Scenes I will miss...

So have I ever mentioned that I sort of live in the country?  We live in a neighborhood but our town is small and spread out. We don't even have a stoplight!  And although I won't miss some of the horrible roads we have, I will miss these scenes that I get to see every day as I drive around...

This is on the way to William's school.

This is right outside our neighborhood.

This is near William's school.

I have loved these yellow flowers this spring.

I am excited for the beauty of North Carolina... but I will really miss these wide open spaces.

I Love to see the temple

 Sometime in the early fall of last year a friend in the ward came up to me between meetings on Sunday and told me that she'd like to come watch my boys during the day every week so that I could attend the temple. She told me to go home, look at my calendar and see what day would work best.  Then she added, "And I'll call you because you probably won't call me."  Just moments before she said that I was thinking, "That was such a nice offer... but I'll never call her to take her up on it!"  How did she know?  Well, that day (or the next) I got a phone call asking me, "What day can I come over?"  Every week (until she and her husband left on their mission--to Greece) she would call me and set up a time to come over and play with my babies so that I could attend the temple.

What a blessing to attend the temple every week.  I loved it! I learned so much and felt the spirit more readily as I took time out of my busy week to go to the temple.  At the time I felt so blessed to have someone to do such a service for me--but feel that way even more so now.  In just over a month the temple won't be nearly as convenient to get to.  Instead of 2 minutes from my home it will be over 2 hours away (and in an entirely different state!)  I will forever be grateful to this dear friend who served me and allowed me to receive those great blessings.

Who would have guessed...

... that Alex would be the mischievous one?!  (My money would have been on James.)  Do you remember the egg incident?  Well, the other day I was upstairs with Henry.  When I came down I heard water running.  When I went to check the half-bath I saw the sink over flowing with water, Alex soaking wet, and a flooded bathroom floor (and seeping into the hallway!)

There is a story of when I was a little girl and would draw on the wall.  My mom would make me clean the wall as punishment.  I continued to draw on the wall because I thought the cleaning part was fun.  The next time my mom made me sit and watch her clean the wall--and that was punishment.  I hated that.  Unfortunately Alex takes a little too much after me... because cleaning the mess was no punishment.  In fact, I'm pretty sure he thought it was a big, fun game to mop up the water!

What a crazy little boy.  I wonder what he'll get into next!

scenes from general conference

Another bit of a backtracking...

This year I put together a big basket of things for the boys to do and treats for them for Conference.

It kept them busy for a little bit...

But the lego game ended up being more trouble than it was worth...

But we loved listening to the words of the leaders of the church and watching them on the 'big screen'.

(Henry had to be contained with all those legos on the floor!)

I am looking forward to re-reading the talks over the next 6 months until we get to listen to conference again!

North Carolina

Now I'll backtrack a little bit.  The weekend before Spring Break I headed out to North Carolina with Henry to look for houses... but mostly to see Rich!  I got there Friday afternoon and then Rich had to go back to work.  I had a fun time wandering around town.  The place we are moving to is a small town but I couldn't believe how many cars there were!  Actually, the thing I realized was that I really do live in the country--and I've grown accustomed to it over the past 7 years!  I suppose I will get used to living in a real town now, though it may take me a while to learn to drive a slower speed limit!

The trip was much too short!  It was fun to see Rich and I'm sure that Henry loved all the attention!

The people were super nice (everyone called you "hunny"... and two different people came up to me to tell me how much they loved my shirt!) and the landscape was beautiful!  Look at these trees!

Here's a not-so-great picture of us after church... but it's proof that we were all together!

We didn't find a house that weekend... but we're still on the lookout.  Of course, we still have to sell ours (anyone interested?!)  The boys and I can't wait to get out there and all be together again!

More Easter fun

Lucky for us we didn't have school on Friday!  It gave us a chance to dye some eggs together.  The boys had a great time... and I think it was the first time for Alexander!

Saturday we attended the ward Easter Egg Hunt and the Easter Bunny visited our house while we were gone... unfortunately I don't have any good pictures.  Sunday was a nice day and we were able to focus on the real reason for the holiday and then headed over to Grandma and Grandpa's (we'll miss spending holidays with family!)

Happy Easter!

I know these are late... but they are for Rich more than anyone else!  We missed him especially this weekend!

 This one would have been great... and on the first try!  Except for William who should have known better!

 And now Alex isn't looking... he's checking to make sure William is doing what he should.

 Again, everyone but Alex.  He's raising his hand because I was raising my hand and snapping my fingers trying to get everyone to look at me!

This is the best we got at home... Alex is at least looking up--just not at the camera! 

 So right before church started we headed over to the temple grounds.  This picture just makes me laugh.

William and James are looking crazy (I think the sun was too bright) but I love the expressions on Alexander and Henry.

A man from our ward offered to take a picture... not the best by a long shot but at least all of us are there!

James had a birthday, shout HOORAY!

James was lucky enough to have a birthday that fell during Spring Break!  The week before he brought chocolate chip cookies (per his request) to share with his class.  His teacher reported that the class kept saying they were "so tasty!"

On James' actual birthday he requested that we have cinnamon rolls for breakfast.  I was happy to oblige.

James got to pick much of what we did that day... including our dinner which was "chicken on the bone" and mashed potatoes.  Finally that evening he got to open presents.  (I know... I'm such a mean mom to make him wait all day!)

William and Alexander drew pictures for James

We got him some knee and elbow pads along with a helmet.  He loves them and wore them all around the house for a few days.

My boys have learned that cards usually equal cash so he was excited to open a card from Great-Grandma.  He told us that he was so rich!

He got a new board game (Jr. Monopoly) which we played that very night.  Super fun!

Thank goodness for technology so that Rich didn't have to completely miss out!  We had him on the web cam for the entire celebration!

James decided on a spy party.  I wasn't quite sure how to do a cake for that but I figured that spies wear disguises which probably include mustaches... so this is what we got.

After the cake, James had to go test our his new gear.

Now, I realize that this post is getting rather lengthy... but just bear with me a little while longer!  Thursday afternoon we had some school friends over for a spy party.  We started out making some fingerprints and then moved on to the biggest hit of the party... the laser beams!  The kids had to weave in and out of the laser beams (crepe paper) to get to the other side of the room.  Easiest game ever and everyone loved it!  (One of the other moms said she was going to go home and do it for her older kids!)

Next, we played "pin-the-glasses-on-the-spy".   This was another big hit.  I realized that playing this game with 5-year-olds is much more fun than playing with 7-year-olds (like we did at William's party)... they were cracking up!  James was especially off... he ended up on the other side of the doorway!

We rounded off the day by playing "secret code" (telephone) and button button.  After some cupcakes and presents I had them play hide-and-seek.  We sent everyone home with a super-spy-kit... which included some disguises.

It was the perfect way to celebrate our little spy, Jamesy-boy.

When Spring Break was over James couldn't wait to get back to school and get his birthday crown.  He was so proud!