Disconnected- and lovely. :)

We had the opportunity to go spend some time with my cousin for Memorial Day. We honestly had one of the best weekend's we have had for a VERY long time. The cabin we stayed at was not close enough to a cell phone tower, so we were totally disconnected: no phone, no computer, no Internet. This is something I need to do more often. As you can see this cabin is still in the works. They bought the land several years ago, and as a family have been working on it. Josh is ready to pack up and go help them work as often as they'd let us be up there. :)

For "Date Night" our hubby's arranged for us to shoot shotguns at clay pigeon's- and miraculously I even hit a couple! (Josh and Chuck are pictured here.. they were way better than Katie and I.)

We had a few pretty intense rain/thunder storms. Lightning actually struck close enough to the cabin that we saw sparks. :S And we lost our generator power for a few minutes too. It was a bit tense for a couple minutes, but we were all safe!

We got several rides on the 4-wheelers. The rest of date night with the boys was them taking us for a ride on the 4 wheelers. I have a really bad impression of 4 wheelers due to a past experience, but I was brave. And had a great time riding with my very responsible, and not crazy Husband. :) (This picture was of Chuck's Dad- my kids are still calling him Grandpa Bert)

Grandpa Bert was kind enough to bring a friend snake for us to observe for the duration of our trip. The kids were kind enough to try and feed him some goldfish crackers. I'm not sure the snake appreciated them, but at least the kids were trying!

Here is a cute picture of Katie's youngest. I LOVE his red hair!

(sorry it's sideways... not sure why it's like that. )

These girls had so much fun, and I know that my big helper is lonely and bored without her cousins. :)

The kids all got along really well! It was so fun to have them get to know each other better. My kids keep asking when we'll get to see them again.

Another 4 wheeler ride. :) Tenderheart and his double-mallow cookie smore. :)
Our cute dragonfly friend.
She found him out on the pond.
Tenderheart's favorite activity was rowing in the pond. He and an 8 year old snuck away into a canoe- and lucky for us they navigated the pond without tipping it!
Home made teeter totter. :)

We had a GREAT weekend- and are grateful to those who helped us have a weekend away from our stresses. We feel very refreshed and want Katie and Chuck to know how much we love and appreciate them! We are already looking forward to our next get together- whenever that may be.

65 degrees and Sunny

The past few weeks have been the most ideal weather! I had a few opportunities stack on top of each other, and have been insanely busy. Somehow, I've mustered up the energy to keep up with all the life has handed me- which has been a huge blessing. In the past, I would have caved under the pressure.

My Mom's yard has been blossoming!

(yes, I do realize this is a weedy dandilion- but they are vibrant and pretty in a way!)

Josh and I have been being more diligent about going to the Temple. Thanks to our good friends, for going with us. It's something we really look forward to, and have felt blessed for being there! We are excited about the new Oquirrh Mountain Temple that will soon be finished. We both are scheduled to help at least one night with the open house, which should be a neat experience.

We took a day trip to my Grandparents home up in Idaho. Leaving the valley for a day was a needed break. While it was nice to be in thier home again, it made me miss my Grandpa. Although my Grandma has suffered a stroke and isn't able to communicate as well as she used to, she is a strong woman, and I admire her strength, and faith- she knows that Grandpa is in a better place. I'm so glad that they were able to live a long good life together.

One of our dear friends from high school recently lost his wife to cancer. She was only 29. He's aching miserably- and I can't blame him. It's just hard to know how to help him, or if anyone really can help him hurt less. I know time supposedly helps, but really that's not much for consolation is it? Luckily, he seems to have strong faith. That there is a bigger plan than just life here on earth. I pray that is faith can carry him through the rough time he is experiencing.

We are STILL waiting to hear if we got accepted to the Nursing program through Josh's work. But we think that we may have been approved for a small pell-grant that will cover at least some of our expenses this fall if we just go with SLCC's program. Either way, we are couting down the time until we don't see each other much. We are going on at least two little trips this summer, and hoping it is just a relaxed very quality-family-filled few months.

Let's go fly a kite.

It seems that EVERYONE has already flown kites and posted pictures of thier cute kids flying them, so I thought I'd be original.. (ha ha) and post some of our adventure this past Sunday flying them. These kites were awesome. Even my 2 year old was doing pretty good flying it! (although he and my 3 year old kept letting go. ) Tenderheart was so excited that his kite would keep flying even when he'd let go of it!

I decided it was time to cut the boys hair shorter for the summer. I had been putting it off becuase I had never let it grow as long before, and I kinda liked it! But it's been getting warm, so I figured it will always grow... right? So Tenderheart wouldn't look at me or smile, but he was quite proud of his crazy upset face picture and gave me permission to post it on here. :) It's got to be rough being a 3.75 year old...

Spring is really here, and it's TRYING to be warm outside. But we could still handle a few degree's warmer.
I wish you chould see his eyes better in this picture, they are a cool color. :)

Me playing with depth of field.

Loving playing on bikes outside!

Spray painting the pink and purple bike camo khaki(by tenderheart's choice)- so it's not too girly for a boy to ride. :)

Studying something.

Just before we took her beloved earrings out. We(she included)decided it just wasn't worth the battles to clean them, and tears to keep them in. She was happy to know she's just as pretty without them. I was proud of her!

* Yep, we're still alive. Just a lot going on, as usual. :) We went to a free workshop and learned how to take pictures in manual mode with our Nikon. Love it! I wish I had more time to play and learn, but I have a feeling that I'll be more into is as we get to play outside in the warm weather more. I love the bottom picture on the left- who knew we really had a 'Dash'(from the Incredibles) of our own living with us.

*I never realized how emotionally taxing/wonderful it would be to live with an elderly person that you love. Grandma has lots of ups and downs. The hardest part is just knowing that sometimes there's nothing we can do to help! (Nothing huge or serious has happend to Grandma... Just day to day stuff.) We're hoping to get our hands on a wheel chair this spring so that she can go on our nightly walks with us. Now if only the weather would REALLY warm up!

* Our youngest has had a big of speech issue the past few weeks. He has a hard time, usually when he says "I"... like "I, I, I want another one," or sometimes he'll just hold the I sound. It's probably just a stage, but it's not one that I'm familiar with from the older two kids. He's able to copy my words without hesitating, but when he's coming up with the words on his own is when he has trouble. Anyway, I guess it's just the Mommy side of me worrying too much (*hopefully).

*I've been working on crocheting an afghan for Josh. He's been asking for one for years, but it has been keeping me busy. I'm excited to see how it turns out, the color scheme is a fun one.

*Josh has been working out several times a week, and it's been fun to see him get excited about it. He's already got more energy. And I'm proud of him for sacrificing sleep to go to the gym.

*I had my wisdom teeth removed last friday. It wasn't has horrible as I had imagined, but I'm really glad to have it over with. I'm really hungry all of the time, and can't wait till I'm comfortable just eating a big juicy hamburger! I was hoping to be done with the pain by now, but it's still a little achy sometimes. I'm sure this will just continue to fade with time.

Hope you each are well, and are enjoying some sunny weather today. :)