Spring has Sprung!

At least I'm hoping it stays this way and we don't get another snow storm! :0) Kenzee and I went flower shopping yesterday and bought a carload of gorgeous flowers in every color of the rainbow.

My front yard flower bed hasn't been touched really since we moved in 1 1/2 years ago. We moved into this house in August 2007. The yard was kind of....well....let's just say it looked like it hadn't been tended to in quite a while. So, with the help of Jaysen and the kids we pulled out the majority of the rocks in the front flower bed so that it would be ready for flower planting that next spring. It was A LOT of rocks. :0) Last year we were knee deep in house remodeling and so I had absolutely NO energy for the yard. So, it sat all summer looking bad. I did plant lavendar and a delphinium at the end of the summer though.

Anyway, that meant that this year I was READY to get my flower garden groove on. I had fixed up the yard at my old house with lots of pretty flowers and was really sad to leave them all behind. Kenzee and I unloaded all of the flowers yesterday and, just the two of us, planted every single one of them. Of course, Kenzee had to get "prepared" first by putting on her Dora gardening gloves, knee pads, and visor. We planted pink, red, yellow, orange, blue, and purple flowers of all sorts. Mackenzee was especially fond of the "pink heart flowers" she had found when we were out shopping. How could I not add these to our collection? Pink bleeding hearts.....they are hers. Not mine. Just so you know....

We even filled up the flower pots with lots of pretty colors....

My favorite part of these babies?.....The majority of them are perennials and so that means they will come back next year and I will just get to enjoy them instead of planting them. :0) And, they wil get bigger and bigger every year....so eventually this flower bed will be overflowing with gorgeous flowers. For those of you that have seen my yard....this pile of dead stuff is what is left of my old rose bush. I started trimming away the dead parts and realized that the majority of the plant was just dead. So, we dug it out and I planted a new one there instead. :0) Cream colored roses with pink tips.....gorgeous!
Now.....I just have to focus on this flowerbed in the front yard.....The rocks are still there....and I'm not loving the brick pavers....there's a bunch of dead undergrowth and the bush on the side is OUT OF CONTROL! That will be for another day though.....My hands are still healing from the rose bush. :0)

Cute things Mackenzee said while bought and planted flowers:

"These ones will be gorgeous!"

"Girls hafta stick together, huh mom."

"I love you flowers!"

"All these flowers mine mom?"

"If it snows we just take all dem inside, K?"

"Hurry! Hide them from dad!"

"I'm tired of digging. I ride my bike?"

Puzzle Mania!

Landon loves doing puzzles. In fact, he has loved them since he was 2 years old. I have always been amazed at his ability to do them. In order for me to put together a puzzle I need to see the big picture. I am constantly referring to the front of the box so that I know which piece goes where. Landon doesn't need the box. I swear he looks at a piece and just KNOWS where it is supposed to go. Putting puzzles together has been something we have enjoyed together for years. Over the years he has progressed past the 100 piece puzzles, the 300 piece puzzles, and even the 500 piece puzzles. So, I promised him that I would buy him a REALLY hard one and we would work on it together. Landon and I started to do this puzzle just before Conference weekend. Sorry for the sideways picture. For some reason it won't load horizontally. Wierd, I know. Anyway....

We are quite the puzzle team him and I. I put together the "easy" parts and he puts together the harder parts that I don't want to have to deal with. :0)

When that puzzle was done, it just so happened that he had a couple of days off from school. So, we went and bought a second puzzle to get started on.

And then, when we finished that puzzle, I went and bought another one to start on.....

We are currently "in process" but managing quite well. :0) It has been nice spending time next to him hovering over the puzzle and trying to figure out where the pieces go. I have really enjoyed the one on one time. Landon is such a smart kid and likes to tell me how wrong I am when I have tried to put a puzzle piece in the wrong spot. I mean....duh! So obvious! :0) No matter. Honestly, I have found that puzzles are quite addicting and I have to actually pull myself away from it at night to get some homework done. I'm thinking we're going to be building up quite the collection....

Easter

We had such a fun Easter weekend! My sister, Melanie, was able to come and visit with her family and so it made it so much fun for the kids to see their cousins. Landon was so excited he begged to spend the night at Nana's house so that he would be there when the Stumpf's showed up late Friday night. Mackenzee was pretty bummed that I didn't let her do it too. :0)
Lucky for her, we went to Nana's house the next morning to greet everyone. My mom's ward was having an Easter Egg Hunt/Luncheon on Saturday afternoon and so we all went to party down over there. Mackenzee was one of the oldest in her age group I think and so she got quite a haul from the hunt in her area. I actually told her to stop picking them up towards the end so that way the littlest kids could have a chance. :0)

Landon got quite a few eggs himself. It helped that there were oodles of eggs and only a few kids in his age category to find all of them. :0) I think it was way more fun that way. The kids were so excited that they had their baskets full of sugary goodness.

