Where the green grass grows

So, before I get into the sod part of this post, I just wanted to say that I took Kayla in for her 6 month appointment this morning (although, she will be 7 months on Friday) and she is a whopping 12lbs 9 oz. She's in the 5th percentile for weight and 15th for height. And her 3-6 month clothes are starting to fit her better. I don't know how she stays so tiny. She is a very hearty eater! I've been making baby food in ice cube trays and she will eat 3-4 ice cubes of sweet potatoes or whatever, mixed with rice cereal AND a large bowl of applesauce or pears (like as much applesauce as I would dish up for myself, and today it was a whole pear pureed) for lunch and dinner. Plus,a large bowl of cereal for breakfast and nursing just as much as before she started eating solids. Just like Lily was, I guess. They will be grateful for that metabolism later in life. :) Kayla is rolling all over the floor and is always smiling and happy. What a great baby!


The kids and I were out for a walk on Friday morning and when we turned the corner back onto our street, the sod was just being unloaded from the truck. We were all very excited!! That's a lot of grass. Some of it was actually for our neighbor to do his section by his driveway.

Here are Nathan and Lily, excited to get grass in the backyard. When Nathan went to bed on Friday night, he put his clothes on and then his pajamas on top because he didn't want to miss laying sod. He wanted to be all ready in the morning so he could just take off his pj's and be ready to go! (On Saturday night as he was getting ready for bed, he informed us that it wasn't very comfortable to wear his clothes under his pajamas).

Bryson and I did the the other side of our driveway on Friday night. Bryson spent so much time preparing for sod that you'd think it was going to be a golf course! He did a great job! Here's a before picture . . .



After . . . (it was dark by the time we were done).


Nathan came rushing into our bedroom on Saturday morning at 6am ready to go! So, we were out bright and early doing last minute preparations on the yard. We had lots of help from many of our neighbors and friends in laying the sod. This is the side yard inside the fence. Before. . .

After. . .



The main part of the backyard. Before. . .

After . . .

Another view of the main part of the backyard. Before. . .

After . . .

These kids were anxious to start running through the sprinklers when it was all done! I don't think we will ever put our own yard in again! There're still a few more projects to get the backyard looking complete. We are going to start on those next!

Life goes on. . .

Well, it hasn't been a month yet and I am getting around to updating my blog! This is an improvement. Our biggest news is that the sod is ordered and it is coming TOMORROW! Yea! I just hope the weather cooperates. We have all Memorial Day weekend to get it in. Bryson has the yard prepared beyond perfection (although he wouldn't say that). He's been working so hard on it every night. This yard is going to be nicer than a golf course!

Kayla is so close to sitting up on her own. I can't believe how fast she is growing up! She rolls around all over the room and is the happiest little baby! Her smiles keep me sane during the day when all I hear is crying and whining. :)



Mr. Popeye, here, likes to eat spinach. He doesn't look all that thrilled about it, but trust me, he prefers it over any other vegetable AND he refused apples the other day and said he'd rather eat spinach. He's not even dipping it in Ranch! I will never say no to spinach! I told him that it would make him strong. Now everytime he eats it he asks me if it will make him as strong as Superman. :) Totally.


Taking time to smell the tulips. . .

That not the buzzing of a bee. . . it's Buzz!

Nathan was so excited to go on the Fathers and Sons campout last weekend. He has been talking about it for months! If we had anything else we were planning, he would ask if that was going to happen before of after he goes camping. The van is pretty loaded down. Not just for Bryson and Nathan for a quick overnight campout, but the Elders Quorum was in charge of making breakfast, so most of the stuff is coolers, food and campstoves.

Bryson and Nathan had a great time! Nathan's favorite part was roasting marshmallows.

