Who is the best visiting teacher?

Probably not me, but today I'm feeling like a pretty clever visiting teacher. I made these ice cream flower pots for the girls I visit teach. Here is how I made them:

I made a pan of brownies and cut out a circle to stick in the bottom of the (clean and brand new) flower pots. Then stick a straw in the brownie. I did two layers of softened ice cream with another layer of brownie in between. Cut off the straw at the level of the ice cream, and freeze. Stick a flower of your choice into the straw. Then top with smashed Oreo cookies (I used my blender to get it really fine like dirt). You can even add some gummy worms if you want (I didn't).

Before you get too impressed with me, I must admit I got this idea from another blog.

And for my family who may have no idea what visiting teaching is, in our church we are each assigned to look out for the welfare of one or two other women and their families. We are asked to make at least one visit a month to their house and share a short gospel message. Treats are just a bonus because most of us can't help ourselves every once in awhile. If anything happens to the family (surgery, childbirth, death, anything really) we organize and bring dinners to the people we visit teach. It's really a beautiful program.

A few of my favorite things.... this week

Dawson slept until 2:30...... pm- coming to a grand total of 16.5 hours of sleep last night. (Unfortunately I think it means he's sick.)

The fact that I think my self portrait looks like it belongs on a singles website, and Dave told me to post it and see how many flirts I got....... I didn't do it! Gosh! BTW I wasn't trying to look seductive, I was just laying on the couch shooting pictures of Bubba, remembered the self-portrait tag, turned the camera around and click! But you gotta love a husband who thinks you're hot enough to get flirts!

Henry's new sandals. I think they are delicious. I want to eat them up!



The 300+ flowers on my strawberry plants that make me think I'll be eating fresh strawberries when I get back from Mexico. I hope!

Tag

I almost never do tags, but I think this one is funny. It's a self-portrait tag. Take a picture of yourself and post it on your blog. There are only so many angles you can get when you're taking a picture of yourself.

I tag Jocee, Trisha, Tiffany, and Amber.

5 more days!

In five days I will be sitting on a lounge chair next to a gigantic pool, with a pina colada in my hand, surrounded by my very best babysitters (Oh yeah, and the family I love and Cherish of course!) with the hot Mexican sun beating down on my extremely covered pasty white self. Yes, it's time for the Aimee life celebration trip, and all the Biada's/Lows could definitely use it. Here are some things that we are going to do to remember Aimee:

-Release a big bunch of balloons (hopefully they'll reach her :)
-Eat some of her favorite foods especially the Italian foods she loved
-Have a special meal dedicated to her where we talk about some of our favorite memories of her


Here is Aimee holding my Bubba just a few weeks before she died.
And what would be a post without a picture of my Bubba- look at those blue eyes and of course my elf-like qualities. He looks so much like Kate and I. Put a bow on that head, and he looks just like my baby Kate.... oh yeah, I already did the bow thing. *blush*

Bear Lake Weekend

This weekend we planned on going up to the Bear Lake Cabin, but two things got in the way: weather and landscaping. We got a bunch of plants in the mail and decided to get our landscaping project done before going to Bear Lake. Sixteen hours later, (with both of us working) we finished our project. We removed the weeds, brought in dirt, covered with landscape fabric, covered with bark, and planted an entire flower bed in the front/side of our house. That's all we did. And it took forever. As much as I LOVE gardening and watching things grow, Dave and I just don't have that farming blood in us. We don't enjoy working all day outside with wheelbarrows, shovels, and rakes. Just not our thing! Hopefully the work we did will make it so we don't have to do a lot of work in the future. We are trying to create a "maintain" only yard except of course for my vegetable garden, which just so happens to have 22 tomato plants in it this year. We are just doing beans, onions, swiss chard, basil, cilantro, and a lot of tomatoes this year. Well, maybe I'll make room for a squash, we'll see.

So we finished late on Saturday night, and decided to go up to Bear Lake after we went to church. It was a short trip to Bear Lake, but it was really fun. We took the boys down to the beach and they chased after seagulls for an hour. They had so much fun. Then our friends, the Kirks, came up for the night and we played games, watched movies, stayed up until 3:00 am, and then lounged around in a tired, lazy stupor all day on Memorial Day. It was really fun.

I feel a little bit of guilt about ignoring Memorial Day. We've never had any family graves close enough to visit, so I've never really celebrated Memorial Day with my family. This year we do have graves, but I just didn't feel like driving all the way down to Bountiful to visit their graves when I knew they weren't there. The graves are there, but my sisters aren't. So I ignored it until 10:00 pm when I called my mom and got the recap of the day. It was kind of a tough day down there, and she assured me that I didn't want to be there anyway. Which made me feel guiltier, I should have been there for them. I'll try to pull myself together next year. But Aimee didn't want a grave anyway. Aimee and I always joked (long before we ever thought any of us would ever really die) that we didn't want a fancy deal when we died. We just wanted a Hefty Bag, and a nice backyard grave. So Aimee never really appreciated the whole cemetery, grave thing anyway, she won't mind if I ignore Memorial Day every one in awhile will she? I think Memorial Day is for the living, not the dead, and it doesn't do much for me. Now that I made myself look like a big jerk, I'll move on to the pictures of the cutest boys around.


