This & That

Memorial Day

Just a little reminder that it's not just a day off work...

I am grateful.

 

Around Here This Week

So around here this week...

I brought in some of peonies that have been blooming. They will tide me over until the roses start. I have some other varieties that aren't quite ready, so it's nice that they will last a while in the yard.

The strawberries are prolific this year, and I have several grandkids who will enjoy picking and eating them, if the slugs don't win.

This was the last picture I took of Jude as I got ready to leave Marc's house last week. My daughter-in-law and all three boys are coming for a visit this coming week since Marc is working nights. I'm warming up my baby-cuddling arms.

This was what I drove home in from Marc's house. We've had a rainy, quite cool week, and it's been great! The forecast has this dwindling and the temperatures climbing over the next several days. I have a feeling we're in for a long dry spell now.

I managed to lock myself out of my house last Saturday while my husband was out of town. Eric had to make the 30 minute drive from his house with a spare key to rescue me. Ironically, we've had a spare key we've been thinking about putting somewhere outside for a couple of years now. Needless to say, that happened the same day my husband got home. I was lucky I did this on the dry day in between chilly, rainy days, so sitting out on the front bench wasn't too much of a hardship.

It was time to pull some rhubarb. My husband and I did this one evening this week, and discovered that the big main plant has started a couple of satellite plants. It's going to be rhubarb-o-rama in a couple of years.

I'm going to freeze some of this, use some in strawberry-rhubarb jam, and make my husband's favorite "cobbler." I put it in quotes because it's basically white cake over the top of rhubarb....his grandmother's recipe that he looks forward to every year.

Yep, it's been a busy month....

....so I've been playing catch up on Project Life pages.

These are all stories you've seen...

Except maybe the Africa story. See that picture of Africa there? We defrosted one of the freezers in the garage and the water from that dried gradually into this fairly accurate Africa-shaped puddle. Is that not shaped just like Africa??? I sent it out to my kids and Marc started quoting the Toto song. 

Sent to me from the kids and grandkids this week, I got this one from Eric. Apparently Emmett wanted to see what would happen if you shredded a fairly large piece of styrofoam packing material. And now we know. 

From Collin's family, I got these two of David and his staticky hair on the slide. Pretty darn cute.

The funny thing is that when his daddy was a baby, he had tons of hair, and it stuck straight up like a big dandelion puff around his head.

I also got this one of Baby Jude yesterday morning from Marc, with the caption, "Good morning!" The little guy was apparently very wide awake. Get to see him this coming week.

Saluting This Birthday Boy

One of my red-headed boys has a birthday today.

There were times in his baby days that comparisons were drawn.....but I'm not seeing the resemblance.

Sometimes, when I go through older pictures looking for something that I can put in these posts, I just miss these little boys so much.

But I appreciate tremendously the adults they have become.

His brothers called him the fairness police, but he is my crusader. He serves his family. He serves his church, and he serves his country. As with all my kiddos, this mama is proud of him and loves him so much. Happy birthday to my Collin!

Keeping My Hands Busy

I think May is turning out to be just as busy, if not busier than April. Life just keeps right on moving along, one thing after another.

I did manage to finish off April's traveler's notebook, however. I started off by documenting a rainy day, and my feelings about rain in general. It's just my favorite.

Sometimes I don't have pictures enough for every, single page in the notebook, and for whatever reason, I don't like to leave them blank. You can label it my OCD tendency. I've made a couple this month with just product from the supplies I have.

Had to get the spring flowers in there.

Sometimes it's really easy to combine my pictures with the pre-printed papers in the notebook.

Other times, not so much. Yeah, sharks and paper cranes.... but I'm bringing in more and more supplies to make it work to my satisfaction.

No BYU blue in the color scheme for the month, but I'm OK with it.

The kits lately have had transparencies in them which tend to frustrate me a little bit, figuring out how to use them, but I keep trying.

I've also come to appreciate the blank pages, where I have a little more leeway.

So there it is. There are a few more pages included, but I didn't necessarily want to a "what I did on my summer vacation" slide show.

Before I went to see Marc's family, I also opened up the April Simon Says Stamp card kit, taking it off the voluminous stack of as yet unused card kit boxes. Some day, right? Here's most of the cards.

And a couple of my favorites.

The inspiration for this design came from a blog when I was searching out inspiration. Some days my brain is empty.

Around Here This Week

So around here this week.....

