hello beautiful

i love you

evening with the kids

in Colorado...watching the kids biking in the cul-de-sac....snuggling my lil boy.

sweet little boy...content to sit on my lap and watch all the fun going around. kaylee and cade never liked to stay put very long...conner enjoys it, but not as much as I!

wait mom, don't take it yet...gotta clean my face!ok, now I'm ready.

what a cutie!

kaylee and her scooter...

my lil cup o

sunshine

first day in Colorado with my kiddos...knowing that I don't have to leave them the next day...was bliss.

swing swang swung

my kids love to swing. but who doesn't? aunt kelly and kaylee
messy mug is my middle name

such talent in those bones!

conner's first go at the swingin thing...wasn't too sure about it at first

is good?

oh yeah!

man, if only I could fit my toosh on that swing! a sw.ing built for two

can you believe she finally learned to pump on her own! life is good!

what's the opposite....

of a mullet?

When I came to Colorado to stay for a couple weeks I got to give Kaylee a haircut that was a few months over due. Check this out!

I also had a triumph! Cade let me give him a haircut without friggin out! He stayed nice and still and didn't give me any troubles when I cut his neckline or around his ears. My little man is growing up!

happy mommy's day

it was great to be with the kids during mothers day. so wonderful
i've taken photos out the wazoo...tons to post...and not enough time! i'll post as I can

'my wocks wu duk'

Cade just got a rock stuck up his nose. It was up there, but we luckily just pinched it's way out. Hopefully that is the extent of the nose fascination for this little 'booger'.

reap whatcha sow; rip whatcha sew

whichever ya wanna call it

This year we were pretty excited to garden. We have a farmer in our Stake that has given some land to the members so we could plant our own garden, work hard to maintain it, and harvest the bountiness which follows.

I went to a couple different stores and picked out some fun things to grow. We were a couple weeks late getting things planted since the staph infection kinda got in the way.

After a month of waiting for growth...we drove up to this heaven!

lets see, where are the tomatoes? hmmmm....are these the beans? The corn should be in the back, since it'll grow the tallest. We should anyway, group things in order of height...right? Oh, I think these are....no.....they're supposed to be arugula. hmm

hu? These are weed? All of them?

oh

most of them.

I kneel down and sit on a nice bumpy mound of dirt and slowly start picking at the weeks. David bends down and RIP...there goes a great big fitful of weeds. This'll be done in no time!

20 minutes

30 minutes

50 miuutes

crunchy weedy roots...um um ummy

my sewing project lately....sewing new hooded towels for the kiddos

Cade, Kaylee and Conner

april 30

Dry again! Conner has "ear boogers" ... I am anxious to hear what the doctor says tomorrow at his follow-up appointment/9 month check up.

We keep finding Conner in "odd places." He is a funny dude.

I worked on finishing the last 2 musical posters for our High School (Julia wasn't in them ... and I didn't take the photos so that was a challenge. If only I had taken them...). I wanted to finish them so that the Seniors who are graduating in a couple of weeks could see them. These kids work too hard to not be recognized with some sort of visual memory/poster of it hanging in the halls of their alma mater.

We had "Easy Alfredo" tonight with peas. I told Cade they were green balls. He finished every last one of them! I gave him about 1/2 cup of them too! He is so funny. Hmmm... zucchini is a "foot ball". What else can we rename?

Kaylee and Kendall have been cute buddies. I have to remind them to include Cade. Who wouldn't want to play with your own personal bouncer/hit man? He's so darn cute!

Busy evening. John called from work saying he was stuck there for a while longer. That meant I had to do the swim team run and make sure someone was around to let the voice students in. Our voice teacher moved and she comes to our home every week to teach the 4 girls in our area. One girl just quit so I am going to put Jenna in her spot. She has such a beautiful voice. It was interesting to talk to our voice teacher and hear her thoughts on the music groups she heard at the most recent concert. Julia is going to start Enchords in the next week and have them practice. This is going to be an A Cappela girl group.Tubbies. Straight to bed. Crazy evening. Tired kids.

I forgot to add ... Kaylee came walking into my room in the morning like she was a peg-leg pirate. "My leg is broken." It ended up being a VERY sore muscle. A muscle she hasn't used frequently due to our weird weather. She rode the scooter out front yesterday (April 28) with Kerst for quite some time. It was the leg she would push off with and scoot around. I rubbed it and helped her stretch it out for a bit. She was much better by mid-afternoon. It was a bit chilly, but the kids enjoyed the backyard.

anyone seen conner?

may 1

Up and at 'em early. It is going to be a busy morning. I love it when John has every other Friday off. Especially today. He gets to watch Cade and Kendall all morning while I take Conner to his Dr. appointment and Kaylee to her Eye Doctor appointment. There is NO WAY I would attempt this with all 4 of them!

