The Best Day In Quite A While

I grew up on a farm where gardening was just a part of life. I learned to plant, weed and harvest. I think I gave my parents grief for most of those years, but I did always enjoy going to the garden while out playing and pulling out a huge carrot, or picking a bunch of sugar snap peas with the delicious pod, to eat. Then my family moved to Houston, and though I eventually loved being there, I always missed our garden and freedom to roam. I think that might be why, when we returned to the same farm and house before my Junior year of high school, I fell in love with gardening. I can't remember how soon after moving back, but I took it upon myself to keep the flower garden around our house looking nice, and though we didn't do a garden in our yard anymore, I loved helping in my Grandpa's garden on the same farm. I'm sure my parents wish I was that enthusiastic several years earlier! Pulling weeds is now one of my favorite things to do. If it hadn't have been for my parents making me help with the garden all those years, and then tasting the delicious results later, I wouldn't be confident about doing one now, and probably wouldn't care to either. Thank you Mom and Dad for teaching me the importance of hard work, the joys of gardening, and to really love God's creations!
Anyway, sorry I'm being so nostalgic! This weekend just brought back so many memories. We are blessed to have Scott's older sister, her husband, and 5 kids living only ten minutes away now, and they offered to let us do a garden together with them. Needless to say I was SO excited and started planning everything involving it immediately. This last Saturday we started early and got our garden all ready and planted with the things that can handle frost. I loved being outside in the sun, at a house surrounded by open spaces, birds chirping, and no public parks as we gardened. Thank you Rick and Heidi!
I took pictures, but I don't want to show them until I have a during and after shot as well, so that'll be another post later. Though you can get a glimpse in the background of one of these pictures.
David had a blast and actually got down into the dirt with mini trucks and LOVED it. I loved seeing that. He also went to a puddle under a water spickett and got all wet, and went back to the dirt and I didn't try to stop him. The poor boy has spent too much time in places where there isn't the option of getting really dirty. Anyway, here are some pictures from later in the afternoon/evening when we were all done.

By now the dirt that had caked on David's pants and shoes after getting wet had dried and fallen off.

When I first stood Sydney in the grass she did not like it at all! She picked one leg up as high as she could and refused to take a step no matter how far forward I leaned her. It was SO cute. She'd spin her little toes around as she held it up.

After about 10 minutes though she let me walk around with her.

Scott being silly with Sydney and my nephew Justin's air soft gun.

Saying Goodbye...Again

As I have mentioned in a previous post about our friends the Howard's, we say goodbye to people often here. One of the not so fun aspects of living in a college town. This last week my best friend Kelly moved away. I feel a real sense of loss, and I'm not sure it's even quite hit me yet. We have spent the last 2 years and 3 months speed walking together almost every day(only missing if someone was really sick, or Fridays during the winters when community hour isn't available at the indoor track), and having our social hour at the same time and after while the boys played on the playground. I do feel so blessed though that we were able to be friends and workout partners for so long. It really helped having her there to make me really want to go every single day. We had so much fun! Even when we were pregnant with our second we walked, slowing down gradually together as we were only 3 days apart in our due dates, and as soon as the six weeks post partum was near we started up again. Despite moving to Rexburg, a place I couldn't believe I was moving to, I really have loved it a lot more than I thought I would, and a large part of that is because of Kelly. Thank you so much!

Here is a look at us and our kids through the last couple years.

May 16, 2007 David with Tanner and Kaylee(she and her Mom were also our walking buddies from Feb '07 to about July '07)
May 20, 2007
May 24, 2007 Hanging out with Kelly and Tanner after a walk.

September 20, 2007 Tanner giving David a hug. They weren't quite crawling yet!

September 23, 2007

November 6, 2007

February 11, 2008 Playing on campus after our indoor walk. Look at the difference 3 months makes?

March 7, 2008 Hanging out on a Friday when we couldn't walk.

April 4, 2008 Playing on the tennis courts cause we were still nervous about letting them climb on the toys. It wasn't long though before they were trying it out.

May 3, 2008 Kelly and I with our friend Tiffany at my baby shower.

Kelly had me take pictures of her with her belly. That was so fun!
July Then I took pictures of her new son at a month old.
July 12, 2008 Enjoying the beautiful summer every day on our walks...

July 18, 2008 Our babies at the ward campout

August 7, 2008 Taking pictures of the whole family...


August 21, 2008 Our families hanging out outside her apartment with some other friends as well.

September 11, 2008 The boys playing around after Kelly took pictures of our family.
November 25, 2008 The last of the warm(enough) days.

