Backyard Wonderland

We don't have acres of property, or a forest to explore, but we do have what we affectionately call the "dirt pile."  The boys could spend hours out there and on free days they do.  I love how they plan what they're going to "plant" together.  I love how they save every seed from every fruit or vegetable they eat so they can grow some themselves.  Or how they squirrel away any extra flower or plant from our garden or flower beds so they can put it in a garden all their own.  I love what little brothers learn from big brothers as they play together out there.  I love how excited they get about digging and exploring and creating.  I love that they're developing an appreciation for nature and God's beautiful handiwork.  But mostly I just love them and my little slice of heaven here on earth.

And apparently all those crazy concoctions of "plant food" they've been making have had an interesting affect because they're growing mutant dandelions back there.  We found this crazy one that is four dandelions growing out of one giant stem....

Swinging into Spring

When the weather's nice and we have a little time on our hands, I always start thinking up where we could go and the fun things we could do.  Sometimes I neglect to just slow down and enjoy the beauty of our own backyard.  Last night we did just that.  I can't get over the pure joy on their faces as they spun and spun on the swings.  A simple moment I never want to forget...

 

Ribbit

Last week ended up being a crazy one.  We had two women from our Ward pass away and Dean was heavily involved in their funeral arrangements.  The same day as one of them, I was in charge of putting on our Relief Society's Mad Hatter Un-Birthday Tea Party.  And Dean's Grandma ended up in the hospital that day as well with horrible kidney stones.  On top of all that we've had sinus infections, head colds, a teething baby, and somehow the normal parts of life just keep marching on whether you have time for them or not.  So we still had soccer, scouts, piano, and homework.  I mostly just mention all of that because I want to be able to look back and see that with help from above things always work out and usually turn out even better than we could have hoped.  And the fact that I'm here posting about it is proof that we survived.

Despite all of the craziness we decided to take an hour one night and carved out some time for Family Home Evening at the park.  We loaded the boys in the car with some duck bread and popsicles, and thoroughly enjoyed some time together in nature.  We went expecting to feed the ducks, but the ducks weren't too hungry and instead we found hundreds and hundreds of frogs.  We ended up with a little educational opportunity with the boys because so many of the frogs were "fighting."  Hahaha!  We expect to see lots of tadpoles in the future.  I'm always in awe at all the awesome creations of our Heavenly Father.

 This guy was looking for a lady.  

Chili Cook-Off 2016

This week was the annual ward "Chili Cook-Off."  This a fundraising event at Church for the youth ages 12-18 to help fund their summer camps.  My boys look forward to this every year and it's become a fun tradition.  This year I branched out and tried all new recipes.  My cookies brought in $110 for the youth and my cornbread won third place.  Too bad my chili wasn't much to talk about but hey, two out of three's not bad.  We came home with lots of yummy treats and had a lot of fun.  And Dean was thrilled he wasn't the auctioneer this year.  Ha!  Bridger was passed from friend to friend to friend and even ended up asleep in Sister Mitchell's arms.  I sure love our Ward Family.

Eight years in the waiting...

 I've been waiting since the day I became a parent to introduce my children to the magical world that is Harry Potter.  Yes, I am a Harry Potter nerd.  I don't apologize for that and I'm not afraid to admit it.  The past few months I've been reading the first book to Tanner and Landon when we'd get a chance.  It took awhile, but this weekend we finally finished it, which meant it was time for the movie.  It's nearly three hours long so it was hard to fit it in after school without having the boys up too late on a school night. (It's sad my kids are really only home for roughly three waking hours a day!)  But with some creative viewing (a bit before piano and a bit after, with some TV viewing during dinner) we managed to squeeze it in on Tuesday.  Oh how I loved sharing this magical adventure with these two.  Now on to book two!

Saturdays

Today was supposed to be the first day of soccer season, but instead of soccer games we had a day full of snow.  It was pretty much snowing off and on all day, but we never really had enough to do much in it.  So games were canceled and we just had a low key day at home.

Bridger tried "solid" food for the first time.  I always think it's funny when they call it that cause there's not much solid about it.  It was just some rice cereal but he loved it.  He still needs to master the eating from a spoon thing, but he had no issues with the food.

 

And by time he was done with the rice cereal he moved right on to Dad's pancakes...

Just kidding.  He didn't have a clue what to do with it. But it was fun watching him try and figure it out.  And speaking of Dad's pancakes, he had some pretty cute helpers when he made them and he even managed to sneak M&M's in a few of them.  No wonder they prefer his pancakes to mine!

After breakfast we convinced Landon to let us pull out his loose tooth.  His new tooth was already growing in behind it and that thing just needed to come out.  He got brave and let Dean yank it with some pliers.

We got some things done around the house.  The boys help Dean get the van ready for inspection this week.

 Braddock mostly just danced, but Tanner and Landon actually put a little muscle into it...

We started the Saturday night routine of baths and showers but as Landon got out of the shower he started complaining that his ears were hurting again.  Rather than wait around for things to get worse Dean took him immediately to Med Express AGAIN.  And sure enough, double ear infections again, or maybe still.  I'm not sure they were ever completely gone from the last round of antibiotics.  He's also had a horrible rash this week.  Possibly from the antibiotics or maybe hand, foot and mouth.  This poor boy can't catch a break.  So back on a different antibiotic and hopefully this time he'll be feeling lots better and FAST!

General Conference

We had a great Conference weekend enjoying time as a family and we especially enjoyed hearing from our Prophet and other Church leaders.  How blessed we are to have current guidance from our Heavenly Father through his mouthpiece on the earth today.  Note to self: Legos and snack mix were the perfect combo for quiet viewing of Conference.  

Tanner also let his creative juices flow.  He made a Conference Bingo game for everyone to play as we listened, and he obviously spends too much time watching me because he made me a necklace and earrings with little notes that said, "You're Eggstra Special" and "You're the Pearl in my Heart."  That boy is gonna make some girl very happy one day.