Mud

With beautiful weather and active kids there seems to be less and less time to upload pictures and get them onto this blog.  I'm not sure if it's this way for everyone with small children but Spring and Summer time make it almost impossible to keep my house in order.  Between the kids running in and out with grass, mud and leaves stuck to their bare feet or boots and extra hours spent out working in my flower beds instead of inside on the house I just keep falling farther and farther behind.  For now though I am just trying to enjoy the sunshine and thundershowers, that we have had a ton of this week, and am trying not to stress out too much about the inside stuff. 

 

 

The kids' first sprinkler day in our backyard.  Lillian is forever giving Bridgett loves.

 

 

Perhaps this is why our house always seems to be covered in mud and dirt!!

 

 

 

Full Swing Spring

Spring is finally in full swing and we have leaves on the trees and perennials and strawberries coming up all over the yard.  Allan and I started our month with a wonderfully relaxing week in Vegas and St. George Utah while my incredibly generous and long suffering parents watched our three little monkeys.  We were thrilled to come home to beautiful weather and the snow finally melted in our yard.  The kids have spent as much time as possible in the yard.  There's nothing that I love more than dirty, smelly, sweaty kids at the end of the day after hours of playing outside.  Here's a few pictures of said children.

 

Our girls' favorite past time in the backyard is reading books on a blanket.

More clean and handsome than dirty and sweaty.  We got them matching ties in the States.

 

Spring Prep

For weeks the weather has been teasing us into thinking that Spring might be around the corner but it has taken forever.  So a couple of weeks ago I decided to bring Spring all on my own.  For the first time I decided to start seedlings early.  The kids were so excited to use our compact little greenhouse and watch the little pellets grow to 5 times their size.  Then they meticulously opened up each little casing and planted pumpkin, squash, watermelon, beets (for Grandpa), nasturtium, and lavatera (my most favorite flower EVER).

 

 

Emma even made cute little markers so that we could remember which seeds were planted where.

 

And despite the fact that the snow kept flying our little greenhouse looked like this a week later...

 

 

With temperatures finally reaching above zero for several days in a row the last couple of days the snow in our yard is melting and revealing the mess that was left behind when winter hit earlier than expected.  Which is ridiculous given that this is Edmonton, I should always expect that winter will hit earlier than usual.  As the snow slowly recedes further and further up the lawn I am trying to clean up as it goes.  Walker is my diligent little helper every step of the way.  Yesterday he helped me turn this...

 

into this...

 

Now my pretty delphiniums and tiger lilies have lots of room to grow.

 

 

Could I have a more handsome helper?!?!

I love working side by side with my children.  It makes me feel like maybe I'm teaching them to be industrious and self reliant.

 

I also bought this beauty at Walmart yesterday for $13.  Thirteen dollars!!! 

 

 

Hydrangeas are probably my second favorite flower.  Look how pretty!!

 

I'm hoping to plant it and our little greenhouse seedlings in this spot in our yard...

 

 

I know it's ambitious.  But I am determined to get rid of all of the rocks and grass and grow a productive little vegetable garden with a gorgeously blooming hydrangea bush beside it.  Wish me luck!!

 

 

 

 



7 Brides for 7 Brothers

It's no secret that I am a die hard musical fan and my all time favortite, favorite, FAVORITE is "7 Brides for 7 Brothers".  While getting an update on my baby sister's blog the other day the title to her post "Spring, Spring, Spring" reminded me of this song...

I made plans to watch the all time best musical in the world ASAP with the kids.  Allan, much to his disappointment I'm sure, already had plans to see G.I. Joe with my brother and I lost Walker to Spiderman on the iPad within the first 30 minutes but Emma watched it from start to finish and loved every beautiful, whimsical, musical moment.  She danced to each musical number and covered her eyes at each kissing scene and squealed at the end when each brother finds his bride just like I remember doing when we were kids.  Just thinking of how much she loved it has me grinning ear to ear hours later.  In fact everything about the movie will have me singing its songs and dancing around the house for days.  There's just something about a really good musical isn't there?!  Ladies, you know who you are, we definitely need a musical marathon the next time Kelsey is in town.  Just try not to watch this one as soon as you can get your hands on it.  Here's one more scene for your viewing pleasure.

 

 

And just one more because I couldn't help myself!!  This one was one of Emma's favorites.  She just kept asking me through the whole thing who the girls would end up with in the end.

 

 

 

Puppy Love

Have I mentioned lately how much I love our sweet Bridgett?

General Conference Weekend

Mosiah 2:6 And they pitched their tents round about the temple, every man having his ^atent with the door thereof towards the temple, that thereby they might remain in their tents and hear the words which king Benjamin should speak unto them;

 

Every six months when General Conference rolls around we tell the kids the story of King Benjamin and his people and build them a tent in the living room with the door of the tent facing the TV so that they can listen to the prophet speak.  Four hours is a long time for them to sit and be quiet but we've developed some different strategies to help them along.  By "them" I mean Emma and Walker, with Lillian we still just have to do our best to entertain her until the afternoon session when she is napping.

 

 

TV Trouble

My title sounds like a Berenstein Bear book and I'm feeling a little bit like Mama Bear trying to solve one of their many family dilemmas.  Our kids have been completely consumed by the television lately and it is making me crazy!!  It doesn't seem to matter how much or how little they watch they still want to watch it every minute of the day.  Today after the gazillionth tantrum of the week over who got to watch what on Netflix I declared a TV ban until Saturday.  No TV in the morning, afternoon or evening.... AT ALL until Saturday morning.  Today went fairly smoothly, with the kids showing outrage over my ruling only once when they wanted to watch TV after dinner.  We'll see how the next couple of days go and hopefully my little ban brings our TV trouble to an end.

 

Even Lillian has become a bit of a junkie.

 

 

I didn't even see her take the iPad off of our dresser while I was doing laundry this morning.