This weekend Kevin and I hit up some awesome garage sales to add to Isak's robot fleet. For a $1.50 we got a buzz light year, complete with talking buttons, laser light, and moveable helmet and 2 talking/light up/walking little robots that came with remote. I also got a huge box of lincoln logs for $5 and painted wood blocks of all shapes for $2 and some other things I am saving for christmas. I usually do a lot of my kids christmas shopping in the summer at garage sales...My kids are still little and don't care and I can find almost brand new toys for super cheap! Actually, only 2 of the robots below were bought at a store, the two red ones in the middle, the rest were goodwill or garage sales. My kids still have way too much stuff but when it only cost me $.50, I don't mind getting rid of it after they are done playing with it.
My little brother, Mark, got engaged a few weeks ago and we got to meet his fiance, Jen, this past weekend. Somehow I never got a picture of her though, but she is very cute and incredibly nice. While she was here, we had the great idea to have a cake decorating contest and have Kevin judge them. Kevin was chosen as he wasn't there while they were made and wasn't biased.And somehow, mine won! I think its the cute cardboard cutouts of the couple on top that did it for me. We all enjoyed some cake while we showed Jen the infamous slide show of our family pictures that every daughter/son-in-law has had to watch before marrying into our family. Its always quite entertaining :).Lucy and Isak have LOVED having their cousins around this past week. Even if we've spent all day with them and they leave, Isak always asks, "where did my cousins go? I want to play with my cousins!".

Reed and Lucy taking a bath and splashing my mom with enormous amounts of water. They were having so much fun!
Since Valerie has been here, we've gone to the pool and thrift store shopping and spent lots of time in my backyard watching the kids jump on the trampoline and swim in the bouncy pool.
And Maddie was smart enough to bring her lemur costume with her so her and Isak could be lemurs together again! Isak loves this costume, I think its the tail, and loves his cousin Maddie. Its funny, he seems to adore the ones that are 3-5 years older than him versus the one his age.
And Lucy found the leopard head to her costume. She is starting to love to dress -up as much as Isak.On a side note, Isak started swim lessons today. We will see how it goes, there are 7 kids in his class and it seems kind of chaotic. Last year I was lucky enough to be able to find him a private lesson for a week that he loved and seemed to learn a lot from. Hopefully 2 weeks in this class will help him with something.

Lucy's hair is getting really long. I want to cut it for summer but Kevin won't let me. Its pretty when its brushed out, but I have to usually fight her pretty good to get it done in the morning which is a huge pain. And despite massive amounts of conditioner, its gets tangled easily. The jello and Popsicle juice probably doesn't help either. Maybe she will have an "accident" with some scissors and I can trim it without anyone knowing...

lately

Alright, I have been horrible at this the past few weeks but so much has been going on, it has been hard to keep up. We took Isak on his first mini golf outing and he loved it, although I think he has some practice ahead of him before he turns pro. He mostly likes to shuffle the ball along with his club and when he's done with that, he picks up the ball, puts it next to the hole, and shoves it in. He had a ton of fun though and was very enthusiastic about the whole thing.My sister just arrived from Wisconsin and will be here for the next month. Since I only get to see her and her kids about once a year, I am very excited. She has 4 kids and so far they have done a great job of tiring mine out so they sleep great every night. Today we went hiking out by Ancient Lakes outside of Quincy, we hiked a mile in to a waterfall and some streams, ate lunch, and then hiked out.

My kids did okay on the way out, Lucy had to be carried a lot, but the return they were pretty tired. It was really hot as well, and despite the hats, sunscreen and water, they were very red cheeked. They were also extremely tired. We found this cool cave that the kids liked to throw rocks down.I realize I am doing this post backwards, but that is the way the pictures worked. Kevin's grandpa passed away the end of May and we had his funeral the following week. I always loved Kevin's grandparents and admired their example of service and enduring to the end. They were wonderful people and I know they are so excited to be together again. Kevin's siblings were all able to come up for the funeral and it was great to be together and see everyone.

