Over the Hill?

That's right, at the ripe old age of 29, Jeff has reached the "over the hill" phrase from the young women in our ward :). They made him a cute crown for him to wear that night at mutual. It had feathers and everything, man why didn't I take a picture of that? He had a nice birthday, or should I say, the kids had fun celebrating his birthday. Jeff likes to light the candles so I figured I would put that photo of him for everyone to enjoy. It's strange to live 29 years and not feel like you're 29, but I'm sure that's how it is with every age.
Mhari was really interested in those cupcakes too. I figured I would sit her by them and yep, she sure wanted them. Luckily she's too young to realize to put her fingers in her mouth once she got the frosting. I'm sure she'll love her first birthday cake, just over 5 more months to go baby!

By their fruits . . .

Or vegetables.... hmmmm

This gardening thing is harder than it looks :). This is our beautiful bell pepper. I was so excited to see something actually growing! It got pretty big (for our first pepper) and I was getting ready to go pick it when the kids came in and said that the pepper fell off. Well, "fell off" was a relative term. It was more like "broke off" when the soccer ball was kicked into the garden. Man, that was the first ball to hurt the garden (to my knowledge) and it took out half of the plant! I was happy to find another small one that had been growing lower on the plant, but that broke off as well. Well at least that's two peppers for the season. I doubt the plant will make a full recovery after the soccer abuse. One of the corn plants also took the hit pretty hard so we'll see how that one turns out.
I have been expecting a better harvest, but I guess there is a shortage of honey bees so there are pollenation problems. It could be worse, at lease something grew that was edible (it was yummy too!).


Wasn't it so pretty on the plant!

6 Month Picture

I think this should be Mhari's 6 month picture. Just crop me out and focus more on her. Nice hat and background. Cute smile. No, it is not just because of the hat. She is just so darn cute in it and she doesn't have any hair to worry about anyway. If you were to vote now, would your vote change???? - Jeff

Vote here!

I'm trying to pick a good photo for Mhari's 6 month picture. Which do you like?
#1 cute brown dress, small smile


#2 white dress, looking down


#3 red bandana dress, close up


#4 brown dress, above view


#5 brown dress, crying.
I just couldn't resist adding this photo in. I won't enlarge it (probably), but over the years I think seeing the real expression of kids can be more important than getting the perfect smile. I don't think I ever took crying pictures of my older children, but now it is precious to me :).

Fun Stuff

So my baby is officially 6 months old! Isn't she cute? She is a great baby and is usually happy, espcially when I hold her or sit by her. She doesn't see the need to work on crawling yet and usually can get the attention she wants by crying ~ oh the life of a baby!


One of the things she does well is give kisses. They are quite slimy, but so sweet!


Another project that we worked on while Grandma and Grandpa were here was making flower bows for the girls hair. Sandra loves them and Mhari likes to chew on them. I think Talmage wanted in on the fun so I decorated his hair too! Such a funny boy!


And to finish off the fun times we made Jeff a father's day tie. The kids got to help do their thumb prints on the bottom and then I turned them into little people. It turned out really cute. Jeff was a good sport and wore it to church. He was conducting the meeting so lots of people got to see the kids creation. They had a great time doing something special for their daddy!


It may be a little hard to read, but it says "We heart (love) Daddy". Talmage's eyes (the yellow head) fell off when Jeff was tying the tie. Jeff told Talmage his eyes were closed and that's why he couldn't see them. I glued new ones on in time for church though. I wasn't going to include my thumb, but the kids really wanted me on there too. I guess it works out because I really love daddy too!

Time Off

So some people when they take time off to visit family go out to fun places, relax, play games, etc., but not my in-laws. The kids love it when Grandma and Grandpa come to visit (it helps that they bring surprises, water guns, books, food). They come to see the grand kids often. However, they (mostly my mother-in-law) are very helpful when they come too and don't like to sit around. They have come out to visit several times and we always get something productive done (a lot of painting, building a work bench, putting up shelves in closets, etc). This time was no different. The first project was building a shelf unit for our old armour doors for a cupboard in the little hall by the master bedroom.


My father-in-law got it all done while Jeff was busy still working. It looks great and gives us so much more storage than before.


