WINK WINK

Talea learned how to wink, and has been winking at us frequently since then.

Just like learning to ride a bike, Hyatt wanted to learn right along with Tilly. So he did.

TAKING OUT THE TRAILER TRASH

Problem: Living in a "trailer park" isn't my dream (though this trailer park looks more like a subdivision how it's set up), so I want to make my "house(?)" look a little less trailer-park-ish.

Solution: Get rid of the cheesy "trailer-park" cement scalloped border around the front flower bed. Create a lanscaped look instead.

It's well on it's way! I'm also digging out some planting beds 18" on each side of the walk since salting the walk ends up killing the grass on each side anyway. I'm researching salt-tolerant plants, so we'll see how it goes.

See, here is where I haven't dug it out yet, and you can see how the grass gets killed by the salt. Wish I had an edger!

Now to plant these bare patches of dirt!

My lawn is the most pathetic of the entire park! The grass is patchy and scraggly and torn up all over. Hyrum was very much against tilling, raking and replanting (after our dirt nightmare at our last place), so I went with the alternative.
First, I aerated my lawn. First time I've ever run an aerator...serious work out, and surprisingly cheap to rent!
Then, I hand-raked the entire lawn to get rid of some thatch, since they didn't have the kind of power rake I wanted available to rent...much to my hands' dismay since I'm sporting some nasty blisters and callouses now.
Next, I seeded it with a bag of seed I brought from Oregon (I was intending to seed the lawn back there).
Last, I fertilized it. Funny thing is, I can see where I fertilized now that it's been a week. It looks like I have a striped lawn! Guess I need to go back and fill in the stripes I missed. Oops!

My garden boxes are almost ready! I'm trying square foot gardening for the first time this year.

The girl I visit and teach gave me some chives, rhubarb plants (which I planted in the front flower bed, though they look pretty traumatized right now) and some raspberries so I got them in the ground and am feeling very farm-ish. Can't wait for it to be past the danger of frost!

MAKING A SHAMROCK MOLD

Remember the sponge I cut into the shape of a shamrock for St. Patrick's day? I covered it with grass seed, and Tilly was supposed to trim it once it grew. It was a school project, and it sounded fine....

until it molded.

It has met its fate in the garbage can.

BEST DENTIST

I love Talea's dentist. He's a pediatric dentist, so he's got everything geared for my kids. The waiting room has a play structure and a TV.

Everything is really beautiful and nicely decorated, yet has fun kid colors too.

Tilly gets nitrous,

so she's always comfortable, as evidenced by her position in the chair.

I think she just loves that she can watch TV on the ceiling with headphones while he's working on her.

She always amazes me at how brave she is when it comes to needles and doctors. She puts me to shame. She had 4 cavities to be filled since I wasn't the best at flossing, until recently, so he did 3 on one side a couple weeks ago and one on this side today. She was such a trooper. Only a slight crooked smile afterward!

DRIVE-IN SEASON

I haven't lived near a drive-in since they had one in Provo back in my college days. Rexburg has one, and Idaho Falls has two! I'm pretty excited about that! We can take our entire family to see two movies for less than the price of tickets for two at the Rex theater in town, and we don't disturb anyone!

Hyrum took out the back two benches in the van, put the couch cushions and pillows down for a bed, grabbed the down comforters, and we took off on our first entire-family movie adventure.

Last Song and Bounty Hunter were playing, and though they were just okay in my opinion, I was having a blast! It felt like camping! We turned the back of the van to the screen, opened the back doors and watched.

It was pretty darn cold, and we'd bring more sleeping bags next time, but it was so fun!

You can even make out just for fun so you can say you made out at a drive-in!

The kids watched a movie in the front on the lap top and then fell asleep on the front seats and the bed. We so want to support this theater so it stays open! It seems like a rarity to find a drive-in anymore.

And just so you know, we are official Idahoans now, since we just registered the van in Idaho and have Idaho plates.

CAKES OF BIRTHDAYS PAST

TALEA

1

Though I don't have a picture of the cake (we were visiting Utah for Maren's wedding, so the store made it), here is the evidence that there WAS one.

2

No cake. We were visiting Utah for Tana's wedding, and Tilly wanted donuts.

3

I know. Completely boring sheet-style cake. I was lucky I made one though! Better than the previous two!

4

My second attempt at a creative cake. A semi-disaster. Just don't look at the back or the inside!

5

Just a plain cake and cheesecake. Nothing fancy here.  I didn't forget though!

6

 I made bird nest cookies for the top of the cupcakes since her birthday theme was birds.

HYATT

1

Booooorrrriiiingggg. But it was my first birthday cake I made (I use the term "made" loosely since it came from a box) for any of my kids!

2

Worms crawling out of the dirt. It was my first attempt at a creative cake.

3

Oops, skipped a cake altogether! Went to a play place instead. I'm pretty sure we had some kind of chocolate goodness two days later though, evidenced by this:

4

Maren made a guilty-pleasure oreo cake.

Flexed my creative muscles and made a dragon cake (from rice krispies).

KIERSA

1 

Alice in Wonderland/heart cupcake tower, courtesy of Maren since I was coming home from the hospital that day with a brand new baby: Paisli

2

Cupcakes making up a turtle. (Last minute throw-together.) Good thing I had some leftover Christmas stocking candy lying around!

PAISLI

1

Made the cake that was pictured on the back of the cake box. That's not cheating, is it?

 How funny! I just realized while doing this post that the cake I made for Paisli and the cake Maren made for Kiersa are the same style of cake, and they were both for the girls' first birthdays!

FROM SNOW, TO BEDS, TO HAIR

On April 20th, it was almost 90 degrees, so I got out the kids' pool and filled it up. They played once, then a cold snap has been here since. Today, it actually snowed!

In other news: I made Talea's dream come true by switching their white sheets to red. She's in heaven.

In other news: I can put Kiersa's hair in a pony tail! Finally!

Okay, I won't lie to you. As soon as it was dry, most of it had fallen out. But for a minute, I could pretend her hair was actually growing!