GRANDMA LOVE

James helped mom fix the swamp cooler.

At least he thought he helped her.

He loves his grandma more than anything.

He preferred her over me, which I was grateful for.

He was so happy the whole time we were there.

He has been so fussy lately.

I am sure it has everything to do with the upheaval of our life right now.

A partially packed home.

A partially renovate home.

All the chaos associated with it.

He just loved the peace of grandma's house.

I am certain he wishes he was back there right now.



DUCKLINGS

 

Jennifer suggested we take Emily and Audrey to the duck pond to feed the ducks.

It is one of Charlottes favorite things to do.

It did not disappoint.

The girls loved wading in the waterfall and feeding the baby ducks bits of bread.

 

GRANDMA AND GRANDPA CRAVEN's GRAVE

 Jennifer suggested for the first day of Emily's visit we go up and visit Grandpa and Grandma's grave.

We sure miss them.

We went on a walk with these five.

I wish we could say we sat around and chatted and shared memories of how much we adored them but my children got sidetracked by the sprinklers.

Graveyard sprinklers are the best.

 

These two loved the pinwheels.

MOM and DAD

My parents came into town for a weekend to help us redo our bathroom at the Amish Paradise. 

We had a lot of fun having them here. 

We finished gutting the bathroom. 

We shopped and picked out tile and a vanity. I have never spent so much money so quickly. 

We went to Costa Vida and ate enormous salads.  

My mom helped me take care of James who was sick and fussy.

Dad made us chocolate cake Sunday night.

Then Mom and Dad stayed up late playing Dominoes, Mexican Train, with Sierra and I.

Dad leveled the bathroom floor, now the only level floor in the home.

He hooked up the Jacuzzi tub, which resulted in him having to go down in our crawl space with the spiders and mice and lay on his back and hook the pipes together. Poor brave soul.

Tuesday morning came and Mom had to get back to Orem.

My sister Emily was flying in from Texas and she had to get back to work.

I volunteered to drive her back so Dad could stay and finish up a few things.

We got in the car and had a road trip, just mom and me.

It was nice to have her undivided attention for four hours. 

We chatted and enjoyed the long drive home.

Dad didn't come back till Sunday.

Although not finished, my bathroom looks amazing. AMAZING.

You wouldn't even recognize it from the before video.

 

SUNDAY

 My sisters went with us to stake conference.

James fell asleep on the way home.

Don't you just want to kiss those perfect lips.

My girls love their Aunts and will miss them a lot. 

  Kim painted Madison's toe nails before she left.

Then they were gone.

Come again soon..... missing you already.

James helped me wash the dishes while the girls when to the Amish Paradise with their father.

He loved every minute of it.

Until it was over.

Poor baby hates to be done cooking or cleaning.

He sure makes all my chores easier.

How can they not be enjoyable, when I get to look at that face while I do them?

DAY TWO... EXHAUSTED!

 Yes, we are having a party out here at the Amish Paradise.

Are you sure you don't want to book your stay?

Promise you will look nice and brown when you leave.

Not that golden sun baked brown, which could possibly lead to cancer.

Nor that expensive spray on kind that doesn't last long.

We are talking DIRT.

Yes, you heard me right.

True, genuine, bonafide, DIRT.

In two hours time, I guarantee you will no longer be pasty white.

If you want to have the experience of a life time, just leave a comment below and I will schedule your arrival.

You could be as happy as these two.

  He was the best helper anyone could have asked for.

He was adorable.

 If you want to build your muscles in no time at all you can have a crack at this beast.

Scraping up linoleum.

While we were working, Sierra entertained herself by running through the sprinklers.

Then daddy put these two to work painting the picnic table.

Nice job ladies.

MY SISTER's SURPRISED ME

(Above is the only piece of playground equipment at the Loma Park.

It is so fun to spin on.) 

My baby sissy's showed up at my door on Thursday night.

SURPRISE.

They came to help me finish gutting my house.

They got a lot done.

They blew out the rest of the first floor ceiling, which was a mess itchy job.

They took out a lot of the nails on the walls and all the nails on the ceiling.

They took out 99% of the tricky walls that had been discouraging me.

They tried to peel up the beastly linoleum that I hate.

I wasn't much help, my back went out and James always needs a lot of attention.

However, they were little machines.

MAKING BREAD WITH MOMMY

 

 James loves to cook with me.

He loves to scoop and pour the flour when I make bread.

He was having so much fun.

When we were done.... 

 

He threw a massive fit.

Madison had to have a picture taken too. 

ENSTROMS

 I and the kids go to Enstrom's sometimes to get an ice cream cone.

All of their ice creams are made in house and are amazing.

I had carrot cake last week and it was to die for.

Last summer, Sierra got key lime pie and I have been dreaming about since.

I had to get myself a key lime pie ice cream cone.

James decided he liked mine better than his fresh strawberry.

He took it from me.

And I kid you not, he ate the entire thing.

He cried when I tried to wipe the melted bits from his hands.

 

As you can see by the lack of updates there has been very little progress made on our house.

Nate's back went out yesterday.

He asked me to help him put it back in.

I threw my back out trying to put his in.

What a bunch of old geezers we are.

Nate has the weekend off but with both of us hurting I wonder how much work we will get done.

We need a miracle.

ELIZABETH AND ALEX GRADUATED

 We are busy with all of the end of the year celebrations.

Elizabeth just graduate High School.

We had to stop in at her celebration party.

The girls and James loved sampling all the delicious food.

Then we ran home and got ready for Sunday.

Baths, Hair, and manicures. Stories, Kisses and Tucking little ones in bed.

 

Sunday was Mother's Day.

Even though the day didn't go exactly as planned, I had a profound feeling of how blessed I was to be a mother to my three beautiful, crazy, amazing, kids.

I am blessed.

WIND in the WILLOWS

Finish reading The Wind in the Willows with this girl tonight.

She got teary when I told her we had to take it back to the library tomorrow.

She begged me to buy the book for her so she can keep it forever.

(I think I will, it's in my Amazon cart as we speak.)

She giggled at Mr. Toad and loved every word of it.

She would skip around every night saying. "It is time for Windy!"

 (Truthfully, I endured a good deal of it. The descriptions of the country side and certain characters are long and well, really long. Not my favorite book, but she sure loved it!)

Her love of it helped me get through the painful parts.

ANIMAL EXPO

 We went to Sierra's Animal Expo at school yesterday.

She chose to do her project on a leopard.

She wrote a small book about leopards.

Her handwriting was impeccable.

We don't expect anything less from her.

She loves to write.

She made her model of a leopard out of salt dough.

She painted it entirely by herself.