We're finally posting some pictures.  Some are a little older than others.  We've had a great memorial day weekend.  We wish of course that we were in Thayne.  Hope it was nice weather!
 
Last weekend we went to San Antonio.  Maddie had a singing competition in nearby San Marcos.  It was a great family trip.  She got the highest rating possible and was declared an "all state winner".  We're super proud of her even if we did forget to take a picture:)  We spent Saturday at Sea World, and on our way home we stopped by the San Antonio temple for a picture.  It's our first weekend family trip in a year, and we soaked in every relaxing second!

     Corey and I went to dinner with some friends at "The Fatted Calf" restaurant Friday night, it was yummy.  We're saying goodbye to the Davidson family who have become good friends.  They're moving to Georgia.  I'm sad because she's my good running friend, and Ephraim is sad because it's his best friend Daniel.  They ask for each other every day.  (And it's really fun to holler to them, "Hey Eph..Dan..")

    Still house hunting and looking for answers of where we're supposed to live when we get kicked out in a couple of months.  This week we drove to a neighborhood farther in the country (ten minutes out) to check out some lots.  My friend had the little ones, so it was just corey and I.  We followed the map app exactly even though the road we were on turned from paved to not.  This was the day after the huge storm.  I noticed some water along the sides of the road, and we decided it might not be stable...a little too late.  We slid off one side, got back on the road once, and slid off again as we were trying to back out.  We tried for a good 45 minutes and got VERY stuck in the mud.  No tow trucks would come help us, so we left it overnight and came back with Corey's truck the next morning.  The kids had fun cleaning the car up, but not as much fun as Corey had in the mud.  You would think we would be turned off to that area, but it did the opposite.  It was so peaceful out there, and smelled good and seemed like a nice "Idaho-ish" area.  So now we're hoping to maybe build out there.

 I will just post underneath the pictures now.  We're so excited to see everyone.  We know we're coming a little late and it might be inconvenient for people.  I saw the emails on Corey's account about the fun run and stuff.  Please know that we're super sad to miss out on any of it, but do what's best for everyone.  We won't be offended regardless.

    Love you all!!!!!
   

 This one was at the Piano Guys concert a couple of weeks ago.

Me and my girls at Target for part of our girls night while the boys were camping out. And below, we tried homemade cupcakes.  It was the first time I've made them from scratch.   super good

 

                                               super cute Clara in her "basketball" skirt.

                                            San Antonio Trip, just chilling at the Chik-fil-a

                                                             Sea World!!!!

 I took the littles on the small rides while the daredevils went with Corey

                                       At one of the shows.  They were all very impressive!

                            So nice to have help with the little ones.  What a great big brother!

                                          as close as we could get to the San Antonio Temple

                                   

    Just a little friend I found while running.  We've also seen a few smashed toads, a turtle, and a live crawdad

 The day of the tornado warning was pretty scary here.  I came around the corner and saw Nori like this.  I asked her what she had prayed about, she said, "To make the storm stop and please don't be a tornado"                                                                                                                                                    
The three elementary kids home from field day!                        

School's Out!!

We are done with school for the summer!  Yay!  Taylor and Jon's last day was Thursday and Tyler's last day was Friday. Taylor and Jon left for CA Friday night, which was sad, but they were really excited so that's good I guess.  Saturday morning when Max woke up one of the first things he said was "I miss my brothers." :(    He keeps asking several times a day when we are going to Idaho to visit.  It's going to be a long month, but we are soooo excited for our visit!  

We had a surprise visit from Kirk and Dannette on Wednesday.  They were down here helping her brother and doing some yard work at their house.  They seem to be doing well and it was fun to see them :) 

Tyler finally heard back on the wrestling coach decision.  He got the JV position so he'll have a busy year next year.

 

The Primary kids were out of control today!! It was my week to conduct and I was trying to get their attention after the sharing time lesson, but had no success so I just turned the time over to the chorister.  I guess my voice just isn't loud enough.  I talked to a member of the Bishopric after church and we got a microphone to keep in the Primary room so that will definitely help.

Well- that's about it for our week.  We were invited to a BBQ tomorrow at the Bishop's house, so that should be fun.  Wish we could be there in Thayne tomorrow, but we will just have to be there in spirit. 

