Saturday, May 29, 2010

Early Saturday morning we made the 2 1/2 hour drive to Old Folks Flat outside of Huntington Canyon. Our good friends the Huntsmans invited us to come camping, but our weekend was ccrazy so we were only able to spend the day with them. It was a great day too!!! Sorry, not many pictures. We got there and the kids played. We then drove to Electric Lake for a picnic. The "girls" took the 5 youngest back to the campsite while the "boys" took Tanner and Decatur fishing. We had fun back at camp and the kids got oh so dirty. There was a fun trail that we took and we walked around the campsites trying to decide if there was a better one. They were at the only single site, the rest were group, but they were next to the host family and their generator ran from 6 am - 10 pm....it was a bit annoying. We didn't notice it much during the day, but they said at 6 am when they turned it on, it woke everyone up and there was no hope of sleep after that.
Davis caught 2 fish and it sounded like the boys had fun fishing. After fishing and just playing we made dinner. It was delicious. We had fish, cheesy potatoes dutch oven style(and man does Keith add LOADS of cheese), barbeque chicken dutch oven style, fruit and corn. It was seriously good eatin. The kids did great until the end. Bennett refused to nap so he was exhausted. We baby wiped everyone down, put them in their jammies and they all fell asleep on the 2 1/2 hour ride home. We were really exhausted, but loved it.

Erica, Ella, Makaylee and Ady


Bennett playing with Matt. I couldn't get a good picture of Matt. Look how clean bennett is. This is after a whole bucket of cleaning water spilled all over him.

Makaylee and Adylin

Yummy dutch oven cookin

My tasty corn

We will have to do it again soon.

Happy Number 5 Adylin!!!!

Our crazy girl turned 5 on Tuesday. She was so excited...up by at least 6. Wanted breakfast in bed.

She got a new bike. It is so hard to get her off this thing. She would ride all day if I let her.

She got to eat at Mcdonalds for lunch and then go to BABW with both Grandmas.

I will spare you all the photos. Let's just say she was very happy.

She chose Little Caesars pizza for dinner and pie for dessert. She kept telling me all week she wanted a cherry pie. I took her to the store and she said, "Not that cherry pie, another cherry pie." So I showed her the apple pie and she told me she wanted THAT cherry pie. Okie Dokie!

Another milestone, Ady graduated from preschool tonight. She has loved preschool and will miss it a lot. I'm sure life will be rough until kindergarten starts....I can't wait and neither can she. She wakes up each day asking if today is kindergarten. I might need to do a count down since it's still at least 2 months away.

Garden will you survive?!?!!?

My kids have been bugging me to start putting the stuff outside (curses after the snow today!!)

For school Tanner has a cabbage project. The teacher sent home a cabbage but with no instructions....hmmmm, Tanner says he can will a scholarship. I guess I need to call the teacher. So here is his cabbage, I figure we'll take update pictures as it gets bigger if it doesn't die.

Matthew planted this pumpkin at preschool and it was beyond ready to be planted.

Here is Ady with her watermelon.
She had nothing, so she got something out of the greenhouse.

My mom went and picked up tires from a local tire store. Davis got them ready and we planted. The back tires have seeds in them. I am not too good at this garden stuff, so we'll see how this goes. I planted the rest of the garden the next day, but I will take pictures later, since the snow might've destroyed everything....curses mother nature.

A better picture of Tanner, but not the littles.

Ady turns five tomorrow, look for an update in about a month....LOL

Benno

Okay, this kid is a funny kid. He truly has been such a fun addition to our family. he has such a unique personality. This is his favorite past time.......


He sits on this rocking footstool, looking out at the......CARS!!! He loves to watch them and will do this for long periods of time. I have no idea how long, I get bored or decide I have better things to do while he is occupied.


Still there...still watching the cars.

All done, I am ready for a snack. And with that said, he is my worst eater EVER. He is so picky and strange when it comes to food. He loves bananas but is mildly allergic, so that is a constant fight. He loves raisins and craisins, he actually has his own container of raisins that he refuses to share. He loves sweet potatoes, little caesars pizza (gag) and mac and cheese...and the newest addition is rice. I put everything we eat on his plate and this last week he chowed the rice with gravy (can't be plain.) TADA...oh and I can't forget chocolate, this kid is so addicted to chocolate it is scary. He will eat it 24/7. Unfortunately for me Ady loves to give in to his fettish and I find him with chocolate much more than I should. So that is my Bennos food menu. He loves to wrestle and play with Dad. He is Dad's snuggle bear and was so sad when Dad was gone most of April. He is attached to his binkie and silky, will not and I REPEAT, will not sleep without them. He refuses to sleep in the car, thus no road trips lately...the last one we attempted he screamed the whole 2 hours. I almost got out and walked. He is a hilarious child, but when he gets ornery....stay out of his way. He can be pretty mean, ask Matt, though Matt deserves it 99.9% of the time. We really do love this little guy. He has Ady wrapped around his finger, they are the best of friends. He puts up with Matt and he likes Tanner but Tanner isn't too fond of "the baby"...LOL

