BLUE

We went Blueberry picking with our cousins a couple weeks ago and the kids had a blast!

Yummo! I made blueberry pancakes and a Crumb Cake with blueberries in it.

The blueberries were huge!
I tried to keep Bo-man in the shade...
Doesn't it look like Rowdy has two little blueberries for eyes!

Hush LIttle Baby

Rowdy was having a hard time falling asleep last night (probably because it was so hot). Anyways, I sang him "Hush Little Baby" and scratched his back (one of his favorite things in the world). I was secretly hoping that I would be successful in singing him to sleep. Mainly because maybe that would mean he is still a "baby". He didn't fall asleep as I sang to him. It made me sad because I can't remember the last time I sang him to sleep and watched his eyes get heavy and witnessed him surrender and drift off. Instead we had a quite little conversation about our plans for the next day which included visiting Grandma Linda. Anyways, he was able to project in the future and say "I'm going to be a Dad someday". I encouraged him to talk more about that and he added "you will be my kids' Grandma and Dada will be their Grandpa". He also said "I will bring them over to visit you". I thanked him for that. He also mentioned that Ron should go see his Mom because he has a hurt eye and she could make it feel better (he got a piece of metal stuck in his eye...yuck!)

Although, I wasn't able to sing him to sleep like I used to when he was younger we did share a nice little moment of Rowdy and Mommy time. Do you ever miss your kids and how they were when they were younger? I remember reading somewhere that we are usually so aware of when the "firsts" happen in our kids lives but are not aware of when the "lasts" occur.

A few of my favorites right now...

On our way to church...Avery has her hair in two low pony tails and let me tell you she was thrilled.

I had to take some photos of the kids in front of this huge daisy patch in our yard (I am sure they are just weeds).

Bodies cute chubby little ankles!

He loves the bunnies!

These are so random...

She picked this for me at one of her first t-ball practices.

Rowdy showed so much improvement this year. He would hussle to the ball when it was hit to him in the out field. Last year he would just watch it as it rolled by him. He really didn't even understand that he was supposed to go after it. He did much better this year and showed more motivation to play as well.
I forgot to post pictures about this little "Grandma Party" that the kids and I had for the Grandmas in our life. We had a nice lunch and the kids sang a song for the grandmas. I took a picture of the kids with each of their grandmas and sent it home with them in a frame. It was really nice and we will be doing it again next year.
Bodie's smile is just like the little sun above his head.
Proof that Rowdy put the hubba hubba on it when the ball was hit to him. I love this picture! It needs to be cropped a little but I love that is shows him looking at the ball and getting after it to go scoop it up and throw it to first base.

Just had to share...

There is a blog that I visit that I wanted to share with you because she has some really cute ideas for things to do with your kids. I think we are going to do the ice cream in a bag thing really soon.

She is at this site.

She just had a baby so I don't know how often she will be updating. But there is plenty of ideas in the archive to keep you busy for a long time. She usually posts something about everyday.

Just thought I would share...have a good day!

Meet Max and Ruby

This is Max...
This is Ruby...
They live here...

We got these cute little bunnies from the same family that Amanda got hers. They are the sweetest little bunnies. They are used to being held and being around kids and we love that about them. I wanted to post these pictures so I could show the young man that we bought them from where Max and Ruby are living now. Thanks again for raising such cute little bunnies....we love them.

A 6 year old lives here!

As I was walking through the house the other day I was noticing how Rowdy's toys have changed over the years. He has always loved anything on wheels and the sound of a engine running was one of the first noises he made as a baby...brrrrrrmmmm!

Bodie has been enjoying all of Rowdy's baby toys. But it is so funny to see how things have changed with Rowdy's interests. He loves Thomas the Tank Engine (well any train for that matter) but Thomas is taking a back seat to Transformers lately. In fact so much that sometimes I have to ask him to talk about something else for a change. It is just hard to see my oldest grow up. There is no toddler left in him at all...he is a BOY!

We will be having Rowdy's 6th birthday party this weekend and I will post some photos of the actual birthday boy after that.

Graduation!

Avery's Preschool graduation was last Thursday. She loves her teacher so much. She talks about her all the time. When they had their dinosaur week Avery came home and was talking about dinosaurs all the time. She was able to tell me all the neat little facts that she had learned from her teacher Ms. Dianna.

Rowdy has a Kindergarten graduation as well. It was so nice. He has done really well in kindergarten. We face a tough decision when it comes to placing him into 1st grade. We can't decide if we want to send him to the small school close by or the larger school in town. The small school he would get more one on one attention (I think) and the big school just has more resources (library time, computer lab, a gym). We are leaning toward the big school but still can't decide. He is a great little reader...many of the teachers have told me he is one of the top readers in his class. The teacher even gave Rowdy a bag of books that he could read to the other students in his class. I am so proud of him!

Best Buddies!

One more of Avery girl! She is smart as a whip too! She loves to draw, color, work on writing her letters and do basically any art project (wonder where she get that!) On one of the papers that came home from her class she said that she wants to be a Mom when she grows up...I thought that was a really sweet thing for her to say. She does have a very strong maternal instinct and has since she was tiny. I used to find her animals and dolls with real diapers on them when she was only 1 1/2 or 2.

Weeeeeeee!!!!!