 

Max and Levi decided to take all the clothes out of Taylor and Jon's closet and hang them on the bed rails to make a "fortress".  Then they hid inside and giggled because they thought mommy didn't know where they were :)  So creative!!

Memorial Day weekend already?

I thought I should write a little today, since I won't have time tomorrow..... a traveling day.  It could be a beautiful day,  I can't be sure, since my windows are so dirty I can barely ( varely  :)  ) see out.  I can't decide what I should do first....windows and blinds, digging grass out of my flower beds, filling holes in my yard with dirt and reseeding or mopping floors, vacuuming and cleaning toilets.... I'm definitely in a quandry!  Good thing I can do laundry while I'm posting.  :) 

I have had this recurring thought all week.   HOW DID I GET THIS OLD!  ( no question mark.... it is a rhetorical question after all.....I actually know how I got this old..... but, seriously, how did it happen?  :)  )  Luck?  I have lived longer than both of my parents, a grandmother, grandfather, brother, sister in law, niece, nephew AND my husband.  ( and countless other close relatives )  All I know is Time flies on wings of lightning...  ( another recurring thought you will recall from an earlier post )   Well,  enough of my mindless ramblings!  Oh, I  do agree with you...I am a little crazy!   I have been spending way too much time with myself.  :)

I had two whole days off this week!  Tried to get some things done in my yard, the grass growing in my flower beds is kicking my butt....  Work continues to be very, very long and crazy days.  Josh, Amanda and kids rode their bikes over to visit me at work yesterday.  They are going to Ogden today for Josh to try skydiving. Sounds exciting and a little scary.

Well next week it will be June, so not long until everyone comes!  Have a fun and SAFE weekend!

Love to all!

Radfords

Today was a little interesting! Stori's nursery leaders came over to our place to try to get her to like them. They brought over several papers of Flynn Ryder coloring pages. She loved that, but still didn't love them. She actually really likes 2 of the leaders. I'll just share the story real quick :)  3 weeks ago I went in to get Stori from nursery because I could hear her screaming for me....well when I went in there, the 2 leaders she liked were out of town and their replacements both have babies and they were in the corner talking to each other with their babies. The other 2 leaders, that she isn't fond of, were in their own world. One flipping through a manual to see what to do and the other was just standing there. ALL of the kids were crying and no one was helping them. They didn't have any treats, toys, or activity at all-just crying by the door. WELL, the point of that long story is that Stori no longer likes nursery---which was her very favorite up until the incident. When I went in there I helped them get bubbles and snacks out. Once everyone got snacks, the leaders decided it was time to be reverent and sing songs... well Stori didn't have a chance to eat her snacks but they just gathered them up anyway and threw them away. Let's just say the leaders are really young. Let's hope next week she likes it a little more.

Other than that, our week has been great! We finally got our bike trailer! I have been looking for used ones for over a year, but it took dan actually buying one new for us to get one! :) I LOVE IT! and more importantly, so does Stori. She cozied right in for our ride and even went next door for her friend to come sit in it with her after we got home.

On Saturday I went shopping with mom while Dan took Stori on a daddy-daughter date. Mom went in and got her nose waxed----SICK--- haha and that night we took mom to texas roadhouse for her birthday! It was delicious and stori loved mom and sherlene more than usual. It was really fun.

While shopping I found Stori this broom. She is in heaven......

Dan is doing great about getting up early and studying for the LSAT and then running before work. He is getting really good at the practice tests so I hope it shows for the real deal.
Well, Love you all! Have a great week. It's suppose to be sunny and 70's-can't get much better than that! :)
P.S. Megan, mom's birthday is tuesday! Don't forget! :)

A Little Back And Forth

Well, I am back home again after the third trip to UT in the past  few weeks.  The most recent visit was to attend a dance recital starring Maizy and Millie!  It was so fun to watch the girls perform.....but, man oh man the owners of the dance company were just a little self indulgent.  The evening was rather long, but did move right along, that is, until it got to the finale.....they then thought it was a good idea to revisit several of the numbers of their"company" groups ( that we had already watched  :(  ) ..... oh my!  Enough should be enough!  But in spite of all the craziness, it was a fun evening and the girls did a great job.

Oh, I forgot one thing......Friday night Melanie, Dan, Stori, Sherlene and I went to Texas Roadhouse.  It was a fun night!   


Love to all!

Our Week....

