Spring Flowers

I have always loved forsythia. In fact I don't think I would have survived the MTC without the forsythia blooming outside my dorm window. Now I have one all of my own. Does anyone have any advice on how to care for it so that it is full and not scraggly looking?


Aaron and I had a difference of opinion about pansies. See I like them, but Aaron doesn't like their name. Imagine my surprise when I went to the store and they were labeled Violas. Not only is it a name Aaron and I can agree on, but it was my great Aunt's name. I am now the proud owner of 7 viola plants!

I don't remember planting these and as such I don't remember what they are! It has been fun to watch them emerge. Since taking this photo they have fully bloomed and I now know that they are Grape Hyacinth.

I also finally planted daffodils. I love them! They have personality. I mean doesn't this one seem to be speaking to you as if it has something important to say?

Art Work Central

Ben brought home a stack of paintings he had made and I just don't have space to hang them all, or to save them all. I love each one of them so I am preserving them here for posterity. Some of you may receive the originals...





Notice how he signed his name backwards? He often does this with other words. Aaron says he wrote like that when he was little too.

Jacob was marveling at the paintings because we have only ever done watercolors with him so I pulled out the easel and found a big sheet of paper and let him go to town. He was so meticulous. He made sure to put the brushes back the exact way he found them, he did not mix a single color and he very carefully made each mark on the paper. I almost wanted to tell him to break loose a little!

Easter

I am finally on to posting Easter pictures! Aaron doesn't like the candy I pick so this year I got way more candy than usual in hopes of finding the right mix. What I have learned...my family likes fruity candy. I can totally skip the chocolate, except the peanut butter eggs. They were a hit. The chocolate bunnies were on sale otherwise we don't normally get those.

Another big hit were the airship balloons. They all popped before lunch, but the calories expended by playing with them all morning made up for the candy they ate. This first photo isn't great, but it had all tree kids in it and I wanted them all equally represented.

Here Sophie and Ben have green and blue light sabers. We have been on a bit of a Star Wars kick around here.

And finally a video of the balloon play. At this point the balloons were fruit. Yellow was a banana orange was an orange, green was avocado etc...My favorite part is when Ben grabs two colored balloons and yells, "FRUIT SMOOTHIE!!" As a parent I thought it was clever.

This is the secular representation of our Easter festivities. For the religious side we watched General conference and then Monday we did a lesson on the Resurrection. The next day Jacob's lunch prayer went as follows...

"Thank you that Jesus was on the cross. Thank you that we make mistakes and Jesus takes them away."

Even with candy in the way kids can grasp the underlying message of the season!

To finish out the day we had a hot dog roast. Not your typical Easter feast, but it was a lot of fun!

Good Weather Fun

For a bit we were having beautiful summer weather. These are just a few shots from those days.

Sophie had a friend over after school so I thought I would make a special snack, goldfish in a pond. I went through the time and effort of dying the cream cheese blue, spreading each individual cracker, carefully arranging the fish in a cute way, and the whole time I was thinking my kids will think I am so cool for this.

In the end they all had one and said, "I don't like these." Except Ben he and I ate almost all of them. Next time I think I will just scatter some crackers in the grass. Less time, less effort and the kids will probably like it better.

Ben and I played some barefoot ball together.

And of course my lively crocuses. My grandfather gave them to me a few years ago and I love them!

Sleeping Solutions

For a long time we have had a hard time keeping the kids in bed at night so Aaron came up with a great solution. It is basically a hide a bed on a hinge. We tuck the kids in at night, remove the support and climb into bed ourselves. One happy family...all in one room!



JUST KIDDING OF COURSE!!! All that space under the bed is now full of long time storage. You know, the stuff we only need to get to once or twice a year. It has freed up our closet space for the things we need to access more frequently.

p.s. I know I am married to him and quite biased, but Aaron is awesome. He did such a good job on this bed frame!

Another FHE Post

A few weeks for family home evening I did something a little different. See, I was getting "changing the toilet paper overload syndrome." I was the only one to change the toilet paper and I find it hard to believe that I am the only one who ever finishes off a roll.

At first I would leave the empty roll on thinking, "HA! This will teach them all a lesson!" But somehow it was always me that found myself "up a creek without a paddle" so to speak...not a fun place to be.

It even got to the point that I was using the bathroom at a doctors office one day and the roll was empty and I had to refill it.

So for family home evening I taught everyone how to change a toilet paper roll. I have to say that I choked up a little bit when I found the toilet paper put on backwards like this because you know what...I didn't have to refill the toilet paper.

How's This for Timely

This one is about Christmas!

March 25th Aaron burned the Christmas Tree. Menfolk and their "tools" are a little scary. First of all Aaron let the boys help cut the branches off the tree. I went outside just as Ben and Jacob were both gleefully hacking away at the tree with sharp objects. By the time I came back with the camera I was only able to capture Jacob.

Then there is Aaron who felt the tree was best lit with a blow torch. He really honestly, truly had this look of "he he, I'm using a blow torch" on his face.

Boys...It is a good thing I like them, because soon this house will be crawling with them!

Another Off Weather Post

Here is the problem with not posting on time. These photos are from when it was cold and rainy and raw. As I type there is not a cloud in the sky, it is 8:50 a.m. and it is already about 50 degrees. Oh well...

When Jacob woke up he was grumpy so I distracted him by showing him the giant puddle the rain had made in the side yard. He immediately wanted to go check it out. I even let him touch the OH SO OFF LIMITS mommy umbrella. I am glad I did it makes for a good photo op.


In case you were wondering, this is what a chicken that has been left out in the rain all night looks like. Serves her right. She is always hopping the fence.

