I love summer!

I'm too busy this summer having fun to actually type up the fun we're having for the blog. I am in heaven right now. I love having all my boys home with me and the warm weather and no schedule. Granted last summer was so horrible with the pregnancy that anything would be a step up. But I feel like it's been forever that I've been able to go have some fun with the kiddos. So we are living it up. Each day Jacob and Adam have chores and then reading, math, writing and Spanish. I've really enjoyed our little school work each day and it makes me think about alternative ways of educating my children. While I'm not sure I would home school I really understand why moms would choose to do that and it's actually very satisfying. Our Spanish work has been really successful and the boys are learning a lot and I'm trying to force myself to practicing my speaking more. Anyway after our work is done is time to play and we are having a grand time. We've been getting together with my sisters and cousins about once a week. We've been to our splash pad and then to Amy's in Spanish Fork and then we went to This is the Place Park. The pioneer lady was in my dad's BYU student ward last year so we had to take a picture with her.

Matthew would not look at the camera. A nap might have been helpful for him.

One night we taught Adam how to ride a two wheeler and it didn't really take any teaching. It was more like "here let me take those training wheels off for you" and Adam just jumped on and rode off. He was very proud of himself though and can I tell you how much I love having a flat neighborhood. Our city also has an extensive paved walking/biking trail system and we have taken advantage of that several times. Matthew and Lucas ride in the bike trailer and it's a great family activity.

For Ammon's birthday Mom, Dad, Amy, Randy, Me, Aaron and Ammon went to the Pleasant Grove Strawberry Days rodeo. I have wanted to go to this rodeo for 5 years now but I was pregnant for 3 of those years and it just never happened. David refuses to go to a rodeo. I believe his words were "I would not be caught dead at a rodeo". So last year when it was Strawberry Days and I was sick and feeling sorry for myself, mom promised me that next year we would go to the rodeo together. We had an awesome time. The first 30 minutes the wind about blew us over and then the rest of the night was freezing but we had a ball and we had strawberries and cream and we learned all sorts of rodeo stuff. The wild cow milking and barrel racing were my favorites. Oh and Randy's witty commentary and Ammon's sunflower seeds.

Jacob and Adam are taking private swimming lessons and are doing so well. I'm really liking private lessons. It's worth the arm and the leg you pay. I've missed our pool pass this year but we have made it over to the PG pool a few times. One afternoon we met up with several of our friends from our old neighborhood and just had a party. It was so fun to talk with my friends again. We've found several parks out here and in Alpine that the kids are enjoying. Plus we found a duck pond that Matthew adores. We live really close to the splash pad and I take the kids up often for the hour before bedtime. It's not crowded at that time and they love it.

The only thing that is hard about summer so far is trying to get errands done with all four kids. First it seems like it takes me an hour just to get everyone ready to get in the car and then the grocery shopping takes twice as long peppered with hundreds of requests for treats and candy. My solution to that so far is to grocery shop only when absolutely necessary and stretch the pantry as far as I can. Oh well small price to pay for summer.

Last week David was in Mexico for his uncle's funeral and I was on my own for 6 days. This is the longest that David and I have been apart for our entire 9 year marriage. It was lonely but we made it through and the kids were great. I don't know how all you moms whose husbands travel do it. David brought the boys back Mexican National Team soccer uniforms. They are in heaven. Matthew has worn his 3 out of the 4 days since David gave it to him. (Yes, I wash it at night.) He brought me back a USA jersey.

In this picture below notice the difference in skin color between Matthew and Lucas. Matthew is as dark as his dad now. Next summer I think Lucas will darken up like his brothers but for now he's our pale skinned child.

The day after David got back we went to Lagoon and I don't think I took a single picture on my camera. I think they are all on David's phone. It was a long day and I was exhausted. David's plane the night before was delayed and we didn't get to bed until 1:30 am. But the boys had a blast and Jacob and Adam rode all of the big rides that they were tall enough for and we did Lagoon-a-beach too. Phew! I love roller coasters but I just needed a bit more sleep the night before.

I think this blog post is too long and it's time to stop. Next time I won't wait so long to blog about our summer adventures.

Rest of May Happenings

I've had this post in my drafts forever and now I'm finally posting it. I spent a night over at my parents helping them rip out their bathroom. The highlight of the night was getting to use the power tools until my YOUNGER brother decided I was too slow and took over. However the night long sports and politics conversation with him was very amusing. I can always count on Aaron for entertaining conversation.

Memorial Day I went breakfast with my sisters and mom (and Lucas).

I had to add this cute picture of Adam's team doing their lion roar.

Lastly some pictures of my so cute and so fat baby!

I think I have pictures of all my boys sleeping in this Johnny Jumper as babies. Lucas is such a easy going baby and so content and happy. He never fusses and when he does is easily consoled. I am so lucky! It completely makes up for the nasty pregnancy.

