THE RAYS OF BEAUTY

    The clouds FINALLY parted today and the sun drew us all outside! It was a GLORIOUS day today!

BREAD MAKING 101

    I decided that today (since it's dark and gloomy AGAIN), that I would make grandma's yummy Swedish coffee bread.

    I like to do things like this when the kids are at school, or napping, because I know how much faster and cleaner it is when ALL the kids are gone. But today Amber was NOT napping, she was awake playing in her room, I thought she'd never hear me.

    I began making my bread knowing that miss Amber was occupied.  I was hurrying along, because I knew that my time alone was limited.  The sound of the Bosch mixer must've been louder that I thought, because little miss Amber came running in the kitchen saying, "Mommy, Ambew hewp you?" 

  

    How could I NOT let her help me, when she asked with such a sweet voice and cute words? I nearly made it from beginning to end, without little hands making things messier and more complex.  Not today, but I LOVED IT!

FATHER-SON CAMPOUT

    Last weekend was the father-son campout for the ward. Bill and Jacob got to go and have a night to camp, without any girls around(like that's any fun)!?  Here are a few pics of Jake....thanks to dad. Good times. No tics luckily.

PUTTIN' IN SPRINKLERS

    I often times wonder about the projects that Bill & I get ourselves into, or that just happen. Both of us enjoy physical labor and have done plenty of it!

    So far this year, we have put in a huge garden, an orchard, a drip system for all of that, fenced the whole thing to keep deer out, had our shop finished and now we are putting in the sprinkling system.  I just hope the end of yard work is near, so that this year we can sit and enjoy having company over for BBQ's and such.  

HAPPY BIRTHDAY AMBER BROOKLYN

    Today was Keeks'  2nd birthday.  She was just too cute opening presents with siblings. Siblings were too cute in helping her! I really enjoyed just sitting back, watching my children... There's no activity better than this!

A CHILD'S FAVORITE!!!

    Today we were involved in yard work and Amber found here piece of paradise in the front yard, in a tiny puddle of mud. It was so stinkin' cute that I had to let her play and of course snap some photos while at it.

SATURDAY NIGHT FAMILY FUN?

    Bill and I got home from our weekly, "date night" and found the kids watching TV,  as they tuypically do, when we go out for dinner. We turned the tube off, gave them our undivided attention and this is what we ended up doing.....yes a bit strange....fun nonetheless.  Then we proceeded to take pics of our faces and zooming in on eyes, noses, etc.  Amber's birthday is tomorrow and we are looking forward to celebrating... Happy sleeping.

DAY AT THE LAKE!!!

    Saturday, the 17th of May, was the most beautiful day to take a trip to the Cottage Grove Lake.  My kids have been begging me to go ever since the nice weather showed up.  We arrived at approx. 11:00 and stayed until around 1:30, or so.  There weren't many people and we had a blast.  

PEOPLE "DYING" AT A RESTAURANT

    I thought that since I told you all of Jake's misunderstanding with the lazy boy & Maddy's poop on the lawn deal, I should share one of Ashley's funnies.

    In Utah at a fancy restaurant called "The Mayan" they serve Mexican food and have men diving into pools of water, while diners sit and enjoy their meal(arranged so that there was no splashing of course).  We were on our way there and the kids were asking where we were going to eat and we explained that it is a place that we get to see people dive, while we eat dinner.

      Dinner was good, the diving was ok and quite frankly, we were all enjoying ourselves.  Dinner got over and Ashley kept pestering me with a question and when we got out to the car I said, "Ashley, what did you need to say?"  Her reply, "Mom, I didn't see anyone DIE!? You said that we were going to watch people die!" She was so serious too!   We laughed and laughed about it.  I kept wondering what her little brain was thinking the whole time that the guys were diving.  She obviously thought that the divers would plummet to their death, while we sat and fed our faces with good food!?  

LAZY BOY

    Bill and I(2003): Having a discussion in the kitchen, not thinking that kids were paying attention, for they were all fairly young and busy as we were discussing things. I said to Bill, "We need to sell the Lazy boy, for we have no room to store it, should we put it in the paper and see if it will sell?"

Jacob(3yrs at the time):  Puzzled and quite frightened look on his face musters up enough courage to ask me, "Mom, are you going to sell me?"

I QUICKLY made it a point to say, "No Jake, you are NOT a lazy boy, and we wouldn't sell you if you were. The Lazy boy that we are talking about, is the rocking chair in the family room."

LAWN AERATION MISHAP

    Today I was walking around our lot and thinking, "When are we going to have the time to seed and finally have grass?" We have 101 projects going at once & for those of you who don't know us, we love projects, but tend to get too many going at once.

     The "lawn" idea that came to my mind reminded me of an incident and I just had to chuckle as I thought of the time we aerated our lawn in Draper, Utah. As you all know, when you have lawn aerated, you are left with what looks like little doggie poops! Well.... me & the kids were enjoying the sun and didn't let the little "turds" bug us, for we wanted to sit on the grass. I spotted Maddy playing and tearing apart the lawn pieces and she was so intently enjoying herself, when a puzzled look came onto her face. "What's wrong?", I asked her. She replied, "Mom, these really look like JoJo's poop".  Jojo is our neighbor's dog and occasionally would come over and use our lawn to poop on. "I know they all do", I reassured her. She got a baffled look on her face and then proceeded to lift the little item to her nose and took a deep sniff. "That IS a piece of JoJo's poop", she uttered. We were laughing so hard, but I felt bad that she had been playing with an ACTUAL piece of poop!