Chasing the "boo-boos" which means birdies:
Always getting wetter than we want him to:

Striking a pose:
And the only boy who will sit still and look at the camera:
And isn't he cute?


p.s. Notice that dark tuft of hair on the top of his head. Ahem- my anonymous commenter! (My dad left an anonymous comment on my hair post that I didn't like, and I deleted it! I didn't find out for a few days that it was just him!)

How to lose a pound a week!

FISH-SITTING! Someone deranged gave my sister-in-law some fish for her wedding, and somehow I got chosen to fish-sit until they come back up here to get their wedding presents. The fish are located right next to my refrigerator, and every time I look at them I get nauseas. It really destroys my appetite, I think I've lost 2 pounds since we took over the fish. While it's good for the weight loss, I can't wait to give these fish to their rightful mother. For goodness sakes, I have three kids to feed and clean up after, I don't need any pets. The funny thing is, that their real "mom" hates fish too. So these fish just might be up for adoption.

Some reasons why I love being a mother-

Here's one:
Here is another:

Ooh, a favorite, I LOVE sharing my drinks with Dawson! (ewww):
Here's one- I found Isaac asleep on the bar stool:
(not pictured: the puddle of drool under his face)
And finally, my top three reasons I LOVE being a mother:

Happy Mother's Day to me! (And my Mom!)

We have had a whirlwind life lately with Natalie's wedding and all that went along with it. Every single day had a big event that I had to be prepared for in some way. By the time I realized it was Mother's Day this weekend, I was too tired to even think about gifts for our moms. ....... Then I started to develop a little bit of attitude (As I occasionally do) and realized that this was MY Mother's Day. Why should I do anything that causes me stress on MY Mother's Day? For a lot of years we have celebrated Mother's Day for our mothers, and this was my turn. So we each called our mothers to wish them a happy Mother's Day, and I kicked up my feet and enjoyed MY Mother's Day.

Dave said the funniest thing. He told me he would put Dawson to bed if I put Henry to bed. I told him I had put Henry to bed every night since he was born. He said this, "And it's things like that, that earn you this day once a year!" We both laughed really hard as it sounded really silly to work your tail off at a 24 hour a day, on call, unpaid job just for one day of the year that you have a little less responsibility. It's a good thing these kids make us so DANG happy, because they sure are a lot of work.

Dave allowed me to take a nice long Sunday nap, and kept his mouth shut as I didn't clean up almost all day. Instead, I spent the afternoon playing with my boys outside while Dave tended Henry. We had so much fun playing, jumping on the tramp, doing "cool tricks" (I showed off my backhandspring to Isaac who thought it was pretty cool), playing our made up game of "Get in here, Get outta here" which brings constant giggles from my boys that I could just eat right up, and swinging on our back porch swing playing "I Spy." So, I spent MY Mother's Day truly enjoying my motherhood, and it was great.
Here is my annual Mother's Day bouquet which the boys picked for me. Slim pickens this year since we had such a long, hard, winter. But lovely, nonetheless.

Henry's six month stats

26 inches- 40th %
14 lbs 4 oz- 5th %
Head- 20 %
Hair color- brown............................... just kidding, the doctor just told me to give him some Miracle grow for his hair, lucky he didn't even touch the color topic!

He's just a little guy!

Just to clear things up..........

Everyone who knows me knows:

I wanted all three of these boys SO badly
I love all three of these boys SO much

But everyone who knows me knows that my first two boys let me down in the hair department. I married a man with dark hair and blue eyes. I expected that my boys too would have dark hair and blue eyes. Isaac's hair is light brown, and Dawson, well, is totally blond.

It has come to my attention that many of you people out there (ahem Dad) can't seem to find the dark hues in Henry's extremely short and sparse hair. I've had quite a few comments on his hair looking "light." Let me just clarify.

His hair is most definitely NOT blond. It will most definitely be BROWN. And the next time I hear a comment otherwise, I will likely grab your arm and twist it back as far as I can until you are shouting, "OW, OW, please stop...... Okay, okay his hair is brown.... THE BOY HAS BROWN HAIR!!!!" After I release, I'll rub my hands together, and with a smug little chuckle I'll think to myself, "That's the last time they'll make THAT mistake!"

Have I made myself clear? :)

And here is a picture of my little BROWN haired cutie smiling even though he had a terrible fever/ear infection at the moment.

doesn't he look dark to you? Look at those deep brown eyebrows (What eyebrows?)

p.s. Dave's hair was very light as a baby, so I do have hope for Isaac and Henry. As for Daws, I don't know where he came from.

LOVE IS IN THE AIR!

Ahhhh, a spring wedding. So fun! I actually LOVE weddings. It's so fun for me to watch couples beginning a marriage. I love remembering my own wedding and the feelings I had that day. It makes me want to run off to Hawaii with Dave..... and then I remember we have 3 kids. But nonetheless, I love weddings.

Dave's sister Natalie is marrying Paul Walker this week. I am so excited for them. They are sickeningly all over each other, it makes me really hope that Dave and I weren't like that when we were engaged! I can't wait to see what life is like for them married, and what these next few years will bring for them. I think marriage is so fun, and I am so happy for them. This weekend we went to the temple as Natalie went for the first time. It was so special! Here are some pictures of the happy couple, the ring (Which Natalie LOVES!), and the beautiful bride.