Parkin got his 11 year old birthday gift....nearly 11 months late. What a patient easygoing boy he is! Not sure  why it took so long. The squeaky wheel gets the grease, Parkin does not complain. Benjamin took Parkin and Collin (who is quite the climber) to the Block. They had a blast and climbed their hearts out. Afterwards they went to DQ and got the orange dream vanilla dipped cones. We love these little men. So grateful to have both of them in our family. Grateful they go to the same school and that we can carpool which leads to some very fun conversatios.

Thanks for not giving up on us son! Next year...in May we will deliver our gifts promptly 😀

Spring Break 2019

Bella celebrated spring break a week earlier because she no longer has school and the Webster had their spring break the week before. They invited her to go along with them to California. She had a blast! It was the perfect birthday present for her. Everyone really missed her! We had our spring break the following week. We had a lazy week all around. It was great. The kids had several play dates and sleepovers and hangouts. We just in general relaxed with family and friends. Anna and I went to the zoo with the Claridges and Franklin. The zoo was decorated for the Chinese lantern festival it was awesome.

Benjamin builds a chicken coop!

Handyman Benjamin strikes again! Benjamin built this coop for less than $85. His wood hording proved to be useful! 

First he covered one of our open air stalls with hog fencing and chicken wire. Then he built the coop off the ground so that the chickens have room to roam underneath. He put roosts outside the coop and Holman installed roosts inside the pen.

 The ladies cuddling at night.

 Benjamin made this feeder. He took a bucket drilled holes in the bottom and attached a vegetable platter. The feed gets stored in the bucket. When the birds eat the food more feed goes into the vegetable openings. It's a great self-regulating system.

 Later Benjamin built the nesting boxes with Parkin's help.

The best part is no more smelly, DUST CREATING chickens in my preschool room. It was great having them in there when they were little but I had no idea chickens create dust to help curb dust mites. What a mess!! This might have been my biggest birthday present of all♥️

Birthday fun!

41 still having fun! My best birthday present was Benjamin taking the day off of work ♥️ the family going on a walk with me, and watching Anna perform. I got some great phone calls, cards and gifts from friends and family. It was one of those perfect days.

Me at 41. Mom and Dad gave me the beautiful jewelry.

Funny story, when Hillary called to wish me a happy birthday I saw that it was her number so I picked up the phone and started singing happy birthday to myself. She said the real funny part was that Lindsay did the exact same thing!

Three years ago on my birthday we saw this place. I love it when the skies are grey and light still shines on it.

Birthday dinner, corndogs. Life is good.

 Since Lindsey and I weren't together for our birthday we sent each other pics of our dinner 😊 Smith's are a fancy bunch.

Bella and Olivia made me yummy cheesecake pies for dessert, so sad I didn't grab a picture!

 Anna did her first Irish dance performance she was great!

 Family went on a hike to the creek.

Holman immune to cold water.

Beautiful not shell.

Can you see Holman?

Preparing to hide from the law.

Bella

Olivia Jane

Parkin chilling, literally in his underwear.

AJ made me breakfast in bed. What a daughter!

A true Saturday and wonderful Sunday

Yesterday we woke up early and went over to the Tucson Temple to do the color change for the spring flowers. It was not an easy sell to wake up our kids early on a Saturday morning but I think they enjoyed themselves after they were able to help out and make the Temple look beautiful. Later we went home to clean ourselves up and went to go watch on play basketball. This is her first season and she's doing awesome!

Later Benjamin and I worked on our chicken coop. I'm always amazed at how strong he is and what he can accomplish. After we did the construction outside we showered and went on a date nnight. Got some dinner and a show with our friends. I love it when Saturday's can involve family time, the temple, yard work, watching a game and going out to eat. That's my kind of Saturday.

Before sacrament meeting started Anna had discovered that I had a tiny little bottle in my purse that I had gotten as a handout from a lesson that I had attended. She was so excited by this bottle. Parkin asked if I had another one. I told him I did so he went and found another bottle but this one had a cork top on it. Anna totally wanted it but we could only find one bottle that had a cork top. We searched and searched my purse but there was only one cork top. Parkin left to go pass the sacrament but two seconds later he came back and said Mom let me check your purse one more time and then he said I found it here's a cork and he gave it to Anna. He didn't find another cork top he just decided she wanted it more. What a great brother. I was so proud of him that he didn't just say here I'll let you have it. She would have said no you keep it but by pretending that he had found it he knew that she would be content and keep it. Tears filled my eyes, what a sweet boy who has grown up so much. Talk about being ready to receive and pass the sacrament.

This is a picture that Anna drew of herself and her bestie Hannah Jones. It's them as sister missionaries complete with the tags 😀

Baby girl is an adult!

Not sures how it happened but Bella turned 18. She's a certified legal adult. She has been such a force for good in our home. She's happy, kind and a great big sister to her siblings. She woke up on Friday with her door heart attacked from her young women's president (me), along with her favorite old fashioned donuts. She met several of her friends for lunch, they got her the sweetest gifts that show they truly know her. that night we went out for dinner a pizza place that Bella likes and came home to have dessert with grandparents. We served pumpkin pie her favorite dessert and ice cream. The next day we picked out a birthday outfit and got her new contacts isn't adult life fun :-)

Love you Bella girl so glad you're in our family ♥️♥️♥️

Sunflowers, mock trial and Charlotte's Baptism

Before rodeo break Olivia and I planted sunflowers. We planted the real big kind, Russian mammoths. Then Tucson had several nights below freezing and snow. We thought our seeds were gonners. We had several days with rain so we didn't worry about watering. When we didn't get any rain I watered them and wouldn't you know it those tough little buggers lived and started to sprout!

I love that you can see a sunflower seed attached to the sprouting leaves.

Olivia had her mock trial. She crushed it!! We watched her in two trials. The first as a lawyer. She was amazing. I would not like to be the defendant being prosecuted by her.. She won best attorney by the opposing team for that trial. For her second trial she was a witness. She decided to do her part in a southern accent. She kept that accent thee entire time 😂. Even for the cross when they can be angry, she didn't falter. Her thespian mother was very proud! She won best witness twice by the opposing team. Olivia would be a fantastic lawyer but also a standout actress!! She borrowed a purple skirt suit from Nana, she looked fabulous!! People actually in the trial referred to her as the woman in the purple power suit. She of course loved that ❤️

Later that day we went up to Charlotte Howes baptism. It of course was beautiful. Always fun when cousins can get together. Charlotte's dress was so beautiful 😍 Aaron and Jen provided an ice cream bar after with amazing sugar cookies, seriously so yummy.

Another week in the books..