Happy birthday, Kai!

Kai turned 4 and he was SOOOO excited.

It's Like Riding a Bike

So recently Ash decided to teach Kai how to ride a bike.  He was determined to learn without training wheels so Ash set up this little bike we have without the wheels and took him outside.  She got him going and he pretty much just started riding the bike like he used to know how to do it. It was pretty amazing.  I took a video today of him out riding for his fourth time.  Seriously...  Only the fourth time he had gone out to ride and this is what he is doing.

Memorial Day Weekend

Saturday, we met my brother and his family at the Museum of Natural Curiosity at Thanksgiving Point. It is the best children's museum I've ever been to. When Seth saw his cousin, they held hands throughout the museum. It was so stinking cute. Not to say the other kids don't get along, but Seth and this particular cousin just connect.

Yard Work Galore

So Ashley invited her 13 year old nephew over to help with some yard work.  What a great idea.  He spent a good amount of time weeding and mowing the front and back lawn on Friday while I worked and then we spent 8 hours on Saturday weeding between the garden boxes, weeding the area behind our fence (in the wetlands), cutting down a huge weed/bush, laying several layers of weed barrier, and then finally moving several wheel barrows worth of rocks from behind the fence to between the garden boxes.  What a tremendous amount of work!  I am posting some "after" pictures of everything.  I wish you could see how much of a change there was in the before and after.

Let me tell you, that 13 year old worked hard and between the two of us we got significantly more done that I could have done in probably 3 weekends by myself.  It was tremendous and I'm glad he allowed us to pay him well for his work.  It was a long, super hot and sweaty day and I for one can barely move between being sun burnt and sore.  It was totally worth it though after seeing the results.  Thank you for everything you did...  It was amazing!

Mother's Day

Seth made me the sweetest little calendar for Mother's Day. He colored the sky gray and said, "The sky is dark because it is raining hearts for Mother's Day!" I loved it! Every page of that calendar just exudes love and time spent in earnest concentration.

This boy melts my heart. You wouldn't believe how empathetic he is. (For instance, he has a girl in his class that was born with half a heart. This obviously causes a few physical challenges. He has taken her under his wing, and when I told him he wouldn't be in the same class as her next year, he started crying! He doesn't want to lose his friend.)

A boys' day together also means...

A GIRLS' DAY TOGETHER!

When the boys all left to go to the Payson Temple openhouse, that left S and I at home together. The first thing we did was nap in a big bed. She loves being cuddled, so we fell asleep quickly. About an hour later, I woke up to S pretending to sleep. She was trying so hard to be good, but she was wide awake. I sneaked over as quietly as possible and turned on Cinderella, her favorite Disney movie. I then sneaked ever-so-quietly and got back in bed. S was so adorable, pretending to be asleep but obviously awake and watching. She eventually watched without reservation, and before long, she was yelling at the TV.

"Watch out for the kitty!"
"Be nice to 'Rella!"
"They dancing!"
"Yay! You did it!"

This girl is so full of life. We ate dark chocolate covered raisins as we cheered on 'Rella, and we danced, and we played games. I loved our girl day, and I love our girl. :)

*Sorry for the lack of pictures, but we can't post her face yet, and there is no point to any pictures without her in them for this post.

Boys Only Trip to the Temple

Hey this is Jason.  So the boys and I got to have a special day today.  I took a half day off from work and we were able to go down to the new Payson LDS Temple.  Just me and the boys and it was a fun time.  If you don't know, LDS temples are special places in our religion where members of the LDS church who are living in accordance with the teachings of the church may go to perform special ordinances.  These are essentially very sacred promises made with the Lord.  After a temple is built and before it is dedicated as a Holy place, it is opened to the general public to walk through and see the inside. The boys loved it.