Monday we had the missionaries and a Spanish-speaking investigator over for dinner.  He understood a little English, but most of the time he, the missionaries, and Tyler, conversed in Spanish and one of them kind of translated for the rest of us.  I understood a little bit of the Spanish here and there, but they were talking pretty fast.  It was neat to see him at church today.

Tuesday- nada, nada, enchilada :)  Just stayed home and relaxed.  Oh, now I remember- Tyler went and played B-Ball at the church.

Wednesday Ryder had his 2 month check-up (2 months already?????).  The little chunk weighs 16 pounds!!  No wonder why my back's been hurting!  The doc said everything looks good except one side of his head is a little flat in the back so we're supposed to try to get him to turn his head the other way for a while.  He got 3 shots and one oral vaccination.  I forgot his bink, so he cried a lot- poor little guy :(

Thursday Taylor and I went to a special awards night for the 6th graders in the district who earned the Presidential Award for Academic Excellence, or in other words an award for getting a cumulative GPA of 3.5 or better over the past 3 years. He's even been in all advanced classes the past two years and still got good grades.  We are so proud of him and all of his hard work.  I just hope he keeps it up through middle school and high school! 

Very early Friday morning Max started throwing up.  He was sick for a few hours and then seemed fine after that and by some miracle no-one else in the family got it.

Friday night was our ward's Cub Scout Pinewood Derby.  Everyone had a great time and I am sooooo glad that I wasn't in charge of it this year :)  Each cub scout brought a decorated cake to be judged.  I thought Jon's "tank" was decorated the best, but I guess they were judging more on taste than decoration.  I just made the cake from a box mix.  The Bishop's son won.  His mom made a vanilla cake with some kind of chocolate mousse filling (from scratch).  It was decorated like a tire, and it was pretty yummy, but I still think ours should have won for best decoration.

 

 

The boys had a friend stay the night Friday and they decided to sleep out on the trampoline again. Saturday morning we cleaned the house and then Tyler took the boys (except Ryder) to the lake to go swimming. 

Today that same boy who spent the night on Friday started throwing up while passing the Sacrament!!  His parents were sitting way up at the front so the R.S. President hurried up there and grabbed his dad's arm.  When his dad saw what was happening he looked like he was going to be sick himself!  Poor kid & poor dad!  Maybe he got whatever Max had :(

And here's a little giggle from Ryder :)
https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?v=10201172950627048&l=1276383606206258246

From the Petersons

I should just say "ditto" to all of the cute posts and call it good! It is true, I have the greatest mother of all time! I'm glad we got to spend time with her and some of our family Saturday. I love family get togethers even if they are sparser than they used to be! This week we did a whole lot of tear off (three layers of shingles) on part of our roof and I learned something new about myself. I am afraid of heights! Yup, I never used to be and would climb up that old tree across the street barefoot and with one hand holding onto my shirt full of apples. But put me on a 10 foot roof and for some reason I am paralyzed. I would have been a hole lot more help if I had been able to stand up and walk around! One part wasn't as steep so I was okay and worked a lot on that side but when it came to the steep side I sat on my butt and scraped shingles with my shoved from the top and side. We finally got it done and the "guys" as Tommy calls them, put up the new sheeting and then after Lil's baptism we put up the felt. It is getting really fun to be able to see what it is going to look like now that we are getting closer. Bron and Maizy and Millie tried to go up to the second floor last night to go star gazing but they came in about five seconds later because they were scared. They are sad that we are getting trusses up next week because they thought that was perfect to get to star gaze as long as a parent goes with them. For those of you that are wondering, Stori still doesn't care for me. Another meeting and another shun. Good thing I love her enough for the both of us! She doesn't spit anymore when I kiss her and I take that as a HUGE improvement! I had a super fun mothers day. The girls made me pictures that were of their hands they traced and cut out and glued onto a piece of paper holding a bouquet of flowers, so cute! The kids and Joel picked me out Oreo and a running shirt that is turquoise! I love it! We went up into our new room and had lunch up there on a blanket and when Tommy woke up we went for a picnic up at the trail head of gunsight. Happy Mother's Day to all of you cute Mother's in my life. I really do love every one of you!

