Just Because

These pictures are just for the sake of pictures.

In commemoration of the hair I'm cutting off tomorrow...

These kids like to lay in my bed after breakfast and sometimes they fall asleep again.

Alex wanted to sit on the potty after his bath.  I had to fight him to get dressed...

Logan's Talk

On Sunday, Logan gave a talk in Primary.  We'd worked on it a few days before and he wrote it entirely himself.  I typed what he said, but it was all in his own words and his own thoughts.  His rough draft was pretty long (considering he wanted to read his talk all by himself) and disjointed.  He did NOT want to edit it!  I convinced him it was necessary and that it could still be a three page talk (another of his requirements).  So we shortened it, and put things that he'd said in a more relevant order.  It was still sort of humorous, especially since we kept the part about not hitting others.  I blew up the font so it was three pages and he practiced it several times before Sunday.  In Primary, he didn't want any help.  It was a very long talk considering it was in Primary, and after his talk he shared a long testimony.  This was all with his mouth ON the microphone.  We heard him loud and clear!  I was so pleased, though.  It was a great experience for both of us.

Here's his rough draft:

Prompted with the question: How does Jesus help you choose the right?

To stop hitting each other and to love one another. Jesus has taught me how to learn the gospel and teach people ...the gospel and be a missionary and He's taught me so much that He's given me a little power to read the scriptures every day, each day to learn more about the gospel and Nephi and his family. I've been doing that for days that I have time. I say my prayers every day that I feel the gospel. I get more than 260,00 blessings! I get more than that many blessings that I know that Heavenly Father is letting me know that the gospel is true and that the church is true. That He's just taught me that He's there and that the Holy Ghost is there. I just believe in Him. I believe Him. I believe in Joseph Smith and the prophets.

Prompted with the question: How can you be like Jesus?

By helping others with their stuff. By helping others feel better. By helping others move better and helping them do their laundry and helping them read the scriptures and learn how to read someday. I just know so many important things that I can know that the gospel is true in every single way. God is there!

I would like to bury my testimony. I know that the church is true. And I know that the gospel is true too. I know that Joseph Smith really lived and I know the prophets live today. The prophets teach us in each way.

I want to tell a story about Jesus Christ. Jesus Christ can also help us to learn the church is true. Jesus Christ when He was on the earth He talked with his disciples. When He was born an angel came to the shepherds and says, "Come follow me, Jesus Christ has been born." Then they saw a star that they followed. So they followed the new star and it led to a stable. They went inside and saw a babe. It was Christ our Savior. Amen.

Kids Say

Annie, "Will my eyes fall out and then I will have grown up eyes?"

Logan often says that his siblings do things "very maliciously".

Logan after a full night's rest, "I didn't get any sleep last night.  I was tossing around in circles.  My tummy, sides, back weren't comfortable...No I think actually I wasn't tossing around.  But it was a bad night for me.  I think I was thinking all night.  I was thinking in a way that I couldn't sleep.  I need to sleep all day.  I'm not even going to play!"

Logan, "Mom I like your clothes.  You are very very very pretty."  I was wearing sweats, a ratty t-shirt, glasses, and a ponytail.

Annie, "My plan is to keep my pants on all day!"

Annie, "If we drink a lot that means we are a camel."

Annie when told she was sweet, "I'm not sweet!  I don't taste good!!"  "I'm not sweet on my skin."  "Only my mouth is sweet."

Annie while my mom and brother were visiting, "I didn't wet the bed.  I bet Uncle Joshy wet the bed."

Logan with LOTS of emphasis to me, "You are REALLY heavy!  You look SO pretty!"

Logan, "When I'm a grown up I'm going to grow a beard that is longer than you and me and this house and then I'm going to shave it off!"

Logan, "When I'm a teenager I'll be longer.  I'll have a bigger head!"

Logan, "Has World War Eleven happened?"

Annie, "Sometime can you bleach my hair yellow?"

Annie during church touched my armpit and in full voice asked twice, "Why is that wet?"

Logan, "I came running in a semi-circle to find you!"

Annie after showing us how hard she could blow her nose put the tissue back in the box.  Jim, "Did you just put that back?"  Annie, "It didn't have any boogers on it!"

