BAD Braces!

My sweet Grant got braces on Monday morning. Here is his sweet smile before the agony of having the braces installed.

For the last two years, Grant has been getting ready for braces. He has had a spacer put in his mouth to save the space between teeth as his baby teeth came out and his permanent teeth came in. Getting braces for Grant was for more than just fixing some of the crowding in his mouth but they are also for correcting a 100% overbite. I had no idea that his bottom teeth were scraping behind his upper teeth and damaging his gums. So not only did Grant get braces, he also received an extra special plate at the top of his mouth so his bottom teeth won't be able to damage his gums anymore while the overbite is getting fixed.

Grant with braces.

As you know, Grant is a dramatic kid. He has been really milking it this week with how miserable he is. I know that braces hurt when they are put on. Because he has the plate in his mouth, he now has a speech problem. The orthodontist said that the more he talks, the quicker he will be able to minimize the lisp. Grant's diet this week has been yogurt, milk shakes, and scrambled eggs. Yesterday, I picked him up some Ensure so he can put on some healthier calories while his mouth adjusts.

So for now, Grant is enjoying the lazy life of tv, video games, liquid diet, and a few friends coming over. In a month or so, he will be back to normal and won't even notice that he has the braces on.

Merry Christmas!

We had another exciting Christmas morning at our house. When Mitchell and Grant were younger, they would try to sleep next to the Christmas tree to catch Santa Clause (they were never successful). They would wake up as early as possible to explore the gifts under the tree and then drag me out of bed so they could start opening them up. Now that Mitchell is 17 and Grant is 13, the tables have turned. I am the first one up. I have breakfast made as well as dessert for our Christmas dinner. And I have to go to their rooms and drag them out of bed so our fun can begin.
Grant loves to play challening games. He is very good at games that require him to use his spacial abilities to solve them. So he was excited to receive the Rubics Slide for Christmas. He ended up playing this game all the way up to Kingman and back and has officially aced the "easy" setting. I'm still waiting for him to teach me how to play it. Mitchell received an IHome. The party is in Mitchell's room now!

This is not a Christmas gift. It just happened to be opened on Christmas morning. The jacket Mitchell is wearing is Uncle Scott's. He had it made when he was in Korea when he served in the Navy. Uncle Scott wrote Mitchell an amazing letter and gave him this jacket to help Mitchell pursue his dreams. Very cool!

Grant opened our family gift from Joe & Kami. The dart set is very heavy. We still need to hang it up but we are a little hesitant because the darts are real darts. When you have teenage boys, real darts, the sharp ones that penetrate skin and flesh, make a Mom nervous. :)

This is Grant's favorite gift. It is a remote control vehicle that has a camera on it. The remote controller has a video screen so it can see what the car is seeing. This is used to spy on others. Grant has had a blast with it driving it around the house to see what others are doing plus he records his voice on it so the car can talk to you.

Brent received some crash gear for when he goes motorcycle riding again with the boys. Its great peace of mind to know that he will come home in one piece.

We had a wonderful ham dinner with Aunt Brenda, Chad, Brandon, Kimberly and Brandon's boys. After dinner we drove up to Kingman to spend the 26th with Mom and Dad. We love spending Christmas with family and are looking forward to the BIG Robles family Christmas next year. The party will be at our house!

Family Photos

Time for some new family photos. It was an overcast sky which made it a perfect time to take pictures without fighting the sun.

My boys are growing up!

My sweetheart and I.

All my handsome men.

My high school senior.

My 8th grader.

Music Instrument Museum

On Friday Grant and I went to the Music Instrument Museum. I had heard about it from someone I met at a wedding reception recently. The museum was EXTREMELY educational. Although I was enlightened by seeing so many different instruments, I felt like I had an amazing geography lesson too.The museum is laid out by continent. The first continent we visited was Africa. This picture shows that the Africans make instruments out of just about anything they can find. The instruments were very roughly made. As we visited each country of Africa, a video would play that would show people using the instruments or how the instruments were made.Brent's parents served their mission in Lesotho, so I had to get a picture of the instruments from there. If you are able to zoom in to the gun on the wall, you will see some crazy design work. Grant is modeling the headphones we wore throughout the museum. The device hanging around his neck picked up the video signals of whatever booth you were standing in front of and then you could hear the music play in the video. Very high tech.

These instruments are X-Rated. Do not let your kiddos zoom in ;) The top of the instrument is where the head is and the bottom of the instrument are the feet. You can fill in the rest.

