Spring is Bustin Out All Over!

It has been a great couple of days despite the weather (snow this morning!). I was fortunate enough to have some visitors come for a while. Morgan, her girls and Shelley came down from Idaho to get away from their lousy weather, little did they know it wouldn't be much better than up north. While they have been here they have been up to a lot. including....

drawing fine works of art. Thanks to Lily we may make loads of money from her priceless art and she may even be asked to be included in the game of Masterpiece. Also there has been a little sneaking of tuna fish as pictured below.

She had a bit of a melt down after I had to grab both spoons away from her.

She also enjoyed a little ice cream sandwich after dinner this evening. She scarfed it down in no time; we're lucky we got the wrapper off before she inhaled it.

Also, our sweet Hannah turned 11 on Sunday. I was fortunate enough to make her birthday cake; a Texas sheet cake. I think I have found the best recipe that includes a secret ingredient (cinnamon, okay not so secret anymore) It was so good I couldn't stop eating the batter, I don't usually like cake batter but this stuff is delicious.

Just some pictures of the festivities.

Our delicious assortment of meats that Joshua grilled.

I was also very excited to be able to use my new drink dispenser I got from CostCo! It was perfect for it's job to dispense a delicious drink! It holds ice at the bottom to keep it cold without watering down the drink, Genius!

I wasn't able to get any pictures of the ceremonial opening of the presents but she got a lot of really cute clothes and some fun new things to play with this year. Happy Birthday Sweetheart! I love you!

The first morning Shelley was here she took a look out my back window and had this lovely view. I knew it was going to bug her.  Actually, it had been bugging her since she saw it the week before.

Yes, those are a whole ton of weeds that took over my back yard. So of course, knowing Shelley, she couldn't leave it alone and had to start a yard project.

She and Morgan and started weeding and digging. It wasn't as bad as they had first thought because they watered the ground for about 45 minutes and then were able to pull the weeds out quite easily, (shelley knows all those weeding tricks for she is an uber weeder). Lucky for them, because it was a an overwhelming job that I couldn't face by myself, and I was so appreciative when I came home i took them out for dinner and swimming and a pedicure the nexct day.

Thanks guys for even attempting such a task!

But the job didn't stop there, they decided to do some landscaping today with the newly cleared land. They added some curves and had several plans. One mishap did occur, Morgan was chopping at some roots and accidentally chopped right into the mainline of my sprinkler system. So I guess Andrew will be making a trip down to fix it. Oh well.... what's new!

At the end of the day this is what they looked like, Morgan had mud all over and was still drenched from her Old Faithful experience.

After they got the curves dug we headed to Home Depot to purchase some new plants. I got a variagated, a red, a burning bush and two privets. They look wonderful already!

Then today they spread out the black soil fabric down to prevent the weeds from coming back.

Then they planted the bushes and added the black plastic trim to outline the curves and added six bags of peat moss. It looks so great I hardly recognize it as being my yard! I'm so excited to love my back yard!

The plans are not exactly done, I hope to put in some bricks to outline the curves and that should make it look even better, and also maybe some wood chips to lay over it all. It will be beautiful and I'm so thankful that I have family who take over and just decide to go for it.

Insert by Morgan: A treat to Lagoon would be fun. jk :)

Adventures in Cedar City

So last week I was invited down for Miranda's graduation. Whit and I drove down together and had a chance to stay at Ye Old Stratford. Let's just say they provide much more service during the Summer months. But it was fun to stay there with Tenny and Whit.
Look at Brooks. Has anyone ever seen him smile that big before. He must have been happy Miranda was finally done with school. Her sister's are all wanna be graduates holding up their programs. Their time will come. I hope to attend each of their graduations in the future.
We went to dinner together on Friday night after we got there. A truly delightful Chinese buffet in little Cedar City. We found some special treats at this buffet...

They basically dared me to eat this purple octopus that was pictured above. I happen to love chewy, squeaky, fishy, food. No one else would join me in the challenge.

Notice we invited Weird Al to dinner, and he did indeed honor us with his presence. We were a little weirded out by his flashy ensemble and asked him to sit in the corner.
Miranda looking for her future. Whit and Tenny just trying to stay warm. It was a freezing that morning. The commencement was at 8:30am, and the cars were covered in frost. We didn't come prepared for such crisp temperatures.
Tennyson Curie. Banner looks doubtful as to what she is witnessing, true greatness or another goofy moment. We know it to be the latter.
Ah, she finally found her niche, acting.

So I came home from work on Friday to a shorn lawn and a few new things on the porch. Whit and Madi had spent the day together and had decided to do me a favor. I think they had seem my "to do list" on the cupboard. It was very much appreciated when they mowed the whole yard and even fertilized for me. Then I guess they went to a nursery and got some Mother's/Aunt's Day gifts. Whit bought the cute hanging planter and the beginnings of an herb garden. I love the colors in the planter. They are so bright and very eye catching. Bless Madi's heart she bought me the rhubarb plant which made me very excited about having my own plant for the yearly making of the beloved syrup. I spent today planting a container herb garden and container cherry tomato plant. I hope they thrive. I also finished off the mailbox project by spray painting it silver. I woke up early to go up with our Stake to do a camp clean up. We had to drive an hour each way to get there and then I needed to treat myself to a little something special. I went to my neighborhood nail salon and had a pedicure. The feet are looking good, but for how long remains to be seen.

