Mountain of Dirt

Our front yard is in the process of being transformed.  When we moved in, there were three tiers of xerascaping with rocks and bark.  Check it out here.  It looked good for that first year, then it was a battle of the weeds every summer.  It took me a while to convince Guy that it would be a great idea to just put grass down to the sidewalk.  Turns out, that is what it originally looked like before the previous owners tried to fix something that wasn't broken.  We even found the old sprinkler valves.  On May 3, we got 6 cubic yards of top soil delivered to fill in the low spots.  Elliot loved playing in the dirt with his little trucks.  In fact, everyone treated it like a big sandbox.  Now, we have the dirt all spread out and we are getting ready to put the grass seed down.  I am so excited to have a bigger front yard with more beautiful lawn.  Grass is so much easier to take care of than weeds and it is much more fun to run and play on than rocks.

Happy Sealing Day

Tamara and Brian were finally given the green light to be sealed in the temple.  Such a wonderful day!  They chose to be sealed in the Salt Lake Temple on April 28th.  It should have been a beautiful, nice spring-like day.  Instead, it was cold and windy.  We quickly took some pictures and then hurried off to someplace warm.  Steve was so nice watch all the kids for us so that Guy and I could both be there and it was so fabulous!  Afterwards, we went to our friend Launi's house in Bountiful for a little wedding dinner.  There were a lot of people at the sealing but only a few came to dinner: Kevin and VaLene, Grandpa Choo, Mom and Steve, Nick and Susie, John and Connie, Guy and Vicki (and kids), Launi, Megan and Josh (and kids) and Lissa.  Congrats Tamara and Brian!

Field Trip to Orton's Farm

One of Ashley's last field trips of Kindergarten was to go to her classmate Camery's farm.  It was a dairy farm in Salem.  The day that we went it was cold and it had rained the night before so there were a lot of puddles to dodge all around the farm.  I ended up driving for the field trip and had my Durango packed full of kids plus one more mom that was in charge of another group.  Our tour of the farm included baby cows (that we got to feed), pigs, lambs (the kids loved catching them and holding them), chickens, lots of dogs, and the milking station for the mama cows.  The kids also got to play in a big pile of cotton seed.  Even Ashley was brave enough to climb to the top of the pile and play with all of the other kids.  Her teacher said that if I wasn't there, she was pretty sure Ashley would have hung back and not participated.  I'm glad that I was able to go and see her come out of her shell a little bit.  Our original plan was to have lunch at the farm, but since it was so muddy and cold, we headed back to the school and the kids got to eat their lunch in the classroom.  It was great to see Ashley interacting with her friends at school.  It was a good Ashley day.

This past year, I have had the opportunity to volunteer in her classroom a couple of times a month.  It has been a great way to get to know Ashley's teacher and her friends.  I think it also gave Ashley something to look forward to.  The only problem was that I didn't get a chance to volunteer in Amelia's classroom as much.  But every time I was volunteering with Ashley's class, I would walk with her to lunch and then wait around until I saw Amelia come into the lunchroom and give her a quick hug.  Amelia loved my little surprise visits.

I should do this more often

After living in this house for nearly 6 years, I figured it was time to clean under the fridge.  Back in April, I decided to pull out the fridge and mop behind/underneath it.  As long as I was at it, I pulled off the front cover and vacuumed off the coils.  Oh my, what a lot of lint and dust had built up under there.  I'm hoping that by doing this little bit of maintenance will make our fridge last a few more years.

Before 

After

Playing Trains

I love playing trains with this little boy.  Some days, he will go in and close the door to his room and build the best train tracks.  The hardest thing is getting him to clean up.  His tracks have had to have a time-out on more than one occasion when he wouldn't clean them up.

I helped him build this track and I was kind of sad when little brother came in and destroyed it all.

Happy 90th Birthday Grandpa Choo-Choo

My Grandpa Collings celebrated his 90th birthday in April.  We had a fun gathering with all the kids, grandkids, and great-grandkids at a restaurant in Salt Lake City.  Grandpa really didn't want to have a big party and has been feeling rather lonely since his second wife, Helen, died less than a month earlier.  It was fun to see so many of my cousins and their kids there to celebrate Grandpa's life.  Each of his kids took a decade of his life to tell about.  It was so cool to hear some stories that I had never heard before and great to hear the classic stories that we have grown up sharing with each other.

We tried to get a picture with all the great-grandkids that were there.  Only 2 out of my 4 kids somewhat cooperated for the picture.  What a group.

His button says "Aged to Perfection"

Opening gifts.  Elliot loved being a helper.