Uh-OH

So we have had a couple of really good rain storms over the past six weeks or so. One morning I walked in the girls bedroom and the carpet was saturated with water. We had to rip up the carpet and tear out some sheet rock to see where the water was coming from. It came from the bottom corner. Now we have to have some foundation work done to re-seal the foundation on the bottom corner of the house. Man, what a mess! There is always something to do when you live in a house.

Future Babysitter

Yesterday, I had the opportunity to watch a little baby that is in foster care. What a treat for the girls to be able to help me take care of a "real" baby. To say that Elizabeth was obsessed with the baby would be an understatement. She would not leave the baby's side the entire day. I was very surprised how she instinctively knew what to do with the baby. She would tell me if the baby was hungry, needed to be changed, or just wanted to be held. She will make an excellent babysitter someday and future mom. The only issue we had was when the baby left, Elizabeth cried for 30 minutes.

Mother's Day Weekend

I had a really nice laid-back mother's day weekend. It was the first weekend that was some-what decent weather, so Heather came over and helped me work in my front yard. We cleaned out my front flower bed and turned it into a bulb-garden there will be Iris, Daffodils, Tulips, & Freesia. We planted Day lilies close to my house and planted some climbing roses next to my fence. We still need to plant some more plants in the whiskey barrel and old wheel barrel, but we made a lot of progress. We also added a personal touch with the old wagon wheels and milk jugs. I would much rather garden than be stuck inside doing housework any day. Thanks for the help Heather!

On Friday Darin surprised me with this bouquet of flowers and a sweet note. He can be such a sweetheart sometimes.

Abigail made me this flower recipe-card holder at school. She wrote me a cute note and stuck it in the holder-part. I will treasure it forever.

Fun Fort

The sun is finally starting to come out more often, the girls love to make forts on our back deck, they played for hours one afternnon and even ate lunch in their fort. I am so glad that the girls can play together and keep eachother occupied.

Treasures

I have decided that Abigail is a confirmed pack-rat. Everyday Abigail comes home from school with trash that she claims to be treasures that she found on the playground at school or in the parking lot, etc. Most of these things have absolutely no value, but she treasures every piece that she has collected and has to methodically show them to me when she gets home from school. I took a picture of this collection because it was rather large. She even found a note that someone elses mom gave to their child and brought it home. The note said "Good Luck Matty. I hope you do well on your test today. Love, Mom!" I can at least be thankful that she hasn't brought anything home that was alive. She did however bring a handful of gravel once. Silly six-year-old.

Chubbuck Elementary Spring Concert 2011

The first graders at Chubbuck Elementary gave a Spring Concert. Here is a short clip (mostly for the benefit of grandparents). Abigail is straight ahead on the very bottom in the orange dress on the end of the front row.

Child Stars

Today one of my piano student's dads told me that he has been thinking about who my children remind him of and he finally decided that Elizabeth looks like the little girl from Problem Child 2 and Emily looks like a baby Drew Barrymore. I have to say, that I can definitely see the resemblance.

Girl from Problem Child 2 - AKA Elizabeth

I have to also say, that I thought this was a picture of my little sister Heather when she was a child.

Drew Barrymore - AKA Emily

What do you think?

Easter 2011

The pictures in this post are kind of in reverse order, so if you would like to know what happened over our Easter weekend in chronological order, you will have to read from the bottom up. On Easter Sunday I had a big dinner planned, but most of the plans for the day were changed because I woke up at 4:00 am with a stomach virus. That is the second one this month, and no people, I am not pregnant, just around virus-carrying children way too much. Darin and Heather managed to pull the dinner off and as far as I know it tasted pretty delish, but I didn't eat all day. I think it has become our family tradition to have Ham, Funeral Potatoes, Salad, Rolls, and Pie & Ice Cream on Easter, cause we have had that for the past three Easters. The girls got to open their Easter baskets after we talked about the true meaning of Easter using pictures from the gospel art picture kit and an activity with a dozen plastic eggs. They got several pairs of shoes and some springy clothes and a few activity books.

As, I said I was sick on Easter morning, so I think Darin did a pretty good job getting the girls ready for church. He only got pictures of Emily in her Easter dress, but oh well, at least they were dressed and their hair was combed. It was beautiful weather which was nice because we are having another snow storm today. We invited my friend Kristin and her four children to go to church with us, so she and Darin managed the seven kids all alone.

Abigail is sorting and counting her loot from the Ward Easter Egg Hunt.

We took our friends the Evans with us to the Ward Easter Egg hunt.

