Tulip festival

So we were lucky enough to go to the Tulip Festival at the Thanksgiving Point Gardens this year... Now you'll have to excuse the pictures... they're mostly of the kids, not the garden.  And I really don't like the ones with me in them... 9 months pregos and complete with swollen ankles... but I have to prove that I'm there too right?  Not just Dad and the kids or Grandma and the kids.  I swear that I spend time with them too... not all of it behind the camera. 

And I tried to do a quick Easter photoshoot... but the kids were sick of being good for church and sitting still... these were the only two pictures that they both look okay in.  Failed photoshoot.  But still cute kids.  And Ada's way proud of the elephants on her dress, and Sammy couldn't wait to take of the vest and wouldn't let us put a tie on him at all.  Oh well.  They were still good for Easter.  Especially the drive up the canyon that we took.  They LOVED the baby cows and sheep that we saw.  Ada proudly told grandma that the baby sheep have tails but the big sheep don't.  Smart cookie.

Loving Grandma.

This is just at the beginning of the gardens, but we thought we'd snap a couple pictures before they got too grumpy.

See... I was there too.

Kids+gravel+water=gravel in the lake

This was the kids favorite part.  Grandma gave them $.25 to feed the fish... that was a hit for both them and the fish.

Sammy says all the fish are blue by the way.

See, Jer did get a haircut!  And he looks great!  And just ignore my body please and focus on the smiling faces!  Ada and I didn't mean to match colors either.  She was wearing a yellow shirt but spilled at lunch... I sent her to get a new one and this is what we ended up with.  Matching mommy and ada!

Ring around the rosies on the circle patterned brick.  The kids thought that was pretty cool.

This is my favorite part of the garden... but Sammy was pretty done by then and Ada just wanted to play in the water and didn't like that we wouldn't let her.  Grandma and the kids had a little water fight to make up for it and it was pretty funny.

Willing daddy.  Love that man!

And this is more because Ada wanted to take pictures at all the things with holes for your faces... they're left over from the Dutch Festival from last Sat.

Rolling down the hill while waiting for dinner.

My Dutch children.  They both have blond hair to go with it.  For now at least.  No blue eyes though... both got Jer's brown... I think it's because of the Robertson chocolate obsession... have to have brown eyes to go with that right?

Easter

We are very blessed that we live by both our families... it's often not a matter of who to visit as much as how much time we have in our schedule to visit.  Easter is no exception... here are a few favorite Easter pictures...

my kids

And of course... if there's a camera I have to take pictures of my own kids right? 

Newest pictures

Here are some pictures from a shoot done this morning... it was a fun and crazy shoot... Ada wanted to play with the kids the whole time... go figure.  She must be a kid.  And I must say... isn't the little girl a doll?! 

Ada's first talk

Ada gave her first talk in Primary yesterday!  It was so fun!  I think Jer and I were more excited than she was... It was supposed to be on Jesus Christ Savior and Redeemer.  So the last week we've spent scripture study time reading about the Garden, Crucifixion, and the Resurrection.  Then Sunday during lunch I showed her pictures of these three things and asked her to tell me about them... and I wrote them down.  My favorite though was that she kept going on tangents... like: And Jesus wants us to be good and eat our lunch.  The best though was when she said that sins are bad things and that Jesus would make them go far away to their own home.  When she saw us in the audience she got down from the stand and came to give me a hug.  Cute!  Her friend Emma Jane was giving the Article of Faith and it was way cute!  She was yelling all the words into the microphone... I loved it!  They both did so well and no one was shy... what a good group of girls.

well...

Well, Jer's amazing!  He got our tree cut down and in a trailer ready to haul out on Monday pretty much by himself... I dragged some lighter branches around and Ada and Sammy had fun picking up small sticks... But it's gone... now we just need to kill the roots and eventually get the trunk out.  While Sammy was sleeping though, I had Ada start watching a movie so she could "rest" and not get grumpy later on.  She asked to watch The Fox and the Hound.  I remember it being cute and really liking the little birds in it... so sure... I came in later to get a band aid... she came over and held my hand while I patched myself up and then went to finish her movie... but she went into her movie just at the part where the Widow drops Todd off at the game preserve to keep him safe from Amos.  I looked over and she had tears on her face and was trying so hard not to bawl.  I asked her what was wrong and she said, "That lady is leaving her doggie and I don't want her to leave her dog, I want her to have puppies."  I gave her a hug and told her that she's just trying to keep Todd safe from the man and she said, "I still don't want her to leave him."  Way cute... guess we won't watch that one again for a while though... I didn't think it would be so taken to heart.

Baby Roman

Here are some pictures from our latest photoshoot... Cute baby! 

Accomplishing things....

Yeah, so instead of nesting like a normal mommy and cleaning the house really well... (because of my SI joint disfunction I don' bend all that well pregnant...) I've been finishing and catching up on projects... Here are some that I've been working on for the last three months...

Repainting all three of the kids dressers and fixing the parts of the that have broken loose.
Going through their clothes and sorting out what does and doesn't fit them. 
Updating both Ada's and Sammy's scrapbooks for the last 18 months.
Starting a baby book and a scrapbook for Evelyn.
Updating Jer's and my family scrapbook.
Fixing the hole that Lucy chewed through my double hammock when a neice didn't put it back up when she was done with it.
Planting tulip transplants from my Aunt.
Revamping our 72 hour kits. (adding stuff for all three of our kids.)
Updating our food storage to include stuff that Sammy's not allergic to.
Making Evelyn's blessing blanket.
Scanning all my Grandpa's WWII and mission pictures.
Learning to dry bananas...
etc..

Ones that I have planned for the next 6 weeks...
make Grandpa's pictures into a book.
make blankets for my cousins: Tiff and Tim, Nate and Meri's new babies
take newborn pictures of cousin Wendee's new baby
put together all the various baby gear that I took apart to wash
plan and do Sammy's birthday party
ignore my birthday
backup all the digital pictures and movies on to DVDs
plan and do a baby shower for my mission friend Mayra
Shampoo our carpets


Now I just need to clean the house...

After the baby's born I need to:
Get Jer off to his brother's wedding
Get Sammy used to Nursery again
Potty train Sammy
Get ready for 4 family reunions
find something to take the place of Ada's Joy school that's ending in a Month
take baby pictures of our own baby

And eventually fix the back fence, raise the cement stairs in the front, add a hand rail, get covers for the window wells that Sammy keeps trying to walk over, expand our fire pit, get our mulberry tree bolted together, replant my tomato plants, fix the latacing and paint it, repaint the front door that's peeling, repaint the balcony, get the van tire replaced, and somehow have time to do fun stuff with the kids.  Who has time for a garden this year?

Proud of myself

So, both of my other babies I've crochetted blankets for them... Ada prefers the one our neighbor made, Sammy has to have both of his for sleeping at our house... and I have one for this baby as well... but I made a blessing blanket this time too.  It's kind of funny... something that we'll really only use once and then will be tucked away into a hope chest... but it turned out pretty.