Family Home Evening

From now on the kids are teaching Family Home Evening. Usually Sophie sits and listens and answers all the questions while Aaron fights to get Ben and Jacob to stay in the room and quiet, let alone paying attention.

Sophie read MANY pages of the story of Moses with no interruption and Ben and Jacob were glued to her side with rapt attention.

So guess what...I quit!

Pictures of the Menfolk

Aaron is fixing up the attic so we can use it for storage space. In order to more easily access the space we are putting in some drop down stairs. They came fully assembled in a big box which was immediately turned into a toboggan.


Back when the weather was nice Aaron put in a new garden along the edge of the barn. It was really rocky so he sifted all the soil in his handy dandy sifter. I CANNOT wait to plant things it there!

While digging Aaron found this large pupa. Any guesses what kind of pupa it is? I looked up cecropia moth and luna moth. While it looks similar to them it is longer and narrower than they are.

Not knowing what it was, and concerned that it could be a pest, we gave it to the chickens. I won't go into details, but watching them eat it was one of the grossest things I have ever seen.

Random

I had three random older pictures so I thought I would post them all together and just be done with them.

First a cake I made for Aaron. I have decided that decorating cakes may take a lot more time and effort than I have to spare right now (try me again in September maybe,) but while my cakes may not be expertly decorated, they taste WICKED good. Of course you can't tell this by the picture, but I remember.

Ben and Jacob had a rough start to their relationship. Jacob absolutely adores Ben and copies his every move. But that can be hard for a big brother. So Ben would reject Jacob and Jacob would be so devastated that an awful screaming/hitting match would ensue. Thankfully their relationship has matured as evidenced above. I am just glad that I don't have to break up so many fights.

Finally when coloring, it is best to keep multiple color options on hand.

Helpers

We were getting low on soap so we stocked up at the grocery store. Apparently I had some helpers put them away.

20 Weeks

I have avoided putting this on here for almost a whole month, but I am who I am. My body is what it is. Here I am half way through my pregnancy.

Jacob was the photographer. Maybe a trained professional could have made me look less tired and lumpy, but I am ALIVE and WELL...what else can I ask for?

My Birds

This morning is such a raw, cold, dreary, rain day. It reminds me exactly of winter in Spain. It sounds nice if you are used to a Vermont winter, but trust me, that kind of raw day after day is bone chilling. Anyway.......

As I went about doing my outdoor chores this morning, sludging through the puddle that is our yard, I was amazed to hear all the different birds. They were singing their hearts out totally oblivious to how awful the weather was. There is something to be learned there I think...

Votes Please

I am trying to decide which of these I like best and would like to know your opinion.

#1 Overall view

#2 Rays of light

#3 Rays of light with landscape, gold tone

#4 Rays of light with landscape, silver tone.

Sterotypes

I hate to say that stereotypes are real, but in many cases they are. There are always exceptions to the rule, but none the less stereotypes happen. Case in point...

Today I went to go spend lunch with Ben and Sophie at school. We then went out to play for recess.

Sophie quickly joined a gaggle of girls in a VERY elaborate set up of fairy house. They have multiple spots all over the hillside. Sophie has been sewing away on pillows for the fairies. They have a seashell toilet with seashell bathtub and sink. They have created a fairy garden with moss and apple seeds. They even have a fairy graveyard with half a Lego man in it. A fairy hotel is in the making. It was fun to watch them all run around and find random bits of bark and dust and then imagine them into necessary items for the fairy house.

Then I went to join Ben for awhile. He and his passel of boys had what looked like a very similar set up. Pine boughs at the roots of a tree appeared to create yet another locale for the fairies. When I asked, I learned that they were playing Star Wars. They had different sticks that were various weapons from Star Wars, some from the movie, some made up because weapons are just cool.

It was such a pleasure to watch the two of them interact with their peers. It was clear they were having SOOOO much fun. And while there were a few boys helping with the fairy set up, and I know girls that love Star Wars (Sophie being one of them,) it was funny to see them fall into little stereotypical groupings.

Out of Season

Don't hate me for posting theses. Right now the thought of snow makes me cringe. I am a little behind on posting.

A couple weeks ago we had snow in the night and when we woke up it was clinging to everything. I knew as soon as the sun came out it would be gone so I went out to capture the beauty before it was gone.

Bath Imagination

I just went upstairs to check on Sophie in the bath tub. I called her several times with no response. Finally I opened the door and there was Sophie with her eyes closed, laying down in the tub, swishing around. Then she started to talk. I thought maybe she was responding to me finally, but this is what she said.

"Do it immediately!"
"Yes ma'am."
"If you don't I shall have you beheaded."

I wish you could have heard the inflection in her voice. I wish I could have recorded it. I am not sure of the full story, but she was clearly in story making mode and it was very real. It was fun to listen to, but I snuck out before I was discovered.

The Babe

I have been trying to get these on here for a week, but it was always one thing or another. Anyway here is Cornelius Child #4

A little profile shot with a hand above it.

Basically the same shot from further away.

Back of the head on the left, heading right...neck and back.

Face shot, forehead on the left dark spots are the eyes.
Little footsies crossed at the ankles.

I read an article about a museum that painted a fly in the urinals and reduced their... ummm...spillage...by some incredible percentage.

Having two boys (one who can't focus to save his life) we have a fair amount of "spillage," so I painted a ladybug, flower and butterfly in the toilet bowl.

That very day there were no "spills" on the floor. A few days later I noticed that the bathroom smelled much more fresh than it had in a long time. Then Ben scraped them off (ok well actually the flower and butterfly didn't dry long enough so they peeled right off, so it was just the ladybug he scraped off) and within minutes there was a "spill"on the toilet seat.

Don't be surprised if you find something interesting in my toilet next time you are here.