In which we Celebrate!

This week was my Birthday! It feels like it came up so quickly, but it's been here and gone. Last weekend we were tearing off the roof  and didn't get a chance to go shopping, so Tuesday night after dinner we went out shopping for gifts. It was cute, each boy picked out something for me (Pineapple pi's from Logan & Snickers from Dustin) and Dave got a few things to supplement. We would have gone Monday, but we were fixing the sprinklers.

Wednesday was my birthday! It was busy, but we ate a lot of good food. For breakfast we had Raspberry White Chocolate muffins (gluten free). And for dinner… oh man, dinner! We made Cilantro Lime Shrimp Salad. It was an exparament that turned out heavenly! I made up the recipe, although the dressing was borrowed from Cafe Rio. We will be eating this recipe again, maybe with tortilla chips on top next time. We had chocolate cupcakes with peanut butter frosting for dessert.

Logan sang happy birthday to me all day long, and every time Logan would say "YOU", Dustin would join Logan in pointing to me. And they would clap at the end. I felt so celebrated :).

The elementary across the street from our house turned on their sprinklers this week, so we've spent many afternoons running through them. A lot of the time after the sprinklers, Logan ends up asleep on the couch still in his bathing suit. I guess it just wears him out!

Friday Dave's work had their annual Lagoon day! We got up there at 11 and rode rides until about 8 at night. We stopped briefly to eat lunch, snacks, and have a work BBQ, but other than that we rode. Logan loves roller coasters! He even rode a big one with Dave (he was one inch tall enough to ride Bombora. Dustin doesn't love them. He'll ride if they're one he can sit beside someone in. But if he has to ride by himself, he is out! So Dustin and I did a lot of snacking while the big boys rode. The only one that scared Logan was the pirate ship that swung back and forth. I don't know if it was the ride that was scary or all the screaming that bugged him.

Saturday we had such a busy day! In the morning Dave went for a run. He did 12 miles in 2 hours, prepping for his half marathon. While he was gone, the boys and I cleaned the house (we even dusted), went grocery shopping, put everything away, frosted cupcakes for later that afternoon, and started cooking some pork for Sunday's pulled pork Cafe Rio style salad (why does it take so long???).

At 1 I had my cousin Caitlin and friend Tenille over to exchange more quiet book pages! If I can get all these sewn into pages we'll have quite a few for the books to take to the reunion. I'm stressing about finishing them in time… but we'll see. At 2 Dave went to the eye dr, and as soon as he got home we headed to my parent's house. Then we went to see Insurgent and eat at Zupas for a birthday date.

Sunday Dustin woke up with a 101 degree fever. He is teething too, but this seemed more like sick, so I stayed home from church with him. He slept for half of the day and cried for the other half. Poor boy! But around 5 a neighbor came over and helped give him a blessing. After that his fever went down and he started acting more himself. Today he's been better, so here's hoping we're all better by Friday! Otherwise I won't be able to get anything done!

The Roof, The Roof, The Roof is on Fire

So I guess I forgot to post last week. It's been busy (as always). The only thing I can think of that we did was have Mike, Alison and the kids over. Mike and Dave were designing a board game for Mike, and Alison, the kids and I just visited. It was fun, we need to see them more often. Saturday Dave and Logan also went on a mushroom hunt with Mike & Alison. They found some but didn't bring any home because "if we prepare them wrong they will kill you. So we didn't take any home." Ever since Logan's been talking about looking for mushrooms.

This week was all about the roof. We've been trying to tear off our roof for a month now, but it's been raining for a month. Just about every day. Which isn't conducive to having no shingles. So I think we're finally over the freak rainy streak! All week I was making calls to coordinate/schedule stuff, picking up supplies, and finding people to help us. Friday Dave took a personal day and we tore off the roof! Most of the day it was just the two of us, but at night we had lots of help (which was great, because I was so burned out by then). 

We got all the shingles off Friday, and Saturday the ward came over to help us finish tearing off the tar paper, removing the nails, and clean up the rest of the shingles on the ground. They thought they were there to help with cleanup, but one of the guys insisted the nails and tar paper had to be up too. So we called a roofing guy to verify, and took those up too. So it's good they came over. We were done by 1. Oh, someone from the ward also brought by pizza for lunch (and Creamies)!!! We were totally exhausted.

Oh and the missionaries invited themselves over for dinner Saturday. I was caught so off guard I said yes, but was kicking myself after. We had left over pizza and water bottles. I still can't believe they (seeing us up on our roof) would have the nerve to ask. 

So I've decided: 1. We're never moving unless we move into a house that has a recently redone roof. 2. If we ever have to strip down a roof again, we're going to pay someone to do it. 3. If we DO tear off shingles again I'm getting a pair of work gloves that actually fit me. 4. If we never move, we'll slap another layer of shingles on in 35 years, and in another 35 years we'll just die so we don't have to re-shingle. So now that we have a plan I feel tons better.