More catching up

More randomness at our house. The end of April was a fireside at our house. I wanted to make soft pretzels so one day during the week the kids and I made them. They were delish...I only got a few because the kids pigged them. So I was excited to make a double batch on Sunday for the fireside. I had a few young women show up as I was finishing them up and they had a ball. They were a hit and once again I only got one since they were devoured...sigh. Maybe I'll have to make them again.

Ady rolling out her dough.


Matthew...oh so serious. I have no final shots of either batches, sorry, but they were good.

After the small lesson the kids played on the trampoline. They were pretty funny.

My favorite was watching Brough with the little girls...I got a bit scared that someone might get hurt.

It worked out great. I am busy busy trying to get ready for camp. It's fun but a bit stressful.

Catch up

So this is a catch up post. We have been busy but I am really lousy at updating. I need to find a time each week to update. Sundays would be nice, but Sundays are rarely nice to me. So for starters, this picture is for Aunt Kiersti. For Matt's birthday she gave him a giftcard to Target...he was so happy and excited to go all by himself with Mom. After a long time of trying to decide what to get we settled on a Bakugan (surprise!!!) The funny thing...after we bought this, the lady threw Matt's card away without saying anything. She handed the toy and reciept to Matt and he said, "Hey, where's my credit card, I want it back." She had to rummage through her trash to find it. It was hilarious. He got it back and carried it around for a week telling everyone he got to go to the store and buy a toy with his credit card. He now knows Target. Whenever we are driving around and he sees the big red circle, he knows it's Target. This kid sure maked me laugh.

Since we are on the subject of Matt. He graduated from our joy schoool preschool this past week. I am sad and happy to be done. I know he is going to miss his friends, but he also didn't always want to go. He's not nearly as social as Ady, but wants to pretend he is. Next year we are going to skip a four year old preschool, since Ady's teachers having her last year this year. I figure with Ady going to school, hopefully in the afternoon, I can put Bennett down for a nap and do a little preschool with Matt.

My little sister Darcee. Was in her school play. She did a great job and Tanner and I were so happy to be able to go.

Mothers Day

Mothers Day was great this year. Davis didn't have meetings so it was a super special Sunday. He got up and made breakfast...yummy. He took the kids to the store the night before and got me some fun games of ladderball and croquet. I told him I wanted stuff we could do as a family. I love the fact that my kids are getting old enough to do fun things with them. We also went up to the mountains on Friday to roast hotdogs and marshmellows. It was great to be with our little family and they had such a great time being together. So back to Sunday. Davis helped me get the kids ready and we sent them downstairs with Tanner to watch tv so we could get ready. We weren't incredibly long, but it was long enough to come downstairs to find Bennett with a sharp knife (thanks for helping him Matt) digging into a bowl of chocolate. (I had hosted a baby shower on Saturday with a chocolate fountain and the kids thought the leftover chocolate looked yummy.)
So here is Bennett covered in chocolate, Davis got the knife away from him and we were very happy not to have blood and chocolate.


This is just moments before we had to be to church too. LOL Gotta love this kid!

Church was great, Bennett had his first official nursery time. I guess he cried until Andrew picked him up and then he fell asleep until church was over. Oh well, Mom enjoyed the break.

After church we got to go to Davis' parents and talk to Trevor, who is serving in Texas. It was too short, but good to hear from him. We then headed to my mom's for dinner. After dinner the kids talked Dad into setting up ladderball and the result was a nice shiner for Ady. Such fun!!!!



It really was a great weekend and even though it's a tough job, I love being a Mom to these four awesome kiddos. I enjoy the snuggles and hugs and kisses, there were lots this weekend, especially once Ady got hurt.

Drink Up

Bennett got into the bathroom AGAIN!!! I went in and found this......



And this.........



And my favorite.....this............

Man I love this little guy!!!! Some of you might not know Bennett's personality very well, few people do, but the most famous saying from Matt is, "Bennett is a goof ball!" And he's oh so accurate. Think of Ady's exploration/into everything, Matt's goofy smile and constant hugs, Tanner's creativity and someone...might be mom's horrible temper, and I mean horrible, not mine, his!!!!! This little guy is a sweet and sour firecracker. He makes us laugh daily. He still doesn't talk, so I'm hoping when he figures that out, his temper might not be so bad....who knows. He loves to dance to the song "Hot Chocolate" which I am trying to get on video. He loves his sister more than anyone but Mom...they are the most alike...scary huh!!!!

