Fun in the Sprinkler

We're enjoying some great weather here... very warm, but not too hot... yet! Anyway, I set up the sprinkler last night in our backyard for the kids to enjoy while I cleaned up the house. Mary was away at a church activity. They had a blast!

Here's Nathan preparing to embark on their first voyage into the sprinkler. I can't get enough of his "cheeeeeeeeese" face whenever we tell him we're going to take a picture. Above is just another example. So I had swim trunks out to put on him in addition to the swim diaper, but come on, we're just in our backyard, why get the trunks wet/dirty?
Here is Sarah, the accomplice, pushing Nathan into the unknown. Nathan seems to think that he's in charge!
Once they start to get soaked, Sarah bails, which is an easier job from where she's at. Nathan on the other hand always kind of rolled out of the car, onto the ground and then took off running. Both of them just loving every second of it! They would then "sneak" into the sprinkler to get the car (again, Sarah gets the back and Nathan pushes the front, thus getting Nathan more soaked). They happily push the car out of the sprinkler and back onto the porch... wait a minute or two... and then they convince each other to do it again. It was so fun to be inside doing the dishes while watching them have so much fun together, I was in Daddy heaven! They play so well together (typically) and Nathan just adores his big sister!
After all the fun they enjoyed a good snack before bedtime: half a banana and half an apple each and a piece of toast with cinnamon and sugar... and plenty of water! Cute kids!

Yes, I Do Totally LOVE Casserolish Foods!

As has been mentioned in a recent comment somewhere on someone's blog (Leah's I think) from my sister, I am a total casserole person, through and through. Give me a meal and I will likely eat it. Leave several random items in the fridge as leftovers and I will figure out how to combine them. I mix foods and I always think they taste better together (just like the Jack Johnson song, Better Together, or something like that). Case in point: some leftover salmon from dinner two nights before and some leftover Quinoa from breakfast 2-3 days before. Put the two together, add two over-easy fried eggs, some salt, Coconut Oil, Braggs Amino Acids and viola, a breakfast made in my heaven. Here's a pic below if you don't believe me. I just woke up, peeked in the fridge and everything fell in place like it was meant to be. It was delish, and I may never have it again in the future, but hopefully I will. It was a serendipitous moment!

It's About Time!

Looked at the 10-DAY Forecast for Mountain Home.... the lowest forecast for the 10-days is listed at 79 and the highest at 90! The expected precipitation during that time: 0%. Oh, yeah!

I LOVE How Kids Think!

So on Sunday we were getting dinner going. Sarah was helping me cut some veggies and then frying them up. Then Mary started to get into the dreaded cutting of the onion. It was a pretty potent onion and Sarah wanted to help with that as well. So she went over and stood next to Mary while she went about the task, quickly. Mary finished and Sarah was complaining of the onion being "spicy" and hurting her eyes. She went away rubbing her eyes with her hands as Mary was saying "hurry and go wash your hands and don't touch your eyes!" Sarah emerged a few minutes later after washing her hands and looked like this...

.... so we naturally had to take a picture! Her response to our open-ended inquiry about why she had the glasses (we already were laughing and had an idea!!): "For the onions mom!" (with a "Duh" look on her face) Looks like the onions got the best of Mary!

But here's the funny thing. I was looking for a funny picture on Google Images to put to fill the gap that I wanted between the above text and the picture and when I searched for "onion eyes" it came up with, among other things, these:


They're called the "Onion Action Goggles" which apparently protect your eyes from the toxic vapors. Pretty funny that they actually have these out there and Sarah came out of her room with something similar. Who knew?

Sarah's Pre-School Graduation

We had Sarah's Pre-School Graduation last Friday afternoon. It was a fun time and the Pre-School leaders do a great job with the kids. The graduation was held at a local park with a little stage set-up. (don't know why this got underlined)


Here are the kids singing "skiddamarinkidinkidink, skiddamarinkidoo" or whatever it's called.

