atempts at summer fun...

Since for some reason the weather doesn't know that it is May and not March we have been taking advantage of every little bit of sunshine we can between rain storms. Kelli and I have now taken the kids to the zoo twice. They are having a fun exhibit of animatronic dinosaurs our kids just love. Here are a few pics.

Our hard work

We have been busy busy busy working on our yard this spring. I just wanted to share some of our hard work with you....

We decided to get the kids a new play set. They are constantly asking to go to the park and we thought it would be fun if we brought the park to them, also it gives them more incentive to stay in our own yard and not want to go gallivanting around the neighborhood.

 We got the airplane thrown in with the swing set. It was a lot of work getting it put together. You can just ask my mom. My parents were wonderful enough to come over and help us get it put together.

Here is my new garden. Isn't it beautiful? This was my vision for our yard this year. Hopefully the plants end up as beautiful as the garden is. Again thanks goes out to my parents for helping us shovel all of that dirt (7 cubic yards) in to it.

 Danny's pet project this year was more trees. We got 4 new fruit trees and two nice shade trees. 2 peach, a Honey Crisp Apple, and a Plum and a Red Oak, and a Sunburst Honeylocust. They are bigger than the ones we mail ordered last year and should be providing fruit and shade in a matter of a few years. Yeah!

 I decided that my kitchen was hideous a long time ago, but have always had babies (no time or energy) and little funds to do anything about it. Well I decided that a coat of paint on my ugly brown laminate cabinets was just the thing it needed to brighten it up and make it look better. Hopefully this will make me want to be in there more often and actually cook every day. The hardware is not all up yet and we are replacing our sink thanks to my in-laws remodel and getting their old one. I couldn't get the hardware off of the old fronts in front of the sink until that happens so it is all still a work in progress, but you can see how much better it looks. I tried to find a before pic for those of you who haven't seen my ugly kitchen before, but it seems I never had any desire to take one (go figure) so you will just have to imagine the ugliest 1970's cabinets you can and that will be pretty close to what it was.

Runaway Baby!

So yesterday afternoon I was down in my basement as I am now, writing a little thing about my mission bag for my relief society birthday party last night. I had the door locked and I thought my kids were all entertaining themselves for a minute. Melody came down and told me that Miranda's bike was outside and that it was starting to rain. I told her to open the garage and bring it in then close the garage and come back in. I assumed that was what happened (I know I should never assume when it comes to Melody). A few minutes later I came upstairs and only Tommy and Miranda and Bracken were anywhere to be found. I asked where Maddalyn was and Miranda said she was in her bed. Ok... so I went up to her room, no baby. I then heard a knock at the door. I ran downstairs and my sister was there with Walley in tow. She said that he was running down the street so she stopped to grab him. Sheer panic! I ran out the door and down the street. I then saw Melody and my good friend Holly coming up the street from the circle where she lives with Maddalyn in her arms. It is blowing like crazy, getting cold and starting to rain at this point.
Apparently Melody had accidentally let the dog out when she went out to get the bike and went chasing him down the street (I have told them about a billion times not to chase him if he gets out) and Maddalyn followed. Instead of telling me that the dog had run away and bring Maddie back in she went to her friend's house to get her mom to help (my friend Holly). Luckily Holly opened the door for her even though she had not wanted any friends over at that time and eventually noticed little Maddie there with Melody.
what would I do without my good neighbors? What am I going to do with my silly 6 year old? One more scare to take years off of my life. Thank Heavens it all worked out and nobody got hurt. I learned my lesson that I need to be the one to bring in bikes in the rain from now on until all of my kids can be safe outside on their own.