I hope you all have a wonderful Mother's Day. I will be thinking of you all and thinking of Mom. I have cut lilacs in my house right now and they always remind me of her.

For a week or two in the Spring my yard looks really nice with all my bulbs in bloom. My camera does it no justice but the yard looks really nice and I love looking at it. The backyard is a week or 2 behind so I will have tulips for a few more weeks. The weather has been beautiful and it seems more like May than April. I think there is a storm that is coming in tomorrow.

The creeping phlox is starting to take hold.

Essie taking in the flowers or more like contemplating which petals to pull off.

Liz and Dennis and Tenny came up for the weekend and so we did some baking of course. Maren was helping Lizzy with the tarts.

I asked Jonas to do a project for me. My mailbox has been looking very pathetic since the day I moved into the house. I finally had the bright idea to put Buddy on the task. I had leftover stain from the fence and he went to work. Now I need to spray paint the actual box.

He did a very good job.

After painting the mailbox stand he came in the house and learned how roll out rolls. What a renaissance boy. We made our version of Parkerhouse rolls and of course cabbage burgers known by some as "them cabbage biscuits"

Yummy Tarts!

So Kelsie went to Prom this past weekend. I went over and took part in the photo shoot.

Little Sis needed to be in on the photo action.

Kelsie being her cheesy self.

Kelsie and her homemade clutch purse to match her dress.



So I just got home from Mutual tonight. I was in charge of the activity. The YM and YW were combined for the activity and I just thought it would be fun to play games. I did one in were they had to go around and get initials from different people who for instance; someone who is left handed, someone who has not seen Avatar, someone who is an Eagle Scout, someone who has a family member on a mission. We made a contest of it and who ever got the most initials in a certain amount of time won a candy bar. Then we all played Fruit Basket. No one had ever played it before, suprising to me. Needless to say they all loved it. They are asking when we can play it again. Then we ate Creamies. How easy was that.

Hope you are all having a great week.

Fruitful Saturday

So I have been aching to get outside and get my hands into some dirt. I was finally able to do it on Saturday. I got my front bed cleaned out and started on the backyard. It looks like Springtime finally. The weather was quite nice and it felt good to be out in it.

While I was outside Whitney was busy inside. I wanted to take something over to my YW advisor who had her baby a few weeks back. The baby ended up in the hospital needing surgery and so I wanted to take them a little something. I thought of Jenny's pot pie. Turns out it is really Betty Crockers pot pie. Anyway Whitney whipped up a delicious offering. We had one for us and one for the family. Notice I don't have any little chicken cut outs but she put the pig cutter to good use. She did a great job with the pies and has certainly got her mother's touch with the them.

I have started a new project. I have got quilts on the brain. I was awake for 3 hours in the middle of the night and all I could think about was the quilts that I want to do. I am starting a little baby blanket from an idea I got at Quilt Etc. My goal with my quilts is to use fabric that I already have. I am reading a book called the Persian Pickle Club about farm wives in Kansas during the 30's. They get together and talk about books and work on quilts as far as I can tell so far. I have just started it and so I am sure there will be more to it. I wish I could join a club like that. It sounds sort of like the Club Mom belonged to.

I cut out the fabric and started laying things out to see what looks best. Actually Whitney donated some of the fabric to me. It will probably take me a week or so to get it all together but it will be preciously beautiful and cozy when it is done. At least I am hoping it will. We are having a Stake talent and display show. I decided I would show some of my quilts along with my quilt journal. I need Morgan to take pictures and post them of the 2 quilts that I have done for her. And Jenny I need you to take a picture of the little baby quilt that Whitney did while she lived at my house. It is a baby blanket with scrappy little squares with white. It is probably in her cedar chest. Hope that you all have a great week.

I hope that everyone had a great Easter. We had a busy weekend with lots of goings on. I enjoyed being with everyone and watching conference and doing Eastery things. The weather was rather unEaster like but we made do.

Lots of time with little girls

This one is my favorite. It is difficult to get 4 pairs of eyes focused on the camera

Leah helping make rolls on Easter morning.

Enjoying her Reeses egg. What is Easter whithout one of those in your paws

The Easter loot.

Lily and Whit at the computer. Whitney says that Lily is very comfortable in this position an that she must be used to hanging out with her parents while they are on the computer.

Easter Ham with Easter Lily on Easter morning.

Making cookies on Friday night in preparation for Lily's party on Saturday.
Maren wanted to be in the middle of all of the preparations.

Thing One and Thing Two at it again.

Getting ready for the Birthday Party. There is something about playing under things that is so enticing to children.

The party spread. I am sure Morgan will blog more

The Easter eggs.

Leah really got into it. Lets just say we had to clean up a lot of little spills but they were all having such a good time it was hard not to let them just have at it.

Maren getting the perfect orange Easter egg.

Morgan and Whitney had started the cookies but gotten distracted for some reason and then I looked over and Maren had just kept on going. Or maybe she was stuck there and so was making the best of it. She is not as mobile as she is used to.

Whitney using the little girls rolling pin. It was all we could find.

Essie is quite the little mother. Found her feeding her little furry baby.

She loves making faces for the camera.

I can't believe how blonde she is getting. I can't believe last year at this time she was a little brunette bambino

Jonas is taking karate and was showing me some of his moves and skills.

Hope all is well with all of you. Have a great week