spring break - week one

Our first week of Spring Break ended with a very sick baby. We thought he was teething for several days/nights but when his temperature hit 103.4, I called his doctor. Turns out he had an ear infection. Sad story!

He seemed to be doing better after antibiotics, but then he had signs of a perforated ear drum in the other ear (a nurse-friend of mine pointed that one out to me). I feel pretty bad that I wasn't clued into any of the symptoms of an ear infection, but Finn has only had one, ever. :(

So now Cedar has been started on the most expensive ear drops I've ever heard of! I'm still in shock that I had to pay $55 after insurance for 7.5 mL! Craziness! Each drop of that stuff must cost several dollars...I'm being VERY careful not to waste ANY! Ok, I think I'm done venting... Hopefully, Cedar will show quick signs of improvement.


Other sweet moments from the weekend:

"Helping" Dad make french toast

Cute new jammies from Stu & Jacque as a souvenir from Sun Valley (for watching their rats). :)

Love the matching hat!

And the bear on the bum...

...A Little Bear Bum
So cute! Thanks guys! :)

visits

On Thursday, we had a couple of visitors. Kenton's Papa John was in town & stopped by with Kevin to check out the progress on our coop (photos coming soon) & to see us, of course! :)


Four Generations

Then later, the Chase family came over for dinner & games. They were on Spring Break too & we thought it would be fun to get together & play on a week night. We really need to do it more often cause all of the kids played really well together.


Aaron, Tyler & Kenton playing Heroscape

Finn, Cohen & Sadie watched some shows, but I didn't catch of photo of the three of them. You can see the cage in the background - we were "rat-sitting" for our friends, Stu & Jacque, while they were out of town.

A quick cuddle from Cedar. Cedar really loves his cousin Sadie. It's pretty obvious by the way he smiles at her & reaches for her. So sweet. :)

With the rats & the chicks, we had quite the little zoo in our home. But it was very entertaining for everyone. I need to get some photos of us holding the chicks, cause they're just so cute. But I'm always too busy keeping the chicks safe from the small children to grab the camera. I'll try to get Kenton to take some photos soon! :)

welcome, babies!

We picked out our baby chicks this morning! They are so cute, we just love them!

We got 6 chicks: 3 Araucanas, 1 Black Australorp, 1 Silver Laced Wyandotte & 1 Blue Andalusian. Hopefully, they are all hens?? Their names are Stella, Hazel, Fern, Dorothy, Opal & Brunhilde. Guess which one Kenton got to name?? ;)

Both boys are super curious about them.

Finn's working on learning their names. Cedar's trying to be a good sport while experiencing major teething discomfort. :( Aside from the pain, he seems to enjoy watching the babies.

We have another week & a half left of our Spring Break & we're so happy to have that time to enjoy the chicks while they're little. What an adventure! :)

novruz

Carolyn & Jesse hosted the 2nd Annual Novruz Celebration: the Islamic New Year that is celebrated in Azerbaijan. They made some of their favorite foods (plov, cutlets, dolmas, & bahklava, I think) from their time in Azerbaijan for the Peace Corps.

We played the egg-cracking game. Stu's egg cracked my egg, but this year Helen won! :)

Then Jesse built a small fire for us to jump over.

Jesse, Brian, Carolyn, Jacque & Helen

Mama & Finn being silly, waiting for the fire to get big enough!

Our little family getting ready to help Finn jump over the fire.

Jump!
We all say "Ağırlıgım- uğurluğum bu odda qalsın!" before jumping over the fire & we do this 3 times. It means "All my troubles, fall in the fire" so we can start the New Year with a clean slate. We had a lot of fun guys! Thanks for another great Novruz!

visit with great grandparents

Nanalee & Papa Lew came from Utah to visit for a few days. We sure have missed them since they moved away! It was a lot of fun for our boys to have so much play time with them while they were visiting!

Nanalee is always up for playing games! Cedar wants to get involved too. :)

These last 3 photos show Cedar's latest trick - cruising around the ottoman. :)

On the move!

