Catching up...because I never seem to get around to posting...

Yeah I'm really behind. I blame it on the garden. It has sucked up all my time lately. I seem to spend every spare minute caring for it or reading to improve it or shopping for it (sorry Mike...I suppose this is where all the money is gone to.) But it is making me so happy. I have just fallen in love with gardening this year more intensely then ever before.

But, I wanted to go back and post some pictures and talk about some of the things I have missed writing about. First I do have one Easter pic to post. This is the kids in their Easter outfits (courtesy of Grammy Humphrey). She makes Kaylinn and her little cousin Ezri matching Easter dresses each year. We go and get the girls picture taken together at a professional photographer's. Then she bought a new shirt and tie for Logan. My favorite part? Kaylinn's cute dress gloves. I found them at the consignment sale and absolutely love them.


Next we went on our first camping trip this season, two weekends ago. We stayed in Green River and spent one day at Goblin Valley and one day at Arches National Park. We went with some good friends of ours. They had never been any further south than Provo and they were just amazed at Southern Utah's beauty. I cooked dutch oven dinner and then breakfast. We had some interesting weather the second day (including an amazingly powerful cloudburst complete with hail), but there were some breaks in the storm and we got to see Arches. The kids had a blast. I think the highlight for them was climbing around Goblin Valley. I was out there with my camera, just soaking it all in. So maybe the weather wasn't perfect and I forgot to pack a few fairly important things (pancakes stick pretty badly without some type of grease on the skillet). But all in all I think it was a fabulous weekend.

Easter Festivities

I should write about all the Easter things that we are doing this year. The Easter traditions in my family start with the first day of Spring. A few years ago, I decided that I wanted to be able to focus on Christ during Easter. So instead of an Easter egg hunt and the Easter Bunny coming on Easter, we shifted those activities to the first day of spring. And so we wouldn't be doing it alone, we invite our whole family to come over and search for eggs that the Easter Bunny has hidden. We also have a big brunch and a whole lot of fun. This year went really well. The early Spring weather was pretty chilly, but at least it was dry and sunny. Then on Easter we focus on Christ. We have daily devotionals, talking about his life. Typically we focus on the last week of His life. This year, however we have been learning about His visit to the Nephites after his death. We learn a song together as a family. This year we are learning "I Wonder When He Comes Again." We have a couple of special meals. The one we have every year usually we do towards the weekend where we have a leg of lamb and talk about Christ being the lamb and his sacrifice and resurrection. That one is served on my best china with candles and formal presentation. Even if they don't love the food, the kids feel so special with the formal dinner preperation. Then on Easter morning I love being able to talk about Christ's death and resurrection. We make resurrection rolls for breakfast. We can focus on the true meaning of the holiday that morning. The spirit that is in our house as we focus on learning about Christ. I always hesitate to tell people about this in that I am afraid that I am going to come across as being self-righteous. But really the reason that I share these ideas with everyone is that I want you to be able to have the same wonderful spirit in your house that we do when we study Christ intently and seek for the true meaning of Easter. If you are interested in this in your own family, a great resource is A Christ-Centered Easter.

Now this doesn't mean that we forgo all Easter Bunny related activities the week of Easter. If our friends or family are having Easter egg hunts, we are so there. In fact another tradition in my neighborhood that a few days before Easter we all get together in the small neighborhood park and a good 30-50 kids hunt eggs (plus the moms can get together to chat). We love it and have a blast. We just came from there this afternoon. The kids have been antsy all morning for it to be time to go hunt eggs. As usual it was so much fun and we came home with a good haul.

On why my house has (literally) gone to the dogs.

