Lost Shoes

I feel like I spend 25% of my time as a mother looking for shoes. Whether it's right before the kids walk out the door for school, or Sunday morning before church, or 10 times a day for Railey--I am always looking for shoes!!! The other day when we were going to Thanksgiving point we were supposed to meet everyone down there at 10 well I started looking at about 9:40 knowing that we needed to leave within 10 minutes. I wanted her Sunday shoes because she had her little dress on and her tennis shoes just didn't go. We looked everywhere. Could find nothing. The kids were helping but my frustration was growing, ask Jared they were staying with us that day. Well finally it was 10 and we were already late so I said forget it just get her pink ones they are by the front door. The kids came back and said they weren't. Well look again I said, I had just seen them there 45 minutes before! But they weren't there. So we searched the house for those and found nothing. So now it was 10:10 we were really late so I grabbed some green sandals, they definitely didn't match the red dress! We got to thanksgiving point and were the first ones there by 25 minutes. That's how it goes isn't it.

Well then 2 hrs before bed we started looking everywhere again for the shoes. We looked everywhere that Railey could reach, but found nothing. I had prayed but still found nothing. Damen said the family prayer before bed (yes 2 hrs after we had started looking) and asked to find the shoes. He got up went and looked in the bathroom cupboards (I had looked in all the other bathrooms but that one) they weren't there he went into the Laundry room and started looking in the baskets I had already done that and told him so. Then he yelled "I found the pink ones." Where could they have been I had looked all over in that room. They were in the washing machine. Yes down inside!!!! Earlier that morning Railey had brought them to me for me to put them on her but they were muddy so I told her to put them back and we would wash them later. Well Railey is all about getting things done now so she took care of the problem and put them in the washer herself. That darn smart girl.

Damen definitely had the faith to find them. But we were still out the Sunday shoes and she was not going to wear tennis shoes to church so I kept looking until Steve got home from the temple. I told him the whole story and all about Damens faith and asked why mine was so lacking. All he sweetly said was " You have faith! You have faith that I will take you to the store right now and buy Railey some shoes for tomorrow." I guess that's the difference between the faith of a child and the faith of a parent who has $10 in the bank.

Yes Damen found the Sunday shoes the next day after we went to church and while he stayed home "sick."

Thanksgiving Point

Yesterday we went to Thanksgiving Point for the Tulip Festival. Mom and Dad were in town for Ben's graduation so we all headed over. We had a great time. The weather was perfect and it was fun to see all the beautiful flowers! We also snapped up a few OK a lot of pictures while we were there

getting kisses from Dad

Railey posing in Kate's wagon
Damen always following the map
Seth rolling down the huge amphitheater hill

More Scout Projects

Steve was in charge of coming up with an activity for Pack Meeting. The theme: "Spring Into Action" and after having worked on their fitness award all month long this is what they came up with:

Tennis ball throw: 1 piece of candy if you hit the board 10 pieces if you get it through the hole is what they told the boys you should have heard the cheers, only problem was the tennis ball was too big for the hole

Hit the ball in the golf hole (it ended up being pretty hard for the boys so they got a piece of candy for just trying. That also brought a lot more kids to this line because they knew that they could get candy no matter what!

Here's Seth hitting the ball into the hole

Temple Outing

Saturday, I took the kids up to the temple. Every few moths I take them up and let them go into the lobby and feel of the spirit inside the temple. Every time I am amazed at how good they are and what they tell me they've felt when we leave. I will go and get Steve so that they can see him in his white suit since they are always asking about it. He will come up and give them loves but they are always so excited to see their Dad. It is a rare occasion that they get to see him on a Saturday night.

After we are done inside the temple we will go outside and walk around. It's always so fun to watch them. This last trip I saw something I haven't seen before. They just want to take off running and are so full of energy and excitement. I just about got upset with them, to tell them that we were on the temple grounds, when something told me not too. Suddenly I understood something new. The kids were feeling the spirit. It was making them happy and excited just like it makes me so many times. I have learned to suppress the running around (well in public). Instead of yelling at them (quietly of course cause we were at the temple) I gathered them together and told them that what was making them excited was the spirit and I was so glad they were feeling it. I told them they could go anywhere they wanted but had to be respectful of others who were also feeling the spirit.

