A Spring Time Update!

It's been a busy few weeks. Pete and I have been working a lot in the yard to get it spruced up this year. It's nice to be outside and enjoy the sun! The mature trees are great for landscaping, but the winter clean up takes forever. We got a LOT of compost and wood chips to spruce up the beds. We've cut down branches and probably will have gone to the dump at least 7 times (to drop off garbage and to pick up mulch). When I say 'we' I mean Pete. Yard work is so easy when I don't do that much work! ha!

The pictures I took were the week after easter. I didn't get the kids dressed up for Easter because it was General Conference. So above is the "Fake Easter" pictures. Amelia was asleep in her car seat, so I didn't get any pictures of her. Another time! I like the 'surprised' look on Phillip's picture. I also like the portrait I got of Lily. It was hard to get her to look at the camera because she kept looking at her "pretty shoes" and "pretty dress." If you have either the nikon or Canon digital camera, the larger lens is great for portraits, you just have to stand back further and hope for your kids cooperate and look at you.

Phillip is keeps saying funny things. We've gone over and over about 'but' and 'butt.' If I said 'but' in a sentence, he would say, "mommy that is a naughty word, we don't say butt." I have tried to explain to him that one 'but' is a transition word and the other 'butt' is the name for your behind. Yesterday he said, "Sit on your But! ... Mommy I said 'but'. It's o.k. because it was a transition 'but'."

I took a picture of one of his latest creations. He is starting to write his letters pretty good. Is it because of the iTouch letter trace program? Or from pre-school? We'll never know, but he loves to write "BYU" on almost everything.

What else have we been up to? Phillip has been selling the chicken eggs. When I say Phillip, he at least comes with me to deliver them. We are still doing most of the work. We have 5 more baby chicks. Two black chickens with feathers on their feet - "Darth Maul" and "Darth Vader". Two Buff Ophingtons "Ginger" and "Maryanne" (Giligans Island) and a Road Island Red "Sabre." I was glad that Becca joined the chicken club. I have to say they are great pets. We did have an unfortunate event and two of our chickens got killed by a dog. Ah well, it's the circle of life. Pete kept making jokes about making a chicken dinner. Maybe sometime. I just don't know if it's worth it to boil the chicken, remove the feathers, brine, and then roast the chicken when I can get a rotisserie chicken at Costco for 5.99! Plus it's kind of weird as they are our only pets.

We have gone to garage sales and made trips to DI as usual. I was pretty excited for the hamburger cookie jar that Pete found for me! Pete did get his parents the banana to pull behind their boat. (There's a link for those who don't know what I'm talking about) What a great DI special!