Sand and Sprouts

What a beautiful day we had yesterday! Especially compared to today which is windy again and I even felt a raindrop! The kids loved being outside and getting dirty. They were so proud of their "sand castles," they made-at least 10 of them. You can't see them very well, but they are the rectangles behind all of the boys. The sun did make my kids extra fussy so I will try to make sure they are drinking more as the heat intensifies.

Brussels Sprouts that is. Yes, my family had and ATE Brussels sprouts last night for dinner. Gregory loves them and so I try to remember to buy them every now and then. All three of the kids ate them and Ryan even had seconds. I still prefer something like broccoli but I suppose we will get these more often.

Tulips with our Cousins

I am extremely blessed to be able to live so close to one of my favorite people, my cousin Sarah. All growing up we lived in different states and would exchange letters. We looked forward to any and all family reunions so that we could get together. We would always talk about the future when we would get married and then live close enough that our kids would play-as I write her son is at my house playing great with my boys. I can see her house from my front yard and love the times when we are able to get together. Yesterday we went to the Tulip Festival with our 5 children (together) and walked all over the gardens. We tried to take some fun and creative pictures, and our oldest boys both wanted to take turns talking pictures of us. While the tulips were only at 40% we still were able to see a lot and have a great time together.

Please Just Tell Me!

It was the usual run around this morning as I tried to get everyone ready so we could drive the car pool and then go on a much needed trip to the grocery store. I had one earring on and before I could put the other one on I was interrupted so the earring went into my pocket and before I knew it we were out the door. When, might you ask, did I remember about my earring? Well, at about 4:30 I was looking for my keys to go to the Tulip Festival when I found my earring in my pocket. I laughed thinking of all the people who saw me with one earring (and not just a small earring, it was a long swirly silver one). I went to Wal-Mart, Pet Smart, Sally's Beauty supply, Costco, and I picked up kids from school. I am surprised that I didn't catch any funny looks as I stood in lines or walked around. So, the moral of this is that I will not care if I have a booger hanging from my nose, my pants unzipped, toilet paper hanging from my shoe...please just tell me, I would be happier to fix it then to find out later.

A Busy Spring Break

I don't know why I had it in my mind that I needed to make Spring Break such a fun time for my kids, but I did and I hope that I succeeded in their minds. Here are some highlights:

Monday: Ryan, Annie and I always go to the library for story time on Monday and Nathan was so happy to join us this week. It did mean that we checked out a lot more books than usual, but they all enjoyed sitting together for story time. When we got home we had a picnic with our neighbors and later on went to the dinosaur museum.

Tuesday: While I got a little too much sun on Monday, Tuesday it snowed. We stayed inside and relaxed. The kids made messes and played with their friends.

Wednesday: We had playgroup with the church and then went out to lunch with some friends. The kids, even Annabelle, had a blast at the playground and I got a yummy raspberry cheesecake milkshake (I am still remembering how yummy it was).

Thursday: We went to the mall in the morning to get Daddy some pants. The playground at the mall is gone and supposed to be back soon, but unfortunately it wasn't there for us. We did get our usual pretzel's and lemonade to share. Later that afternoon we went to Farm Country and Annabelle got her first pony ride
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Friday: It was sunny again so we played outside all morning and then went to see "Horton Hears a Who." The kids did pretty well, until Annie fell through her seat and cried.
It was a long week and we did a lot of fun things. I know the kids have probably forgotten it all by now, but I hope that they will at least remember that we had some fun. If you are wondering, I still only have 3 kids but I love letting the kids have friends over or come with us on some of our outings. It makes them happier and surprisingly more obedient. I don't know if I will have the energy to keep every Spring Break as exciting but I shall try. I think we were all excited to go back to school this week though I do miss the lazier mornings.

Sunny Days

It is that time of the year when I love to get outside with my kids and work or play. This week was the beginning of many more I hope. The boys were playing a fast version of "Ring Around the Rosies" and Annie was smart enough to stay away. I think Ryan wished he had, too.

Growing up my dad used to make us weed nearly every weekend. I would always try to get out of it by ironing or cleaning all the bathrooms. However, as I have aged and have my own areas that need weeding I don't mind it as much, I actually enjoy it a little.

Thanks to my friend Kristi I am, hopefully, going to have a strawberry patch this summer. I spent all morning and into the afternoon weeding and making the dirt nice along the side of my house. I planted 15 strawberry plants and since my family loves strawberries, I look forward to the crop these will bring and the money I will save.

And since I was so busy and Greg was inside working, Annabelle decided to take a mud bath. Oh well, it was funny to see and I have pictures of me at the age getting dirty-I think I don't let my kids get dirty enough.

Ding Dong

I have to publicly apologize to anyone who has tried to come over in the past 6 months to a year, rang the doorbell, and then patiently waited while they heard noise inside but no one came to answer. Last night we were putting the kids to bed and we watched some stranger walk up to our front door and then it appeared he just stood there. We were trying to manage baths, jammies and scripture reading so we didn't worry too much. After the kids were in bed Greg realized that sometime in the past he had turned the door bell off so it wouldn't wake Annabelle up. Low and behold it was still off and I know that I have at least missed a bunch of salesmen since my neighbors have been complaining about them lately, and I couldn't remember any. I guess it was great for some things, but for those of you friends who have come by, I apologize.

Happy Birthday Grumpy, Kimberly and Ashley!