Sunday we tried our best to relax and recover from all the work! Dave and I both had to teach, but when we got home we took a nap and played in the sprinklers (it was 92 degrees here). The dead patches in the lawn were created from the plastic tarp we put down to prevent shingles and nails from making too much of a mess. So hopefully the sprinklers helped a little!

Logan loved the water and Dustin was ok with it. He screeched quite a bit, but kept his distance.

He also has been helping sweep the yard for nails (that thing is a big magnet and he drags it all over, just like mom). I can't believe how big Dustin is! He's not a baby any more.

Monday was a clean up day. Our house was totally TRASHED from all the work this weekend. I think I had 30 things on my list to get done. But it was a mess, and needed it (you know things like do laundry, wash dishes, sweep the nails and gravel off the gazebo, paint the side wall...). But now it's all clean and I can start worrying about how to celebrate my birthday!

Buzz, Spiderman & Rain

Yup, more rain here. I don't think we've had this wet of a spring since I moved to Utah. Although it could be that this year I noticed, since we're trying to re-shingle our roof. We were supposed to start tear off Thursday, but it rained all  weekend. We're just hoping we can get the tear off done before we head to North Carolina.

Because of the lack of tear off, we've been working hard on other projects (never ending battle, eh?). Dave's still been working in the yard, it just goes a lot slower with all the rain. He got the rocks laid on the side of the gazebo, and I love how they turned out. I'd take a picture, but with all the rain, it just isn't turning out well.

The boys have been obsessed with playing dress up lately. My mom was cleaning out her costumes, and we inherited quite a few of the manly ones. As a result, Logan's begging for a Buzz Lightyear costume has increased. So I  pulled one together for him. He has been telling me for months he wants to be Buzz for Halloween and Dustin wan't to be Woody. I'll make gloves and a hat when it's actually Halloween, but this should tide him over for now.

I also made a Spider man dress up while I was sewing. I've been designing a Batman blanket for when Dustin moves into the bottom bunk in Logan's room, and Logan has been telling me he wants the Batman blanket and Dustin can have his Spiderman one. Part of me thinks it's because it is something new, but the other part wonders if it's because he has a Batman Costume. So I decided to make a Spider man costume to see if it would help.

They've both enjoyed it, so it was worth the $5 it cost to make (actually, I think it was less than that, since I only had to buy the red material). I made it big so they could wear it for a while, but I'm now wondering if it's too big… Hum, who knows how long they like to play dress up?

Mother's Day & LOTS of Rain

This weekend was a slow one. It rained a ton, so we didn't get a chance to do much which was exactly the break we needed! Friday Dave swung by Lowes and picked up rocks to pour around the stepping stones and where the fire pit is going to live. It was raining, so he bought them with anticipation of hopefully laying them Saturday. We went to the temple Friday night, and it was so nice! Traffic was horrible getting there, but it was so nice to get to go. We sat at talked in the Celestial room after for quite a while before heading home.

Saturday I had my last quilting class of the year! Well, technically the last one is in June, but I'll be in North Carolina for that one. So this is the last one I'm going to attend. I've been waffling back and forth about signing up for next year's class or not… and Saturday made my decision for me. My mom was spring cleaning out her sewing stuff/stash and I probably ended up with 7 projects! So really I'm set for the next 7 years. Some of them are just collections of material in complimentary colors, but some are completed squares just waiting for someone to make them into something! So I went through them all, and have my work cut out for me (although I probably won't start anything until late June). We also ended up with food and a few other odds and ends.

 The boy's favorite things we inherited were costumes! They spent all weekend being a fire fighter, cowboy, and viking! Their favorite is the viking so there's a lot of fighting over the hat with horns. Logan will tell you he's Lyle the Viking and when Dustin wears the hat he's Bob the Viking. We even went on our walk this morning dressed as fire men (both boys had a hat).

Saturday Dave's parent's also kidnapped the boys for the day. They were supposed to go to the zoo, but since it rained all day long, they only made a brief appearance there, then went bowling. They had so much fun. Dave prepped his lessing while I was at quilting, and when I got home we relaxed.  That night we braved the rain and went to the mall to do some Mother's Day shopping. The boys both picked out a gift for me and we spent hours in the Lego store! They (and Dave) were in HEAVEN! So many toys to play with!

Sunday we had a relaxing Mother's Day. We had Raspberry White Chocolate Chip muffins for breakfast. Dustin went to Nursery. I dropped him off, and I only had to go calm him once. He stayed the rest of the time just great! Logan had to go potty 3 times during church, and since Dave was teaching, I got to take him each time (he threw a fit when the youth tried to get him to go in the men's room instead of the ladies room where I take him… guess we'll have to work on that). We decorated cup cakes for our dessert (I wanted German Chocolate Cake, and I knew the boys wouldn't eat it, so I got a can of frosting for them and a variety of sprinkles and German Chocolate frosting for Dave and I). Then I got to do some sewing!

