Good Times

My Grandma Ada's funeral was this past weekend and what a wonderful time we all had. It is great to get together and tell stories and catch up with everyone. It was a grand family reunion and I am sure she was having her own on the other side of the veil. The great-grandkids were playing freeze tag in the basement of the church where the services were held and everytime they came around the hall, I would snap their picture. It was great fun. Chloe, Sarah and Kaiya seemed to really get into the animated freeze. We never get enough time with our cousins, no matter how old we get.

We have so many rocks in our yard we have had to really work to figure out what to do with them all. Alan and I have put together a landscaping plan that starts with this fire pit. We spent all day on Wednesday building it and yesterday, we had our first fire in it. I can't tell you how fun it is to have a firepit in the backyard and not in our house! The kids got so excited they camped out last night too. They set up the tent and got out the sleeping bags. That is until about 4am when it got so cold they couldn't stand it anymore. We are loving our beautiful spring days here that really don't get over 70 degrees. But the nights are still pretty cold. Alan stayed up all night keeping an eye on the kids. I couldn't stay awake and was out around 1:30 or 2am. He said at 4am he could hear the kids giggling and laughing and figured that was about it for the campout in the backyard. We have enough trees for it to feel like a forest. This is definitly my kind of camping. The kids sleep in the tent, I get to stay in my bed!

We had chili and cornbread for dinner on the porch and then smores over the firepit for dessert. Sarah ate her weight in smores. I can't believe she wasn't up all night barfing. Remember that one, Mike? I guess she has slowly built up a resistance to foods that are so sugary sweet they would make most of us sick to our stomaches after a few bites. Not our Sarah. She can eat sugar with the best of them.

The kids worked really hard too, helping to bring us rocks and also whittling their awesome marshmallow sticks. We can't wait to implement phase II of our backyard barbecuing wonderland. It involves a nice patio set and more rocks! Believe it or not, we still have at least as many went into the firepit. We just keep digging them up! I'll keep you posted.

Daniel turns 1 decade old

Daniel had his 10th birthday last saturday and had a blast. He invited a few friends from the neighborhood and they had a water ballon fight and then proceded to jump on the trampoline with the sprinklers on. It was a balmy 65 degrees and it felt warm to us. I guess we are acclimated finally. We can't ever go back to Arizona in the summer or we will melt!
Daniel asked for an mp3 player and enough money to balance what he has saved to buy his ripstick. For those of you that don't speak "boy", a ripstick is a new kind of a skateboard that "all of my friends have mom. Can I have one please?". Yea for grandma Ginny. She sent him the rest of his money to cover the purchase. Daniel has expensive taste so we are making him work in his youth to cover all of his toys.

The boys ran around most of the day without shirts on and got fried in the sun! Isn't that funny? Sunburned at 65 degrees. Who knew? It didn't even occur to me to put sunscreen on them. They are feeling better today. Mostly they are hot and grumpy. The pictures accurately reflect just how pastey white we have all gotten here from our wintery isolation. The sun shines down on us and our skin just doesn't know what to do with the foreign experience. Burn baby burn.

We had to go inside to blow out the candles because of the determined little breeze. I have eaten entirely too much cake over the last few days. I made everyone finish it off today because I can't be alone in the house with a perfectly good cake just sitting there. I must put it in my belly! This cake was easily the best cake I have ever made. Chocolate, chocolate cake. With real chocolate buttercream frosting. It was divine. I am glad it is gone, yet, a little sad. It is my greatest weakness. Now you know!

Eternity

My Grandma Ada passed away two days ago. I am so sad to have her gone. She lived her life well and has been without her husband for almost 10 years now. What a marvelous reunion she is having with her family. I am sad for the rest of us that are continuing on in life without her right here with us. We all have a part of her within us and can continue her legacy of love and devotion to others.

We had such a wonderful time at her 90th birthday last year. It was a grand family reunion. I am so thankful for all the time I have had with her over the years and am grateful for all that she taught me. This is a picture of my mom and my grandmother, the two most important women in my life. They have both made me who I am. I don't know what I did before this life to deserve such wonderful relationships but I will always cherish them and hopefully pass on the wonder of family to my own children. I am thankful for the Gospel and that families are forever. I am so thankful for a loving Heavenly Father that has blessed me so abundantly in this life. What a comfort at times like these to know that I get to see my family again.

Spring Break

We had fun watching General Conference this past weekend and loved all of the talks. It is wonderful to be uplifted by our church leaders, especially when life is so stressful. We love being able to watch it at home in our pajamas and eat yummy food too. I made Popeye Pancakes (big hit) and other tastey treats. Elder Holland's talk on Christ and Easter was particularly moving. I highly recommend listening to it if you missed it. He is an amazingly insightful man. Alan and I are looking particularly tired in this picture!