So we kept walking and took a few pictures and then my battery on the camera was gone. Then of course they started fighting over the stroller, I did get mad and before long we were back in the car. Me frustrated that I let a stroller fight ruin what I was feeling and realizing that I need to get up there without kids. It feels like it has been forever. It's so hard with Kenna and all. She wants to be nursing every little bit which hasn't allowed me to go for a time. hopefully before long, I do want to be there, but if I can't I am so glad that Steve can and is (even as we speak). Here are a few cute ones of the kids:

New Best Friend

The past 7 months or so I have been part of a little sewing group. We get together and show different things we have made, learn different things and get great ideas. It has been a lot of fun and I am so glad my friends envited me to join. Because of it I have a new best friend it is called elastic thread. I have had so much fun learning to sew with it and it just makes the cutest little girls clothes. Here are a few of the things I have made with it:

This is a little shirt I made for Kate's birthday. I had made a couple for Railey like this. I think it needs another row in the middle it looks a little funny. Railey's looks more natural but is short (that darn tummy).
This is a little dress I made for Railey out of one of my old Maternity Shirts (plenty of material with it being a tent shirt) I found the idea here. She is loving dresses right now so with it costing me nothing, it was great to have a new dress to wear outside to play in.

Here's the front don't you just love those buttons. I do cause I didn't have to sew them on. :)

The Thinker

Seth, my thoughtful little guy. Grandma Bailey always calls him the bull in the china shop. But Seth is a compassionate one too. He is always bringing me flowers and giving us hugs and wanting to cuddle up. Today he showed his thinking side. "Dad, was the world gray in the olden days?" Us: "What are you talking about?" Seth: "Well all the pictures are gray, so was it gray?" We had to explain that no it wasn't they just didn't have color photography.

Seth with a dandilion he picked for me.

Kids Easter Pics

Well we finally got everyone in their Easter clothes and got a picture. There were too many funny ones only a few "good" ones but all in all it's done. Seth and Railey were sure hamming it up the whole time though.

Twinkle, twinkle

Railey was brought to me during RS with a poopy bum. While I was changing her she started singing "Twinkle twinkle little star how I, don't rip it, wonder what you are. Up above....." I thought that was a new version I hadn't heard yet so when I took her back I just had to ask the nursery leader about it. Well it turns out that they have little stars on Popsicle sticks that the kids hold and about the same time, every week, in the song they have to tell the kids not to pull the star off. So don't rip it has just become part of the song. She did get a chuckle out of it though and might say it at different times in the song, just to mix it up a little or confuse the kids more.

Spring Garden

Steve has been so excited to garden this year. After taking a gardening class he has been very anxious to try out everything he has learned. So into the ground went all of our spring garden plants--strawberries, celery, lettuce, onions, broccoli, and cauliflower. Lets see how it all turns out. He keeps promising that they won't freeze. We are able to grow things that normally we don't because we are going in with our neighbors and using up all our space and making it so we don't all have 10 tomatoes but share the crop. It will be interesting and we'll see how it all works out.

Ducks--finally!

We finally made it to see the ducks. We have had pretty decent weather the last few days and with it being spring break we took advantage of the nice weather to see the ducks. The kids had a great time. I think the ducks were full though because they didn't seem to want to eat to much bread. I think others had the same idea we did and the ducks were full after starving all winter without visitors. Here are a few shots of all the fun we had.

Railey's Birthday

Our little princess turned 2 today! Boy how time flies by when you are having too much fun. Time has always flown by though with Railey. I remember from the day she was born just wanting time to stand still and just wanting to savor every minute of her life. I have tried but it's hard. She truly is joy. Lately Steve and I just look at each other (all the time) and ask how we got so lucky to feel such joy with her. She makes us laugh and brings a smile to our faces at least once every hour of the day. We love her so much! Her latest word that she loves to say is "whatever" she's our climber, our outdoors girl and loves and admires her brothers like no sister ever has before. She's also a little mother to Kenna.

as a babe
one year old

2 years old

with her birthday cake

her cake (anytime she asks me to draw a picture for her she wants a flower and a butterfly so we did both on her cake!)

My helper

Railey is my little helper. I love it but there are times that we don't all need 3 spoons!

The Builders

Seth loves to build. He's my creative little soul. He will dump the lincoln logs out most nights and build all sorts of cabins. The other day he even had a "bay window" on one of them. I love the fact that he loves to do these things, it keeps his mind going.

Damen likes it too, but mostly does it when I pull the camera out, or after Seth has already been going for a time. They are both very creative though and I love that they just don't build the normal old house. They have started standing the little pieces on end instead of laying them down flat ("because that makes bigger windows Mom"). Oh I love my little creators.

Final Four

Since I didn't get any photos of the boys and their football season, I figured I better snatch a few of them watching basketball. They were down watching all night while Steve was at Priesthood session and they persuaded him to join them when he got home, just in time for the end of the game. It is so fun as a mom to watch her boys, all three of them, as they watch the game. Half the time they are snuggled up together and they other half they are passing the balls and pretending to shoot it. I just love how into sports they are and especially how into their Dad they are!