From May: Surprise Tooth Pull, Outdoor Beauty, Gardening Hardening, Photoshoots

 Surprise Tooth Pull

It was supposed to just be a routine cleaning at the dentist, but those loose teeth changed everything.  Poor little Amara didn't want them to even wiggle or bump her loose teeth, but the dentist knew best.  He said since she didn't seem to pull her teeth out soon enough, the adult teeth weren't coming in straight.

The hygienist called me back to be with Amara because she was teary-eyed and not speaking to her.  To say the least, Amara was upset.  When I reached her side she had a huge frown on her face, tears welled up in her eyes and shaking her head over and over saying, "no' without saying a word.  The hygienist told me the news and I could feel Amara's anxiety.  I promised her I would hold her hand through it all and tried to assure her that it wouldn't be as bad as she was expecting.  She would be all numbed up and wouldn't even feel them pop the teeth out.  I really tried to be reassuring, but she didn't really calm down.

When it came time for the dentist, he administered the shots and she screamed and yelped with each one.  By this time, she stopped trying to hold back her anger and tears.  Her entire body was tense and as the dentist used his tool to pop the teeth out, the teeth literally jumped out of her mouth.  She squealed as the pops happened, which only took 30 seconds to pop all 4 out.  When it was all over she was incredibly relieved and admitted that the teeth being pulled really didn't hurt at all.  She was all smiles when the hygienist handed her a necklace with a charm that was a tooth-shaped container that held all 4 of her teeth.  They stuffed her mouth full of gauze and it was all over.

Outdoor Beauty

I can usually tell when the sunset is going to be impressive.  I look for clouds in the sky that will reflect all the beautiful colors.  This one was made better by getting to experience it with the ones I love.

Gardening Hardening

We always have a TON of work to do in May, and gardening is always on that list.  The girls (and I) are learning to be great gardeners, which I believe will be a very useful skill when they grow up.

We've been raising our own plants from seed for the past few years as a part of the science studies the kids do for home school.  This year, we were hardening off our plants with intentions to plant right around Memorial Day.

Photoshoots

One last springtime activity we took part in was photographing some of our friends and their puppies, and our home teacher and his family before his mission.  I won't post all the pics here, but I will say that everyone loved their photos and it gave me an opportunity to practice photography.  I'm trying to get experience before my cousin's wedding in September that he asked me to photograph.  

We've taken puppy photos and photos for one of the children in this family, and apparently they were pleased because they asked us to take photos again and to take pics of all their kids and their cousins.  These families are such good people and we had a great time hanging out at this photoshoot.

They not only had puppies, but kittens too!

This next family was a blast to photograph.  The 3 boys are mission-bound.  The one throwing the kick in the photo below was our home teacher and his mom is my visiting teacher.  I volunteered Steve and I to take their family photos before the boys left on their missions, and they were kind enough to accept.

Our hometeacher is really awesome and he brought a sword to take pictures with.  Amara and he posed for some remarkable pics.

The serious sword pics turned out really cool.

And, the mission photos were nice too.

We really had too much fun photographing all our friends and their animals and I hope we have many more opportunities to do this together.  I'm learning a lot!