical and asked why he needed a shirt.  His desires were to have a shirt that he could clean his pit off with...are we hillbilly's or what?  I finally handed him a nice paper towel to clean his pit with so that it was ready to plant.  We shall see if we get any avocado trees anytime soon.

     
    
    

     I am so in love with the spring down here.  I never dreamed that spring could come so early, and be so nice!  Today has been hot and windy.  The wind is pretty rare around here, and yet it is such a nice warm day too.  Cedar is windy most of the time, but the wind is usually cold and it makes a lot of these spring days kinda dumpy.  I am loving the weather, and the crickets at night.  Yep, summer is in the air.
     We are having a busy week, this week with kids going every different direction.  I am down to six kids this week, and it seriously feels like an empty house.  My biggest problems stem from Mo and Chlo and their water wasting pastimes....hello children....welcome to the desert.  Every time I turn around there is a hose running in a spot that never needed water in the first place.  Usually a sidewalk.  Seriously about to drive me crazy and I don't even want to see the water bill.
     Jams went to state FFA convention.  I actually bought her a phone for the occasion.  I really couldn't stand the thought of not being able to communicate with her for almost a week.  Not that she has called at all.  She has texted though, so that's good.  Sags went with Ryan to Cedar.  He had a weeks worth of work, and she attended school which is good.  I just miss everyone.  It will be good to get everyone back on the weekend.
     Ryan has been trying to take Mo more and more with him these days.  Mo resists a little because to go with Dad means harder work.  He went with his dad the other day, and Ryan called midday to see if I could bring all of the kids out after school to help him store melon seeds.  We had saved a bunch of seeds out of the melons and put them in a dryer.  Anyhow, when the kids arrived, we went out there to help.  The first thing I see is my little Mo boy.  He was so excited to see me too.  He climbed right into the van first thing, and seriously, the smell of the boy about knocked me out.  It was the smell of death,and it was terrible.  He literally smelled like a rotting carcass.  I held him out at arms length and began to question him about his activities.  He claimed that he had been playing with Wishbone.  Wishbone is Ashelyn's dog.  Anyhow...Wishbone and Spur had the same awful smell.  I quickly removed Mo's clothes, put him in the bath ( I had to talk Carol and Cliven into letting him get in their bath....it was cold or I would have just taken the garden hose to him) I also removed his clothes and threw them into a washing machine that is set up outside of the travel trailers.  I was seriously nervous that it was going to be like a scent removal program like a skunk.  He reeked for miles.  Anyhow, thankfully, some nicely scented soap did the trick.  I guess the dogs had found a dead cow carcass to roll around in for awhile.  The scent was transferred to the Mo, when he went to pet them, and play with them.  I will never forget how bad that was...my car reeked for awhile.
     Bailey and Josh purchased their first home.  It is a nice little spot in Bunkerville.  I can honestly say that I have been next to no help to them in their moving process.  I did, however keep Braxton and Jaylee a few times as she moved stuff in, and painted etc.  Chloee and Braxton are great little pals, and they always entertain each other really well.  That same week, I had bought a large package of prepackaged cookies and crackers that come in handy as I am required to pack up to six lunches a day.  Well, for whatever reason, Chlo and Braxton thought that it would make for good times to take a baseball bat to my cookies and crackers.  My confusion was apparent one morning as I sat and studied the contents of yet another package of crackers that was pulverized to crumbs.  Rooshkie informed me then of Chloee's and Braxton's game with the baseball bat.  They thought it was great fun.  Why, did I not catch on to this?  Why didn't Rooshkie stop them, and what am I supposed to do with a whole bunch of unsavory cookie and cracker crumbs?  Thanks a heap Chlo!  I hope you made some good memories!
