you tell me

I peeked out our kitchen window Sunday afternoon, only to find the strangest sight.

A person.

Dressed like a shrub.

Hiding behind our mailbox.

Every once in a while, he would pop his head up and look around.

Then, after about five minutes, his friend found him and they went into the house across the street.

We are thoroughly confused as to the recreational preferences of our neighbors.

Weekend Fun

The Great Wolf Lodge is a resort about ten minutes from our house, where we spent a portion of our weekend. We drive by it often and the kids always ask "When can we GOOO?!" We spent a night there back in 2008 and they had a blast. We told them we could go for two nights instead of having birthday parties this year and they were excited about that idea. So off we went! The best part of the resort (for the kids) is the indoor water park. Miles and I aren't super into swimming (I only swim if it's downright HOT outside, as I don't enjoy post-swim freezingness, which is inevitable at an indoor water park. The water is never warm enough!), so we kind of putted around and spent time in other parts of the hotel together.

There's a fun sort of digital scavenger hunt that the kids tried this time, called MagiQuest. In total, it takes about 3-5 hours and sends you up and down all eight floors of the resort looking for special treasure boxes and hidden pictures and such. You use a magic wand assigned specifically to you (with your chosen Magi name (below is Lone Hawk and Lone Wolf) to open the boxes and illuminate the clues. This was Audrey's favorite part of the trip.

Until next time, Great Wolf Lodge!

Grateful Sunday

Us at the Great Wolf Lodge this weekend. More on that in a bit. This is what our family would look like with Lasik.

Today, I'm grateful for:

• Springtime
• my kids' school teachers for being wonderful and kind and supportive of my kids.
• their Primary teachers for being consistent, present, compassionate and creative.
• the happy people in my life. Some of them are happy in spite of what life has dealt them, and that is inspiring.

Sunshine and FHE

In Audrey's class at school, children have a chance each day to share "sunshine or clouds", happy or sad news that they feel like sharing with their class. Well, I thought I'd share a few bits of sunshine today. Who wants to talk about clouds anyway?

The first is that Parker lost one of his top teeth. I can't help but giggle when I look at him now. It's so dang cute. Especially when you add a fruit punch smile. And can you see the freckle in his left eye? What a handsome dude.

The second is that Audrey has completed her reading Iditarod. In her class, each child was assigned a sled dog and, online, they followed the real Iditarod racers who are competing in Alaska. For each mile that the racers go, the children were to read one minute. Audrey read over 1100 minutes (more than 18 hours) in the past two weeks, and got first place in her class! We are all glad that's over with. Great job, Audrey!

Last night, we all headed outside to help Neal make a bluebird house for Family Home Evening. We have such lovely little bird friends here at our new house, and we'd like to attract even more. I'll post the finished birdhouse once it's up in a tree. Here, the kids are horsing around while Neal gets the supplies out of our shed. Love that shed. But I really want to paint it barn red like Steph's.

Grateful Sunday

After Audrey's birthday dinner.

Today, I'm grateful for:

• my sweet Audrey, my only daughter, and a fabulous little girl. She had a fun birthday!
• our warm house. It snowed again yesterday and we were not quite as excited as we were last time. We had been used to working and playing outside all week, but had a drastic change on Saturday. Alas. We heard the 60s and 70s are returning tomorrow.
• Neal's dad and Gail. They moved some of their stuff down to their beautiful new house this week! We're furniture shopping tomorrow, which is so much fun for me!
• a present husband. I'm so glad Neal's here on the weekends, mentally available (not working) in the evenings, and that he loves being a dad. It makes us all very happy.

Nine is almost Ten.

Audrey of long ago. July 2002.

Today is our Audrey's ninth birthday, she couldn't wait for this day! She is always so lucky that her birthday is during Spring Break! Today, she went to her art class, then we met friends at the park, headed off to the bookstore to spend a gift card, and then came home to play until her Daddy came home. She really wanted to open one present, so she chose the one from her Great-Grammy! She loved it (thanks, Grammy, your thank you will be on its way shortly)!

We'll have hibachi and cake later this evening, and presents when we get home!

Audrey with some of the pieces she created at "art camp" this week. She had a blast.

We're so proud of Audrey and all that she has accomplished. She's such a smart girl, and loves to make people happy. Without her, the boys would be rather lost as far as imaginative play goes, and her happy disposition makes her always a pleasure to be around.

Happy Birthday Audrey!

Spring Break

Our Spring Break has been so fun. Each morning, we take Audrey to an art class at the community center, then drop Parker off at "tennis camp," where he's been learning the basics and having a blast. By noon, we're all home eating lunch. I'll put Miles down for a short nap, then out to the yard we go until dinner time.

There is so much work to be done outside, and Neal's just not here enough to really be effective except for Saturdays. So the brunt of the work is on my shoulders. I don't mind it when the weather is pretty, though, as it has been. My back is getting stronger and my aversion to creepy crawlies (snakes, lizards, bugs, all of which I've seen), is abating out of necessity. Eek!

