iT's HaRd To ShArE.... eVeN oN mOtHeR's DaY!

I just thought I would detail some of the highlights from Mother's Day. The best presents I received were: my kids singing in sacrament meeting. Last year when Drew was a sunbeam, he was too shy to go up on the stand. This year he was in charge of escorting Madelyn up onto the stand..heh heh. Even though our ways were tricky, he still dragged his heels! He stood up there the whole time with his head down. He would only glance up occasionally, but not with his whole head...just with his eyes...if you can catch that visual--it was pretty funny and cute. Madelyn, was so precious! She is just so petite and she loves to sing, it just melted my mother heart!
In Madelyn's sunbeam class, they made some edible flowers: a small dowel, with one of those oreo cookie rings at the top with a gummy candy ball underneath the cookie to keep the cookie secure, and on the top of the dowel and cookie was one of those colored mints that look like Hershey kisses--I love those! Anyway, there were three of them. Madelyn and Drew claimed two of them and then they gave me one, which was great with me. So Jed and I had some things to do at the church after the meetings were over and by the time we were finished I was eagerly looking forward to eating one of my flowers. But there was not a flower left for me! They ate it all gone. Pretty funny. Too much temptation. They also handed out some artificial flowers with the 2 Hershey kisses wrapped up in celophane (I'm sure that is mis-spelled!) in sacrament meeting to all the mothers, so to tame my sweet tooth after church I was digging into those when my two older youngens heard the crinkle and came running. So I gave everyone a kiss and kept one for me. Drew came to me awhile later and told me he had a surprise for me, it was "a surprise for bedtime." I figured he had made my bed, since that is my kids favorite service surprise. Hours later when it was time for bed, I pulled the covers away and found a pudgy, half-melted, Hershey kiss sitting on my pillow. I was confused at first, but then remembered the "bedtime surprise." Drew didn't eat the kiss I shared with him, but shared it back with me! I guess he felt pretty bad about the edible flower. I just thought that was so sweet! So that was favorite present number two!
Favorite present number 3 came from the littlest member of our family. Hannah said "MaMaMaMa!" How appropriate! It doesn't get much better than that!!
Favorite present number 4: I was given the opportunity to have a Sunday afternoon nap!! Naps on Sunday have been long gone for me. And if I ever try I usually fall asleep for 10 minutes and then can't go back to sleep! I thought that was what would happen this time, but two hours later......yeah, I guess I was pretty tired.
Thank you to my family for making my day so wonderful!! I just feel so grateful for each of you. I feel it is such an honor and privilege to be the mother of my three children.

I LOVE YOU!!

SpRiNgTiMe EqUaTiOn

SUNSHINE+SHORTS=SKINNED KNEES

Sorry for the gruesome picture.....but it has just amazed me how many bandaids we have been through in the last few weeks!! I guess their excited selves get their legs moving faster than they can handle!

TiMe FLieS

We had a great time in the SUN today!! We took our kids to one of our favorite places to visit: the zoo. It was beautiful weather and we had a great day devoted to having FUN!! We saw all sorts of animals. Some of our favorites: goats, red panda (they are a lot more exciting after getting acquainted with Master Shi Fu..you have to see Kung Fu Panda to know what in the world I am talking about), monkeys, the otters (what a stress free life they lead), and the wallabys. I felt I had a connection with the wallaby mom; both of us were wearing our babies.

Here is a snippet of Easter. With a little encouragement Drew found his Easter basket in the oven. Easter just happened to be Drew's birthday too!! Happy Birthday Drew, we love you!!

Jed, Madelyn, Drew, and Grandma Ruth were a bit "Ruthless" at the zoo and ended up getting caged. Everyone looks exhausted, but Drew looks ready for more!

Have you ever seen someone having such a keen time with a measuring cup?! I don't know why people ever invest in baby toys. Babies interest in them is so limited, but as for kitchen tools? The fun is endless!!