Okay, I love dogs. I think they are really good for me emotionally. They make me get outside and get more exercise than I normally would. I enjoy their happy and forgiving personalities. There is something totally satisfying about teaching and training them. However, I am not done (hopefully) having babies. And I have learned that babies + dogs = too much stress for Jessica. So until my youngest is in grade school and I have the time and energy to spend on a creature that takes a lot of time and energy, I am not going to get a dog. I am happy to dog-sit for anyone pretty much anytime though. It's doable in short spurts. When my friend Anne told me that she was going on vacation and they didn't know what to do with their dog, I happily offered to take her. She is a five month old puppy with lots of puppy energy. She is a really good dog though, very trainable I think. Then my mom reminded me that I had said that I would take HER dog while they went on vacation over spring break. So that makes TWO dogs that I now have for the next few days. The funniest part of this whole thing is that both dogs are named Abby. Just call the one name and they both come running. Ah, good times. On the up side they keep each other entertained and neither of them need as much attention from me. On the down side they have lots and lots of energy. I am very afraid of the well being of my garden. I hope it can survive. But look on the bright side, right? It's fun and it gives my children exposure (and hence reduces fear) of animals. It sure mixes things up and keeps things exciting around here. And I think that the beginning of next week will seem soooo peaceful and calm. That should be nice.

Busy Busy

Been too busy to blog it seems like lately, which actually translates to there are exciting things to blog about. First of all, I finally finished Kaylinn's room. It is very bright pink, but I think I like it. It is a very girly room and now has the distinction of being the only room in the house that I have decorated. Hopefully more will be to follow, but right now I have switched gears to the outside of my house.

I am not a great gardener, and I get tired of it very easily, but I am really trying to be more motivated. I want a garden I can be proud of so this year I will jump in again and try (as I do every spring). Last year was a particularly bad year. I was very neglectful of it. I have started stronger than most years and it helps that its been very popular among my friends this year (indeed the news reports that it is popular for all Americans this year). I have taken 2 garden classes this year, I have been reading books and magazines like crazy. I have been writing and taking notes, making a plan for my garden on paper. Then I have been out there more than usual this year, although the real test is to come when gardening season has been going for a while. It has been spring here. All the flowers are beginning to come out and the trees are beginning to blossom. It has been flipping back and forth between winter and spring. We have been having beautiful warm days, followed by days of snowing. I have been trying to be outside whenever possible and working. The kids have also been spending every possible minute outside. Kaylinn has decided that her activity of choice is riding scooters and trikes and such. She just constantly wants to be doing that. She's still a little awkward, but if she keeps doing it as often as she is, she will have to get better. Logan got his first sunburn of the season this week being outside and playing.

So the first thing that needed to be done was to amend my garden. My amending material of choice is horse manure. There is a fairly large horse farm just a couple of miles from my house. They rotate their manure, so you are actually getting last years poop. That is a good thing because it isn't as hot (compost literally gets hot from a chemical reaction and then can burn your plants) and also it gives seeds a chance to die so that you won't be planting weeds in the garden along with your manure. The best part is that it is free. The stable hand will charge you $5 to load it into your truck or trailer. That is about as cheep as amendment will come. My mom and I both needed loads. This year we are actually doing a plot of land that my parents own with a HUGE garden. (she just planted 4-75' rows of sugar snap peas. So we needed multiple loads for that. Then I took a load to a friend (she took Kaylinn for a long time that afternoon, so I felt good about having "paid" her for that). Six trailers full of manure and none of our menfolk could take time off work so we decided to do it ourselves. Anyhow, we did 6 loads of manure that took us about 6 hours. I felt so sore and dirty by the time we finished. I named us the manure mamas. We laughed and had such a good time all day. Plus the weather was beautiful, which always makes things more pleasant. I am so glad that I get along so well with my mom. It is awesome to be her friend!

Yesterday Mike and I dropped the kids off at his parent's house and then spent pretty much the entire day going to the Draper Temple Dedication. We actually went to the temple. We had to arrive about 2 hours early and spent quite a while waiting for our session to start. President Monson gave the dedicatory prayer and President Eyring was conducting and spoke and also Elder Christofferson was there and spoke too. We got to watch it via monitor in a sealing room. Just getting to sit in the sealing room for a good 2 hours was an amazing experience. The sun was shining through the windows, making the room sparkle. It was amazing.

