Happiness, projects, and overwhelming cuteness.

 Spring is the BEST and part of that includes my many obsessive trips to local nurseries.

My favorite place the last few years is Southern Idaho Landscape center on the road to Filer.  (maybe it has to do with the fact that there are no stoplights between my house and the nursery.  Hmmm…)

I've visited at least four times in the last month and even if I don't purchase anything, I love just being there and enjoying the flowers.  Flowers make me really really happy, hence why my yard is beginning to look like it belongs to an 80 year old woman.  I'm now (yet again) the crazy flower lady. 

 My youngest two love running around the nursery and seeing all the garden animal statues…and they beg my every time to buy one.  Sorry kids.

Grady posed for this one.

Cute kids in a fun happy place.

This may not make Andrew happy, but it makes me and my parents happy that Andrew is willing to work.  The official lawn mowing at my parents house has begun and last week was especially awful with the cottonwood trees in full bloom.  Andrew could hardly breathe and seeing wasn't much easier.  I'm hoping this is building character…just like it did when I was his age and riding the same mower. 

Steve started and finished a huge project this weekend and as you can tell from this picture he pulled some late hours and worked by car headlight.

Colby and Carter put in their fare share of work by hauling paving stones and sweeping sand.

Hurray!  The fire pit is finished!

We have some more rock to move and mulch to add…but the pit is finished and we are ready to roast some marshmallows!

Nasty picture, but cutting the boys' hair is a project in itself.

Steve on top of everything else cut four head of hair this last weekend too.  He's a keeper.

Now to the cuteness part of this post.

Grady loves all things he can push around outside and all things tractors.

The construction at the end of our street is all too tempting.  

And he says prayers every night too.

The cuteness is killing me.

Humility mixed with a little sarcasm

I fully admit I haven't been the picture of happiness today.  Tonight even I didn't go to Colby's Pack meeting because I was just too plain grumpy.  I would have been a HUGE fun sucker if I had gone.  Call it anxiety, stress, being overwhelmed with life as a mother of five…or whatever you want to call it…I could kill with dirty looks tonight.  (not proud about this)

Anyhoo…as I knelt down with Saylor as she said her prayers I was humbled and put in my place.

"Please bless if there is anyone in the world who is scared or frightened, that they will not be scared.  Please bless that Mom can be happy.  And please bless that Mom can get enough rest."

Yeah. 

 Nice.  

My happiness and sleep level is right up there with world peace according to my five year old daughter.    My grumpy and overwhelmed demeanor is obviously apparent to my children.  This fact gives me much reflection….

1.  My kids are affected by my nastiness.

2.  My kids, even though they fully act like I don't matter and I'm present just for their whims to be

          fulfilled, actually do care about me.

3. If they care about how grumpy I am…why in the world do they not realize if they just picked up 

    their stuff the first time I asked them, never fought with each other, ate what I served without  

    complaint, and wouldn't treat me like a waitress and laundry maid…I might be more pleasant to be 

    around.

4.  I'm grateful, despite my grumpiness, that my daughter realizes she can pray to a loving Heavenly 

     Father who will answer her prayers and help her (and me) have a better day tomorrow.  

5.  Being humbled by a five year old can be a bit humiliating. 

Colby is NINE!

We celebrated a birthday this weekend.

It was for Colby and he turned, you guessed it, nine.

He wasn't excited about it or anything.

He chose a chocolate cake with white frosting and he wanted his initial in candy bar.  He was gracious enough to have the candy bar be of the gluten free kind so his mom and Grandma Walker could partake.

He's a keeper…even with his crusty faces.

Other than the perfect chocolate cake we celebrated in other small ways the days around his birthday.

Steve had a scout camp out Colby's actual birthday, so he brought home donuts Friday morning before school.

Who wouldn't want a gigantic donut at 6:30 am??

I also brought treats to Colby's class Friday.

Here he is with Mrs. Sailors.  She is one of the best teachers at Perrine and Colby LOVES her!

Colby's birthday treat of choice?

Pizza.

Best treat I have ever brought in.  The kids were in heaven and there was no nasty frosting or cake to clean up.  Perfection if I do say so myself!

Other birthday festivities included wads of cold hard cash...

and Colby's new drift trike.

