I don't think it's spring!

what a week! we went from it being quite lovely outside to freezing cold with 30+ mph winds. i think i am colder now then during the winter. anyway, before this terrible wind and cold weather came through again we started working outside in our backyard. we got our whole garden area ready to be fertilized and rototilled. it was an area that was covered with concrete and part of the patio (the patio ran the whole length of the house--weird previous owners). half the patio was nice stones and the other half was concrete and terribly poured concrete at that. it was disintegrating and completely uneven, so we decided to rip it all out and put the garden there, not to mention it's the only place in the whole yard that gets sun all day long. anyway, we did that and ripped out old tree and bush stumps and made a flower bed in a different area in the back yard until this cold weather came back. now we just hang out inside, which i guess is good because we are getting some other projects done, actually making dinner before 7 at night (because it's so much more fun to be outside than cooking right now) and luke is not constantly falling down all the time. he learned to walk 2 weeks ago and he thinks he is the coolest thing around. it is so fun to watch him TRY to chase the kids. he just giggles and giggles and trys to walk at the same time and most of the time it doesn't work and then he falls. he has also learned to pout worse than a girl. he covers his eyes, ducks his head, slaps the ground and even makes a pretend cry. it is so funny. well on to more projects. today it is making birthday invitations for kathryn's b-day. she is very excited and has decided she wants ponies ones so....hope their cute, if not 4 year olds don't care right?

Nature is AWESOME!!

my kids loved these pictures that grandma and grandpa beus sent and wanted to put them on our blog. Enjoy!

stitching

as some of you know, i love to stitch and i was so glad to get this done. most of the time i have projects sitting around the house partially done so I am working on getting them finished. I had this one stitched before Luke was born and i finally got it framed and hung on the wall. Now no more fighting during family night of whose turn it is to choose the activity (atleast we hope so)!

Easter

Here are some of our pictures from Easter. This is the kids ready to go to church. Luke was not happy about getting his picture taken.



Mom, this is for you. Sarah loves her swimming suit, don't you just love those socks. She is such a skinny minny.



Luke was helping Seth open his Easter eggs. He thought it was awesome to have so much chocolate around. We let him have a chocolate egg and he thought he was the coolest kid around.



You can't really tell, but this is our backyard and we hid 350+ eggs in it. There were eggs everywhere and it looked really cool. We invited all the kids over in our ward and they got to find 10 easter eggs each. It was lots of fun!



This is Luke on his first Easter egg hunt. He wasn't too happy with me because I kept putting him down so I could help do things. He wanted me to hold him the entire time.



Kathryn showing all the eggs she had found so far.



Seth with his easter eggs.



Sarah was trying as hard as she could to get this egg. No matter how high she jumped she just couldn't quite reach it. It was really cute.

We had such a great Easter. It turned out to be a perfect day to celebrate the Resurrection of our Lord and what an amazing blessing that is!!

Pumpkin Waffles

My mom gave us this recipe and it is so so so good. We absolutely love it!

1 c. pumpkin
1 1/2 c. milk
6 T butter
1 T vanilla
4 eggs, separated
2 c flour
2 T baking powder
1 T sugar
1 T cinnamon
1/2 t nutmeg
1/4 t coriander
1/4 t salt

Mix together dry ingredients. Mix together wet ingredients, except for eggs. Separate eggs; add yolks to wet ingredients. Add wet ingredients to dry and mix until blended. Beat egg whites until stiff; fold into batter. Cook (this can also be used as pancake batter).

SYRUP: In a LARGE saucepan combine 1/2 c. butter, 1 c. buttermilk, 2 c. sugar and 2 T. corn syrup. Bring to a boil. Remove from heat. Add 2 t. vanilla, then 2 t. soda. Stir briskly--IT WILL FOAM A LOT, be prepared. Serve over pancakes and enjoy.

