Saturday

I had to take pictures of our Saturday morning. Last weekend I gave in and let Tom have his "fun." His ideal Saturday morning looks something like this...

Cleaning...

Cleaning...

And more cleaning!

Then I got to have MY fun.

Making a yummy lunch!

"Graduation" day

Preschool "graduation" was on Wednesday. Even though some of the kids did "graduate" from preschool, Tori was in the younger class that won't be moving on to kindergarten until next year. Even though there was no graduating for her, she sang the songs and she was SO great! I was so proud! I stood behind the video camera and cried like she was graduating magna cum laude from BYU (GO COUGS!). My little princess did such a great job. We are so thankful for Ms. Liz and Ms. Tara and all that they have taught her this year. She has learned so much, and we are so proud of her!

Brooke, Emma, Tori, and Shane. Tell me this doesn't look just like a graduation photo. Wait 14 years add a cap and gown...

Flowers and Hives

On Tuesday our ward planted flowers at the Denver temple. It was a great activity! Tom was barely home in time to join us, so being the ever prepared (and painfully pale) mother that I am, I had the kids sunscreened, with their hats on and in the car when he got home. By the time we got to the temple Lizzie was completely breaking out in hives on her face. She was having a reaction to the sunscreen, and to matter how much we tried to wipe her down she just kept getting more red and more swollen. Poor little munchkin. She did not have a great time, for obvious reasons, but Tori loved it! She wore her gardening hat, of course, and with the adult sized gloves and the spade, she was ready to rock!

Don't leave home without the gardening hat!

Poor little pumpkin!

Spring has sprung! (We hope)

Well, they say that you can plant your garden on Mother's Day weekend, but that definitely wouldn't have worked this year. We are hoping that waiting an extra week made a difference. We tilled and planted yesterday and it was a great day. We look forward to planting our garden every year. This year Tori has been super excited to get going. She told Daddy that she needed a "gardening hat" before we could plant. Daddy said he would get her one, but he didn't realize that not just any hat would do. Needless to say, Tori is her mother's daughter and is super stubborn. There would be no planting without Daddy's promise being fulfilled. We made an emergency run to Target. On the way there I asked her:

"What does a gardening hat look like?"

Tori: "Kinda like a hat, and sometimes it has flowers on it and sometimes it doesn't."

Mom:"What color is a gardening hat?"

Tori:"It can be lots of different colors."

Mom:"Don't we have a hat you could use for gardening at home?"

Tori:"NO MOM! I need a GARDENING hat!"

Great--I have no idea what I am looking for, and she does, but she can't give me any kind of description. We went to Target's kid gardening tools section and they had exactly ONE hat.

Mom:"Tor, is this a gardening hat?"

Tori:"YES! That is just the hat I have always wanted!!"

I don't know who put the idea in her head, but I am glad that we filled the need, because we had a great time planting, and we are super excited to watch our cucumbers, peas, carrots, pumpkins, etc come up in the upcoming weeks (if we don't move first).

Carnival Craziness

We went to the Summit Elementary carnival every year and this year we had twice as much fun because we had two kids old enough to beg for things (and one young enough to have no fun and still cry!). They had an absolute blast. Lizzie is fearless, and she wanted to do everything, but Tori was a little more reserved. She tried everything, but it took some coaxing. She loved the train, because she had done it last year. Our biggest dilemma was how to get Liz off the train, slide, bouncy house, etc...

Tori stood up there for several minutes before finally making it down. Lizzie threw a fit when she hit the bottom, not because she didn't like it, but because it was over. HA!

SMORES!

I got a new recipe magazine a couple of weeks ago and we have been trying tons of new recipes. For family night this week we decided to make smores cookies. They were SO good and super easy, and I just couldn't resist taking a pic of my little munchkin after the dessert had been inhaled! She is always a mess, but we still love her!

Happy Mother's Day to ME!

Well, let me just say that I am sitting in my bed, blogging, and ignoring my children! HAPPY MOTHER'S DAY TO ME! I adore my kiddos, but I appreciate the break my husband is giving me! My three beautiful angels and my wonderful husband brought me themed presents this morning in bed as the prelude to an amazing breakfast. I received gifts to symbolize some of my jobs as Mom. There was a "feeding" gift, a "cleaning" gift, an "entertaining" gift, and a "teaching" gift. My thoughtful husband got things that not only fit each category but were things that I was really needing/wanting. I am so impressed with how much effort was put into this event (especially considering that the preparation for breakfast was about 2 hours, and I still ate at 7:30 AM). To top it all off, my Lizzie had used the potty twice before 9:30--WOW I am so blessed. Now I am anxious to go to church and have Tori sing to me for the first time! She is finally a sunbeam, so I will sit on my bench and tear up while the primary children sing a song that we all know the words to, but it sounds new and sweet every time! I love being a mom!

Cousins!

We went to Logan this weekend for Kelsi's graduation and we got the four cousins together for the first time since Owen was born. We had to giggle about how they look like they could have come from four different families. P.S. Thanks for the Oregon T-shirts Grammy!

Graham, Owen, and Grampy!

Grammy with Lizzie, Graham, Owen, and Tori!

Mother's Day

For Mother's Day my mother-in-law wanted black and white pictures of her grandbabies so I had to snap some of my own (why couldn't Mandi have gotten here a week earlier??). I am no photographer, but I love these pics anyway. I love being a mom, these three little angels are all I need for Mother's Day (ok, and maybe a nap too).