Photo Shoot

I did another photo shoot this last week and was so excited about the pictures! Maybe it was the gorgeous weather that made me giddy, I don't know. But the kids I photographed were sure cute, and so it made it fairly easy for me too. :0)

With the sun so high in the sky, we did end up with a lot of frustrating shadows, but I'm still in love with the shots.

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)