Spring

we have been having weather in the high 50s and have been totally enjoying it. we have played outside for hours each day, dug stumps out of the potential flowerbed, played with friends and just hung out and enjoyed the sunshine. we also have many bulbs/flowers growing up everywhere and are very excited to see what they are going to be: crocuses, tulips, irises and peonies are my guesses right now. anyway, here are some pictures of us having lots of fun. above, we decided to do something fun with some of our tax return. the kids have so much fun on it and the best part is that it fits up to 7 kids.



kathryn loves posing for the camera. what a cute girl!



luke discovered dirt. he thought it was so much fun. he played with it for almost 20 minutes and he didn't even try and eat any of it. i was so proud of him and it was so fun to see him discover something so new.

six, weird, random things....

okay...so here your go maria. six things people might not know about me. some are wierd, some are random and some are just things. hopefully you all will still come back and visit our blog after this, j/k!
1. i have such a hard time not being efficient. whether it's the shortest way to the store or home, or the fastest way to pick up the house w/o walking back and forth too many times, or the best way to fit as much as possible into the dishwasher and still get everything clean. it all started when i was a teenager and my dad said i couldn't go out with my friends until all the hay fields were pitched (because my brothers didn't rake it well, anyway that's a different story...) so needless to say I would try to find the shortest and fastest way to get it done and it has stuck with me since. i know that it really bugs sam, but he is such a good husband, he hardly ever says anything.
2. i love to spin. i think that that fits in with the efficiency one though too. i mean where else can you burn so, so, so many calories in 45 min.
3. i have a new calling. bye to the primary and on to...sorry i haven't been set apart yet so you are going to have to guess. here are your choices a) relief society secretary b) nursery worker c) activities committee chair d) counselor in the bishopric--hopefully that's not sacrilegious or d) sunday school teacher.
4. i love to garden and work outside in my yard. i can't wait to get started. the bug is itching with all this nice weather and i have been coming up with all sorts of plans to change the yard, much to sam's dismay.
5. i have always wanted to have twins. don't ask me why. i know that it would be so much work and i would probably tear all my hair out, but for some reason it just seems cool or something like that (i think it comes from when i was in high school and me and my friends thought it would be so fun, again why would i think that?).
6. i am a huge jane austen fan. i love most of her books and read them all once every couple years. not to mention, i just love to read period. one of my dreams is to sit with a good book outside on a sunny day and read all day long, doesn't that sound so fun :).

hopefully you made it to the end so tag, you're it.

Grandma Came to Visit

My dad and brothers had hay meetings in Burley last week so my mom came and spent two days with us. We had such a fun time. We mostly did nothing but our usual stuff and it was so nice to just hang out and play. Luke even warmed up by the second day and would let Grandma hold him.

Seth had a great time too, but mostly we couldn't get him to get his nose out of the book. I thought it would be a long time till we got to the point that he is reading the same books that Sam and I are, but it's already here. We have been all reading the Eragon series and fight over who's turn it is. Reminds me of the years growing up and trying to read the same books my mom was anyway....it's kinda weird feeling.

Here we decided to take a walk down to the corner to get Seth from the bus. The girls wanted to bring a stroller too and they thought they were so cool. Thanks for such a great time Mom. We had lots and lots of fun :)

Sundays!!!

Wow what a change! Our ward here in Twin has always had Sacrament Mtg. last and it has been the bain of my life. We had our normal problems with the kids when Sacrament was first, but then when we started with this schedule the kids have been a nightmare during Sacrament mtg. No matter the amount of toys, snacks or bribes we came up with, it got worse every Sunday. All the mothers in our ward were on a campaign to change the schedule with the Stake Pres. and it finally happened. HALLELUJAH!!!! Today was our first Sunday on the new schedule and it was awesome. We sat down the kids and discussed new rules for Sacrament Mtg (like, no toys, no snacks, sitting quietly on the bench, etc) and consequences for not obeying and I was amazed at the difference. Of course we still had hiccups but compared to what we have been experiencing, it is hard to find words for how quiet it was in Sacrament Mtg. (If you have ever been in our ward you would know what I'm talking about) Anyway, it was great and Sam and I actually got to hear some of the testimonies that were shared and as you can tell I just love the change :)