Spring thoughts

SPRING I love this time of year! I have a hard time convincing myself to stay inside doing housework when the weather is just so gorgeous outside.

Today while I was outside trying to entertain two "2" year olds, I decided to have them help me find some bugs. I was actually surprised that we didn't have to search very far to find them. Looking under some of my flowers, we found a lot of ants and potato bugs. After this kept their attention for about 1 minute, we went off searching for something else. We decided to sit under a tree and all of a sudden we saw a beautiful ladybug walking up the trunk. Bradley was so excited he wanted to touch it, but after watching it for a while we soon discovered 2 others walking next to it on the trunk. I don't know a lot about ladybugs, but do they like to climb trees? I was so taken back by seeing 3 at one time. We sat watching them for about 10 minutes. They would walk up to the top by the branches and then come back down. One eventually ended up on Bradley's hand (I think he ended up grabbing it while I wasn't looking). He was so excited, but since it looked like he would squish it any moment, I had him put it back onto the tree. I ran inside to grab my camera, but upon returning couldn't find them anymore. I think Bradley had a hand in that:).

I also have noticed lately that these beautiful blossoms that come on our flowering pear trees every spring have quite a horrible smell. How could anything so beautiful smell that way?

I am looking forward to many more days outside soaking up the sun with my family.

Happy Birthday Byron!

I love Byron so much and am so lucky to have him in my life. Every year I grow more and more in love with him. He is so awesome with our children. He never grows tired of helping the kids with one thing or another. Just yesterday Carter & Parker asked Byron to cut a sword and gun for them out of wood. Byron dropped everything he was doing and pulled out the jig saw. In about 10 minutes he had made them both and 2 very happy boys walked away. He is constantly doing things like this that mean a huge difference to them.

Byron's birthday, Thursday, started out at around 4 a.m. waking up to no power. Byron went to investigate and came back to tell me it was snowing outside. I didn't think much about it since I was half asleep until I woke up in the morning. I looked outside to snow covering everything! I thought we had gotten around 6 inches until my neighbor took a picture of how deep it was with a tape measure and sure enough - 9 inches - INCREDIBLE! I asked Byron if he had ever had snow on his birthday and he couldn't remember it every happening. We also broke the record low on Thursday.

Camille & I made one of Byron's favorite breakfasts - ham, hash browns, eggs and toast. Byron went into work for the morning since he wanted to work half day and take Friday off. Luckily he has a truck or I don't think he could have gotten out of our driveway without shoveling. The kids and I spent the next while shoveling this beautiful/heavy snow. The sun came out and started melting it pretty quickly. I thought the kid's would be more excited to see snow than they actually were - I think they would have preferred to watch TV than be outside in the cold shoveling.

After Byron got home from work we headed up to Salt Lake to tour the Sweets Candy Factory. The kids and I had been there last summer, so they were all really excited to go again. We met John & Sharon at the factory. We had a short film to watch first and then had to put on some really cool hairnets. The tour was a lot of fun. We were able to sample some different pieces of candy and enjoyed looking in the store afterwards.

We then headed home for Byron & I to go out together. We went to Chili's to eat dinner. The food was fabulous! Byron ordered me a strawberry daiquiri but forgot to ask for it to have no alcohol in it. Luckily he remembered before I took a drink. The waiter was so nice to get us another one - not sure how the night would have ended up if I had drunk it :). We enjoyed quiet conversation together and then headed over to the movie theater to watch "Fast and Furious 4." Not my favorite movie, but Byron loved it.

On Saturday we headed out west of Utah Lake to enjoy shooting with the family for Byron's family party. We all enjoyed shooting the BB gun, .22 and shot gun. Thanks for all the family who were able to attend - we had a blast! The weather was absolutely beautiful! We enjoyed eating donuts, visiting with each other, going on walks, and of course shooting.

Happy Birthday Byron!!!

