not nearly enough.

the other day, on a whim, i made a batch of cookies.

this is a rare occurrence at our house (sad, huh??  i really need to bake more...)

but from the pictures you can clearly see that avery was incredibly intrigued!

not only was she interested in watching them bake, but she has probably eaten more of those cookies than all of us combined :)  she sure has a sweet tooth!

we love the park.

summertime, in my opinion, is the greatest time of all the year.

pretty sure my kids agree with me.

when it's warm outside, we get to go to the park.

and the park, in their opinion, is the greatest place of all!

avery was especially in heaven since this was the first time we let her go exploring all by herself.

z is for zulie

i'm not sure if i've ever mentioned zulie here on the blog.

but in our home, everyone knows who she is.

meet zulie, avery's sidekick + bff:

 

this is the second zulie the zebra that we have owned.  her first was a christmas present from us, but we lost it the very next day :(  it wasn't until two months ago when max spotted another one at deseret book and we snatched her up.  as soon as her new zulie was in her arms, it was as if she had never left :)  when it's time for naps, as long as ave has her zulie + blankie, she's good to go!

paper or plastic

this is what happens when you leave paper bags lying around.

who knew they could be so incredibly entertaining???

ps. ave walks non-stop now!! when did my baby turn into a TODDLER?  

i'm dying.  she is too cute for words.

women's conference 2012

my dear sister alli, who moved to arizona just days after getting married, hitched a ride up to utah with a bunch of ladies from her ward who were going to women's conference.  she arrived late wednesday night and stayed until saturday morning.  it was a short + sweet trip but we had a fabulous time.  the kids and i stayed at my parents while alli was there + we all stayed up much too late trying to soak in every last minute.

thursday we attended women's conference!  it was a first for all of us and we had a great time!  thanks to my wonderful friends kim + keri i was able to make this happen.  it was a little crazier than planned since avery woke up that morning with a cough + runny nose but somehow we all survived :)  we were able to attend classes taught by sister beck's daughter, sister dalton + her daughter emi, and the richardson's.  i'm so grateful for opportunities like this to strengthen my testimony and my determination to be a better wife + mother.

friday afternoon was the annual spring festival at the elementary school by my parents.  i took max down there right before it ended and he got a pretty sweet balloon hat, which he loved!

and friday night, once the kids were in bed, we stayed up wayyyy too late talking, laughing, painting our nails, laughing some more, and enjoying our last night together.  since bri didn't want to paint his nails with us he sketched us while we painted :)  he is amazing!!  alli asked him to sketch a picture of her, tony, douglas (their dog) and it turned out great!  he is one talented guy.

we love you alli!! max is already asking when he gets to see you + tony next.  only a few more months.  can't wait!

a blank wall no longer

remember back when we finished the transformation of our kitchen??

well, i've finally finished the gallery wall i set out to do:

what do you think?? do you have a favorite print?  our family picture is a little outdated since i've completely chopped off my hair since then...but for now this is much better than a blank wall :)

print sources left to right:

+ manti temple print (where we tied the knot!)

+ you are my sunshine

+ family picture

+ sequined M (a DIY inspired by my friend katie!)

+ utah print (a copy-cat of q.a. designs.  i would have downloaded the free one on her site, but i wanted to customize the colors.)

+ plant from ikea (it's fake so i can't kill it...hah!)

+ framed cloud paper from dear lizzy (i'm using it for a menu board)

let's go fly a kite!

one of the toys max earned while potty training was a $2 winnie the pooh kite.  he's been dying to go fly it, but as crazy as it sounds, there just hasn't been enough wind lately (our little town is always windy!)  but today when we woke up, the trees were swaying back and forth, our neighbors wind chimes were ringing, and max and i both knew today was the day :)

max caught on quick and had such a fun time running around avery and keeping his kite up in the air.  when we came in a little while later for lunch, max said "mom flying kites is so fun!"  what a little cutie.

and i can't forget about this happy little lady!  she was content sitting in the grass, munching on her snacks, and watching the kite circle above her head.

of course, maybe she was so content because she knew once we went home she would be getting her favorite treat of all as of late: honey flavored greek yogurt :)

i'd say today has been a pretty good day :)

landscape design 101

saturday was a fulfilling day for us.  we laid sod!!!  the evolution of our yard has been a slow, on-going, seemingly never ending process (we started in march of 2011) but we are so pleased with how our yard looks today.  care to join me for a walk down memory lane??

at the end of march last year, we ripped out this cement pathway that led nowhere.  and got rid of the shack shed that was probably going to fall over any second anyways.

 

we took a huge load to the dump and then danny chopped down our gigantic, misshapen willow tree (whose roots were ruining the lawn and cement).

during april + may we built some grow boxes and planted our first garden!!

(while trying to ignore the dirt + weeds that were taking over the yard...)

we tolerated the yard, and tended our garden until october when we borrowed a lovely old tractor and attempted to till up all of the grass in preparation for our sprinkler system.  it didn't go over so well but danny and max sure had a good time driving it around the yard.

this is also when i started my landscape design class which i loved.  i learned so much and implemented everything i was taught into our current design.  i was able to create a master plan after looking at many professional plans + this is what we went off of when putting in sprinklers and sod.

in november, danny cut down our ugly, ugly pine tree (we promise we're not tree haters!  new trees will be planted soon.  see above plans.)

and then our good friend jamison brought over his nice new tractor and really tilled up our yard for us:

danny + max drove around our neighbor's 4-wheeler with a steel grate on back to try and level out the yard some more...

and then we got started on our sprinklers!!

danny and his dad ran electricity back to our shed.

we patched up our very sad looking columns on the front porch,

and rented a trencher to lay the pipes for our sprinklers.

we tore out our old driveway lanes, and formed up the front for a new driveway and front walk and had a great team of guys from our ward help us out with the job:

since we laid our cement in the middle of the winter, we kept it warm with cement blankets (i had no idea these existed until now!) 

and then, finally, we were ready to get the yard prepped for sod.  this brings us up to two weeks ago.  we hired a guy (whose name won't be mentioned because i would not recommend him...) who did a good job on what we actually needed him to do but had a very hard time listening + did a little bit of damage in the process (half of our stair railing, danny's shovel, and our water shut off pipe were all casualties!)  he smoothed it all out and got it in tip-top shape.  they also brought in some dark wood chips for our garden area.  doesn't it look beautiful?!? 

this last saturday was the BIG day.  we ordered sod from emerald turf in payson (who i would definitely recommend!) and we had a giant sod laying party (we laid a little under 3400 sq. ft!) many of danny's students showed up to help.  we got the job done in a little under 2 hours and afterwards we grilled up some hot dogs (complete with some copy-cat j.dawg sauce!) and had fresh watermelon, chips, and drinks.  a few of danny's older students work for the city during the summer so they took the lead and did a fantastic job!  we couldn't have done it without them.  max even helped out too, carrying little strips in his wheelbarrow :)

i can't explain how happy i am with our new yard and i am so excited to enjoy the fruits of our labors during the upcoming summer months.  we are putting in a patio within the next few weeks and will finish up our landscaping when we can find some great deals.  in the mean time, i will keep smiling every time i hear the sprinklers come on to water our beautiful green grass!!