He's our buddy!

Buddy is six! I can hardly believe it, and he actually has a hard time remembering...every time he's been asked how old he is he has replied "five!"Here are some pics of his this past week. It's been a very busy week, with school ending, and our regular weekend busy-ness!
This is his favorite toy for his birthday: a Bakugan Ball/brawler (I'm still not clear on the name.) The legos are also a favorite and have provided literally hours of entertainment so far.

Here he is being silly with a dried apple slice at Mimi's game on Saturday (she plays coach pitch softball.)

I love this action shot on the slip n slide!

He received the "Super-Sounder-Outer" Award at his Kindergarten Celebration last week. He is standing next to his teacher, Mrs. Billabong, who said he is a whiz at sounding out unfamiliar words as he reads.

And finally here he is nest to the teacher's aid, Miss Babydoll. He has told me several times in the past few days (since school got out) how much he misses Mrs. Billabong and Miss Babydoll. He loved kindergarten but is really excited to be a first grader.

Buddy is such a treat to be around! He is so enthusiastic about almost everything. I say almost everything because it is hard to get him enthused about cleaning his room! But he loves to help others...he rushed the other morning to make my bed before I could! He loved telling me that he had made it all by himself. He loves to surprise people with service and good choices that way!

Buddy loves all things active and electronic. We love that he loves to be active, but are not so enthused about the electronic craze, so we've decided to try to keep him unplugged for as long as possible (Yup, we are MEAN parents!)SO to keep him busy he's taken gymnastics twice, soccer, swimming and now t-ball. He also loves to ride his bike and help outside with the yard and garden! Sometimes his exuberance carries him a bit too far and he starts wrestling/fighting at inappropriate times (not that there are appropriate times for fighting!) We are working with him on this, and he is getting better, but there is still room for improvement!

Buddy is our early riser and he's so happy every morning...It is (usually) a joy to see him in the morning (depending on how late I went to bed and how early he wakes up! LOL!) He loves to cuddle for a little while and then he's ready to start his day. He is special guy and we are so happy to have him in our family. Happy Birthday Bud! We love you!

What!?

Peaches walked into the kitchen the other day, which in and of itself was not unusual. What caught my attention on this occasion was that she made a crinkling sound as she walked, and her siblings were literally rolling on the floor laughing in the other room. Here's why:



I never knew the teasing started so young!

Wordless Wednesday

Of Gardens, Graves and Girls

SO we finally got our garden done...except for the later plantings of corn and beans. (LOL! so much for being done!) I am so excited to see everything growing and to be "experimenting" this year with some new fruits and veggies, potatoes, watermelon, and cantaloupe to name a few. Tonight we had a delicious salad from our garden...I planted a "salad mix" of leaf lettuce and it was SOOO good, with both green and purple varieties. I can hardly wait until we can add the home grown cukes and tomatoes too! And as we ate, I started thinking about those yummy summer meals from the garden: sliced tomatoes and cucumbers, fresh corn on the cob, crisp green beans...I'm starting to drool! And this year we will be able to have potatoes (one of my personal weaknesses...I could eat potatoes for every meal...and no I don't have a speck of Irish in me, despite the last name!)

Yesterday, D and I helped my parents put their garden in...of Course Daddy had to have everything calculated out precisely, and had read up on everything related to the things he's planted. But they have a fantastic garden now! It was fun to help them get the soil prepared and the plants in the ground. GO GARDENS!
And Peaches loved helping too!
This past weekend was incredibly busy for us, but so fun too! We spent Friday and Saturday morning up at the family cabin, where the kids had a fantastic time! They ran over the hills, went rock hunting/collecting, explored around the pond (which was actually full!).


They flew kites, played on the swing set, and when the rain was falling they came inside to play fooseball, make up games with the pool balls, shoot hoops and just have fun with cousins.

We adults got to play games, talk do puzzles and just relax and enjoy the wonderful scenery and weather (I of course love the rain/cloudy weather!)

We ate some delicious meals too. Friday night we grilled a London Broil, crispy pan-fried potatoes, green beans, salad and baked beans. Saturday morning we had eggs, bacon, sausage, toast and fruit. The awesome thing to me is that we had such a fun and enjoyable time and we did it without electricity (for the most part that is....I think we did turn on the generator for the toaster!) The kids never once complained about not seeing favorite shows or talked about wanting to play video games etc. Marvelous! Saturday night when we got home we threw everyone into the tub, and went to bed. We were tired!

Sunday, we did our traditional Cemetery visits to place flowers on the Patrick family graves, and share stories of these dearly departed family members. What I love most about these annual visits is that we learn new things every year...new stories are told, or even the same stories with "new" (to me) details. I love that the kids get to learn about their ancestors from people who actually knew them, and hopefully we can keep the family history alive and real for our children as we continue to do this every year. My goal for the future is to add some Hen grave sites/ancestors to our family's memories so they won't be forgotten, either.

