May Fools

Have you heard of May Fools' Day? It's kinda like April Fool's. We were the only ones in on it this year......

This is the view from our backyard:

 See that building behind us? This is the church we attend. This is literally the walk we make each Sunday:

Just a little stroll. The kids love it. It's so nice being close! 

We had it nice, until yesterday when we were told our ward is getting moved to the stake center to make room for a new singles ward to meet in this building. 

So for kicks, Brian- and his great sense of humor- put this outside our house in the front yard as people were headed to work this morning: 

We had a bunch of calls from people in the ward wondering what was going on, worried about us and all....until I told them it was just our way of celebrating april fools' day a month and a half late! They laughed. I love how Brian still makes me smile over things like this! 

Backyard Fun!

It's finally completed! The kids are just ecstatic about their new play fort and swing set. The squeals and laughs of happiness are music to my ears! I hope they get plenty of playtime on it this summer. So far  it's the first thing they want to in the morning (before breakfast and while still in p.j.'s) and the last thing before going to bed...."just one more slide?!?" Zoey woke up from her nap the other day and this was the first thing from her lips, "I want to swing." They LOVE it.

Hopefully they know how much their dad loves them, because he built the whole thing (and how much their mom loves them, because let's face it, it was my idea :) .

We thought we could have it done in a day or two, but it took more like two weeks! Weather dampened the progress and Brian travelled in between nails, screws, and posts....but it finally is completed and we are all the happier for it! You can't see it in these pictures, but he also put together a teeter totter (it's in the shape of an airplane and really cute). The blue baby swing (hanging in the wrong direction for now) was a purchase I made back when Jack was a baby- we lost the tree I intended to hang it from. But I kept it all these years and now we get to use it for Eli and any others after him!

Easter

Easter was fantastic. Sacrament meeting was wonderful. We had a lamb dinner and did the Easter Story on a flannel board (it had taken me all week to pull together). As always, the Easter story was so touching.  Easter is as big around our house as Christmas in the respect to the importance of it all. 

 Saturday was spent doing the egg hunts at the grandparents' and enjoying time with family. It was a great occasion!

Mock Emergency Week

I was browsing the web, looking for something for Primary, when I came across a website that suggested going on a "mock emergency week." I decided to give it a try. Two rules: you couldn't go out grocery shopping to "stock-up" beforehand (simulating a disaster where you cannot make it to the grocery store OR you find the store has been looted prior to you making it there), and you could only use what you had in your home (fridge, freezer, pantry, food storage).

I had bananas on my counter. I had in my fridge 6 eggs, 1 1/2 gallons of milk, sour cream, some cheese, a green pepper, carrots, green onion, potatoes...not a whole lot. My freezer had some baby food, ground beef, frozen veggies and other random stuff. The pantry had basics, cereal, crackers, pasta, etc. The bulk of my meals came from our food storage.

Brian and I had spent a lot of time working on our food storage a while back, but we never really gave it a trial run....this was the perfect opportunity. Although, I do have to say that we had all the conveniences of electricity and gas to be able to cook our food as usual. Maybe next time I try this we'll go off the grid for an added challenge!

Our menu consisted of items such as whole wheat pancakes, cornmeal pancakes, wheat bread for sandwiches, chili, chicken tetrazzini, hawaiian haystacks, shepherd's pie, peach cobbler, jello ice cream, and chicken soup.

It was pretty easy the first few days. I heard comments like: "This is a food storage meal?" The kids liked everything I made, which is good to know. It progressively got harder as the week wore on. By Thursday night, we ran out of milk. It was hard to hear my kids ask for more milk or for a drink of milk and not be able to give it to them. I also noticed how fast we went through produce and cheese. I was craving fruit more than I thought I would. And I really wanted some cheddar cheese. I guess that's why the saying goes, "You don't know what you've got 'til it's gone"

The thing we learned from this experience is that 1) we have an awesome 3 month supply and a fairly good 1 year supply of basics 2) we know how we ought to scale our recipes in the future to feed the right amount of people 3) we are more aware of what we want to bulk our food storage up with (I'd really like to learn how to wax my own cheese, so I can store it on the shelf!).  It was a great time of year to do this too: end of the winter when our produce put up from last fall was low, and we didn't have the convenience of our garden to supplement our meals....it gave us a good idea of how things "might" be should anything disastrous happen.... Give it a try!!

Jackson's 4th Birthday

 Jackson asked for a Thomas the Tank Engine Party this year. This was the cake we made him; my sister came over to help decorate it and we had a lot of fun putting it together! Complete with trains, village, train tracks, bridge, mountains and a waterfall. I printed the village off on cardstock and stuck it on the frosting at the very end. 

 He had a wonderful day. I asked him what made him feel special and he said the balloons... because they were a surprise. He liked them so much he wanted to go to sleep holding his balloon. A few hours later, I went back in to check on him and he was still clenching his balloon!  (I snuck the balloon away at that point for safety and he got it back this morning).  

He asked for "red mountains" for his birthday, so we found a gorgeous picture of the St. George temple with the red mountains as the backdrop...he loved it. He also got a kid camera, a couple of lego Thomas trains, the Lightning Mcqueen shirt he is wearing, a plane and some cars for his birthday. He was so excited for his birthday and enjoyed having the family over to celebrate with him. 

I can't believe he is 4 years old! I feel like I have been a mother longer than that! But then again, it feels like he was born not that long ago. 

We LOVE having him in our family and adds such a special part to our lives. He is beginning to be very helpful around the house and will do most things he is asked. He loves his brother Eli to pieces and loves to make him laugh. He is very smart and social and loves Primary and school.  He is also very sneaky and a negotiator, and this can get him into trouble at times! But he is mostly very tender hearted and can get his feelings hurt easily. Although he loves TV, he gets scared very easily too, so I have to be careful of what he watches (even Disney can get a little intense at times for him).  He loves things to be "just so" (very routined and doesn't like disruption from that), cornmeal pancakes, the lower case "j'' instead of the uppercase "J", keeping all his schoolwork, sleeping with the light on, hiding from dad when he comes home from work, building things, and making messes :) 

Thanks for making me a mom Jackson!