Don't let the trike part fool you.  This thing is death on wheels.  Colby (of all people) came in after his first ride wide eyed and flustered.  "That thing is SCARY!"

We love Grandma and Grandpa!

Not pictured is Grandma Dixon.  We missed out on a picture with her!  So sad!

Happy Birthday my Colby Love.  Your dad and I are so grateful to have your wonderful self in our family!

Other great notes from this last week...

Carter's second catfish died and Carter buried him in the empty field behind our house.

Carter gave a few words and then asked for my to give a testimony.  Uh…yeah…I don't cry or speak over dead fish.  Luckily, Saylor and Colby put out enough sad faces to make any hired mourner jealous.  

The shallow grave.

Ghee Whiz.

Ok…just have to document the latest addition to Grady's binki obsession.  He now rubs one binki on his nose while he falls asleep and actually wants to rub it on my nose too.  

Here's a double nose rub.  It feels oh so good.  

Seriously, this kid is cracking me up.  

Oh, and he has three blankets that he loves.  Anything else will NOT do.   

Spring is Bipolar

First things first…let me talk about Andrew and his pond obsession.

That pretty much sums it up…he's obsessed and he thinks I'm going to let him get one in the back yard.  Fat chance, but I'm letting him dream anyways.  The minute chance of him getting outdoor fish makes him more willing to help around the house, so I'm planning to milk it for all its worth.

This picture was taken from my computer screen last week.  He left this message for me one morning.  Silly kid.

Ok.

Now to the bipolar weather.

One day it's beautiful and we have weather where I can take pictures like this...

and then next day it is snowing.

Ick.

I'm grateful for the report that the weather (and wind) should be pretty mild for the next 10 days or so.  Hallelujah!

My pond obsessed son didn't have school last Wednesday due to Junior SAT testing.

He spent most of his day in his pjs rotting his brain cells on a device…but he entertained Grady.  I let the brain rotting slide.

Saylor's swim lessons continue to progress.

She can now back stroke across the pool all by herself!  Love her and love her teacher Ashlee!

On the odd occasion when our house shows (I won't say anymore on the subject due to pure unadulterated bitterness) we spend the hour or so at my moms.  Grady has free reign of the pantry and has been known to open multiple bags of chips and eat several adult sized servings of M&Ms and chocolate chips.

What happens at Grandma's stays at Grandmas.

Grady also is learning the ropes of Facebook from my dad.

Monkey see-Monkey do.

(My parents house is very educational!)

Saylor is also mastering some life skills with the aid of my wonderful mother. (It's not quite as important as Facebook though.  Cough Cough.)

She is learning how to as she calls it, "button sew" and finds it WAY more exiting than anything I have ever taught her.  I'm guessing the sewing gene skips a generation sometimes.

Cutes little button sewer I know.

I guess other than facebook, buttons, and bipolar weather, things are pretty calm around here.

Well as calm as they usually are in this house of madness.

Some more highlights from our week are as follows...

Running laps around the house complete with finger lap counting.

Don't get hyper in my house or you will RUN RUN RUN!

Dixon cousin birthday party!

We love you Jacob!  Congrats on turning the ripe old age of SIX!!

Andrew might be obsessed with outdoor fish ponds, but I'm a little obsessed with flowers.

I'm loving this spring season and picking out flowers for my pots from my favorite nursery.

I can't wait to see how big my baskets can get this summer!

In other news, Saylor asked Steve for a new girly bike this week.  He told her he wouldn't buy her one until she rode "Snicker-doodle", the boys' old little bike.

She got on Snicker-doodle and was riding without training wheels in about 5 minutes.

Her borrowed strider bike, aka Gingersnap, was awesome in helping Saylor learn to balance.

Fast forward about one hour and Saylor was the proud owner of the girliest bike I've every seen.

She named her bike Blue.

Confession: I was hoping she would continue the cookie theme with the name of her bike, but can't complain about Blue.  It fits.

And seeing her pedal into the sunset with those tassels flying made my entire week!

Lessons to be learned from this????

1.  Never say never to Saylor. 

2.  Dads are big suckers when it comes to little girls.

Last but  not least…my parents have been in southern Utah playing it up.

I'm proud of them for getting out of town and relaxing.

I can't wait to see all their pictures, and I know they will be AWESOME in this years family book!