January 23, 2009 Hanging out once again on a Friday. I'm not a big TV fan, but they were watching Baby Einstiens and I thought it was cute.

March 18, 2009 The first warm day("warm" meaning lower-mid 40's-that's warm after the Rexburg winters) where we decided to walk on the outdoor track rather than the indoor one.

April 18, 2009 Our last day with our friends. David already misses Tanner so much!

Kelly and I. It's a really bad picture of me but that's ok!

I miss you Kelly but hope you're having a great time!

Bath Time

Ken and Misty's Wedding

Over Easter weekend Scott was able to go to Texas for his brother's wedding. From what I have heard and seen in pictures, it was a beautiful wedding. We are so happy for Ken and Misty. Last summer Scott and I were able to meet Misty at his family reunion and are so happy to have her as a part of the family now. Congratulations!

Scott taking a picture of himself in the window reflection of where the family stayed on Lake Conroe(?).The beautiful ceremony setting.

Scott with his little brother Russ. I think this was before the wedding when they were helping get ready.
The ceremony.

Scott's Dad with Ken's son.

I'm not sure this is in the right order but oh well! They did a thing where the parents of the bride and also the groom took little candles and lit a bigger one.
Everyone from Scott's family who was able to go.

Cutting the cake!
Dancing...

My brother and sister-in-law at the reception.

Scott and our brother-in-law Rick having some fun.

Scott with his parents and all of his siblings.

Even though it was a very short trip Scott had a great time with his family and we look forward to seeing them again. Thank you Scott and Hilary for the pictures!

Older and Cuter

Sydney turned 10 months old on the 8th. I actually missed it because I wasn't keeping track of the date, but I won't be to concerned about it unless I miss her real birthday. =)

So my little girl is incredibly cute.

She's:

- started loving walking around holding our fingers

-doing great with little chunks of food(she had a bad gag reflex for a while)

-started giggling and giggling with David after we put them both to bed(which is very cute to listen to, but also a little frustrating)

-doing many more different sounds then just "mama" or "dada" which I will not attempt to try to figure out.

-crawling very very fast

-looking at books on her own

-clapping every time I say "yay Sydney!" or "good job!"

-imitating me if I look at her and do something specific (example in below video)

I know this is random but I'm just so excited about it. I went to the DI for the first time shopping for Sydney and I found such cute things! Some of them are really nice and hardly worn. The most expensive thing was the old navy jean skirt for $5 and it's practically brand new. I got 7 dresses, a skirt, pair of jeans, a top, and a pair of sandals for $27! Love it! I know the picture doesn't show the details very good but they are so cute.

Sydney imitating my sheep sound. I was being really quiet because David was napping.

Easter

I love this time of year. And I love Easter. On Saturday we have fun doing Easter Egg hunts and things, and then on Sunday we can focus totally on our Savior. Scott was gone from Friday morning to Sunday evening, but the kids and I were still able to have a good time.

David and his friend did the city's Easter Egg Hunt together and had a good time. David was very happy about getting the eggs and immediately opening them to eat the candy inside. We actually tried the one at the theater a half hour before where they said no bags or baskets allowed, just what you could put in your shirt or pockets, but we got there 3 minutes after and their age group was already done. Anyway, that's why we ended up using a detachable pocket from our single stroller, and his friend used a baseball mitt. Sydney and her friend soaking up the sun. It was a beautiful day!After that I took the kids home and David and I made these really cool bird's nests with eggs. I found this in the Special Occasion section of a craft book for kids. It's crushed frosted mini wheat's mixed in melted chocolate and then formed in a muffin pan(on foil). Then you just add the candy eggs and peeps too if you want! David LOVED this. Funny Story:

This week was our turn to teach Gospel Doctrine in church and since Scott was gone I'd be doing it by myself. I got some friends in class to hold Sydney and entertain her, but during the opening prayer I heard David crying in the back of the class. I guess the Nursery sub saw that I was teaching and started leaving, but I asked someone to chase her down to tell her that I could hold him if I needed to(apparently he'd been crying for 20 min. cause he didn't know any of the subs). So there I am teaching with a 2 yr old on my hip. After a while he'd get down to sit at the piano(which is electric and can be turned off thankfully) but then he'd want up again. It definitely kept me on my toes and the class seemed torn between amusement and feeling sorry for me, but it really was OK. I'm used to multi tasking!

Some people in our ward asked us over for Easter dinner which was great seeing as how Scott had just barely gotten back. Thank you!

We had wanted to dye eggs with David but never got to it so we did it this morning. A little late, but still very fun! We especially loved shrinking the plastic covers over them with the blow dryer. So cool! =D

And yes, David's favorite color seems to be pink!