The Iron Rod

Yesterday for "Family Home Evening" Laron went all-out and set us up an Iron Rod all around our backyard. Here's Skyler & Laron at the beginning & here's the last half of it, ending at

the Tree of Life:

Here's Skyler going under the trampoline to follow it...


Yeah! We made it to the tree with our family!  Here we are partaking of the white, delicious "fruit".
(a.k.a.= marshmellows!) Skyler LOVED it!

Kimberly loved it even more!
I think she just about sucked the marshmellow to death!

Some neighbors came over to bring us some cookies soon after we finished & they wanted to try out our Iron Rod as well...

Thanks Laron for such a fun FHE!

Kimberly's New Skill: Sitting Up!

Kimberly's been a little wobbily for a while now, but I think we can officially say that Kimberly can sit up on her own! Not to say that she still never face-plants when she's reaching for a faraway toy, but she's doing really well...

You're growing up SO fast on us Kimberly! You're already 7 months old now... Where has the time gone? I feel like with my second child, milestones are coming up so much quicker. Probably because I have another needy child to occupy my thoughts and actions, but still, I sometimes feel like I'm missing out on the little moments of watching you just grow-up. We sure love you more & more though the longer we get to know you & your sweet personality! :)

Skyler's 3rd Birthday!!!

Skyler's 3rd Birthday was today & boy was he ever excited! Laron & I decided that we would rather spend the day doing fun stuff with Skyler rather than just buying him presents, so our day was a busy one... And we even got my mom to watch Kimberly for part of the day so that it could just be him & us (since he doesn't get that one-on-one time with us quite as much anymore now that Kimberly's around!).

A couple weeks ago I asked Skyler what he wanted for his birthday, just curious to see what he'd say. He thought about it for a moment, then declared with a grin on his face, "Cupcakes!" I figured that was a present I could handle, so the very first item on our agenda today was making cupcakes. I hope Skyler will always be this easy to please for his future birthdays!

Then Skyler spent some good ol' quality time with his Daddy (which is probably his absolute favorite thing to do!), while I got Kimberly ready to go... They jumped on the tramp & played hide-and-seek & just had fun hanging out.

We then dropped off Kimberly & headed over to the movie theater to see "Toy Story 3!" Skyler had never been to a movie theater before & we figured that on a day all about him, this would be something extra special he would love. He was a little scared of the very loud big screen at first, but warmed up to it quickly.

We then headed over to the park to feed the ducks. Sometimes cheap, easy fun is the best fun of all...

We then sang Skyler "Happy Birthday" & let him open his two presents from us. Of course Skyler was super excited about this part of the day...

This was his face when he saw that it was a Buzz Lightyear toy! He immediantly said, "To infinity, & beyond!"

I think he likes it! When he started opening his second present, he said to Laron with a twinkle in his eye, "Maybe this is a Woody toy." Laron & I just looked at each other with our mouths open & enjoyed reading each other's minds: How did our kid get to be so smart?

And, of course, his second toy was a Woody toy. Even though he'd already figured it out, I'm still pretty sure he liked it. After that we spent the afternoon at the park playing on the playground & throwing the Aerobe. What fun.

That afternoon, Grandma & Papa Erickson came over to give him some presents. They, of course, gave him more presents than we did... I guess that's what Grandparents are for. Thanks Mom & Dad!

Skyler went through the bag & quickly set aside all the clothes, and went searching for the toys, which of course he had to immediately stop and play with.

Wow! What a spoiled boy! Skyler definitely is loved. We're grateful for a fun day & for the opportunity to make fun memories with our Skyler... And those we know are priceless.

Where did our garden go?

Well, after a few months of growing, we finally decided to really tackle the weeds in our garden... Laron's been hoeing between the rows off-and-on, but we've never really taken care of the weeds on the rows. So this week we finally figured it was about time...

Here's our lush, green garden BEFORE being weeded & the pitiful amount left over AFTERWARDS...

Where did our beautiful garden go?

We thought we had such a nice garden... until now.

But then we put in some cute little Marigold's to border the edge of our garden, which helped spruce things up a bit...  There's something about flowers that just makes me smile!

Well, we've still got half a garden to go...  I sure hope there's something left in there by the time we get done!  I guess we're still learning how to do all this gardening stuff.  Our parent's made it look SO easy!

Painting Projects

Our latest project was painting the trim and the front door of our house... And boy did it ever need it! As my mom so kindly pointed out today, "The front door was the eye-sore of our house!" I'm embarrassed to admit it, but she was totally right! It was one of those projects that we were going to do very first, but of course we got side-tracked with other projects instead. But it finally made it to the top of our "to-do" list...

I wish I had taken a BEFORE picture for you, but you'll just have to believe me when I say that it looks TONS better than it did before! (Other than those darn yellow 80's windows that I hate!) And I have to say, it took me two days to do between taking care of kids, but I think I did a pretty good job painting the front door, yellow windows and all.

"My Best Friend"

The other day Skyler said this: "Kimberly is my best friend. When she grows bigger, I'm going to hold her hands and jump on the trampoline with her."

I sure hope you always consider her your best friend...

A Day at the Zoo

Last week Laron had a work-party at the ZOO...

What a great place for a work party!

Skyler absolutely LOVED it, as did we all.

Here's a peak into our fun day:

Even Kimberly liked it!

