Happy Birthday Kate!

My baby is 1 year old! I don't know how it happened so fast, but ready or not here she is. Last Sunday was the big day, of course it was pretty much like any other Sunday. We went to church, took a nap, ate dinner...but then came the cake. We had Rachel and Tyler over and our neighbors across the street. They have 3 kids who think Daylen is just the funniest little boy and he enjoys playing with them even though they are quite a bit older than him. We enjoyed their company and glad they could help us eat the cake. Kate wasn't so sure what was going on, she didn't like the ice cream, too cold, but she sure loved her cake.

Ice cream...not so much. Seriously?

Let's try the cake...

Yeah, I think this is good.

Oh ya! I like this stuff!

Kate's new birthday toy.

We enjoyed a nice family walk after the partying.

It has been so fun seeing Kate's personality come out more over the past few months. She is such a funny little girl. There are so many things I love about her.

I love:

• her big, teethy smile
• her laugh
• her hugs
• her facial expressions
• seeing her excitement every day when daddy gets home from work
• watching her play and laugh with Daylen
• seeing her figure new things out
• how flexible she is
• her love of thrills, swings, slides
• how she jabbers like everyone knows exactly what she's talking about
• how she'll eat anything I put in front of her, except watermelon and ice cream (weird, I know)
• how independent she is (I may take that back next year)
• how she'll entertain herself after her nap by turning on her mobile music
• watching her dance to music
• her nicknames Kater or Kater Potater, especially when Daylen calls her Kater. We sometimes wonder if he knows her real name.
• how she gets excited if I even mention going to find her blanket
• how she makes me feel so loved!

We love you Kate, happy 1st birthday!

Miss Independent

That's what I call Kate these days. She is an independent little girl. She loves to get into everything, is quite good and climbing up and down the stairs (just can't quite get started going down by herself yet), and I have given up feeding her anything with a spoon, except oatmeal in the morning. She feeds herself everything else, even tries to use a spoon, and likes to chill and put her feet up while she does so. I can't believe she is already going to be a year old on Sunday!? What? Where did that year go? She has such a fun personality and takes after her brother with her big toothy smile. She already likes to tease Daylen, and she knows it too. I love watching her try new things and figuring out how it all works, she is a very smart little girl. But whose kid isn't right?

Naptime anyone?

From reading everyone else's blogs who have toddlers it seems like we are all in that same stage of life. To nap or not to nap? Daylen has been going through stages where sometimes it works out for him to nap every day in his bed, and sometimes it just doesn't.Sometimes when he naps he still goes to bed at a decent hour, and sometimes he does not. It's those sometimes does not days that I wonder if his nap earlier was worth it. Then tomorrow comes and he's acting crankyor tired and I think, "yes the nap is worth it!" Until that night. I miss the days of7:00 bedtime. Now if he's in bed by 8:00 I think that's good. Lately it's been 8:30, sometimes9:00 and I just feel like I have no time at night for myself on those nights.I just have to have some kid free time to rejuvinate myself.

So if we can make it through the day without a nap, great. Unfortunately, some days when we try he ends up falling asleep in odd places too late in the afternoon. Such a funstage. Wouldn't you all agree? :)So tonight I think Brad and I will just go on a date and let the babysitterput him to bed. He does really well for her.

To Washington...again?

Yes, we went to Washington yet again last weekend, but this time for a much happier cause. We went to see my 2 youngest sisters perform in their school musical, "Little Women". The play was awesome, I was very impressed. Lori did superb swinging in on her rope as Rodrigo, way to go girls! Walla Walla High School has always had great talent, and they put on some fabulous shows. It was a great high school to go to, though it seems so long ago. Good times, but I am so glad I'm not in high school anymore. Anyways, it was well worth the trip, plus we got to spend a few days with my family, spend Mothers' Day with my mom, and visit with Grandma Murray.

Daylen discovered Grandma Murray's wagon on our last visit so he had to take it for a walk again. Then he wanted to pull Kate in it, then he wanted to ride with Kate.

I absolutely LOVE this picture of Kate, it cracks me up! She loved the bumpy wagon ride, it was practically a thrill ride for her. I think she's going to take after her mom in that department. Bring it on!


And of course, Daylen can't visit Grandma Murray without playing some baseball, he's getting pretty good at hitting the ball now. He would hit for awhile, then give Grandma Murray the bat and inform her it was her turn to hit and proceed to pitch the ball to her.

Saturday was filled with working in the yard. It was our Mothers' Day gift to mom, she wanted the hedge trimmed (what a beast!) and yard work done. It's getting harder to keep up with everything with just Lori and Kara home now and lets face it, mom and dad aren't getting any younger! :)
Daylen got to take a little turn on the lawn mower with Grandma, then I got to mow our lawn with the new- to me -lawn mower since I left home, and it was so EASY! It only takes about 1 1/2 hours now to mow our huge yard, I found it kind of relaxing to just sit and mow. It mulches the grass so there are no buckets to dump, going around all the trees was easier, it was actually kinda fun.