We spent the weekend at the race track. Whenever we camp at the track with the RV I always feel just like we are straight out of the Cars movie....campin' at the race track. Anyways, I am super busy with preschool, church, and trying to run the household lately so I haven't blogged much. I did get these cute photos of the kids this weekend and I wanted to share. I like the way the reflective slide made the picture turn out really well. Gotta run for now!

So Happy!

One of her favorite things to do!
(Click to make it bigger...it makes it better)

I am in love!

We actually had time to stop and take a photo on our way to church...and yes those are Christmas lights on our porch...what's it to ya'? At this point we should just leave them up!

I have wanted one of these for awhile. Costco has them for a better price than the tv offer or the on-line offer. Well guess what I got for Mother's Day. And I LOVE it!

Rowdy really wanted to make Apple Juice first. So we did and Oh My Word, it was so good! The kids had a blast helping me.

This morning I have already had homemade Vegetable Juice. Also, I made carrot juice and used the left over pulp to make these muffins. They are delicious and so healthy. Rowdy had some carrot/apple juice before he left for school. I also made a quick glass of fruit juice with some leftover fruit that I had in the fridge from the weekend.

The coolest part of this machine is there is no waste. It extracts all of the juice from the food and you are left with this dry pulp that you can add to other foods. You have to make sure that you rinse all the parts as soon as you are done making the juice...kind of a bummer but so worth it! The machine is really easy to use and put together too! It is really well designed.

So there is my product review of the Power Juicer!

I hope you all had a great mother's day!

Bodie

Yummo!
7 Months old (He is 8 month now)
This is one of his favorite poses to be in...Downward Dog...he's a Yoga Guru. Namaste Bodie!
This is Deacon (Jaq and Aaron's little one). Bodie got Deacon's binkie somehow and Deacon was fighting to get it back.

Avery

If you look close you can see that they both have their boots on the wrong feet.

Lazy Saturday morning flying kites with Dada!

Avery Queen of the dirt pile. Looks like that picture of Ethan huh Kim!

I'm still trying to capture a picture of Avery's eyes that do them justice. She has the most beautiful blue eyes.

Rowdy

Sometimes, Rowdy helps me with the dishes. I give him all the plastic cups and plates. Mainly he likes playing in the water and bubbles. He does a pretty good job of helping though. I like doing this with him because we get to chat as we are doing chores.

Playing on the dirt pile that Ron dug up in our side yard.

He drew President Hinkley. I think he did a great job. He even drew the flowers that are in front of the podium.

Boys!

Happy Birthday Kim!!!

Pregnant with our third babies!!!

I wanted to wish my friend Kim Hodson a very Happy Birthday! We have been friends ever since we met in the Mother's room at church with our first born children (so I guess that makes it almost 6 years). I thought I would list a few things that I love about Kim:

* We are alike in many ways and she understands how I tick

* She doesn't judge me even though I tick the way I do

* She is a great friend and promised me that when she moved we were not going to lose touch

* She likes to do crafty things like scrapbook and sew

* She always knows what to say when I need a little encouragement

* She shares her testimony with me

* She has really cute and smart kids

* We get mistaken for sisters : )

* She is a really neat (as in tidy) person and I want to be like her when I grow up

* She is a great interior decorator and I want to hire her

* She has a beautiful smile and a great laugh

Kim I just wanted to wish you a very Happy Birthday! I hope you know how much I treasure our friendship! You are the best! Have a great day!

Experiencing Technical Difficulties...

Can I just say...I deserve a pat on the back. The only formal computer training I have is the Computer Science class that fulfilled my Liberal Arts Core Curriculum requirement. Anyways, the sub woofer on my computer just stopped working the other day. If there is anything I can't stand is when something just breaks and there is no explanation. So I played around with it, checking all the connections and reading the help page on the web. Well, I fixed it! It was just the master volume slider thingy on my desk top...probably the kids accidentally clicked on it and turned the volume way down. Anyways, something off my list of things to fix, turn in, fill out, drop off, clean up, research, pick up and so on and so on!

Have a great Monday!!!

I'm Hungry Mom!

What do you guys feed your kids for lunch?

I have been stuck in a rut for a long time! Sometimes they eat leftovers, but mostly it is pb&j and turkey sandwiches around here. The only thing I change up is the fruit. Usually I give them something like pretzels or crackers with it. I also give them cottage cheese, sliced cheese and yogurt on the side sometimes. Oh and I throw in some veggies here and there.

Help! Will you guys tell me what your kids favorite lunch is and post it in the comments.

Thanks
Julia

Scrap Night

Kymberly McIntosh and I are getting together a combination Scrap Night and Stampin' Up! Workshop this Friday April 11th. I just thought I would post it here so that if any of you want to come you can mark your calendars and get the husbands on board to watch the kids and such. We will be starting the Scrap Night at 7:00 pm. But feel free to come anytime after 6:00 I will have some Stampin' Up! Make and Takes and some Demonstrations going on as well. Even if you can't stay for the Scrap Night come and see the New Stampin' Up! Catalog and cute papers and stamp sets! If you want to stay and scrap with us just give me a call so we can save you a spot to scrap!

Sorry...

I've been kind of a lame blogger lately. We have been busy around here...doing what? I'm really not sure but Spring Break came and went already and I can't believe it! I will write more later...I am off to the gym and to pick up Rowdy's cousin for a playdate this afternoon.