Spring Break

I love having the kids at home and have looked forward to Spring Break for quite some time. We had a lot of fun together even with the snowy, wet conditions. On Monday after Byron got home from work we headed up to Temple Square to see "Joseph Smith the Prophet of the Restoration" video. We were lucky enough to have Melissa join us since she works in the Relief Society Building. We were a little early, so we decided to walk around Temple Square and go into one of the visitors centers. The smell of blossoms was so awesome as we walked next to the visitors center. There were some trees in full bloom that had the most amazing smell. The temple grounds were gorgeous - as always. I couldn't help but take some pictures.

The video was amazing also. We had seen it as a family when it first came out, but some of my children were so young they don't remember it. What an amazing life Joseph Smith and Emma led - Such a powerful movie - I am so glad we had the opportunity to go and see it.

When we exited the Joseph Smith Memorial after the show, the temple was just gorgeous. Tanner took a picture that I seriously want to frame. Thanks Melissa for going with us and for the yummy treat afterwards.
On Tuesday we had Cooper & Cameron spend the night. Tanner & Johnathan were so excited to have their cousins over. We live so close to them and really have no excuses to not let the kid's get together more often. They enjoyed playing the Wii together and watched "Bedtime Stories" right before bed. Tanner & Johnathan were so excited to say that they stayed up until midnight. They ended up sleeping in their regular bunkbed with each of their cousins next to them. Not sure how they were able to sleep that way, but they weren't complaining.

On Wednesday we went to Mrs. Cavanaugh's to have a tour up in Salt Lake. We went with Grandpa & Grandpa Beck and the kid's couldn't be happier to have them there with us. We watched a film about "cocoa beans" and how chocolate is made - very fascinating. There are windows from an observation room where we could see onto the factory floor. Unfortunately this wasn't a very busy time, so not much going on. We want to go back right before a holiday so we can see more action. We all were able to taste a delicious chocolate on our way out - yum!
After the tour, we headed back to John & Sharon's house to spend some more time with them. Of course the kid's were able to talk Grandma into playing a game - not very hard to do - and we enjoyed playing "7" together.

On Thursday was Byron's birthday. We had a great time with him celebrating his birthday -(see next post for details).

On Friday Byron took the day off. We enjoyed spending time with him. He has wanted to help his parent's cut down their 25 year old apple tree for quite some time, so we decided that today was the day. I had to take some pictures of the kid's in the tree before it got chopped down. This has been one of their favorite part's of going up to Grandpa & Grandma's house. It was the perfect tree to climb since it was so low to the ground. They weren't happy at the thought of cutting it down, but it didn't take them long till they were having a great time helping with the clean-up. Byron did awesome at using the chain saw while the rest of us carried logs to the truck and cut the small branches up. The hardest part was the darn trunk. It was a grafted tree, so it had the largest base and the wood was VERY hard. We got the trunk low enough to finally just put dirt over the top of it. Everyone seemed to have a great time and there were very few complaining children.

Easter Festivities

My cute bunch on Sunday after church

(Bradley, Tanner, Johnathan, Carter, Camille & Parker)

EASTER PARTY On Friday, April 10th, I was able to go into Carter & Parker's class to help with their Easter Party. I loved being able to help and see them interact with their classmates. They made a cute Easter bag, played some games and then were able to go on an Easter egg hunt in the playground area.
EASTER BUNNY We decided to celebrate Easter on Saturday morning since Sunday was Fast Sunday. Saturday started out at 8:00 a.m. We went out into the living room to find what was left for each child. Johnathan's favorite was a large sucker left for each child. The kid's ended up eating way too much candy and wanting more. EGGS We colored eggs Saturday morning. The kids were all anxiously waiting while I was preparing the dye. After pouring in the vinegar Parker couldn't handle the smell any longer and had to plug his nose. I got a good laugh! The kids LOVE coloring eggs and will move their egg from one color to the next to see how many cool color combinations they can make. I was surprised how many different colors they got.

Camille, Bradley, Johnathan & Carter coloring eggs and below are the finished products.

TREASURE HUNT Every year Grandma Beck creates a treasure hunt for everyone. She does such an awesome job with each clue. As we were waiting for everyone to come, we played link tag with Grandpa & Grandma Beck. We all had a great time being together in the warm weather. The treasure was found inside of the oven - very tricky Grandma:). Bradley loves going up to his grandparent's house and will say "Grandpa and Grandma house" over and over again when he knows we are going there. We are so lucky to live just 25 minutes away.