The peony bud I showed you last week has burst forth.

My husband and I made a quick trip to Marc's house on Saturday to meet Baby Jude. Once my husband got his hands on Jude, there was no getting him back.

I made up for it, though, since I went back over this past Monday and spent the week with them.

There were lots of Gramma Honey snuggles to be had.

This tiny newborn stage is so short, and I love being able to cuddle these fresh from heaven little ones. It's a privilege for me to just be with them, and absorb the sweet newness. I'm grateful that my boys and their wives are willing to share this special time.

This cute picture was taken by their other grandma.

Levi just chilling with Jude while he eats a snack. 

We ventured out to a park one morning where Isaac decided to raptor stalk a rock chuck. Those things were enormous....easily double the size of the ones we see in our pasture.

Sent to me from the kids and grandkids this week....this is a bit of a "meanwhile, back at the ranch" moment. I missed Gwen and Caroline's piano recital while I was out of town. Grandpa put in an appearance, though,

and I got these sweet pictures from Eric. It was a late night for these girlies.

From Collin's family, here's Baby John just awake from a nap....and he's really happy to see you.

I think this was Day 2 of the infamous air show at Collin's base...the day after David ended up with stitches.

Things look like they're healing really well, and I'm sure the infusion of ice cream was totally beneficial.

I got this one of Isaac from Marc before I headed over. That is one active boy right there.

Impromptu Sticks & Rocks....and Hot Dogs

Putting it right out there, I'm going to say that I'm not the most flexible person when it comes to impromptu events or changes in plans. My children are all snickering at this point, because they've all experienced the Mom anxiety that comes with a sentence that often starts with....."Oh, by the way....." Usually that means someone has neglected to tell me some plan they've hatched up with other family members that requires me to do things I hadn't planned on. My husband is the master of this, swearing up and down that he's told me about events I've never heard of, that are usually taking place at my house, with me catering.

I can't tell you the number of times this has happened in my married life. Maybe I'm wrong, and my family will probably let me know if I am, but if it involves me making food, housing people, and/or cleaning to prepare for either one of these occurrences, I feel like I should be the first person on the list that gets consulted about whether or not this is OK, before suggestions are made and invitations are extended and plans are already in the works, not the last person informed of what's going to happen, and I honestly don't feel like this is an unrealistic expectation.  None of this has much to do with the following story. It's just something I needed to get off my chest.

That said, we had a great impromptu gathering down at the ponds for a hot dog roast with all the in-townish families. 

Whatever your feelings happen to be about the hot dog itself, hot dog roasts are just made for days like this....gorgeous spring or fall days when it's not too hot or too cold.

When kids can be fascinated by the fire-making process and ask questions like, "What is fire?"

And then the resident astro-physics guy will tell you all about it. This is only about a third of the explanation rendered, but at least I got part of it.

Times when the "dogs" are cooked to perfection...

....and then, according to the Rule of 13, adorned with mouseturd and catchs**t.

When cousins can get together and have deep discussions paired with make-believe games.

As an aside, look at this portable high chair. These things weren't around when I was raising my kids but now I'm thinking I need one or two, holy cow.

When kiddos get as dirty as they can before they're trundled off for baths and bed.

When you can drink soda....

....and run around until you get tired out.

When you can eat s'mores while wearing a red Batman cape....

....and get really, really sticky.

Then go chase the lion lurking in the long grass.

Impromptu can be fun, especially if you have some warning....which I guess defeats the purpose of impromptu, doesn't it?

Other People's Cameras

Every once in a while I do these posts with pictures I've found or have been sent to me from other people's cameras.

These all happen to come from Eric's wife, Elisa. The first few document a family hike that took place over Easter weekend. I didn't attend since I was home working on Easter dinner food.

I really liked this group of pictures, though, because we live near the Snake River Canyon, and this is where the hike took place. 

It really shows this particular part of our environment.

Sagebrush....

rocks, cute kids and all.

It's not necessarily the most gorgeous terrain, but when you live here you get used to it, and you come to appreciate the rugged majesty of the area.

And every once in a while you come across something unusual and pretty, even in this rough-looking place.

This second set of picture is Caroline in her pretty white baptism dress.

These are a few pictures Elisa grabbed around their yard one afternoon when there was a break in the windy weather.

Liked the little sun ray here....

And look at this hair. I couldn't have pulled this off in a million years.