Easter, Jello and Projects

I wasn't very good at documenting Easter this year. The weekend before Easter my nieces and nephew were at my parents so we had a "flashlight" Easter egg hunt at our empty rental. The kids loved it, okay my younger niece didn't like the dark, but everyone else LOVED it!!! My kids kept asking to do it again. We also used the rental again this year for a neighborhood hunt. It was much smaller this year and lots of fun again. We took the kids to Davis' parents annual neighborhood hunt. As always they came away with way too much.
Easter was a bit unique this year, since it was general conference. It worked out nice, but was different. We didn't watch as much as we'd liked, so we are happy for DVR. We had the regular baked potato bar at my in laws on Easter Sunday between the two sessions, then it was off to home to make something for dinner. We decided to use a ham that my sister in law gave us from the pig they recently butchered. I am not a big ham fan, but I have to say it was the BEST ham I have ever eaten....Thanks Kierst and Bryan, delish!!!!!

We have a tradition and make jello eggs and jello "beans" around Easter. Here are a few pictures of the "littles" helping out. They were so focused, it was messy but fun. I'm almost sad to put the forms away with the Easter stuff.....almost.

I have no pictures of this, but I made a double batch of marshmellows this Easter. I then coated them with milk chocolate.....let's just say I was in heaven and now I'm at least 5 lbs heavier. It's taken all the will power I don't have to not make them again....ugh!

As many of you know April is the "season" on travel for Davis. This last weekend he headed to Seattle for his first of many trips. This found me home alone with four kids....and a cold to boot, for me and Bennett and Ady. Tanner and Matt came down with it by Saturday too. So Mom was super cranky and super tired. A big shout out to a girl in the ward who came to play for HOURS on Thursday. MUCH NEEDED!!! But on a side note, I figured since I had so much time on my hands....LOL, I would do a few projects.

With me doing camp this year I have been collecting lots of stuff and my stuff usually ends up in this room by the kitchen. Well I couldn't fit in to find anything.

BEFORE:

I know it might not look different to anyone but me, but this is 6 hours later. It was a beast!!!

AFTER:

And my Mom has been bugging me about the broken cover for Bennett's high chair. I am one with NO sewng talent and no idea what to do. So I went to the store and bought some fabric and figured we'd just make do. It beats the electrical tape my Mom put on it.

BEFORE:

Okay so it's not completely finished, but here's where it is at.

I will finish it next weekend while the Hubby is away. Until then I am going to spend time with him and the kids and enjoy the small moment of a break I get while he is here.

Blackberries, Strawberries and Asparagus

The other thing I have been working on is the garden/backyard. There are way too many projects and not enough time or money. So I am doing what I can little by little. So, two weeks ago Davis spent many hours tilling a large area for the garden. He scheduled to have dirt/mulch delivered only to get 3-4 inches of snow.
Discouraged, we waited it out. FINALLY it was dry enough to get the dirt, it was delivered late in the day last Wednesday.....Davis was scheduled to fly out the next morning. So we shoveled and moved dirt until it was way past dark. It didn't all get done and hopefully we will get to it today almost a week later.

But on a side note. I had my brother come over on Saturday and till an area south of the garden for me. Over an hour, 5 wheelbarrows of dirt/mulch and many rocks later, we were done.

OH SO PRETTY

This is a monster rock got out, I should've put Bennett next to it.

So this morning I called my awesome neighbor Krista and headed to her house. She told me to come and get some blackberry bushes out of her back. Over an hour later we had 5 or 6 blackberry shoots and a TON of strawberries. While I was there she told me about a few things in her yard and I happened upon her asparagus...my kids LOVE the stuff, so we talked about it and she gave me suggestions. After putting Benno down for a nap I was off to Lowe's to get my stuff......grabbed all the kids from preschool and Tanner from a friends house, made lunch and then it was time to work on the "little patch of love"!!! Two and a half hours later we have this beauty.

This is the left side, notice the rocks in the back. That is putting the many rucks in our yard to good use.

FUN!!!!! I know for sure the asparagus won't come up this year and most likely we won't get much from the blackberries or strawberries this year. My only goal right now it to not have everything die!!!!! I want to go buy some pavers to contain it all, I hear the strawberries and blackberries go crazy if not contained....let's hope!!!!!! Maybe in a few years I'll have fabulous balckberries and strawberries to share.

More to come, we got a bid on buring the tramp...we'll see if that gets done this year and my parents are giving us their firepit, I now need to clear a spot for it. I want to install it by the end of April when we have the youth in our ward over for a fireside, how fun would that be?!?!?!? We'll see if it happens.