I loved it

This is the one and only picture I have of Brandon with the haircut I love. He only grew it out for me once, and I'm afraid I'll never get it again. It's a very sore subject at our house.....particularly for me.

I had a chance to go and "play" in my yard today. Playing for me means pulling weeds and digging in the dirt. By the time I was finished I was almost in tears. Silly I know, but I am just so thankful that in the year 2012 I have my own yard to do things with. I hope I never get to the point where I take my home and yard for granted. For me, it has been worth waiting five years and four months because.....I love my house so much!

Recently

This week has been a fun one for us. Earlier this week the weather was so nice I went out and weeded one of our flower beds. It actually is going to be our vegetable garden this year. We're holding off on doing a lot of new things to our yard until we have $$$ and a good idea of what we want to do. Luke LOVED being outside with me. He ate dirt, crawled all over the place, and spread weeds everywhere as I plucked them out of the ground. It was so much fun! I love, love, love having my own yard.

The one change we are doing this year is finishing off the fence in the backyard (thank you tax return). Hurray! The installation guys came on Wednesday to get started. Brandon and I are both so pleased with the results and we are so thankful we hired this job out. It is so labor intensive. I'm also glad we chose the company we did. Not only are they local, but we discovered that the installation supervisor lives right behind my parents in Payson. Fun, fun times.

This is Luke doing what he loves best. I typically have this cupboard tied shut with a rubber band (a super cheap way to baby proof your kitchen), but he somehow caught me when I had the rubber bands off.  He was completely stuck there and he wouldn't move forward and he was too scared to move backward. Being the good mother I am I rushed over to get the camera and started snapping pictures like crazy.

Brandon had Friday off from work this week so he decided to do a little project in the kitchen. He is replacing the caulking around the laminate counter top. I just couldn't resist snapping this picture of him having fun.

Finally this is a project Peter and I started today. We got this fabulous idea from my April edition of Martha Steward. We are working on coffee filter daffodils that we will put jelly beans into. Yummy! The only downside is the filters take forever to dry....so worth it though. Peter loved dipping the filters and the cleanup was so easy! The food colored water wiped up so easily - particularly the splashes Peter got all over the floor :-)

New

I got a new haircut this week. I wanted to try short, short hair......

This time last year

At this time last year I was trying to do as much of this as possible. My sweet sister snapped this shot while she was over taking care of my 2 year old. Oh, how I remember these awful days where sleep was a precious commodity. I am so very thankful that those nights are in the past and that now both of my boys sleep through the night.

Playtime with Peter

This week I've tried to spend more one-on-one time with Peter while Luke has been down for his daily nap. One day we made this:

Then, a few days later I was trying to keep Peter entertained while I made dinner. I realized I had one whole wheat tortilla left in the fridge and I knew Peter would have a blast with it. He is currently obsessed with Toy Story and this little guy can be seen on Toy Story 2. Peter loved playing with it until it all broke into pieces. Then he was super sad. I just might try to find another recipe with whole wheat tortillas so that Peter can have fun doing this again.

Chocolate Mousse Cheesecake

If you are interested in making the cheesecake this is the link that I found for the recipe. Seriously, this cake is amazing!

Yummy

For Valentine's day I decided to give Brandon food for his annual present because he loves food so much. Brandon found a delicious cheesecake recipe and I attempted to make it for him. This is the end result. I was actually surprised it turned out since it was such a complex recipe. We enjoyed it so much!

Poor Luke always gets the raw end of the deal. I wish I could tell him that it will get better, but I'm afraid it's going to get a lot worse before it gets better.

Pretzels

Peter and I decided that today should be a baking day. We used a recipe that we recently found in the  Friend magazine. This recipe makes some very delicious pretzels. The recipe was also super easy and so much fun! I think this recipe will become a family favorite. Peter thought it was so cool that I made a P just for him. The L is for Luke and the D for Daddy (although Peter told me his real name is Brandon).

The annual theme in Primary this year is Choose the Right. Peter asked me what the letters CTR stood for. When I told him it represents the words Choose the Right he started singing that hymn. It's one of his favorite songs right now. I was impressed with how he made that connection to these letters. It was a happy mommy moment.

Last week in Sharing Time we talked about Noah and the Ark. I drew this ark on my white board (so glad I decided to purchase my own years ago when I was at BYU) and took it to Primary with me. Then I got 12 sets of animals from the Dollar Store and the kids "marched" the animals to the ark. It was pretty fun even though it got super nosy with the Sr. Primary kids.

This week for Sharing Time we will be talking about a few scripture heroes who chose the right. The recommended outline said to give each child these and let them color them. Well, instead I decided to make paper bag puppets for each child in our ward (130 kids). I'm hoping it won't get too crazy when each child holds up their puppet as I tell them a story. Thank goodness for a wonderful older sister who came last night and spent 2 hours taping the heads and bodies onto the bags.

Finally, this is Luke showing off his new onesie that my Mom got him for his b-day. I love this brand of onesies (Babies-R-Us) and I'm so excited to have him in something new. Luke loves these toys (teddy bear and Tigger baby). This kid would play around the house all day long without my supervision if I let him. It really is so nice to have a baby that enjoys entertaining himself.

Lots of Playdough

Peter and I have been playing with this stuff almost everyday while Luke is taking his nap. Peter's favorite thing to do is make a mask for his face. LOL, this kid is so funny!