On Monday after helping with the garden, we went back up to the cabin for a Patrick family BBQ and to finish up some of the work that didn't get finished the week before (mowing the lawn, fixing the roof). The kids had a blast with all their little cousins (14 of 16 cousin were there...all 8 and under!) They literally roamed the hills playing all kinds of games. That is until a snake was spotted. Good thing Uncle R is good with a shovel (he didn't have his gun with him that day.) It was a rattle snake at least 3' in length. We all breathed a sigh of relief when the head was disposed of and the kids were assured that even though the body was moving, it couldn't hurt them any more. But that pretty much ended the festivities and within the hour we all departed.

We then made our way down to the Hen homestead for the Hen BBQ. D and I made shish kebabs (we didn't relish eating hamburgers twice in one day).

There were also chips and bean dip, baked beans, salad, carrot sticks, and for dessert we had s'mores. I love s'mores so much! Here the kids are modeling their s'mores:




Here are some pics of the girls this weekend.


I found these dresses and just couldn't resist them...Sweetsa absolutely loves hers...and has worn it three of the five days since I bought it! Speaking of Sweetsa...she received her fist flowers from a boy this weekend. Little JS came by the house Saturday looking to play with Sweetsa, and clutched in his fist was a little bouquet of horse chestnut blooms for her! So sweet!

Peaches said her second "word this weekend while at the cabin. It was "dog" (but sounded more like "gog". She is so slow and deliberate about saying dog, but she sure loves that puppy, Charlie!

When it rains it pours

Yes we are having a very wet spring and yes I am ready for warm spring days, when I can actually get out and work in the garden/yard without getting wet! But it pours in other ways too.

We just received a second denial from our insurance for Mimi's surgery last September. Argg! I am getting really frustrated, but am not willing to give up yet...so here goes again I guess.

And poor little Sweetsa fell down our stairs today and "broked my bone" (in her words). She broke her collar bone. She did really well except during the x-ray, she screamed bloody murder while we tried to hold her still. At least I had the foresight to bring a good bribe along ...skittles work wonders in getting cooperation from a 3 year old! (except during the x-ray that is...but she calmed down pretty quickly afterward with their sweet assistance!)

So that's our soggy update!

April Flowers bring...?

D and I have noticed that our flowers seem to be doing better this year than in recent memory. I don't know if it has to do with the fact that I took out a lot of ornamental onions/allium last year, and freed up some space for our spring bulbs, or if it has more to do with the weather. Some of these are from the garden along our driveway, and some are in the backyard. The ones in the backyard really make me happy because they were all transplanted two years ago and are looking better than ever! And the bleeding heart also makes me happy because I thought it had died (like the other three on our property). I guess it was just taking a Sabbath Year.







They make me smile every time I see them. I love spring! So April flowers bring...Joy!

Easter Dresses 2009

Well I seem to be on a biennial schedule as far as making Easter outfits for the kids...but this was an on year. Back at the end of February, as I was cleaning out our linen closet, I found an old set of curtains in a bag. They must have been in the closet since before we lived here [(Yes, I realize that is 8+ years now. No, I do not go through my closets very often (especially the shelves that I have to climb on a two step stool to see.)] Anyway, I knew I wouldn't use the curtains...they don't quite fit our current scheme, so I was about to DI them, when I thought..."There is probably enough fabric here to make some skirts for the girls." If I hadn't been thinking about buying fabric for Easter dresses I admit I never would have thought to pull a Maria from the Sound of Music. Mimi ended up with a skirt, Sweetsa with a dress, and Peaches with a jumper. Here are the finished dresses as they looked on Easter Sunday:

Happy Birthday!

So here is the cake I made for our Relief Society Birthday Party a few weeks ago. It's called a Double Berry Layer cake, and it was pretty good, if I do say so myself!

What a Peach!

Peaches has had a really rotten winter,

but she is still a wonderful little girl. We love having her with us every day. Because of her battle with illness this winter she's lost a little weight and is just under 19 pounds. She's 29 inches long and using all her strength and dexterity to start climbing!


Of course, that would have nothing to do with the stellar examples of her older siblings!

One of her favorite things is to play with cell phones, however she's gotten too good at actually using cell phones, so now she has her own little Mickey Mouse cell phone (Happy B-day little one!)

Another love in her life is babies and small animals.

She LOVES them. When I first started watching Ka'lel, she would get so mad that I wouldn't let her "love" him (ie body slam and "pat" with great force.) She's quite a bit more gentle with him now.

She chases Gramma M's dog Charlie around, and he is really good with her...she gets to pet and play with him to her heart's content.


She loves to have things over her head, but not on her head (ie bows, head bands, barrettes etc). The head band in this pic came off two seconds after I took the picture!



She loves to be in the mix with everyone else. She is so patient with her siblings and their sometimes over exuberance with her. She always greets them with huge smiles, sometimes squeals, and always wildly waving arms (she's not much of a "talker" yet)


Here are some more pics of our little Peach from her first year.



You've come a long way, and we're so glad you're with us! Happy Birthday Peaches! We love you!