I finished this bad boy! It's for the nursery rhyme quiet book, and it's supposed to be the 3 little kittens. In the basket are 6 different sets of mittens. So they have to find their mittens, match them, and hang them on the line. It turned out cute! I have 8 scripture pages done, am waiting to receive 8 from the exchange, have 4 nursery rhyme pages done, and am waiting on 1 more from the exchange. So I think I'll try to get 3 more nursery rhyme pages done before the reunion as well as making 2 - 3 book covers for these. Eventually I want a Book of Mormon/Church History, Old Testament, New Testament, and Nursery Rhyme quiet book. But for now I'm just working on 3 and I will mix the church ones into one or two.

Oh, random, but we got the boys an Electric Toothbrush a few weeks ago. After finding a $10 coupon online, I got it for $30. They both throw major fits every time we brush, and now they fight over whose turn it is to brush. They don't do a great job brushing, but it's a lot better than before. And the brush times them, so they know how long to brush for. I got a set of knock off toothbrush heads 12 for $9, so we're set for the next year or two! I would highly recommend one for anyone!

Also, since it was Mother's Day, I can finally share this project!!! I've been secretly working on it for months. I kidnapped a quilt my Grandma Yoder made for my Mom about 40 years ago. It had a few spots where the material wore through, so I patched up those spots with new material. You can see the piece above that was torn.

This is one that's done! It was a lot of work, but it turned out great! The piece above is a different one that has been patched. My mom just loves this quilt (because her mom made it for her), so I wanted to make sure she could enjoy it for years to come.

There was also a tear in the back that I patched up. I forgot to take a picture of that one fixed before I gave it to her, but it worked out well too.

Ducks, the Yard, Sewing & Playing

Last blog post I didn't have any pictures of the boys (I haven't been taking many lately), so here is Logan feeding/chasing the three "daddy ducks" that have been roaming up and down our street. He loves when they visit our yard. Sorry Dad, it's the only one I had this week!

Last Thursday night we had our first date in a long time!!! Dave's work was doing a movie night so we got to go see the Avengers. It was better than the first one, and Dave loved it. It was so much fun to get out and see a movie without the boys. They also did free popcorn and drinks too, which was nice since we never get those when we go.

I brought home the left over popcorn and the boys ate it for breakfast. I went to the bedroom to get something and when I came back into the kitchen Logan was chowing down and Dustin had dumped his cereal on the ground and was eating the popcorn Logan had poured onto his tray. Man those boys are already getting into trouble together!

Friday after Dave got home from work we went to Lambert's Nursery and got the plants for our garden and some flowers as well. Logan and Dustin loved helping pick things out and wanted to smell all the flowers! When we were in the check out line one of the workers was writing out my bill to make the trip to the cash register quicker (it's an old school mom & pop shop with zero technology). Logan decided to untie her apron. This is his favorite thing to do when I'm washing dishes, but I was surprised he would do it to a stranger!

Saturday the boys and I planted the garden and flowers while Dave ran around to a few Home Depots to get a stump grinder. It took Dave all day to grind the 3 stumps! I did most of the second one to give him a break, but man it was tedious and exhausting!

This week has really gone by in a haze. I've been throwing everything together so we can shingle the house next weekend. Well, we are just tearing off the shingles and paying a guy to put the shingles back on for us. Yes, we probably could figure out how to do it ourselves, but this is just not the year for a major project. I'm praying like crazy that it doesn't rain next Thursday, Friday, and Saturday so we can get these bad boys off and the waterproofing layer down. It's been raining all week here.

Oh, I've also been sewing quiet book pages! I joined a quiet book page exchange a few months back, and we just switched pages. We ended up with some bible stories and some nursery rhymes, so now I'm going to make a book for each. So I've been making extra pages so I have enough. I'm more excited for the scripture book, but the nursery rhyme book will be fun too.

Christ Calms the Storm (finger puppets in a pocket)

Joseph's Coat (puzzle & snaps)

Samson & Delilah (hair braiding)

Adam & Eve (color matching & buttoning)

David & Goliath (button & make the rock hit him)

Swallowed a Fly (she eats the finger puppets & zipper belly)

I love how these are turning out!!! I hope to have at least one book done by the time we go to North Carolina. If so, I'm going to hide it away so the boys don't play with them before then.

We've also been playing with friends a bit this week. We went to Sugar House park with Logan's friend Briggs (short for Brigham) and his sister Calli that is a little older than Dustin. It was fun to see the four of them explore the park together. They moved en mass from the river to slide to tunnel to swings, etc. Next year Logan is going to go to Pre-School with Briggs two mornings a week. He's excited to go with his friend, although I'm sure he'll make more friends too.

Wednesday morning Abby, Madddy and Edison came over to play. They tore the house apart, but had lots of fun doing it. Logan misses having Abby and Maddy come over every day, so it was nice to spend time with her. We do get to play with Devonsch a few times a week though (and he is calming down a bit, which helps).