     With the start up of spring, I have had the kids out weeding all of the gardens and planter boxes that the Mikkelsen's left to our care.  In one of the planter boxes, Mo found a little chew toy that belonged to Aggie.  It was in the shape of a round life saver....the kind that are on boats.  Anyhow, he was all excited about that find, and he claimed that it was his Father. ??????  After questioning him a bit, I realized that he understood that Ryan was his Dad, but I honestly don't think that he even knew what a father was.  We were all a little confused, and we laughed quite a bit about it until he threw his father and nailed Jazz in the head with it.  I explained that it wasn't ok to chuck fathers at all.  Poor Jazz....she was just trying to help me weed the garden.
     We ended up planting a small patch of melons last weekend.  It was quite enjoyable riding on the tractor with Ryan.  There is a big, mean bull, in a pen that separates the corral area, and the field that we happened to be planting.  I was a nervous Nellie.  We usually waltz through that pen with ease when we need to enter that particular field.  But, that bull came after Ryan as we crossed through, to go plant.  Of course when Mom and Dad are missing, the kids always want to come and find us, or join us.  I about had a coronary when we saw Jazz enter that pen with my baby and Chlo.  Luckily the bull left them alone, but when Mo came down, I made him stay, and wait for me to take the long way around to pick him up.  I wasn't about to let anyone else enter that pen.  Anyhow, he came and joined Ryan and I on the melon planter.  He complained about it being my fault that he had been rattled a little bit.  He claimed that his bones had been bumped, and that I was the one who had bumped his bones.
     I was able to help a friend out this morning by keeping her daughter for her.  She is really cute, and her name is Hazel.  She is Chlo's age, and they had a great time together.  They wanted little Salem with them at all times, but they weren't as wild about Mo.  Mo didn't seem to care, but tagged along anyway, and called her Easel the whole time.  Chlo and Hazel, reluctantly let Mo play with them.  He put up train tracks around their nice game of barbies.  He also explained to me later that my head, along with Chloee's had been bit off by Zombies.  I found this kinda curious because my head was still intact as far as I could tell.  I had a hairdresser butch my hair yesterday, much to my dismay, but my head is still functional.  I am glad that Mo has an imagination, that is for sure.
     The bees have been out pollinating the orange tree this week.  Mo and Chlo have both been stung.  Their stings have been painful initially, but they have both had a delayed reaction, and gotten really swollen the next day.  Chlo's sting just happened to be on her foot, and she seriously hopped everywhere yesterday.  It looks way better today.  Poor little Chlo bird.

     Salem is making cute baby noises, Chlo is hounding me for something to eat, and Mo is dancing around in his underwear...a very typical day in the Bundy house.  Needless to say, that Mo has been bawling for most of the morning over dumb stuff, and I am glad that he stopped because my sympathy was gone.  It is morning, and no more sympathy left....not a good thing.
     He started out bawling because the toast that I made him was warm.  Serious tears even coming out of his eyes over that one.  Personally, I don't really enjoy cold toast, and toast is naturally warm because of the natural effects of.... toasting.  I sometimes am at a loss when my kids experience serious trauma over nothing.  He bawled and bawled in his bath, and bawled over the fact that he couldn't eat kettle corn all morning.  He was fed breakfast, along with his rejected toast, and the day just seemed to glide downhill from there.  Hopefully we can recover from the warm toast.
     Last weekend was as insane as it gets.  Ryan and Cliven decided that the orchard needed to be expanded.  Trees were for sale, and it was a good time to get things going.  We ran in to purchase the trees and left the kids working on a garden by the shop area at the ranch.  Ryan had lined out the kids with certain tasks that needed to be done, and we left with little Salem in tow.  He removed one of the seats out of the van and pushed it forward to make room for the trees, he filled the van with trees and mulch, and we headed back to the ranch for planting.  Cliven had also decided that it was time to let our Hot Toddy friend go.  Hot Toddy has been an incredible horse, and he has been struggling for awhile.  During melon season he would always sniff and whinny at me as I walked by.  This was his way of telling me that he would like a watermelon.  He would reluctantly eat any kind of melon, but watermelon was what he preferred.  He loved it.  It was also easy for him to eat, because his teeth were gone.  He also had a hard time walking, and huge cancerous sores were all over the sides of his once sleek, body.  My kids have always loved taking rides on that horse, and he was smart.  He knew if an adult was riding, or a kid, and he adjusted the way he acted depending on who was on his back.  If Ryan, or Cliven was on him, he knew it was time for business and he would chase cows.  If a child was on his back, he patiently walked around the attractions at the ranch and was gentle enough for the smallest of little riders.  It still makes me cry that he is gone.  Anyhow, everyone finally agreed to let him go, and Clance took care of our Hot Toddy friend.   No one wanted to do it, and I could see that Ryan was really relieved that Clance had put him out of his misery before we arrived back with the trees.  Stetsy had even said her goodbyes.  It is tough to get close to animals,  we usually outlive them.
