What's this?!

I was out in the yard for a few minutes just looking at the flower beds thinking, "I am so freaking lazy, I still have all the dead crap from last year lying dead in the flower beds!" when I noticed a little something. A little yellow something. So I pulled back the dead crusty mess and discovered this...

Oh yes. This makes me happy. It's February, and the Crocus are out in full bloom! How beautiful is that?! That means Spring is right around the corner, and hopefully this dang cold weather will be gone soon. I know we still have a couple of months, and I can't plant the garden until mid-May, but I am getting excited!

I absolutely love to see flowers in my yard. It is one of the most rewarding things to me. Beautiful color splashed across the yard after months of nothing but brown ugliness. Sometimes white beauty, but mostly brown ugly.

Here's to Spring!

They're Ba-ack!

Already destroying my garden, the infamous grasshoppers are back and have begun their attack! I noticed them about 2 weeks ago when they were about 1/8 inch long and they are growing VERY rapidly! I got the yard sprayed and hopefully they are all going to be dead here in a few days. They better not destroy my garden this year, or else I'm gonna, uh, be really mad again, I guess. What can you do? Killing them one at a time by burning them, watching Dallas attack and eat them, sending the kids out to catch them, although very rewarding, is not too effective. Die grasshoppers, DIE!!!

Thanksgiving Point

I went to Thanksgiving Point with a couple of friends last week while the weather was still somewhat warm. We stayed there about 3 hours and had to pry the kids away from there when it was time to leave. They had a great time!

The hail destroyed a lot of the tulips earlier in the week, but it was still very beautiful.

Syd going for a ride on the rhino!
Jess digging in the sand!
Man just hanging out and being cute as ever!

Thanks ladies for a great afternoon! We had so much fun!

Outdoor fun

My kids and I have been LOVING the nice weather lately. We have spent a lot of time doing yard work and playing outside.

Syd came up with the idea to unhook the swings and attach them to the trampoline frame. They all had so much fun swinging upside down on them. Here is Jess trying it out. She was the first to go upside down.

Syd couldn't have her little sister show her up.
Kayman getting close. I couldn't watch this for too long, it made me so nervous he was going to fall and break his neck.
Syd added the second swing and grabbed her brother to relax in her "hammock."
Syd and Jess have been begging for a "water trampoline" for days! It's not warm enough yet, so I have said no...well mother nature provided where I wouldn't. Syd is convinced that Heavenly Father and her GGpa (who recently passed away) heard them talking about wanting a water trampoline so they made it rain! So sweet! I let them put their suits on and enjoy it, although it only lasted a few minutes before they were too cold.
On one of the first warm days we got lunchables and had a picnic outside. They loved it!
I can't wait for summer to be here! I have SO much work to do in the yard, but hopefully the kids will help a lot this summer. The girls are old enough to do some good weeding, and pick up the dog poop! :) Happy Spring!

Workin' in the dirt

I have spent the last few weeks in the yard doing lots of weeding and moving dirt.  The dirt out here where I live is pretty bad and needs lots of added nutrients each year.  I borrowed my parents truck and got 2 loads (4 yards) of compost from the land fill.  It is very inexpensive and it's great stuff.  Here is a picture of what the beds looked like before the compost was spread around...

And here are some shots afterward.  I love the dimension it creates.  The flowers really pop and it's much easier to keep the weeds under control.  Now I have a few bags of nutrimulch and steer manure to chop in and I will be done buying dirt for another year.  I never thought I would spend so much time and money on dirt!  It sure makes a difference and the yard has never looked better!

The lawn definitely needs some attention now, but here is the flower bed out front.  I LOVE spring!!!!

Spring Blossoms

Spring is my favorite time of the year.  Isn't it beautiful?  Everything begins to come to life and show its beauty.  The colors fill my flower beds and the grass begins to turn green.  After a long cold winter, nothing is better than watching my bulbs emerge out of the soil.

The fragrance this one puts out is amazing!  I would love to bottle it up and make my house smell like this year round.  It makes me happy!

All the different colors together are just beautiful.  I wish the blooms would last longer than they do, but soon I will fill the beds with different flowers to last through the summer.  
Did I mention that I LOVE spring?

Wheeler Farm

We took advantage of a beautiful day last week and went to Wheeler Farm with some friends.  The kids really enjoyed feeding the ducks and horses.  There were some cute baby animals there.  I just love spring!  We all have spring fever so bad!

Here are the girls with their friends Jackson, Sarah Kate, and Maren.

The girls were watching the ducks and being silly.
I was a little nervous that the ducks would get irritated that the girls were chasing them and start pecking at them, but Jess bit the dust before that could happen.
We are all very excited for summer to get here.  Farms, Parks and Zoos, here we come!

Family Day

We had a great day home with the family today.  It is conference weekend and we all spent the day together.  It was wonderful to hear the words of those that lead our church, and I really enjoyed the talks.  It is so rewarding to hear the kids come in the room when the hear the voice of our beloved Prophet and say, "Look mom, it's President Monson!"  The only down side to Conference weekend is that Syd is devastated that we can't go to church!  She broke down crying before bed because she said she wants to go to church anyway.  I told her nobody would be there, that everyone is home with their family watching conference, and she kept crying.  Poor thing!  I am glad she enjoys church and the feeling she gets there.  She is a very spiritual little girl.

I got quite a few fun pictures of the day.  Everyone had a lot of fun, and Andy and I even got a few projects done that we have been meaning to do for a while.

Here is Kayman playing on the floor and eating a banana.  His diet right now consists of bananas, fruit of any kind really, cereal, and spaghetti.  Everything else gets either spit out or thrown across the room.  Little stinker!

Syd and Kayman were having a great time with this doll stroller. 
Jessica's classical "I want my picture taken, but I'm too hyper!" face!
Kayman would spend all day outside if he could, he LOVES being outside!  I wasn't too thrilled about the snow, and I especially didn't want to go out in it.  Lucky for me, Syd loves to entertain her brother.  She volunteered to pull him around on the sled for a while, which he loved!
Although he wasn't too sure about all the gear he had to put on to go outside.  In this picture, Kayman is looking at Andy and yelling for help.  He was mad at me for putting all that junk on him, but I am sure he appreciated it once he got outside.  
Syd and Jess got a bit of Spring Fever!  They got their swim suits on and wanted a waterslide outside.  I told them it's too cold for a waterslide, but they didn't seem to mind the temperature.  They just stepped into their boots and made a waterslide with the snow instead of the hose.  They are CRAZY!!!


So, you can see here that they did have their coats and snow pants outside.  I'm not that bad of a mother.  I do send them out into the snow with a coat on, I just can't guarantee they will keep it on!

This photo just makes me happy.  I did have flowers in my yard a week ago, now they are all frozen and droopy, but this gives me hope for spring's return.  I can't wait for my tulips to bloom and get started on my garden!  I need some sun!