There were tons of eggs and not very many kids, so each child came home with about 3 dozen plastic eggs of candy. We have more candy than we got at Halloween. This should be a crazy week.

Abigail and Quinton left no stone un-turned and no bush un-searched. They are trying to see who can be the first to get an egg out of the thorn bush. OUCH!

Abigail and Elizabeth wait patiently for the hunt to begin.

On the Saturday before Easter I had 11 children at my house at one time. We invited our friends the Evans over to color Easter Eggs with us and then I was asked to watch some Foster kids for the day, so at one point I had nine kids under the age of 7 coloring eggs at once. I think I had temporarily lost my mind for the day.

Elizabeth gets the award for the messiest artist. We had to take her clothes off within two minutes of beginning our activity. She is very creative and really gets into her work.

Abigail and Emily show off their favorite Easter Eggs.

Come On Spring!

I feel like spring has taken forever to get here. We will have a few really nice days and then it will snow. I told Abigail we can buy flip flops when it goes 10 days with out snowing. So far we haven't made it to our flip-flop shopping day. I love spring because of all of the fun clothes. Especially church dresses! I have a whole month's worth of dresses set out for the girls for the next four Sundays that I am excited for the girls to wear. Hopefully it will get warm enough for them to be able to wear their sandals with their cute springy dresses.

Abigail is sporting her new head wrap and hair-do!

Emily is pretty in pink before church.

I love this dress on Elizabeth it makes her blue eyes really pop!

New Do's

After 3 years of living in Idaho, I have finally found a hairstylist and salon that I will return to!!!!

I love my haircut, the bangs look a little crazy in this picture, but I am very pleased. The color is beautiful, very close to my natural color, just a little richer and a little more shiny. You can't really tell, but there are some barely there highlights in it and I love it. VERY nice and low maintenance.

Abigail got about 4-5 inches cut off her hair. I keep trying to have her grow it out, but she likes it shoulder length cause she can brush it easier and it helps when she can at least brush her own hair. She loves it.

Feeling a little trendy today, we both got feathers in our hair. It only cost us $4 per feather, and they are supposed to last 5-6 months. You can wash them and style them just like your own hair. Kind of fun for the summer I guess.

Lockers - the best idea that I have had in a long time.

After we moved here I looked on craigslist for some lockers and we found a set of four that a man was selling that he had bought from the athletic department of a high school in Utah. We bought the entire set for $80. I was so excited. These lockers were the best idea that I have had in a really long time, they have solved so many problems in my life. Each kid gets to have their own locker with their own stuff in it. They have to have things approved before they lock them away and everyone knows that the other person's locker is off limits. Abigail was getting so frustrated with her sisters destroying her special things while she was at school. She was getting angry at me for not protecting her stuff and she was getting angry at her sisters. Now the ball is in her court and she has to take responsibility for protecting her things. This has made my life so much easier!!! The fourth locker is for "Toys in Time Out." Toys that are not cleaned up by the end of the day end up in this locker and only mommy can let them out. The way the girls get their toys out of time out is by doing something extra good and then I unlock the locker and they get to get a toy out of the locker that was confiscated. It is working!!! The playroom is starting to stay cleaner and I don't have to gripe about them cleaning up because they know what the consequence will be if they leave their toys out over night. The Toy Fairy will come in the middle of the night and lock away the toys. Man, this was genious for my house. I LOVE IT.

FHE at the Skating Rink

A couple of weeks ago, we decided to take the family to the skating rink in Pocatello for Family Home Evening. This was all inspired by Abigail because she has been able to go once a month with her school and has learned to skate. I think the last time I went to a skating rink, I was 14. It was quite scary for me, but the kids did great. I think I am more afraid of hurting myself, then when I was 14. I was also nervous that I would kill one of my kids, so I didn't have skates on for very long. By the end of the night the twins were skating with out having mommy or daddy hold their hands. Elizabeth practiced in the little kid area before going on to the big rink.

Daddy is way more coordinated than mommy. I was too nervous to skate and hold the twins hands too.

Emily always has to make sure she is looking good when she is learning anything.

Abigail is getting pretty fast.

Three Little Pigs

Darin, Del (Darin's dad), and Brigham (one of Darin's friends) decided to purchase three pigs together to raise in Rockland and butcher in the Fall. I know this may be appalling to some of you out there, but it is so yummy, and I know exactly what those little piggies are eating, therefore, I will know exactly what I am eating. YUM! YUM! They have a whole feeding schedule worked out and Darin will be feeding the pigs when he goes out to Rockland for work. He will be able to get his farm fix and still live in the convenience of the city. Best of both worlds.