Here's Sarah getting her certificate and stuff from Mrs. Kennedy and Mrs. Pippin

After the grad ceremony they had a pool and pizza party (which is connected to the park) that was reserved for just the pre-school kids and their family. The kids scarfed down the pizza and then headed toward the toddler pool and had some fun. Again, it wasn't hot and it was a little breezy. I got in the water with the kids and ended up being the only adult in the toddler pool. Nathan drank a lot of the pool water and was shivering after about 5 minutes in the pool, but we were in there for about an hour. Nathan left the pool kicking and screaming. Mary never got any pics of us... she was occupied with Jane and a break from the kids for an adult conversation with a friend from church. I kept waiting for her to come over to the toddler area, to no avail. Finally I was done and the sun was no longer even up, so I got them out. Consequently, we didn't get any pics of the swimming part. Overall, it was a fun evening!

Sarah was pretty cute... while she was playing and making friends in the pool she asked another little girl if she lived in Mountain Home. When the girl replied "Yes", Sarah was so excited about the amazing coincidence. It was pretty funny!

Fire Dept Celebration

The Mountain Home Fire Dept turned one hundred and they had a celebration last Saturday with a little parade. It was pretty weak as parades go, but it was fun for the kids nonetheless. It probably only lasted 10-15 mins and it was filled with really loud, obnoxious sirens and stuff. But the kids enjoyed the noise and the cool big trucks and all the waving they did and the waves they received. A little candy was tossed their way from the fire trucks, which was nice. It was a cool, breezy morning, but at least it was sunny! Here are some pics

Here's a really old one that looks pretty cool!

Sarah and Nathan waving to the firefighters... the dalmation is actually fake :*(

Here's one of those cool new ones, I bet it's cool to see it in action.

It's kind of fun to be in a small town where these things are a really big deal and a big event given the comparative other things to do around here. The kids seemed to have a lot of fun!

Sarah's Testimony

So, I felt like this deserved it's own spot on here. Last Sunday when we blessed Jane was "Fast Sunday". This is typically on the first Sunday of every month. On this day we are asked to fast (abstain from food and water for 24 hours) and then contribute (voluntarily) the money that we would have spent on the two meals that we missed to the church to be designated for those in our congregation or elsewhere who are in need of assistance (called Fast Offerings). This is a worldwide standard for our church and allows us to contribute to helping people locally and around the world and it's pretty neat!

Anyway, on this Sunday there are no assigned speakers during our congregations meeting. Instead, anyone is allowed to go up and share their testimony. Our congregation seems to have a lot of children and teenagers that go up and share their testimonies without their parents. This has caught Sarah's attention on occasion and we've talked to her about this in Family Home Evenings and given her chances to share her testimony with us in that setting.

On this day, after Jane had been blessed, she started peppering Mary with questions about who could go up there, what they could say, if she could go up there, etc. A few minutes later Sarah pops up out of our row and heads up to the podium... beaming and folding her arms (so cute!). We were both a little curious how this would go but obviously were proud to see her up there with such a big grin on her face. She looked SO small up there! She sat down in one of the chairs behind the podium and waited for someone else to finish their testimony and then she marched up to the podium and got on the little stool that they have for kids. This is what we can remember about what she said: "HI my name is Sarah Hamm. I want to bear my testimony. I know Joseph Smith was a prophet. In the name of Jesus Christ, Amen". And she marched back down to our row, still beaming. We told her that she did a great job and that we were proud of her!

It was cute because one of her friends went up a short time later and shared her testimony and then her mom shared hers after that and mentioned that her daughter had wanted to come up because Sarah did... it was pretty cute!

