Sunday, June 28, 2009

Winslow's Dream


okay so Winslow found this picture on his chainsaw geek website. I thought it was hilarious. He loves it. It's our new wallpaper for the computer. When did this guy I married turn into such a redneck!

Tuesday, June 23, 2009

Gripe Fest

okay...I thought I would let you know that yesterday I called my mom so I could complain...cause sometimes you feel better once you get it all out. Everyone who knows me knows I can complain something fierce when it comes to insurance companies. And yesterday was one of those days. Is there a really good reason we pay for insurance. What the heck do they actually cover anyways!!!! And why is it that my doctor's office neglected to see if certain tests were covered proceedures. AHHHHHH! So anyway, I was bummed because more medical bills means more time that I work. I keep telling myself...be grateful you have a job or you would be behind, even if it seems like your not moving forward at a fast pace, your not moving backward.
In happier news my fabulous mother in law and sister in law took the girls for 2 days. Rachel got to spend time with Julie (take pics EVELYN!) her cousin, and Abby got to have one on one time with Lita (our nickname for grandma). They were so excited. I have been deep cleaning their room while they are gone. I threw out a whole bunch of toys, packed up clothes that no longer fit. Reorganized all the toy boxes and it looks so much better. So when Jacob goes to grandma's I plan to do the same to his room. My house was so clean last night, it felt fabulous. I love a really clean house, unfortunately it's usually not reality at my house! 1 more week until vacation HURRAY!~

Sunday, June 21, 2009

My baby's Birthday!

David had his first birthday. It
always goes so fast. Here is a picture of David and I in the hospital...all my bands, allergy, surgery, etc...I had forgotten all about that. And then David's hand was wrapped with his IV, the bandaid on his face has a twin on the other side. They held his oxygen tube. He was having a hard time breathing and keeping his sugar levels up. He had his cord wrapped around his neck when he was born. He was my smallest baby when he was born. NOW HE IS THE BIGGEST@! We weighed him on friday at the Dr.'s office and he is 22lbs and 12oz. HOLY COW! Big boy.



Here is the birthday boy in his new highchair. I love this thing. It folds totally flat. Great for our house
Cars, Cars, Cars. Thanks Siobhan. David loves cars and trucks.




Grandma and Grandpa Minson got David this cute fridge farm. He was so excited he wouldn't open any other gifts until we hid it from him!






messy messy







Happy Birthday to you!




I attempted to make David a tow truck cake. Not bad!






Saturday, June 13, 2009

finally pictures

I know this is my third post of the day but I finally got my camera working and I wanted to get it all down now!
Rachel wanted to play in the sprinklers this morning. My little girl has such an attitude. But I love her to death. She loves bandaids and will find any excuse to put them on...and well just like everything else, I can't say no!
Jacob has been beging to learn how to mow the yard. He wants to earn $$$$. So today I taught him the basics. It is so crazy to see my big boy growing up! It goes so fast.

Abby was so cute pulling weeds today. She reminds me so much of ME!

Everynight I check on David before I go to sleep, sometimes he gets in the craziest positions. I couldn't help but capture this one.
Our cat is such a chilled out cat. He puts up with our kids so well, and is a great indoor and outdoor cat. And he's even catching mice. EW. He left one out for us to see. He's also caught a few birds. It only took us how many before we got a cat to stick around!
So we are finally getting into our spring/early summer. Temps are still in the high 60's to the mid 70's. See why we love it here! My flowers are starting to bloom and I love, love, love it. When we were in Utah I felt like both my uncle Don and Winslow's uncle George, had sanctuaries in thier yards. And I thought...I want this, I want to be able to walk out my door and have peace. We have spent three summers and planted a lot. Our front yard is starting to take on some real beauty in spots, and well our backyard has "potential." : )
Purple Salvia

Red Verbena






Snapdragons






Yellow Daylilies
Our growing garden...with no weeds! I love the square foot gardening method!




















boys and dirt











David loves the dirt. Can't hardly keep him out of it. He is finally crawling on his hands and knees now, and standing up next to everything. One more week and he'll be one. Makes me cry to think my baby has grown up so fast!

FUN TIMES!

Loralie, Carlee, Hunter
Jacob, , Abby,Loralie, and of course the Prize Horny Toad. ICK keep it out of the house!

Rolly Polly bugs.






Okay so we've been having crazy and fun times. My camera is so wacky so I only have a few pictures! Mary and Jeremy came to visit with all their 5 kids. It was so fun to watch the kids play. They found bugs, horny toads, made bracelets, made a teeter toter out of wood in the back yard. They stacked wood with Winslow. We had yummy food lots of laughs and I was so glad to have Mary there to talk to. Thanks Mary for making me feel human. Mary is also part of my BIG E experience. We looked at eachother and laughed inside when we sang count your many blessings in church. Mary has always been an inspiration and a fabulous friend. LOVE YOUR GUTS MARY!!! Winslow and Jeremy tried to lessen the prariedog population unsucessfully, but they had fun together. Oh and I am sure I gained at least 2 lbs eating all that fun food!


So the next weekend, Winslow's family came up. Cliff and Janiel, John and Mandy, and Mom and Dad. Unfortunately, Cliff ended up in the ER with heart problems. It was the high altitude, so he and his family had to turn around a go home. BUMMER> WE MISSED YOU GUYS!
So we had lots of fun. Mia and David rode around on their mommies backs in hiking backpacks (thanks so much LITA and LITO for the fabulous gift, I LOVE IT!) We went on a hike that was absolutely gorgeous. (Mandy and John send pics soon!) The kids had a way fun swing at the camping spot. Rachel loved swinging on it. We went to Greer days and watched the parade. The big people went to MOLLY's for dinner. YUMMY STEAK!! The weekend was so fun and their is never enough time to spend with the people you love. The pictures should be gorgeous so hopefully I can post them soon!

Friday, June 5, 2009

The Parable of Pruning a Lilac Bush

first off, I will post pictures when my camera finally works again!
So I have 4 lilac bushes in my front yard. My grandma was so excited when we bought this house, because of the lilac bushes. Well, I hadn't really noticed anything really spectacular about them. They are pretty and green, but that's about it. And they produced tiny dark purple flowers in the early spring. And then...we went to Utah in the spring when all the lilacs were blooming. THEY WERE GORGEOUS!!! They had huge pretty purple blooms and the smell was heavenly. Except they didn't quite look like my lilac bushes. I looked long and hard at the lilac bushes there. Both my uncle and Winslow's had lilac bushes in their yards. Leaves were the same. And there were lilacs all over, some big, some a little less established. So what was the deal? Well I came home determined to find out. I wanted to have my bushes smell and look like these. #1 lilacs need full sun. (3 of mine had been planted in the shade. We cut down the elm tree by them...it's more of a weed anyway and has been causing problems with our water line.) #2 DO NOT CUT LILACS LIKE A HEDGE (for some reason every person here lets their lilacs grow wide and then chops off the tops, just as the previous owner of our home had done, big no no.) #3 Lilacs need to be pruned...properly! (so I set out to get me some good pruning clippers.)
It has taken a lot of work, and I am not all the way finished, but my lilac bushes are starting to look a little more like the beautiful ones in Utah, and pruning them helps the bush to focus on making better and bigger blooms, instead of just more leaves. As I was pruning I began to see a good parable. #1 we need to live in the full light of the gospel. #2 you can't just look around at what every one else is doing, they could be doing it wrong, you have to go to the source. #3 sometimes ib order to bloom fully you have to make drastic changes!!!