Superhero invite

Planning for Jake's birthday is in full swing and it's a good thing it's his birthday soon, because he's been driving us crazy!

I sure love him but I'm not too sad to see 3 go, here's to hoping he's a good 4 year old..

Circus

I've been so busy, I've hardly had time to breathe these last few weeks. On top of everything, I got this idea to do a circus theme for our upcoming Reunion. It was so fun for me to plan. I think I should have been a party planner in another life! We did cotton candy and sno cones, face painting by aunt Amy and our very own clown (uncle Ben) who the kids were enthralled with. We had a bouncy house and uncle Jerry brought his beautiful old Calliope which was perfect!


                                 

I've got that done, now on to plan Jake's birthday party!

Oldies

I was picking out pictures I wanted to copy from my mother-in-laws stash and found these. I can't believe how much we all have changed. Chris and I look so much younger, not to mention the kids!

Some of those pictures feel like another life. I miss those tinies! They have gotten so big. And I official do not want to age anymore myself either.

Ironing board for over your dryer

I've literally tried blogging this three times, but couldn't get it up! I've been busy busy.
So I found this on pinterest of course :)It's an ironing pad that has magnets so it sticks to your dryer. I pretty much made a pillowcase, put batting in there and magnets on the sides, sewed up all the edges, and then sewed along where the magnets were to keep them in place. I can just leave it up there because it's cute and iron without having to get out the ironing board. Which is good because I don't need any excuse to keep me from ironing.

Plus ironing is dangerous business!

The Circus!

I'm helping with our family reunion and we came up with a circus theme. I'm actually pretty excited about it! Here is the invite, I made it using some free printables at One Charming Party. Such cute stuff.

Dear Mom..

It's funny how each year I realize more and more just how amazing my mom is for raising five children. I have a little bit better understanding this year with the addition of Sam. Three kids is a lot. How did she do it with five?? I guess I never realized how hard it must have been, because she made it seem effortless, fun. But I know now, just how hard it really was, and what a good mother she is. I was thinking about a lot of the ways she helped me become the person I am and I wanted to say thanks.

Thank you mom for being so fun growing up. Thank you for letting us dream big, and be kids. Thank you for taking us on road trips, for thinking we were beautiful, and telling people how beautiful you thought we were. Thank you for making me listen to NPR and for loving snow days just as much as us. Thanks for driving me and my friends out for dessert at midnight in torrential rain. Thanks for getting up every morning of your Christmas vacation at 4 am so I could do my paper route because you believed in me, that I could earn enough money to go on my dream trip to Europe. Thanks for going with me and the memories I will cherish forever. Thanks for forcing me to go back to the school after I skipped my French final. I knew I needed to but I couldn't do it alone. Thanks for teaching me how to sew, and for not getting mad when I accidentally cut a hole in the skirt I was making. Thanks for giving me freedom and trusting me. Thanks for driving me to school everyday after seminary and for stopping at Great Harvest just about every morning on our way, to get scones and juice. Thanks for taking care of me when I got burned at work and for finding someone to give me a blessing if I wanted it because Dad was out of town. Thanks for being home..when I called home from school to tell you I got the lead in the 4th grade school play, or when I was sick or needed something. Thank you for being present, because I know how ridiculously hard that is. Thank you for making me feel better after I missed my violin recital by taking me out for ice cream anyways and telling me your embarrassing school stories. Thank you for making me work (what seemed like) endless hours in the garden, for teaching me hard work and the joy of reaping what you sew. Thank you for packing me lunches for 12 years and doing countless loads of dirty laundry, for doing it cheerfully! Thank you for encouraging me so nicely to go to the stake center to watch conference after I had worked a long shift because it was that important to you and by bringing candy to make it enjoyable. Thank you for bearing your testimony and for being so proud of me when I read the Book of Mormon all the way through. Thank you for giving me your adventurous spirit and for flying across the country with a bad stomach countless times to be with me when I needed you, when I graduated college and when I had each one of my kids. Thank you for showing me how to be the mother I need to be.

I sit here holding a sleeping baby in one arm and typing with the other, wishing you could be here so I could tell you all these things in person and cry these tears on your shoulder. I want so much to be a good mom, and yet I fall so short. But I get up everyday and try again because you taught me to.
Thank you Mom, I love you.

Idaho Falls Engagement Session

What a fun couple. I can't wait to do the wedding photos!

And Claire too!

Here's one of the group together,

I have so many kids.

Avocado Salad and Grilled Pizza

I got around to trying out grilled pizza and it didn't disappoint! Friday night is typically pizza night at our house, but I wanted to try it out and since the kids were gone on Friday, we decided to do it last night for family night. It was actually really easy to do and didn't heat up my entire house!

I tried this dough recipe and it was so good. I will definitely be using this dough recipe again. I tried it two different ways. We did some on a cast iron skillet and some straight on the grill. Both worked well. All you do is shape your dough and throw it on your grill turned low. Cook for a minute or two. Then flip and add your toppings and cook for a little longer, make sure to check the bottom, as they can burn easily if you aren't watching (I got the edge of one pretty dark!)

