Happy Birthday to Me!

The good news about being laid up and not blogging, is I might have been laid up not blogging, but I was also laid up not doing much.  I'm getting caught up quick! 

My birthday was a pretty perfect day! I got to phone calls, messages, and texts from lots of special people. I felt super loved.  Then I went to lunch with Mike's two sisters and did a little shopping with them.  There really is nothing like having something other than pb&j on your bday, no matter how you go about it. I've had a couple special lunches on my bday, and I think it's one of my favorite ways to celebrate. Mike brought me flowers (aren't they purdy?!) and a neighbor made me dinner.  Mike finished up the evening by making me some pudding for my birthday treat. It was a perfect day getting spoiled. :) 

A funny from Luke a couple days after my birthday, 

L: Is today Mother's day?

M: No

L: Is today your birthday?"

M: Nope.  Just a regular day.

L: Oh so we can be mean to you again?!

Whaaaaaat?!?! I guess it shows he tried being nice to me for two days in the same week. haha

I had to add this to cuten up this post. :)  

Payson Temple Open House

When we went to the Layton temple open house, we went to a 7:30pm session.  Big mistake!  It was a total disaster.  It was crowded and the kids were tired.  So this time around, I picked a 9:30 am session.  Isabelle was going to miss a little school, but for a good reason.  It was SO much better!  Mike couldn't come with us, but we had a good time anyway.  Michael tried to walk as loudly as possible and had to feel all the fabrics.  He was somewhat challenging, but it was still a good experience. It is such a beautiful temple! SO colorful!  The fringe on the couches even have crystals in it. I love to see the temple.  I love to show my kids. 

Why even bother trying to get a good picture?  The faces....oh the faces! So here we have "out takes."

Play Set #2

We have some neighbors that have some older kids (10 and 12).  Every time I drove by their house, I noticed their well ignored playset and finally asked them about it.  I offered to pay them for it, but they just wanted to get rid of it. Playset for FREE...YES PLEASE!!!!!!!! It needed a coat of paint, but other than that, it's perfect! We rounded up a bunch of neighborhood men and moved it with minimal disassembly. (After the week project from the first playset, that was a huge plus to Mike. haha!)  It's been a huge hit!  This one has monkey bars and a rope with rock wall and a steering wheel, slide, swings, and a fort above and below.  We've gotten it half painted since, but I'm finding I don't have a picture of the finished project. My kids have lived outside since we got it. Kids belong outside. Everyone is happier when kids can be outside. 

I love the view from my kitchen sink while I cook dinner. Mike comes every day from work and goes out with all the boys to swing and throw the ball for Jake.  All my boys are happy. :)  

Outside

My pictures aren't organized right now.  These should have been in the last post.  My kids live outside now.  In hanging out in the fort, my kids have realized we have "Over the fence" neighbors.  They have 3 girls and 4 baby chickens. The fence has also become a new fun place to hang out. I love this stream of pictures I took.  This was a happy night, Mike mowed so everyone's feet are green.  Some of our best friends, Aaron and Star with their kids Brooke and Tyler came over.  These pictures just make me smile. 

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This was actually the picture for my view out my kitchen window.  Half painted.  I love the color! Can't wait til we finish it up, but it's been super rainy.  

The Baby

(I just realized this title could be misleading.  This is not an announcement. haha!) Ok, I'm obsessed with this kid.  He is just cute and funny and makes me smile and giggle all day long. We call him "The Baby."  He gets my phone and asks for "the baby." He likes to look at pictures of himself (and there are TONS on my phone. haha).  He helps clean up and unload the dishwasher and loves to help me sweep (he especially likes to pick through the pile for treasures and then spread it all out again.  Super helpful like that).  He  turned 18 months at the end of March and started nursery.  He loves it (after the initial 3 second "you're leaving me!!!" cry). He is talking up a storm and always says "Thank you."

He's obesessed with trains.  Here he is wearing his train shirt playing trains.  He calls them "Choo Choos." He will sit and play trains in the playroom by himself forever. 

He loves to swing. "Wee! Wee! Wee!"  He cries all day to swing.  With my knee, I have been out of commission for unstable surfaces and a sloped yard with holes and knee high grass definitely qualifies for "unstable." So he has to wait until Mike gets home to swing (unless I can talk a kid into doing it for me.)  He's discovered pockets in his pants and it's pretty much the cutest thing when he walks around with his hands in his pockets or puts rocks or cars in them. 

He seems to have outgrown his dairy difficulties. I still limit how much a day I give him, and make sure he doesn't have dairy at all 3 meals, but his skin and comfort level are looking good.  He LOVES cheese! He bangs on the fridge, "Eese! Eese!" Over and over again until I give him some. He still won't drink anything other than water, but at his last check up he went from the 3-4% to the 14-15%.  He seems to be growing just fine without it.  