What a cute family we have...

We are so blessed!

We had so much fun at the zoo!

Thanks for working for us Laron

so we can do fun things like this together...

Our 6-Year Anniversary!

Wow! Can you believe that Laron & I have now been married for 6 years? That really is amazing to me, but I sure wouldn't have it any other way! Our Anniversary was on Tuesday, but we ended up celebrating it on Monday (because of Laron's work schedule). Without boring you with all the details, we ended up going canoeing, went out to eat at Red Lobster, & then topped it off with watching a movie at the theater (I don't think we've done that since Skyler was born!). It sure was nice to go do something with just the two of us (which doesn't happen very often nowadays), but we still found ourselves thinking about our kids while we were out (like how much Skyler would have LOVED going canoeing & seeing all the wildlife with us!). So thanks Mom for watching the kids for us so we could go off and have a fun day together. And thanks Laron, for being my constant support & comfort, for being patient with me when I'm being a confusing female, for bringing fun & excitement into my life, for being the world's best daddy to our kids, and for falling in love with me all those years ago.

Skyler's Concoction

The other day I was just finishing making up some lunch when Skyler asked if he could help me. I explained to him that there wasn't really anything else he could do, but I could tell he was disappointed. So I told him that he could make up his very OWN soup... Skyler was pretty excited about that idea! First of all I just put some water in a pot for him & brought over the spice rack, and let him go to town adding a few shakes of this & that. Then he started going through the fridge and put a little of everything: lemon juice, yeast, Bacos, milk, noodles, milled flax seed, mustard...
At one point, Skyler put his face right down near his potfull of stuff & smelled his concoction. "How does it smell?", I asked him. "It smells bad," he said with a tinge of disgust on his face. But that didn't stop him... he just went back to the fridge for more ingredients. Skyler sure had fun making his own food, although he made quite a mess in the process too. I'm just glad he didn't want us to eat it afterwards...

Kimberly's Obsession

Kimberly's favorite thing to play with lately (or at least while I'm changing her diaper) is her wipes container. There is something about the crinkly wrapper that just has her fascinated. The other day I took it away from her before she had her full share of playing-time in & BOY did she let me know about it! It sure seems like the cheapest & funnest toys are the ones that aren't even "toys" at all...

Spending Money

Skyler got some money awhile ago in his Easter eggs & has been hanging onto it ever since. Today he finally decided that money is for spending, not just for saving. And what did he want to buy with it? Bananas. How could I say no to that? What a cute kid we've got!

Rachel Belle

Yesterday we went up to Logan and spent the day with my sister & her new baby girl, Rachel Belle. Skyler was excited to meet his new cousin & we practiced saying her name all the way up there. Finally we got there & Emily took Skyler over to see the baby. Skyler thoughtfully looked at her for a moment or two, and then honestly announced, "I like our baby better..." My heart stopped for a moment as I glanced over at Emily to see her reaction, but she just laughed. Oh, the honesty of children! It sure makes your kid look big though when you compare them to a newborn! Kimberly & Rachel were almost exactly the same size when they were born, but it's amazing what 6 months can do for an infant! Time sure flies when you're raising children! But Emily, although we are a little biased, we sure think your baby is cute too... Congrats!

"We're Raising Children"

What started out today as touching-up paint spots around the house, turned into an all day painting project... and I sure wasn't too eager about Laron letting Skyler help out. I knew he would love it, but I also knew it was just stress me out worrying about what thing he was going to get paint on first. After several close encounters, he got paint first on his shirt & then on our bathroom cabinetry. That's when I lost my patience... And after yelling at Skyler, dragging him from the room, & making him cry, that's also when I remembered reading this quote the other day:

The great baseball hero Harmon Killebrew once said, "My father used to play with my brother and me in the yard. Mother would come out and say, 'You're tearing up the grass!' 'We're not raising grass,' Dad would reply. 'We're raising boys.'"

We're not raising walls, or shirts, or bathroom cabinetry, I kept trying to tell myself. We're raising children. And although it sure is hard to remember sometimes, I know that raising my children well will be worth far more then all the perfectly painted walls in the world ever will. Now if only I could always remember that.

Sticky Fingers

After eating some leftover Smore's today, Skyler was, of course, all sticky. Next thing I knew, his fingers were in Kimberly's mouth & she was happily sucking them off for him. What a kind brother he is! Too bad he didn't ask Mom what she thought about the idea first... Oh well.

Memorial Day Camping Trip

We heard of a lot of people going camping over Memorial Day weekend, so we decided to have a camping trip of our own... INSIDE! It took tons less preparation, we didn't have to worry about the rain, and most importantly, Kimberly could sleep in her own crib! That sounded good to me!

Skyler got SOOOO excited once we started putting up the tent... He kept running around going, "Whoo Hoo! Whoo Hoo!" And then once it was up, he ran in and out of it time after time. Then he kept asking, "Can we go to bed now?" as if that's when the real fun would start! It obviously has been awhile since we've gone camping.

To make it even funner, we tried to have all the "fixins" of camping. Tin-foil dinners, smores, flashlights, camping chairs... Skyler's favorite was the smores.

Thanks Laron for playing along with my silly camping idea!

All in all, I think it was a pretty fun "camping trip"... It was all worth it for those first few minutes watching Skyler’s enthusiasm!