     Anyhow, we planted our new orchard with the kids.  It was great fun.  The weather was great, and Sags only managed to knock a few things as she drove the van out of the orchard.  It is rough trying to teach kids to drive.  We have had lots of dinged out tail lights, and new dents in this process.  Its good for them though.
     Sunday was completely crazy.  We had way too much going on.  It was our day to take of Grandma Great.  I was trying to figure out how we could take care of her, do our lesson, help Oak give a speech in primary, and Ryan had been asked to bear his testimony in Chlo bird's class.  To top it all off, Salem had been up part of the night running a low grade fever.  I could tell she didn't feel good, and should not be in shrsh.  I was trying to work out an intricate schedule when Ryan just informed me that he was going to take care of his Grandma, and that I should take care of the shrsh duties.  My biggest problem?  My sick baby, and a little Mo-ster that was still coughing way too much to go to nursery.  I finally decided that I would take the kids to church, leave them there, and just have Sage come and watch my littles just while I gave my lesson, helped Oak, and bore my testimony in Chlo bird's class.  Everything felt pretty scattered, but hey, I did my best.  Oak was very disappointed in the length of his speech too.  Unfortunately, I had to get back to my class who was waiting.  I did my best, and yet, I know I could have somehow done better.
     We took care of Bailey's kids that afternoon because Bailey and Josh were trying to get their new home ready to move in.  We have had some interesting Sunday's to say the very least.  We invited the Lee's over one week, and the kids made some sort of a spook alley in the basement.  There was all sorts of shrieking and screaming going on.  All of this, while the adults were trying to have a normal conversation.  I must say that I love the Lee's.  Dawn stepped in, and took care of the calves with Stetsy after the whole BLM fiasco.  They had separated many cows and calves, and Dawn and her family came every night and morning to help bottle feed the dogies.  I loved her from the first moment I met her.  Our kids are all really close too.  Anyhow, I want to somehow be a Grandma with this woman, and so she and I have been trying out some matchmaking skills between some of the kids.  Not sure if it is working, but I really want to stay close with that family.  Tailen has been the big brother my girls have never had.
     To keep going with my interesting Sunday theme, the kids were acting interesting last Sunday.  They were doing these odd gestures with their hands.  Rooshkie, Jazz, and Oak were all involved in the secret sign language club.  I was getting mildly irritated with all of the secret gesturing going on.  I knew something was up, but none of them would tell me what.  I also had enough to juggle, that I didn't give it a whole lot of thought.  Well, the next day, Rooshkie came home out of sorts.  Her friends were getting together, and had left her out.  I felt bad for her for a moment, but then a text came through that they had sent earlier, inviting her to their activity, but I had gotten it late.  Sometimes my phone is bad with this kind of stuff.  People will send a text, and I won't get it, or I will get it a day later etc.  Anyhow, at that point, I told her no, because it was getting to be time for families to be together, and my car was out of gas.  I told her to feel better, because hey, the kids had really not left her out.  Anyhow, I got cooking dinner, and noticed later that she was missing.  I instantly had the kids out scouring the surrounding desert for our little Rooshkie friend.  I was starting to wonder if she had decided to walk to her friends house without telling me. It was then that I remembered their secret club gestures.  I went and found Jazz and asked her where the location was to their secret club house.  She told me all matter-of-fact that it was just on the roof....WHAT?  Our roof isn't exactly a nice flat surface!  Yeah, I kinda freaked out just a little.  I instructed
Jazz to check the secret club, and that from then on, no more roof top meetings!  Sure enough, heartbroken Rooshkie was on the roof reading a Percy Jackson book.  Glad, I figured all of that out and put a stop to that club activity before it resulted in an injury.