A tidbit from today at church: we try to help Sarah think about Jesus Christ while the bread and water is passed (called sacrament) to the congregation. Today I listened to her think or talk to herself outloud during this time. This is what she said: "I know Jesus loves me during playtime. Jesus loves me during breakfast. Jesus loves me at 9 o'clock. Jesus loves me at lunchtime. Jesus loves me at 1:35." Pretty cute, she really does a great job during sacrament meeting being reverent! We're proud of our little girl and the relationship she is developing with her Savior!

Jane's Blessing Weekend

Mary has already posted some great pics of Jane in her blessing dress (see here). So I thought I'd give a little blurb about the weekend overall. It's amazing how much fun we had and time we enjoyed in about 48 hours exactly! My parents arrived on Friday early afternoon with my brother Robb and his two daughters, Hailey and Emma. We just enjoyed chatting that afternoon and had a yummy baked-potato bar for dinner. We got the kids to bed at a reasonable hour and then enjoyed playing Ticket to Ride: Europe. Mary's brother, Kris, arrived about 10 pm or so... just in time for some excellent homemade guacamole and homemade salsa with chips. That occupied everyone until about mid-night... along with some simple conversation. On Saturday, I made pancakes for willing and happy kiddos and then made the quinoa, avocado, cucumber, tomato, lime healthy breakfast for any willing adults... some enjoyed it, some ate the left-over pancakes. We then eventually got ready and headed out for the dunes (previously posted here) which, again, were a lot of fun!

After the dunes I caught the guys, me excluded :*( napping in various locations of the house (some quietly, some not so quietly).

Dad got the futon all to himself.
Robb got the bigger couch

Kris got the little couch

We then got our pool out and pumped up and threw the kids in the pool. I joined them for a while... but you know how that works... it looks nice, you start feeling a little hot, you decide to get on your swimsuit and you go to get in the water and it's like the water is way colder than you thought and the weather has suddenly made a sudden shift... anyway I stood in the pool for a while and allowed some of the kids to splash me a little. It really wasn't that warm so we definitely had some kids shivering (particularly Nathan) but it was an excuse for them to get in the pool and get some of that sand off of them... they didn't seem to mind!

I think at this point we went inside and finished prepping for dinner... which was DELISH... homemade Cafe Rio Salad. I think most would agree that it was super good and that Mary did an excellent job on the rice, meat and dressing in particular! This is now my request for my Father's Day meal... can't wait! After dinner, which was a little late, we sang Happy B-Day to Robb to celebrate his upcoming birthday (June 9th) with a delicious ice-cream cake made by my mom! This was one of the better one's that my mom has made in recent memory! We then got the kids down to bed.

Since I showered on Saturday, I also shaved, so I could look respectable for the blessing the next morning. Of course, I had to have some transition so I enjoyed this cut for the night... though I had already trimmed the length with buzzers at this point, so it wasn't quite as cool as it otherwise would've been.

Then, my dad, mom and I played Alhambra (another board game... mom won) while Mary mopped Kris and Robb up at Ticket to Ride: Switzerland (I've never beat her head-to-head in like 10+ tries!). We enjoyed the evening and got to bed a little earlier due to the difficult 8 AM CHURCH! Ahhhhhhhhh!

We, of course, wanted to be to church early which is no small feat with just our own little family... but with 6 adults and 4 (+ Jane) kids with one bathroom in the house... this seemed nearly impossible. But it worked... we were all at church 15 mins early! AMAZING! How? You ask? Me, Robb and Kris showered Saturday evening. Mary, Dad and Mom showered Sunday AM. I made pancakes for the kids (kids wolf these things down!) for breakfast. Everyone just did great. We really appreciated everyone's effort this early in the morning (this was 7 AM for those from WA!) to get to church so early. Mary had gone to church around 7:15 to nurse Jane there and have her ready for the blessing. I think that everyone got some semblance of breakfast too! Here is a pic of those who came and participated in the blessing after church. It would have been nicer if it was a little more close-up... oh well!