I love angel food cake. So, I made one the other night and baked it in two bread pans. I guess I should have used three. . . An even better picture (you'll have to imagine this one) was of my oven the next day when I preheated it, forgetting that I hadn't cleaned it out yet, and all of the sudden when I looked over at it, huge flames were erupting from the bottom. Thank goodness for baking soda kept nearby and for the sheet my mom gave me for Christmas that goes on the bottom of the oven to make for easy cleaning. I wish I could say that's the first time that happened, but Nathan always reminds me of how the oven started on fire when I was baking apples pies at Thanksgiving. You have to know that I can't smell, because of allergies, and so the flames are my only cue as to what is happening in there!!

Well, this was our last week of our little group preschool. It was my week to teach and I have to say that it was quite the experience! These kids have energy like no other! They all look so sweet sitting nice and quiet on the blanket, but can you see the cookies in their hands. That's the key. We had a little cookie party for the end of preschool. It was a great group of moms and kids. Thanks everyone!

A busy month

So, I've taken the kids on a couple trips, lately, one down to Utah to stay with Jana while Brad was in China, and another to Walla Walla for my sister, Rachel's wedding. Bryson came up a few days later with Jana and Brad. My pictures are all kind of mixed up, so sorry about that, but there are a lot of them and this has started to take way too long. I know I should break them up, but it might be another month or so before I update my blog, so I tried to get as many up as I could. )

Lily has a new fascination with princesses. It is very cute. Aunt Christy gave her this crown. Any girl in a dress is a princess to her. When we were in Walla Walla, my sister, Lori, was going to a prom. She and a couple friends were in their dresses and Lily thought they were all princesses.

This is in Salt Lake. Aunt Ashley is teaching Lily some of her cheerleading moves at Grandma Tate's house. We got to see Grammy, Daylen & Ashley, Brad & Keriann and lots of other family that weekend we were down there, which was a lot of fun.

Here's Brad with Kayla. I had a great picture of Daylen and Brad unlocking my van door with a coat hanger through the window because I locked my keys in the car, but I didn't get that posted. I was very impressed when they had my van unlocked in less than 10 minutes!

Kayla discovered straws and loves to suck on my water bottle. Oh, and I chopped my hair off. It was all the way down my back. This is a fun change. (this is in between the two trips when we were back home for a couple days)

Someone was feeling a little camera shy.

Nathan had fun at Grandma's house (Walla Walla, now) playing with the little people farm. All the animals are huddled around the campfire roasting marshmallows and making smores.

Nathan and Lily had a great time jumping on Grandma's trampoline!

Here's Kayla just chilling on her blanket in the grass while Nathan and Lily ran up and down the many hills at Grandma and Grandpa's house.

It's baaaaaack! After the humble beginnings of the lip sync to "Hold My Hand, Hold My Heart" that I started 11 years ago (now I feel old), it's back! Rachel is rehearsing with Lori, Kara, and Amanda (Tyler's very cute and helpful little sister) for their performance at the wedding reception. My dad wanted to get in on it, too. :)

Here comes the bride! It's off to the temple! Rachel and Tyler got married in the Columbia River Temple.

We stayed in the amazing Cameo Heights Mansion, where the reception was held. Nathan and Lily thoroughly enjoyed the jetted tub in the beautiful "Greek Room" where we slept!

Here they are at breakfast the day of the wedding. Hopefully, Lily will cheer up!

Here we are at the temple just waiting for the bride and groom to come out!

Here's the happy couple as they came out of the temple!

I was able to see one of my good friends from forever at Rachel's reception! It was so much fun to visit and catch up with Emily and her adorable new baby! I am excited for Jana's baby to get here next month! A girl cousin for the kids!

They don't come much cuter than this! What good-looking kids you guys are going to have!

Sisters, sisters. . . (why didn't anyone tell me my necklace was crooked for the picture?)

Home at last! Here are the girls, sitting pretty as we take a walk over to the mailbox.

Nathan got a big bike for Christmas this past year. He is getting pretty confident on it!

Lily is pretty good and zooming around on that little scooter. It works well for her since she still can't quite reach the pedals to the trike.

