Boys Monthly Letters

The boys have posted their monthly letters to their blogs. Just click on their pictures to the right!

Graduation Day!

Eric "graduated" :) from preschool tonight!

It was quite the affair. Everyone had a great time!

Carnival

Today was Eric's last day of preschool and they had a carnival! Needless to say ... Eric had a great time!

Mother's Day

I was blessed to have the most wonderful mother in the world.

And now I am blessed to be the mother of three amazing kids. Although Mother's Day is made to celebrate mothers, I can't help but think of the importance of my children today. They have such unique personalities and gifts and I am grateful for each one of them.

Brandon is a spiritual giant. He feels things very deeply that most 7 year-olds wouldn't even think about. He is very concerned with doing what is right and about being prepared. Whenever I make bread he tells me that I am really good at getting us ready for the second coming. He spends a lot of time reading his scriptures and always amazes his primary teachers at how well he knows all the scripture stories. He has such an old spirit and is so special.

Eric is pure entertainment. :) He is always cracking us up with his comments and antics. If you've ever had a conversation with him when he is really excited about something then you know how huge his eyes get when he is animated! The other day he put on a sleeveless basketball shirt but put on a long sleeved shirt under it. I asked him why and he said "I don't want anyone to see my private parts!" I asked him what were his private parts and he pulled up his sleeve and rubbed his forearm. :) And just today he told me he had figured out how they make cheese. "They take string cheese and flatten them out and that's how they make cheese!"

Kyle is so angelic and just pure joy! He is so sweet and loving. He tells us he loves us and says thank you to us about 50 times a day and just warms our hearts. But don't let that fool you. He is a strong-willed determined guy nonetheless. One look at this picture and you will see that he does what he wants, when he wants to:

So much for going to sleep at bed time. Doesn't matter that it's dark in his room and he can't actually see the puzzles. That doesn't stop him from getting his puzzles and trying to work on them in his bed. And this is somewhat of a regular occurance. :)

I love my boys! Thanks to them and especially to Dave for making this Mother's Day a really special day.

The Garden Is In!

Spring is my favorite time of year! We have had such a cold spring but I was finally able to get the garden planted. My peas, broccoli, spinach and lettuce were in earlier and are now up. Today the tomatos, green peppers, eggplants, carrots, beats, beans, corn and pumpkins went in. Now we will just hope that the temps stay above freezing!

"Green" Smoothies

This is my new favorite way to get my kids to eat their fruits and veges. Eric & Kyle are actually really good about eating fresh produce but Brandon is quite the carnivore and not very willing to eat fruits and especially veges. But my friend Liz turned me onto these "green" smoothies. You can pretty much put whatever you want in them. In this one I used frozen berries, frozen bananas, an apple, a stalk of celery and a bunch of spinach. The fruits cover up the spinach flavor enough that it still tastes sweet. I used some fruit juice that I had and also threw in a thing of Greek yogurt for added protein. But you really can throw in whatever you like.

In the end, I get a smoothie that my kids beg for and end up drinking their fruits and veges. :)