Felicity is done with kindergarten

We went yard saleing this morning, I'm so tired I'm just going to sit down at the computer for awhile instead of doing all that stuff I should be doing while Farris is home. There has been alot going on this week, Felicity is all through with Kindergarten, Farris is never going to leave me at home with the kids for two and a half days again (ok, that may not be true) and we set up an appointment for our ultrasound, so more on that in a couple weeks. On Monday we had my monthly doctors appointment, the kids got to listen to the baby's heartbeat; they loved that. And, no they did not hear two heartbeats, despite the persistent rumors floating around (and Felicity's prayers). Tuesday Farris left for a conference until Thursday in Park City Utah and got snowed on. When he came home house and children were all in one piece, mom was very, very tired. It's nice to have another adult around to take over when I need to crash. Thursday morning was also Felicity's graduation, she did a great job on her part and won the sweetest smile award. Friday we went in for her assessment test, she passed with flying colors, so first grade here we come. Last night Farris was having fun with the boys, they were playing basketball on our little hoop downstairs and after several tries and misses, Caleb said "it must be broken." So that's what was wrong all those years in p.e. when I couldn't make a shot to save my life. Then Farris was playing a game on the computer with Joseph and accidentally taught him to say "shoot." Unfortunately, I laughed so now Joseph thinks it's funny. Could be worse, I guess. It's been raining quite a bit these last few days, so no work in the garden, but everything is looking great, even tiny cherry tomatoes starting out. Joseph did some extra weeding and we are now one squash plant short, but Felicity doesn't mind at all.

Busy Week

We have had a busy week this last week, lots of good stuff going on. Our garden is growing, thanks, Judy, for more raspberries and all the strawberry starts! We did get them planted and the kids seemed to better understand that they water the plants, not the parents. We had a nice mother's day weekend in Idaho with our families. On thursday, Farris went to work for a couple hours then picked up Caleb and went to Arizona for the high school graduation where he worked before. We were a little worried that Caleb would be bored in the six hour drive (one-way), but he really liked the time with his dad. It was nice for Farris to catch up with many of our friends down there, everyone seems to be doing well, and we do miss all of them. Felicity went on her first big field trip to the zoo. Her favorite part, she told us, was when they ate lunch. She did like the animals (a tiger, the monkeys, skunks, big kittys, and snakes were her favorite), she didn't like the stinky buiding that some of the animals were in, but she did like the bus ride. While all this was going on, Joseph was helping me plant some flowers and other plants. he went through three pairs of pants that day and by the time Farris and Caleb got home, he wasn't wearing pants at all. Joseph likes mud. On Saturday (after more mud and plants) we met some of our friends from Utah State, we had fun seeing everyone again. I still don't remember some of the pranks they claim I did. That's part of being a mother, we forget everything. Our garden is going good, we just have to fix the sprinkler that is more like a fountain, and the sprinklers that are more like part of a drip system. That's for next week.

grocery store helps

A friend of mine has asked around for help at one of the grocery stores here. She saw a display called "Soccer Moms" at a store when she was visiting her sister. The display had a recipe and all of the ingredients right there (conveniently, many of the ingredients were on sale) for a complete meal--main dish, side dish, veggies and sometimes a dessert. All were quick fixes, healthy, and not too expensive. The store changed the display once or twice a week. I told her I could help out with that, but now I'd like some feedback on the idea. When you guys are making dinner, what are some things you wish were easier? Do you want to try things with new ingredients, or are the old basics good enough? Are you more worried about price or quickness or healthiness or as much or as little from scratch as possible? Any other ideas that would make this whole idea better? Any feedback would be appreciated! Thanks!

Raspberries and terrible twos don't mix

This has been a busy week and a half, not any more big things since Lissy's fall, just busy. Speaking of that, she got her stiches out five days after her fall but was disappointed that they didn't give her another stuffed animal or anything. She's been fine, no headaches, no complaining except when I put a small band-aid on (she liked the big attention getting bandaids). She's enjoying the last days of school, the kindergarten only have a couple more weeks, so now they're doing all the fun end of the year things. Exciting, she gets to eat her first school lunch tomorrow. They introduce the kindergarteners to it at the end of the year so it will be an easier transition to first grade. That's almost as good as the zoo trip her class has planned. She's also had two birthday parties for friends the last two saturdays. The first one she came home and said "I had too much fun. I had more fun than a seal catching it's first ball." I think she's going to be the writer in our family. Caleb is really enjoying the warmer weather. He'll play outside constantly if I let him. And he loves dirt, he's spent his whole life with a backyard of dirt, so our tiny patch of grass is an exception. Joseph loves it outside, too, but I still have to keep a close eye on him, he likes to pick our new plants, eat dirt and whatever else he finds and he'll follow any dog or cat he sees. His little vocabulary is growing, we've started helping him say his prayers. The other day I was helping him say dinner prayer. I said "thank thee.." and before I could say for the food, he said "Gicki" which interpreted is Nicki, my sister. He loves "Gicki and her beep (jeep)". On sunday we went to Farris' brother Rocky's ward to see his baby blessed. The whole famly was there, including a lot of Farris' cousins and grandma. The kids had loads of fun and wore themselves out quite a bit. Farris' mom brought us some raspberry starts and we planted those last night. Have you ever planted raspberries with a five-,three-year old,and 22 month old? Not great. Jospeh liked to pull the starts straight out of the box, goodbye roots. Caleb and Felicity took turns spraying us with the hose and running into the house with muddy shoes. We also had close calls with their little shovels (we armed Joseph with a little snow shovel, plastic blade, for that very reason). We're going to get more and some strawberry starts, too, when we visit Judy next, we'll see how that goes when we plant them. It's library time now, hopefully I'll do better and write sooner next time, without any more High Drama from Felicity.