A Happy Place

I have been talking with Mike a lot recently about how I am in a happy place. I love more and more the home we live in, the neighborhood we live in, the state of our family, our callings in the ward, our strong relationship as husband and wife, our family and friends, and just life. We are happy and smiling each day. It is wonderful.

Water Boy

This morning while I was taking my shower, Donovan decided to pay me a visit. Since he was dressed I didn't want him coming in. He poked his head in smiled at me then quickly shut the door. I figured he was just going to play peek-a-boo until I was done. He opened the door again just as I was starting to rinse out the conditioner. This time he came in though. I was covering all the water spray so he was standing there dry, but in case he walked toward me, I tried to rinse quickly so I could grab him and get out. When I was done and had turned off the water, I was glad he didn't end up in the stream line all wet, but then I looked at him and he had decided to sit in the leftover puddle. Ahhh. It was frustrating but funny at the same time.

Later the kids and I ran errands. When we came home it was time for lunch. I quickly grabbed the mail and called Laneah to follow me in so we could eat. She was moseying in and my patience was wearing thin. When she finally came in, I noticed she was walking all funny because she had wet her pants. All down the leg and in the shoe was wet. I figured it best she have a bath. I filled the tub just a little for her clean up bath. Donovan was playing in the other room so I helped Laneah get undressed and in the tub. While she played, I went to do some lunch preparations. I went back to check on Laneah and found that Donovan had joined her. He was was sitting beside her, fully clothed, (including shoes) in the bath water. Some days I feel like I can't win...but I can smile.

Preschool

I have been thinking a lot about preschool for Laneah. I didn't sign her up this year because the curriculum was stuff she already knew, and it was more than I was willing to pay. I signed her up for dance instead. The price was much more reasonable, and I am getting something I can't teach her at home. (I don't dance). I still wish she had some preschool experience though. I feel she responds well to the structure of nursery and her dance class, and would benefit from some dedicated preschool time. I am researching the different avenues available to take with this. I plan to research and prepare the next few months, and then start up officially in January. We will see what I end up deciding on.

Ferguson Campout

This August we had our annual Ferguson Campout. We stayed in a lovely groupsite at Timpooneke Campground. We enjoyed relaxing at our beautiful campsite, hiking up and touring through Timpanogos Caves, walking around Cascade Springs, driving the Alpine Loop, and being together as a family. Here are some of the pictures we took.

View on the way down from the caves.

Laneah found a nook just her size on the way up to the caves.

We wouldn't have made it without this carrier. (Big thanks to our neighbors for letting us borrow it).

This is a bridge at Cascade Springs.

Again, the carrier was awesome. Not only was it easier to carry Donovan, but it kept him contained.

All the food was delicious. The homegrown tomatoes, the breakfast sweetrolls, and the dutch oven dinners. Yummy!

Toothpaste Trouble

This picture doesn't need much explaining. Donovan got to the toothpaste before I got to him. On the positive side, he smelled minty fresh. On the negative side, toothpaste is a pain to get out. The harder you try to get it out the more it bubbles up and spreads.

My Little Churro

I stepped away from the kids temporarily to fold a load of laundry. When I thought I heard some noises in the kitchen, I quickly put down the rags and ran in to see who was up to what. I found Donovan emptying the cinnamon/sugar shaker all over the counter. It was pretty much empty by now. Laneah was enjoying a little of the action by dipping her finger in and licking it, but Donovan was covered. He had face planted into the pile and was licking the counter directly. Because he was adding wet saliva to the mixture, it all started sticking to him. He smiled at me and with his face, hands, arms, legs, and feet covered with sticky, gritty, sugary sweetness, he looked like one, cute little churro.

If only it was this simple

Laneah: "Mommy, I want to go to Lagoon because I got one penny."

