Month: May 2009

Some necessary things in figuring out how to move them…

A friend (or a friendly lion).

Much Concentration.

Success.

And of course a smile, for Momma while she cheers me on.

The beginnings of a great Chicken Coop.

After much research on the internet, and talking to former and current chicken owners, the building has begun for the chickies home sweet home.

Because honestly, they’re getting so big! The chicks can’t stay too much longer in our garage in a box.

Although I do love the way, the peek their cute little heads out at me when I say hello to them when I am taking out the trash. I AM going to miss that. But I won’t miss the ‘foul chicken smell!’ (pun intended)

🙂

That I really know nothing about.

A few Saturdays ago, Toph took the camera, the big kids, and headed off to the mountains with our neighbor, and his kids.
And came home with these shots:

Actually I lied. I do know one thing about it, When the kids came home, our kids proclaimed, we didn’t catch a thing.

Oh, and I know one other thing, they came home with half the mountain in dirt and pebbles, in their pockets.

And actually, one more thing. They had LOADS of fun.

I am learning, that sometimes moms shouldn’t pepper their kids with questions about everything. Especially mysterious magical adventures with dad.

on how to enjoy a watermelon
By Truman.

So far to date, Truman has consumed almost 2 whole watermelons by himself. The third and forth watermelon were shared with his family and friends. But let it be noted that he did consume a significant portion of those two.

He just can’t get enough of that stuff.

The more I understand my parents. Like why my mom hated Fun Dips.

I mean seriously, as an adult, it’s clear to me the candy really is just colored, flavored sugar.

And it is messier than sin.

The red fun dip stains clothes.

And watching them, I found myself thinking, I used to love this as a kid, but now know, why my mom hated them…

And I am not the only mom that would concur that instead of Fun Dip, they should be called Messy, Nasty, Staining Candy.

And so big.

for the kids, I REALLY should remember the moments like these:

2 Rubber bands kept Truman happy for over 2 hours.

I need to remember to stuff a couple of those in my purse, for when we’re stuck in line somewhere 🙂

After the zoo, we drove our new car up to Logan. And I must admit, it was so nice to have extra room for all of luggage!

(And yes, this is the same day as the zoo, hence my wicked awesome face paint job is still there 🙂 )

We arrived just in time to celebrate with Madalyn on her birthday.

Michael was so darling, he was so excited to give Madalyn all her presents, and just couldn’t wait for Madalyns reaction. He is such a sweetheart.

It was also fun to watch the boys. They wrestled, and wrestled,

and wrestled.

And Madalyn got some new nail polish and tried it out on Grandpa Phillips,

And later we got to video chat with Jo and Chad. (and Toph made some funny jokes about Teriyaki Yorkies, and yes Jo, he is still laughing about that one.)

The follow morning was mothers day.
Toph made us breakfast and dinner.
We attended church, and then went for a walk around second dam. I hadn’t been there in forever, it has changed so much, strangely enough.
It was fun to be there with Christophers Mom,

And Christophers Dad entertained the kids while dinner was being made

The best part about mothers day is obviously being a mother, the boys made me delightful mothers day presents
Cards and Books.

In case you can’t read that, I ‘ll tell you the best part, Truman says I weigh 2 pounds, am 10 years old. Sweet.

And For Mothers Day, I told Toph not to buy me anything. The day before, I had gone to Portrait Innovations, and gotten some new pics of the boy. And the week before, we had finally purchased a new car (More on those later). Those both were HUGE things 🙂 .

It was a good weekend, and again, made me realize the job of motherhood however crazy it may seem at times, is worth every second.

Of three years living in our house. (and the LONGEST we have lived anywhere since we’ve been married!)
I LOVE living in a place where everyone watches out for each other, and takes care of each other.

While walking Tucker to school one morning I noticed the following things,
-A neighbor fixing the sprinkling system of a single woman neighbor.
-Another neighbor taking his tiller to till up another neighbors garden.
-A young woman rushing to the aide of one of the neighborhood youngsters who had fallen.
-A neighbor taking out the trash of another neighbor who had forgotten.
-Yet another neighbor gathering the newspaper and mail for a neighbor who was out of town.

That afternoon, I had to call on my neighbor and friend to come rescue me from the car repair shop (thanks again Diane!).

All little things, but so many unselfish acts all in a day. And I am sure if I watched more closely, I would have seen MANY more. It is a blessing to be surrounded by such good people.

The weekend before Mothers Day was an awesome day. We went to the ‘Mom and Me’ at the Zoo day, along with a majority of my family including my grandma, grandma Hunsaker. (Everyone made it except Toph, Dad and Tiff)

We got to wear awesome shirts, that if worn, got you a free ice cream, a craft, your face painted, a massage and admission into the zoo. It was such a nice time, I am so glad my mom suggested it.

Here is Amy and the boys waiting for everyone to come

We had a great time looking at the animals,
I love this pic of Tuck and Eric in the Monkey House.

And the tradition of ‘Measuring up’

Tucker later told me his favorite animal to see was the peacock, because it wasn’t in it’s cage. Love it!

And the only shot I have of all three kids, and you can’t even see Eli, oops!

The craft was a flower headband. These got made while I was feeding Elliot, so the boys made me one 🙂

No trip to the zoo is complete without a trip to the smelly reptile house. Grams stayed outside with Elliot, in an attmept to put him to sleep. (Elliot can’t stop smiling at her, and has a hard time going to sleep with her! How cute is that?)


And I was very grateful the whole day to have so many extra hands to help me keep track of these boys,

About this time Ry and his kids came, and we got in line to get our faces painted. It’s so fun to see the kids being cousins,

It was a little bit of a wait, and when it was finally our turn, Tuck decided that he wanted a snake,

And Truman decided he was afraid, but if I got one, he’d get one. So I did, but he was still nervous. In the end, he got one on his arm. Here are all the kids.

Amy was gracious enough to let Elliot sleep in the Bjorn while she packed him around…

And off to the carousel we went,


Sweet Elliot was so mellow, and enjoyed the stroller,

So when Trumans one request, to see the Giraffe, was met, we were okay to leave.

I love this picture, look at all those kids!

At the end of the end of the event, right before we left:

And when Christopher came to pick us up and saw me, he laughed, I am quite the sight to behold 🙂

It was a wonderful way to celebrate Motherhood and womanhood. I was so glad we went.