Logan, "Dad!  You have some white white white whiskers!  Tons of them!"

We were having a serious family discussion about speaking to each other kindly and Jim asks, "So what is the most important thing you can do?"  Logan without missing a beat pumps his fist and says, "Clean!  Clean!  Clean!"

Alex one morning and then later that same day had this interaction with me.  Me, "Can I change your diaper?"  Alex, "No!  Dad!"  Me, "You want Dad to change you?"  Alex, "Uh huh."  Me, "Can Mommy change you?"  Alex, "No!  Dad!"  I promise I didn't teach him to say that.

Logan, "Have you ever heard of the water proof bugs?  They are very very POISON!  They jump on you and BITE you!  Jumping spiders?  NO THANK YOU!"

Annie, "Dad, you have black cheeks because they have lots of pokes."

Logan to me, "You look pretty even though you aren't wearing a dress.  Every day I look at you and think you are so pretty."

Annie's friend came over while Annie was eating a bowl of cereal.  Her friend took a look at her breakfast and asked, "What are you eating?  Soup?"

Easter Weekend

We had such a nice Easter weekend.  Jim had Friday off so originally we'd planned on a weekend trip to meet up with my sister in Chicago.  She couldn't come so we chose a different city (we're 3-5 hours away from lots of big cities that we've never been to).  Then we decided that was too expensive and chose a cheaper city to visit.  From there we changed our minds again and thought we'd go camping.  By Thursday we realized it was going to be a bit too cold for camping, so we stayed home.  What we ended up doing was probably just as fun, though.  I think it's funny how many times our plans changed.

The fun started Thursday evening when Jim came home.  We dyed Easter eggs in preparation for a gathering we were going to on Saturday. 

The fancy schmancy tri-colored one was Jim's masterpiece.  :)

After the eggs, we put the kids to bed early and had our own date.  This included ice cream and a good movie in the basement.  After the movie we stayed up even later talking.  I think it was 1am before we went to bed, but I can handle loss of sleep every so often for a really good date!  I'm so glad he remains my best friend.

Friday morning we did some very satisfying yard work (see previous post).  Then we had afternoon naps (at least a couple of us needed one).  That evening we visited a lake (see school blog) that I'd taken the kids to and wanted to show Jim. We explored the fossil beds there and really enjoyed ourselves. There were fossils everywhere! We probably could have done that for hours, but wanted to let the kids play on the beach before the sun went down. So we had our yummy picnic (thanks to having prepared for camping) and played on the beach a while. After that Jim had what he terms "wanderlust" and we drove around the area before heading home.  He had his basement 'campout' with the kids that night as usual. 

Saturday morning/ afternoon we stayed home.  I started the dough for Resurrection Rolls in the morning, and did a bunch of little necessary things as well as some fun stuff with the kids.  Jim did a little work.  I hid a bunch of plastic eggs in the backyard for a hunt in the afternoon.  It took me a while to hide them, but I was amazed at how fast they were all picked up!

Alex found the more difficult ones because he was moving slower than the other two.

My rolls took forever to rise because my kitchen wasn't very warm.  After nearly 2 hours without any increase, I finally put them in the oven to rise.  I'd warmed it just a bit.  That finally did the trick.  Once the dough had risen the first time, I could make the rolls.  These are super delicious, and super unhealthy.  Even the dough had butter in it.  To make the rolls, I had to dip them in butter, cinnamon sugar, and wrap them around a marshmallow.  Then they were rolled in the cinnamon sugar again.  After they rose a second time, I baked them.  They come out hollow in the middle, hence they are called Resurrection Rolls because they are compared to the empty tomb. 

On Saturday evening we went to a gathering with some friends.  They do an annual 'eggroll'.  It's a contest to crack each other's hardboiled eggs.  They had contest brackets and everything.  Each person had two eggs, and we had the funniest outcome!  The final four were two of Alex's eggs, and two eggs belonging to a girl in another family.  She cracked both of Alex's eggs and had to compete against herself for the championship.  It was fun.  Then we had egg salad for dinner and visited for a while.

