Our Family

Our Family

Sunday, May 22, 2011

Mother's Day Spoon

For Mother's Day this year Kendall decided to make his mom a spoon, using his new hobby and skills. He had never tried carving detail like words into a spoon, but he decided to try it this time. I thought it turned out very pretty.
I actually gave him the idea to glaze it to help the letters really "pop" and so he tried that and was very happy with the results.
I'm guessing that it probably won't get used for eating, so we put a ribbon on it so that she can at least hang it on the wall. :)
I'm so proud of my husband and all of his wonderful and amazing talents and skills. He really is a jack of all trades and he is constantly amazing me with all of the things that he is good at. And Happy Mother's Day to the wonderful woman who raised him.

Lakeview Museum

The Jim Henson exhibit came to the Lakeview Museum, so we took the kids over for a FHE activity and had a lot of fun. We couldn't take pictures of the actual puppets, but the kids had fun seeing some of their favorite Sesame Street and Muppet Babies characters.

At the end of the exhibit they had some fun activities for the kids. They could put on their own puppet shows...and even design their own puppets.And the Discovery Center is always a favorite.And who doesn't love a giant PINPRESSION?
Who is the cute chubby baby?
What do you do with a 7 month old when you are just too tired to chase him around?This works for at least 20 minutes.

Some Favorite Elders

We love to have the Elders over for dinner. These are our favorites!
Elder Doulan, Elder Dahl, Elder Craven and Elder Harrison

These particular missionaries are so good at giving us messages that are really geared towards the kids. They have stories and magic tricks that tell us a good message and the kids really love it. Funny story, one night the Elders stopped by after the kids were already in bed. Avri was really sad the next morning that she had missed them and asked "Did you do magic tricks without us?" All I could picture in my mind was all of us adults sitting around doing tricks that were meant for the 4-yr olds. haha. Glad the kids love the missionaries so much.

Summer already?

It's already time for the garden. This is actually a really old picture. I need to get some new pics of the garden up. Soon. They are coming.
Avri has a new skill in making dandelion jewelry. I'm sure she would sell you some. :)
I walked into Talmage's room the other morning to this. Poor little boy who was wishing he was outside. Don't mind the too-little Spider Man jammies.
And we've already started the food preservation process. Mmmm. LOVE the strawberry freezer jam.
Daddy and Grandpa took the kids out to fly a kite one cold windy day.
Sadie was REALLY enjoying herself. haha.

Innocent

There is nothing so sweet and innocent as a sleeping child. I admit, I love these little rugrats.

Easter

We had a wonderful and simple Easter this year. My parents went to Michigan to visit my Grandma, so it was just us this year. I was feeling a bit ba-humbug about the whole thing and very overwhelmed with everything going on, so thank goodness for Kendall and his preparations.

The Easter bunny did visit us this year and brought the kids butterfly nets, hid the eggs and then built a barricade so that the kids couldn't peak into the living room before the egg hunt began. Do you remember last year's barricade?
Well, we go through yogurt rather quickly these days and so it was a much larger barricade this year:Yup, it really was as tall as the piano. The kids had a BLAST breaking through it. I think it is going to have to be a tradition since it is the highlight of their entire Easter celebrating.

The Easter Bunny even brought me a new pink pocket knife for my keychain, since mine was falling apart. Kendall and I got camp chairs for the whole family and they are a huge hit. Guess we need to plan a camping trip now. :)
Bed-head Sadie with a mouthful of candy, of course.
We also had a very special treat. A few weeks prior to Easter Grandpa found this cacoon in his bushes as he was trimming them. He put it in this container and we kept it in our house for quite a few weeks. We figured it had probably died.
But late the night before Easter out emerged... a giant silk moth. It's wing span was about 6 inches and it was really beautiful!
Everyone (that wanted to) got to hold it. This picture makes me laugh. Talmage wasn't so sure that he liked it. And as soon as it moved he KNEW he didn't like it.
But Avri is our little nature child and loved it, of course.
Even Rigdon tried to eat it. But I didn't get a picture because I was too busy trying to get it away from him. And Kendall of course had to get in on the action. The kids thought it was pretty hysterical.It hung out in the house for a few days while its wings dried out enough that it could fly. Then we let her go.

On a more religious tone, I was really amazed at how much the kids understood about Easter and the reason that we celebrate this wonderful holiday. I was teaching Sunbeams on Easter and so I put quite a bit of work into planning some activities that would help them grasp the Christ-centered aspects, rather than the candy aspects and my own kids loved all of that stuff as well. I was so proud of my children and their smart little answers to all of the questions about the Atonement and the crucifiction as well as the Resurrection. I have such a testimony that Jesus Christ is our Savior and that he died for us and atoned for our sins in the Garden of Gethsemane. I know that he was resurrected and that he lives today and that he loves each and every one of us and feels our pains, as well as our frustrations, big and small. I am so grateful for this knowledge in my life and I hope that I can pass this love on to my children and that they will never question my faith or testimony.

Tuesday, May 17, 2011

Much A'Do About Hair

As I was going through some recent pictures I noticed a strong hair theme. Here goes:

Kendall's hair growth experiment is still going strong. Here he is May 1st. It measured 5 cm long.
Now that Rigdon is getting a little bit older I have started up on an occasional hair-do or two on the girls again. Here are some pictures of some of the latest ones. Ballet recital:
For "Fashion Disaster Day" at school we did a bun-hawk:

Rainbow Day at school:
And a bit of a grown-up do, the Waterfall French Braid:
Sadie's hair is also getting a lot longer, and we were finally able to give her some decent french braids.
And she couldn't be left out of the crazy hair style:
Rigdon is proving to be quite the little hair grower himself. Here he is at exactly 7 months, getting his second big haircut! Let's hope he keeps his beautiful thick hair!