Just Life

I call up an old friend on the phone--you know, the one I love TONS but don't talk to nearly enough. She asks me what's been going on with me. And for the life of me, I can't think of anything. Surely things are happening everyday, but I can't think of anything exciting to tell my friend. I mean, I only have a few minutes, surely this phone call merits something spectacular. So I say, "Well, lots of things are going on, but they're pretty boring. But we're doing great!" Here's some bits of the boring stuff, as well as some not so boring stuff that's been going on around our house: 

April 26: Michael, Rachel, and I attended our first tulip festival at Thanksgiving Point with Lea, Danny, and Skyler. The weather was beautiful. My arms and neck got really sunburned, and Rachel got her first sunburn ever--on the top of her little hand. 

 Michael slipped while I was taking pictures of him and Danny here. Thankfully, he caught himself. I was so grateful! He got a nice scrape on his chin, but other than that, he was okay. It still kind of scares me that he fell, and I can still see him holding on for dear life and crying. 

 I finally finished Rachel's Easter dress. Yup, that's right. A month after Easter. The day before we went to Idaho, I still hadn't put in a single stitch (although it was cut out), and Rachel was sad from her two month shots. So, with sad Rachel wanting to be held, I called up Brian and had him pick up a dress from Target for her Easter dress. I hate to admit it, but the one he picked out was much cuter than the one I made. Oh well. Here's to the first dress I made for my daughter!

 We do lots of baths around here. I remember back when Michael was a baby thinking, "I am giving him SO many baths, and he'll never really understand all I do for him!" And then it hit me, "Yeah, your mom did this for you." So, with each bath for Rachel and Michael, I'm slowly paying it forward all that my mom did for me. And that barely scratches the surface.

 A month and a half ago, we bought wood, had it cut at Home Depot so it would fit in our two cars, along with us and our two kids, and hauled it home. We were quite pleased that we didn't have to beg a neighbor for use of a truck. Well, on April 29, we finally got them in. (Huge applause for Brian, please).

 Since most of our things are in these 18 gallon totes, Brian made the shelves to accommodate 24! Yay!

We plan to have shelves like these all the way around the room, but for now, we're happy to have our stuff off the floor! The whole room looked like this before:

And now only one corner looks like that. The other stuff looks like this: 

 Rachel has started to get bored with her bouncer and is starting to discover toys! It's exciting. She still has a long way to go, but she's loving this floor mat that Chelsea gave her: 

 On Saturday, May 4, we made a quick trip to Logan to be there for Taryn's Convocation for the College of Science at Utah State University. We opted to miss Commencement because of the kiddos, but it was very exciting to watch my lil' sis graduate.

 Congrats, Shortstop!

 And of course, that meant Michael and Rachel got to see their Chadwick grandparents and Linville Great-grandparents!

 And of course, we had to get a picture of them on the A. They are true Aggies, afterall.

 On Monday (May 6),  I had left Rachel on her mat playing in the other room. It was quiet, so I headed in to see if she had fallen asleep. I found her like this:

 quietly content, carefully tucked under a quilt by her big brother. Notice that it is his favorite "blue" blanket. He won't ever share that quilt with me, or anyone. Just his sister. That's love, folks.

And yesterday, the two of them were playing on the floor in the living room. I heard Michael say, "I'll be right back." He headed into her room and found our little camera that I had stashed on top of her dresser. He came back with it and started taking pictures of her, laughing the whole time. Then he tried putting a bracelet on her.

 And Rachel is also loving the jumper. Here's a picture from today. 

That's what's going on. Some projects. Some graduations. Some smiles. Lots and lots of love.