Our Garden this Year

Brian is SOOO good about being excited to plant a garden and get the kids involved. I did my part and helped plant a couple of seeds and then I'll cook it all in the fall. We are all so excited to have a garden!

Morgan was excited to help plant the seeds and did a great job helping Daddy keep it organized.
Hallie didn't really help plant the seeds, but she enjoyed eating the dirt, and covering herself with dirt. Yuck!
And Jackson is just plain crazy, and that's why we love him! He is such a boy & kept doing funny poses and smiles... so this is what we got -which I love because it's totally him. ;)
At this point Hallie had enough and was ready for a bath. :)

We planted 3 rows of corn, carrots, tomatoes, onions, bell peppers, anaheim peppers, eggplant (thanks to our neighbors), watermelon, pumpkin, and peas. Yummy! I'm excited for the fall!

Hallie's Favorite Game

Hallie loves to play this game and will play it over and over again. She is so much fun to watch and is 15 months old today! She has started throwing fits lately that are just too funny! She'll put both hands on the ground and both feet on the ground like a stink bug and start kicking one leg. Then she'll do a belly flop on the ground and roll over to see if we're watching. It is so funny & cute ... at least for now. ;) We love our little Hallie!

Hallie

Mother's Day

Me and my cute kids on Mother's Day. Brian and I went out to dinner the night before to a new hamburger place and then went and took pictures of my sister & friends for their last school dance. Mother's day was so nice! I wanted to have a recipe called "Christmas Rolls" for breakfast. (You put them in a bundt pan the night before and then cook them in the morning) and I figured it would be really easy for Brian so he could sleep in too. (Our sleep in was 6:45... Morgan and Hallie decided to wake up early)
He put them in the oven and then I took a long nice hot shower and just relaxed. When I finally came out, every door and window was open with a fan in the hallway, and a little bit of leftover smoke was all over, and Brian was coughing. Since I had never cooked these rolls before I didn't know we should have put a pan under the bundt pan, so the glaze was dripping all over the bottom of the oven. Brian had been outside with the kids and came inside to check on things and when he opened the oven, he got a nice smoky surprise. I came out when the stove was all cleaned out, and the smoky smell was almost gone. So Mother's day was very nice because luckily I wasn't by myself when it happened, and I didn't have to clean out the stove which needed to be cleaned out anyway. Thanks sweetheart! :) (The rolls were very good though.)
Me and my sweetheart. I am so grateful for Brian and all that he does for me. He is my best friend and is wonderful!
I love my little kids so much! I am so happy I can be their mom! They are always making me smile!
Usually when we get plants as church for Mother's day mine always die. This year we got some really pretty ones and I'm excited to watch them grow.
Jackson posing on the table just before we ate. Brian made such a yummy dinner! We had barbequed ribs that we had put in the crock pot all day (they were so tender), garlic mashed potatoes (which were amazing & a new recipe I'll have to put on here) and rolls. Yummy! It was the easiest and best meal!

Some days are hard being a mom, but I LOVE it, and wouldn't trade it for anything in the world. :)

Brianna's Mission Call!!!

Last Friday my mom called to let us know that Brianna's mission call had come. We had all made our guesses & now was the time to see who was right. (I had guessed Russia & Brian-Argentina)
We all waited for everyone to get there and even had my sister and her family on skycap so they could be part of the exciting news.
Brianna opens the letter, and pulls out the book and begins reading. We were all expecting an the mission to be stated in the first paragraph, but Brianna kept on reading about being a servant of the Lord. We were all getting a little impatient as she began reading the whole book (actually just the whole first page) to us. My dad kept saying, "Brianna, where are you going?" Her response, "I don't know," and she would keep reading out loud to all of us. Finally she flipped through the book and saw a map and said with a confused look, "Lubbock, Texas? Oh, yeah... Lubbock Texas!" My other sister said, "Isn't there an actual letter or something?" They then looked in the envelope, and inside was a nice letter with the "Texas Lubbock Mission" written in the first paragraph. I think she was supposed to read that first. :)
We are SOOOOOO excited for her! She is going to be such a great missionary and she has such a sweet and fun bubbly personality that she will get along great with the people of Texas, (since Texans are the friendliest people you'll ever meet!) She leaves for the MTC on July 8th so we are looking forward to a big party on the 4th of July. Congratulations Brianna!!!!!

Boys & Bras

The other day Morgan told me that she had a new friend named "Bennie" at school. I thought, "Okay they have been watching Dora and I think she has a friend named Bennie she plays with, so this is probably an imaginative friend, and I have never heard of that name Bennie before." (no offense) :) So I said, "Really Morgan? You have a friend named Bennie?" Her reply, "Yes, Mom, he's new at school?" I'm thinking again (have you noticed I think a lot?) "New at school? School is almost over. How can there be a new boy at school?"
Me: "Morgan, are you telling the truth?"
Her: (Smiling like she's teasing) Yes Mom ;)
Me: Well, maybe we should invite him over to play (thinking I could catch her off guard and the truth would come out) :)
Just then the phone rings... I answer it and get off the phone and Morgan says kind of nervous, but excited...
"Was it Bennie?"
Me: Maybe it was and I smiled...no, it was just Amy (her best friends mom)
So Morgan went to play. Well now, fast forward to yesterday and I'm going through Morgan's backpack and I see her calendar for May. I look at it to see all the details and notice that a certain someone has the snacks for the last Thursday. Is it Morgan? Nope, IT'S BENNIE! So now I am really curious about this Bennie boy and why Morgan is acting so funny about him.
So I ask her.
Me: "Morgan, do you like this boy Bennie?"
Her: Gets a huge grin on her face and quickly covers her face with her hands and starts to blush.
Me: You do like him, don't you!
Her: Still smiling but covering her face
Me: So do you talk to him?
Her: Yes, (still blushing, which she gets from her Mother. I blush for no reason at all. Sometimes if people are just listening to me I blush, and it's completly random too. but anyway, back to the story)
Me: What does he look like?
Her: He has brown hair and green eyes & he kind of looks like Daddy (wow, is she into details!)
Me: That's cool
We change the subject and then last night just before bed we told Brian about Bennie. Brian said, "Well, I'm sorry he won't be interested in you for about 10 years" (Great thing to tell a little girl with her first crush)
When Brian left, we had this next conversation
Me: So what do you and Bennie talk about?
Her: I'm not telling
Me: Okay, then you need to go to bed (since it was 9:30)
Her: Okay, I'll tell. (anything to stay up) :)
Me: So what do you talk about?
Her: What I'm getting you for your birthday.
Me: What? (thinking oh, how sweet. It will probably be a nice picture of a rainbow)
Her: She comes to whisper in my ear. "A purple Bra!"
Me: A purple bra?
Her: " Yep" and off to bed she went