EGG ROLLING One of my family traditions is to go rolling eggs. The object is to see whose egg can go the farthest without cracking. Byron definitely won - he would launch that thing and it wouldn't crack. Bradley loved this new concept of seeing how far he could throw something and not get in trouble. His cracked upon impact, but this never stopped him from throwing it over and over again.

I just LOVE this time of year. After seeing everything brown for so long things start coming to life during this time - the grass is getting greener - daffodils and tulips are popping out - the birds come out in full force - it starts getting darker a lot later in the evening - family walks - BBQs - planting garden - pulling weeds - park - bike rides -

I am so grateful for Easter and the true meaning behind it all. How lucky I am to know that Easter isn't all about the Easter Bunny, but about what the Savior did for each and everyone of us. Jesus Christ did truly come to this earth for us and has risen again. What a glorious thing to know!

Some random pictures from past month

On Saint Patricks Day I decided to make waffles for the kids with green food coloring. Even though this is probably one of their favorite breakfasts, they were very hesitant to eat it since it didn't look right. Johnathan almost didn't eat any of his due to the color. I got a good laugh out of them.

Camille is my little cook - she LOVES to be in the kitchen helping make food. This particular day she decided she wanted to make some bread. Bradley was her little helper. The bread turned out really good. I am so glad she likes to cook because we have had some really good meals from her. When I am busy I ask Camille, "What do you want to make for dinner?" and she will gladly make something delicious. The only problem is she likes "good food" so if we are in a time restraint, she still wants to make something that will take an hour to prepare/cook.

On March 28th, Melissa, Mom Beck, Camille & I were all able to attend the YW Broadcast at the Conference Center. Melissa was so nice to get us some amazing tickets. We sat pretty close on the bottom level. When President Monson walked in, the Conference Center got completely quiet in 2 seconds. Watching him interact with each of the Quorum of the Twelve and his wife as he walked past them was priceless. He put his hand below his wife's chin as he walked by. Such a small gesture left such a huge impression upon me. The meeting was awesome. It is so fun to have a daughter in YW's - what an amazing and inspired program! They recently added the 8th value being "virtue" to the YW theme and personal progress and talked about it quite extensively. What a huge value to have in these days. Sister Elaine Dalton's talk was particularly amazing. I want to post a few things that she said.

"What does it mean to return to virtue? We are calling for a return to moral purity and chastity. Virtue is purity. Virtue is chastity. The word virtue has also been defined as “integrity and moral excellence, power and strength”. The core of a virtuous life is sexual purity, and yet this definition has almost been erased by the world. The prophet Mormon taught that chastity and virtue are “most dear and precious above all things”. They go together. You cannot have one without the other, and “we believe in being . . . virtuous”. In order to be virtuous and remain virtuous, you must be true to your divine identity and establish patterns of thought and behavior based on high moral standards . These standards are eternal, and they do not change. They have been taught by prophets of God. In a world filled with relative truth, the Lord’s standards are absolute. They are given to each of us to keep us on the path leading back to the presence of our Heavenly Father and His Son, Jesus Christ."

Motherhood

I grew up in a family of seven children, so I thought I knew all there was to know about having a large family. Now I am realizing that I really didn't know anything that went into raising a family. I love being a mother, and would NEVER trade it and my experiences for anything - but there are definitely days where I want to dig a hole and hide. Being a mother is down right TOUGH!!! Having a full time job as a stay at home mom is definitely VERY rewarding, but at the same time so draining.

Some of the things that get me out of bed each morning are:
When a child will be calling out my name just to find out where I am so I can give them a hug. A smile that will melt my heart. A sweet kid making a beautiful picture for me. A child telling me they loved the food I made. Seeing my children sleep so peacefully in bed. The obedient child who does what I ask the first time and doesn't complain. Having a child bring me a book to read to them. Walking into a room to find kids laughing and playing together. Having a delicious dinner made by my child.

I know there will continue to be days where I will feel discouraged , but the benefits definitely out weigh the negative. I feel so greatly blessed for each and every child I have been entrusted with. I can't even begin to list all of the great things I have learned from each of them.