One of the other things they do is take us shopping for food when they come. That cupboard would still be bear without the recent shopping trips. The picture is to document that at one time it was full :)


Another project was building the boys a bunk bed. This is part of their Christmas present from Grandma and Grandpa and let's just say that they love it. It's nice that their room is looking more like a bedroom too :). Jeff and his dad work well together and get some great things put together. The bunk bed was done in one afternoon. Not all projects go as fast as they seem they should, but that was really impressive!


We also took out our front Holly bushes. They attract all sorts of bugs, they are prickly, and they covered up the front window so out they came. We still have some work to do to finish taking them out and turn it into a path and a little flower bed, but it is better than it was!


After the week of "time off" I think this photo of Jeff and his dad say it all! It's hard work to go on vacation!

What is going on?

So during quiet time today I had a little nap :). It was so nice. I got up because I thought I heard a noise and also Mhari was talking. So I go and check on everyone and Sandra is awake. She had fallen asleep on the way home from basketball and didn't eat lunch. I figured she was hungry so I asked her if she wanted lunch. When I looked in her room I saw all of these little black things on the floor. It reminded me of rodent droppings. Sandra has been potty training and hadn't gone stinky in a few days, but that didn't look like anything she's ever done.


The only person I knew who would know what it was and how it got there was Talmage. He rarely naps during quiet time and has been a little devious the last few days. When I asked him what it was he said it was sprinkles. That at least made me feel better about the resemblance to the rodant droppings! However, the sprinkles are in the cabinet up by the refrigerator, by the stove. How did he get up there, rummage through the spices (lazy susan) and get out the sprinkles? Yesterday during quiet time he got down a hacky sack from the top of the fridge and some money from our change cup (also on top of the fridge). Then this morning he helped himself to some cookies (and was happy to share with his siblings) from off the counter. I know some children are sneaky, but Talmage never has been. I feel like someone has traded me children as part of a pratical joke, only this isn't funny. I saw Grant climbing our pantry shelves yesterday too. I'm sure Talmage's influence has yet to reach it's peak, but man this is getting crazy. His story of why he got down the sprinkles was because Sandra was hungry. That's nice that he's trying to take care of his sister, but seriously what's with sprinkles, why not make a sandwich if he's going to be independant? I must say that by this point of his sneaking around I had him go to time out for the rest of quiet time in which he fell asleep. Is he just not sleeping well and his mind can't remember what ever logic he used to have?



After it was all over we talked more about it (and I vacuumed up the sprinkles) I found a fruit snack wrapper too (those are in the very top of the pantry). I asked him why he gave Sandra a fruit snack. He said because she was still hungry. Who knew sprinkles wouldn't fill her up :). Evidently he started with the fruit snack and then moved on to the sprinkles. He had the sprinkles put back really well like I would never know what happened. I guess all of the sprinkles on the floor were a little less important to try and hide.  I think this is going to drive me crazy if he keeps it up. I'm glad he wants to be independant and all, but we have now had several conversations about stealing (the money incident) and lying (he ususally says I don't know, or won't admit anything until I find the evidence; fruit snack wrapper). I know it's just going to get harder, but this has been pretty shocking to me, especially from Talmage (Sandra has been the sneaky one of them all so far). Help!

Play Room?!?

So we changed some rooms around in our house last Saturday. The kids play room became Jeff's new office/study room and the boys room became a big play room. The boys are downstairs and sharing a room with Sandra and Mhari has her own room (until she's a little older and the 2 girls will be together). I didn't really mind the changes because it seems that the kids are never in the play room so giving them more room would be good anyway. Jeff's office seems nice too, not too big and out of the way so he can focus.



So here is the new study room... notice the blanket under the table and the shape toys on the floor....


And here are the kids in their old play room... hmmm. I wonder if it's funner to play in a room they're not supposed to be in than in a room full of toys. They just won't seem to stay out of it. Maybe they just think that the office chair is a toy so that works for them (they love to spin around in it!).


This is what the room looks like with the three beds. There is no room for the dressers, but we are working on getting a bunkbed for the boys to free up more space. This is also one of the few rooms left to be painted. Once the girls are together we'll probably paint and help it become more of a "boy" room. The kids do pretty good together so all in all the switching of the rooms has been a huge success. I just need to find some homes for the misplaced items with all of the moving around. Such is life.


With all of the cuteness of the kids I just couldn't not post this Mhari picture. This is Jeff's favorite hat and we have a photo of each kid about this age wearing it. Just too cute! She's such a fun baby!