I'm excited about our garden. We've got peas, carrots, cucumbers (for pickles), corn, tomatoes, and various peppers. We're giving a small garden a try this year and will expand next year to another bed or two.

We let the kids water the garden and they enjoy it. Weeding is a little beyond them right now (luckily there is not much weeding needed yet) as they can't tell a good plant from a weed. We've lost some bleeding heart flowers out front to the helpfulness of the kids while we were weeding. Though we've lost even more flowers out front just because the naughty little kids like to pick them. (by naughty kids, Aaron means just Noah!) The fact that they pick them for their mother usually keeps them out of trouble though. (I'm pretty sure they weren't picked for me...and he did get in trouble...lol!!)

Noah found a stick on a walk a few Sunday's ago and got all excited about an idea of what to do with it. I have this box of electronics junk out in the garage, led's, little motors, capacitors, and so forth, that he loves to play with. His idea for his stick was to put a button on it that would allow him to run super fast. He was very insistent that it must say speed. He was so excited to build it I started on it right away. I'd ask him if it looked like it was going well, and he'd say it was as he
tried not to wiggle out of his chair. He was so anxious to try it he could hardly contain himself. When it was done I handed it to him and he flipped the switch and the light when right out of his little face and he looked up at me with utter disappointment. It didn't work.

It just about broke my heart. I let him watch me use the speed stick a few times acting crazy enough to get him laughing and excited again. He got the idea and speed around the house for the rest of the day. Though I had to tune it now and again because sometimes it was just too fast.

Happy Mothers Day Sarah,

Thanks for being such a great Wife and Mother. I love you and appreciate all you do. The kids do to and will realize it some day.

I tried to document a few minutes in the life of a mother today (with a photo) as I stayed home with sick kids (coughs and gallons of snot). It ended up being just Noah and Joshua in the picture, as Arwen was feeling well enough to go to church, and Larkin was taking a nap. So multiply the wildness by a few more kids. Though to be realistic adding kids probably increases wildness exponentially not additively.

So go figure Noah does spend more time off of the time out chair than on it.

Love,

Aaron

Happy 8th Anniversary, Aaron.
I love you the most!

Happy Springtime!  

I have been working on potty training Joshua for the last month. Don't ask how he's doing...let's just say that he'll hopefully be a pro by the time his birthday rolls around.

 Joshua just told me he had to go pee pee so I told him to go and sit on his potty chair. He then went and played trains instead. I walked in to check on him and saw that he peed his pants. I pulled off his wet clothes and noticed he was wearing his Thomas the Train underpants...his FAVORITES!! I told him it makes Thomas sad when he pee pees on him. He told me, "Uh, I think Thomas pee peed on me." When I brought him a dry pair of Thomas unders he pointed to them and said, "Thomas, don't pee on me and I won't poo poo on you." Fair enough, I guess.

Do you see these eyes? Notice anything different about them?? Look closer...these are my very own, real eyes seeing everything without the aid of glasses or contacts! Amazing!! I got Lasik done a month ago and have been seeing clearly ever since! It was the neatest experience ever! It took under 3 minutes and I was able to see fine right afterwards. By the next day, I was seeing 20/20 all on my own. Cool, huh?

Woo hoo for sunny weather! We made full use of the awesome weather this weekend and ventured off to the coast to get some ice cream, cheese, and agates! We had a blast...like always!
We took a little detour and went up a road that leads to University Falls. We didn't actually see any falls, but it was a pretty drive. Here's Aaron precariously crossing a downed tree. It was a pretty far drop...

The kids had lots of fun playing in the sand and rocks. Arwen and Noah liked to climb the really big rocks and scream at us to look at them.
Here is how Larkin occupied her time...she dipped a small stone in a lovely puddle of salt water and then licked the salt water off. Yummy!
I love the green of the moss on the rock walls at the coast. Funny how it's pretty here, but I hate the moss that grows on my roof!

We had lots of fun, found lots of agates, ate cheese and ice cream, and really enjoyed being together!!

This is the closet thing we could get to a decent family shot. It's way too hard when you have to set the camera on the tri-pod and then use the timer and have Aaron jump in at the last minute while grabbing Larkin!!
I just love the color of Noe's eyes in this picture!
Here's the one and only kid picture that Larkin is not trying to run away in! Yea!!

Yea! Spring has finally sprung here in Portland...well for a few days anyway! We enjoyed beautiful, warm weather while watching General Conference this weekend. We went up to Jenkin's Estate and took a few pictures in Easter attire between sessions on Sunday. It was so much fun to be outside!! The kids love it...and so do I!! (Well...I don't like them running in and out ALL day and getting so dirty...but it's worth it to have happy kids!!) Here are a few of my favorite pictures.

Okay. Let me just say that Larkin was a complete PILL when it came to smiling for the camera. Who am I kidding...she was a PILL when it came to staying where we put her! She wandered away in every single picture...she'll probably look at these in ten years and be convinced that we hated her because there are no pictures of her with the other kids!

I really wanted a picture with both my girls...but refer to caption under the previous picture!!

Here are my beautiful boys!

What a sweet big sister.

I love this picture of Arwen. She sure is a princess!

I have three more...but they are too big right now. When I get them resized, I will post them.