Bare Feet.

May 17, 2014

When we moved in to our new home we knew that we would need to fix the backyard.  We let the horrible poky weeds grow.  We pulled some, we tried to kill some, we eventually let them die for winter.  Anytime we went outside we had to have our shoes on so the dry poky weeds wouldn't get in our feet.  We had a few times where we were pulling our ten or more from the kids' feet.  They preferred to play in the garden where there weren't any weeds, but that's where we had a few plants growing.  So this spring we decided it was time to get a lawn.  Willie's cousin Jamelle lives out here and her husband did us a huge favor.  He let us use his rototiller.  Willie went to work, tilling the backyard multiple times.  As you can see the yard wasn't all that great.

We ordered our sod paying .23 a sq. ft.  I write this down because it's fun to look back and see how prices may have changed.  The cost was less a month ago, but unfortunately we weren't ready to put the yard in.  A small blessing in the morning; we had asked for the sod to be delivered at 8am.  At 7:30 the sod was here on four pallets.  Willie and I didn't ask too many folks for help so we weren't really expecting much.  At about 7:40 another little miracle showed up with his wheel barrow.  Earl!  Willie calls him an ox.  In an hour he helped Willie to lay a whole pallet of sod.  It was still early enough that I was helping the kids to get ready for the day and have breakfast.  Once Earl went home to help his wife out then I went out to help Willie.  The kids were really good and they assisted in unrolling the sod.  

 The morning was perfect.  It was overcast and maybe in the high 40's or low 50's.  So when you worked it was just right.  The boys wore their coats to stay warm.

  Willie brought the sod out and I unrolled and placed it.  We worked until 11:30 when the wonderful Elders showed up.  This ended up being perfect because I was unable to help Willie.  The kids were hungry.

 

 We had to get water on the sod so it wouldn't dry out and we had three great helpers with that project.  We just had to make sure those who were working didn't get too wet.

 Watch out for this crazy boy.  Willie and I were unrolling and we just happened to get a little wet!  Willie yelled out 'Hey!', when we heard this outrageous laughter from Henry as he had uncontrolled possession of the water.  He was being wild and we just had to bust out laughing.

 Lincoln knew how to take care of the crazy kiddo.  He seriously had to be about 20 ft away from him.

 Lincoln was so happy to help with the wheel barrow.  He did great taking it back to the pile so Willie could bring in more.  Parker helped earlier in the day with this same task.

 Elder Hern and Parker worked great together.  

 Elder Chandler was always willing to listen to the kids, and continue to work hard.  We could never have come so far without our three angels of the day.  Thank you so much for all the help from Earl and the Elders!

 We ordered a little more sod, just in case.  Well the just in case turned out to be about 100 sq ft.  So we went out front to the sort of lawn we had and we tilled up some nasty stuff and laid down the good.  This added about two hours to our day.

 Can I just say that it was so much fun to watch the kids' reaction to the lawn.  Willie said that after about four rows had been laid, Lincoln was on the ground rolling.  They had their shoes off, they played in the water, the kids were so happy.

 

 By the end of the day it was about 4:00 and Earl came back.  He helped us to get this water barrel for rolling and flattening the bumpy areas.  He was kind to take any left over sod we had so he could patch up a few places that were hit hard by winter.  In Colorado you actually have to water your lawn in the winter.  Crazy!

 Can I just say that we are so excited to have green grass in our backyard where we can walk bare foot.  Oh how we LOVE it.

We finished up.  The menu called for BLT's, but we knew the kids wouldn't eat it and we had had a long day, so we went to Dion's for dinner.   At dinner we introduced a little game while we waited for our pizza; basically 20 questions to find out what animal we were thinking of.  Henry's was the best.  We kept asking is it black and white, or does it have legs, or does it have four legs.  He kept giving us different answers to every question we asked.  He had a smile on his face the whole time we were guessing.  Then we finally gave up and it happened to be a Panda Bear.  

Happy Easter 2014

Our Easter Bunny type festivities started on Friday.  During the week leading up to Easter Sunday we try to remember Jesus Christ and His life leading up to the crucifixion and His resurrection.  Friday night we colored Easter eggs.  The kids had fun using kool-aid this time around.  It worked out all right enough.   

 Lincoln did a great job writing his name on his Easter eggs.

 Caroline sure made a mess of the coloring, but she had fun doing it and that's what matters most.  Having fun making memories.

 We read 'Pete the Cat', the Easter version in Joy School and we had made bunny hats and learned how to help.  I really suggest this book, it's great.  Henry loved running around with his ears on.

 We don't have many Easter decorations.  I guess I just don't want too many 'Bunny' things I would rather have things to decorate with that reminded me of Jesus.  Anyway, I couldn't resist this $2 project.  It's a memory of my kids' footprints.  I thought it was so cute on Pinterest and it worked out pretty well.  I added a bit more after the picture but, it will help me to remember them when they are little.

 The Easter Bunny visited on Saturday morning.  Thank you Easter Bunny.  The kids loved all the playdough, and candy and the movie Dolphin Tale.

 Inside some of the eggs were money.  Caroline enjoyed putting her change in her piggy bank.

 Saturday afternoon we went to a neighborhood Easter egg hunt.  I am kind of biased but I think Caroline looked incredibly cute today.  I loved dressing her in cute clothes.  The boys all dressed themselves, so I had no say in dressing them.  Unfortunately I don't have pictures of Parker and Lincoln at the moment because they were in a different age group.  Henry didn't want to participate in his hunt so I just had pictures of Caroline.

 Easter Sunday.  I would love to say they took their ties off already, but they just won't wear ties anymore.  I don't fight it, but one day I really will.

 We invited our Brown cousins over.  We will be sad to see them leave in a few months, but we were happy to have them over for dinner and a family egg hunt.  It was great.  I love spending holidays with family, it's something that I really miss doing.

A Bit of February.

February 2014

We kept it pretty relaxed through Feb.  It was still chilly enough to stay indoors so we had fun in our own way.  We tried to take advantage of the warmer days.  In fact we had some days that were so cold Parker's school was canceled and so when it was 40 degrees outside we thought it felt wonderful and hardly anyone was wearing a jacket.    

 Yes I took pictures of Caroline as she was putting her hand in the nutella jar.  She had chocolate all over the place.  Some time she really likes to get in the powder chocolate mix and dump it into one of the boy's drinks.  She is really good at getting into things.

Willie is so good to read with all the kids.  I hope that they will always remember how great he is to give of his time to read, play games, go outside for baseball, playing Mario Kart with them, etc.  He is a great father.