Shrooms

Look what I found the other day at a garage sale next door to Roger's parents!  They took my breath away I was so excited.

Why would I be excited about that?  If you are family, you would so understand. Have you ever noticed these on my wall?

They were my mother's and I grew up with these shrooms on my counters and walls all growing up.  Now I have the canisters in my house- unless I decide I should give them to my little bro for his graduation present from college.  I wonder if he wants them. . .

Since it is Mother's and shrooms were my mother's thing, I made the radishes from my garden into tiny mushrooms to go onto the salad greens which were also from my garden.   Good fun!

Fiona

The rabbits we acquired at Christmas time were our leap past having fish for pets.  They have been great especially for my compost and chasing and cuteness but they did not help in my need to keep unwanted pest out of my yard- mainly squirrels. Those pesky animals are prolific and nuts and go after my nuts so I decided we needed an outdoor cat.  

We rescued Fiona from the Human Society and so she is fixed, vaccinated, and micro-chipped.  So far she has been great for that need and she fits in well here but like all living beings she has some quirks.  She can't handle loud noises which are constant here and she can get a little frisky making us be fairly cautious around her.

I don't let the rabbits and her outside at the same time but Fiona makes that easy.  She likes to spend the day in the garage attic so we can shut her in.  We are outside during that time any way and can chase the squirrels away.  I actually had a dream last night that she attacked a rabbit.  Not a fun dream.

Owls

We went on an adventure to the Foothills Learning Center to see some owls' nesting area.  Roger's aunt lives nearby and we have a little bit of overlap with kids.  They used to live 5 min away but now live 25 min away which is a bummer but we will take what we can get.

They disgustingly dissected owl drops and picked out rodent parts- ewww.  They loved it.

Levi was so enamored with his owl face painting he kept running off to the bathroom to stare at himself in the mirror.

In one of those holes is an owl that we could see with binoculars.

Good Fun!

Springtime

Strawberries and Spinach are coming up. 

Seedlings are growing up and getting ready to be planted.

Bulbs are opening.

Fruit trees and regular trees are blossoming.  The peach, apple, and cherry trees I planted last year are still alive! yea!!

Look at those cuties behind my cherry tree.

Cheese balls!

This looney kid like to be swung in circles and asks over and over again. and over.

Being out in my yard digging, growing and playing make me soooo happy.  It must make Michael happy too because he out there all.the.time. rain or shine.  That makes me happy too.

Levi Turns 3

Do you remember how big this sticky,skinny kid was when he was born?

He was 10lbs 2oz.  Now he is only 3lbs heavier than his little brother.
We celebrated his birthday early because his birthday lands on a Tuesday.  Tuesdays are karazy around here.  He will find out one day when reading our blog book that we pretended like his 3rd birthday was on Sunday.


We celebrated by having dinner and an Egg Hunt at Grandpa and Grandma's house.

Levi's response last year was a lot more dramatic but you can still see the fear in his eyes.

Just for fun- I wanted to share this video of Michael who thought I was taking a picture

Back to Levi.  He is an amazing kid.  He is incredibly smart and loves to have a good time.  
He loves inviting people into our home.  He has even tried to start "mac-a-noni cheese" just to keep friends over at dinner time.  
Somehow he manages to be a neat freak and be a tornado all at the same time.  
He LOVES to sing and he can sing on pitch pretty well.  
He can spend an hour on puzzles no problem.  
Anytime we hit a bump in the road he yells "What the HECK!"
We can understand most everything he says now and his sentences are fairly well put together except he brakes out with nonsense. He says "Its a gate" and "Its a day day" at the most random times.
When he tries to go to sleep in the same room with Michael and Michael is making noise he leaves the room and says "Michael is louding" and goes and sleeps in Jts room. 
He loves every character out there- right now Little Einsteins hold his heart.  
He loves animals and is so soft with them and often says"ohhh-so cute".
He loves to cuddle especially if someone else is cuddling with me.
He has a tendency to grate on our ears though.  From very young he would scream so loud and high pitched it hurt.  Now he repeats himself over and over and over and over and over. Sorry baby.
He is a Houdini.  He can get into and break out of anything.  Nothing is safe including himself.  Its a horrible, horrible feeling to have a neighbor bringing him (and his brother) home because Levi got the carabiner off the gate and got out while I was going to the bathroom.  Its happens weekly.
The other night I prayed for "the babies"- probably to be safe- and it felt weird.  He is not a baby anymore.  He is an independent kid who loves life and learning. We love this kid so so SO much.