Over the next couple days there are 3 birthdays between our 2 families-my dad, my sister-in-law and my niece. We just wanted to share some love since we live so far away (from 2 of them at least). I learned how to crochet about 6 months after my little niece, Ashley, was born and have made blankets for my sibling's kids since, but she never received one. I thought that it was about time (she is turning 3) and hopefully it has arrived for her to open on the her special day. It is bright and colorful but she is a energetic little girl and I thought it would compliment her perfectly, I hope I was right. We love you all!

Husband Tag

Who Do You Love? My wonderful Gregory and kids! My family and my friends.

How Long Have You Been Married? Almost 7 years, on Cinco de Mayo

Who Said I Love You First? Gregory, and it was the first time anyone had ever said it to me and so it took my a couple hours to return it. He was very patient with me.

How Long Did You Date? 4 months of dating and then 4 months of engagement

Where Did He Propose? At Beals Point on Folsom Lake-my dad gave him a few locations since he new it was coming and he wanted it to be official for the big party we were having that night with family and friends.

Who Is Taller? Greg

Who Is Smarter? Unfortunately I have to say Greg, because he is constantly using his knowledge and learning new things. I learn new things too, like sewing and crocheting and new recipes, but I don't think it compares.

Who Does The Laundry? Definitely me, But I don't iron-I did that at college for a couple years and all growing up for my dad, so no more unless I need something done.

Who Pays The Bills? We both pay some

Who Mows The Lawn? Greg does it about 70% of the time.

Who Cooks Dinner? Me. He can pull things off on the weekend sometimes, but there isn't any time during the week

Who Drives? Greg unless he conveniently forgets his glasses-mostly me though on long trips

Who Do I Tag? Kristi, Anne, Kaity, Ann

Spring Break Begins!

This is the first year the I really get to appreciate Spring Break with my kids. Nathan especially has been counting down with his friends. Last night I thought we would try letting the boys sleep in sleeping bags on the floor in their room. They couldn't stop playing and eventually ended up on their beds since they were really hot in their bags. Today we had a fun picnic outside with some neighbor friends, I hope that the weather will stay as beautiful as today, but you never know.

Bye Bye Bottle

I am so happy to announce that Annabelle no longer needs a bottle for her milk. My boys pretty much never used a bottle, but Annie has been stuck on it since she was little. I had tried to take away the bottle many times but she would scream when she saw milk being poured into a sippie cup and she would throw it on the ground once we handed it to her. I don' t know what finally clicked but the bottles are out of sight and she is drinking milk out of a sippie at last.

The Inevitable

I knew that someday we would own a Wii, but I really didn't think it would be here already. Yesterday Greg called me from work and told me one of his friends had one, at work, and was going to either sell it to Greg or on Ebay. He sort of asked me if we could get it, but I knew it wasn't really a question, I knew it was coming home with him. It isn't that I hate video games, but I don't love them and how zoned out people can get. However, I like that with the Wii you kind of have to stand up for a lot of the games. As you can see the boys were anxious to play, and Nathan was great at helping his brother learn how to aim.

Picture Troubleshooting

Okay, for those of you women at tonights Recipe Swap I think I figured out how you can see your pictures while writing your blog. Under Basic Settings, scroll down to the Global Settings and click yes to showing the compose mode. I hope this helps.

Time for a Change

For over a year I have been growing my hair out for Greg (Why do men like long hair?) and I have not enjoyed it much. I have tried to do things with it, but many a day it would be in a ponytail. Last week Greg was looking through some old pictures of me and decided that I really did look great with short hair. I was so thankful he finally realized this and made an appointment right away. Thanks to my neighbor Jaci I feel like a new me. Hopefully I will be able to style it as nice as she did. I really do love having short hair again, it makes me happy.

Blessing in Disguise

First off, Annie is home from the hospital and she is happy and okay. I wish that is what the anesthesiologist said when he came into the recovery room where I was waiting. Instead he said something like, "While we were in the operating room your daughter's vitals and oxygen levels were really getting low so we couldn't take out her adenoids (then he notices the obvious worry in my face), she's okay though..." He definitely needs some training in what to say first to a mom. So, they didn't take the adenoids out, they just replaced the ear tubes-which were all messed up anyway. I feel like it is a blessing since I had been fretting over the whole adenoid thing anyway and how it might change her voice, and she is so young, and it has just been her ears...Anyway, I am relieved that her levels went low so now I don't have to worry about it for awhile. The doctor did put a camera down her nose to have a look at the adenoids and they look really small so I think he was relieved, too. She did have an IV though and I wanted a picture of her cute purple cast that she had over it, but Annabelle was pretty scared of her arm and hid it from me. This picture is of her right before the operation, she was surprisingly happy for not having eaten and being in a weird place, though as you can see she did NOT like the band on her leg.

Bored Silly

How, you might be asking, does a mother of three find herself bored at 4 in the afternoon? Well, the kids were playing beautifully (which meant the couches were ships and the family room was a mess of play picnics and race car tracks), I had just finished my most recent book (Sunshine by Robin Mckinley-my first vampire book), and Greg wasn't coming home till late so I wasn't really going to make dinner. I wandered around thinking about picking up a new book, tried calling a few people, but they did not have the free time that I found myself having, and just thought about Annie's surgery tomorrow. Finally I decided that I really did not want Mac-n-cheese and that even though Greg wasn't coming home I deserved a yummy dinner (and I guess the kids did, too). Thanks to my handy new bread recipe I pulled together a chicken and broccoli braid and then for my sweet tooth, a cream cheese one as well (both delicious by the way). I am not sure if it is a good idea for me to bake any time I get a little bored, but I honestly don't mind the food, though my thighs might eventually.