Mission Impossible

Your mission, if you chose to accept is to plant a garden with seven people helping and having fun! You will plant cantaloupe, honey dew melon, watermelon, corn, beans, potatoes, onions, tomatoes, rhubarb, peppers, carrots, and peas... we accepted the challenge for one of our family home evenings to plant our garden. Here are the results:

Garrett worked diligently on making a "Tepee" for our peas to grow on.
Kristie laminated seed packets as garden signs.
Corinne and I supervised and took pictures and planted a few seeds.
Andy meticulously planted the peppers, tomatoes, carrots, and rhubarb.

Staci planted the melons and then just couldn't resist making mud pies.

Before long she was covered with mud almost anywhere skin was showing.

Staci was so muddy that we decided to turn her into a fountain for the garden...okay, we just made her spray off with the hose before she came in the house. It was pretty cold. I think she took a 2 hour shower to warm-up when she got inside.

I think we had a pretty successful night... garden planted... Mission Complete.

Four Happy kids in our MADSEN

This was the first time we had four little ones in the MADSEN. It was fun to see their smiles

as they rode. Then Shelley got a ride from Chris and then they swapped places. I think Shelley might have had more fun than the kids. Andy has actually given Allana, Corinne, and me

a ride to church in it a couple times. We'll have to post a picture one of these days.

Our new Minivan...well, a bike that can seat 4 toddlers!

We sold "Hal" our mini-van that we bought from Jolynn and drove for 4 months. We decided to buy this bike made by a company in Salt Lake City.

Corinne fell asleep on our first bike ride in the Madsen, so we made her a bed in the back.
Cute girls! They love riding in this and I am getting in shape riding around the neighborhood. We've taken 2 shopping trips in it, been to the bank, and of course the park!

Spring in Utah

Allana has been the best helper whenever it snows. She jumps for joy and runs for her shovel.
These pictures are from April 16th when we had yet another week of snow. Hopefully we will still have fruit on our fruit trees. It has snowed after the apricot, cherry, and pear tree have blossomed.

These are our cherry blossoms covered in about 5 inches of snow. There was about 13 inches on the ground.

I think Allana is shocked to see me being silly, jumping in the snow.

My Best Ice Cream Cake Ever!

Allana decorated a cookie sheet with the extra whipping cream. Staci and Kristie helped me decorate the cake with the chocolate whipped cream. 
I was going to cut the cake into a superman sign shape, but I got too lazy. Round was easy.
Happy 17th Birthday, Garrett!

Having Garrett, Staci, and Kristie live with us has some perks. For example...now there are 3 more Birthdays to celebrate this year. That means I have 7 chances to attempt making birthday cakes this year!!! Garrett's cake was a chocolate ice cream cake, with 3 layers of chocolate cake and 2 layers of cookies n' cream ice cream. We decorated it with strawberries and chocolate whipped cream. It was my best Ice Cream cake so far... but this is only my second try.

Our Poopy Day

We ran out of diapers completely, so this morning when Andy changed Corinne we put her in a diaper doubler (kind of like a maxi pad) and a pair of Allana's underwear. After she wet in our diaper creation, I took her diaper off and then ran downstairs to switch the load of laundry from the washer to the dryer. As a mother I have to multi-task, right? and it was only going to take me a second to switch the laundry.. I was going to run back up and find something for Corinne to wear for a diaper as soon as I was done...

...As I began switching the loads I heard Allana frantically yelling, "MOTHER! MOTHER! There's poop on my floor! MOTHER! MOTHER! There's poop on my floor!" I ran back upstairs and took Corinne to the toilet. She did not want to be there, so after I wiped her bottom I took her with me to the bedroom to see the damage. Luckily the poop was just the right consistency that it stayed perfectly in a cylindrical shape, and didn't plop onto the carpet. I picked up the poop with some toilet paper and carried Corinne with me to the toilet explaining that poop belongs in the toilet. Then I said "Goodbye poop!" as I put it in the toilet and flushed it. Corinne waved to the poop and then as it flushed out of sight she blew a kiss too.

Since we were out of diapers this time Corinne ended up in a pull-up.

Happy 1st Birthday Corinne!

Corinne is so little that when she walks or stands it looks super cute! When Andy put Corinne down to walk back to our table, it seemed like everyone in the restaurant stopped to watch Corinne. Her cute hair-do is compliments of her dad.

Corinne's birthday cake didn't taste as good as Allana's did, but it looked pretty cool. It was a chocolate cake with strawberry ice cream between the layers and cookies and cream whipped cream on top.

I think Corinne's favorite part of her birthday was probably riding in the cart at Target. She got to ride in the seats that say they are for ages 2-5 years old. She was smiling and kicking the whole time.

Happy 3rd Birthday Allana

Allana said that her favorite part of her birthday was "blowing out the 3" candle on her cake. Though I made quite a mess making the cake it turned out pretty good. We made chocolate animals, candles, and words to decorate the cake. It tasted really good too. I made a chocolate butter cake with buttercream frosting. I don't usually like frosting, but this was soooo good!

"Mom I Love You."

Tonight as Allana was going to sleep I was lying down next to her. I had told her no more talking because it was time to go to sleep.

She was silent for a few seconds and then said, "Mom, I love you."

"I love you too, Allana."

Then before rolling over to go to sleep Allana leaned her head close to mine and quietly whispered in my ear, "When I was a baby, I used to like tomatoes."

Within a few minutes she was asleep.

We Met One of the Twelve Apostles Today

Andy was singing in the choir at stake conference today, so we arrived an hour before the meeting started. Corinne was in the baby bjorn and Allana was holding my hand walking through the crowded hallway with me. A familiar face was making his way through the crowd. It was Elder Dallin H. Oaks of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles.

Even though I had never met him before personally, we made eye contact and greeted each other. I was just going to continue passing by, but he stopped and offered his hand for a handshake. Then he bent down, patted Allana on the back and said hello to her.

It is always hard to describe feelings in words, but in that brief moment greeting Elder Oaks, I could see how he is a disciple of Christ. He was so genuine in his greeting and conveyed that he cared for us. It made me think of how our Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ know each of us individually. When we see them, we will recognize them and we will see how much they love us. They know our needs and empathize with us in our sorrows. I want to be more caring to people that I meet. I have a hard time forgetting myself and doing things for others, but that is something that I want to be better at... I guess I'll take it a day at a time and see if I can be a little kinder and a little more loving...