Chicken Coop moving day!

The chicken coop is finally done!  Yahoo, no more stinky chickens in the garage.  It was a very heavy chicken coop because Jared sided it with some oak from some pallets he scrounged up.  So....being the engineer that he is, he had this brilliant idea to put wheels on it and tow it out to the garden with our neighbors tractor!  I have to admit I was skeptical at first, but it worked like a charm.  On Thursday we had a short break from the rain, so we decided to tow it out.  It went very smooth and we got it right into place.

 The kids love to go look at the chickens and torture them.  On Sunday we had corn on the cob for dinner, so we had the kids take the cobs out to feed to the chickens and we caught Mason chasing one of the chickens, trying to hit it with the corn cob.  (Now we know why our neighbors put a lock on their coop!)

 Hopefully the interest lasts. 

 Chubby Dallin, just after the tub.

 Millie is like the second mother!

 And....a very cute smiley guy all ready for church!  I love this age!

The Best Mother's Day Ever...

This year Mother's Day seemed extra special.  I'm not exactly sure why.  Maybe it's because I have 4 children now or maybe I'm really loving the ages of my kiddos, but whatever the reason I am glad to be a mother!
The day started with quiet whispers coming from my bedroom door.  "Garet, I think she's still asleep, so be quiet!"  Then footsteps patting over to my bedside.  "Hi mom, we made you breakfast in bed!".  It was so cute!  Soggy cold cereal, cold toast with strawberry jam, cut up strawberries (by the one and only Camille), and a glass of milk.  It was the best tasting soggy cereal in the whole world.  Then Jared got up and attempted to make Cream cheese blueberry muffins, only he forgot the baking powder and they were like chewy little leather muffins!  But to his benefit he has made these before and they were delicious.  So we pretended they were delicious anyway!  Next came the gifts and cards.  A new spatula and squirt bottles, hooray.  They may sound trite, but each has a story behind it!  They were the perfect gift.  Camille gave me a pansy in a homemade pot with a very sweet card and Garet made a card with a cute clothespin magnet.  My absolute favorite thing for the day was that I didn't do one dish or even step a foot into the kitchen.  Jared did it all.  We made it to church on time by the skin of our teeth.  Now Jared really knows how much work it is to get everyone ready and out the door:)

Our ward does something special for Mother's Day.  Jared thinks it's apostate, but I really enjoy it.  During Sunday school (which we have last), all the men take over the primary, nursery, and youth Sunday School classes and the bishopric serves us something yummy, while we sit and chat.  This year we had chocolate covered strawberry's.  I'm talkin' BIG strawberries with white, dark, milk chocolate.  Last year we got cheese cake.  It's great!
We went to my Mom and Dad's for dinner after church and he made the rolls we were assigned to bring.  It was awesome.  I loved all the hugs and kisses and I love you's from my sweet children.  I hope I can cherish all these mother's day's while my kids are young.  They are the best!

On another note....my mom and mother-in-law are the best examples I could ever ask for.  I wouldn't be the mother I am today if it weren't for their examples.  Mother's are awesome!

3 Months old

Baby Dallin is 3 months old now!  Wow, time flies!  He is such a sweet baby; we can't get enough of his chubby little self.  He weighs around 15 lbs now!

 I think he smiles and coos more than he cries. 

 He's just discovered his fists.

Sweet little baby.

Camille lost her other front tooth.  The dentist had to pull it out because her gum was all swollen and irritated.  She was pretty brave and now she is officially our toothless girl!



Our Spring Trip to Zions

Every year for Spring Break we like to go on a little trip with Jared's family.  This year we decided to wait until the end of April in hopes of having warmer weather....but, since we live in Utah and Spring can mean anywhere from 80 degrees to 30 degrees we had to change our plans a little.  We were supposed to go to Capitol Reef, but the weather was saying it was going to be super cold, so decided to go to Zions instead.  We headed down on Wednesday and stayed in a hotel in Cedar City, just for fun!  Jared has earned some free stays because he's been traveling so much for work, so we thought we'd take the kids.  They loved it and thought the pool was the best.  We had the entire thing to ourselves.

 Camille swimming like crazy!

 Mommy and Mason relaxing in the hot tub.

 Me and the kiddos.  True to Dallin form, he slept the entire time we swam:)

We finally made it to our camping spot just outside of Virgin along the river.  It was beautiful!

 Virgin has this little shop/petting zoo/frontier display, so we went and checked it out.

 They had some wierd llamas and Mason is keeping his distance.  One of them even spit on Jared!

The kids just playing.

 Uncle Jason and Aunt Melissa brought a pinata for the kids!!!  They had a blast.  Here is Hazel trying to hit it.  The first night they broke the head off, so we had to attach the head back on and do it again the second night!  They were sugared up, that's for sure.

 Mason taking a swing.

 Chowin' down on the good stuff.

Relaxing at camp.

 Garet and Hailee aka Two peas in a pod.

 Ava had a fettish with these stink bugs.  She would carry them around and put them in her bug catcher.  She had at least 5 or 6 of them and they were all "little Lukies" (Luke is her baby brother).

 Yuck!

 Mason, Dad, Garet, Hailee, and Hazel, getting ready to go hiking.

 Hiking Emerald Pools.  A one mile hike seems like eternity when you are hiking with 9 kids:)  But everyone survived, and Dallin slept the whole way.

 Riding the shuttle in Zions.

 Camille was quite the little hiker this year!  She kept wanting to go on a longer hike.  She especially loved carrying her very own camel pack, except when she had to share with Garet.

 Garet and Taylor

 Garet and Mason, they are getting to be good buddies.

 Hailee and Garet

 Grandma and Grandpa were such good sports and made the hikes while helping the kids.

 Garet and Grandpa.

It was a great trip!