Mother's Day is a Special Day

Mother I love you Mother I do Father in Heaven has sent me to you. When I am near you I love to hear you singing so softly that you love me too. Mother I love you I love you I do.  As the primary children sang this song today I thought that about summed up how I feel about my Mom.  I am so thankful that 44 years ago this dear sweet woman settled down my crazy father and together started a life.  It's not new news that I have the best parents.  My freinds would always tell me that as if I didn't already know.  I am so happy to have such an amazing mother that is so willing to help whenever it's needed.  She offered up her home to us and she offered up her time to fly here and wait with us as we patiently awaited the birth of our little chunky bum. Mom- You never cease to amaze me with everything you do.  I love you  mama for sure and for always and hundreds.  I also needed to add that when we tried to call you a few minutes ago Max was beside himself with excitement "we're calling grandma, we're calling grandma, we're calling grandma!". 

I am so thankfull as well for the amazing mother to my children my loving wife is.  She makes this family run and we (and especially I) would be lost without her.  I love here so much and am so glad that I get to share forever with her. 

Besides that this week Max had his pre school graduation, well sort of he will still be in it next year, and Taylor had Jr. High Orientation.  Can't believe he is old enough to be in Jr. High.  We also had our father son campout in the hualapais (witch is about an hour and a half from here just outside Kingman).  The boys were all so excited to go then the night before Levi and Max were both throwing up.  They seemed to be feeling better when I got home from work so we still went.  It was alot of fun being up there with 4 of my 5 crazy boys.  It was crazy to go from near freezing when we left there to come home over a hundred when we got back to Havasu. 

-From Jen
I just wanted to wish my mother-in-law and all my sister-in-laws a very Happy Mother's Day!  I am so grateful for the family that I married into 6 years ago and love each and every one of you!  I am also really grateful that I have so many people to look up to and learn from as I make my way through this life as a Mom.  Tyler and all my boys made me feel special this weekend and I love that I get to spend my life with them :)

Mother I love you!

I think of my Mother often, and when I do, I think how much my children and grandchildren have missed by not having her in their lives!  We found some sheet music in her things after she died and asked Aunt Elaine to sing the song at her funeral. The name of the song was "A Woman Worthy of Imitation".  It was perfect!  She was selfless, spiritual, kind, hardworking, longsuffering,  wise, funny, quiet, ( and sometimes the quiet wasn't a good thing..... :)  sometimes it meant she wasn't happy with you..... ) she was a righteous daughter of Heavenly Father and always tried to live the way she knew she should.  She was compassionate, loving, thoughtful, and caring.  She was such an amazing,  wonderful Mom, and it broke my heart when the Doctor told me she wouldn't survive her pancreatic cancer ......she was a great example to me by the way she lived, and the way she died.......  She passed away thirty one years ago in March.   I love you Mother!

I love being a Mother and a Grandmother!  There is nothing better!  

Love to all of you!

HAPPY MOTHER'S DAY!!!
I feel so grateful to be blessed with a Mother like you! You are always there to support me in everything i do. You are so dedicated to your family and ALL your grandchildren. 
You are the best example to me, and i have learned so much from you over the years. 
I am so proud to call you my Mom and my Friend! 
I LOVE YOU!! 
Bridget
And Happy Mother's Day to my WONDERFUL Sisters and Sister n laws! I have to best Family Ever!!

HAPPY MOTHERS DAY!

This last week was a typical week-few highlights: Going to UT for Lily's baptism, going to the Zoo, the park a few times, Cafe Rio, and hanging out with my Stori Rose and SDR.

But today, I just want to say Happy Mothers Day to the WORLDS GREATEST MOTHER!
It's not just my opinion, I have actual unbiased facts to prove it.
 1. She is the hardest working lady I know (and if she was a man, she'd be the hardest working man I know).
 2. She loves her kids and grandkids sooooo much and makes an effort to show and tell them.
 3. She is fine killing her nephew in Mafia, even if he did save her instead of himself.
 4. She is the best shopping buddy
 5. She is the best seamstress
 6. An amazing cook-even if it's just popcorn
 7. She is a great example
 8. She's beautiful
 9. Dan is sad that she is living with Megan because he just assumed she'd move to wherever we were. :)  I think that's a definite sign that she is amazing if her son in law even likes her!
 10. And she's a best friend! :)

LOVE YOU FAYLENE DANA CHRISTENSEN

and love you all! Can't wait to see you all this summer.