     Speaking of our little Rooshkie, she has been on one lately.  One of the girls will text message me, needing a ride, or something of the sort.  Rooshkie will intercept the phone before I get it, and will send a string of selfies in return.  She uses my phone to record herself singing, or practicing her spelling words.  She cannot read her scriptures unless they are on my phone.  I think she is turning into a device girl.  She sent my Dad a selfie last night too.  C'mon little Rooshkie!  There is more to life than surfing around on the i-phone.
 

     It is now March, and I am loving the wonderful spring in the desert.  Wow...we are planting gardens, and enjoying cookouts.  I love it.  It feels like June.  I kind of missed the snow and cold around Christmas time, but I don't miss it at all these days.
     We had a nice and busy weekend the weekend before last.  Our niece Callie was married in the St. George temple and it was great to be able to be in the temple with the family.  Callie looked beautiful, and the spirit was awesome.  We also went to her reception with the kids, and it was a typical Bundy reception, with a deejay and a dance.  What got me that evening was Jerusha and some of her phone shenanigans.  She had picked out her clothing, and had decided on some blue jeans with a casual shirt.  I was just not going for it.  I don't think anyone cared a whole lot because of the dance etc.  Usually people are a little casual for that, but I decided we should try to dress up and look nice in shrsh attire.  She didn't agree or like what I had to say.  I had already decided that I wasn't really up for a huge fight with her.  I just felt like we should try to look our best because the temple had been so elegant.  Anyhow, she got on my phone and began texting several people around the valley about what she should wear.  Of course, she didn't explain who she was, or anything of the sort.  So, people (including the father of the bride) get these texts from me, wondering what I should wear.  I was pretty mortified to say the least.  Especially my brother in law Duane.  He had a million things going on that day...his daughter getting married was huge, and here I am not knowing what to wear.  He was probably thinking I was a huge idiot and why would he be familiar with my wardrobe choices.  I seriously decided that Rooshkie was never going to be allowed to touch my phone again.  She kept arguing that she should be given a phone of her own, so that she didn't embarrass me on mine anymore....um I think not,  I thought the whole thing proved that she definitely should not have a device anytime in the near future.
     Last week, I also had a dental appointment with Jazzerz on down.  I always struggle with dentist days because Oak and Mo are like two little bulls in a china shop.  This visit proved to be no different.  Our dentist was the same guy that Ryan had growing up.  He is older, and I hate to think of him retiring, but I am sure it will probably happen soon.  I go to him, because all of our dental is paid out of pocket, and I don't believe he has ever raised his prices.  His prices are fair, and he is great with my kids.  Anyhow, he has a tv/vcr set up in his lobby, and when we have appointments, they usually clear their schedule of all other appointments.  So, the two boys will go in, and fight over the two videos that are in the cabinet under their tv/vcr.  There is one video that teaches songs about the abc's that is complete with cheeseball lyrics and cartoons.  Mo absolutely loves it.  Oak, however, prefers the video about animals and primates.  They sing a song about primates, and this doesn't excite Mo in the least.  During this semi-annual argument, there is a lot of screeching, banging of the cabinet doors, and bawling.  In the meantime, Salem hates being cooped up and bawls too.  Chlo does pretty good, but hates the sensation of being numb.  This last time, he went in and numbed her mouth, and she fell fast asleep in the chair.  No drugs other than the local numbing shot but Chlo somehow slept through most of the work he had to do.  I, in the meantime, had to take Oak and Mo to an outside location, because the fight over the vcr became too unbearable.  Poor Chlo came out of her sleep, with a numb mouth, and no mom....poor little Chlo.  I am always glad when everyone's teeth are fixed, and we can forget about the dentist for another six months.
