There was a time when they were younger with less responsibility (less children/less demanding wives, me) that climbing Mt Timpanogos was a yearly spring ritual.  Mr. Dave shows up to take Ben out of my hair for 2 days (j/k sweet heart, I love you!) anyway Dave proceeds to laugh at Ben’s hardly technical gear and refit him before the trip, “crampons, ice ax, Are you really going to take that?  How old is it?”   And so the tradition goes.  They load into one of their trucks and drive off to snow covered adventure. 

After a few years off, this year they were at it again.   Past Christmas and Birthdays have provided Ben with better gear although he still uses some of Dave’s (Ice ax and crampons are out of my shopping radar).  After packing up they jumped into Dave’s truck and returned to their old friend.

This picture prompted me to buy Ben a new backpack for his birthday!

The guys climbed Friday afternoon and into the evening.  Before dark they stopped and carved out  a flat spot in the steep snow to pitch their tent and sleep.  In the morning they continued to the summit just in time to race down so Dave could make it to family pictures.  Ben returned home Saturday afternoon tired, dirty, and happy.  So, with luck, the tradition is reborn.

My Beautiful girl Emma turned 9 years old yesterday!  Emma is such an amazing girl.  Sometimes she gets lost in the craziness of 3 wild younger brothers but I am so glad we were blessed to start our family with a beautiful little girl.  Emma has some special talents that don’t get recognized enough.  First of all she has a way of sensing the needs of others. She is very thoughtful and can be so kind.  Emma is also a great artist she loves to paint and draw and has handwriting that I can only dream of.

Emma has loved horses and cowgirls most of her life and when it was time for her to decorate her new room she wanted it to be country cowgirl with a deer head on the wall.  So for her birthday I surprised her by checking her out of school and taking her horse back riding.  She was so surprised! And of course loved every second of it.  We drove up to soldier hollow to rocky mountain outfitters.  Our guide was a rodeo queen and was so sweet to Emma showing her how to bridle the horses then talking with her and teaching her about horses the whole ride.  Then after she showed Emma how to tie up the horses what knot to use and let Emma tie up her own.  Then came a tour of the corals and more teaching about the different colors and marking on horses.  Emma ate up every moment and said it was a dream come true. 

When we got home it was time for presents, dinner and cake.  Emma loved all her gifts, but I think the family favorite was the lariat Ben gave her we all had fun trying to rope the rocking horse, and each other, in the front  yard,  Grandpa Ted next door even came out and gave Emma some roping lessons and she caught on pretty quick!

Sit down at computer to do a little blogging

Sam comes in to help

Type Title “Happy Birthday Emma”

Sam breaks light bulb in lamp by computer

sigh

Pick up Sam and notice he stinks - Change Diaper

Sit down at computer to do a little blogging

Oops forgot to clean up glass from light bulb- Get out vacuum clean up glass

Sit down at computer to do a little blogging

Sam dumping out craft drawers helps me lose train of thought

Go to kitchen for left over birthday cake to help train of thought return.

Sit down at computer to do a little blogging

Hear Brigham screaming out side

Brigham busts through front door

“MOM!!!!!!!”

Get Brigham a band aid

Return to computer to do a little blogging

Sam helped himself to cake

Sigh

Clean up Sam-take clothes down to laundry

Change over laundry- Fold clean clothes

Notice empty yogurt cups and banana peels in family room- scold kids (who are at school) under breath

Pick up family room

Sit down at computer to do a little blogging

Phone rings- ” HI Sweetie (it’s Ben) oh yea, getting lots done!”

Take Sam off kitchen table- clear table, put bowls in sink

Sit down at computer to do a little blogging

Phone rings- “Hey Jordanna!”  Her babysitter canceled can I watch the girls  “Sure”

Sit down at computer to do a little blogging

Type this post, then give up- maybe I’ll get to the other at nap time

‘Twas Sunday afternoon and all through the house the children were quiet, as soft as a mouse.  While Ben was at meetings I in my dress had just settled down for a nice Sunday rest.  When out on the lawn there arose such a clatter I sprang from my bed to see what was the matter.   Away to the sliding door I ran angry and mean threw back the curtains, tore open the screen.  When what to my wandering eyes should appear, but a CAT hunting chickens all shaking with fear.  I hooted and hollard and chased him around ’till onto the fence he leapt in one bound.   His eyes shone green and his lips snarled mean as he took one last look at the chaotic scene.  With a twitch of his tail and a turn of his head he stalked away lucky no chickens were dead.

