Out in the Garden with Grandma

Lainey loves to be outside and she loves to be with her Grandma. Grandma stopped to pull a few weeds and Lainey joined in.

And if you don't see Grandma with Lainey in her arms, you're sure to see her faithful dog following, ever so slowly, behind.

Desk: Cupboard Doors

I love how Jason's turn out. They're so fun to see them come together. We now have the doors on. Yay! I love the storage and the workspace. He'll be working on the drawers next.

Soup Hair Treatment

Lainey decided to try a new hair treatment: potato soup.

The results were very disappointing.
It does nothing but ensure the taking of a bath.

Desk Unveil

We have the desk in. I LOVE it! I have so much room on the desk top and in the cupboards. We still have to put the doors on and make the drawers, but this is the beginnings of my lovely new desk.

"Can I have the brass plates?"

For Family Home Evening we decided to act out scripture stories from the Bible and The Book of Mormon. It turned out to be a lot of fun and one of our best family nights so far.

Emma is playing Lazy Laban. Claire is the dog. Ben and Paul are playing the part of Nephi and his brothers trying to get the brass plates. Yes, those bright colored plates by Emma are the brass plates.

jungle gym

Maybe we shouldn't put the desk together at all.
Lainey sure likes using it as her personal jungle gym.

It's Spray Time!

We're spraying the pieces of the desk!

tiny, dirty feet

Lainey was leaving pink and blue footprints everywhere.
They've been playing with the sidewalk chalk.

Driving Lessons

Lainey loves to stand in the driver's seat. We don't often let any of the kids play in the front seat. Her Uncle Travis watched her play for a few minutes in his truck.

Star Wars Discovered

My kids have discovered Star Wars.

Enough said.

Paul and Ben crossing sabers with our neighbor Jackson.

Benjamin executed a very dramatic death.

"To the death!"

Out in the Berry Patch

A sister in our ward was kind enough to let us come out to her garden and pick raspberries. It was a lot of fun to hear the kids talk excitedly with each other as they picked and ate berries. Ben held the berry bowl. Lainey got dirty. Emma and McKenna picked berries. Paul stole berries to make his bowl more full.

She said anything we could see we could take/pick. We left with some squash and some tomatoes too. Yummy! I love fresh tomatoes.

Scrap Guns

We have a lot of scraps since we're in building mode again. Paul started fitting them together and making guns. Jason even took the time to glue them together and create sights. Paul LOVES his new gun. He sleeps with it under his pillow. Good training? Who knows...

bird house

How to carry a handbag

Here's another one of Lainey's How To's.

Fill the bag

Put the bag on your shoulder;

For best results,
Lift Arm

I love how little kids put their arm up when carrying a handbag on their shoulder.
That's simply the only way to do it.

Here's another mad face shot.
She stole Claire's bag and didn't want us taking it away.

Finished Faces

Here's progress on the office cabinets and drawers. The faces are on! He's working on the doors now and we're getting closer to painting time.

Sweeping Up!

Lainey is not content to be left out of all the action. She is now old enough to want to be involved with EVERYTHING that goes on around her. No more sitting on the rug happily playing with baby toys for her. Today, sweeping was one of those things she just HAD to do. We were trying to clean up a little of the saw dust from Jason's current project.

"I need some lipstick"

My chapstick/lipstick has remained safe for quite a while in a zippered pocket in my bag...until recently that is. Ben and Claire now know where I keep them and are constantly asking for some. Here's Ben's application technique.

A Handful of Breakfast

Lainey has discovered climbing...and there's no holding her back. If I don't strap her into her seat, she ends up on the table. This morning she was trying to be helpful by getting everyone's breakfast.

Reaching In

Some for Everyone

Her signature mad face
I thought this was one of her best.

Happy Real Birthday!

Benjamin and Claire got to start their day off with the fun cereal they picked out. Lucky Charms it was. It was cute at the store when I was helping them choose. They started fighting over the box of Lucky Charms. They didn't realize that there were more right behind me on the shelf. I produced another box and they were happy.

It was pretty low key today as far as celebrations go. Grandma E and Aunt Lara dropped off their gifts and we sang Happy Birthday before Jason left for work. Ben and Claire were so excited to play with their police station and Dora set. Of course, the remote control dump truck was also a HUGE hit as was the Pop the Pig game. I had THE hardest time getting them to go to bed. Emma said, "I'm glad Grandma and Grandpa buy presents." Aren't we all.

Make a Wish

We celebrated Ben and Claire's birthday today since Jason has to work tomorrow night. My sister Shelly helped prepare a delicious meal of chicken and vegetables (delish!) and we had them blow out their candles. Grandma Z's birthday is the day after Ben and Claire's so we sang to her too.

I don't know why Grandma doesn't have her own cupcake.
Something about 65 candles not fitting...

Emma had this great idea for making swirly cupcakes.
You put a drop of food coloring in and use a toothpick to swirl it around.

Cousin Trenton giving Claire a piggyback ride.

Making Minion Cupcakes

Benjamin and Claire are turning four. Hooray! Ben's request was minion cupcakes like on Despicable Me. My sister-in-law made them during the summer and Ben wanted his chance. You take twinkies, cut them in half, and use them as the head. You then use smarties and black frosting to make the goggles, eyes, hair and whatever else. We have made quite a few friends here in our new neighborhood and decided it would be fun to have them come decorate cupcakes with us.

Here's the minion making group.

Here's our minion.
He looks kinda like he got a bloody nose.

Lainey got a hold of one of the twinkies while it was still wrapped, but that didn't stop her. She popped the package and sucked out the mushed twinkie.

After cupcakes, we played some games
Red light, green light; Ben/Claire Says, and Duck, Duck, Goose

Ben and Claire received a giant, inflatable bowling set.
Very fun for the kids :: Very hard to keep the pins standing.

Playing in the back of the truck: the kids' contribution

We brought home some MDF sheets to use in the building of our office desk, cupboards, etc. The kids had a blast playing in the back of the truck. Everyone contributes to the project in their own way.

Baby in the Drawer

I told you how Lainey likes to get into the kitchen drawers...

Well, this is what startled me when I went to get a hand towel today.

We're building again

We are finally getting around to building an organization unit for the office. I'm so excited! I can hardly wait. All of our stuff has just been on the ground up until now. I'm anticipating having places for everything and no clutter. We're using Ana White's plans for something similar to this.

Pit Stop

On the way back from the bus stop we saw this mighty machine at work two lots down from us. Ben just plopped down on the sidewalk to watch. Mighty machines are pretty awesome.

Funny story from this morning getting the kids ready:
Paul was complaining of a hurt stomach, but I wasn't sure if he was really sick or just really hungry. He laid on the couch and I tried to get him to eat different things. Time was getting closer to when we needed to head out the door. Paul asks me, "Can I watch Star Wars?" I responded, "No, Paul. If you are sick, you will lay in your bed and nap." He didn't like that very well. Apparently he thought he could stay home and watch star wars instead of go to school.

So with five minutes before we needed to leave, I raced him upstairs and got him dressed for school with him crying all the while, "I want to watch Star Wars!" Thank Heavens for Velcro. He was even crying as we walked out to the bus stop. I reassured him that he could watch it all by himself when he got back from school. Ha!

Stuck in the Sprinkler

Lainey was having SO much fun getting wet in the sprinklers with the big kids...until she got caught in one.