Graduation

Ben graduated with his masters in Industrial Design this morning. It was actually a pretty good ceremony - meaning it wasn't longer than 2 hours. Another reason it was good is because during the summer there aren't as many graduates so we were able to have it in the arena, not the football stadium. What's the difference? Air Conditioning!! I'm so proud of Ben for taking this leap and going back to school. He's done awesome these past 3 years. Now he has 2 bachelors and a masters degree - maybe he'll go back for a PhD. Why not? We're on a roll!

Ben is the one shaking hands with one of the professors.

Camping

Sorry, I haven't updated in a while, but we actually did something fun last weekend.  We went camping and it was awesome.  Especially since it's only 5 miles from our house.  Here are some pics!

Dayne helping Dad set up the tent.

 The kids going on a nature walk.  I didn't let them go very far - I was scared of poison ivy.

Dayne and Sam trying to "add" to this structure (whatever it is).

Ben got up with Stina in the middle of the night when she wouldn't go back to bed.  When I got up in the morning I found them asleep in the back of his car.  It was so cute!

The kids on another nature walk.  The found a really old water tower.  Nature sure does look industrious.

Chicken babysitting

Our friends are out of town this week so they've asked us to watch their little chickens while they're gone.  The kids are having a blast.  Ben saw them out playing with the chickens this morning and I think his heart is softening towards these cute little birds.  Just a few months ago they changed the law in our town so now you can have chickens in the city limits.  I have a feeling we soon might be getting a few of our own - as soon as I can build an industrial chicken tractor!

 Even Ben was getting in on the fun.

 Alexis always wants to hold the chickens.  (In fact, she's pestering me right now to go out and hold the chickens as I write.)

Stina, I think, is the one who has finally convinced Dad it's time to get our own chickens.

Week in Review

We had some fun times this week.  For Family Home Evening on Monday night we went to the university arboretum (Dad, you would love it) to feed the turtles and on Thursday we went up to the newly renovated temple in Atlanta.  And Friday we celebrated the beginning of watermelon season!!!

As you can see, we had unseasonable cold weather at the beginning of the week.  Thank goodness that's gone!!

I'm glad the temple is open again.  I was a little tired of driving all the way to Birmingham.  It was 1/2 hour longer and it didn't have all the amenities (Church Distribution, Costco, Trader Joes) right next to it.  I love Atlanta!!

Summer is here!

Mother's Day

Warning:  This post is long and sentimental . . .

 

Let me just preface this:  all I ever want for Mother’s Day is to be responsible for nothing.  I don’t really need a gift or anything else (Ben, if you’re reading this it would be wise to disregard the previous statement), I just want to sleep in a little and not have to worry about dinner. 

Mother’s Day came and I was looking forward to some welcome sleep when my husband woke me up and said he needed me to get the kids ready.  He was teaching Sunday school and something had happened to the first page of his lesson which required him to rewrite it before church started.  So guess who got to get up the baby, bathed her and got the rest of the kids ready for church?  (You really only get one guess.)  I also had to get the dinner into the crockpot so that dinner would be ready for that evening.  It was a crazy morning, but we managed to make it right before church started.  I’d be lying if I didn’t say that I was a little annoyed with how my Mother’s Day was starting out.

 

We have our sacrament meeting (worship service) after Sunday school in our congregation and I serve with the children in primary.  It just so happened that it was a little crazy in there that morning.  The children were going to sing the prelude music for sacrament meeting so at the end of primary they filed into the chapel to begin singing.  They sang about 5 or 6 songs as people came in and sat down.  As I was watching Alexis, Sam and Dayne singing the songs I had a moment of 100% pure joy.  I realized that even though my preconceived notions of how my day should go had not been fulfilled, I had everything I needed for Mother’s Day – my children singing their testimonies of the Savior.  My family could not have given me a better gift.  To top it off, as they were singing Stina kept pointing to Alexis and saying, “There’s Lexi.”  I felt it was my little miracle because the only words she’s said up until then were “doggie,” “Daddy,” and “Mama.”  I’m so blessed to have such a wonderful husband and 4 beautiful children.  Thanks for a great Mother’s Day!!

Auburn CityFest

This past weekend a few of my friends and I did a craft booth at the Auburn CityFest. It was a really fun experience, the weather was PERFECT and we had tons of stuff to sell. Alexis and her friend, Laura, joined us as well. Alexis sold earrings that she had made and Laura sold flower hair pieces she had made. The only thing that I made were nursing covers, but my friends had so many items that I really can't remember them all! My favorite part about the CityFest wasn't even the booth though - it was the hair extension I bought! Alexis and I now have a streak of colored hair that we've been sporting around this last week - her's is purple and mine is burgundy. I'll post a pic when I get one!

Nicole and Hannah taking a well deserved break after setting up the booth.  Thanks to Hannah for displaying my nursing covers!

Here are Alexis' earrings.  I don't know if you can see what's holding the earrings, but Ben designed them and laser cut them to look professional.  I loved it!