Petersons Update

Well, we had a fun, fairly unproductive week. Joel had the whole week off, YAY! He was planning on building our front porch but unfortunately the beams didn't get put up yet.:( but fortunately our entire floor level of the garage got framed in! :) My friends came over to register for the St. George marathon and Darcy told me the next day her son, who is 3 said "Why do they just want to make their house look like junk?" I thought it was hilarious! With all our broken concrete and rebar sticking out all over the place it definitely looks like a lot of junk. I told her today how funny I thought it was and she said he just keep saying "What a hunk of junk!" she got mad at him and said that isn't nice to say and that we aren't going to leave it like that.
 Saturday Joel was outside burning the cedar shakes from the side of our house and I looked out the door and saw Joel bolt through the back yard toward the front saying under his breath "Stop....backup, backup, backup" it kind of panicked me and looked out the front and couldn't figure out what he was talking about. Well...he had left the ladder up that went to the second floor (that doesn't have walls yet) and T had just left Joel's sight when he heard "Hey Dad! I up here!" and was running toward the edge of the floor to look down and show Joel. Since Tommy doesn't listen good Joel knew the best option was to go grab the silly little boy. Needless to say, there was an UNHAPPY Mommy, that the silly Daddy left the ladder up! Tommy LOVES "the guys" here working. He always heads out and says "hey guys, what ya doin'? Guys what's up?" Luckily they are nice to him.
Friday, Maizy, Millie, Daph, Bron, Lily, Aleisa and I went to eat at Bluebird and then to the Cinderella ballet. It was fun even though about a half hour before we left Millie went ballistic because she thought she had gone deaf in one ear because she couldn't hear out of it. She had a cold but me explaining that to her just wasn't enough. She cried the ENTIRE time we were at the Bluebird and ate 0 food and said she wanted to go take a nap in the van. I told her she could sit on my lap at the ballet and fall asleep but she cried that she didn't want to miss any of it. Well, she was glued to it and loved watching it but at intermission she told me she wanted to go home and sleep. Maizy stayed and went home with Aleisa and Millie fell asleep within seconds of getting in the van. The girls all looked so pretty in their princess dress ups. Even Daph wore a tiara.

Summer Plans

I forgot to write about our plans for Summer now that we've kind of decided what we're doing :)

We will be heading to Idaho the last week of June (before Tyler's birthday) and staying until around the 20th of July. Taylor and Jon will be in CA from the end of May through the weekend after the 4th and then they'll meet us in Idaho to spend a couple of weeks there. We are so excited to come visit and see everyone!!

Hello from Havasu

The first part of our week was pretty un-eventful, but Friday and Saturday were pretty busy. 

We went to our Ward BBQ Friday evening.  It was nice to get out and enjoy some good company and the awesome weather for a little while.  It was a little warm until the sun started to go down and then it was really nice.  After the BBQ Taylor's friend came over and the weather was pretty much perfect so they along with Jon decided to sleep out on the trampoline.  They were still awake and being noisy at midnight so we had to go out and tell them to be quiet.

Saturday morning Tyler and I were up early to get things ready for a Mother's Day Expo where I had a booth.  I did way better than I was expecting to and it got me excited about starting back up with selling jewelry again.  Tyler brought Ryder to me in the middle of the day so I could feed him and all the ladies that had booths around me couldn't get over how cute he was and that we had FIVE boys!

On the way home from the Expo we stopped and got pizza for dinner.  After dinner we went to get Taylor some new Sunday shoes (always growing!!). The three little boys fell asleep on the way home so we took advantage of the quiet and played Ticket to Ride with Taylor and Jon before they went to bed.

I fed Ryder during Sacrament meeting today and then he fell asleep so I took him into Sunday School to see if I could find someone to hold him while Tyler and I were in Primary.  My visiting teaching companion was in there so I went and asked her if she wanted to hold him.  She said she would love to.  After church she sent me a text and thanked me for asking her to hold him and that it was an answer to a prayer.  I guess she had been feeling a little lonely and missing her family today (she's single and lives by herself).  It made me feel glad that she's the one I decided to ask :) 

Tyler and the older boys are getting anxious to be done with school for the summer- only 3 weeks left!! 

Looking forward to a busy week this week! Hope everyone is doing well :)

Ice, Ice Tyler - too cold!

