The in-between.

It seems that as winter comes to a close so much of our happiness is contingent on the weather.

I still tried to choose to be happy, but it's so much easier when the sun is shining! :)

Surprisingly I loved this winter with all it's snow and polar vortex's. It made me feel right at home.

But I'm still glad that spring came early...at least it felt like it to me.. there are perks to growing up in Canada!

We transitioned the garage attic into a more workable place of storage. 

It was really fun, hard, work.
I love it when my family works hard all together.

It is awesome.

Mark is the Scout Master in our ward and was showing Wilson a few things.

After being in charge of one court of honor and attending another this last weekend he was really missing Grandpa Jay's insight and scout knowledge.  If only we could call Heaven and talk to whoever we wanted!

Zina paid her brothers in candy to clean her room - 1 candy per item picked up.

Sam was ALL over that.  I think he earned 45 pieces of candy!

Win win for both I think. :)

Ah, the park.  We missed you all winter.  Mark and I like to take the kids to their/our favorite park Southeastway and take turns watching the kids on the playground while the other one runs the trails.

Love my little blonde boys!!

Wilson spend a large portion of the winter building with his legos.

I think legos might be my favorite toy ever.  

They keep my boys happily playing and creating for hours!

Zina had "nerd" day at school. 

Sigh. I was not impressed. 

With all the "political" correctness going around can't we do away with labeling people and having nerd day?  In elementary school!!?

Maybe I'm over-reacting.

 But I supported her in it anyways.

Grocery shopping with my 3 musketeers.  I get all kinds of comments with these 3 clones!

My favorite is, "oh boy you have your hands full" because I always reply that they should see how full my heart is!

Spring soccer has started!! 

I love getting outside and watching the kids run around.

What a blessing!  

Zina helping to keep her brothers occupied while I got ready for church.

Spring break is in March here (which I don't really like because the weather was still hit or miss and we had to find lots of indoor things to do.   Lucky for us Indy has all kinds of fun things to do inside. 

Playing is hard work!

We explored Eagle Creek Park for the first time.  The kids loved it and love their friends Jakey and Rachel Chatterton!

Mark had a Saturday off so we checked out the NCAA Hall of Fame. 

And of course soaked up all the General Conference we possibly could.  But without Mark because he was presenting a case at an Anesthesia conference in Chicago.

My kids love playing conference bingo and even now that conference is over they ask to watch it so they can play bingo. :)

Here Davey is at his 18mth checkup.  He is terrified of any one in scrubs.

Poor boy.  One look at the nurse and he is clinging to me.  I made Sam and Wilson give the Dr. 

high fives when she came in so that Davey wouldn't be scared.  Didn't work but the older boys loved it.

:)

Davey's 18mth Stats:

31" Height 12%
21 lbs 5%
47.5cm OFC 40%

Sunshine on my shoulders makes me happy.

Pizza Fridays, school projects, spring blossoms, fresh sand, and sunshine.

Makes me happy.

Planting a Garden 2014 etc.

" I am still in awe of the power of shared participation in the simple, everyday work of sustaining life. Helping one another nurture children, care for the land, prepare food, and clean homes can bind lives together. This is the power of family work, and it is this power, available in every home, no matter how troubled, that can end the turmoil of the family, begin to change the world, and bring again Zion."

http://magazine.byu.edu/?act=view&a=151

Love at Home & My Poor Sammy

Yesterday was one of those perfect mornings.  The boys were playing nicely and obediently and happily doing their school work,  we played cars/legos in the closet together, the sun was shining through the windows and because the boys were doing so well I was able to get laundry going and get started on the house after the weekend.  (I don't know about you but our house always looks like a tornado hit after the weekend is over!)   I had plans to make bread and take it to some sisters I visit teach, work with Wilson on his reading among some other things.  We ate lunch and then I had the thought to get started on dinner right then because Zina had her first Violin lesson after school which would make dinner prep/time a little crazy.  So I whipped up some enchiladas and put them in the fridge to wait for dinner.  I started in on mopping the floor and all the sudden my eyes started going crazy.  Which always means a migraine is on it's way.  :( All my good intentions flew out the window.  It was all I could do to finish the floor and put a movie on for the boys before I crashed in my bed with a pillow over my head.  When I woke up (just in time to pick Zina up from school) I found Davey fast asleep on the couch.  Wilson recounted to me that Davey had held onto his finger until he dozed off and then he (Wilson) very gently pulled his finger out and covered Davey up with our softest blanket.  What a good big brother!  I was so grateful he was there to help comfort and take care of his baby brother when Mama wasn't feeling well.  I was also so grateful I listened to that still small voice that told me to make dinner right then!

When Mark came home from work I informed him that he was in charge of family home evening.  I was achy and my head was still a little fuzzy.  It wasn't the most perfect family home evening.  Chaos would describe it pretty perfectly  The kids were all over the place.  They wouldn't settle down (we threatened no treat... the usual.. ha).  After Mark gave a bit of a lesson Zina said she wanted to give a lesson.  She did a fantastic job and taught us about the first vision and the courage and humility that Joseph Smith had to restore the Gospel of Jesus Christ.  She was devastated when we said it was getting to late for her to finish her plan and burst into tears.  Sammy was in charge of the activity and upon seeing his big sisters distress decided to have his activity be the rest of Zina's lesson.  Zina embraced him in the biggest hug ever.  It was such a sweet moment and I'm so glad we didn't give up on our family home evening when it was not going the way we wanted.  We would have missed the opportunity to see Sammy show true love for his big sister.  I'm so grateful for these kids.  Our chaos is a good chaos.   Sometimes you really have to push through the rough spots to see the good that can come!

Today Sammy and Wilson were playing and Sammy fell and hit his mouth really hard on our benches in the front room.  He came to me screaming with a bloody mouth.  His front tooth was pushed back and his gums were all swollen.    He was sobbing and when I said maybe we should take him to the dentist he said over and over, "No, it's ok.  It's ok.  it's ok." He really didn't want to go to the dentist.

After I got him settled down he looked at me with the saddest face and said, "I wish I was you Mama, then I wouldn't have this bad owie, "  Then his face twisted all up and he started crying again.  Between cries he said, "It's going to huwrt for infinity and beyond...it's going to huwrt for infinity and beyond"

All worn out after the trauma.