Yard

I have been meaning to give a little yard update.  More for my parents than anyone else.  Here is what the backyard currently looks like.  The garden did great, but is starting to look pretty wild and scraggly.  The flowers on the shady side make me so happy.   I go out everyday on my deck and just stare down at my back yard.  If you look closely you can see the weed that was as tall as me when we got home from vacation.

The garden side…

 

The flower side…

The view from our basement door…

And remember the rose bush that I planted while M was out of town and I was pregnant?  It almost didn’t survive our attempts at watering and caring for it.  But I think it is going to pull through.  I wasn’t sure what color it was going to be because the picture was faded by the sun on the package.  But with a name like “Prom Night” I was pretty sure I couldn’t go wrong.

Speedy Revival

Remember Speedy? Well he has been replaced. B-man discovered that there were some caterpillars on the petunias in our front yard. Consequently we now have at least six caterpillars in a jar in our home. I can barely look in the jar, because all the squirming gives me the creeps. I hope they turn into butterflies (or moths?) soon because we are running out of flowers.

3 Months

J is now three months.  They have gone SO fast.  Three months always seems so far away when they are first born. We sure are happy to have him in our home.  Here’s a very typical J face these days.

And here was a sleepy B-man face at three months.

 

Honestly it doesn’t even look like B-man to me.  I wonder what J will look like in five years.

Blessing Day

On August 28th, 2009 M blessed J.  We were in Yosemite with M’s family.  It was wonderful to have two sets of grandparents and so many aunts and uncles there to support J.  We missed my family, but felt their love and support.  We are so grateful for the Gospel.  J cried through half of the blessing and then was quiet for the rest.  He fell right asleep as soon as he was done.

 

I love this picture of the group, check out what B-man wants us to see.

September 27, 2009

September 27, 2009

Dear Family and Friends,

This has been a long week. It’s finally over and I can’t say that I am sad. Monday and Tuesday were normal days without much going on. We did FHE got some shopping done for the week, etc. B-man started coming down with a cold and on Tuesday we had mutual.

Wednesday B-man woke up feeling pretty gross. I had to wake him up which is pretty unusual for him, so I kept him home from school. Also that day I watched two of the children of a woman that I visit teach. She knew about B-man being sick but still needed me. The kids were at my house all day, and things went pretty well. I tried at first to keep B-man separated from them, but after a few hours it was impossible to keep up. After feeding the children dinner they were picked up and then we put B-man to bed.

Thursday B-man was feeling good enough to go to school. I watched the two kids again, although for a little less time than the previous day. They were two busy, busy days. That night M went to B-man’s school to learn about a program where the fathers come and help out at the school for a day.

Friday I woke up not feeling so great. The day was pretty relaxed and I mostly tried to recover and get a little done. That evening we took B-man to a birthday party at Chucky Cheese’s and while he was at the party we went to dinner. It was a quick, but a nice night together. We came home and went to bed early.

Saturday M went canoeing on the Potomac River with some of the men from the Elder’s Quorum. When he got home he was very nice and let me sleep and rest since I was feeling quite sick from the cold I got from B-man. B-man told me several times during the day, “I’m sorry I got you sick Mom.” He was very sweet. It was nice to just sit and sleep and relax. That night after the boys were in bed we watched “Duplicity” and then went to bed early.

Today has been a good Sunday. I woke up feeling well enough to go to church. All that sleep and rest really must have helped. After church we went to dinner with M’ home teaching companion. They had invited over all the families that they home teach. It was a great night even if some of the families couldn’t make it.

We love you all!

R, M, B-man, and J

P.S. These are pictures of the boys as they were going to bed tonight.

That's What I Get for Going to Wal-Mart

Our Wal-Mart here in town is strangely ghetto. Don't get me wrong, I love Wal-Mart, but for some reason ours is just sad. M refuses to go, but I still go occasionally. Today I fit right in with the normal crowd. B-man, J, and I were running in for one thing. I found it fast, but right after we found it, I also discovered that J had at some point had a blow-out diaper. It was all over. I debated quickly, "do I just leave and do change him at home, or do I do it here...?" I decided that I had to change him because he was cranky about his current dirty status. I can't say that I blame him...

