Happy Mothers Day Mom!

Happy Mothers Day! I hope that you have had a great day. Your card is still sitting on my computer desk.... Surprise! I guess it will just make it so that you can keep enjoying Mothers Day, even next week!!! We thought it would be fun to interview the kids and ask them questions about Grandma. I decided to not do them all in one post, so it wouldn't be so huge. Anyway, thanks for being a wonderful Mom and Grandma. I love you!

Morgan Mothers Day

Reed Mothers Day

McCray Mothers Day

Camille Mothers Day

Our Own Orchard

We have been really busy this spring working on the yard. We have a lot of plans that we are excited about, and hopefully we can have it the way we want it soon. Back in the beginning of March, we bought 1 Fuji apple tree, 1 Braeburn apple tree, 1 pear tree, 2 peach trees, and 2 dwarf peach trees for our front year. The dwarf peach trees should only be about 5 feet tall, and 5 feet wide. The man at the nursery asked me if we were starting out own orchard. Hmm, I wonder if we got in over our heads with fruit trees??? I hope not. We are excited about them. I don't think we will get much for a few years. That should be long enough to really learn how to bottle the fruit! :)

I felt so bad. The day that I picked up the trees, was freezing cold and started to snow. We bought some bare-root trees, so they had to be planted that day. Kent was a trooper, and got them all planted. I was warm inside, thinking that I was so grateful that Kent was willing to do this job, because I would have been a big baby complaining about freezing to death. I was happy be inside and to have a warm meal ready for him at lunch time. When he finally came in, he was soaked to the bone, and cold, but never complained. I can't even imagine!! He is so good to me!

   

 This is the tallest of our trees. It is our Braeburn. It will be fun to watch them grow.

Valentines Cookies

We went all out for Valentine's Day this year. I bought a pre-made cookie decorating kit from the day old rack at Smith's. We let the kids decorate a few cookies each. Thankfully they are easy to please, and they had fun making their cookies.

Jr Jazz Basketball

December through February was filled with Jr Jazz Basketball for Camille, McCray, Reed and I. They each played, and I coached McCray's team. It was a lot of fun, but it also took a lot of time. We had some very nice kids on the team, and the parents were also very nice. I think they all really improved by the end of the season, and had a good time.

Camille had a good coach, and she improved throughout the season. She learned some more of the basics and did well getting rebounds. Believe it or not, there was a girl on her team, and Camille only came up to her shoulders. She was a very tall, big girl. Nice to not always be the tallest!

Somehow we didn't get a picture of Reed playing. He did well when he was concentrating on the game. Most of the time he was concentrating on anything interesting that caught his eye. He is still young. I think he enjoyed it though.

Until next year.....

These Are the Good Old Days

The other day, the kids got all excited because there was a pair of ducks in our front yard. They all went in to the couch, and watched them for awhile. I went in and saw them all lined up, enjoying watching the ducks. They are all such good kids. I want to remember times like these. They are are so close, and they always get so excited about the little things. I wish that would never change.

Red Rock

While we were in Las Vegas, we were able to get out and get a little fresh air. On Friday, we went with Pauline and Kirt's family and hiked around a little at Red Rock state park. We hiked on a trail the was really easy for children (and Moms). At the end of the trail was a waterfall, and the kids all thought that was pretty cool.

Ambree and Anna took care of Morgan, and helped her on our hike. She wanted to do it herself, and didn't want my help.

The boys all lead the way.

Camille and Tyler always have a contest to see who is the tallest. This time they were pretty much even. Hopefully Tyler will outgrow Camille by a lot someday.

On the way back, we stopped at the butterscotch tree. It was off the beaten path a little. Kent used to take his kids there when he took them on field trips with Parks and Rec. He found out about the butterscotch tree back then. It really did smell like butterscotch, but I have no idea why. The kids all took turns having a smell.

It was fun to get out and enjoy the beautiful weather. I am glad that we were able to do it!

Easter

We celebrated Easter this year down in Las Vegas. I think this is kind of a tradition, because we have spent more Easters down there, than we have at our own house! As usual, we had a great time visiting with Pauline and Kirt and their family. They are always so good to let us come. Most of the rest of Kent's family came down (minus 2 families) and we had a great time being able to visit. The kids are always in heaven when they get to be with their cousins. In fact, a couple of them CRIED when we had to leave cousins. I am not talking for a few minutes as we left. They cried almost the whole way home. McCray was still crying after we got home, and he was going to bed! It was sad, but I am also so glad that our kids have cousins that they love so much. It is the same when they say goodbye to the Payne cousins too.



We enjoyed visiting with our good friends the Myers, and also the Watkins family. We were able to go a couple of days early so we could do a tiny bit of visiting too. We are blessed to have great friends.





We did the traditional dying eggs and Easter egg hunt with all of the kids. As usual, they all got way too much candy. They were happy about that. It was a wonderful weekend.

It's Spring!

This spring has been super fun. I absolutely LOVE spring flowers, and seem to have instilled this in the kids. Especially Reed. Starting from the first green leaf poking it's head out of the ground, Reed has checked the progress of the flowers every day. He has wanted to show me every new flower about to bloom. It has been really fun.

When you buy a home in the fall, you have no idea what will be coming up in the spring. I have been so happy to find that someone loved spring flowers too, and planted a TON around our yard. I don't know who to thank, but I love it. It makes me smile every time I go outside and see our yard looking so "springy". I wonder what surprises we will find during the summer?

Square Foot Gardening

We decided that we wanted to make some square foot gardens on the south side of our house. We built these garden boxes and then filled them with Mel's Mix. A special mixture of soil, vermiculite, compost, and other stuff I can remember. We are hoping to have some nice gardens and lots of veggies for years to come.

Ogden Adventure With Jossue

For Jossue's 4th birthday we went to the Ogden Train Museum to celebrate. We all road the Frontrunner up to Ogden. There is a stop right near this train stations. We had a really fun time taking the kids through the museum. They had a little "picnic" on the floor of a big room, that I'm sure used to be bustling 100 years ago. It was a fun adventure to ride the train. Gran Jan is so much fun, and is always cooking up adventures for all of us to go on. I'm glad that we are still getting together occasionally, even thought I no longer babysit Jossue. 

Blah about BLAHHHH....GING

I am sure that you hardly even noticed that I haven't done a post in... FOREVER. I don't know why, I have just been in a slump, and have just not felt like it at all. That is not good. I could make the excuse that I haven't had time, which I haven't had much of, but really I can always get things done that I really need/want to. So I guess I have just been a little blah about blahhhh...ging. But, I realize that this is a good way to journal about our family, and a good way to keep in touch with family and friends. So I will try and do better. I also realize that I am selfish about blogs. I like to read them, but need to not just enjoy others blogs, but do my part as well and do ours as well. AND, take the time to leave a comment as well. So, here's an apology for not being better. Sorry!

I have a number of back posts that I have just never posted. So for the next few days, we are going to take a trip down memory lane and I will post what has been going on for the past few months. Bear with me. And, check back, because hopefully I will be better at keeping this up.