This is our awesome brother, Mr. Christensen, at his pep assembly.  I got him to send me the whole 20 minute assembly and then I cut it down to just his solo.  It's awesome.  I'm going to publish this and see if it works.  If not, I'll try again.

It has been sooo beautiful these past few days, in the 80's for a lot of them. Today it is *87. Yesterday *86, but we thought maybe we were in Idaho. The wind was blowing hard all day long. We went on a family bike ride, and Lucy hated every minute of it because of the wind! So we are probably sending more wind your way MOM.
We have 25 school days left, and i am counting down with the kids. It will be nice to have a break.
We survived last weekend, but barely. I was so exhausted from the court of honor. It was a long month and a half of planning, but turned out to be an amazing evening. I think the boys finally realized that it was a big deal.  They all looked so handsome, and everyone who participated did a great job! We even had a chocolate fountain which we were worried about with all those boys, but it was a success also. Of course Cole got chocolate all over his new eagle neckerchief, and pants. Most of it came out. :)
Cole and Grace are finishing up Golf and Tennis this week with districts. They both are doing really well. It will be weird to have the family all home during the week though. I guess I will have to cook! :)
We are also counting the days till we get to be with all of you. It is coming up fast!
Love the Durst's

Oh, I forgot to add that this week was Molly's 13th birthday. She got a blazer, two shirts, and an iHome.

The last two weeks have been fun and flown by.  Eleanor and Isaac each had field trips that the little ones and I joined in on.  And Corey went with us to Isaac's.  Maddie competed in an academic pentathlon all day last Saturday.  She loved having an extra day of tests and learning!  She has a cute friend Adri who went as well... they had tons of fun.  Clara is doing great playing basketball.  All the other girls have played for years, and this is her first try at it.  She just smiles and plays with happy determination.  She is a hustler and fun to watch.  And she loves her new bright pink basketball clothes we bought her.  That's probably what she loves the most;)  

     Last weekend my brother Justin and his family came to stay for three nights.  We LOVED it!  They got us tickets to see the piano guys here in Dallas.  It was of course amazing!  The kids had fun playing with cousins.  They left on Tuesday morning and that night Corey and I had tickets to WICKED.  It was my valentines present.  It was incredible.  Needless to say, we've been singing lots of songs about "popular" and "defying gravity" around here this week:)

     The weather has been amazing.  Lots of warm days, but we got our share of the cold storm.  It went from 87 one day to a few days in the 40s and 50s.  I loved it!   Yesterday was perfectly 65 and we had a fun day together as a family.  Corey had Saturday off which is rare for him.  We were all ecstatic!

     We have been house hunting quite vigorously and it's amazing how exhausting it is.  Kind of fun, but hard to find the best situation possible for our family.  We don't want a neighborhood anymore, but we can't seem to find a house we like with basic things like a laundry room, in the yards that we love.  We'll keep looking.  Our lease here is up at the end of August.  We hope to know where we should live before summer.  We are planning to come to Idaho July 8th-Aug 4th.  Corey will stay the first full week, then fly back to Texas and work.  He'll possibly come once in between to see us for a few days, to enjoy Clara's birthday and hopefully the sealing of baby Grover to Tracen and Melissa.  Then he'll work some more and come back Aug 2nd to drive us back.  I will fly with at least Hazel.  No one and I mean NO ONE can stand her in the car for more than an hour.  We are so excited to see everyone.  Very sad to miss the fourth of July. Corey's partners both need that time off and he got Christmas and Spring break off, so he needs to stay.   Does everyone else know their plans? We hope we see everyone.  Melanie, Hazel has requested a twin cousin birthday party, if you could check with Stori and let me know if that would be ok!  

      Have a great week everyone!  

Radfords

This week we were going through California withdrawals. The weather this week wasn't overly great, but not too bad I guess. We went on a few small bike rides. Like really small, cause we don't have anything for Stori to ride in so dan just holds her on his bike. We are still working on finding a bike trailer or just the regular old bike seat that fits on the bike. 

Stori is still going through "Ryder" withdrawals... Jen, I think she will really like your baby :)

She calls Flynn several times a day. Usually she will have a good conversation with him, but the video I captured is just a basic call.  We got her a Rapunzel doll in Disneyland and she now sleeps with that and will even have her call Ryder to tell him he's at home. ha she is so weird :)

Dan's dad came to town to pick up a truck for work and so he was here from friday until today. We wish we could have helped mom more with her yard, but it was kind of hard because the dad was here... sorry mom! Love this picture of you two though!!!!

