Yards

As last few days have gone by, the sun has started shining and my kids have been playing outside and I've come to realize that I really, really miss the yard at my old house :( It was nearly the perfect yard complete with shed, swingset, tons of room, garden area, patio surrounded by flower gardens and rock walls. The past few years that yard and I had come to understand each other. I knew what flowers I could plant that would bloom beautifully, I had figured out how to maintain the rocks around the flower beds and not have weeds sprouting out through all the cracks and we'd figured out that one or two tomato plants would be enough in the garden instead of 6 or 7 (they over took the whole garden spot one year). And I do remember the hard parts of it too. It took nearly 45 minutes to an hour to mow the grass and when it came to staining the fence you had a major project on hand. But a couple of nights ago I even got teary eyed laying in bed comparing the old yard with the new yard. I know, I'm sort of a mess. Still, we were so lucky to have a yard like that with the very first house we ever bought.

When Keith and I bought our new house we were completely aware that the yard would need some revamping, there's a spot on the east side where there is no grass and the yard on the outside of the fence was not very pleasing to the eye. Lucky for us we moved in the first week of November and got to enjoy having a larger house with more room during the winter months while the yard outside was hiding from us, covered in a blanket of snow. Now comes the realization that the work must begin and it's going to take a few years to get it where we want it. Don't get me wrong, I'm not afraid of a little hard work, I just want to enjoy the entirity of this house the was I did the old one. I hope that forming some new memories in our new yard will help take away the missing of the old yard.

Family Home Evening ~ April 20, 2009

During this past General Conference, Elder David A. Bednar spoke about the temple. He encouraged us as parents to take our children to the temple and let them touch it because "If we touch the temple, the temple will touch us." So yesterday we drove to the Mt. Timpanogos Temple and took a walk around the grounds. I hope the idea of letting the temple touch our hearts was implanted in the minds of my kids, at least Rachael and Dustin. Here are a few of the pictures we took.

Instacare Again

I'm really getting sick of that place. Lucky for you, I have one more thing to post about in a week already jam packed full of posts. Last night, Claire had 2 staples put in the back of her head. She was climbing down off Dustin's bunk bed, fell and hit her head on the bookcase. I wasn't home when it happened but I'm told there was quite a bit of blood and screaming. Keith and I met up at the Instacare. There they administered some numbing gel to the cut before the staples were put in. It went as smoothly as possible. Claire sat on my lap the whole time and was quite brave for a little two year old. By the time we got home she was somewhat happy again with the 2 suckers and a sticker she'd been given. Keith gave her a blessing and we put her down for the night. I honestly thought I'd be up once or twice with her because of her accidentally laying on her head the wrong way but she slept the whole night. I'm not sure whether she was completely exhausted or if it was the blessing Keith gave her that helped her sleep so well, probably a little bit of both. Anyway, today she's fine other than she says her head hurts (go figure). Thank you April for running over and sitting with my kids. I definitely owe you at least a couple of Cokes!!

Rachael's Room

Fantastic News

In the mail on Friday we finally got a letter that we'd been waiting to get for 6 weeks. Rachael has been accepted into the Accelerated Learning Program they have in Alpine School District. We're so excited for Rachael to be in a class that will challenge her and let her be around other children on her same level. The only down side is that she and Dustin will attend a different school than they currently are which means they will have gone to 3 schools in 1 year. But it will be worth it. I'm so proud of Rachael for always trying her best and loving to learn. Love you Sweetie!!!

Saturday Festivities

We had one huge Easter party with Keith's family Saturday evening. It started off with all the grandkids dying eggs together. It was sort of messy, but very fun!While the eggs dried, Keith's sister Sarah helped the kids make dessert, rice krispie birds nests complete with jelly beans and marshmallow peeps. All the women also retreated into the back bedroom to prepare for the gigantic Easter Egg Hunt. Kudos again to Sarah who hits the sale racks the previous year and scores lots of fun treats for the kids to find! And hunt they did, in the POURING rain!

All in all, it was a very good way to kick of the Easter weekend. Lots of delicious food, lots of fun company and kids who were ready to go to bed when it was all over. Thanks to Dave and Janette for letting us invade your house. We had a great time!

Easter Sunday

Usually we celebrate the Easter Bunny on Saturday morning and let Sunday be the day we focus on the Atonement and true meaning of Easter. Unfortunately, Keith had a rock climbing class that put a halt to those plans. Instead the kids received their Easter baskets before church (thank you for our 11 o'clock starting time) and we presented our gifts to the kids after we came home. The Easter Bunny was very nice this year. Rachael and Dustin both got new helmets so they can start riding their bikes to school and Claire and Hillary got fun golf and bowling games. Keith and I gave all the kids a framed picture of Christ (thanks to Janette for the idea) which they all seemed to really like, plus a Book of Mormon game. I know it's a lot of pictures below, but I wanted you all to see how cute my children looked going to church in their new clothes!Also, Dustin gave a talk in Primary and did such and excellent job. He went up to the podium all by himself and without any help gave a wonderful talk which he helped write!

We spent Sunday afternoon outside blowing bubbles (another Easter Bunny gift) and then headed out to eat dinner with my family. There's nothing like the first grilled hamburger of the year along with tons of yummy food! It's always fun to get together and catch up with my brothers and sisters and their families. We don't get together nearly as often as we should.Just one last pic of my 5 favorite people in the whole world!

Zoo Trip

Monday we decided to take advantage of Keith having a half day off. So, with it being the only day when good weather expected, we traveled to the zoo. It was Claire's first trip since being 4 months old and she had fun seeing the animals that close up. It was pretty busy because of Spring Break but we were able to see all the animals and take a train ride without anyone throwing a huge fit. We did have some pretty tired kids on the ride home :)

My on a Whim Project

So, on the fly, I've started a project which includes two things I've never done before. I spent most of today and half of yesterday stripping the wallpaper in Rachael's room. I had nothing to do yesterday afternoon and decided, "What the heck" and away I went. And if all goes well, I'll be painting it on Monday. That's right, never stripped before :), and never painted before. I've been promising Rach since we moved in we would fix her room up a little. And as I'm sitting here I realized that I have no before picture of the wallpaper. Oh well, I'm convinced that I can't screw the painting up enough to make it look as bad as the black and white drawings of a little boy and girl.

Thanks to my SIL April for answering all my annoying phone calls and questions about how to do this and that. She's coming by on Monday to make sure I do all right. Hopefully I can post some after pics next week!

Easter Goodies

So, my mind has been wandering to the task of filling up Easter baskets. Keith and I have always given a family gift that is more of a spiritual nature but I'm having such a tough time with ideas for the Easter bunny. What are some fun things the Easter bunny has brought your kids or might bring them this year? What are some of the things you remember receiving as a child?