I took these photos with Outi's camera because I kept forgetting mine. But I am very thankful to have captured these memories. Finn & Cedar sure love their great grandparents! What a blessing to have them in our lives!

Made it to the other side...but Finn is blocking the path. :)

Thanks for visiting, Nanalee & Papa Lew! We hope to come out to Utah, sooner than later! :)

finished beds

Our garden area has been completed & is ready for planting!

I'm really happy with the finished results! The yard looks much better than it did just a month ago!

I really don't know much about landscaping, but I like all of the different colors & textures in the yard. Hopefully it'll look even better after the vegetables start growing & flowers begin to bloom. I'm also hoping we'll be able to slowly add more shrubs & flowers to the surrounding flower beds. Lots of ideas...but it all costs a lot. So for now, we will prepare for baby chicks in a few weeks! We've got a coop to build! :)

tyler's 10th birthday

For Tyler's 10th birthday, he wanted a Skate World party! I was pretty excited to experience roller skating with Finn. He *kind of* liked skating, but after one time around the rink with lots of help, he asked to take his skates off. :) I'm bummed cause I didn't get a photo of him skating, but I'm sure someone else did.


Griffin tried out skating too!

I think Ronan was at the perfect age for learning how to skate. He was pretty independent & wore his skates the whole time!

Sadie taking a break.

Cedar in his "skates". :)
He was so very tired & just getting a cold, but he enjoyed riding around in the stroller. Skate World hasn't changed a bit since I was there as a kid. Same carpet on the walls, same worn out rink, same skates...same music! I'm pretty sure they played some newer music too. ;) It didn't matter though; we all had a great time!

Gretchen & Me, strolling Griffin & Finn
I love that they let you take strollers onto the skating rink. It's a lot of fun for the younger kids & made it SO much easier for me to skate fast! :P

Tyler & his friends!

Giant birthday Chocolate Chip Cookie!

Becca & Aaron with their 10 year old! So crazy!

Sleepy Cedar

Kenton suggested that we should come back another time for a date! I had so much fun & we would probably have a blast skating without kids. :P I wanted to skate around the rink holding hands, but never got a chance... :)

Glow stick. :)

another weekend of progress

We got a lot done over the weekend & it feels great to look out & see the progress. I had to include some BEFORE photos (meaning: when we bought our house) this time because it makes me so happy to see what we started with! We are not exactly done, but there is definitely much improvement!

BEFORE
(November 2008)

Looking towards the area where we laid new bark mulch & placed raised beds.

Looking towards the back fence - totally overgrown with blackberry bushes & out of control shrubs.

The shed.


AFTER:

New bark, beds & newly shaped lawn. This photo matches up (kind of) with the first BEFORE photo.

Looking towards the back fence - no longer overgrown with blackberry bushes! Yay!

The shed.

Shrubs are a little more under control. Cute bench & turtle from Marylee & Lew. :) We are making plans to build a chicken coop & to raise some chickens in that back, grassy area! Can't wait to see our boys' faces when we get our baby chicks!

Another view of the beds.

Kenton washing out his parents' truck - we've gotten A LOT of use out of that truck this past month. It took us 6 cubic yards of bark mulch to cover our new flower beds! Thanks Kevin & Outi!

The result of busy parents paying too little attention to the 3 year old?? Apparently he lost his pants at some point. I think he was kicking the bark mulch & got slivers in his pants. :P You live & you learn!

And I planted my first seeds in the raised beds!
Yay for Romaine & Butter Crunch Lettuce! I've also started two varieties of peppers, some sunflowers, peppers & two varieties of tomatoes inside the garage. I have a little growing station set up & love checking on my seedlings. :)

I think I'm a little over excited about all this gardening stuff, but I have been thinking about it for over a year now! I really wanted to do this all last Spring but was quite pregnant & didn't think it would be great of me to make Kenton do all the work by himself. So yes, I am excited! It's great to see our plans in motion!