Corey's family and Memorial day

Memorial Day is always so much fun, and steeped in Tradition... at least since 2006, when Mike and I as newlyweds started visiting the gravesites of my relatives in Idaho (wish we could visit Mike's as well). Corey and his family came up on Saturday before Memorial day to spend some time with Mor-mor. We enjoyed the weekend thoroughly, and the kids had a ball together. Kimball didn't want to eat his dinner on Sunday night and Elena was trying to persuade him to eat, I love this picture!
The kids enjoyed their home-made popsicles, as you can tell.

We had a long day of driving on Monday. We traveled from Pocatello to Shelley to Victor to Rigby to Idaho Falls and then back home to Pocatello. We left at 11:00 and got back at 8:30pm.

Here is a pic of my Uncle Jim's grave.

My Grandfather's grave

Kimball and Kelvin behind my great-grandparents
grave. My middle name comes from her:)

My aunt Teresa

We couldn't help but stop off at the corner of Hwy 26 and Hwy 31 in
Swan Valley for some square ice cream... thanks to my Grandma
for introducing that to us:)

A shot of the Snake River on a scenic outlook on Hwy 26

Traveling in style

We sat Brandon on my Mor-mor's grave and he was all smiles

We were headed towards IF after our long journey and I was bored, so I started singing a song and Kimball turned to me put is hand over my mouth and said "Please turn that sound off". I didn't know I was that bad!

Cousin Scott's grave

Uncle Steve's grave

Afterwards, we had a fun time at my Grandma's celebrating her birthday. The food was yummy, the company delightful, and the weather... well not so fun but we had to have s'mores anyways on my Grandpa's new fire pit. Mor-mor was a big help to Kimball
I love my Grandma, and was glad to celebrate her birthday with her. She is awesome!
And last but not least, here is our bruised and battered one year old. He had a rough few days which included falling off the slide face first into the rocks, falling on a rock in the back yard and gashing his face, 5 minutes later falling on the concrete in the driveway and scraping his knee, and that night at Grandma's, falling outside and gashing his lip open. At the end of the day he was tuckered, and fell asleep soon after we started our trip back home.

Can't wait for next years Memorial Day adventures!!!

Wedding bliss

Well, May was a great month, the month of weddings. My Uncle Brent had 2 of his children's weddings this month, Jared and Jessica on the 14th and then Natalie and Michael on the 28th. They were both married in the Idaho Falls Temple and had a luncheon and reception later in the evening. I attended Jared's wedding with my mother and then the other wedding events with my boys in tow as well, but did not have a camera... bummer. But, on the 28th I did have my camera in tow, and was able to catch some fun pictures amidst all the wedding events.

Daymi, my sister in-law, watched my children and my cousin Rebekah's 3 children (as well as having her own 3) at my Grandma's house while we went to the wedding. I snapped this picture after we got back. The kids were all hungry, and wanting to snack on anything they could find. Rebekah pulled out a snack and the kids all gathered round her... she commented that she felt like "The Queen of the Ducks"! Too funny. I couldn't help but snap a quick pic of that.

I enjoyed the reception, especially how wonderfully it smelled. The held it at the Rose Shop in Idaho Falls, it smelled like you were walking in a Rose Garden! The cake was lovely, Mike and I talked to the maker of the cake about our own experiences with fondant. The feathers in red and turqoise was a nice touch.

I liked this pic of my little Brandon with his great-grandparents. He and Kimball are so lucky to be able to spend time with and get to know their great-grandparents. What a precious gift for them!
If you don't think is a GORGEOUS quilt, then you are crazy! My grandmother made this for Natalie, it has the Idaho Falls temple sewed beautifully into the center, what a priceless creation to cherish.
This would be my silly 3 year old, who did not keep his eye off the fishes at the reception for one minute. He misplaced his shoes at one point and I asked him where they were. He dashed off towards the lobby area and retrieved his shoes... apparently they were a hindrance to his fish-watching endeavors.
Did I take pics of the happy couple? Well, I did, but I can't find it, whoops.

I promised... and will deliver!

