Update finally

The Saturday after finishing "the box" we filled it with sand and soil. It took many loads with a truck and a wheelbarrow.

Then we planted our Fall garden. Now we start watering, feeding, weeding, de-bugging, and praying.

Once the rain stops, I'll take a picture of how it's doing now, but ALL of our seeds have come up, which is very exciting. And we are BATTLING the bugs, they are relentless, they chew off whole stalks. Any suggestions? I've been using Organicide, and it seems to work, but it says to spray weekly, but they still eat in-between.

Brandon's "glasses"

A kind of recent picture of the belly.

Ashley just got some bows from Aunt Leah, and she and I just love them. Thanks Aunt Leah.

What does Chad do on his days off?

Let me preface this by saying that Chad has worked a grueling August at work. He would come home at midnight and get up and go again before 8. Then he would work Saturdays as well, poor guy. Chad finally gets a few days off for Labor day. He has company holidays on Friday and Monday. This is what Chad has done with his days off so far.

Friday he started by walking Tyler to school and going for a run. Then while I went and got some sod for the last un-sodded portion of the backyard, Chad used his little giant ladder to start cleaning out some gutters. He started to clean one of the gutters and a swarm of wasps comes out (Chad is VERY allergic to wasps). He jumps off the roof (literally), grabs a can of wasp spray and then climbs back up and kills them all and gets rid of their nest, and didn't get stung. He's so brave. After the gutters, he lays down all the sod. Then he starts working on my latest request, a tall raised garden bed.

The YMCA has been doing a big remodeling job and when I was leaving one day they were tossing all these 4'x4' floor pieces. So in typical "Peggy" (mom) fashion I ask if I can have them, borrow a truck and take some home. It seems kind of strange to put nice hardwood floors up as walls for a raised garden bed, but it'll look great and it was free.

First he measured and prepped.

Then he cut. Yeah for power tools.

The kids loved walking on these floors outside.

Dad, we almost wanted to make a kitchen table out of these ;) but we didn't have any tractor gears for a leg post (My dad made our kitchen table out of a gym floor - taken apart, sanded, glued together and finished - and a tractor gear for the leg - he's brilliant, click to see the table and all of his other amazing much more recent projects). Aren't Chads and Dads great?

Brandon had to be there for all of it.

We all helped to clear the ground. I spent about 3 hours removing a bush and then we had to do some leveling of our flower beds, the kids loved digging, they got it everywhere.

This is Brandon after a face-plant in the dirt, he was so funny.

Ashley "helping" Dad. We had to move a lot of the dirt from the original flower bed with a wheel-barrow, the kids loved it.

Tyler "helping" Dad.

Our first back-yard project was to remove a BIG oak tree. Every yard project we've had since then (french drain, sprinklers, sod and now raised bed), we've spent a lot of time running into and digging up MORE really big tree roots from that blasted tree. This one was the hardest of all I think. It was log size and had two off-shoots, it took hours of digging, hacking with an ax and sledge hammer, and finally a chain saw to get it out. Even the chainsaw could barely hack it. This wood was so hard it took a good 30 minutes of just chain-sawing to get this thing out. But...Chad won, the root has been removed!

And then we finally put up the box. Chad said that I can fill it, he's done :) Doesn't that look good enough to walk on?

Of course afterwards we had to do some partying. Here are the kids under their "tent."

We had some burgers, played in the play place at Burger King, had some chocolate shakes, and to top it all off, we had the best time watching BYU beat OU ranked #3. GO COUGARS!

That is what Chad has done on his first two days off. That is a little bit of why we love Chad.

Happy Birthday to Brandon

Brandon turned 2 and we had a little fun. In the morning he opened a couple of presents including a box of cocoa puffs. He loved them. Then at night we had cake and icecream. We let the kids decorate their own cupcakes, they loved it. Sprinkles galore.

We didn't actually eat the cake, it's in the fridge, but he had to have something besides cupcakes for his birthday (poor third child, there's never enough time to do it all for them like there was for the first).

We love Sundays, it's the one day that we really get to see dad (for a couple of hours).

I'd like to see you all make this face.

Ashley came out of the hallway all dressed for the sunny day outside. She cracks me up.

A funny video

When we went camping in our living room during the 4th of July, we had to have a mattress in the tent for the pregnant lady. And no child can resist playing on a mattress. So here's a little video of the kids falling on the mattress.

First day of First Grade

Tyler couldn't go to sleep last night, because he was so excited! Here he is all ready to go on his first day of school. We miss him...sniff...especially Ashley and I. Ashley because he's her best friend and me because it's way too quiet around here, and suddenly, I get to be a substitute-Tyler for Ashley to play with. Brandon better grow up quick!

Tyler and all the wanna-be school age children.

Bus #47. If Tyler sees the number 47 ANYWHERE he'll say "My Bus number!"

End of Summer Fun List

We've had a lot of fun this summer. Here's our top 5 list of things to do:

1. Library

2. Read books

3. Swim

4. Watch movies

5. Play with Tyler all day long

Here's a few end of summer pictures:

Ashley all washed up.

Ashley is going to miss Tyler so much when school starts.

Brandon was helping wash our car seats.

This is just a small example of what the kids have been doing indoors all summer long. They find THINGS, anything, and make families out of them and then role play for hours with them. A typical conversation will go like this, "Mommy, heeeeelp! He's capturing me!" "I'll save you son!" "Ok, now it's time to go to sleep." And on and on and on. They use spoons, towels, stuffed animals, cars etc. The following is a family of spoons.

Lot's of pictures

Well a quick note with a lot of pictures. I'm trying to make up for lost time.

We'll start with the most recent. Tyler turned SIX! We didn't get a picture with everyone but here are the first arrivers at his party. We had a good time.

I got a little crazy one day and I cut some bangs. I like them even though they never look as good as the first day.

All the rest of these pictures fall under the category "Crazy kids"

I think our kids are going to be snugglers for the rest of their lives.

Such a cute little grin.

If she can't sleep with real people then she may as well sleep with these guys.

I just found Brandon on our stairs sitting like this.

Starting them young.

Nothing like a good rain storm (with out lightning of course)

This is before we brushed his teeth ;)

These teeth crack me up. Brandon found them again and came up to me wearing them. (He does wear a shirt at least once a day I promise)

I don't know what I'm going to do when her hair stops being like this

This was a camping trip indoors. This is a slow shutter picture of Tyler, Ashley and Mom waving around glowsticks. The kids were loving it.

This is what happens when you put a boy in a girls swimming suit. Sorry Brandon.