Wonderful Weekend

Brandon and Wes went to Youth Conference over the weekend, so I took the boys up to my parent's house for a visit. Mel and Jacob were down with Dessie and my brand new nephew Andrew. I spent most of my weekend doing this:I was in new baby heaven! Andrew is adorable and such a sweet baby. He is always content and hardly even makes a peep. I enjoyed every minute I got to spend holding him.

The boys were also quite enamored with him and all took several turns holding him.Dessie of course delighted all of us with her antics. She is the happiest, most delightful little girl!We did have a bit of an adventure. We were finishing up breakfast when my dad spotted a mama duck with her babies just across the street. She was trying to get them to jump onto the curb but they were so little they were having a hard time. It was the cutest thing to watch them. Then, just after the last one got up, she jumped off the curb and started walking down the gutter. Like a dufus, she walked right over a storm drain and her babies followed her. Four of the eight fell through the cracks. It was horrible!!

We ran right over. Luckily there was water at the bottom so none of them got hurt. But they were trapped and they were crying and it was so sad. We knew we had to help get them out. To make a long story short, my dad rigged a fishing net onto a pole:And eventually he was able to get all four of them out:This one was so tiny that it kept falling through the holes in the net, so I carried it over to it's mama. Aren't they the cutest things!

It was a glorious weekend and I thoroughly enjoyed myself!!

Father's Day Fun

This is the first year I can remember that we didn't go up to my parent's house for Father's Day. Spencer, Tyler, Justin, and I spent the last three days there while Brandon and Wes were at Youth Conference. (We had a fabulous time by the way, and I will post about it tomorrow.) I have the most amazing Dad, and he is the world's greatest grandpa. Don't even try to argue that yours is better, because you can't win. :)

Happy Father's Day Dad!!

Since we were just there, we decided to just spend the day here at home. Nothing spectacular, but it was still a great day. I think Wes enjoyed it. We actually got to have a long nap, and that was wonderful because we were both exhausted after spending three nights in a strange bed.

After dinner, we made up a game that all of us played. It is basically "Don't Eat Pete", but I named it "Don't Bug Daddy". I printed a grid off on the computer and had each of the boys draw 4 faces in the squares.

They had much more fun than I thought they would. They got very creative and some of the pictures are hilarious:If you have never played before, here are the basic rules:
One person leaves the room. The remaining players pick a special square. Then you place a small piece of candy on each square. (We used marshmallows.) The person comes back, starts picking up pieces of candy, and eating them. When he picks up the candy on the chosen square, everyone yells "Don't Bug Daddy!!" Then his turn is over and he gets to choose the special square when the next person leaves the room.

My kids love this game!! It was even more fun this time because I had them draw the pictures themselves. You can tell by the smiles on their faces how much fun they are having. They can't wait for dad to pick up the wrong marshmallow so they get to yell at him. :)We had so much fun playing this that I'm thinking we should start a new family tradition!

Oh and Wes, if you are reading this, Happy Father's Day. Thanks so much for being a wonderful husband and an amazing daddy to our boys. I never imagined that life could be this good. I am so grateful that I am married to you and I love you with all my heart!!

Stinkin' Hail!

While we were at church yesterday, a huge hailstorm hit. We came home to find this in our yard.I went out today to assess the damage to our garden. It is so sad. Everything was growing beautifully, and now there are torn leaves everywhere. The raspberries and the tomatoes fared the best because their leaves are small. The squash plants look hammered and I'm not sure they will make it. Why does gardening have to be so gosh darn frustrating!?!

Family Portrait

At the end of preschool, Justin gave us this present:
If you look closely, you will see that there are 7 people. His preschool teacher told us that the very first person he drew in the picture was his baby sister. Every time he prays, he asks Heavenly Father to help us find a baby sister. He is so excited about getting a baby, and he just has faith that it will happen. I have faith that his prayers will be answered, I am just hoping it will be soon. :)

I just sent our paperwork up to an adoption attorney in Idaho. He is a stake president and sees a few birth mothers every year. Wayne and Tami introduced us to a family that has adopted two children through him, and they gave us his number. Hopefully he will be the answer to our prayers. But if not, we will continue to have faith and just keep trying.

Fun with family

We went up to my parent's house to celebrate several family birthdays. We had tons of fun and the boys loved spending time with their cousins. Here are a few of my favorite photos:

Justin and Dan LOVED Grandpa's garden wagon:I think we need to invest in one of these. It provided hours of entertainment.

Rebecca had lots of fun teasing Brandon. She recruited Spencer into helping her arrange grandma's blocks:I don't think Brandon was amused, but he was very nice to humor them.

We ate birthday cake. I'm not real fond of this picture of myself, but I love the expression on Jake's face. You'd think we were feeding him a pile of cooked spinach!After dinner, the boys headed outside for a "friendly" game of football.Yes, that is my son pushing his cousin. He must get that from Wes, because I would never push anyone around. Ahem.

I wish I was a big loser. . .

So, a group of people in my neighborhood have decided to do a little "Biggest Loser" competition. I decided to join them. We have till September and my goal is to lose 15 pounds. I found an online sight where you enter all the foods you eat and all the activities you participate in. It calculates everything and tracks your progress. It is a pain in the hiney entering every single food, but it is actually very helpful for me. For almost two weeks, I watched my diet and exercised more than I ever do. Every single day I consumed at least 500 less calories than I burned. Even the bad days. I single handedly consumed at least two heads of lettuce. Guess how much I lost? One single stupid pound.

But I am not giving up. I used the treadmill for almost an hour today. After having salad for lunch every day but one last week, I was really looking forward to some leftover veggie pasta salad in the fridge. Came up and discovered that not only had Wes taken the leftover pizza from last night, he also took the pasta salad. I am not lying when I tell you that I almost cried. It is going to be a long summer.