Happy with our life

Last night, while I was eating some yummy homemade egg rolls and cream cheese won tons, I looked up across the kitchen at Mike, smiled, and said, "I am so happy with our life right now." He smiled back and inquired about the comment. I said, "I am loving our home and neighborhood, I have friends and family, we are active in our ward, and we have two adorable children...I am just so happy right now." He was happy to know that I am happy. I hope he knows that without him all the things I mentioned would not be the same. He is a wonderful supportive husband who takes seriously to the responsibility to provide our family, and not just providing financially, but in the other facets of life as well. I love my husband. He is wonderful.

Yummy!

When my brother came out to visit this summer, the family decided to get together and do some dutch oven cooking in the canyon. We had a variety of dishes ranging from a new mandarin orange chicken and rice dish, to the classic peach cobbler. The food was delicious. We want to keep practicing and learning about dutch oven cooking.

Raspberry Crop

Here is the first raspberry (and sweet pea) of the 2009 crop. Knowing that more berries were on their way, I decided to recruit my loved ones to help with the picking.It took Laneah a couple of days to tell the difference between the pink (not quite ready) raspberries, and the red (ripe) raspberries, but she got it down.
The next day we had a few more.
Donovan never really could tell which ones were ripe, and all the berries he picked (ripe or not) went straight into his mouth. When I said, "let's pick raspberries," it must have translated to "let's eat lunch."

The next day, we picked even more raspberries. I knew the number of ripe raspberries was growing exponentially, so I decided I needed some real help. I recruited Mike to help in the evenings.
Mike was great, because most the berries he picked went into the container, and he could tell which ones were ready. Mike deserves a big thank you for all his help.

Here is a full container from one evenings picking. We continued to get more and more each night but I must have forgotten to take pictures. I think we pulled in three or four full gallon-sized pitchers over the week. We ended up using them to make freezer jam.


We inherited this raspberry patch when we bought the house, and we have ended up really enjoying it. We are learning a little each year about how to care for them. Through trial and error, and losing last summers crop, we learned that you don't cut down all the raspberries. Just the ones that had berries on them. The shoots that don't have berries will be the ones to produce berries the next year. We are also working on taming the patch. It is a little out of control, which makes picking a bit difficult. Maybe next year, we will have contained them to rows. We'll see.

Pretend Dead

Laneah, while playing pretend on the deck, called down to me in an urgent whisper, "Mommy I need you to help me." I asked what she needed me to do. She said, "You need to help Donovan. He is pretend dead, and you need to go tape him up."

Pleasant Evening

I had the most plesant evening today. After a nice walk as a family, Mike went off to scouts, and the kids and I spent time in the backyard. I thought my time would be limited by grumpy kids, but it was quite the opposite. Donovan and Laneah played so well together, they deserved to stay up a little later. They rode bikes on the deck, ran around on the grass, and played on their castle playground. They were so quiet. I enjoyed pulling bindweed out of the grass, weeding between my daylilies, and cultivating my new flower bed. The weather was warm and cozy. It was wonderful.

Daffodils

These are some of the daffodil bulbs I dug up this spring. I decided to dig up the bulbs because they were too crowded (as you can probably see from the picture) and therefore did not produce many blooms. Once I started digging a few up, I liked how open the garden looked, and how some hidden plants were now visible. I kept digging and digging, but I know I did not get them all out. We will see the ones I missed next spring.

As I looked at the piles of bulbs I had just dug up, I couldn't resist dissecting one of the bulbs. It was neat to think about the scientific aspects of the bulb while at the same time marveling its beauty.

My Favorite Picture

This is my newest favorite picture. With both kids smiling and looking at the camera in combination with the bright colors, it is just too cute. I also love it because it captures how much fun they were having. They both absolutely love the park.

To Blog...

I guess I am choosing to be a blogger because I am adding another entry. Now the test will be to see how often I blog, and what style my blog will take on. I feel like writing, but my emotions leave me without words. I suppose I will just mention that Mike and I made four batches of home-grown raspberry jam tonight.

To Blog or Not To Blog

Here I am typing my first post, and I still haven't decided if I really want to blog or not.