sneaky summer

Spring was shy this year...we barely hit 80 degrees all season,


and May 24th looked like this outside:

But in the last 2 weeks summer has arrived and plunged us straight into the sunny mid 90's. BOO, HISS. As we well know, I'm a cloudy sky girl and loved the extra thunderstorms we had--some that sent terrified boys running out of bed and into our arms to storm watch on the porch. Definitely one of my favorite things.

not my front yard

Anyhoo, another change of season means I'd better catch up on a few spring happenings:


#1: FISHER is a FOUR YEAR OLD!
May 16th was the big day! 4-yr old Fisher is really into logic-ing things out with his deep voice that makes him sound wise. He never wants to be left out of anything his big brothers are doing and has all sorts of battle scars to prove it. We love this warm-hearted kid and his sparkly smile. This seems like ages ago to me:

2006

2007

2008

2009 (visit)

2010

#2: A sad pet death.
Ask one of the little boys and they'll tell you that Lulu died and is in heaven with Jesus. And, a few times a week, Fisher will pray that Lulu will come back from being dead or some such variation. The best statement came from Logan's mouth a few nights ago at a Freedom Festival Patriotic Service--there was music and narration and in the middle of a particularly quiet moment when a blinded young veteran was relating a sad experience of comrade who had died, Logan loudly called out "Died?! Lulu died and he in heaven" in only the way a 2 1/2 year old can. The good news is that Pepper, our now solo gerbil, is as healthy as ever despite trying to chew her way out of her plastic cage, psychotic little thing. The other good news is that we'll always have the 'Lulu Dance'. It's pretty catchy.

#3: School's Out for Summer

Brayden has been home for a month and is keeping busy this summer with scouting, competitive soccer, friends, and helping me out with anything needed which means these guys

are getting a lot of this guy:

Today is (finally) the last day of school for Maddie and Connor before their loooong 3-week summer break...then it's back to new grades on July 26th, just in time for me to leave on pioneer trek!

Western Day

Portrait of me (obviously) drawn by Connor for the Mother's Day program

#4: Lots of Randoms like...

• Rick winning 3rd place in a race! It was a quick 2K called The Cookie Chaser (a girl scout sponsored event, the irony of the title not lost on us) and there were a mere 4 entries in Rick's age group, the 4th being the Utah Jazz Bear, but it was a proud victory nonetheless! We gotta start somewhere right? Next up, 5K.

• Fisher's preschool fieldtrip (Logan was terrified of the fire engine, but didn't mind petting a little lamb)

• A visit to the 'This is the Place State Park one chilly May day. It hailed gobstoppers on us a few moments later...

• Random home improvements, like me deciding to touch up the walls in our high traffic areas. Can you say can of worms? Holy moley. I ended up repainting the lower half of, well, pretty much the playroom, stairwell, hall and family room...

• Then I decided to reorganize home central. That's the easy way of saying I gathered, emptied, & discarded piles of stuff from the desk area, and random drawers & cupboards around the house and transformed it into something organized again. All this, from 3 separate places of the house

Became: functional desk & drawer space and...drumroll as the pictures scroll...


...hidden shelves. Tada! Two weeks of complete choas, but totally worth the organized bliss.

And now, I stop. 'Blogger' is having formatting ISSUES (note the inexplicable font size changes) and I'm ready to spontaneously combust. Also, my blogging screens (you know, the ones you type/edit a post in) suddenly turned TINY, like they are zoomed out, for no reason I can explain or fix. Seriously, what. is. wrong. I may never blog again. The end.