I got the kids ready for the morning and held them at bay upstairs. I cleaned Kaylee's glasses and gave them back to her to put on. As I was getting ready to load Conner in the car, I looked up through the banister from the main floor where Kaylee and Cade were playing and noticed Kaylee didn't have her glasses. She has taken them off only a couple of times and misplaced them - only to be quickly found on the floor. Oh boy. She needed them for her appointment. We looked everywhere upstairs. No good. Thankfully we still had her first pair (the backup emergency pair; the pair she had all twisted up before they were even 7 hours old). We put those on and headed out the door ... with a quick prayer to find the glasses later.

Conner's ear is still slightly infected. The doctor recommended hitting the infection with some oral antibiotics since he is having a difficult time shaking this infection. She could hear his drainage in his upper chest (not his lungs). He is 19 lbs 9.6 oz (bare naked this time) - 35%. He is 27 1/2 inches long (25%). (Shannon, correct me as I don't have the paper in front of me). His head is ____ and is in the 80%. He has tons of brains in there! He is sporting a Band-Aid from a shot. I had Kaylee wait in the hallway. She couldn't resist and had to stick her head in once Conner started to cry. I told her we were doing this to keep him healthy and safe and because we loved him. You should have seen the look I got from her. He stopped crying as soon as I picked him up and cuddled him.

Off to the eye doctor. The first office was 10 minutes away. I needed an appointment before 60 days after the original prescription. If her prescription changed, they would replace the lens for free ($98 lenses). No appointments were available until after the 60 day window. They wanted to keep the appointment with the original doctor. I told them I didn't care who or where, but I needed to get in. I also told them it didn't matter anyway because she wasn't going to be here for the next appointment that they would request to be scheduled because she will be back home in AZ. They fit me in. The office was 50 minutes away. Worth it. It pays to know your benefits, warrantees, etc.

At the eye appointment, Kaylee asked the nurse at least 10 times if she was going to get drops in her eyes. She asked the doctor 3 more times once she came in the room. She was "so happy" to find out she wasn't going to need drops. The doctor was VERY pleased with how Kaylee's eyes are responding to the treatment. No crossing while the glasses are on. The prescription didn't change either. She has to be seen by the eye doctor every 6 months until she is 7. Good girl Kaylee for wearing your glasses ALL of the time! She only fussed the first couple of days while she was adjusting to the prescription; I didn't give in.

We headed back home. I picked up the 12x18 posters of the musicals for our High School that I had printed at Costco. I then took the digital images to another place to have them printed as 24x36 prints to be framed in the hallway heading to the Auditorium. That printing was going to take an hour or two. I took the kids back home and then headed out by myself when posters were done to pick them up. Dropped them off at Hobby Lobby to be framed (their poster frames were half off ... I picked a really nice one too ... I LOVE Hobby Lobby). If you purchase their frames, they will put the print/poster in the frame for you for FREE! It will be done on Wednesday, just in time for the Choir Award Ceremony and Banquet.

More cousins came over tonight. Aunt Sarah and Uncle Aaron dropped off their 3 kiddos - Eleanor (5 months), Simon (2) and Kimball (4). They headed off for a date night at the temple. We were a hopping house ;o). Cheaper by the dozen? Not quite a dozen .... but nearly.

They came back and visited for a bit and then headed off ... I still kept thinking and praying that I could find those glasses. I put out a bounty out for them. It reminded me of the times that Bama and Papa would do the same when something of theirs went missing during one of their visits. Sometimes I wondered if Reed and Richard purposefully hid those items just for the reward ;o) I have searched everywhere. I even looked in all of the trashes upstairs. Toy boxes, bins, etc. Dirty clothes hamper. Clean clothes in the basket. Nothing.Time to tuck the kids in bed. Sharing sure wears them out! It is late. It is dark. The lights are out upstairs except my bathroom light. I head out of the bathroom and see something glistening. A tender mercy. I see it as a blessing for watching 3 more little friends while Sarah and Aaron attend the temple. The glasses. Safe and sound under the green chair in my room. I searched there already. I'm grateful for tender mercies ... especially when it comes in the form of a small pair of glasses. Prayers are answered. Always.

thanks brooke...i'm addicted

I love John Schmidt. David loves him even more! David and I have been to many of his concerts...one of our favorite concerts was this past Christmas in Mesa. He has teamed up with a chellist. It was a great evening, just AMAZING, HILARIOUS and BEAUTIFU. If you have a chance to see him in concert...take it!

One song during their christmas concert was the classical song Cannon.....the chellist starts playing....then slowing begins goofing off.....slouching in a bored stance....moving the chello instead of the bow....just about falls asleep.....truly funny....the chello has the SAME 8 NOTES the whole time. Pacabell truly must have hated chellists!

My sister n law Brooke posted this on her blog and it's been playing on my puter all day...through all my projects today. I'm gonna sing myself horase! nay!