So I said I would post pictures, are you ready? So if you were to pull up to our place, this is what you would see. Quaint! We don't share a driveway with our upstairs neighbor, which is nice.
Right across the road from us is a great view of a beautiful and spacious park, the boys love it. You can't tell from this picture, but the park is really deep and fairly wide. There is a small playground in the very back of the park, so we have a good little hike over the hilly terrain of the park when we go play.

When you walk in the front door this is what you see, our living/computer/music room:)

2nd shot of living room

3rd shot of living room

Our kitchen is a galley kitchen, narrow... but there is at least triple the amount of counter space and cupboard space than our last apartment. The laundry closet is the left in this pic, and is behind closed doors... cover the clutter!

2nd shot of Kitchen

Here is our backyard, walkout access to it from the kitchen. Although, right now we can't use it because our neighbor upstairs has a friend of hers sleeping in a tent for the next few weeks. This lady works nights and sleeps in the day... weird huh?
The bathroom is nothing to speak...
But I love the decorations that we have in our bathroom, too cute!


The kids playroom, and when we are to that point, it will be baby number 3's nursery:)
The boys room, they do really well sleeping in the same room. I catch Kimball in Brandon's crib on occasion.

2nd shot of Boys room

And last, is our room, nothing much but a bed, 2 bookshelves, and our chest of drawers, and what would a Master room be with out kids jumping on the bed and playing with things that they shouldn't be?

Newness

Ahhh, the joy of simple pleasures. You are probably asking yourself what am I talking about specifically... Let me share:

*Having 3 bedrooms, not just 2
*Not having to keep food storage under beds and in closets
*Having a coat closet... the days of throwing our coats on the couch and having 10 pairs of shoes stacked by the door are over
*Being able to mow the lawn (this is Mike's simple pleasure)
*Having a fenced backyard (the boys simple pleasure)
*A decent sized kitchen instead of a tiny kitchenette
*A linen closet in the bathroom
*A ceiling light in the living room
*Having a designated laundry closet (as compared to having them out in the open in our kitchen)

So I really want to take pictures of our new place, but you'll have to exercise a little bit of patience. I have not yet unpacked my camera, even though I am down to about 6 boxes. Besides that, I still have to set up one more room, which will happen when we get our new computer desk.

Brandon just woke up, which is my cue that my time is up for now... time to get busy playing!

Transitions

I feel like our family is in the middle of one great big transition... and its a bit unnerving that half of this "transition" is not set in stone. Let me explain... We are moving which is great, and is definitely a for sure thing. However, our summer job situation is not a sure thing, and we are trying so hard to get this figured out. So far Mike is tutoring 4 people this summer, but that is always variable. He is working on campus at the Tutoring center, giving him 8 hours of work a week. On top of that, we both give our life force (plasma) each week to bring in a few extra dollars, but these combined still don't pay our bills. So we've been filling out application after application in hopes that between the two of our combined efforts, one of us can land a temporary summer position to get us through to next fall. No luck quite yet, but we are still working at it every day.

Last weeks weather was variable, but it started off great! The weather was pristine and beautiful, we spent practically all last Monday (the 19th) outside. I dressed the boys in similar outfits, and couldn't resist snapping a few pictures of them as they played outside.

Brandon is getting so big!
He has been eating like a horse
and growing like a weed...

This is where Kimball could spend
his whole day, digging in the dirt!
P.S. That hat is no longer in his wardrobe,
as he let it fly out the window later that
afternoon while in the car:)

These two are the most
mischievous brothers

We were so excited about the weather, we decided to break out the grill. Mike had just started getting the charcoal heated up for the steaks when our good neighbor, Chad, invited our family to join theirs in a mini fishing trip. We gladly accepted, of course, and left our charcoal and steaks, heading off for a fun filled evening below the American Falls dam on the Snake River. The Baker's were so gracious to invite us and share their hotdogs and smores with us... Yumm!
The fishing was great as well, Mike caught this beautiful bass...
And Chad and Mike gutted it...
It was a great night!

I was going through my pics for this month and thought these three were cute.

Brandon working on his Math skills with Dad

Brother hug

I was taking an afternoon power nap on the floor
on Sunday, and Brandon decided to lay on my back

Adventuresome week!