Well this is wonderful! I imagine the new boy going home and his Mom says, "Bennie what did you learn about today?" Him: "Well Mom, I talked to this cute girl and she is getting a purple bra for her mom's birthday." At this point Bennie may not be coming back to school if this is what he is going to learn about.
*Also, I think that Morgan thinks I need to spice up my underwear life. She probably just sees my boring white bras and thinks "Mom needs some color in her life!" (If you remember that past hot pink bra story) So, for my birthday I think I would like a hot pink & a purple bra, of course she then might want me to get orange, blue, green, etc... anything but white. :)

And, I am looking forward to Tuesday when I pick up the kids from school and then I can find out who this Mysterious Bennie Boy is. :)

My Random Ramblings...

First of all, I have to say that my sweet and amazing husband wins the Father/Husband of the year award! Yesterday I had the privelage of going with my Mom to the BYU women's conference. I left at 8:00 yesterday morning and didn't get home until 11:00 last night, but it was so fun, and so worth it. I learned a lot, & came home spiritually uplifted & exhausted. But something my mom and I were talking about afterwards was how important it is to serve each other in marriage and put aside selfishness. So here's why Brian wins the Father/ Husband of the year award. The night before I gave him a "Honey -To Do List" (now remember, I usually don't have these lists for him, but since I was kind of taking a day off, it was going to be a WHOLE day off.) :) This is what I said, " The whites in the baskets are all done, I just haven't folded them yet, will you fold them and put them away. Hallie's clothes are folded, but need to be put away." (*At this point Brian gave me a scared look. He has told me before that he HATES doing laundry because he doesn't know how I organize it or put it away. :) So I continued, "Don't worry, just put Hallie's long sleeve shirts on top of the ones in the drawer, same for pants, pajamas, etc. Jackson & Morgan's darks are done and need to be folded and put away. The clothes on the dryer have stains, so don't worry about washing them because I need to go through each of them. If you want to & have time, the bathrooms need to be scrubbed, but you don't have to do it. There's corndogs for lunch & pigs in a blanket for dinner. Morgan is at her friends house until you get home, and Hallie will take a 2nd nap around 1:30-2:00 Have fun!" :) (As I secretly laughed to myself. :) Well, last night I came home and was amazed!!!! The children were nestled all snug in their bed while
visions of sugar plums danced in their heads. They smelled fresh & clean from their recent bath, with their clothes put away in neat little stacks. The laundry was done & put away too, and there was nothing left for me to do! The bathrooms were done and the towels were fresh & there didn't even seem to be a mad rush. The kitchen how clean! The spirit how sweet! A sweet little picture, left out made it complete. I have been blessed with a sweet man of 3 & smiled to myself when I thought "this was for me! "
Brian did amazing with the kids. He even took time to race them on their skooters and used the Barbie one. I am so grateful for him & for my nice day off. Thank you Honey!

Now for my random thoughts.... I went to the store the other day and I thought about how many germs are there. I then started thinking about this Swine Flu going around. The thoughts were at the back of my head, and I honestly haven't been too concerned about it so I continued on my way in my local Walmart grocery shopping. Well I was at the checkout and the sweet girl checking me out decided to tell me all about how sick she was. Wonderful! She told me she had just been to the hospital and they gave her some medicine, but it didn't help her ear-ache. Then she started getting really sick and they still couldn't figure out what was wrong (at this point I start thinking "maybe it's the swine flu!" but of course I didn't tell her that :) well she coughed a little and then continued on with how sick she was. I then notice how she is touching each one of my boxes of food and I'm thinking, "Wow, we could get sick so easy if she is really sick. I hope she doesn't have the swine flu!" How terrible is that! Well, I left thinking how easily germs are spread and then I thought of a talk I had recently heard from a member in our stake presidency & again yesterday that was almost the same, and they basically said, "There is so much going around the world right now, war, sicknesses, economic hardships, people loosing jobs, money going to the wrong places, etc, but are we allowing ourselves to have the fear of men, or of God? Are we still realizing that God is in control & will be forever?" One of them shared an experience about how he could smell the blossoms of the tree and how he realized God was still there. The woman shared how she had seen an apricot tree, and realized that amongst all the turmoil in the world, God was still there and aware of each little tree, and more importantly her & each of us. So, I'm not going to worry, and I'm just going to live life and have fun. :) So that is what the picture of the tulips & my family is for. Aren't they just beautiful & God's way of showing His love for me!