Fun Park and the Zoo at Willow Park

 TURTLES!!!  Bryan is all but obsessed with turtles.  Poor child climbed up the fence and fell right in!

Jared's Baby Blessing

 Jared was blessed this last Sunday up here in Heaven in Brad's parent's ward.  We had a nice lunch at my dad's afterwards.  It was so nice!  Jared did great, the blessing was beautiful and the company was top notch!  And the meat trays---- super fun to make and they turned out awesome :)

 Oh-- it was SUPER HOT!  Shade was mandatory!

 A couple days later Papa took Jared on a four wheeler ride, he LOVED it! 

Catching Butterflies at the Lake

Brothers

Eavesdropping

If you were to eavesdrop at any given time of the day at our home you may hear:

• Hyrum telling us all about his "Imaginary World." "In my imaginary world on my imaginary planet we have volcanoes and lava that cover 90% of the planet and if you are a bad guy....." On and on this sweet little boy goes about the universe there and the climate and the animals and the dangers and the accommodations.  He can't wait till the day that he can create worlds :)  He may also be reading to me which I LOVE.  Right now we are finishing up Micheal Vey.
• Paul.  Paul may be talking about the different scabs he has from his many falls lately.  His knees are covered with small scrapes for all his many, many falls.  I can't figure out what the deal is, he has been turning too sharp on his scooter and tripping over classmates feet during races-- all to discover the wonder of scabs I guess.  "Picking the big ones do this."  "Picking the ones that are this color do that..."  "Mom!  I need another band aid!"  Oh man...
• Bryan is delighted with turtles.  Has been for quite some time.  But in his mind, even though he is NOT a fan of TMNT, he pictures turtles as heroes.  Paul once told him that turtles have a fast button in their shell.  And apparently in a movie (or dream) a turtle jumped.  Bryan builds Lego's and plays with his bath toy turtles and pretends they are fighting off bad guys and doing super cool stunts all with this magic button and amazing jumping abilities.  Bryan asks for new turtle toys daily and "can we get a turtle that doesn't poop?"  I have a problem with poop and apparently taught my children to have the same apprehensiveness towards such issues with animals too. 
• Jared has started gooing and giggling!  His smiles are to live for!  He is so calm and peaceful still--- I hope it stays that way always.  But it probably won't, so I enjoy every minute of it.  He has one strong spirit about him and at times makes me just cry because I am so happy he is here!  Man, I sure love him!

The other day I was shopping and missed a call from Brad.  I checked my phone and he had left a message.  Hehe, little did he know!  He forgot to hang up the phone and I had 5 whole minutes of real life uncensored.  Eavesdropping, I couldn't help it :)  The next five minutes I laughed my guts out listening to the message.  It was filled with Brad gooing and cooing with Jared.  He giggled with him and kept telling Jared how cute he was.  I could hear Jared responding and gooing so sweetly back to his Daddy.  After listening and laughing at how cute it all was, I couldn't help but be incredibly grateful for a husband who loves his boys.  Love.  Pure love.  Yep.  It is pretty awesome.

Heaven on Earth

There are moments once, twice, or many times a day that I really notice what I have. 

  Moments that my heart explodes with gratitude, love, joy and a touch of excitement.

  I can't breathe...  I feel like I can fly... 

And the only outward trace of these moments is a smile erupting on my face.

 Then I gasp for air as I notice that these heavenly creatures and I are still on the earth and in our home and living this life together.

   And I am so grateful that they are mine :)

And this love is ours.

T'was a great weekend

It was such a great weekend!  The weather was beautiful and I couldn't help but sit outside and soak up those sun rays!  Grandma and Grandpa Baxter came and spent the night Fri-Sat, and it was so great to see them and stay awake way too late chatting away!  The kids were thrilled to spend time with them too!  They all said it was the best thing that happened that day!  Saturday we all went to check out some bulls and the boys were just crazy about that.  The farm we went to was just awesome!  Something within me wants that life for my kids: A farm, farm work, exploring, pastures, cows, chickens and maybe a horse.  No video games.  The dream is far out, really far out.  But it means the world to me to see glimps' of it when we get to help with the cows or feed our neighbors horses for a week.  During breakfast, I think, Grandma told me a story about when she was younger.  Her family had a wheat farm in Idaho and got paid two times a YEAR.  Most families during that time had the money mostly spent that first month.  They got their flour for the year from the mill from their own crop and then spend their money buying canned goods and sugar.  They also had very small bills, power was very inexpensive and they didn't have TV or computers, so they didn't use near as much.  I couldn't help but picture life and how I would have liked it "back in the day."  Life is so different now, and can you imagine how much different our society would be if each of us only got paid twice a year??  Pure awesomeness.

Later on Saturday we went on a family bike ride.  Paul has spent this much of his life in a bike trailer because a bike with training wheels can't keep up, and it takes more energy to ride a bike with training wheels...  But we gave in and let Paul ride a bike and we brought a chain and lock to lock it up when he got tired.  We enjoyed the only slightly slower pace and the conversation.  Paul's excitement was amazing!  That kid---- he biked the entire hilly 4 miles!!!!  No need to chain it up, he merrily biked it all start to finish!  I was amazed by his endurance and attitude!  Hyrum also was a joy and Bryan enjoyed his nap :)  I think 4 was too much for me, so that was probably the last ha-rah for me.  In about 3 months, I plan to be back at it!  But hopefully, by then, Paul will be two wheelin' it!