My garden

I always underestimate the amount of work in these projects I dream up. I wanted to put in a garden and I wanted a big one this time so I asked David for four 4' by 12' garden boxes. I had all the materials and cost figured out and even what we needed to do. I had it all figured out. I just was grossly mistaken on how long it would take to complete. Although the weather didn't help me out either. Mother's Day weekend we started by renting a sod cutter. That machine is a beast. It drug David all over the yard instead of the other way around.

After pulling out cement curbing, cutting down a tree, and hauling off almost 400 square feet of sod, we tilled the garden area in hopes of loosening the dirt enough to gradually slope the area. That's when we discovered that Highland doesn't have dirt they have rocks. Several wagon fulls of rocks later we finished for the weekend.

Next we started on the sprinklers. Sprinklers are such a pain. I've decided that all plumbing projects are my worse enemies. Plumbing seems so simple and it never turns out that way. I have no pictures of poor David digging sprinkler drenches but it involved breaking two picks and piercing several pipes with said picks. I was trying to help David out and went to the plumbing store with a very detailed list and I came home with the wrong size pvc pipe. I bought 1 inch instead of 3/4 inch and so all my fittings were wrong too. Luckily Ace hardware is only a short walk from our house and plus they have free popcorn. We still need to move some sprinklers but we finished enough to get the boxes in. David built the boxes himself out of Trex. That's the easy part. The hard part is leveling them in the ground but even that got accomplished. Next we lined the boxes with landscape mat, hauled 5 yards of compost into them, installed a drip line, and finally planted. Then we turned on the drip line to plant and we had a busted sprinkler pipe that the day before was not busted. We don't know what happened but David had to unplant, dig out the compost, dig out the dirt and fix the pipe. UGH!

So after all that in just a three week time period and with all the rain, I have a garden. We plan on putting rock in between the boxes and still have some sprinklers to move but we're really close and at least the plants are in. For my own record: I planted Spanish onions, 4 Serrano and 4 Anaheim peppers, 4 Big Bertha bell peppers, 4 sweet basils, 6 tomatillos, 6 early girl tomatoes, 6 moscow tomatoes, 4 better boy tomatoes (yes, I went overboard on the tomatoes), 3 marketmore cucumbers, 4 romaine lettuces, 4 bibb lettuces, and at my mom's house I planted 2 Howden pumpkins, 2 crimson sweet watermelons, and 1 cantaloupe. I am out of homemade salsa and spaghetti sauce and that's one reason for all the tomatoes. In the future I hope to plant a strawberry patch, and plant a peach and a pear tree. My dream would be to have raspberry and blackberry canes also but that will be next year's garden project. This year I'm done and David is soooo done! But thank you, thank you, David. I love my garden!

Adam's preschool graduation

Adam started preschool this year at Miss Melva's. It was his second year there and we love Miss Melva. When we moved to Highland I changed his preschool with much trepidation. I put him at Miss Barbara's Little Friends preschool. It turns out I shouldn't have worried. I thought Adam would be the one who would revolt against changing schools but he was awesome. He made good friends there and loved the teacher's aide Miss Megan. She taught him how to count in 4 different languages plus several other German phrases. Adam would come home and say please in German and then ask how to say please in Spanish so he could tell Miss Megan. Look at my handsome little graduate!

The kids sang their songs and each had a small speaking part and Adam did his very well. You never know if Adam is going to participate in something or if he's going to dig his heels in and refuse. But he did great and was excited to show off for mom and dad. Adam has been reading now for a few months although some weeks we are really good at reading everyday and other weeks we're more hit and miss. But Adam's real strength is math. He does Jacob's 1st grade math homework sheets with no problem. He can add, subtract, do less and greater than, count and write to 100, and do story problems. I have a summer homework schedule set up for both of the boys which includes reading, writing, math and Spanish. I'm excited about it but also realistic. It probably won't go as smoothly as I think. The boys earn points for doing their homework and chores and can redeem their points for prizes and special field trips. Here's to a fun summer!

Way to go, Adam! I am so proud of you!

Free at Last...

The last day of school for Jacob was on Friday and I am so happy to be done with the school year. It was a rough second half...mostly for me but for Jacob also. He brought home his journal that he wrote in each day and one of his entries said that this school year he lived in 3 houses and went to 3 first grades and he didn't like all the moving around. It about broke my heart. Hopefully second grade is going to go a bit smoother for both of us. His first grade class did a talent show and each child performed a talent and the class sang several songs. It was very well done.

Here's Jacob for his solo part in one of the songs

Waiting for the program to begin

After the program with his teacher Mrs. Horning.

For his talent Jacob performed 3 magic tricks. He made his foot disappear, he read someone's mind and he put a penny through the lid of a bottle. I have no pictures of his act because I video taped it and the video is too big for blogger. We thought he did fabulous and I was so glad David could make it also. David is so busy at work but he made it to the talent show and a different day to Adam's preschool graduation. I'm grateful David makes the effort to be at the boys' things. Plus it's so much to easier to have another person there to help pin Matthew to his sit. :)