Sunshine

A.J.'s favorite pasttime.

This is for one of the sisters in our ward that I visit teach. (In our church we are assigned two or three or sometimes 4 women to visit and offer support, comfort, and friendship.  It is our way of caring for and meeting needs of church members.  I believe it is an inspired program and I have been greatly blessed by sisters and friends that have visited me over the years.)    I am taking my visiting teachees a Sunshine basket.  With all the rainy cloudy days that we have I hope that it brightens her day. 

Spring time happenings

Spring is in the air. This spring we have celebrated by getting a bunk bed for Benjamin's room. He loves it! and the kids certainly enjoy playing around on the top bunk. Mom and Dad love the fact that now Ben will go to bed on his own. The final perk......if needed there is another bed in the house.


Look at this face. He is quite a cutie and seems to either have a smile on his face or can be found shaking his head no. Fortunately the smile is much more prevalent. Here he appears in my mothers moon boots.

The other spring purchase was this dome climber. I decided that the kids climbing on the furniture was making me crazy so, for Easter the Bunny brought this contraption. The kids play on it for hours. It was well worth the wait and the best news is that the furniture halflife just increased!

We have discovered peanut butter and fluff sandwiches. Mom thinks they sound terrible, but the kids love them. The fluff mustache cracks us up.

Lastly we wanted to post some of the Easter Egg hunt pictures. Our neighbor spoiled the children and bought them sand pails that she placed in the yard. Of course they were filled with fun things like a matching plate, bowl, silverware set, plenty of candy, and sandbox stuff. We are centainly lucky to have great neighbors that are so good to the kids.

Misc. pictures of the children

I have been wanting to post and share some pictures of our adventures the last few months. Unfortunately I am sporatic in my photo taking and even more sporatic in my ability to post.

The kids love to dress up in costumes. They interchange who is what and are usually content as long as they have a costume on.

The bath tub picture is that of a train. You can't see it but they have locked legs and were saying "chugga, chugga, choo choo." It's cute when they all get along.

We went to an indoor circus fun day and have some pictures of the kids in go carts and standing in front of a camel.

The kids love to help with projects around the house. If Joseph gets his drill out they all run to the tool box and get their tools to help.

Lastly, we had a tea party in the living room a few weeks ago. I even got out the china. Check out Ben's expression. The tea party was definatly a "girl" thing.

I'll try to upload some photo's without falling asleep in the process. Joseph just took a short trip to get a signature from the primary president. Alas I had 45 minutes of quiet time. I uploaded pictures to the dropbox sat down in the recliner and the next thing I knew the kids were back. So much for a few minutes of bliss.

Here are some of the things that we have been doing lately. We had a 5 year old birthday party in the basement and invited Lily's brothers Conner and Andy and their foster family. We went to the indoor zoo and family fun day this weekend and rode the carousel, bumper cars, and the majic carpet. We saw all kinds of exotic animals.

Lastly lately, we installed a coat rack at kid level and had more help than Joseph could imagine to accomplish the task.

It has been difficult to have 3 kids 4 and under. Now we have 3 kids 5 and under and unfortunatly the whinning hasn't subsided. Lily is terribly jealous of Ben and the two of them have to do everything that the other is doing. Most days 7pm can't come quickly enough. When AJ throws his arm around me and gives me a big hug I almost am convinced it's worth it.

Drama, Drama, Drama

Check out our latest additions. These kiddo's are Lily and AJ. I find that I am busier than I even expected but it's a good kind of busy.

Sweet Lily

AJ trying to roller-skate.

December

I can't believe it's December 30th. The month has flown by. Having a birthday and Christmas has made for a celebratory month that has been lots of fun. This is a picture of Ben playing with his birthday helicopter. He loves it and will take it apart and play with the base making it a boat. He has several lego "guys" that operate it.

Before I forget I wanted to post something funny that happened at church. It is totally irreverent but cracked us up. I still chuckle about it. After placing the sacrament cup properly in the sacrament tray and being told that he did a good job, Benjamin said "what did I earn?"
He responded simultaneously with "A swift kick in the pants?" I almost choked I was so caught off guard and found it so funny. Same Sunday when negotiating with Daddy about a graham cracker he tried to bargin and said "double or nothing!". This kid cracks us up. It is hard to keep a straight face with him around.

I made a Red Velvet Cheese Cake for the adults at Ben's birthday celebration. It was beautiful and tasted so good.

The day before Emma left I was trying to get some good pictures. This was the best of the bunch. They were eating their rice crispy treats and making a mess.

All month long Benjamin has made Daddy be a Reindeer and has ridden him around the house. Joseph is such a good sport. He drew the line at being photographed with the jingle bell on his nose.

Santa was good to us this year.

Scott and Jenni's family with Santa Claus on Christmas Eve. We missed Kenneth and Heidi's family especially because normally they have been around to celebrate with us. I'm glad that all my siblings were able to be together in Utah and have the added treat of my parents surprise visit on the 26th.

This is Caleb and Joshua sitting on Santa's lap. Benjamin wouldn't even get near Santa this year. He and Lydia were content on Mommy's lap.

Scott and Isaac. He's really enjoying being Stake President. He sure is a fine man.

The day after Christmas Jenni put Joseph and Scott to work building shelves in their new entryway. The project was almost completed in one day. It still has to be faced with decorative trim but it looks great and I hope that they love the extra space it provides.

While the men were working the children were being super heroes and playing with every toy in the house.

Wasn't it Batman and Robin? We had Batman and Superman.

This is my favorite picture of the day.

Later in a change of Superhero status for Benjamin now to be known as Batman..... Joshua couldn't wait to climb into the shelf and make himself right at home.
Benjanim kept calling him his Batman partner.

Benjamin's Christmas Photo

Benjamin gave me a great Christmas present. He sat for a photo session and we got 2 pictures that we love. As is typical with 4 year olds so often he does a cheesy smile that isn't him. This picture captures the real Benjamin and I love it!