Hanging Out in the Country

There are some things that you will only find in the country. I for one feel like the country is some how in my blood. Every time I return to the place where I grew up I fill my spare time with wondering through the fields, walking on canal banks, visiting the local reservoir, enjoying the sunrises and sunsets etc. Emma and Nathan get to come along. My little family and I have been here in this small Idaho country town for over a week and we have traversed the local scenary several times. It is peaceful and relaxed here. People just move at a slower pace. I love it.

Early in the week a farmer friend of ours came to visit and invited Emma and Nathan to help him do the chores. They fed the baby calves, rode the 4-wheeler, looked for fish in the creek, pet the horses, rode the horses and came back with big grins on their faces. My favorite moment was when we were all riding in the farmer's dirty old pick-up truck out in the pasture. Our friend turned to Emma and said "it's time for you to drive." He jumped out of the truck and turned the steering wheel over to my 5-year old. The only instruction he gave Emma was to not drive into the creek. While Emma started making s-shapes with the slow moving truck I did a quick assessment to see how quickly I could get to the brakes if we came to a fence. No worries though. The farmer was fully aware of where we were. He paid Emma 25 cents for driving the truck. Nathan got 25 cents for being cute.

Nathan's favorite thing at Grandma's and Grandpa's house is this old and very friendly dog, "Rudy." These two go everywhere together and Nathan makes sure Rudy gets lots of doggy treats.
When the neighbors heard that we would be here for awhile they brought over toys for the kids. This classic tricycle has been up and down my mom's new ramp (built by the High Priest Group in her ward while she was in the hospital for 41 days) many times. Emma and Nathan think it is the best!

Picture Perfect Day

I can't help smiling about picture day. We take the kids to get their pictures taken professionally every spring and every fall, around their birthdays. I have learned to accept this day for what it is. I KNOW it will be crazy and I KNOW that in the end I will be delighted with the photographs that capture this particular moment in time.

The pictures are adorable and we had a great time playing at the mall when the picture-taking was complete.

New Easter Tradition

This year we added a new Easter tradition. It brought beauty and meaning into our holiday. Every day leading up to Easter Sunday we put a picture of the Savior on a wall and talked about one of the things that happened during the last week of the Savior's life. I quickly started looking forward to this time of day. On the fourth day I was gone for the evening so Dave filled in.

The report I got was that Emma wanted Dave to tell the next story, but Dave said he didn't know what I had planned to talk about next. Emma responded with "well, if you don't know what comes after the Last Supper than we have a big problem." Even Nathan started to notice the pictures. Every morning he pointed at the pictures and commented on them. The morning after Easter when they weren't on the wall anymore, Nathan asked me where the pictures were. This is what Easter is all about.

Dressed in their new outfits for Easter Sunday.

What we Did to Celebrate

On Saturday we...

created some Easter picture frames,watched the birds eating from the bird feeder in one of our trees,
blew some bubbles,
colored a few eggs, added some funny faces to our eggs, hunted for the baskets the Easter Bunny filled with treats,

went to a friend's house for the annual neighborhood Easter Egg Hunt (Emma only picked up the sparkly or flower decorated eggs. Nathan kept stopping to eat the goodies in between picking up eggs.),

ate some chocolate bunnies &
fully enjoyed ALL of it.

Dr. E

During our one-on-one time a few days ago, Emma and I created a doctor costume complete with tin-foil thermometer and stethoscope. Emma spent the entire day playing doctor. She makes house calls.

Negotiating with a Two-Year Old

Mom, attempting to get her (almost) two-year old dressed for the day: "Come on, let's get dressed." Cute striped shirt and jeans are all ready layed out on the floor.

Two-year old, having looked at the striped shirt runs away screaming: "No, choo choo train." He is referring to the Thomas the Train pajammas he is currently wearing.

Mom, reaching for the Two-year old and just missing: "You can't wear that. It is dirty."

Two-year old: "NO! Choo Choo Train."

We have a little game of tag in which the mom wins and the two-year old is back in his bedroom looking at the striped shirt.

Mom: "Come on, honey. It is time to get ready for the day."

Two-year old: "No, Vrmm." Now he is referring to the Lightning McQueen pagammas that he wore all day yesterday.

Mom, thinking quickly: "Trucks say vrmm too. Let's wear your truck shirt." Nevermind that the truck shirt is another pajamma top. Afterall we are negotiating here.

Two-year old: Smiles and lies down on the floor. He is all about cooperation. He even agrees to wear jeans with the pajamma top.

Mom: "Let's take a picture of you. You look so cute."

Two-year old, hopping up dressed in the truck shirt: "I goit." This is his version of "I got it." Off he goes to the piano where he climbs up and grabs the camera where it is perched from the day before. He is very observant

Two-year old snaps a picture....I mean, a few pictures.

Mom snaps a picture.

Sigh, there is peace in the universe.

Parent Profiles

We just completed and activated our adoption profile on parentprofiles.com. We have never been on this adoption website before, but had a great opportunity to participate in this program that we could not pass up. To view our profile click here.

Pass the Pepper Please

Don't let the sweet innocent smile FOOL you. This little ball of cuteness is a T-E-A-S-E!!! He resumed his roll as family teaser as soon as he recovered from his recent illness. During Nathan's first meal back to the table after 3 days of puking he wanted to pour his own pepper on his mashed potatoes. Oops! Someone must have failed to put the lid on tight enough, but Nathan appeared to be unphased. I think he was just happy to be eating real food again. Chicken broth and frozen Pedialite popsicles will only get you so far in life. Unfortunately, Emma was not quite ready for real food even though she is the one that requested the mashed potatoes. Emma needed one more day to recover from the same pukey illness. Now 45 loads of laundry later we are all ready to join the real world again.