Nathan and Stephanie were able to come up for 5 days and we loved having them around and my kids were excited to have a cousin to play with. They spent a lot of outside at Kevin's mom's on the swingset.

And out at grandma's picking the leaves off trees. Or in Lucy's case, eating the flowers off the trees.
We also went out to the dairy and saw the cows and found these brand new baby cows. So we dumped our kids in the pen with them and took a picture. Then took them out before they got kicked.
My sweet daughter decided to stop sleeping in her crib a few weeks ago for no apparent reason. She can't climb out, but really hates to be put in it for some reason so we have put her mattress on the floor and for now that is where she is sleeping. It is kind of working. She has spent many a night falling asleep on our couch/floor as well. I knew her wonderful sleeping habits couldn't last forever but I was sure hoping. I guess its time to go bed shopping!

In the past few months, Isak has discovered how to take pictures with the camera, reasonably well. I often find pictures on the camera of carpet, stuffed animals, furniture, and very unflattering pictures of myself who was unknowingly being photographed. Anyway, he also loves to put hopdog and dishtowels on the fan then turn it on low and let them fly off. I know, I am a hugely irresponsible parent. So below are some of the photos Isak has taken this last month. He also has a great knack for capturing messes around my house as well.
Something about these socks sitting in the middle of my floor drew his attention.

Self-portrait.

Gotta love the angle he does with this shot. Crazy kid. Thats his time-out chair in the corner :).

And on another note, this is Lucy's hair this morning. It was very volumnious, as it usually is in the morning, and she wouldn't let me touch it. So here it is, in all its tangled, crazy glory.
Lucy has recently discovered her dress-up shoes and likes to wear them around the house, even though they are way too big on her. I think she likes the way they clack on the floor.

Isak's Birthday!!

Isak turned 4 today! I can't believe my baby boy is already four. He was such a fun 3 year old, I'm sure 4 will bring its own set of interesting ideas and challenges. On Saturday, we had a party with his little friends from our ward. It was kind of cold, which it was last year too on his party, but we had fun anyway. We had it at the park, close to the toys, and had pizza and watermelon.
Isak and Lucy loved chasing the bubbles they got out of the pinata.

This was my first time making a pinata and it turned out okay. Spiderman originally had more of a body but then I thought it would be easier to hook it together with just the head. He sustained several whacks with the bat, however.
I made Isak a spiderman cake this year which turned out to be a lot harder than it looked. I did the head out of rice krispie treats and had to remake it a couple times as it was too heavy and kept falling forward into the cake. It still didn't turn out that great but Isak loved it and he was all I had to impress.
All the red frosting stained all the kids faces red and they all looked like they had attacked something.
Sunday night we had a family dinner with mine and kevin's parents and his grandma. Isak got even more presents, namely superhero squad figures, dr. doom's castle, and a large captain moroni and Nephi figure.

Today was his actual birthday and we did cupcakes at preschool, got a happy meal for lunch, and had friends over to play this afternoon. Then tonight was preschool graduation. I know, he's only four and he will graduate next year, but look at his cute hat! Isak's birthday was like a 3 day celebration. I think next year we will make it one day and I will just buy a cake from costco and make my life much easier. After all, he will be 5 and as Isak says, "When I turn 5, I will loose my teeth".
So Happy Birthday Isak! He loves to play super heros, hide and go seek, jump on the trampoline, go to the park, play games, have books read to him, cut paper, and talk to any kid who looks like they may be within 5 years of his age. He can be quite emotional at times which can be frustrating but with that he is also very sweet and really wants to do what is right most of the time. And he makes me laugh on a daily basis.

Last week it was quite warm here and the kids and I had a lot of fun. I couldn't get the pictures from my phone to upload or I would've written this last week. One evening Lucy decided she wanted to do watercolors so I got out all the stuff.

