Spring!

I just LOVE my yard this year! I missed most of my tulips and daffodils last year because we got home from Singapore too late, but this year I reveled in each and every new bloom. Grace was equally excited and we would walk down the driveway together crouching down to inspect new flowers as they came up. It was so much fun! Now they're all gone :( and I have just leaves and stems left behind. Not to worry though I have planted petunias and hope they fill in soon with lots of color! I go crazy over buying plants and could spend a lot of money if I didn't know Ben was at home reminding me that there are other things to spend money on.

Here is the house in the midst of tulip season.

Gorgeous!

The newest edition to the yard.....my Garden box!!!! It took a little convincing to get Ben to build it for me. He used the leftover wood from the playhouse and did it so quickly. I loaded it up with Mel's Mix (you know what that is if you're a true square foot gardener), and we're giving it a go. This is my first attempt at planting any type of vegetable, (Well I guess I tried herbs 2 summers ago in pot. They died, eeek!) I hope this works!

I have peas, onions, lettuce, carrots, broccoli, cilantro, and peppers growing here, and along the back of the yard I'm growing cantaloupe, zucchini, and squash. I can't wait to enjoy the harvest!

Toes

I realized the other day I haven't been a very good picture taker with Garett, so I pulled out the camera and tried to get some of his toes. He LOVES his toes, especially when they're clean. On this particular day however, he was more interested in the camera than his toes.

"I can still see you mom"

At least I got a good smile!

Logan

April 21st we were able to head up to Logan for the night. Ben's parents watched the kids for us again (they are the best!) and we spent the night with Ben's brother Bryan. We had a lot of fun playing with Bryan and Alyssa and watching movies. The next day we went to the temple to see my stepsister and her husband get endowed and sealed. It was wonderful to go to the temple together and have some time away from the kids! The ceremony was also very beautiful.

Here we are in front of the Logan Temple. We lived there for a year and never got a picture in front of it, so here it is.

Jessica, Avery and Tommy, it was so great to see them all together in the Temple! Congrats.

Out to Eat

Last month we had had a busy Saturday and wanted to go do something fun, so Ben suggested the Olive Garden! I was excited. He usually doesn't choose Italian, but he knew I would like it. So we headed out for dinner. We got there before it was too busy. We had a great time and yummy food. Grace asks for Spaghetti at least 3 times a week, so she was in 7th Heaven.

Garett has developed an extreme fascination with drinking glasses. Everytime I'm drinking something and holding him he starts trembling, clenching his fists and rocks up and down. He loves it! Don't worry it's only rootbeer and He didn't get any of it.

Easter 2009

We had such a great Easter this year. The week leading up to it Grace had so many questions about the Easter Bunny. "But where does he live?" "But why does he hide our baskets?" "But why does he put treats in them?" The questions went on and on.

The Easter Bunny comes to our house on Friday night so Saturday morning we went a hunting. Grace was so excited to find our baskets! She found Garett's first which was hiding in the bathtub, she thought that was really silly. Then I found mine in the Entertainment Center and Ben found his behind the couch. Grace found hers last behind the treadmill.

After we found them all Grace had to empty each one out and organize it, then she had to empty every single egg!
After breakfast we colored eggs. Grace was really into it this year and we had a lot of fun decorating them with our Princess Egg kit that included stickers and glitter!

We had these same ears with Grace and decided to take an Easter Bunny Garett photo. This is right after he learned to sit so he was pretty unstable still.

Easter morning we got up and got ready for church. Here are the kiddos in their Easter Outfits. This is the only picture I took, but they looked pretty adorable!

That afternoon we headed to Grandma Hardy's for dinner and an Easter Egg Hunt. We were going to do one for Grace on Saturday, but I'm glad we waited to have some cousins participate.

I think they found all the eggs in less than a minute. Boy was it fun!

Garett also had a good time with his Daddy.

See? He's such a happy boy!

The Playhouse

I looked and debated for a long time about getting a plastic playhouse or a swingset for Grace. I thought she needed something to play with outside for the summer. So after looking around Ben decided he could build her a playhouse and so the project began. He started on the 28th of March and got it to this point in one day. Thanks to Kyle for all your help!

His goal was to have it done by her birthday, so he came home and worked on it every night for a week and got it done!
He was pretty proud of himself and I think he did an amazing job!

Then it was up to me to paint. It took me forever, no thanks to the weather. Here is the final product. Grace picked the blue.

Here is the inside. We moved her kitchen out, put some outside carpet down,

and her little table and chairs.

She has already spent many hours of fun in it and it's big enough to fit several friends at once! I love it! (Thanks Ben for all your hard work!)

Grace's Birthday Party

(This picture is supposed to go at the end of the post. I have no idea how to get it there)

We had Grace's Friend Birthday Party on the 6th. That morning I took her to the Dr for her 3 yr check up. Here are her stats.

Height: 40 inches 97%

Weight: 36.8 lbs 92%

Right on for her, always the 90th %!

Anyway, her party was so fun! I was going to do a Princess themed party, but half of her friends are boys so we opted for a Farm Party this year. I decorated treat bags for all the kids. The bags looked like pigs,

I made a Barn to play some games with.

We played duck duck goose, pin the tail on the donkey, we planted some seeds and hunted for eggs. Here is everyone hunting.

Grace finding her egg.

We also herded sheep into the barn and then opened presents!

She was excited over every little present! It was so fun!

After presents, we sang to her and had cupcakes!

It was a little crazy having so many friends over (we invited 12 and felt bad leaving people out, but she just kept inviting people and I had to cut it off somewhere), but we had so much fun!