     Mo was quite naughty in shrsh last week...even my older girls were not being reverent.  I feel like it is payback time for all of the times my brothers and I laughed during shrsh.  Anyhow, Mo wrestled and wallered all over my lap and flip flopped around until I kind of wanted to scream.  His feet were constantly in my face.  Finally Jams offered to take him out, which Jams was being naughty enough she needed to go out too.  The next thing I know, Mo is doing laps and laughing loudly around the center aisle of benches.  This was during some great speeches about prayer.  Needless to say, I had to be way sneaky and cut him off during one of his laps.  Incredibly embarrassing to say the least.  Wams, in the meantime was trying to catch up with him in the hall, and couldn't find him.  Well, I got news for ya' you totally dropped the ball, and he's running around and around in Sacrament mtg.
     I sat down next to Mo, and tried to have a nice discussion with him.  I asked him about the Book of Mormon hero Moroni, and the reasons why we chose to name our little guy after him.  I told him that Captain Moroni was a very good man, and that he should try to be good too.  He talked a moment about Capn Awoni too, and agreed that he should quit running around in Sacrament Meeting.  He walked back in to the meeting with his head held high, and a determination not to run around.  However, the wrestling match on my lap resumed, and it lasted until the closing prayer was said. 
     Here is the deal with my little Mo boy....he takes his mischief to the extreme.  For years now, I have dealt with kids, and the little things they pull.  I have had to deal with them knocking over piles of clean clothes as they bounce on the couch.  This has always angered me to some degree, especially when the clothes are neatly folded in piles.  Mo is usually not satisfied until all of the clothes are in an untidy heap on the floor.  I have also dealt with kids bouncing on my made bed.  This also irritates me to a small degree, because I like my bed made.  Then, the kids get on there and rumple the covers and pillows with their bouncing and shenanigans.  I probably should have lightened up because now I have Mo.  He isn't simply satisfied with untidying the bed.  He has to make sure all of the covers, and sheets are stripped off of the bed, along with all of the pillows in an unsightly heap on the floor.  He will also overturn the chair that sits in there just for good measure.  Seriously boils my blood.    But, then he gives me a kiss, and tells me how much he loves me.  I cannot be too serious about a punishment, and this isn't good.  The other day, when he messed my laundry...again...I finally put him in his room and shut the door.  I told him that as soon as the laundry was folded and put away, I would let him out.  (Seriously couldn't see an alternative at the time)  He was way upset to say the least.  He has always despised being restrained in any way shape or form (hmmm reminds me of a certain Dad of his).  When I went to let him out I asked him why he hated me so bad.  He was shocked at this suggestion..."Mom!"  he gasped.  "I not hate you!!!"  I laughed and laughed at his shocked demeanor.  He told his Dad the other day that I was his favorite.  Another reason I have a hard time being really hard on him.  He needs it though.  Ryan and I agree that he needs to start working with his dad more.  He is actually quite thoughtful of Chlo and Salem too.  I don't want to just remember the bad, but he does take his naughtiness to extremes. He also asked me the other day why my neck had a head on it...just some points to ponder.
     I don't know if I have ever shared my feelings about balloons on here.  Maybe I have, but I just want to reiterate that I hate them.  HATE THEM.  Jazzerz went to a birthday party last weekend and received one of those huge balloons that has a elastic on the end.  I have hated it almost every moment.  It has caused bawling, and strife, and fights nonstop.  Mo and Chlo have broke into Jazzerz room repeatedly and stole the balloon only to fight over it non-stop all day.  I hated it.  I just could not wait for the moment that it would pop.  I knew it was going happen, and I knew there was going to be a whole slew of bawling when it popped.  Jazz was going to bawl because it was her balloon, and Oak and Chlo were going to bawl for sure too.  I was quite relieved when it popped and it was over.  Let all of the bawling begin, so that it can end, and we can move on with a peaceful life without the balloon.
     Anyhow, another blessed week to remember.