Teenager

 And Shabam!

Just like that he grew really really big.

(excuse the motherly sniffles in the background as you read)

Andrew had a home track meet yesterday so he was allowed to run with the varsity crew.

He ran the 3200 and the 800.

Sadly, I missed both races, even though I was there twice, because I was taxiing the other kids to and from swim team.

He was happy with his times and loves being active.  After the track meet, he came home showered and left for a party at a friends house.

He got home late and then was up early this morning for a stake service project at the temple.  He cleaned out flowerbeds and shoveled bark.

I'm noticing more and more that his age is indirectly proportional to how much I see him. 

 (more motherly sniffles)

Love you Andrew…and I miss you lately.

Things that made me happy this last week in no particular order.

It's been a long week and the roller coaster ride of house showing has taken its toll.  It sounds silly, but showing my house makes me feel bipolar.  The highs are really high (oh man, somebody might put an offer on my house) and the lows are just as low (I just waisted three hours of my life cleaning and this house is still unsellable.  Yeah…I'm real optimist.) 

Then after I get over the showing being for nothing and resolve myself to be happy as things are…the house shows again.  It's a vicious cycle and sometimes I feel it's sucking my will to live.

(There's that optimism shining through again.)

But as I look through my candid camera pictures I realize, as always, that my life is full and good.  And my house not selling really doesn't matter.  It's inconvenient.  It's not what I want at the moment.  It's annoying…but it's not truly important.  

The following pictures are things that made me happy this week.

My daughter has discovered a love for Chick-fil-A hash-browns, but we call them tots.

They are only served in the morning and I am more than happy to go get them for her and pick up a soda for me…in the early hours of the day. 

Glad I have a junk food buddy.

Walked in on Andrew reading his scripture for seminary. There's nothing quite like your children learning to love the gospel to make your parental heart swell.   His seminary teacher is a good friend of mine and I'm so grateful to her for all the time, effort, sacrifice and love she puts into her class.  I also appreciate her nagging about scripture reading so I don't have to!  Much love goes out to Deanna today!

 This kid (when he's not screaming) makes me ridiculously happy.  I'm trying to appreciate his babyhood as much as possible.  As I look at picture of my older kids when they were little I realize how fast it all goes. 

Stay little Grady…at least for a while longer.

These two swam over a mile Friday afternoon for their swimming fundraiser.

They gave it their all…and I'm sure their super tight swim suits helped a little.  (wink wink)  How they love their speedy jammers.

After the Aquathon they had a cold cereal feast.  They pounded their Lucky Charms and Fruit Loops.

 Carter's blood sugar had dropped 75 points while he was swimming so I was grateful for the sugar bomb afterward to help him out.

Saturday morning I re-cleaned out the flowerbeds (stupid weeds) and worked on cleaning out the garden space a little.  Steve and I went to buy mulch to put around our shrubs and while at the nursery I found the hanging baskets I wanted.  Its a little early to buy baskets, but they make me ridiculously happy.  I dropped a wad on flowers and they were worth every penny.  I'll have to baby them for a while and take them inside the garage on the nights when it might drop below freezing, but I got first pick of the baskets!   This morning I'm eyeing a spot on my back porch that might get enough sun to warrant buying another basket.  Four baskets isn't obsessive is it???

JaNae was here and left her mark on the road in front of my house.  As she squealed away, I had flashbacks from high school.  It was awesome.  I might have to get a stick shift so I can do this too!

 These two continue to have a darling relationship that I treasure watching.

Here Andrew was showing Grady pictures of fast cars along with instructing him with names and purchase prices.  Grady is going to be an expert. 

I know that Andrew will be gone before I know it and Grady will grow up mostly without his oldest brother around.   Grady will only be six when Andrew can leave on his mission.  That makes my heart hurt just typing that.

But for now, it is the absolute best seeing these two be best buddies.

Grady was doing his best to do push ups just like Andrew.

Speaking of Andrew, last night he went to the movies with a big group of friends and then they went to the stake dance in Kimberly.

I had to screen shot this picture from Instagram, otherwise I would never get it.  Following Andrew's friends has its perks.

(PS…it didn't count as dating because there was an uneven number of girls and boys.  At least that's what Andrew and his friends claimed.)

Lastly…how can a mousse crown not make one happy?