Easter Hunt

 Our awesome neighbors invited us over to hunt eggs for Easter.

Of coarse all the pics are running pics.  What would an Easter Egg Hunt be with out those?

Michael was really getting into the hunt.  He loved picking up everything and sticking it into his Christmas bag.

 We tried to get a family picture but crazy me for facing my sun sneezing family into the sun.  They were constantly sneezing so we could not get a picture. 

Celebrating Family

It was now or maybe never.  My dad had one sister and she was amazing. She had 6 kids but we never really had a chance to get to know them because of distance and age distance.  When I found out my aunt passed away I had to go.  I knew my cousins would all be in town and it might be my last chance to get to meet them and get to know them.  I jumped in the car and drove 17 hours with only a overnight stop in Utah.  My cousins welcomed me and my brothers with open arms.  They were able to drive out too much to my happiness.  We were able to celebrate my Aunt.

 We were also able to see where my grandparent's ashes were laid to rest.

I almost left before having a picture taken of us!  I really wish my sisters were there but I am so thankful for this picture.  New doors were opened.  

Have I ever mentioned my interest in family history? I was able to look at my Aunt's things and pictures and saw this picture of my dad's sister who passed away when she was 3.  I never even knew there was a picture of her.  My brother took this picture so we would have a copy.

Next I get to figure out who this is. . .Good Fun!

Valentine's 2012

Quirky eh?

Jt said his classmates want candy- not pencils so he didn't do one.

One of just a few Snow Storms

and it only lasted a few hours. . .

Seriously

There is seriously not much to post about these days nor have there been pictures taken.  In the last month we:

• have had our fair share of colds and stomach bugs
• have been pulling Michael down from things 500+ times a day
• have been skiing a few times (we being Roger, Jt, Rory and Simeon)
• have had a- dare I say- kind of lame winter.  Snow that lasts for a week then melts into a glorious spring would be divine.  I almost want to erase this line
• have been on a 29 hour date for Valentine's with a friend's group date, projects, and a road trip to the nearest operable Temple
• have been working out 6+ a week except when we have been sick
• have been dreaming and reading and planning and preparing for this year's garden
• have had 2 extra boys after school since last October- poor Rory!  They are a lot of work too
• have done very little crafting
• have been nicely bored

See why I have not posted?? :)

How the heck are all 5 kids sitting on one side of table so splendidly (despite the horrible pic)

Roger made us a bench!  I had some yellow chevron love.

I had some more yellow love in the deep dark recesses of our stairs and basement.  We have lived in our home one whole year now (!!!) and Roger's mom and I finally painted that ugly space.

Whoa! right?  Crazy yellow I know. It took me a year to try to figure out a paint color and when we got our hands on some free paint we added some of our own- a lot of different our owns.  Then I went to Home Depot and they added more color to fix the color we damaged and then I still had to add a couple gallons of white paint and this is what we have.  Sorry- after all that- I love it.

I even stood on a really tall ladder despite my distaste for heights.

Did you notice a bit of the other change in the pic above? Our original desk looked like this:

Then Roger built me this:

Then I hit The Container Store when I went to Cali last summer and got deck out with some of these:

Since I am showing you around I should show you what I finished yesterday- the window seat cushion!

Not quite sure how I feel about it.  It wasn't what I had in mind but the kids love the fabric and I had it (remember the owls?).  It was really tricky to sew with too.

This is what I was thinking for the top:

 I was never going to use black in here but I found a cute black box.  


Did you notice the weird fabric laying out 2 pics above.

 I am toying with it to see if I like the fabric for another fabric box.  

 Things are movin along