Ogden Nature Center

I found a Groupon deal for a family membership for three months for $12 and swooped it up. It was definitely a good idea. We had never been there and were pleasantly surprised. The kids used phrases like, "This is the best day ever!" and "Can we come back tonight?" and other things they rarely say. :)

Most of the trails were flooded so we stuck around the visitor's center, checked out the birds they've rescued and ate a picnic lunch. It wasn't too hot and a little overcast. I think it was one of the best days this summer for me too. :)

Basball Season

When Bucky said that he wanted to sign Ethan up for baseball on the heels and even overlapping soccer I thought to myself. Dude. That's a lot of driving around, with a crazy baby and Ev in tow. But, I relented and Bucky signed him up and even wanted to be his coach. Let me tell you, it is so adorable to watch the both of them. Ethan is catching sometimes and shortstop the other. The team is pretty good. We have 2 weeks left so it will be nice when we don't have to do ANYTHING, but I will miss him in that cute little uniform. :)

Evie's Graduation from Kinder

Evie has finished school now and I think she's a little sad. She really loved her teacher and so did we. We were lucky to have a good teacher and teacher's aid this year. Unfortunately Ethan wasn't so lucky with his homeroom teacher. But, luckily he was able to go to another great teacher for Language Arts and Math and that made a huge difference. As the school year comes to a close, I'm wondering what everyone is up to this summer? Swimming lessons? Camping? Lazing around? Give us a call if want to hang out because no doubt in the first day off the kids will be fighting. :)

We are still alive

Still as cute as ever, 7 months old now. Crazy how fast babies grow. Every month changes. El Train is starting his second tooth now and sitting pretty well on his own. The kids are finishing up the soccer season and are just starting baseball. Bucky even signed up to be Ethan's coach. They'll both be great at it. As for me, I'm really using my DoTERRA essential oils for everything from burns to athlete's foot and cankers. I love knowing that I'm doing it naturally without having to worry about what the heck is in my medications. It's a satisfying feeling.

That's about it. We are out of school on May 26th. I can't believe that this school year is almost already over. It's crazy. But great. Pretty soon they'll be graduating from high school and I'll say, "Where did all the time go?!" Does anyone feel like this???

The Baby Sleep Solution

We are in the midst of a battle at my house. Well, let me be more specific. I am in the middle of two battles currently in my house. One with Ellis to sleep through the night and one with Bucky to LET Ellis cry himself to sleep. It's a battle I'm losing on all fronts.


Ah, what an adorable little baby, right? Well, at night this is what it's like.



This kid can cry. And cry. And cry. And then it stresses Bucky out to no end. He literally freaks out. It's one big hairy mess. I'm sure most of you have gone through something similar with your own kids, right? Well. Let me know it's normal because I'm about to lose it. My sanity that is. :)

Waiter, There's a Baby in my Soup...

I hope my fellow readers (all two of you) don't get tired of me posting pictures of Ellis. It's just so much fun to take pictures of him right now. He's smiling so much and is so expressive (think shrill screeching noises when excited) that it makes taking pictures of him fun. He has started eating baby food and is LOVING it, even peas, the worst of the baby foods in my opinion. Hope you enjoy the series...

Leapin' Before Thinkin'

I've always done this. I have a lack of restraint when it comes to a new project. I just go full force doing it. This is a good and a bad thing. Good because I get things done, bad because I find myself in gigantic I Love Lucy plot lines. Like the time I thought I'd just sew up some pajama pants for the kids because I was tired of not knowing how to sew. First pair turned out okay, second pair I thought I knew better than the pattern maker. Ugh. Not so good. Story here.

Which brings me to this last Thursday (4 days ago). While perusing the KSL classified listing, I came across an ad for bulbs and spring flowers that a woman was selling from her yard. They were a great price and I have been dying to plant something in our front yard because it's so baron. So, great right?

$20 later and about 5 million bulbs and roots later, I'm thinking, okay this will be easy I'll just dig up the dirt in my front yard, make it all curvy and cool and then plant these flowers. Riiiiiight. This is how it started.

Also let me preface this by saying that Bucky was sick all weekend. So, I knew I would be on my own. This only adds another element of stupidity to my antics. :) When I had tried to tell Bucky that we needed to have the neighbor boy come over and till up the soil he said, "Nah, I'll just come and dig it for you. I can do it." Okay, go ahead. After about a half hour of digging he agreed that we needed some help from the rototiller.

That was the best thing that we did all weekend. After I get done raking it all and adding some amendments to the soil a neighbor walks up. He starts chatting about gardening and about talks my ear off about using rabbit poo and pigeon poo and cow manure to fertilize his yard. To which I am not trying to be nice and listen, but I'm burning daylight here, guy. He leaves and I get back to work.

Then, 20 minutes later, said neighbor drives up toting not one or two buckets of rabbit poo, but 5 buckets of this stuff. Ugh. I'm trying to hold back the vomit as I'm layering the poo, that is still a little too fresh for my liking, into the flower beds and garden boxes. I just barely got all the plants into the ground before the sun went down yesterday.

It's such a nice feeling to have it mostly done (besides mulch and brick edging). Here's the after pictures of the front yard.