Life seems to be busy with many various things lately so here's a very miscellaneous post.  First, my first born- she has made the A honor roll the last two trimesters.  Hooray!  I am very proud of her!  Take that you mean and nasty kindergarten teacher who said she should be held back and gave her nightmares about working too slow!
Next, my second born's science project:

Here's my son and his partner with their project & a photo of just the project.  They came up with this great idea of re-creating a miniature real volcano that causes a tsunami and testing the damage it does to a model city.  Brian and I decided while that would be awesome it would not be accomplishable with our time and means and steered them towards something else.  They were allowed to look up an experiment on the internet, but they came up with one on there own  and carried it out themselves- they tested running in different shoes and barefoot to see what they ran fastest in.  They also tested four other people.  They tested running in boots, dress shoes, sneakers, and barefoot.  I thought they did a great job.  I even made my son use a paper cutter for his labels and papers and showed him how to measure and center everything.  He stenciled the title himself too.  I was a proud mom.  I was also a slightly irritated mom to find out he didn't win anything!  Someone else got the "neatness" award and I thought, "You have got to be kidding me!"  I saw all the entries and their papers were jagged cut oblongs with elmer's glue bumps showing through. grrr.  One judge told Isaac his project would be more interesting if he and his friend would have tested different types of running shoes.  Like I am going to buy my kid and all of his test subjects a $100 pair of shoes, a $75 dollar pair of shoes, a fifty dollar pair of shoes, and $25 dollar pair of shoes! grr again.  I guess that's what happens when it's parent judges and each judge only judges 2 out of the 60+ projects and each project only gets judged by two different judges.  The winner?  A crystal growing project.  Seriously?  There were maybe 5 of those!  Oh well.  I am still happy they decided to do science projects and I am happy my son had a question and decided to figure it out instead of copying an idea off a science project website.
More randomness- this same son has his own blog now- life on mustafar.  You can check it out on my list of blogs I follow.  I want you to know I don't actually yell everything I say in red type with 5 exclamation points.
A while ago my third born snatched my camera without my knowledge and took a few shots.  I like seeing the world from his perspective- only not so much how big my butt is (I deleted that one).  A few of his pictures turned out pretty cool:

As for my fourth born, something I don't want to forget is for awhile, and sadly he doesn't do this anymore, if he liked something he would say, "Oh! I LOVE that!" or if he didn't like something he would say, "Wha? I don't love that" in a very grumpy voice.  My favorite example is a neighbor girl showed him a bird house she made and put in her tree.  He said, "OH!  I LOVE that birdhouse!  I love that birdhouse."  The opposite, if made something for dinner he didn't want to eat, "Wha? But I don't love that, Mom." (my response- you don't have to love it, you just have to eat it).  He is my most picky eater about trying anything new that isn't candy.  Have a nice day!

A few days ago, after the kids got home from school I made everyone hop in the car and go to the park/nature center where I took winter photos.  Here's some spring photos of sort of the same spots.
While looking at them you can think about Laura Ingall's Wilder in the Big Woods since there are a few places around here that are the famed Big Woods.  I'm not sure if this particular spot is technically in that category or not.  I might be one of the few non native Minnesotans to have been a huge Little House on the Prarie fan- I read every single book when I was in elementary school and dreamed and played I was Laura (and sometimes that I was a horse, but that's another blog).  I think I was Laura for Halloween three years in a row.  I should read thebooks again since I don't actually remember much from them anymore.   Enjoy the pics, and imagining me in braided pig tails. :)

Ironically after playing in the woods, when we opened our front door when we got home there was a tick on the wall inside our house.  :(

My husbands grandfather passed away on March 25, 2010 at the age of 91.  I hear he went out to do his regular chores on his little ranch and went in for a nap and never woke up.  Honestly, all I could think was, "Lucky!  I hope that's the way I go."  He lived a long, healthy and good life. 
I don't know him extremely well because we have lived so far away from family for so long (almost 11 of the nearly 15 years my husband and I have been married), and when we do go to Utah we don't usually make it up to Idaho.  We did happen to stop by on our way home from visiting family last summer.  We were able to visit with my husband's grandma and some aunts and uncles, but his grandpa was visiting Mexico.  That tells you something about him right there.
The first time I met him I loved him because I thought he looked a lot like my husband only older, and he was always joking around and happy as can be- just like my husband.  Also, one time we spent the night at my husband's grandparents and I woke up in the morning and whispered to my husband, "You know what sounds really good today?  Waffles"  We went in the kitchen and his grandpa said "What do you kids want for breakfast today?  I was thinking it seems like a good day for waffles, do you mind if I make you waffles?"  We were kindred spirits- he could tell when it was a waffle kind of day!  It's a small thing I know, but I thought it was cool.  Also, when we would visit, my husband's grandpa would sneak a 20 into my husbands hand and tell him I know you guys don't have a lot of money being young and still in college (I was 20 and my husband was 23 when we got married) so this is for you to go out for ice cream or something.  I know you'll want to use it towards bills or groceries, but you can't. This money isn't for that and make sure you use it to take your wife out."  I thought it was so sweet. :)
I heard from family that during the viewing the evening before (which we missed) the horses got out and were trotting up the street towards the church, and I think a neighbor and the police came and took the horses home.  I know that doesn't really fit with my blog, and it's not much of a story because I don't know all the details and could even be telling it wrong, but I wanted to throw it in because when else am I going to?
My husband's aunt mentioned a scripture in her talk at the funeral that I really liked.   She quoted Matthew 25:21, "Well done, thou good and faithful servant: thou hast been faithful over a few things, I will make thee ruler over many things: enter thou into the joy of thy lord." (I  italicized why I like it).
On the back of the funeral program was printed, "I have fought a good fight, I finished my course, I have kept the faith.  II Timothy 4:7"   I found that very fitting.

