What We've Been Up To.

Mostly, as of late, I've been outside. It seemed this yard project would never end, but it is getting so close. There has been little time for me to spend reflecting or journaling or blogging. This happened last year too. I see a pattern developing, but I hope it will not be a trend for the rest of the summer. I love winter--for it lends itself so nicely to reflection and writing and pondering and reading. These are some of my greatest pleasures in life. It used to be that spring and summer were much the same, back when we lived in apartments. But now that we have a home with a great big yard to create and care for, I'm coming to realize that there are seasons to my activities that parallel the seasons in nature....

While Winter is devoted to my usual pastimes of reading and reflecting, Spring is a time of preparation and planting new seeds and dreams and hopes. When Summer comes, it's full sprint ahead into yard work, baseball games, swimming, family vacations, a birthday, and our anniversary. It's a go-go-go time, and while it's hard at times for me to switch gears and have the energy to do so much, it really truly balances out the time that I get to just be. Finally, Autumn time brings harvest and celebration, and family traditions, and a winding down of crazy-wonderful summer days. By the time Winter comes again, I will be ready to again retreat within and enjoy the holidays with my family and the holiday in my heart.

But here's to May! What a memorable month it was!!

This picture was taken while driving one day. I was stopped by construction work on the road, so I decided to just notice all the beauty around me instead of let myself get irritated for the delay. (It was a good choice.) I LOVE where we live!!!!!

More of Maylie's bows:

And her rosy little sunburn one day:

Easton's jog-a-thon (which made my eyes brim with tears...it must have been the  music paired with seeing all those sweet children do something so cute!)

Mother's Day Cards:

Maylie's Grumpy Face:

Mother's Day was so sweet. We got to visit both of our mothers this year!

{Mom Mom, my sisters, and I}

Easton's adorable Mother's Day card he made at school:

{Just as a side note, everyone who knows me well knows I have a complete phobia of newspaper...so I'm not sure if reason #10 is a joke?? (I NEVER read the newspaper!)}

I got to meet up with some of my high school friends one day at the park (I haven't seen most of them for 10 years!!)

Maylie and Emerson wandered off when we were at the park and when we found them, they were sitting on this bench playing together. We asked them why they wandered off and Emerson said they were going to the "makeup store." :)

Here are some before and afters of our yard...it's still not done, so there will be more post pictures to come!!!

First Pieces of Sod!!!

Newly Constructed Sandbox (which the sweeties played in nonstop the first few days. Tate wanted to live there. He asked if he could eat there and sleep there that first night.)

The beginning of our fence (which is now finished might I add):

One day I looked out the window and was amazed--what was this random rainbow up in the sky??? I have never seen anything like it!!! It was such a tender reminder to me that day that Heavenly Father knows me and loves me and sends me beautiful things every day if I have eyes to see.

This was our first picnic of the year...it was before the grass came so we had to do it on our driveway.

This is Tate the water man. He asks to "play in the water" nearly every single day. The other day he called me in to see the bubbles...I will miss this sweet, silly child so much when he goes off to kindergarten next year!!!

And this was Friday...Easton's last day of 1st grade. I can't believe I will have a 2nd grader next year. We celebrated by taking a picnic to the park and playing for a few hours. I snapped this cute picture of Tate only to find that my memory was full on my phone so I couldn't get any pictures of Easton and Maylie. Oh well. I'm sure there will be many more park days to come this summer.

P.S. That evening I asked Easton if he wanted to order pizza for his last day of school celebration. That's all it took for him to plan an extravagant party for the remainder of the evening. He made signs and a speech and we had pizza and watermelon on our deck. Then we had balloon baseball, balloon hold ball, and balloon football. After which we ate ice popsicles and ice cream and had a dance party to his new favorite song--"It's Always a Good Time." I had a blast and am so proud of my sweet son and his creative planning skills.

I'M SO EXCITED IT'S SUMMER!!!!!

A Birthday Tribute for 30 Years

May 16th was my sweetheart's 30th birthday. I wanted to make it so special for him on this landmark day. So with input and ideas from both of our moms, I planned a surprise yard work birthday party for him--inviting his favorite 30 people. I planned and worked for several weeks to create a beautiful dessert table display and food, and then I texted everyone, inviting them to come to his party with rakes and shovels and gloves in hand. It was such an amazing surprise when he found out the night before the big day that everyone was coming to help him in our yard. And with everyone's help, we accomplished so very much. We were able to haul in and spread 10 scoops of compost, build a complete sandbox, rototill the high spots of fill dirt in our yard, level the dirt, finish the wiring on the sprinkler system, and complete 2 dozen sprinkler heads. After the evening was over, we stood back in complete awe at all that been done. By ourselves, it would have taken us several months to accomplish what we did in just one day. It was such a blessing. I really can't even express how grateful we are to all of our sweet family members who gave us the best gift ever. We are so very blessed.

I failed to get any pictures of people working--it was kind of a blur for me that night. I did manage to get pictures of the dessert table though, but I sincerely regret taking pictures of everyone else!!!

Here is the other surprise I gave Patrick--30 reasons why I love him in 30 white balloons...