When we got home from our trip to Walla Walla, my tulips had finally bloomed!! It's only May for goodness sake! Our front yard does not get much sun in the winter, so that's why it's taken them so long to bloom. My mom and my neighbors planted these bulbs last fall right after I had Kayla, so wherever the tulips came up, it was a surprise to me!

I'm finding all sorts of surprises in my flowerbed. These flowers were so cute I had to take a picture of them.

We turned our sprinklers on for the first time on Saturday. Nathan and Lily had a fun time jumping through them. It was a nice day, and Nathan asked if he could put his swimsuit on. But, it wasn't THAT nice of a day. :)

Hopefully, my next post will include grass in our backyard! We are planning to lay sod on the 17th of May . . . so if anyone is in the area. . . :)

Happenings. . .

So, I know it's been awhile. Here are some recent pictures and happenings from our family. Lily was a big help in making some Easter egg sugar cookies, as you can see. She and Nathan love to roll out the dough and help with everything. : )

This is from Easter Sunday. I didn't get a good picture of all of them together, but I got some pretty good ones in groups. :)

Here is Lily, lounging around on the barstool.

Nathan and Lily love to make Kayla smile! They are so good at playing with her and keeping her happy, which is helpful for me.

Kayla is eating solid foods now! She loves the squash and pumpkin that I canned from our ward garden last summer! She is a huge eater. She's taking after her sister, Lily, eating lots of food and still so small. She's in the 15th percentile for both height and weight. She's about 11.5lbs at 5 1/2 months.

Lily loves to get all dressed up her her layers of clothes, as long as at least one of them is a dress or a skirt.

So, last summer, our big projects were a fence, a sprinkler system, and a landscaped front yard. That took the entire summer. Bryson worked so hard and did a great job on those. This summer, our priority project is getting grass in the back! I am looking forward to the day when I can send the kids out to run around on a nice green backyard!

Bryson rotatilled our backyard inbetween conference seesions on Saturday.

It's looking good! Next we have to rake and pick out the million rocks that are back there!

Nathan was a big help. He's raking the area where Bryson is going to build a sandbox.

So, there are some pictures, other big events that have happened lately, are:

• Nathan's eardrum ruptured: It was kind of crazy because we were at the doctor on a Tuesday for well checks and shots and everyone was healthy. Nathan had a fever all night and the next day from his shots. On Thursday, he was having trouble hearing. After everything I said, he said, "what?" or "huh?" That got annoying fast! So, I looked in his ear and all this yucky stuff was coming out. We went back to the doctor and he told us that his eardrum had ruptured and his other ear was beginning to get infected. Bummer. He was quite a trooper though, never in any pain and he loved taking his medicine and didn't mind the ear drops.
• Cookies for dinner? So, I have really gotten in to food storage stuff and trying to be more healthy in my cooking and baking. I had heard you can substitute white beans for butter, but had never tried it. So, I decided to do it. I used beans instead of butter, powdered eggs, half white half whole wheat flour, and quick oats. Of course we had to put lots of chocolate chips in them, but they were yummy! Nathan's reaction to them was, "Can we make these cookies everyday?" My little neighbor girls didn't believe me that there were really beans in them.
• Nathan started preschool: A friend and I started a group preschool for our kids and found lots of interest in the ward. I think we have 10 kids in it! She was very excited about it, so we decided to go ahead and start now and go for a couple months and then take a summer break and start again in the fall. Everyone is doing great and I really enjoy having some one on one time with Lily.
• Kayla is sleeping through the night! I think that's all I need to say about that. :) Well, actually, any of you who have babies, I highly recommend the Babywise book series. I have learned tons from it and it has totally made a difference in Kayla (even though she is still such a SWEET baby, I was having difficulty getting her on a good napping schedule). Anyway, it gave me some good tips that have worked great for her. I just got done reading the book by the same authors called Childwise for kids ages 3-7. I thought I could use a few tips for Nathan. I have really enjoyed that book and it has given me several good ideas.

Happy Blogging!