I was finally able to get my garden planted yesterday! The growing season is so much shorter here. This is the beginning of a permanent rock garden structure thing we are thinking about doing. We have an abundance of shade in our yard so I have to do container gardening to get the plants in the maximum amount of sunshine. We are trying blueberries, carrots, broccoli, tomatoes and an herb garden in the rectangular pots. Fall harvest should be fun this year in addition to the plums and the apples from our trees.
The kids are on Spring Break this week. I would love to tell you we are doing something fabulous but we aren't. I fully intend on sleeping in tomorrow and that is mostly what I am looking forward to. Once your kids are in school full time, you are in school full time again too. I miss the days when they were little and we could stay in our jammies till noon if we wanted to. Now we have to get up at O'dark thirty and it is no fun. Sleeping in for us is 8:30 but I will take it!
Our Spring Break will be devoted to transitioning the kids into doing their own laundry. It has become a monumental job for me to do everyone's laundry during the week and I am tired of it. If they want clean underwear, they can clean it!
Year round school means the kids don't have to go back to school for 3 1/2 weeks so really they get a very long Spring Break. It should be nice. Just about the time we are all getting on eachother's nerves, they will be going back. I think we are going to try to go camping, but there will be snow most likely where ever we go, so maybe we'll just stay home. I told Alan I would camp whenever he wants to if he got me a pop up camper!

Hope Abounds, For We Are Not Forgotten

Doctrine & Covenants 31:9
Be patient in afflictions, revile not against those that revile. Govern your house in meekness, and be steadfast.
from the notes:
Romans 12:12 (Romans 9-21)
Rejoicing in hope; patient in tribulation; continuing (constantly, persisting in) instant in prayer.
from the notes:
Doctrine & Covenants 24:8
Be patient in afflictions, for thou shalt have many; but endure them, for, lo, I am with thee, even unto the end of thy days.

Still

Bear with me while I gush!
I just finished reading the Twilight books. I swore I wouldn't get caught up in the teen wonderlust and I wouldn't care about them but we rented the movie. We watched the long, slow movie and I couldn't make sense of a few things so I read the book to fill in the holes. I was hooked. I read like Superman runs so I was done with the books in about 5 days and my house looks like it. I live inside books and the story has really stayed with me. And, for some reason, it has reminded me how much I am in love with my husband. I vaguely remember life before our kids and I was too young and immature to appreciate the time we had together. Life is stressful when you are young and working like mad to get what you want out of life. Infertility didn't help me be calm at all and so I was an uptight, stressed out chick. I am happy to report that I have relaxed over the years. Otherwise, I would have had a stroke by now.
I love that we have been together now for almost 20 years and that while we have had our tough moments, we are every bit as in love with eachother as we were in the beginning. We are soul mates and he is definitely my other half. Life is hard but I am so glad I can look at him everyday and feel butterflies in my stomach still. He lives his life for me and the kids and he wouldn't have it any other way. I can't believe how hard he works and does it with a smile. Even when things have been tough, I knew I really shouldn't complain because I get to live the fairytale.
I suppose it takes time in our lives to throw off what selfishness we have inside to really see our mates for the wonderful people they are. We spend so much time being frustrated and busy and wanting and needing, that we forget to just stop and say wow! You're still here doing this with me!?
I know what it means to almost loose everything, it isn't a fun feeling. I know what it feels like to almost loose a child, again not so fun. I am so thankful for this family that I have and that we all choose to keep doing this life thing together. It truely is so short. Not a moment can be wasted. At the end of the day, the people matter more than anything.
My baby is 12 and looking more like a man than a child everyday. The other two are not far behind and I just can't waste a moment with them. They will start leaving us to venture out on their own in just a few short years. I remember feeling like their baby/toddler years would last forever. I think I blinked because they are over. It is exhausting, but the good kind, when you are a parent. Alan and I have loved it and cherish all our time with our kids. But, we are grateful for one another and that when it is just us again, it will be ok because we still want to be with eachother forever.

Cool New Merit Badges

For you scout enthusiasts out there!
Jacob recently attended an outing to the Davis County Jail with his Scout Troop. I don't know what level they are all on because he is no longer in Cub Scouts and I have decided Jacob is entirely Alan's scouting responsibilty now. So, said troop attended the jail for a tour rather than incarceration thankfully, and Jacob had a great time. I'll bet you didn't know you could have a great time at the Jail House, but apparently you can. He told us all about the solitary confinment cells and the toilets in the floor. (He thought those were gross but cool). He remembered what each color of coveralls meant that the prisioners wore. Sadly I don't remember but hopefully I will never have an occasion to have to remember that kind of information. He was also facinated by the types of shanks prisoners make and thought it was good they didn't give them metal silverware to eat with anymore. He thought they let them use "foons or sporks". He couldn't remember the exact name. Apparently the people serving time didn't look too bad. I had to remind him that people in jail are not his friends. After a little more discussion I asked him what this field trip had to do with scouts. He informed me the visit was so he could earn his prisioner merit badge. [pause for laughter]
So what is the silver lining serving jail time? Credit towards your scouting requirements!