( j/k on the new home title we’re still going to keep our cat)

Here it is the finished product!(minus a few decorative touches)  Our Biddy Barn has double doors on both sides for east clean out, three nesting boxes accessible from the back for easy egg retrieval and three pine logs for roosting hopefully the girls will like it!

As I said my little boys have been such a big help!  Brigham is an excellent weed puller and dirt shoveler and Sam… well Sam is pretty good at herding the chickens around the yard and swinging on the swing set!

Mothers day is one of those holidays that haven’t really worked out well for me.  Whether it’s because we have stomach flu (as noted below it is a holiday tradition), morning sickness, Ben working and me dragging 4 kids to church on my own or just guilt over which family to spend it with.  I don’t really look forward to that day.  This year I received a perfect reminder of how much I love to be a mother just a few days early.  Sam is teething yet again.  He does not handle it very well and gets soooo grumpy.  Last night I was up with him a few times until I had him sufficiently drugged with Tylenol and finally asleep.  When I awoke to his cries at 7 am I wasn’t sure I could really take another day of grumpy baby.  That’s when my sweet Emma came in holding a tray and flanked by Jon and Brig.  “Breakfast in bed” she announced.  I thanked her but explained that Sam had been up all night and wasn’t feeling well so I really needed to get up and take care of him.  “Don’t worry” she replied “I’ll take care of everything.”  And she did!!! After a nice relaxing breakfast of yogurt and a banana in bed  (even taking a second to pick up my room and make my bed before what promised to be a day I might not get back to it) I came out to find Sam with diaper changed and dressed for the day, Emma and Jon dressed and ready for school and all four kids fed their own breakfast. 

Sometimes I get so caught up in the day to day laundry, dishes, diapers, homework, on and on I forget to sit back and enjoy my beautiful children and the joy of motherhood!  I sat on the back lawn tonight and watched the kids play together and felt so so truly blessed to have such a wonderful family and the opportunity to be a mother! 

This Mothers day I plan to sit back, not stress and think of the two mothers that still bless my life in a huge way everyday My Mom Rhonda and Ben’s Mom Jana.  They are not only great examples of mothers they are super Grandmas and the best support system a Mother could ask for.  Thank You and I love you both!  Happy Mothers Day to all my family and friend Mothers!!!

My Children have a great way of celebrating holidays!  Not that we celebrate every holiday this way however there have been a few.  This year for Easter  we started with the traditional Saturday Easter egg hunt at Grandma Rhonda’s accompanied by the not so traditional addition of Uncle Jacob getting appendicitis the night before and going into surgery during the hunt (way to go Jake!)  As for my kids well Emma started it by throwing up in Jared and Kat’s car on the way to the egg hunt then proceeded to pass her bug to the boys who took turns being sick the rest of Saturday and Sunday and through the night to Monday morning.  So no cute pictures of all the kids on their matching Easter outfits but o’ well.

Luckily everyone felt better by the time we pulled out of the driveway on Monday for our trip to Zion National Park (Thank heavens for small blessing that they all got the bug before we left!!!!!)  You may be wondering where all the amazing pictures are of us hiking the beautiful park.  Well after arriving at the park I pulled out the camera to take those amazing pictures only to find that it was broken.  Jon promptly started blaming Brigham and Brig started pointing at Jon so I checked the camera for evidence and here are some of the last pictures taken so you can see if you come to the same conclusion I did.

Despite the lack of pictures we had a great time! The weather was alittle cool and rained on and off through the week but we still slipped in a few hikes to Wheeping Rock, The Emerald Pools, River Side Hike and others.  I think the kids liked sitting in the trailer playing GO FISH as much as anything and played about 21456378 times.  So rain or no rain it was a success.  This being the first time we used our new trailer it gave us a chance to work out the bugs and make a list of things to add before our next adventure at the top of that list is CAN OPENER!  Our dinner every night included at least two cans that needed to be opened Ben got very good at opening cans with his knife.  We packed up Thursday evening so Sam, who cried a good part of the 4 1/2 hour drive to the park, could sleep on the drive home and were shock when we pulled up to the house at 11:30 that night to see TONS of snow!  It made me very grateful we were away and missed the worst of the storm.