Oh he just makes me happy! I'm sure he will get another post of his own sooner than later simply because I'm pretty obsessed. Loving this baby of mine!

Favorite Friends

Our best friends from Spokane stopped through and squeezed us into their busy schedule.  We met up at a fun park for a while, then came to our house for dinner, playing games, and ice cream.  It was SO fun to get together.  We miss them!  This was Isabelle's little friend Josie when we lived up there.  She still talks about Josie. 

We used to hang out with them alot.  Julie and I have stayed in pretty good contact with random phone chats and plenty of texting, but it's just not the same as hanging out for an evening here and there.  I miss them!!!!!!  Thanks for taking the time to see us!!!

Happy Easter!

 We had a fun little Easter. A little egg hunt in the morning with a basket. Sticky buns for breakfast (which is actually a conference tradition.  It always throws me off when we have Easter on conference.  Difficult to shove two sets of traditions together with still keeping the sacred nature of them both.) This year the kids each got their own picture of Christ to put in their rooms.  I was originally going to let them pick them out themselves.  But it came down to a rush before knee surgery (weeks before Easter) knowing I wasn't going to get around to much shopping.  Luke was with me, so he helped me pick them all out.  It was so funny the one he picked.  He picked the same picture of Jesus we already have in our house.  I kept saying, "But we already have that one. How about you pick one we don't have?"  He refused!  They all loved them. (And months later, are still enjoying them.)  When we hung them up, They all wanted to be able to see Jesus from their bed.  Michael explained, "I like to look at him when I try to sleep." 

Isabelle loved the candy, of course.

I love when I catch an excited face just right. :) Really they all just love an excuse to eat candy for breakfast. 

This face makes me laugh.  I now don't remember what he was so excited about, candy, or the couple of little cars he got, but he was SUPER excited Easter morning.  

He definitely caught on quickly that there was something yummy in the eggs.  He had to open the eggs before he could find another one.  

After our short little Easter stuff, we watched conference and then went to Mike's parent's house for the last session and a delicious Easter dinner and egg hunt from Grandma and Grandpa. Such a wonderful holiday to remember such a wonderful event. 

Conference

My kids always surprise me at conference time.  We've done a bunch of different traditions over the years and this is the one that has stuck.  Snacks for words.  We have bowls of random snacks with words on them. The kids get a snack from the bowl when they hear the word.  We usually switch it up each session. The kids listen really well for 3 sessions, by Sunday afternoon they are all over the place, but I consider that a win! We always have a family question and the kids get so excited when they hear our question answered.  I love seeing them as they are learning how prayers are answered when we are spiritually prepared for conference.

We bust out this little table and the coloring books and everyone pays attention, somewhat.  

Except for the baby....he liked the candy bowls. Haha.  

For Saturday afternoon we had a couple of visitors, my cousins Nadine and Lisa. It was so fun to have them join in some of our fun!  

After, we made home made pizza and colored eggs for Easter. 

Such a fun, spiritually inspiring weekend!

So Blessed!!

Ok, I'm getting back to this, for reals.  Blogging has been difficult.  At the end of the day, I have needed to lay down with my knee up.  Have you ever tried to type laying down with a laptop on your stomach?  Yeah, it's not pleasant.  I had more typos than legible words, so I gave up.  I'm now back to as normal as life will be for a while. I rarely have swelling and can catch back up.....So here we go! I'm starting right where I left off, just 2 MONTHS later.....  

I have to brag about my mom.  Serioulsy, we would not have made the knee surgery situation without her. At the end of the two weeks when she left, I could move around enough to feed people on paper plates and get around on one crutch really well.  She left my house clean, with no laundry, a few meals in the freezer, pantry and fridge full, I could just focus on survival mode when she left.  

Her very last night here we celebrated.  I GOT OUT OF THE HOUSE! We went and saw Cinderella in the theater.  This is the first time I have ever taken a kid to the movies.  It was a really fun girls night. And I really enjoyed the movie.  Isabelle said at the end, "Mom, that movie was beautiful!"  What a fun night together. 

While I was laid up, my mom was fantastic with the kids!  She took them to the park a couple times and just played with them (while also completely running my house).  

She did other fun things around the house with them.  Educated them on selfies. Ha!  My kids learned about selfies from their grandma! :) Love it!  

We were so sad to see her go.  I love when my mom comes! There have been plenty of times when I drop my mom off at the airport (with moves and having babies) and cry the whole way home saying, "How am I going to do this alone?!"  But this time, I felt confident that we were going to make it.  (And sure enough we did.)  Thanks again, Mom!!!!  You're THE BEST!!!!!!