Spring Things

Spring is here and has us jumping, as usual.  

We are all loving the beautiful weather and getting outside.  

Josh is in his 12th (or so) year serving in the Young Mens.  He is currently the 2nd counselor, doing more scouting than he has ever done before.  I wouldn't say Josh is a big camper or outdoorsman, but he is fun and loves the youth.  Part of this calling is to go camping every month.  He has never taken our boys before, but decided to take them on a whim last month.  Some how I feel so much better about him serving others when our boys can be included.  They had a great time - even though they were camping in the rain. 

What is more spring than small children and puppies?!  Josh's work rented three puppies for a couple of hours just for the fun of it.  They were so dang cute.  Renting puppies was a new concept to me, but brilliant!  Johnny was a little scared of them, but he did warm up by the end. 

I'm not a big dog person, but even I can't resist the cuteness of a puppy!

This kid is at the professional mess making age!  Seriously he is a walking tornado!  The other morning he dumped the bag of cereal crumbs while I was making crepes.  I had not yet cleaned up the crumbs when I left the room long enough for him to dump the entire contents of the cinnamon and sugar onto the counter, his legs, the floor, and the stack of crepes.  Some days it feels impossible to keep up with five kids including one major mess maker!

Cache School District has a fantastic tradition for the fourth and fifth graders.  It is called the Wellsville mile.  All of the students spend a couple of months training and then come together to race.  Caleb has determined that running is not his thing, but we were happy he pushed himself and completed it.  A few weeks ago his teacher called me.  After a long discussion with her I went to talk to Caleb about it.  I asked him, "do you know why your teacher would be calling me?"  He quickly and with a cute smile shrugged, "probably just to tell you how good I have been being."  Actually she was calling because Caleb had been trying to convince her that he couldn't run a whole mile because of his asthma.  She was calling to see if he needed to race with the "special" group who only ran 1/2 mile.  With some convincing he took the challenge.  I can relate, I don't like to run either.

Even though John is a little messer he can be so darn cute.  He loves to have a green smoothie every morning with me and often sports a green smoothie mustache.  He also wants a bow in his hair most mornings.  When the girls get their hair done he wants in on the action. 

We have been shopping for a house for my mom.  The farm sold this spring, braking the hearts of the family, but knowing in the long run it will be way better for mom.  Now she is looking to start her new life.  While she looks she is living at my Aunts house in Tremonton.  Josh his is real estate license so he has been making the appointments and asking the listing agent to leave the homes open. This particular day we finished looking at the house, and Josh said "do you have everything" as he closed the locked door.  It was a split second before we realized Johnny didn't walk out with the rest of us.  We had a good laugh while Josh went and found an agent with a key.  Johnny didn't seem to care that he was locked in.  He was happy making funny faces at us through the window. 

Johnny never stops eating.  It is a full time job keeping this boy fed.  I keep thinking it has got to slow down, but it doesn't seem to.  Seriously, he could just sit at the bar and eat all day long.  Thankfully he likes healthy foods.

What is more spring than baby bunnies?  Our neighbors have a couple and the kids have been begging for us to get some "for just $5 each."  They are so cute, I guess that is why I can't stand the idea of them getting malled to death by the kids. 

Josh's new full time hobby is planning to build a deck.  He is so excited about it!  He has wanted to build a deck ever since we moved in, but there were horses in our back yard so I insisted we couldn't spend a fortune on a deck to experience dust, flies, and horse crap.  Last summer a home was build behind us and now there is beautiful green grass so my excuse is gone.  We have decided to use our family vacation money for the summer to build the deck.  I figure, the kids already know how to play, but working is another story.  I'd love for them to have a good experience working.  We had no trouble recruiting help unloading the supplies.  

Andy had a great soccer season.  His team was really good and he seemed to gain some skills and confidence. 

Am I gong to be finding selfies on my phone for the rest of my life?  Ali takes hundreds of pictures of herself.  Usually she is making funny faces.  My favorite thing about Ali right now is that she sings to herself and she plays pretend out loud.  I love to listen to her play!

We have a happy and crazy house.  It seems like there are kids laughing and playing constantly.  It gets a little out of hand and sometimes I long for peace and quite, but I recognize that I need to count my blessings.  They especially love to play with their only local cousin their age, Ethen.  He is almost part of the family.  You may not notice him in this picture, but his face is under Andy's leg.  

Now I'm just peeping myself for SUMMER!