catching up

I was downloading the hundred plus pictures from my camera tonight and decided to do a little catching up for the past month. It's been too long.

My sweet Joshua doing what he does best. Lining up his cars.


Emily found this "cute" costume in a sack from Aunt Robyn. Notice the teeth. They terrified Joshua and Emily is NOT allowed to wear them anymore. Emily thought she was dressing up as a dragon with the horns and tail. She was surprised when I told her what the costume was supposed to be.


Miriam selected a full skirt from the dress-up bag. She has always loved princess dress-ups.

Can't resist a picture of the baby in the bath.

Two cute girls. Emily is a big helper with Olivia.

Pile on Miriam. It's her idea. Yes, she is under there somewhere beneath Adam and Joshua.


Olivia discovered how to open the wipes all by herself while Mom was on the phone.


It's hard to take STILL pictures of an Easter egg hunt unless the kids want to hold still for a picture. Adam just had to hear me say, "yes, I see your eggs."


The only other kid (besides Adam) who didn't move too fast during the egg hunt. And she did find an egg all by herself in the coat closet - after everyone else gave up.



Let's see. What is this? Any guesses?

I found it under Emily's bed. It's about 13 inches long. Heavy, hard and lumpy.

It's Emily's SOCK! Stuffed with rocks, and secured with a hair elastic. I put the match to the sock next to the one I emptied to show the relative sizes. I guess I'll never get a good answer for "why?"


Last Monday - three days ago - a PERFECT park day.

Joshua loves the tallest slide and can do it over and over and over...

Whenever I take the camera to the park, the kids always climb up on something and demand I take a picture of it. There is really no point to it, but this is a nice picture of Miriam anyway.


"Mom take a picture of me like this!" yells Adam

Finally caught up to today:
It's winter again - just three days after the perfect park day. This is our peach tree in the backyard covered with heavy snow. Does it look like a hard freeze? I would really like peaches this year. The ground had about 8 inches.

This is the front yard trees heavy with snow just as the sun was coming over the mountains. Beautiful - and cold.

My boys love the DIRT

Michael has wanted compost for his garden for years. This year he finally got it! Our wonderful neighbor picked up a load in his trailer for Michael and the boys helped unload.

Here they are shoveling it into a wheelbarrow. Snow shovels worked great for the boys.


It's just so much effort for those little guys to shovel compost.

Joshua tries to get some on his shovel.

Joshua has some compost, and Adam tries to match him.

See Mom! I have dirt!

Even Olivia got to sit on the compost for a photo.

Oops! you missed the wheelbarrow!


Short clip of the boys helping their Dad shovel. Michael is so nice to let the boys "help."




Can you tell the difference between our original garden dirt and the new compost? It's like black and white. Adam is sitting in the garden pile and doesn't want to touch the compost with his hands, or even sit in it. He calls it "poop dirt."



Miss Olivia is a climber. I caught her climbing in the laundry basket and it was too cute to miss.

USB Device Not Recognized...

I was sitting at the computer when a little box popped up on the screen to tell me, "USB Device Not Recognized."   If I had plugged something in, the message would make sense.  Since I didn't, I was confused until I looked down at my feet to see OLIVIA sucking on the end of the cable that is supposed to connect to my camera.  I guess the computer didn't recognize her.  

Not only that... but she ruined the cable so that it will not let my camera and my computer talk.  And it is only two weeks old.  At least I can use Michael's laptop to read the camera card until I can afford an new cable.

Giggles

This is especially for the grandmas...
... and everyone else who loves baby giggles.

Birthday Girls

Happy March 7th Birthday to...

Miriam and Kristy

(yes, I had a baby on my 28th birthday)

Miriam is 7 years old (the 8th candle represents all my 35 years)

Our yummy dessert was Costco Cheesecake topped with blackberries, Yum!

But I should start earlier in the day... after my haircut. I came home to find the most thoughtful gift hanging from the ceiling fan in my bedroom. There were about 10 balloons which had thank you notes written all over them in marker. Michael had the kids list things they wanted to thank me for and they wrote them all over the balloons. I really felt appreciated.

After lunch, Miriam and I got to go shopping by ourselves for a much needed new pair of shoes, and a new Sunday dress for her. After many stores, and many trips to the dressing room, we finally found the perfect dress. Sorry, no picture yet. I'll try next Sunday.

When we got home, it was time to open presents.

I got to go first!

Michael got me a new camera for my birthday!

You can't tell by the picture, but I am so thrilled to get a new camera. I have been using a camera that is 8 1/2 YEARS old - with the same TINY memory card it came with. 12 pictures is my maximum. Just pitiful. My NEW camera also included a HUGE memory card that holds thousands of pictures! It even does videos! Watch out kids... they are already hiding from me.

I just love watching Miriam open presents. She gets so excited and makes the best faces. After opening each gift, she gave a bear hug to the giver.

Miriam has a new love of dinosaurs. She is doing a mini-research project at school on dinosaurs. This present is a T-Rex skull in a gypsum block she can hammer out herself.

Miriam begins to hammer and chisel away at the block.

She says she is going to be a paleontologist some day. I didn't even know she knew what a paleontologist is. ??

This last video is just me making fun of how Olivia eats. She loves solid foods now - even rice. It's hard for her to pick up, but when she does, she shoves it into her mouth making the cutest sucking sounds that pull her cheeks in. I couldn't pass up the mess she made.

Draper Temple Open House

Yesterday our family was able to go to the Draper Temple Open House. I loved showing my children the temple. And they were so well-behaved! (as told to me by the lady behind me in line)
If you haven't been yet, it is well worth it.
Here is a link for more pictures of the temple plus open house info:
Draper Utah Temple

First we parked at a nearby chapel to wait our turn for the shuttle bus to the temple. It was hard to sit still for nearly everyone. When we finally made it to the temple, it was interesting to observe the kids as we walked from room to room. Miriam led the way, too excited to wait for anyone else. I carried Olivia who was awake for most of it. She flashed her beautiful open-mouth smile to almost every staff member we passed. Emily walked next to me, and Michael held each of the boys' hands. Adam was careful and SLOW, but Joshua wanted to be fast. So Michael had a tug-of-war with one boy at the end of each of his arms.

The feeling inside the temple was so beautiful and peaceful. You can really feel that it is the House of the Lord. I loved seeing my children around me in the temple. I loved observing other parents, like us, bend down to whisper in their children's ears as they paused during the tour. I loved sitting in the sealing room at the very end with Michael and all our kids sitting next to us. It was a spiritual experience with my kids I will treasure.

This last picture is in the church adjacent to the temple where we enjoyed cookies after the tour.