We ran to walmart on one of the windy days this week so Stori could walk around and hide in the clothes, (not my choosing) but she would not let me leave these glasses in the car while we shopped. She walked around like she owned the place! when she saw I was taking a picture she pulled her best "cheeeeese" face together hahaha. She definitely got a lot of attention there.

On Thursday, the only really warm day, Stori and I went with the Forester girls to the zoo. We are making it a weekly thing because it wore the girls out so much they all took 4 hour naps the next day! :)

Last night we went on a little date to see Iron Man 3 in Idaho Falls. We went to the 10:45 showing and I didn't even fall asleep!!!! Dan was very proud. 

Dan also signed up for the LSAT. it's in less than 4 weeks so he has A LOT of studying to do in NOT a lot of time. but he's excited to get it over with. Plus, if he takes it this early he still has a chance to re-take it in October and still be able to qualify for early application. which means he finds out first round if he gets accepted anywhere. Part of us wants to go to school in Utah, Idaho, or Wyoming because it's close to family, but the other part wants to go somewhere new. I think it would be fun no matter where we go---but family is always #1 for me.

Well, happy May everyone! Next week is Mothers Day so don't forget to tell mom that she is the GREATEST!!!! :) Love you all

Popcorn popping on the apricot tree

 Another week of groundhog's day....the movie that is....day after day of basic sameness.  Didn't get a break during the week, five days of 101/2 to 11 hour days.  Then, because it was sooo much fun, I repeated last Saturday!  I worked soooo hard last Sat. ( remember me going on and  on about it?  :)  )  Monday brought with it horrific winds.......and yes, you guessed it ....my trees gave up their branches....all over my yard!  I almost cried when I drove into the driveway after work!  Sooo, bright and early yesterday morning, I headed out with rake in hand.  I did have a little help this time.  Melanie and Stori came and helped for a while.  Trey ( Amber's son) climbed up on the roof and cleaned it off before they left for the day. And, Dan and his Dad innocently stopped by.... :)  They all helpedfor a bit.  It made a huge difference!
  While I was in the front yard raking by myself, I had this image in my head..... if you have seen Notting Hill, the movie with Hugh Grant and Julia Roberts, you know the scene where he is walking down the street, and as he walks past the street vendors, the seasons change... well, in my version, I am raking up branches in my yard, but as I rake, I just get older, and older......hahaha,  the mind gets bored.  :)
 Yesterday was beautiful!  There were a few rain showers in the afternoon, perfect timing for a lunch break.  After the storm, the sun came out....I love how it smells and feels after a little rain!  As I was hauling wheelbarrow after wheelbarrow out to my burn pile, ( I actually got almost the entire yard done this time  :) ) I couldn't help but think how much I  love my yard.... There were tiny green leaves starting on all of the quakies, AND the popcorn was popping on the apricot trees! On top of that, by walking out in the field every few minutes, I got to enjoy the beautiful sunset!  Perfect.
 I know I have a rather boring life, and it doesn't make for very exciting  reading, but, I want you to know that I am very grateful for this life, for my job, my home, and especially for my family! I am reminded every day how lucky I am!

 Love to all of you!   XOXOXOX

HI guys! Early post again. Lily is having a birthday party right now (we're leaving for the movie in a few minutes) but thought I'd post while I have a second. I went back to the dermatologist yesterday and got stitches out--but got a bunch more! He cut off four suspicious moles for biopsy (and a complimentary skin tag removal! :) I now have bandages on my forearm, ear, neck, and knee. And am supposed to keep my healing stomach incision covered. Bought a new box of bandages... ;) Anyway, should hear back on these (and really, there are at least two I am expecting to hear the worst on) by a week from Monday at the latest.
In other news, school is winding down for the year. Hooray! I am always excited for school to get out for the summer but this year, for some strange reason, I am SUPER excited for it to get out. Looking forward to cleaning house (for real, not the half job I do when I'm working) spiffying up the yard, and hanging out with my kiddos. This time of the year people start to conversationally ask if you have fun plans for the summer. My answer is always YES. We're not really going anywhere big or doing anything big and I'm so excited for that. Also looking forward to seeing all of you. Well, the movie is calling and little girls are getting rowdy so I better run.
Love you all!