Laura and Alexis displaying their goods.  Do you see Laura's blue hair extension?  So, cute!!!!  (I don't know if you can see Alexis' purple one.)

My friend, Daisy, came to take her kids and my other kids around CityFest.  They had so much fun and Dayne got his face painted like a tiger.  Doesn't he look ferocious?

Easter

It always seems to take me a while to get things posted, so this is a bit late.  Here are a few pictures from Easter.  Usually I'm not a big fan of the Easter bunny/baskets because I have a real disdain for sugary candy (chocolate candy - high quality chocolate candy - is not in this category).  However this year I couldn't wait to put together the Easter baskets.  My friend showed me how to make these adorable skirts and I made Alexis and Stina matching skirts and matching head bands to go with it.  Ever since they've been finished I've been dying to give them to the girls. Also, I found some fruit sweetened gummy bears and jelly beans that I could put in their baskets (I'm sure I'll get some flack for that).  I know that sounds weird, but they were pretty good.

Atlanta Temple Open House

Sorry, not a whole lot of pictures.  I forgot to take the camera out of the car so I didn't get any pictures until we were on our way home.  Oh well, next time we go I'll take some pictures with the family in them.  Last Friday we all drove up to Atlanta to go through the newly renovated Atlanta Temple.  It was gorgeous, of course, and the kids really enjoyed it.  They have all volunteers doing the tours and this Saturday Ben gets to help out with the open house.  It's the last day of the open house so any of you around the area need to go and check it out if you haven't had a chance!

Also, when we were heading home there were quite a few tornado warnings around our area.  There was a storm moving up the freeway to greet us, but luckily none of that turned into anything dangerous.  A few hours after we toured the temple, a tour group had to hunker down in the Celestial room (the most beautiful room in the temple) while they waited out a tornado warning.  Lucky!  Well, as long as everyone was safe. . . ; )

Birmingham

Our family went up to Birmingham this Friday so we could go to the Birmingham Temple.  It's probably the last time we'll be going there because the Atlanta Temple will be open again in May and it's closer.  It was also probably the last time going to the Birmingham Zoo.  Our zoo membership is almost up and Sam doesn't have nearly as many appointments at the UAB anymore, so we probably won't be renewing it.  Hopefully where ever we end up will have a zoo close by.  It's the first time that Stina really enjoyed it.  I wish we had brought our other camera that did video because it was so much fun watching her watch the animals!

Stina and Dayne both had the birds nip at their fingers a bit.  Stina loved it! 

Stina looked like she had something to tell her Dad about the Sea Lions. 

The kids loved chasing the peahens around the zoo.  Stina kept trying to climb the fence.  I'm glad she didn't think to crawl under it.

Sam, my little scientist.  He wrote down all of the animals that we saw at the zoo in his journal.  I should start another blog with that boy's journal.  Hilarious!!!

This bird flew right up to Stina and was watching her.  Stina loved that the bird was so close . . . 

. . . until it nipped at her hand.  This bird had a little bit more bite than the last bird. 

I love my little girls!

Alexis' Quilt

I've been meaning to post this for a while.  I've got some pretty talented friends when it comes to sewing.  They've been inspiring me quite a bit, so I decided that I wanted to learn how to quilt.  Alexis and I decided to learn how to do it together because then she could use it for a Faith in God project to help her learn new talents. Anyway, it turned out to be easier than I thought and I already had a bunch of scraps so I didn't have to buy a lot of fabric.  Alexis did quite a bit of it - maybe I'll let her do the one for her brother next.

Lexi did a great job guiding the material.  Unfortunately, she's not tall enough to work the needle and the pedal so she has to do one or the other.  One day I'll have to see about getting a smaller table for her to sew on.

The finished product.  I love it and more importantly, she loves it!

Funny Story

On Wednesday we went to the book fair at the elementary school.  Sam bought the book "Diary of a Wimpy Kid" and when he opened up the book after we bought it he said, "Mom, somebody already wrote in this!"

Random Act of Kindness

On Wednesday I was feeling a bit under the weather.  I planned on staying home the whole day, but I had to go to the grocery store to get something for Sam's birthday.  As I was coming out of the grocery store I was walking a bit slowly with the kids (I had Stina and Dayne with me) just so that I wouldn't get too nauseous.  It also took me a little time to get the kids into their seat, but as I was starting to get into the car I noticed a woman that had just parked in front of me.  She motioned for me to hold on a moment and started to walk towards me (she looked completely harmless).  She handed me a bouquet of flowers and said, "I'm doing random acts of kindness and I would like to I give you these.  God bless you."  It was the sweetest thing and it really made my day.  I'm going to miss this town when we move.  The people here are soooooo friendly!

Portable Generator Design!!!

Hey everyone!  Ben is helping a class design portable generators -- and he could use your help!  If you'd click on the link below and answer some questions, it'd be a big help.  Thanks!!!

Click here for portable generator questions