Only to find her drinking the blue paint water. She was really mad when I took it away.We made a volcano outside with baking soda and vinegar. Isak and Lucy loved this and kept wanting to pour more baking soda on it.

I am glad we still have a mud hole in the backyard since we put grass in. Someday hopefully it will be something useful, but for now, my kids love digging in the dirt.

We also went and saw the cows out at the dairy. Isak LOVED them. Its been a while since we have been out there and Isak wanted to see the baby cows, "they are so cute mom!We even saw ", the medium sized cows, and the big momma cows. We saw some pretty new baby cows that were trying to stand up, they were pretty cute. And yes, Isak is barefoot, He is a farm kid at heart. And I gave him a bath when we got home and scrubbed his feet :).

The warm weather has meant that the snow cone truck is back at the park! Baseball season is in full swing which means the park across the street is busy almost every evening and weekend. The kids got their first snow cones of the year and Kevin and I had some delicious tacos from the Taco Wagon.

Kevin''s sister Lindsey and her husband Nate came up from Rexburg on Thursday and stayed the weekend. We had a great visit and I got to sharpen up my dance central skills. My kids especially love Uncle Nate and that he is their personal play toy that will wrestle/carry/throw them where ever the please.

I had a great Mother's Day yesterday. Kevin let me sleep in, well, Isak came and visited me a few times but I still slept in. Then he made me breakfast and I got a pretty hanging basket of flowers and Isak and Lucy gave me a card. In the afternoon we visited my mom, and my brother made us homemade ravioli which was delicious. And I didn't have to change any stinky diapers, although Lucy dear did get kicked out of nursery briefly for knocking over other children in her excitement :). Above is the best picture we could muster at the end of the day, Lucy was sad because she just knocked her snack all over the trampoline and wanted to go eat it. My little, mostly sweet, boy who made me a mommy after 12 horrible hours of labor.
And my crazy, crazy daughter who took me by suprise by being a girl and has taught me lots of

patience. And a belated Happy Mother's Day to my own mom who I am lucky enough to get to see on a regular basis and is great mom and grandma to my kids. One of the many things I love the most about my mom is that she always shows an interest in what I or my kids or doing. She is always the first one I call after their check-ups or after they met one of their milestones because she is always just as excited as I am. She is one terrific lady!
This week it has been in the 70's here and we are loving the warm weather, spending most of our days in the yard, garden, and jumping on the trampoline. We like to put the sprinkler under the trampoline and then jump through the water.

I planted my garden a few weeks ago and today I noticed all my little bean and pea sprouts are showing. I also have some raspberry starts that I am hoping will give me some berries next year, so far I have managed to keep everything alive.

Lucy's favorite activity is snapping the heads of my tulips and then carrying them around. Almost as much fun as unearthing all the seeds in my garden. Almost.

Isak has been coming up with some pretty interesting stories lately. I love seeing how his little brain works as he tries to put it all together. This past weekend there was a carnival in the Wal-Mart parking lot here, which we did not attend, but Isak was quite fascinated by. On Monday we saw them packing it up and Isak kept asking me where they were going, which I told him, I don't know. Then he said, "Mom, they are going to a city called Trample, where there is lots of electricity. And there are flying cars. But we can't go there because there are lots of shock hazards". We are so glad that Kevin's CPA exam is over, he took it last Thursday. There were lots of late nights where the kids and I battled it out alone. He has one more this month, but luckily, its the easier one. Below is one tired Lucy lounging on the floor. She has to be wearing shoes at all times inside the house and gets mad when one falls off. She yells, "shoe off! shoe off!". If she doesn't like the shoes I put on her, she goes and gets a different pair and brings them to me. And then there is Isak, who can hardly be bothered to even wear shoes. There has to be a middle ground!
Now that Kevin is home in the evening, he can help with hair duty. Brushing Lucy's tangled mop after her bath is always a chore. We have also been busy getting our yard ready, now that we have grass and not dirt, its much more fun!