I had so many pictures to post, but computers are so quirky, some of them didn't end up coming through. Computers give me gray hair. We have been busy lately, summer time does end up being a busy time for our family. We usually spend long nights working on our house. All the sudden life has just taken off without me and I have had to weed some things out that aren't necessary. It is so easy to load yourself up on good things....but they are not always the best things. That is why I didn't go back and try to salvage my other pictures for this post, it didn't end up being the "best" thing for my time right now!!

Some other things our family has been involved in recently: we went skating as a family for our ward party. Drew loved it!! I regret not bringing my camera to that. Drew's b-day was last week, as was Easter. We listened to General Conference the week before while we re-arranged our house. We traded bedrooms in our house so the kids have the big bedroom. It's worked out as smoothly as could be expected. By the way, I loved conference! It is so wonderful to hear from the leaders of the church and learn from their wisdom, experience, and inspiration. We've been spring cleaning outside and inside, feels so good!! The kids and I have been going out to work on our house more now that we have better weather. It's been fun. Things are starting to move! For us anyway!! We finished the electrical work and Jed drilled our well last week. What a pro. Our water is "well" made, it was a job "well" done--you can tell we're pretty practiced on well puns. It makes me laugh, even though it's not really funny...if that makes sense....

Having a BLAST!!

We took our family to Blast Off the other night--I guess you could say we had a "blast!" The best part about Blast Off is they let the parents play too! So we crawled through all the tunnels, went down the slides, and spent some time in the big ball pit! Jed completely buried himself in the balls while the kids were in a different area so he could lie and wait to scare them. Drew came back and jumped in, but then wanted to go find dad. Then we waited for Madelyn. The next person to enter the ball pit was a little boy about 6 of whom we were not familiar. He jumped in right about where Jed was, so Jed grabbed his foot while remaining completely out of sight. The little boy shot a bewildered look and then quickly left without saying a word. Then we continued to wait for Madelyn, that was until Jed about lost his life when a husky young man decided to cannonball into the pit....

As you can tell by the look on Hannah's face, she is not keen of Blast Off. I figure she is a bit claustrophobic. Every time we were about to enter a tunnel she started to be fussy!!

Here is Madelyn donning an umbrella and formal wear for a rainstorm outside. Our kids have an obsession with umbrellas. That was what Drew most desired last year and he spent his savings on one. Of course Madelyn had to have one too. Madelyn is into a dress wearing phase. It's one dress after another all day every day. She especially fancies the dresses that need undershirts, but she prefers to wear them without. Then she will come ask me "Does Cinderella wear undershirts?"

This is random, but for some reason was so funny to us today. The kids had hot dogs and they also got orange juice out of the fridge. Well, our pitcher has a handle that has an open space on the top....just the right size to squeeze a hot dog through. It's just funny to me how Drew even thought to place a hot dog in that small opening! Then when Drew was attempting to solve the problem by shoving a spoon handle up the bottom of the pitcher opening, he got the spoon stuck too! Anyway, it gave us a good chuckle. When Drew finally retrieved the hot dog, he took a bite of it and decided it wasn't palatable any more. I've never taken a bottle brush to the opening of the pitcher handle....ever. So, most likely the hot dog took on the flavor of dishwasher detergent residue..... I wouldn't eat it either!

Hannah's new favorite toy!! She is starting to get the feel for this jumper and it is so cute to watch. She likes to twirl and jump simultaneously while keeping eye contact with me. She likes to make sure I see how big she is. She is too much fun. Something Hannah has developed is what we call the "diaper dance." When I change her diaper she thoroughly enjoys the freedom. She swivels her hips from side to side and moves her legs all the while like she is walking in mid-air. It just makes us all laugh!

This month both Drew and Madelyn gave talks in Primary. I handed out the "mail" in Primary (that is where we hand out the assignments for the next weeks opening exercises) and he wouldn't even take his assignment from me. He is SO scared to talk in that microphone and he knew that if he took that mail it would be his turn. After church we tried to pump him up about it, we colored pictures of our family together and ran through the talk several times. He did a great job and said all of his own words. We agreed that if he really didn't want to talk in the microphone he could do his part by holding the pictures we made for me. Then the big day came. He was SO nervous that he didn't even want to hold the pictures! So I gave the talk that week.