Bryson, my brother-in-law, and Brad had the hardest job of trimming the hedge, or hedges, I should say. One lines our backyard separating our yard from our 1 neighbor's yard, the other lines the cow pasture, which doesn't have cows in it anymore. Here's Bryson working away. Once he gets started he's hard to stop!

You can see here where the 2 hedges meet, and see how tall they are getting. Growing up we used to trim them back every year, those were dreaded days of lots of work. Unfortunately, it's been a few years now since they've been done. We went up both sides of the back hedge and I hope we've convinced my dad to just come pay someone to cut like 4-5 feet off the top.

Jamie and I got to pick up all the clippings and dump them. I know it's a tough job, but somebody's gotta do it! It actually went a lot faster than I remember it going as a kid. Lori and Kara conveniently had a mantinee show so they missed out on all the fun work!

The kids just played together all day, but that was tough too. Lily would go inside and sit and declare she was just so tired from all the playing and swinging, *sigh*!

All the kids love swinging on our old worn out swing set we played on as kids. The slide was getting too dangerous so Brad and Bryson took it down.

Sunday was a nice relaxing day. Bryson barbaqued steak and chicken for dinner, yummy! We just enjoyed being together, something that doesn't happen as often as we all would like. We have to take full advantage and savor the time up until the very end. It's always fun to go home and visit, I just wish it wasn't to dang far away!

Oh Dear...

My life just got more complicated.

I was making dinner tonight and all of the sudden I thought,

"hmm, where did Daylen and Kate go?"

I looked around, then looked up the stairs and saw this.

Thankfully she didn't fall!

pretty good for her first time.

This Girl

Makes me laugh!

Brad and I did some work in our backyard this morning. Pretty soon we hear Kate pounding on the sliding glass window.

A little later Brad looks over and starts cracking up.

THIS is what he saw...

Happy Easter!

Volcano Eruption!

I've been getting lots of fun ideas for crafts or other things to do with Daylen from a great site called "No Time For Flashcards" my sis-in-law told me about. Today we had fun making a volcano, then doing a science experiment that I'm sure most everyone has done making your own eruption of lava. But first a couple of pictures of Miss Kater Potater as I call her. Her hair is slowly growing back a much lighter color with a reddish tint in the sunlight. Check out those teeth, they are getting so big! Why am I still nursing? I ask myself this almost every day, but her bottle taking days were oh so short lived.

We made our paper volcano first. Daylen is in to markers and glue right now. I have to watch him with the glue or he'll pour out the whole bottle.

The finished product which he always has to display on the fridge.

We got a little distracted getting the supplies for the science experiment because of course we have to find something to turn in to a ball.

Now for the fun part! 1/4 cup of baking soda and we were able to make quite a few eruptions with it. I just added red food coloring to the 1/4 cup vinegar and we had our lava.

It's just too cool to only do once!

Race day

for Rachel!

She ran in the Provo 1/2 marathon yesterday morning with rain and snow.

Gotta love Provo in April!

She is much better than I, I just have never been

able to enjoy running.

I like walking.

Way to go Rach!

Food Storage!

Brad and I have been slowly building up our food storage over the past 4 years or so, and with Maceys last caselot sale we once again made some additions. I bought a bunch of empty buckets to put our bags of food in for organization, longer shelf life, and rodent protection. It sure seems like we have a lot of food, but when I actually did the counting of pounds and compared it to how much we need for our family for a years supply I was kinda bummed to find we still have a ways to go.

Daylen had fun scooping rice from one bowl to the next while I washed buckets and transferred food in to them. It kept him entertained for quite some time.

We gotta make sure she is properly stored so she will last a LONG time!

If you haven't heard about gamma lids yet, let me tell you they are AWESOME! They are a great storage lid that gives you an airtight seal, but is easy to remove so you can use the food in your bucket while keeping it good for a long time. They are just a little hard to put on the first time. There is an outside rim, which took my whole weight to put on, then the inside just twists on. I love them!


I just wish my pantry was bigger!


We really need more shelves in our garage. We have a stack of buckets to the side as well.


Water, water, water! We still need more!!

Thanks to Jamie I have felt more of the food storage bug, and the homemaking bug. Since Christmas I have been grinding my own wheat and making bread. I don't know what took me so long to start doing this, the hardest part was just getting my wheat grinder out to actually use it. It is so EASY! Homemade bread tastes so much better than store bought and it is more healthy. Of course I couldn't do it without my bosch, bosch does most of the work and I can enjoy yummy bread in no time at all!

Next task...homemade laundry soap...no joke.
Mmmm...