We came home and Mike rototilled the garden and lashed me some poles for peas to climb up (yeah for boy scouting!) I got some seeds into the ground. I have also started some seeds inside (first time) and they are doing marvelous (okay yes I have been talking to my plants). I'm pretty excited about it.

Then our church was canceled today. Apparently they did that for everyone who is in the temple district. Instead, today, they offered 2 sessons of the temple dedication that were broadcast to our stake center. Mom took the kids to church at her ward (because they couldn't just skip church today she said) and since her church is 8:30 am this year they actually took the kids last night. Mike and I enjoyed a nice night alone and then met everyone for sacrament meeting today.

Mike seems to be pretty busy lately with work and church and school and helping me rototil. (Right now he's busy watching college basketball--hehe).

My Little Ballerina

I figured that since I had given Logan the spotlight with basketball that Kaylinn deserved some blog time as well. Today at her ballet class I went equipped with my camera. I know she's my kid and so I'm supposed to brag and everything, but she sure is the cutest thing! She begged and begged for ballet lessons as we were coming up to her 3rd birthday. Honestly I was a little nervous about the whole thing. I figured she would be so young and maybe not be able to keep up and figure it out so it would just be a waste of time. But it's pretty hard to say no to Kaylinn and she was really persistent. So 1 day before her 3rd birthday we went to the local rec center and signed her up. I asked the teacher if she thought she would be okay and the teacher reassured me that she would do just fine at this age. So we were off. She's not always on task, (although I'm not sure how much of that to blame on age and how much to blame on personality) but she sure loves it.
Yes this is a picture of her today posing for me instead of following her teacher like she was supposed to--the stinker!
She is about a head shorter than pretty much all the other dancers. She is just a petite girl. All the mom's are always telling me how cute she is and wondering if she is really old enough for the class. Right now they are working on their recital dance for the recital in June. The theme is dancing around the world and her class is doing Ireland. They have these fun green dresses. I watched them go through their whole routine today to some beautiful Irish music. It brought a smile to my face to see all those 3, 4, and 5 year olds struggle with the choreography. I loved it. One of my favorite things is that she always comes home with new ballet terms and in that sugary-sweet little voice she lists off all the French ballet terms. "Today we did bourret." "Mom, do you want to see my jette?" These are for sure the moments that you want to savor and enjoy. This is what makes being a mom such an incredible experience and so worth all the sacrifices.

Writing about Food

Okay, so I have to admit that since I have started this blog, what I have really wanted to blog about is food related stuff. So I decided to start another blog, this one totally devoted to cooking, recpies, eating and such. Anyhow I just finished my first post on my new blog so check it out. Hopefully I can send some great recipes and food ideas your way! Check out my new blog here.

Mike's first post :)

Well, Jessica said I was free to blog about stuff anytime I desired. She has been doing a good job of keeping up on the kid’s lives and stuff so here’s something a little different.

My bet is that most people probably won’t know what happened on February 20^th 2009. It started on September 13 of 1993 and after 16 years Conan O’Brien’s run on Late Night is over. During the monologue of the last show he said they have run 2725 shows of which “42 of them were quite good.” I guess 42 is pretty decent for a show running this long ;) Conan’s brand of self-depreciating and physical humor has made him my favorite late night host. He has had some excellent pieces and some of his funniest moments were during writer’s strike in 2008 when he did several shows by adlibbing and playing different situations off the cuff. This is in addition to the full beard he grew. Fear not though, Conan will be replacing Leno on the Tonight Show on June 1^st. Anywho, I thought I’d include some of my favorite clips and skits from the show. Enjoy, hopefully they aren’t too questionable. :)

Who knew, Conan is an auto buff.


Funny - video powered by Metacafe

Martha and Conan... best buds

Conan With Martha Stewart - Click here for funny video clips

Mr. Norris


Conan's favorite clip replayed on his last show.


Travels with Conan
Part 1


Part 2


If any of the above have been too questionable, you should probably avoid Triumph.
Part 1


Part 2


Well that's all for now from me... I'll post again later, if Jessica is still letting me post. :D