My vision for our yard is pretty optimistic. I would love for it to be park-like; we've just got some major clearing out to do and the grass needs to grow in. It has been rather neglected for some time, apparently. But it's starting to green-up now that spring is approaching, and it makes me so happy!

I'm taking it tree by tree (they all need pruning) and leaf bag by leaf bag. Those yellow claw things are my saving grace. Using them is like having huge hands, perfect for bagging leaves and weeds!

You can catch a glimpse of our new pool safety fence in this shot. The great thing about Texas is, just when you're in the mood for Spring to start, it does. And just when you think it would be fun to start swimming, it starts getting hot. And right about the time you're sick of being hot, it starts to cool off and the leaves begin to change. No season is too long, and they all make an appearance! I think North Texas and I were made for each other.

Audrey and Miles built a "house" for their water balloons while Parker was at baseball practice tonight. I know all kids do it to some extent, but I think it's so funny how they want to personify everything. Even water balloons are "cute" to these guys.

Grateful Sunday

Boys at the museum with their block creations. We went on Friday, but this photo is from an earlier trip.

Today has been lovely. Primary went swimmingly, there are yummy brownies in the kitchen, the sun is shining, and Neal got to take a nap in the hammock. Life is awfully good to us. Today, I'm grateful for:

• great friends. We talked some of them into playing Trivial Pursuit last night. Good times.
• our yard, which looks way better now that we've been able to put some hours into it. It makes me excited for next Saturday, when we plan to tackle the back yard and start planting the garden.
• my knowledge that my Savior, Jesus Christ, knows and loves me, despite my shortcomings, and that He willingly took my sins and pains upon Himself all those years ago. Also, we've been talking about prophets in Primary, and I feel so blessed to know that we have now and always will have a prophet on the Earth who communicates with God.

Have a great week everyone! It's Spring Break around here. We have some fun planned . . .

Family Room

Now that I have my fabulous bookshelves, I feel like my family/living room is finally decorated! We have some minor plans to change a few things, maybe add a bit more seating or a small desk (or, if you ask Neal, a large aquarium). But for now, I'm pleased as punch with how it looks. Here are the horrid before shots:



And after.





I had a friend from church build the bookshelves. I knew the design/size I wanted, but was unsure about the color. I posted a bunch of paint chips to the wall (familiar task), and finally pretty much just grabbed one and handed it to him. I love how it turned out, the shelves are exactly what I had pictured!

I don't want them to be teenagers.

Because right now, they're so easy to please. An afternoon at the park never gets old. We've already been thrice this week. They'd rather do this than cruise around a mall with their friends, watch after school TV shows or stare at the computer. And when we got home, all three of them went straight out to the trampoline.




Growing up is overrated.

Grateful Sunday

Us at the BYU vs. TCU basketball game last night. We had so much fun!

This has been a nice week. The weather warmed up and everyone is healthy. No complaints here! Today, I'm grateful for:

• peace in my home. I'm grateful that my kids can feel safe and loved here.
• gentle reminders at church today of what I need to do better. Lots.
• our new pool fence, which was installed yesterday. I feel much better about that pool sitting there now that it's protected from accidental falls.
• Neal's dad and Gail's decision to buy a home in this area. They close soon and we couldn't be more excited to have them close by. They'll be about an hour away. Yay!

sixty-seven degrees

I needed about 5 more degrees to be completely comfortable at the park today, but we take what we can get. This guy had a ball with about 15 of his closest friends.

What's Up With Audrey?

Audrey is growing up so, so fast, we are having a bit of a hard time believing that she will be nine in just a couple of weeks! She is busy as always, and if she isn't, she makes herself so. Some of the things she's been up to lately:

• Audrey loves Twiggy, her bird. I would say "our bird" but Twiggy and Audrey both know that Twiggy is really only for her. Ever since Twiggy's little wifey bird passed away in January, he has been even more attached to Audrey. She put his cage in her room and has him on her shoulder about 75% of the time she's at home. He's a funny little bird, has lots of personality, and adores his Audrey!
• Audrey is in her 3rd year of piano lessons and plays about as well as I did after, oh, I don't know, eight years of lessons! She really improves every week, it's a pleasure to watch her learn!
• Her favorite book series of late is The Chronicles of Ancient Darkness series, a fantasy/historical/adventure series about animals and spirits and things like that. She even reads it at lunchtime.
  
  
• Audrey is working toward her Faith in God award at church, thanks mostly to her fabulous Activity Days leaders. She is attentive and reverent in Primary (I love being in there; I can check up on all three of my kids!), and we're so proud of her growing faith.
• Audrey recently took an oil painting class (need to post her painting!). She had so much fun, and really wants to go to the oil painting day camp being offered over Spring Break.
• I spoke to Audrey's horseback riding instructor today, she will be resuming weekly lessons after daylight savings time begins in a couple of weeks! She is thrilled.
• Audrey loves to send texts and emails to her Pa. She'll sneak away with my Blackberry and before I know it, she has sent him a long, detailed email about whatever is going on with her that day. It's really sweet.

We love our Audrey girl, she is precious and such a blessing in our family!