Grandma's House

It didn't take much of an excuse to get us to Grandma and Grandpa's house, so the invitation for Hudson to go to Father and Sons with Grandpa was enough. The kids were eager to go. We left Brent behind to hold down the fort and work and headed to Burley for a few days.

The weather was gorgeous so there was asparagus to be hunted, lawn to be mowed, work to be done, and ice cream to be eaten.

I had to restrain Hudson from following Grandpa to the shop at 6:00 am. He loved using Grandpa's tool, building hitches, getting his own soapstone, and heading out on their boy campout. Luckily Grandpa had a hat he could borrow since he forgot one at home. I don't know which one enjoys the other more. Hudson told Grandma, "He's my best pal."

Ruby couldn't be outdone by Grandpa's tricks, so she decided to start rolling over while we were there. A trip to the hair salon rounded out the trip. Hair cuts for all the girls.

Daddy's Girls

The girls have been the lunch ladies for Dad while he's been planting corn. Ruby got to take her first tractor ride yesterday. Despite Hudson's differing opinion, girls can ride in tractors. Dalanie's rides are brief, but enough to make her feel pretty important.

The Dad sure enjoys the company, but is requesting twice as big of lunches. For some reason, Dalanie is pretty smooth about conning people out of things.

Reality Check

I woke up to kisses and "Happy Mother's Day" salutations on Sunday. Nothing better to put a smile on my face. I was off the breakfast shift as the kids and husband tackled that. I lounged around until I was summoned to my egg and waffle breakfast. I was living the life, a magazine fairytale for Mother's Day.

And then it happened, my first born prayed over the food and then over me.

"Help my Mom to be a better Mom."

What!?! That was even after a very pleasant morning.

I wonder what he uttered in his prayers last night, after a very long a trying day for me. Oh well, I guess I can use all the help I can get.

Branding

We've got some big calves so instead of running them all through the chute and branding table, we decided to rope them this year. It's easier and quicker. All you have to do is call on a few cowboys and they'll bring their friends when roping is involved. We had a lot of help and things went smoothly.






Hudson sure looked the part. He loved riding around on the horses and taking pictures. Hopefully in the future he can be more involved. Things were moving so fast that there weren't many jobs for the kids.


Food is of great importance when a bunch of hard working men are involved. My MIL and I put together the lunch. Baked potato bar, fresh rolls and bread, peanut butter bars, rhubarb crisp, and cookies.

No Mess Fingerpainting

I can count the number of times my kids have finger painted on my right pointer finger. It's messy and not something I enjoy. I saw this cool trick in Family Fun and gave it a try.
Dalanie helped me make the finger paint. It's simple. . . 1 c. flour, 2 T salt, 1 3/4 c water. Heat on the stove until it thickens. Divide and add coloring of your choice.Place paint inside a baggie, squeeze out all the air, and go to town drawing. It's easy enough to smooth back out for a clean canvas. (Oh yeah, and a great way to let your kids clip their nails. You'd hate to put a hole in the bag.)

Hair Day

There's good reasons most babies aren't born with this much hair.

-She gets a hold of it and then she can't let go.
-All the blankets and covering up make it hard for the hair to lay right. It's crazy 99.9% of the time.
-She's still too wobbly to hold still and get it fixed. No such thing as a straight part.
-We practically have to blow dry it so she can go out in the cold after a bath.
-It hangs in her eyes and obstructs her vision if it's not pulled up. (And to think I wasn't going to start fixing it until 6 months.)

Despite the inconvenience and hassle, Ruby's hair has become her trademark. A day never passes without having complete strangers comment on it.

BYU Womens Conference

Since they were no longer accommodating nursing infants at Women's Conference, I figured I'd be staying home. But my sister made some babysitting arrangements with her friends so I could be part of the get away. Further more, this same sister had hookups with a place to stay too.

This Aggie felt like a foreigner on campus and a freshman all over trying to find the right buildings. Campus was beautiful with the trees, tulips, and daffodils blooming. It was cold and windy so we bee lined it to where we had to go.

Some of the highlights for me included:
-Sister Beck's opening message on prioritizing: essential things, necessary things, fun to do things
-service projects during classes (At least then when your class was boring, you didn't feel like it was a total waste of time.) Nik and I worked on memory boxes for parents who lose infants and then cut out 'procedure dolls' that are used in hospitals to show children when they have to have procedures done.
-introduction to Cafe Zupa-hiking to the "Y" early on our snowy FridayThe best part was coming home and having my husband admit that "It was hard. You do a lot."

Thanks to everyone who watched kids and helped so I could go.

A Hello

Why is it that we think we need something in our hands when we are at someone's doorstep? A peace offering I suppose. Although I have gotten better about going to someone's home empty handed, here's a quick and simple offering.

I wipe out my strawberry containers and hang on to them. They make the perfect container for small loaves of bread. When I need a little treat I whip up a batch of coconut banana bread and print out this label. It looks put together and is still easier than messing with plastic wrap in the Idaho wind.

Promotion

Hudson was supposed to wash eggs when he came in from outside.

Dalanie hollered at him from the door to come in and wash his eggs.

He kept playing, so she slid the stool over to the sink and washed the eggs. When they were clean she put them in the carton. I think she enjoyed herself, but I think she really did it to spite him. The previous time he said she was too little and that it was only a "boy" job. I guess she showed him.I just happened to find some loose change, so I gave it to her for her efforts.

Hudson was surprised to find his eggs washed when he came in. Dalanie flaunted her money.

Sometimes promotions aren't given, we have to take them.

And to ensure job security, we got some new chicks. The kids have loved holding and chasing them.*This was a few weeks ago. Now they've grown feathers and are with the other hens.

Spring Work

We've been blessed with some beautiful weather and sunshine which means we've been going gang busters. There is always so much that needs done to clean up and get the yard whipped in shape for summer. I wondered how I'd ever manage with a new little one, but Miss Ruby has been very cooperative. It's helps to have older ones to check on her.
While I was planting in the garden, the kids got tired of me "coaching" them and decided to plant their own. Hudson drew out a rectangle with his hoe and made some furrows. They planted peas and corn so close together that the seeds were touching. They were so proud and taunted how their garden was going to be better than mine.

Repair Shop

Shortly after Hudson started pulling around his new disc ripper, the hitch broke. It's sat on the mudroom counter ever since. Now with all the ground working going on, he was itching to do a little of his own.

Leave it to the Mom to be the mechanic. I tried soldering it, but lets face it- these toys aren't made with anything "real." So we opted for a drill and some wire. We fixed it up in real farmer fashion, jimmy rigging. It's holding up nicely. All big tractors have been moved upstairs to bigger fields of green carpet. He must running a little behind, because Dalanie has even been asked to help plow.

Princess Party

Our library had an exclusive, all girl story time for all the little princesses. Every day, for the prior two weeks Dalanie would ask if it was the "Princess Party." She was so excited. The girls got to decorate crowns and eat little cupcakes. They had it decorated fancy and every little girl got to take home 2 books and a wand.


She had several friends from the ward there.

Bubble Gum Bribery

I found this inexpensive bubble gum machine and thought it might be fun for the kids. Never did I imagine it being such a tool of cohersion. My two year old would do just about anything for a piece of bubble gum. She'd walk to the ends of the earth to earn a piece of "pink bubble."It can be a bit tricky to get it to dispense the desired colored, so several of the pieces have been recycled. The latest discovery has revolutionized the way we do things.
Turns out, I'm not the only using bubble gum as bribes. Check out these cute tags.