I thought Toni would get a kick out of this large instrument. It is a large rattle made entirely from goat hooves. Toni, do you remember having to trim goat hooves? Now I know what people in the Middle East do with the goat hooves after trimming their goats.

These horns from Tibet are super long. I thought if Grant stood near them you could get a better perspective of just how long they are.

Interesting design work on this drum.

This instrument has gourds hanging from the bottom of it. Joe, did you ever see one of these while you were in Guatemala?

Yes, this drum is HUGE!

After you go through all of the exhibits, there is an "experience" room where you get to PLAY a variety of instruments.

We were even allowed to hit the gong. It is so cool to put your hand on it and feel the vibrations after you hit it.

I'm not sure what country this instrument is from but they look like copper pots that the lids can't come off of. Fun to play.

This is the CRAZIEST instrument of them all. Listen to Grant playing it.

You've heard of the television station called Nickelodeon, well, this is an actual Nickelodeon.

Chopping Down the Ash Tree :(

In the back corner of our backyard, stood a large, 30 foot tall, Ash tree. I think its a pretty tree; however, Brent claims the root system of this tree are destroying other parts of the yard and are in the way of the shed he is going to build. We all want Brent to build the shed so that someday we could park in the garage. Here is the tree before the demolition began.

Grant was excited to help chop down the tree when he found out he was able to climb the massive scaffolding and cut the high branches. It was also exciting to watch Brent use the manly chainsaw.

After just two hours, this is what I found in my backyard. The tree was all over the yard and a large trunk was left.

Grant helped chop off small branches and separate wood that we would save for firewood.

Then the trailer was loaded and they made two trips to the dump.

The large trunk is gone. Here is the stump that is left along with the massive root system that stretches toward where the new shed will be. Tonight Brent is working on chopping the stump lower and burning it out. Maybe in a few months we will have a shed. :)

Playing at Corona del Sol

Grant plays for the Pueblo Middle School band. On October 7th, his school band was invited to play with the Corona del Sol High School band. Aprende Middle School's band, where I teach, was also invited to participate. Before the program started, I went on stage to take Grant's picture. He was a little surprised I was there. I know some of the Corona del Sol band students because they were my former math students, plus, I knew many of the Aprende band students because they are my current math students. So I didn't think anything of it to go on stage while they were setting up for rehearsal. First the Pueblo band played several songs. Grant was near the front with his bass clarinet. Then a few Corona band students played a song. Next the Aprende band took the stage and they played several songs. Then the entire Corona band filled the stage and played some great music. They had a fun variety. Lastly, the Pueblo, Aprende and Corona band took the stage to play a combined number. Grant enjoyed playing with the high school students. He also liked talking to some of my students.

My Hero!

Last night Brent, Grant and I sat down in the family room to watch Ironman 2. We started the movie a little after 8:30 pm. Grant and I had seen the movie before and were enjoying watching it again. Brent had not seen the movie and spent most of his time trying to figure out what was going on and what everything meant.

About three quarters of the way through the movie, Stan, our large cat, started meowing loudly. As we looked over to him in the darkness, we noticed Max running toward Stan and a large RAT running up our staircase!!!!

Whenever Stan catches something outside, like a bird or a mouse, he always brings it inside to Brent. He mostly catches small doves. As soon as Stan sees Brent, he drops his catch and waits for a reward from Brent. Brent is usually able to rescue the distressed creature and free it. Sometimes it is too late and it quickly dies.

Well last night, the RAT was definitely alive! Stan was excited about his catch. From head to tail the rat was about 12 inches long. It was GIGANTIC! I imagine he found it in our very own backyard! I was terrified that we were going to have a large rat running around the upstairs of our home!!!! Gross!!! Just think of all the germs and rat fecal matter and eventually, it being caught by one of the other cats and destroyed!!!

As the rat was running up the stairs, it climbed up the banister. He perched himself safely on top of one of the poles. In the dark, Brent snuck up behind the rat and grabbed it by the tail. Yes, he was touching the rat with his bare hands! SUPER GROSS!!! The rat wiggled and squirmed as Brent carried it upside-down down the staircase. I yelled for Grant to open the front door so Brent could throw the rat outside.

Thankfully, Brent had a firm grip on the rat tail and was able to get him to the front yard without dropping him in the house! He said the rat was in bad shape and probably wouldn't live that long. Brent is my HERO!!!! Brent is the bravest man I know!!!! If he hadn't been there when Stan brought in his prize, we would be living with a disgusting rat in our house.

Life never gets dull around here! :)

(p.s. Brent did wash his hands after he removed the rat from the house.)