On Sunday morning the kids found Easter baskets.  They just had a couple of simple things in them, but they were so pleased.  They played with their little items all morning.  One of the things we gave Logan was a poster of 'My Gospel Standards'.  It doesn't even have pictures on it.  Anyway, he came to me with it right after finding his basket and said, "Mom, I REALLY appreciate this."  He couldn't wait to put it right next to his bed.  What a good kid! 

You'd think I would have taken a picture of my kids on Easter morning with their baskets, or at least all dressed for church, but I didn't.  Oops.  Anyway, we had a nice sacrament meeting, and I had a very busy Primary time.  I was helping with Sharing Time, and ended up leading Singing Time.  Fun.  That evening we were invited to dinner with a family in our ward, so I didn't end up cooking dinner all weekend!  (Maybe that was part of the enjoyment of it.)  I brought the resurrection rolls to that gathering and they were a big hit!  We had a really positive visit there and ended with an Easter devotional.  What a great weekend!   

Yard TLC

Caring for a yard, especially in a humid climate, is a new experience for us.  In Colorado you water and water and water your grass, hope it grows some, and mow it occasionally.  That's all our experience (because I never paid attention to everything else my Dad always did).  You don't water here, and everything grows well.  The trick is making everything grow the right way and keeping the weeds back!

Anyway, we have a lot of bushes in our yard and they were getting out of control.  They were bugging both of us in a big way.  So we finally bought a hedge trimmer and went to work.  That was our yard purchase for the year.  The pictures don't show very well just how crazy the bushes were, but we really trimmed a lot.  Jim worked the trimmer and mowed, while the kids and I raked remaining leaves, and took care of the cut branches.  There were a lot!

Before 

Before

After

Before

Before

After  (Some on this row were cut back 3 feet!)

Aah!  We really had a nice day working in the yard and definitely improved it some.  Bit by bit we're going to get this!

Annie's Birthday

My little Anne girl is four!  She was so excited to have her grandma and uncle here for her birthday.  We celebrated all day.  In the morning we prepped cupcakes and then some of her friends came over for a party. 

Here's the excited princess before the party.

Logan was equally excited.

A couple of days before I cut out hearts and stars from some leftover fondant I had and let them dry.  The morning of I filled the cupcakes with vanilla pudding like I did for Alex, and then Mom and I decorated in the simplest possible manner.   My goals for Annie's cupcakes: 1. To buy nothing at the store, 2. To use up the leftover fondant, 3. To use up the leftover frosting from Alex's birthday, 4. To make them tasty.  Ta da!

The kids played for a while.  Then I called them upstairs for lunch.  I made breadsticks the night before, and pizza that morning.  I couldn't believe how well those kids ate!  I guess I picked the right lunch to feed them.

While still at the table, we sang to Annie and handed out cupcakes.

The cupcakes were a hit, but very few kids finished.  I guess they weren't hungry.  :)

I took a picture of all of Annie's friends.  Here is Declan.  (I was feeding him fondant while his mom wasn't looking.  Hee hee.  She didn't mind.)

Alex

Carson

Eliza

Hannah

Pierson

Paisley

Logan

Brynlee

Corey

They enjoyed themselves.

Her friends brought her some really fun gifts.  She's been enjoying them a lot.  After presents the party was over.  It was a very simple, noisy, fun party. 

That evening we went to the park.  We started with a little teeball.

Teeball didn't last long, so we ended up at the playground where Jim met up with us.

After the playground we had round 2 of presents.  We'd saved all of the family presents for when Jim could be home.  This included family presents for Alex.

Sarah sent Annie this fun dress-up skirt.

Annie was very excited about this doll that my mom brought her. 

We had almost as big a mess as Christmas!  The sleeping bag and camp chair were for Alex from Mom and Sarah.  We'd saved our gift of sand toys for him for that night.  Annie also had a couple of cute dresses from Sarah, some clothes and waterbottle from us, and a gift card from Papa (my dad).  We need to take her shopping.

The final big present was from Jim's parents.  They sent a tricycle for each of the birthday kids!  Jim put together one that night.  Alex has been thoroughly enjoying it ever since.