This is a sweet girl who still has the dimples she was born with.

I love getting pictures from other people's cameras....especially when there's nothing dangerous involved.

True to my preference, I love these pictures taken from behind.

You can see the edge of the canyon cutting right through the landscape. Everything's pretty and green now, but it doesn't take a lot of warm weather to turn everything that's not watered the same color as the canyon.

Around Here This Week

So around here this week....

My walking buddy has been doing some traveling, and after taking off several days, I just decided I needed to be out there getting it done. The day goes a lot better when I do this first thing. If it was up to me, we'd undertake this a little earlier in the summertime. I know it's all in my head, but if I can be out and back before the sun is much higher than this, I just feel cooler, if that makes any sense at all. I generally plug in some General Conference talks if I have to do this alone. I don't like to do it alone. It seems to go a lot faster when I have someone to talk to.

I would have hated to miss this yearly event, though. These trees bloom with white flowers and when the blossoms fall, it's like it's snowing flowers.

There were some friends who were curious about me walking by myself.

They were definitely used to seeing 2 of us.

The Red Maple is fully leafed out. It's my favorite.

And some of the peonies are getting ready to bloom.

My little strawberry plants are coming back well and are already blooming. Now, if I could just keep the slugs away from the berries. Any ideas?

I'll be pulling rhubarb soon. I'm not really a fan of the stuff, but my husband is....the things we do for love. I do stuff with rhubarb...he sends me flowers.

Things are starting up in the garden. These are the peas. I love garden peas. I know they're a lot of work for not a huge amount of results, but I love them.

The garlic is doing really well, too. It should be ready to harvest in the middle of July.

My roses all came back and will be gearing up for the big spring bloom. 

Guess where I went this week? You can find anything in this world at Target.

These came this week as well because.....rhubarb.

This also came from my daughter. Look how cute!!

I finished off a couple of projects. This really made me happy because I feel like a good share of the time, my hobbies are lying in bits and pieces all over the place, with me flitting from one to another and rarely getting something totally finished. 

Last week's Project Life pages done with the app.

I feel a sense of accomplishment every time I'm able to get a week done. Family history documenting is happening on my phone, people.

Sent to me from the kids and grandkids this week... Poor David took a tumble at an air show at the base.

That entailed some stitches under some light anesthesia. This reminded me that Eric had three sets of stitches on his face before he turned 2.

From Marc, here's Isaac,

....and Levi,

....and Baby Jude. I'll be playing with them some next week, which also makes me very happy.

Big Days

Let's just put it out there that the past month has been really busy, starting with the quick trip to DC and working our way through Easter, and some birthdays, and Jude, and this day....

Our grandgirl, Caroline, was baptized. In the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, children are baptized when they reach 8 years old, an age when they can pretty much figure out the difference between good and bad choices. My husband and I were so happy to be part of this very special day.

Here we've got 3 generations,

...and here are 4 generations. That hug was totally unsolicited...it's just Caroline's loving nature.

Here's the whole family crew that was able to attend.

Caroline with Evan's family.

Now when there's an 18 month old in the mix, and there are cookies involved, AND he has to wait until after the pictures before he gets one, there's bound to be a little drama.

And maybe a little resentment as he makes his way through the frosting.

A Bitty Baby Boy

Baby Jude's birth was a hot topic for our family this past week. You might remember a few weeks ago, Isaac pondering that if Jude was born looking like a whale, he should be named "Whaleface." Well, this is how Marc announced Jude had arrived:

In a family of brothers, you can imagine how this took off.

It was a definite Rule of 13 moment.

That was perpetuated by his daddy....

.....and just about every uncle.

He is a sweetie, though, and as with baby John, I can see both his brothers in his little face.

Speaking of brothers, they're pretty excited about the new little guy. Marc sent me this text yesterday....

Levi: "I need to check on the baby."

Goes to look at Jude sleeping in the swing.

Levi: "He's good."

I'll be heading over to their neck of the woods next week to play with all the boys....and maybe do a little cooking.

That sweet, melt-into-your-neck newborn time is so short.

Jude had a bit of jaundice, as you can see in the whites of his little eyes.

So he had to make a trip to the doctor's office to get poked, darn it. His numbers are looking a lot better now, though.

Marc says he's just wanting to do what his little outfit says. There's a dinosaur on there that says "Roar." Sometimes it's just hard work being a newborn.