Here are the kids showing off their full baskets. Of course, sharing IS caring and so I stole a few for myself. :0)

We were sad to learn that the older kids would not be able to hunt for eggs at the ward party, and since I just so happened to have lots of extra eggs already stuffed with yummy treats, I told Shelby and Jon that I would let them hunt for eggs at my mom's house. Stephen and I hid the eggs the best we could and let them go at it in a race to see who would find the most.

Jon got a little help from a certain 3 year old.....but even so, Shelby ended up with one more egg than him. :0)

After the hunting festivities were over, we broke out the hard boiled eggs and dye to color Easter eggs of our own. I think between the kits that I had bought, my sister bought, and my mom bought we had 5 or 6 different ones going on.

When you have this many people dying eggs, though....it sure makes it easier when there are so many cups of color to share.

We had oodles of beautiful eggs when we were done, but I must say that I was super proud of my sparkly camoflauge egg that I created. Isn't it wicked awesome?

My mom kept the fun going by having the girls help her bake and then frost a bunny cake.

I think the girls ended up eating more frosting than they actually put on the cake. It was rather yummy though.....

Shelby helped to put the finishing touches on the cake.

I thought it turned out pretty good...don't you think? It wasn't until after we took this picture that we realized the bunny was missing it's cute little pink nose......Oh well. The cake sure tasted good!

The Easter Bunny did make it to our house this year. The kids were thrilled to find all the little trinkets that were left for them.

The kids got all foofied up for church on Sunday. Landon looked so handsome in his white shirt and tie and Mackenzee was a doll in her cute little pink sailor dress. She was so in love with that hat and was sure she was just spectacularly amazing when she had it on. :0)

We went to church with my mom on Easter morning. As you can tell by the crooked ties, it was slightly windy outside that day. :0)

After church we went out to Jerome to have dinner with Grandma and Grandpa Burnham. Grandma had the kids do an Easter egg hunt at her house too.

Jeremy was more content to just sit outside in the sun. {BTW....he turned one last weekend! crazy isn't it?}

Breanna and Whitney.....

Kaden....

Gage.....

Of course, because I am a slacker mother and was trying to run around getting pictures of EVERYONE, I failed to nab an actual picture of Landon hunting for eggs.

Michael didn't quite take the time to grab a bag to hold his eggs. Lucky for him his dad didn't quite take the time to actually HIDE his eggs so he was able to find them all rather easily on the grass in the backyard. :0)

Poor Jordan had her Easter eggs hidden the hardest.....Seriously....just because you are older doesn't mean you have better hunting skills. :0) It took her a while to find all of them.

Apparently Grandma had filled two eggs with a $20 bill in each. One was labeled "Money egg older kids" and the other was "money egg younger kids". The older kids spent most of their time searching for their egg as Grandpa hid it in the middle of a bunch of tall weeds. After a little hinting Meghan ended up finding the older kids egg. The little kids egg was hidden quite a bit easier and it turned out the Mackenzee actually found it on her own. She was so excited!

Anyway, it was a fun-filled weekend full of family and good times. Thanks Nana and Grandma for helping us to whoop it up! :0)

Girl Weekend

This last weekend was for Girls ONLY. Of course this was not really chosen by us, but FOR us as Jaysen was off to Boise for a golf tournamet and Landon was with his dad Jeff. so, Kenzee and I were left home for three days together. What did Kenzee want to do? Puzzles, put on make-up, do stickers, go for a walk, go shopping, ride bikes....you get the idea. We were busy. Lots of fun girl shopping. We each got a new pair of soes for spring. Kenzee got a couple of new jersey skirts

and a couple of sassy new shirts. She was sure she was in heaven. We did go for a walk around the neighborhood on Saturday. Not too far though, her legs got tired kind of quickly and so we had to resort to using piggy back rides to get her home. :0) Puzzles are Mackenzee's new interest. She loves doing puzzles. She can do the 24 piece puzzles easy now, so I bought her a 100 piece cabbage patch kid puzzle to try out. She still has some work to go on that one. :0)

We decided that since Sunday was another fabulously gorgeous day, that we would take advantage of it and go out for a photo shoot after conference got over. Mackenzee loves to have her picture taken, and honestly, I love taking her picture. She's so adorable and I love capturing these moments on film.

Super Landon!

I have been having "one of those days" for a couple of weeks now. Life gets so crazy and hectic that it seems like I will never get caught up. Instead, my frustrations have overwhelmed me to the point where I just want to go to bed for a month and sleep it all off. You know?