I love pizza because it's a good vegetarian dinner that everyone loves and a great way to get in veggies :)

And this avocado salad was SO good. The dressing was yummy. The sweetened almonds were yummy. It was on the sweet side, so I might lower the amount of sugar in the dressing next time. But it was definitely a "MUST TRY"!

Little boys

I am loving my boys, especially when they look so handsome! Sam turned 3 months old on Saturday and Jake will be 4 in 1 month. Pictures have been well overdue to send to family! So here's a sneak peak of them :)

I wanted to get some of Claire, but it will have to wait for another day since she has a terrible flu bug. Poor girl.

Iambic Pentameter

I couldn't sleep this morning. I was up at 5 a.m. Which is especially cruel because the kids are staying at Grandma and Grandpa Snedaker's. But since I was up and reading Psalms I thought I would try my hand at a little poetry. I'm a big Shakespeare, and Chaucer fan so I chose iambic pentameter in rhymed verses. Definitely nothing special, but it feels good to put in words some of how I feel about the Gospel.


I am the heart that strains for purity
Its beat desires the rhythm of deity

Yet in my trial for strength from single woe
I cannot hold away from thought my foe

Deliver me and send the angst astray
Like air that slips above the light of day

My Lord for me has already proven
To give me all I need, His sweet intent

So can I trust His arm and falter not?
And lay my sins to rest on alter fought?

I can. I must for Him. I will today
Move forward, straight: my sins I’ll cast away

Graduation time!

I love this picture of him being all studly :)

Jake graduated from preschool! He has learned so much this year and we are so proud of him! He knows all his letters and letter sounds, and is sounding out words. He tolerates the work at preschool so he can spend time with friends including his bestie Trevin. He's pretty big stuff!

May picks

I've really been having fun with my list for the year. It's really helped me get motivated about doing the stuff I don't really WANT to so I can focus on the stuff I DO want to. So for May:

Read 2 books: The Alliance (for book club), And I haven't picked the other book. I've got a big old list though-- (Nie Nie's new book, One Second After, The Dukan Diet, and I Didn't Mean to be a Witch, to name a few).

I really want to read this

Pedicure
Temple
Indexing: I think I'm going to make a yearly goal to index so many names, I haven't decided how many yet
Service Project: I am going to at least START a quilt for our ward's Relief Society goal of 112 quilts for 2012
Family Activity: We are planning on going up to a Reunion Memorial Day weekend and we might stop at the Hotsprings on our way.
Food Storage: Frozen foods to fill my new freezer and possibly spaghetti noodles in bulk
Pictures and video of the kids: My goal is to get pictures sent out to relatives--crazy I know. You'd think a photographer would be on top of that?!?
Deep Clean: Carpets and couches at least
Try a new Vegan recipe: I've got another avocado salad recipe pinned
Read bible: I'm in Psalms now, gotta love David and his beautiful words, it's inspired me to write a little religious poetry myself, maybe I will post it when I have a few verses :)

Put something up on my wall in the master bedroom: This is a pinterest project. I've also got some fabric for some pillows, I took some before pictures so look for a post on that.

Plant grapevines: We had them at our first house in Rexburg, and would love to have them again. If anyone knows anything about them let me know!

Hang Photography backdrops: I've gathered a rather large collection and I need a "system"... and I have not a clue.

Make a Compost bin: I've been wanting to do this for YEARS and frankly I've been afraid, do I really want live worms in my house?? Still on the fence.


Stretch Carpet: It's done!!!!! I cleaned and had it stretched yesterday. It feels so good to get it done!

Make Jake's blanket: I want one like I made for Claire but I'm not sure I can justify spending $50 on minky. Anyone got any extra boy minky laying around?

And the final item on the list...


THE FAMILY WALL

I've been thinking about doing this for a long time, it's not on "THE LIST" or anything but I feel like it will really unify us as a family and I'm super excited about it.

I'm dedicating one wall in my house to all things family. You can look at my pinterest board I've made for it (there's a pinterest button to the right) It's going to have a bunch of different elements to it, to inspire our family, keep us organized, and focused on what's important. I'm so excited and I'm going to do a more in detail post about it.

Okay That's the list for May. I think I "May" have given myself too much to do. But hey, if you don't set lofty goals you won't reach them, right?

All this while I am supposedly training for the "Bone and Back" and the Bountiful city half marathon. Plus my mom's coming to town, I'm doing a garage sale, and I've got the garden to plant. It's going to be crazy.

Who does he look like?

I wanted to throw these up on the blog really quick. Sam is holding his head up so well! So who does he look like in these pictures? This week I was thinking he looked like Claire, but now I'm not sure. I know he is SO close to giggling too. He will be 3 months old on Saturday. CRAZY!!

This is going way too fast.