A couple of weeks later, I got a phone call at the end of the week from a mother saying their child couldn't give the talk the following Sunday. So I decided I had another member of primary living with me that could fill the assignment. I asked Madelyn if she wanted to give a talk in Primary and she said YES! So we came up with a little talk and when Sunday came she was pretty excited. She is one of the smallest children in Primary so when she stands up to the microphone you can hardly even see her! But she has the cutest little voice and she did a great job!

Scripture Mastery?

I rediscovered something from a Family Home Evening a couple of weeks ago. I'll give you a little background before sharing: Jed taught our lesson on the translation the Book of Mormon. At the end of the lesson, we did a little activity just to give us all an idea of what it would have been like to have been an active participant in it. Jed had his scriptures open and then told Drew one line. Drew relayed the message to Madelyn, who then passed it to me and I recorded it. This is what we came up with:

Do things that you want
Whatever selfless is is
We're holding to the fish
take upon him to his people
Be on..."I don't know the other part"
According to His commandments
And now behold
That is the testimony that teaches me.

I will dub anyone who figures this scripture reference out to be "The Eternal Champion of Scriptural Knowledge."

Goings On

Here is Jed working on our electrical last week. We headed out there to help......if we helped at all. I ran some wires, but Hannah is not a fan of doing electrical work and after enduring some crying we decided to just head back home! I'm excited for the warmer weather where we can be of a lot more assistance!!

The kids and I held a tea party the other day. It was a lot of fun. Madelyn got all dressed up...in her slip....and we had lunch/"tea." I saved these pictures in the order I wanted them posted, but the computer has a mind of its own....to be continued...

Hannah has just seemed to come alive the last couple of weeks! She is so much more aware of everything that is going on around her. She has started playing more with toys and she loves to look them over very closely. Her favorite game now is tag. I hold her and then we chase Drew and Madelyn around and she tags them. She thinks it is hilarious!! She has also started to explore her abilities more on the floor. I'll lay her down and slowly she will turn around in a circle, just like the hands of a clock! She is rolling over now too, which is pretty fun too!

It is funny to me how holding a tea party brings out instinctive manners. At the usual dinner table, sometimes I have to coax the children into just using utensils! Whereas at a tea party, this is what I find: Madelyn cutting her bananas with a knife and fork, such skill!!

This was our tea party menu. Quesadillas, carrots, bananas, and the most important item: Hazlenut hot chocolate. Drew especially loved and was thankful for the "lovely food!" We were sure to invite lots of friends, it turned out to be a great time!

Some picture updates

One day I decided to just let our kids have their fill of snow. So, they got bowls and scooped as much as they cared to eat and then I let them spruce it up with toppings!! They were quite pleased!! Hey, it's cheaper than ice cream.
We finally got around to making a snowman!! Hannah's naps are more predictable now, so the kids and I did everything and anything you can do in the snow. We made snow angels, sledded down our small hill of snow, I pulled them around in the sled, threw snowballs, and made a snowman that they named "Gumby."

What child is this?!
One night as I was straightening my hair, Sis decided she didn't want curly hair anymore. She wanted her hair to be "flat." So I reluctantly took the hair straightener to her hair, a little nervous that they wouldn't come back!! This was the result. It was crazy to see her without her beautiful curls, but she is beautiful no matter what! (And they did come back after a bath)

This is our house!! For any one who has not seen or didn't even know, this is the house we are building. It has been a huge undertaking.....more than 2 years. I think Jed is amazing and has learned how to do so much and I think he has done an amazing job! We've been very blessed in the whole process and look forward to being able to have a house for our little family!! We enjoy this opportunity to work together as a family toward something so important. We still have a lot of work to do, but every week we're a little closer!!

The other week we took Jed's Grandma out to lunch. It was really hard to convince her to let us treat her to lunch!! Like pulling teeth, but she finally relented and we had a great time!!