Happy Birthday!

Wow, I can't believe my first born has turned 5.  The past five years have just flown by.  It seems like just yesterday I was holding him in my arms completely in awe at the amazing gift of being able to get pregnant and then to become his mother.  I love spending my days laughing with him, listening to his great stories, and watching him play with his vivid imagination. 

We had a little Lego Star Wars Party for Ethan.  I made his cake, which I have such a great time doing, and then we sang him Happy Birthday (Landon's favorite song right now).  He opened his gifts and then got to play with his cousins.  It was a simple party/get together this year.  We are starting to do the every other year friend party thing.  Which I think will be good for all of us. 
Ethan we love you so much and hope you had a wonderful 5th Birthday.  We are so very blessed to have you in our family.  Happy Birthday!!

Peanut

Ethan's preschool allows the kids to take home their class pet. Ethan was the last in his class, but was so excited when his turn finally came around. Peanut is the class pet and as you can tell he is a stuffed elephant. Ethan loves to snuggle stuffed animals and had a great afternoon showing Peanut all the fun things he does after school. They jumped on the tramp, ate snacks, and played with his cousins. It was so cute to see Ethan with Peanut and we are glad he could come to our home.

Sod Party

We finally have grass!!! We had to reschedule laying our sod two times because of the weather. It always seemed to rain the day before we were going to lay the sod so the place where we were going to get our grass couldn't cut it. Instead of laying our sod on a Saturday we ended up getting it on a Tuesday. I was a little nervous that we wouldn't have enough people to help, but Aaron has a lot of really great friends and our ward came over to help. It took a little over 2 hours to lay about 20 pallets of grass. Needless to say we have all had a great time running around in our bare feet and playing in the water.

Coloring Easter Eggs

This is the first year that we have dyed Easter Eggs as a family. I boiled a little over a dozen eggs, which I had to call and ask my mother how to do, and then let them cool for a day. Friday after work Aaron, the boys and I got our egg colors, vinegar, and spoons ready and had a great time coloring, writing on, and cracking a few eggs.

Landon was in heaven. He had a great time plopping the eggs in the colored liquid and watching it splash out of the sides. He also had a great time taking big spoonfuls of the dye and pouring it on the newspaper covering the table. I just kept thinking that it is ok to get messy and that everything can be wiped up or washed.

Ethan on the other hand was the complete opposite. He took great care not to make a big, huge mess. It was so fun to watch him dying his eggs so carefully. He dyed all of his eggs blue, of course, and even wrote his name on a couple of eggs with a white crayon. He was a little sad when all the eggs were gone which made me think for a moment that I should have boiled more eggs, until I looked again at his little brother and was happy to pick up the cups of dye and pour them down the drain. It was truly a wonderful evening and I hope next year will be just as memorable.

Sandbox and Trampoline Whole

The sand has arrived for the sandbox and the boys have had a blast playing with their trucks and action figures in the big pile. It has been such nice weather lately that we have been outside pretty much every afternoon.

I can't wait til the play set goes up and the yard is finished. Aaron has also been hard at work putting in our trampoline. The boys have had a great time sliding down the dirt sides and climbing out by the ladder.

I hope our backyard is a place where we can have a fun time with family and friends and make many wonderful memories.

Getting Ready

We have been getting our yard ready for grass, and can I just say that I am so excited! It has been leveled and we are working on putting in our garden and the flower beds. The boys have had such a fun time playing in the big dirt piles and I have loved watching them running around outside, but I will be very excited not to wash as many muddy/dirty clothes.


We are laying the sod and doing the retaining wall ourselves to save some money. I hope it is all worth it. Doing all this manual labor has made me realize I am not as strong as I thought I was.

Sleepy Baby

A week ago I had to do some training in the morning at work. Ethan went to school and then went to play with his cousins. He always has such a fun time running around with them. I love that we live so close to each other and that they can play together. After I picked him up his other friend from preschool wanted to play, so I took him over to his friends house to play for a couple of hours. When he came home he and Landon started playing with some action figures and I was talking with my sister on the phone in the sitting room. It had been about an hour and I hadn't seen Ethan. I said goodbye to Josie and went into the kitchen to see my beautiful little boy who feel asleep on the kitchen chair. He must have been so exhausted. I just wanted to pick him up and rock him in my arms. I love that little guy so much and thank my Father in Heaven daily for letting me have such wonderful boys.