Enjoying Nature

I love this time of year when the flowers are blooming and there are so many wonderful smells in the air (I might feel differently if I had allergies). Jim took a few pictures this past week of some things growing in our yard. It is fun to look back a few years and see how things really have grown so much.

We found a bird's nest in our tree. We figured there must be eggs/birds in them because we would occasionally see a robin fly in the tree. A few days ago we were outside eating dinner and Samuel said: "Look mom! The momma bird is feeding her babies!" We looked and sure enough there were baby birds being fed by their mother. It was so cute to watch. Needless to say we have watched them a lot in the last few days. It is amazing to watch. The mother bird will fly away and look for food. The baby birds stay down in the nest and as soon as the mother bird flies into the tree they pop their heads up and open their beaks to be fed. They make a cute little chirping sound as if to say "give me some mommy". Once the worm is gone, the mother bird flies away and down in the nest they go again.

The lilacs this year have been wonderfully fragrant and eye pleasing.

I was especially excited to see the irises bloom this year - I love the yellow color.

It is exciting to see blossoms on our strawberry plants - we are hoping for tastier berries than last year's "water berries".

This past week we started harvesting our spinach and lettuce. It is a little later than last year, but we have enjoyed them!

Our tomato plants are doing great and we just finished planting our other vegetables yesterday. It is so rewarding to have a garden (I never thought I would say that).

Utah Stroke Symposium

Almost two years ago Jim was featured in a newspaper article about some telepractice speech therapy he did. As a result of that article and some exposure as the first speech therapist in Utah to do this, he was recently asked to speak at the Utah Stroke Symposium about telemedicine. He had very short notice to put something together, but he did it and did a great job too. I was able to attend the conference with him (and get CEUs too!) thanks to a great brother and sister-in-law who volunteered to watch our boys all day. It was like old times when we would go to conferences together when we were both working full time. It was great to see him speaking in front of other speech pathologists, physical therapists, and occupational therapists. Although there were several late nights prior to the event, I think he had a good time doing it. I was proud of the work that he did. It was a great experience too!

Birthday Boy

It seems like I always say this, but it is true - I just can't believe how fast 5 years can go by! It is hard for me to imagine having a child that is five years old. This next year is sure to be full of changes for Samuel. He is super excited to start kindergarten. We told him that after he turned five he would be able to go to school. He asked me a few days after his birthday if he got to go to school now. I explained to him that this is the end of a school year and that he wouldn't start until August. I think he gets that now - it took a few explanations. He is just so excited to learn.

Samuel knew exactly what he wanted for his birthday cake and party. He even drew his own party invitations complete with a great white shark in a party hat as well as a stegosaurus in a party hat. The best part of all was that inside the invitation he drew pictures of things his friends could give him as a gift - he customized them to each person. We had a little chat about how we shouldn't ask for presents. I also made sure that he understood that he might not get what he drew because those were just "ideas". I thought it was pretty clever for him to create them all though.

I was informed way before his birthday was near that he wanted to have a great white shark cake. It was actually pretty fun to make. I used rice crispy treat to mold the shape of the body. I think it turned out pretty good. The grey frosting was a bit tricky. I ended up soaking frozen blueberries in water, then put the colored water and the blueberries in white frosting. I stirred it around a bit and then took out the berries. It made a lavender-ish color that I had hoped would pass as grey. He didn't really go for it so I added one drop of green food coloring and voila - grey frosting. The perfect shade for a great white shark. The frosting tasted really good too because it was cream cheese blueberry frosting - yum.



We made up a couple of games for the party and I think he and his friends all had fun.




A few things I want to remember about Samuel at this age:
Things he loves (to do)
talk
draw
make noises
Magic Tree House books
go on walks
play with friends
learn about sea creatures
make crafts
church
most fruits and veggies


He is also caring and sensitive - especially when he hears about someone getting hurt or someone dying.
He smiles a lot and I love to hear him laugh. I love to see his face light up when he gets excited. Those big blue eyes just shine.

I am so thankful for his happy personality and for the joy that he brings into my life. I love you Samuel!

Big Boy Bed

George was getting too daring in his crib, so we switched it into a toddler bed before he actually fell out. He has been enjoying the freedom of getting on and off his bed at his leisure. It has been a fairly smooth transition for the most part. Initially he just stayed on his bed. I think that was the honeymoon period. I'm not sure if he ever stays ON the bed now. Yesterday he was in his room for a while - it was quiet so I assumed he was sleeping. After a little while I heard him roaming around the room. Turns out he had a dirty diaper and I don't think he ever went to sleep. But in that "quiet time" he had managed to pull out most of the blankets in his drawer as well as study (tear up) the scriptures, and take books off the shelf. He is definitely enjoying the freedom!

The Pre-Birthday 5 Day+ Project

Samuel said that he wanted to go to Chuck-E-Cheese for his birthday this year. I am not a huge fan of taking a bunch of 5 year olds to a place like ChuchECheese. It is sensory overload for me and I don't do well. So, I was pleased when Samuel came home from a birthday party of a friend and declared that he wanted a pinata at his party too! No problem. I gave him his choice - either ChuckECheese OR a pinata. He chose the pinata - hooray.

He decided that he wanted a stegosaurus pinata. So, we watched a few YouTube videos on making a pinata and figured it would be no problem. We first created the basic shape with balloons, cardboard, and a lot of tape.

Then we mixed up the paper mache and started. Samuel had already ripped the newspaper into strips. We worked on it together for a while and then he took a little break. We were able to get a good base coat. We let that dry over night and then the next day we did the bottom and added another layer on the rest of the body. I felt like maybe it still needed more, so I put an additional layer of brown paper bag on the main body - just for extra support.


This project had already become a multi-day project. I thought we had started the whole project in plenty of time for it to be finished for his party on Saturday. On Thursday we started decorating it. Samuel had in mind how he wanted it decorated. He even colored a paper with green and blue marker and then spent a good half hour to hour cutting it into tiny bits. He informed me that was what the head would be decorated with. I didn't really want to glue every single little tiny piece of paper on the head, but I felt bad because he had spent so much time being so careful and particular about how he cut them all out that I ended up gluing each little piece in place. That was a task!

Friday came and the pinata was still not completely decorated - ok maybe only 1/4 of the way. We had dinner with some friends and recruited them to help finish the decorating. They were kind enough to stay until 11:00PM Friday night to get it finished. Honestly we would not have been able to finish it without their help. They may never want to have dinner with us again though.


The end product. All those years of elementary school art projects paid off. Crepe paper/glue/pencil - who doesn't remember that?

In the end it was so worth the look on Samuel's face when he came downstairs Saturday morning. He was absolutely thrilled with his completed pinata. The excitement was worth all the time and work that went into making it.

That Special Sunday

This year Mother's Day was extra special because it was shared with the celebration of Samuel's birthday (more about that to come).

I am so glad that we have a special day set aside to honor our mothers and other incredible women in our lives. I feel truly blessed to have been raised by a mother with so much love, kindness, selflessness, and patience! She has been such a wonderful example to me of the type of mother and woman I aspire to be.

I also feel so blessed to have married into a wonderful family with another amazing woman who raised my husband with unconditional love, selflessness, and strength.

And of course there are the countless other amazing women who have greatly influenced my life.

Although I was a little under the weather on Sunday, it was still a wonderful day. Jim and the boys brought me breakfast in bed (after I slept in). I love my boys so much and am grateful that I have the opportunity to be their mother.