Today was going to be a busy day. I hadn't been in to work for a week and I knew that my work was piling up on my desk {literally}. On top of that today was payroll and 1st quarter taxes needed to be taken care of. So, top of the list....log in some hours at work.

As today is the first day of the new month, it also means that it is the first day of the April menu. {don't ask....}I do my major grocery shopping at the beginning of each month and then fill in with the last minute items about once a week. Grocery shopping had to get done today because my cupboards were looking bare from using up everything last month. So, after work....off to the grocery store.

What? It's already 2:00 in the afternoon? I still have to put ALL of the groceries away, maybe I should eat some lunch, I should probably try to squeeze in a shower at this point too. Landon gets off the bus at 4:00. The Intermountain Gas guy apparently knocks on the door WHILE I am in the shower. Mackenzee apparently climbed IN the front windowsill to wave at him WHILE I was in the shower. Hurry through shower so that my daughter does not end up opening up the door for the strange man who apparently needs to talk to me. Run outside to find that he is marking the lawn with yellow paint for the guy who is installing the sprinkler system for us tomorrow.

Landon is home already? Grab the piano books, hop in the car....off to piano lessons we go. Halfway there Landon reminds me that we forgot to grab the videos we rented last week that are due TODAY. Sigh.

Run home, cook dinner, inhale dinner.....grab the movies so I can take them to the video store. Figure while I am out I should probably stop at Target to find the bday presents I will need for this weekend. Friend party...family party. Grab Landon to go with me so he can pick out the present for his friend.

Drive to Target first...oops! I meant to go the other way to drop the movies off first. Will have to take the long way home now. Get to Target...tell Landon we have to hurry so we can make it back home for bedtime. Grab the cart.....Landon says...

"MMmmmm....smells like popcorn." :0) And he giggles. I ask him if he wants some. He stops and looks at me shocked and wants to know if I'm serious.

SCREECH! What? Wait a minute. My son is with me at Target. He is actually ENJOYING going to the store with ME. AND...he knew that we were not going to be buying something for him. He was still happy....and he was giggling....and smiling....and he wanted to hang out with ME.

Of course we got some popcorn. AND a sprite. AND...I slowed down.

Why am I always in such a hurry? Why am I always looking ahead to the next item on my list of things to do? This morning as I was sitting at my work computer filing taxes {blech!} and feeling uber stressed one of my favorite songs came on. I listen to my playlist off of my blog at work, so I guess most of the songs I listen to are on my favorites list. BUT! The first song on the list is "Come Thou Font of Every Blessing". Anyway, the words, "Here's my heart....." made me stop for a minute. My other blog has recently referenced to my need for "water" but for some reason I was finding it difficult to find a source. I have felt tapped out and dried up offering my water to others.

ANYWAY....so tonight....my most amazing son and I....we have a most marvelous time. At Target. :0) We chatted about Bakugan, and Star Wars....Video Games, and honestly....even burps. I impersonated Darth Vader. Landon was impressed. :0) Did you know there is a new kind of Bakugan now that is a two in one? They are twice as powerful! AND....Target just happened to have two of them! One for Landon's friend and one for Landon. Lucky kid him! We wandered up and down the aisles looking at cute mom clothes and shoes, toddler toys, toothpaste, and even toilet paper. He did not complain once about shopping for the boring stuff and even suggested that I purchase a facial rejuvenator that he was sure would do wonders for me {because the commercial said so}. Just so you know....I splurged and bought it and my face feels wicked awesome. Landon even made sure we picked out some Dora toothpaste for Mackenzee because they were out of kid toothpaste. Did you also know that when people turn 16 they move out of their parents house and buy their own? I didn't know that. But apparently Landon has big plans to do this so that he can get away from Mackenzee. :0) Apparently it's a love/hate relationship.

After we dropped the movie off we stopped off at Artic Circle and went through the drive-thru window and go some ice cream. Did you know that you can make a killer ice cream mustache on your face if you smoosh your lips on the ice cream cone really hard? It's very rugged looking. :0)

We got home after bedtime. :0) But the best part of the whole evening was when he came to give me a hug goodnight and said, "Mom, thanks for EVERYTHING tonight."

You know Landon, it was all you. Thanks for wanting to hang with me. Thanks for giggling with me over the "Birthday POTTY" card. {get it?} Noah will love it. Thanks for helping me to find a present for baby Jeremy. Your vote of approval made it so much easier for me to decide. Thanks for thinking of your sister even while you had me all to yourself.

You are such an awesome kid. This is not the first time that you have somehow known that I needed a little extra boost. You have such a big heart and I am so glad that you have shared it with me. My cup may not be full, but the water you gave me tonight....made a world of difference. You are one of my bestest friends, Landon. You always have been. I hope you always will be.

Love you to the sky.