Memorial Day Weekend in Vegas

We had a nice (and much needed) short trip to Vegas this past weekend. It was nice and relaxing spending time with family, In-n-Out, and Trader Joe's! Some of the highlights of our trip:





George absolutely loved being in the pool! He was all smiles.


Sunday afternoon we went for a drive to see this cactus garden. Samuel kept saying how he wanted to see a cactus because we were in the desert. He thought they were pretty cool.



Just hanging out in the pink princess chair (they don't see much of stuff like that at home you know) at Anne's house.

George managed to get some mosquito bites or spider bites on his face. They were little red bumps one day and then they got progressively bigger. By the time we got home they were huge. Our wise friend (thanks Valerie) told us to try putting raw potato on the bites so we did. We held them on with bandaids and surprisingly George wasn't bothered by them during the night. One of the potato pieces slid a little, but I am happy to say that they are looking WAY better today. I guess the potato really works. She said it sucks out the toxins (even works for bee stingers). One more little trick to keep in my book!

What a great little family vacation.

Dinosaur Love

Jim: Samuel, are your dinosaurs fighting?
Samuel: No, they're just giving each other a really long hug.

My LIttle Artist

Samuel LOVES to draw. We go through soooo much paper everyday (and I feel really bad - thinking about the poor trees). Actually, we go through a lot of paper, crayons, paint, chalk, markers, etc. It doesn't matter the medium - he just loves to create - especially dinosaurs and sea creatures. I feel bad throwing away his creations sometimes, but I don't have room to keep everything. So I came up with this great idea. I decided to turn his drawings into something that is more permanent. I decided to have him draw some sea creatures - one for every letter of the alphabet. Most of the creatures he knew about and drew them without any trouble. Some of the more obscure ones I showed him a picture of and then he drew his own picture. I then copied them on some fabric and embroidered them with floss. He chose the colors he wanted me to use for each one. I then turned them into bean bags with water fabric on the back. It was so fun working on these together and he was very excited to see the completed project (I was able to finish it for his birthday). These bean bags are filled with cherry pits (triple washed and dried) so that they can be washed in the washing machine if they get dirty. I was pleased with how they turned out and I hoping for hours of fun with them. George loves them too.





My personal favorites are the jellyfish, lobster, octopus, urchin, and eel. I think I need to get him in some art lessons!

More Birthday Celebrations

Saturday morning started off with Samuel's first smart start baseball class. He seemed to enjoy himself.


After baseball, we headed up to Bountiful for more birthday fun at Grandma Moss' house. She made a great race car cake that Samuel loved. He got some great presents (all of which he loved as well) including a singing Mickey Mouse shirt.


What a fun weekend we had!

Four already?

My how time flies!  Samuel celebrated his 4th birthday yesterday (actually we celebrated it Friday night and Saturday).  We had so much fun together and I just can't get over how grown up Samuel is starting to look.  
He is such a sweet, energetic, fun, creative, caring, talkative boy!

Samuel decided he wanted a dinosaur cake for his birthday. So one day I got online and searched for the perfect dinosaur cake. In my searching Samuel stood next to me and he saw the cake he wanted. I didn't think much about it because I didn't think it looked all that neat. BUT, he remembered and everyday he would tell me exactly what he wanted on his dinosaur cake: a volcano, a T-Rex, a stegosaurus, water, green frosting and a swimming dinosaur.


Although the cake didn't turn out quite like I wanted it to, Samuel was super pleased with it. We spent the better part of Friday afternoon creating his cake. He had a blast helping with it and I had fun seeing him create. It was fun and he loved it.



Stegosaurus

The Best Mother's Day Present

Slept in.

Showered uninterrupted for longer than two minutes.

Ate breakfast that I didn't make.

Dirtied dishes and I didn't wash them.

Only dressed myself for church.

Walked to church together as a family (all 4 of us).

Had Jim home for most of the day.

I think I only changed one or two diapers today too!  

WONDERFUL! 

Seriously, the best Mother's Day.

Thanks Jim and boys!  I love you guys.

The First Harvest

I went out and picked the first harvest of the season yesterday. I was surprised to find there were enough spinach leaves to fill a bowl. It was DELICIOUS! I have never grown spinach before, but I think it will be a staple every year now. I love the feeling of picking my own food out of my garden, taking it inside, rinsing, and eating. It doesn't get any fresher than that!