We maneuvered through the store to the bathroom and commenced changing him. B-man was my helper and gave me piles of paper towels to help. (There were no paper towels left by the time we were done.) I did have wipes, but sometimes you need some paper towels to help contain some of the mess and to use less wipes. I got off his dirty clothes, cleaned him up and was reaching for something in my bag when I hear the sound of running water. I turn around to see J sending a solid stream over his head and off the changing table onto the floor of the bathroom! Thankfully there were no people around. I quickly dried off his face (you know how boys always manage to get themselves in the face a little too) and then got the diaper on so that no further damage could occur. Then I used all those paper towels to dry up the mess and clean things up. To make matters worse, I realized that I had no change of clothes for J. So here we are walking through the store with my baby in just a diaper. I know, classy right?

Then as we are trying to walk quickly to the front to pay for our purchase I notice two people talking, and one of them has an eye patch. I was really trying to distract B-man and get past them without him noticing, but to no avail. Picture the scene, me pulling the cart with a naked baby, and now B-man saying repeatedly "Look Mom, a Pirate!" While I try to say "yes, I see." Without letting the poor man hear. B-man doesn't stop saying something though until he knows he has been heard. I hope that man knows how sorry I am.

September 20, 2009

September 20, 2009

Dear Family and Friends,

This week has been slow! I can’t seem to remember much of what has happened. Monday night for FHE we took B-man to use a birthday ice cream coupon. The boys had also gone swimming that day. We have been trying to go to the pool almost every day even though the weather has not been very good. This has been the last week that our pool is open and we wanted to take advantage of it. Of course it was too cold for me, but that’s okay. We also delivered a Book of Mormon to our lifeguard friend since it was his last day. He was so nice to B-man and was leaving to go back to Serbia.

Tuesday night I had mutual. We helped to clean the nursery toys that will be going in our new chapel. At first most of the girls were mostly chatting and not really cleaning. I was a little worried that the mountain of toys would never get clean. But with a little encouragement the girls started working and we were able to get them all clean and sorted.

Wednesday M got home early from work, and we ended up going to the farm together. The weather was beautiful, and we were able to pick edamame, potatoes, and cherry tomatoes for us and a friend. It was a lot easier with M there. The farm has some new tool that uncovers the potatoes for you, so this year we didn’t have to go hunting with our shovel. After the farm the boys went for a very quick dip in the pool and then we had dinner. After dinner we went to the church and B-man drove his new remote control car around the gym while M was working in the Clerk’s office. That night he had a presidency meeting.

Thursday was a calm day. My visiting teacher came by and brought her son that is B-man’s age. They had a great time playing together while we visited. That night was going to be nice and calm, but at the last minute some friends needed a babysitter for their two boys.

Friday was our family party day. We made pizza and then watched a little of the movie “Cars.” B-man had seen a little playing at Costco and wanted to see more at our house. With our new school schedule and a new baby we have been going to bed pretty early every night.

Saturday morning we went looking at garage sales. We found some great things! One house several great buys, the kinds of things you only find once in a life-time. I know that sounds cheesy. But who sells brand new Cutco knives at a garage sale? (I bought three for $8!) The rest of the day was busy, busy. We had a friend come over and work on a bunch of projects on our house. The first project was replacing and tacking down shingles that had blown off our roof. There are some incredibly strong winds here in the winter, and almost every house in our neighborhood needed some work done on their shingles. All of our neighbors saw someone working on our house and so they all ended up getting their roofs fixed at the same time. Then we all had a break, M and B-man went to a house warming party for a family that he used to home teach. I stayed at home while J was sleeping and worked on my lesson a little. We also managed to squeeze in a game of Stratego, and writing and practicing B-man’s talk for Primary.

Today has been a pretty typical Sunday. M had meetings, and we practiced B-man’s talk a lot. It took a lot of bribing and energy to get him to practice! I tried to squeeze in some thought on my lesson while all this was going on. At church I ended up only getting ten minutes to teach my lesson. That is always a little frustrating for me. I never know if I will have ten minutes to teach or thirty minutes. We also went and listened to B-man give his talk. I held up pictures while he spoke into the microphone. He really wanted to hold the mic, which meant that I had to turn the pages. As part of the talk he told the story of him reminding me to say a prayer when I had lost an envelope filled with cash. Whenever we practiced he would add that the police called and caught the people that stole the money. There were no police involved in the true story, and thankfully he left that out of the talk he gave to the Primary. I always wish we could video tape talks in Primary. After church M went to help give a blessing to someone, and I worked on a salad that we were taking to a dinner.

We love you all!

R, M, B-man, and J