Got teeth?

I'm a week or so late on the four-month picture of Ammon - but I love these. I'm 99% sure he's working on teeth now since he looks like this all the time. The other day he had his whole fist in his mouth and he wasn't even gagging!

Picture of Contentment

So as I was doing a few things on the computer today I looked over at Ella and saw a true picture of contentment. She's wearing her fashionable new bike helmet (albiet crooked), wearing winter clothes even though it's 90 degrees outside, eating a popsicle, and bouncing away in Ammon's bouncer. I couldn't resist grabbing the camera. Don't you ever miss the carefree days of being a kid? And, for the benefit of my family, do you notice anything funny about Ella's toes? They are curled like mine always are!

Coming Along

So the house framing is nearly complete...

We took the kids over and let them run around inside and they instantly started playing "castle" so I guess that's a good sign. We let them pick out which bedrooms they would get, and explained where everything would be. We were happy to discover that we'll have a great view of the mountains out the front windows. Right now we are trying to finalize colors for the exterior which is proving to be more difficult than we thought. We will have a full finished basement below what you see here...a total of about 3000 square feet which is such an improvement over what we had before so we are really excited.

Mother's Day

So I'm a little late posting about Mother's Day because, well, let's just say it wasn't what I expected this year. I guess I should have known when Mark returned home from his soccer game Saturday night with a sprained ankle. I don't think either of us realized how bad it was until Sunday morning when he woke up and about fell over when he tried to walk on it. I was wishing all my training in sports medicine would come right back to me...but ten years of non-use makes for a cloudy memory. Anyway, as I was taking Mark breakfast in bed that morning I'm thinking to myself, "What's wrong with this picture?" Needless to say my expectations for a day of rest and relaxation (with Mark handling the majority of the kids' needs) went right out the window! He ended up on crutches and I ended up having five kids!

I also was asked to sing in Relief Society that day - so I had to practice for that and naturally was a little nervous for that. The hardest thing about it was that it was a song called "My Mother's Love" and I had to try so hard not to think of my own mom or I knew I would lose it. So I had to be totally detatched emotionally when singing - which doesn't necessarily make for a meaningful performance. I miss my mom like crazy. I can't believe it's been two years since her passing...it seems like an eternity and I still am trying to understand how she was needed more elsewhere when I still need her so much...

Mark did give me an awesome gift - a "coffee table" hardcover book he had published full of our favorite family pictures...thanks honey, I love it! I was happy we got to spend time with both of our families - dinner with Mark's parents and dessert with all my siblings & their kids. It's so fun to be with everyone and I'm so grateful we have good relationships!

To top off the night we stopped at Urgent Care on the way home to have Mark's foot X-rayed. After all the horror stories we'd heard all day we needed peace of mind that his ankle wasn't fractured. Of course it took forever, and since it wasn't a planned stop I wasn't prepared with things for the kids to do. At the end of a long day, 9:00 - 10:30 on a Sunday night goes by so slow in a waiting room with tired kids! At least we found out it's just a sprain...

I told Mark that I get a re-do for Mother's Day (and he definitely agreed) - so this year Father's day is all mine!

Progess on the House

Here is our house in the beginning phases of framing - taken Sunday... Taken Monday...
it's hard to tell really what this if you haven't seen our plans, but for us it is so exciting! We are happy that we have a nice big tree in our backyard already (especially since it's not a poplar!)

My Brother

So, I just found out my brother has this blog (where have I been?) and I'd like you all to check it out...his books & cd's are really awesome. They are targeted to youth, but all of us can definitely learn from them. He is a speaker who is really entertaining but also very spiritual - you'll be both laughing and crying. So yeah, I'm a little proud of my big bro...

http://www.andrewhortonsblog.blogspot.com/

Preschool Graduation

Hooray for Holly! Today she officially graduated from preschool. She started out the year at one preschool then switched to another when we moved. She loved them both and was fortunate to have great teachers & fun friends. She will miss going to preschool, but is surely looking forward to Kindergarten! You can see from the pictures that she likes to pose for the camera, and she also likes to "perform" (aka goofball) in front of a crowd! :-)

Cinco de Mayo

Ammon says Hooray for parties! We had a fun dinner with Mark's family to celebrate Cinco de Mayo, complete with Mexican food, flan, and of course, a pinata!

While the kids were busy gathering their stash, Heidi had a great time whacking the rest of the head from the pinata

My Dream Kitchen

So I found this picture of what I'm hoping my new kitchen style will be like...isn't it cute? I'm not sure about the wall color yet, but I just love these cabinets, the hood, and the pendant lights. We also will have light hardwood similar to this in the dining room. I actually won't have a window seat in the kitchen (darn!) but would like to have one similar to this in the office where kids can come sit and read or whatever while I'm working in there. Framing should start on our house this week...hooray!