Dress ups

Luke is our dress up king. Jake decided today he wants to follow suit. I love it!

Training Dragons at the movies

For FHE Monday night we went to see "How to Train Your Dragon" at the movie theaters. The kids LOVED it!! They were a crack up. They all wanted to wear their new dragon jammies to the showing. We were very spoiled and LUCKY to have the theater all to ourselves. Jake was in a dragon mode of his own, so we were very glad he was just annoying us and didn't have to bother anybody else. I treasure these times when my kids are young and always up for an excursion to the movies in costume! :)

Candlelight dinners

We instituted a new tradition in our family this week. I was remembering how neat my grandmother is. Everynight at dinner she eats by candlelight. It was something I could always count on when we would stop by in the evening or when we were the guests. I've been trying to figure out how we could have better manners and keep everyone at the table while we eat. So we now have brought in this famly tradition with a twist. Whoever has the best manners, gets to blow out the candles at the end of dinner. And everyone stays at the table as long as they're lit. It's been working really well! The manners are definitely improving. We haven't had candles every night as I'd hoped. But I will settle for most nights of the week and be very content. I hope by this small gesture my kids will see how important it is in our family to have this special time every night to sit down together (even if it is just me and the kids with W on the road). Thank you, Gram, for being an inspiration!

A sweet husband

During the week that I was reorganizing the house, Cade got really sick. He had a fever over 104 and I was really stressed out. Especially with Warren gone. I was treating the fever most the night with meds and baths. The next day there was a ring at the door and I was shocked to have 2 doz roses delivered to me with a sweet note from Warren. He was in Nebraska or Utah or somewhere when he'd ordered them and had no idea I'd have quite the week I was having. It was so nice. It definitley helped ease the strain knowing he missed and appreciated me. It made me even more excited to show him his new office when he finally arrived home.

Tasty Treats

I love this time of year- chocolate covered strawberries in full force!!

Mission Organization!!

These boys love working with tools. Screwdrivers and hammers, no boy can resist! shelves for the piano room

Warren's new office

New shelves for after school madness- backpacks, lunches, umbrellas, homework, etc. Also a diaper storage for Jakey

Pantry clean out and reorganizationI've been ignoring my blog the last couple weeks to get to some much needed projects. When we moved into this house we did so thinking it would be for 6 months. What seemed to be temporary has turned into 2 years. It is time to move in and get organized. My first step was to create a surprise office for Warren in our bedroom. He was gone for 6 days, so it gave me the time I needed for the project. That just got me more excited about building shelves for the piano room and cubbies for the afterschool rush. I was ecstatic to find bookshelves on clearance. I think Target loves me this week. I still have a lot of work to do around the house, but this is a great start.

bookworms

I love the days we go to the library. When we get home, everyone goes to their own little nooks and curls up with the new finds!

earthworms

The boys have such a fun time finding worms. Jake kept bringing them into the house to show me. He did quite understand when I would scream and chase him back outside!

Jakey Boy

This boy has turned out to be quite the handful. Spending a good portion of his days on timeout, getting into all kinds of mischief. But he is so sweet. He brings such joy to our family. His vocabulary is getting fun. The big kids love to have him parrot back words they say to him. I don't know what we'd do without him.

Building Our Square Foot Garden

Building the boxes

The kids loved learning how to hammer a nail

The anticipation of waiting to plant was killing them!

Our plan. It was revamped several times. This was sample A. I think we had 3 or 4 revisions.

What the plants look like today.

How to Square Foot Garden click here.

We started our garden a few weeks ago. and it's flourishing!! It's something we've really missed since we left California. We tried our best to plant in pots the past two years, but it gets too hot for the roots in the summer. This year we got permission to plant from our landlords. I am so excited!! The square foot garden is new for us. But I think it's something I will be able to keep up better while Warren travels. We planted 16 tomatoes, beans, squash, cantelope, watermelon, carrots, onions, radishes, rhubarb, strawberries, and lettuce. Pumpkins will go in in a couple months. The kids are thrilled to have a garden again. Cade loves to go out and see what is popping up everyday. Growing things is such a part of our family.

Happy Easter, Part 2!

The Easter Bunny snuck into our house while we were gone!! The kids were so happy to come home to some more surprises!! Thank you sneaky Easter Bunny!!

Happy Easter, Part 1!

Easter morning we woke up at Grandmother and Grandpa Duck's, happy to find the bunny had come! We were on our way to the airport early, so it was a quick look. They got some better time enjoying their things on the plane.

Cousins Birthday Fun

These boys played the Wii most the day. They were having a great time

These two cracked me up! They played "hide and go seek" for a long time. One telling the other, "I'm going to go hide in the bed sheets, now you go count, and then come find me!" Back and forth over and over. So cute!!

Playing legos together

I felt like it was a birthday extravaganza we had so many cousin birthdays! I think most of the kids were opening presents at one point or another. So much fun to be together!