Last week was a lot of fun for our family. We had visits from Corey and Daymi's family on Monday and Wednesday, and we also had Brianna and Kaydien up the whole week staying with my mom and with me some nights. Their parents, Matt and Katrina, and their little sis Madison joined them on the weekend. I had all the kids over at my house last Monday, a week ago, and here are some cute pictures that I snapped of each of them.

Kelvin running away from the storm troopers (Kimball and Kaydien)

Kimball chasing his cousins with a light sabre

Brianna told Kaydien to pose...

Little Abigail being a cheese!

Elena up in the tree

Brianna had a lot of fun climbing the tree as well

Later on that evening, we had an Easter egg hunt at Mor-Mor's house. It was like the kids version of Running of the Bulls, so cute but also so chaotic! Here is Kimball with his bag, searching for the few remaining Easter eggs.

And last, I had to post this pic of my Brandon!
I just love his smiles

Yesterday was an adventure for Mike and Matt. Matt had planned on putting a new roof on my Grandparents patio and when Mike caught wind of this, he really wanted to help. So he left with my mom shortly before Church yesterday, headed for Idaho Falls. He and Matt spent all day putting up the roof. I went up to IF after church was over and enjoyed dinner at my Grandma's house... the turkey was to DIE for. Unfortunately, I had to cut my trip short due to some pretty grumpy boys, one in particular though. I wish I had brought my camera but I spaced it on that one. Mike really enjoyed helping Matt and my Grandparents out.

But all good things come to an end, I woke up this morning with the bad case of a stomach bug and have spent all day trying to regain my strength. Bummer deal, especially on a Monday, which is always my busiest day of the week. I hope tomorrow dawns a brighter and more productive day for me.

The moving Day

We are moving, and it isn't April Fools anymore, so you can believe me... We are not moving to Southbend, IN like Mike would love to and so convincingly made it out to be yesterday! We are moving however, to a 3 bedroom apartment not too far from where we live now in Pocatello. It has a fully fenced yard and is right across the road from a Scardino Park, which is very beautiful, lots of trees, open space, a sledding hill, and swings! Anyways, we move on May 4th, and we are very excited about the upgrade to 3 bedrooms and a fully fenced play yard for the kiddos. I will post some pics when the time comes and we are moved in. To all my friends in our neighborhood, I hope we can stay in contact and still hang out occasionally!

Blessings...

I was able to attend an endowment session at the Idaho Falls Temple this morning at the crack of dawn. For once I was alert and awake through the entire session, and I gleaned from those two hours so much by way of gratitude. First of all to my Father in Heaven and my Savior, Jesus Christ. My thoughts were drawn to the movie "The Testaments" and the scenes where the savior experiences deep anguish of body and soul in the Garden of Gethsemane, on the Cross, and the torturous abuse in between. He suffered on behalf of millions and offers me a chance to repent and improve my life, using his atonement as an integral part of my life and spiritual progression. I am grateful to Him and to my Heavenly Father for sending His Son.

I am also very thankful for the scriptures, they are a balm to my soul when I most need it. Last week I finished reading the Book of Mormon. I've lost count of how many times I've read it, what precious doctrine and teachings are in every page. In finishing my reading, near the end of the book when the Nephite Nation is just about destroyed, it amazed me at the darkness and hopelessness they were living in, when just a short time prior they were living in the greatest light right after the Savior visited the America's. What a blessing it is to read about these ancient peoples who have gone before.

I also reflected greatly on the blessing of Temple worship and ordinances. It is a privilege to step inside the walls of the temple, to sit quietly in beautiful place where the noises and disruptions of the world are left outside. I tried to imagine for a second of my life without these quiet hours in the Lord's house, and I felt despair in the thought. In addition to the blessings I've already listed, how much more I have been given? A thoughtful husband, two sweet boys, the Gospel, a roof over my head, food to eat, an education, clothes to wear, extended family who love and support, friends who care... and the list could go on and on.

I look forward to this Easter and to General Conference this weekend (and its the weekend of the big move for my mom, into her apartment here in Poky!!). All blessings to be recognized and gratitude to share!