Fun at the Scout O Rama

I don't know what the deal is with my red-eye fix. Now they are freaky eyes.

Solids...testing the waters

This girl is learning to maneuver her way into the solids world, slowly. We have actually been trying to get her to eat solids for a good couple of weeks now, but she just says no to oatmeal. That tongue of hers knows how to work it out and make a mess. But if you give her bread or noodles, she seems to do okay with that. So, today I tried her on some yams and I may be figuring out a system with feeding her. My first attempt ended promptly when Haley was more interest in practicing her new talent of raspberries. I knew then and there that feeding a raspberry blowing girl was a bad idea. So, round 2, this afternoon, and it went better. I kind of had to tilt her head back and hold the spoon in her mouth while she worked on swallowing the yams, but it worked. She actually got some this time, I think, and there was not too much mess. Success! For now. We will see how round 3 goes at another time. She may win on that one.

Adding to my garden

Horray and yea, with the help of my boys playing on their own nicely I was able to plant my beautiful fruit trees today. Oh, Rob also helped by digging one of the holes and the weather helped by being sunny this morning. Thank you! I am just giddy with the thought of watching these babies grow and picking a nice yummy fruit from them in the future. Grow little trees, grow!


Also in other news, Rob and I have decided that our two middle children are pretty easy going (when well fed and properly rested). It is our oldest and youngest that appear to be the challenging ones. Yes, all children offer their own issues but for the most part if I only have the two middles to deal with they are fine, no real problems or dramas. Enter one of the others and all bets are off. I love them all, but these little souls do their best to add spice to my life. :)

Spring Break, Easter, and fun stuff

Spring break at our house has been pretty mundane with a few exceptions, and they are:
The boys had a fantastic time playing in our neighbor's mud! After a Spring rain shower there was plenty of mud for them to splash with and make a lot of dirty clothes and faces. It was fun while it lasted, until mom came along and made them wash off the neighbor's house where they had splattered mud all over.

This is Haley in her Easter crown, each of the kids had one. They did not see much wear but they were fun to paint and they looked so cute in them.

Pa and Betty's ward had a carinval and the boys loved it. They each got their face painted; Caleb and tiger, Peter a spider, and William Spiderman. They had other fun games and contests. All the kids were entered in a rootbeer chugging contest and when they gave Peter the root beer he told them no because "it is bad for my body." Such a cool kid.

Today was the Gray Easter egg hunt and it was such fun! We all gathered at my house (Diedre and Rob's) and ate a yummy breakfast then the kids were so excited to get out there to clean up the eggs. They all did so good at gathering up the eggs. We only hid one Golden Egg this year so there was more of a challenge to find it. Caleb was the lucky kid this year and he really cleaned up! Steve was awesome enough to help William gather eggs during the hunt and then he helped Willy count all the loot. Then Steve humored all the boys by willingly walking into their traps and playing with them outside. We have an awesome family.

My boys also took some time today to work in the garage making another garden box for us/me. Yeah! It will be so fun to have more space to plant. Caleb loves to get a hammer, some nails and wood and just hammer stuff together. Tonight he made himself a version of R2D2. I have an awesome husband, and kids!

Finally, Diedre's most exciting moment of the weekend was when Rob took me tonight and bought us two wonderful fruit trees for our yard. Look at those beauties! I so hope they do good, grow well and produce such yummy fruit. We are so excited for them, especially me. Did I mention that Rob is awesome! After a long day he was out there digging a hole for the peach tree (the other is a Red Delicious Apple), chopping with an ax, and being all tough. He is the best! And I have two new fruit trees, Yeah!

These boys are funny

Driving home with Jonah or Jonathan in our truck is always amusing. At times we give them rides and listening to these boys talk and play is always great. For example, last night Jonathan was in our truck and the boys had been talking with Emily before we left the Grays. So, I get in the truck and they start telling me their secret agent names as it were. Caleb: "The name is Gray, Caleb Gray, Double Stuffed Oreo." It went the same with all the others. Jonathan: "The name is Gray, Jonathan Gray, Double O Cherrio." Peter: "The name is Gray, Peter Gray, Double 11 Volcano." (His was a little more random.) William: "The name is Gray, William Gray, Double Stuffed Oreo." (William of course went with Caleb's name but it was still cute to hear him say it so excitedly.) Then they made one up for Haley: "The name is Gray, Haley Gray, Double Decker Sandwich." My personal favorite! These boys are awesome!

Springtime in Utah

Ahhh, there is nothing like Springtime. The sun is up longer, more time to play outside without gloves and heavy coats, blooming flowers and rainbows, planting seeds and watching them start to grow, and then the occasional snowfall. That good old snow that stops you from planting when you want to and keeps your seedlings indoors way longer than they need to be.

Case in point, our snowfall from this weekend. Do you love our garden box? Fortunately we have not even thought about planting outside, but just to spite these Springtime snow storms we planted seeds today! HA!

My boys were not the most excited to plant when I wanted to. I was interrupting their play time but I thought playing in the dirt and with the seeds would be fun too. Silly me. We planted pumpkins, zucchini and squash. It will be so fun!

These are our pea plants that are doing beautifully! We planted these a few weeks ago and I am excited to see them grow more. Willy loves carrying his pea plant around and showing everyone. He is so proud. I never started to pay attention to the weather patterns in Utah until I started gardening. There really is no Spring in Utah. Spring kind of does it's own thing without regard to what is expected. I am not complaining, we know not to plant until late May and to maybe even plan on snow for Easter. It's just what happens here. Until May we will watch our seedlings grow in their little cups and hope their roots do not get too crowded until the snow stops for good.