For lunch after church we had veggie pasta salad, which was delicious also. We enjoyed some more ice-cream cake. I played Alhambra again with my dad and Kris (I won this time) and then it was time for everyone to go. Sarah and Nathan were so sad to see their cousins go, but it was such a fun time. I'm so glad that it worked out for Robb to come with Hailey and Emma and that Kris made the trip up from Provo. Of course, my parents had the longest trip of everyone and it was so wonderful to have them here with us.

Opa holding his newest granddaughter! He complained a lot about "cramps" in his arms from holding her.

Sarah & Jane's Room (posted by Mary)

The girls' room is finished (meaning that my brother Kris brought me the vinyl lettering he cut for me several months ago but never quite managed to slip into the mail - love you Kris!). Some of you may be surprised that I went with a pink and chocolate brown color scheme - especially after I refused to put anything with a stitch of pink on Sarah when she was born - but what can I say - people change. I am mostly happy with the results, except I think it may be a little too busy and cluttered, but overall it is what I envisioned. Let me know what you think and thanks for your patience (Rebecca especially) ! Since I am a novice at blogging and have hijacked Jeff's blog for the day (sorry Jeff . . . ) I couldn't get more than 5 pictures to load - so I will do another posting following this one with close ups of some of the details.

One of the hardest things about decorating a room that functions for an almost 5 year-old and a baby - is finding coordinating twin and crib bedding. So I decided to sew my own pillows for Sarah's bed, curtains, and crib bedding. I had no idea when I selected my colors that it would be so difficult to find brown and pink fabrics that I liked. After searching many fabric stores in Boise and several in Utah while I was vi sting a friend - I finally located some online and happened to find a specialty quilt shop in Boise that carried a few. Sarah really wanted some stripes, as did I for the variety and contrast, so in the end I simply gave up and decided to cut and sew strips of fabric together until I had enough to make a small throw pillow - I DO NOT recommend this route to anyone.

I tried to use the fabrics and lettering to pull the room together. I think it works.
This is Jeff's old dresser that we acquired at marriage (or at least he took it from his parent's house). It used to have stenciled Winnie-the-Pooh characters on it from Sarah's old room so it took quite a bit of sanding and paint to get it back to a simple white - but I like the result. I spray painted the knobs chocolate brown to add some character - thank goodness for spray paint - I must have used 5 or 6 cans throughout the room - and probably saved 5 or 6 hours of painting. You'll notice Sarah's routine board which Jeff previously blogged about. I recommend this project for anyone who wants to encourage their child to be more responsible for their morning and evening routine.
Here is another angle . . . the casing around the closet used to be a sherbet green - YIKES - and it took forever to paint it . . . but I didn't really have much of a choice :)
I wanted to incorporate a little bit of a princess theme for Sarah's benefit, but I have qualms with princesses in general, so when my mom told me about a sign she saw in a antique shop that said "Daughters of a Heavenly King" I was sold. I still need to get some older antique looking hangers to replace the white plastic ones, and maybe another long sleeved dress so they match better - but it works for now.

More of the Girl's Room (posted by Mary)

Here are the other pictures that I couldn't get to load . . . I used ribbon to make these borders and painted the frames chocolate brown. I have selected the pictures of Sarah and Jane to put in the frames, but I cannot decide if I should print them in plain black and white or if I should add the sepia tone - any suggestions?
This is other component of the "princess theme" since we believe that being married in the temple makes it possible for us to receive the fullness of God's blessings, especially being able to be an eternal family -it is the place where "all dreams may come true".
Here is the blanket I made Jane - it is fairly large and very soft and cozy on both sides with a satin border.
This was a lot of work. I made the 2 flowered crib sheets and absolutely hated working with elastic - but it is done. Thankfully I managed to purchase a plain pink bumper and then I added a brown trim to the top - which should have been simple - but the thread kept breaking on my machine so I ended up stitching it by hand. Last but not least - I tore apart a solid pink ruffled crib skirt and turned it into a straight skirt with this border which matches the curtains and one of Sarah's pillows. It is hard to tell with the mattress up so high right now - but I made inverted pleats with the border fabric which are my favorite part. Hopefully it well be more noticeable once Jane is bigger and the skirt hangs below the crib railing.
Well . . . that's it! I hope you like it. Sarah seems pretty pleased and Jane is oblivious of course. The only snag so far is that Sarah was greatly anticipating sharing a room with her baby sister, but Jane seems to prefer her cozy baby swing and so she is sleeping in the living room so far - but that will change in time.