fleas, death, and vomit

Normally I don't title my posts, but this time I couldn't resist.  That title sums up our weekend before our spring break or the weekend before Easter.  A few Thursdays ago we took our adorable dog to the groomer for a haircut.  They said she had fleas.  I was horrified and panicked a little because in case I need to remind you, I really am not an animal person.  The groomer said our puppy probably had them a long time, like since we've had her long time- eww, and that I should check our carpets and under the sofa cushions, etc, etc.  I called my husband and cried because I know I am the slob of the neighborhood, but it is not for lack of trying  and even when I clean no one cares but me and everyone just throws stuff on the floor or smashes stuff into the walls or breaks stuff, and now with fleas it's a cycle that will never end! I can never win!  boo hoo sob sob I hung up, wiped my tears away and talked myself into being brave enough to look them up on the internet and decided it wasn't too bad- you can vacuum them and they will die with soap and water.  Okay, but still shaken up, I asked my neighbor about it who has had many pets in her life and she helped me out by calling the vet.  The vet said with the beautiful weather we are having, fleas and ticks are out early and just get the stuff you put on your dog and the fleas will die in a couple hours and get enough to put on once a month until fall.  Plus, the groomer said they gave her a bath that killed all the fleas (but it would cost extra).  I cleaned my entire main floor (the only place our puppy is allowed, including under the couch and cushions and behind the couch, and never saw any so I kind of have my doubts about her even having fleas, but I did catch her under our deck that morning where rabbits have hidden, so I think she got them there.  Before my husband came home he called to check on me, or I might have called him to update the situation and ask him to pick up stuff from the vet, and he let me know he got a call from his brother to let him know his grandpa passed away that day.  I felt kind of bad for throwing such a fit about fleas, and decided for sure I was going to skip pack meeting, plus now I had a better or easier to admit excuse than having fleas. My husband got home slightly earlier than normal, picked up dinner & the flea stuff (no, not at the same place, I know someone is thinking that would be a clever joke), and helped me move furniture so I could vacuum everything in between calls from his family.  Thank you for rescuing me.  The nice thing is my neighbor told me that when she told other people (her husband, another neighbor with a dog) she had to pick up flea and tick stuff they didn't even bat an eyelash, they just said "oh, it's that time of year?"  It helped me feel better.  And I don't want anyone to tell me or even think to yourself that I am a big baby or that dogs are disgusting and that's why you will never have one, or else I will regret ever posting it.  I don't want to regret it because I use my blog to document my life and I like to share the good and bad, because in the end it never really is that bad and is sometimes funny.
Friday my husband looked into going to the funeral and the two oldest kids had a little piano recital which was really nice.  Saturday we did laundry and some shopping, oh actually, my husband did the shopping and laundry because it was my art lessons Saturday and I did art lessons all day.  Finally that night we were able to discuss if we were all going to the funeral or not.  Tickets were $900 each to fly so my husband decided he wasn't going to fly even just him and since he was going to drive and the kids have school off we decided we might as well all go as long as long as we could find someone to take care of our dog.  Luckily my neighbors love me even if I have fleas (I don't really have fleas) and helped me out.  Then my youngest threw up so we debated again if we should go or not.  we decided to sleep on it.  Sunday morning my youngest threw up again and I stayed home from church and missed my next to youngest give the scripture in primary and my oldest give a talk in sacrament meeting but I hear they did a nice job and my youngest was jolly the whole day so we decided we would still go. 
Monday we left.  It was a long drive and my youngest threw up, but we were already half way there so we just hoped no one else would get sick.  No one did.  So there's the story of fleas, death, and vomit.

Wednesday was the funeral which was nice, but Thursday was the day that really made it all worth it.  My brother Ben put all our toothbrushes in jello- I have some great video of the kids eating the jello and my nephew licking the jello off my toothbrush and the look on his face is classic!  First shock when we tell him they are not new never been used toothbrushes, and then oh well we've already been eating the jello so we might as well keep eating.  Hilarious. (It was April Fool's Day) We also visited the bird refuge with my sister and her family, my mom, my husband's brothers and his dad.  Then we all (except Spencer) went out for lunch and back to my parents' house for dying eggs, an Easter egg hunt, and Easter dinner.  It was a lot of fun to see everyone, and sorry to those we didn't get to see.  Friday and Saturday we drove and drove again, so much that even when we stopped we still felt like we were moving.
Here's a handful of pics:

the recital

the haircut

a nebraska farmhouse and maybe my dreamhouse

with this view (the bird refuge)

my mom and sis reading about birds

and the eggs sideways (sorry) -the U is for Underdog, my egg dedicated to my husband and his old retro t-shirt that is my fav, and the green egg next to it is also dedicated to my husband.  It is sporting a hot dog design because he used to always say "HOT DOG!" and "you're such a doll" to his guy friends, and "I'll be there in two shakes of a bunny tail" and other sayings like that.  Trust me, he is one of the few that can pull off talking like that.