One Sunday Afternoon

I love Sundays.  Not only do I get a spiritual refresh, but I love spending time away from the world and just with my family.

On this Sunday the weather was beautiful so we spent it out in our backyard.

Brandt pushed this truck all over the grass...  

...and helped his Dad pull weeds.

Caleb played bocce with Grandpa.

Adam and Dallin played with water guns.

And Grandma sat and enjoyed it all.

What did I do?  Baked cookies and took pictures.  

It was simple and lovely, just like Sunday afternoons should be, though I wouldn't mind if I could sneak an occasional nap in there.

Welcome to the Neighborhood

We got some new neighbors last week.
The day after they moved in our neighbor was out in his backyard by the pool.  He was busy trying to figure out the pool pump when he suddenly felt a spray of water.
"Oh no!" he thought, "I have a leak!"
 He looked frantically around, searching for the source of the spray.  That's when he noticed it was arcing over the fence from the yard next door.  Yep.  Our yard.  Dallin had heard the neighbor in his yard so he got out his squirt gun and, though he couldn't see him, made a lucky shot over the cinder block.  The neighbor shouted his promise to buy himself a Super Soaker for the future.  Dallin just laughed.

We took over a peace offering/welcome gesture (cheesecake brownies) later that night.  Our new neighbor is a good sport, though he did repeat his promise about the Super Soaker.

It's Great to Be Eight

This boy was born eight years ago.  Wow, I can hardly believe that much time has past since I held my first newborn baby, exhausted and as happy as I had ever been.  Look at how much he has grown.  I love Caleb so much.  He is such a great example to everyone.  He is thoughtful and has a warm heart.  He tries to do the right thing and wants to.  He's smart and very logical like his dad.  In fact, he keeps me in line a lot, which I appreciate.  He is very helpful.  Because of this, and the fact that he is the oldest, I ask him to help me a lot.  And he always does.  He's creative - he's always coming up with stories or what-if scenarios, food combinations (have you tried carrot sticks dipped in vanilla pudding?), and he's really good at art.  His brothers always want to be around him because he's fun to be with.  I love you, Caleb.

P.S.  I made my first fondant for Caleb's cake, which, while not perfect by any stretch of the imagination, I'm very pleased about (the possibilities are endless)!  And I got the idea for the freezer-paper transfer for Caleb's shirt here (along with some other great ideas for Caleb's Lego birthday party coming up next week).

April Fools 2010

Okay, so I need to find a new prank.  I planned to do something different this year (click here for last year's prank), but I just couldn't resist making this meatloaf cake with mashed potato frosting.  

My kids weren't fooled.  Except for Adam.  He was fun to watch.  ("Hey!  This isn't cake!")

I almost had Caleb and Dallin with this impostor made from chocolate rice crispy treats.  

At least there were no tears.  All I can say is they'd better watch out for next year.  Who knows what I'll have up my sleeve.  Whatever it is, it won't be meatloaf.  You can count on that.

P.S.  Although I failed to fool my children, I really got Austin when he went to pack his lunch the next morning.  He had not been there for dinner so he was very confused.  

Austin's Wedding

Austin moved in with us at the end of December, got engaged on Valentine's Day, and is now married.  He doesn't mess around.  Here are some pics from the happy day.

We're very happy for Austin and his bride, Heidi.  Congratulations, guys!

This is Austin's family.  We got to have them stay with us for a couple of days.

There was a chocolate fountain at the reception.  My boys had never seen one before so you can imagine what they thought of it.  These pictures say it all.  Look at the expressions on Adam's face.

Sales-Pitch Susceptible

The vacuum cleaner salesmen paid a little visit to our house.  (Don't ask).  The boys, while in and out, stopped and watched the man demonstrate the vacuum suction power and were impressed by the amount of dust sucked out of our carpet/lampshade/couch/mattress (as were Mitch and me, if you want to know the truth.  Have you seen those things?!).  But, unfortunately for the salesmen, the price tag was too high and they left empty-handed.

A few days later I was driving somewhere with the kids.  From the backseat, Dallin asked, "What if there was this guy...and he had all the money in the world...and he bought one of those vacuums?
After a pause, Adam said, "Wasn't that vacuum shiny?"

Disappearing Clutter

For those of you who don't believe in magic, you're wrong.
I'm talking about everyday magic.  Like clutter that disappears all on its own.  The mischief in this magic is that, of course, it doesn't really disappear.  It just seems to.  For example, Mitch pointed out that there is an unpacked box to the left of the homework table.  But I hadn't notice it.

The thing is, I remembered the box, but it became invisible, oh, about two months ago.  Like it got it's own disappearing cloak to make it blend into the background.  And I've been ignoring it ever since.
In order to break this spell you must walk determinedly, and with confidence, about the house with "seeing eyes."  Which is what I did after Mitch pointed out the homework-table box.  I found that there were other bags/boxes/stashes of clutter that I had been seeing through for quite some time - all made visible again.  Now where's my dust mop?