Baby Blessing Pictures (posted by Mary)

This past sunday Jeff (along with his dad, brother Robb, and Mary's brother Kris) gave Jane a beautiful baby blessing! I am sure that Jeff will want to comment on it - so for now I am simply posting some pictures I took afterwards of Jane in her blessing dress, which happens to be the same dress that I wore and Sarah too.

Isn't she darling?

I think that

these two

pictures are

so darling

with the

bonnet.

Sisters in love . . .

Snake in the Office

So the other day I walked into my office and was going about my own business doing some paperwork and such on the computer. After finishing up some stuff I went and got one of my clients for a session. After I pulled him out of his school class and went back into my office, I was shutting my door and right in the corner of my office behind the door on the floor was a small snake (probably about 16 inches long). This of course freaked me out, though I didn't let out any kind of a scream. Not being very familiar with the types of snakes we have in this area I wasn't going to touch the thing. So I called our maintenance guy and he came over and took it outside for me. I was a little more on-edge in that session and was more antsy that day and in the days that followed whenever I was sitting on a chair leaving my ankles exposed.

I'm not quite sure how the snake got in my office. I imagine it came through one of the outside doors and then crawled under my door and into my office. Or, it could have come through the heating/Air Conditioner ducts in the floor. Needless to say, no one expects to find a snake in their office!

Trip to Sand Dunes II

While some more family was in town for the weekend for Jane's baby blessing we made a trip out to the Sand Dunes in Bruneau again last Saturday (sorry if this is very repetitive, but there's not that much to do out here and the dunes are really fun!). It was a little more fun this time since there were more kids than just Sarah and Nathan which allowed for more fun moments and Sarah and Nathan were a little more excited about it and confident on the hills then they were last time. The weather was great... not much sun and just a few brief sprinkles. Also, Mary came along with Jane this time which also made it fun to be out there as a family. Those that came up for the weekend and made the trip out to the Dunes with our family were my parents; my brother (Robb) and his two girls: Hailey and Emma; and Mary's cool bro Kristopher. Kris made the trek up to the top of the really high dunes behind the lake and we just enjoyed snacks and then enjoyed one of the kid-sized dunes. Here are a bunch of pics, not in any particular order:

Here is a good fun pic of our little family of five at the base of the dunes the kids enjoyed playing on.
Here is my brother, Robb, and his two girls, Hailey and Emma.
Here is a close-up of little Jane fast asleep against Daddy's chest... what a sweetie!
Kris giving Nathan a ride up the dunes, it's so great to have bachelor uncles!
Here is a pic of Jane and I up on the top of the dune... and yes, Jane is comfortable!

Sarah took a fall while playing near the lake and skinned her knee which was the cause of much anguish and need of assistance and pity. Fortunately, she recovered and had a blast with her cousins on the dunes... much more active and confident then she was last time, which was great for everyone!
My wonderful mother... it was so great to have her here and enjoy some more time with her! Thanks so much for coming Mom!
My hip Dad! It was great to have him with us as well and I'm so glad that he made the trip also! Thanks so much for coming Dad!
Nathan with Uncle Kris in the background
Emma on her Daddy's lap for a free trip to the top!

A cute close-up of Sarah with Emma in the background at the bottom
Me and Jane (How do you like the beard? I shaved it the next morning so this is as good and scraggly as it gets!)

Opa giving Nathan a lift
Nathan down by the lake... Nice pic Mary!