Spring Has Sprung!

We had a long, intense winter.

Usually our snow melts and then we get more snow and then it melts and then we get more.

This year it never melted all the way until well into March! 

And then we got a little more.

We made the mistake on not mowing our lawn one last time in the fall, 

so it was a little longer going into winter.

Couple that with being buried under snow for months and our lawn looks awful!

In March we put down the first step of our IFA fertilizer 

and some humates too so hopefully it will green up quickly.

To try to help our grass fluff up a little, Sean has tried raking it.

We bought two arbors last month off Amazon.

Sean started putting them together this month although they're not in place yet.

Some of the plants in our milk jug green houses are growing.

Sean planted our cold weather crops.

Our bulbs started popping up as soon as the snow melted at the beginning of the month.

And now little bubs are appearing on our trees in the front yard.

I trimmed the bushes in front of our porch. And I'm getting rid of all the bark.

I'll be replacing it with the same red bark that we have around our trees.

Check out the beautiful sunset we had last night.

This picture isn't edited either.

This morning our daffodils made their first appearance.

Sean and I are both excited for all the yard projects that we're hoping to work on next month.

Spring Break and Grandma's Visit

Last week was spring break. My mom flew in the first night of the break 

and all of the kids were so excited to go pick her up at the airport.

That night after dinner, we made popcorn and watched a movie.

Afterward, the girls convinced Grandma to let them sleep with her.

They couldn't move all night but the girls thought sleeping with Grandma was the best.

(Yes my mom slept in the unfinished basement. We have a bed upstairs that she could use

 but she prefers the basement. The bed is bigger and it's nice and cool downstairs.)

While my mom was here we went swimming.

And we celebrated St. Patrick's Day.

My mom got to her me speak in Sacrament meeting too.

And we had our traditional corned beef and cabbage.

(Which my kids LOVED this year. They keep asking me to make it again.)

My mom brought each of the kids new coloring books and other little trinkets.

We went to the zoo one day.

I love this picture that I captured of my mom and Avery.

Eli was so excited to show us the Arabian Sand Cat. 

He had just done an animal report on it a few weeks prior.

No strollers are allowed in the small animal building and Ty loved the freedom of walking.

Ruby always asks for her picture with this otter statue.

After the zoo we went out to lunch and then headed downtown to the Church History Museum.

My mom and kids had never been.

My girls loved this pioneer little set up.

They could have spent hours there playing imaginary games.

Two summers ago my mom went to this very spot in the painting.

I believe that this is were the priesthood was restored.

This painting is what Lexi would be like as a pioneer girl.

Then we walked over to the temple just as Sean was getting done with work.

So he met us there. (We works just a few blocks from there.)

The bulbs are starting to bloom. It will look amazing in a few weeks. We'll have to go back.

Another day we went to the Discovery Gateway Children's Museum.

The kids had so much fun! I'm sure they would have been happy to stay there until it closed.

I think the water table might have been my kids favorite area. 

They played there for a long time and were so wet by the end but they loved every minute of it. 

Sean did too.

One the first official day of spring we did an Easter egg hunt. It was my mom's idea.

She wanted to do one since she wouldn't be here for Easter.

And the kids were so excited about it.

Ty had no clue what was going on and could care less about the eggs.

Ruby found the dirt egg this year.

We spent lots of time playing games and doing nails and enjoying the sunshine in the backyard.

We also watched the last four Harry Potter movies because my mom hadn't seen them yet.

Then we played our Harry Potter movie trivia game.

And the girls laughed at my mom when she couldn't answer very many questions.

I wish I had been better about getting one-on-one pictures of my mom with the kids.

We had a good visit with my mom and a fun spring break. It went by quickly.