A week of memorable moments!

What an absolutely wonderful week it has been!
We celebrated a birthday,
had MANY warm days with blue skies and sunshine,
had fun building a school project
and most of all had many moments of family fun, joy, laughter and beauty .

Highlights of some of our

HAPPY moments this past week.

How did the time pass SO quickly...
it just seems like yesterday when these photos were taken.
You were such an adorable, HAPPY baby and I couldn't get enough of you. I could just sit and hold you, rock you and talk to you all day long.

I LOVED being a mom to you from the moment I first held you.
You have filled our lives with so much happiness and joy these past 16 years

Now look at you...
All grown up and 16!!

Birthday tradition...
Opening the "Bubbly"!
(Sparkling Grape Juice that is)

A Birthday Toast!

Lighting the Candles...
(the bottom right photo is priceless as Jade missed blowing out one candle and Ethan decided to help him out.
Jade wasn't too happy and Ethan is being his typical silly self).
Gotta LOVE the moments where sibling rivalry kicks in!

The Gifts...
(I got every single thing for half price and so it looks like quite a few things to open, but not much money was spent)

Jade has been wanting
a way to listen to music in his room and so Tracy found a great deal on this "Mini Move" and you put your Ipod on it and it plays your music.
Kind of a boom box for Ipods.

Jade brings JOY to our life and is always JOLLY and happy go-lucky. He is ALWAYS quick to forgive and the first to say "I'm sorry"!

Animal lover and artistic!! If there is an animal or creature to be found Jade will be the one to find it and his artistic ability and creativity are awesome!

Determined! Jade is not a fast runner at all, but he finishes each and every race he starts and always ends with a SMILE!
Endearing! Jade has a LOVE for people and is SO friendly and is always quick to show his love to others through genuine compliments! Another way he shows his loves is he always gives you a great massage or neck rub. Many a people have benefited from Jade's magic touch with massages!!

What an honor and blessing
it is to be Jade's mom!

Jade had a Hydraulic Science project due this week. It had to involve 2 syringes hooked together with plastic tubing and filled with colored water and the syringes had to push or move an object.
Tracy took some miscellaneous pieces of scrap wood from his garage and they built this contraption.
You push on the outer syringe and it raises up the lever and if you pull out on the outer syringe it lowers it.
We put a magnet on the end of the lever and when you lowered it into the white container it picked up scrap metal.
The kids learned SO much from this project and Ethan has now claimed this as his.
He LOVES the mechanics of how this works.

Thank Heaven for Dad's!
I feel SO lucky that my children have Tracy for their dad. Anytime they have to make a project for school, it is always dad to the rescue and he does a CLASS ACT job with anything he makes!

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Mother's Day

(Mother's Day letter from Ethan May 2010)

"Happy Mother's Day!!!!!
You're the best mom in the world and I mean it.
You make the best cookies ever to.
When I eat them I think I die and go to heaven.
If you die I would cry till I died.
I couldn't live without you.
You are the best mom ever.
I love you "meat bag". I hope I made you laugh on that one.
Love, Ethan"

What an absolutely priceless note
from my sweet little boy. I cried many tears over that little treasure!
Moments like this are what life is all about!

We had a gorgeous rainstorm on Thursday.
Tracy and Jade were helping with a service project in our ward and I was outside weeding and working in the yard and noticed the storm coming and LOVED how it looked with the heavy gray clouds and the blue sky just to the south of it.
This is the view from my dining room window.

I came home to a sweet note
from my sweetheart Tracy and I also noticed that he had left a note with a dry erase marker on my entry wall hanging.
I'm so LUCKY to feel loved and appreciated every day of my life!!

This is a view I see almost daily.
The energy of little kids is abundant and they love to run, jump or skip everywhere they go.
Ethan could jump on the trampoline all day if we let him.

I am SPOILED
to have a hubby who can fix anything that is broken. Here he is fixing one of our garden hoses with cutting out the broken piece and then splicing it back together.
The bottom photo
shows our gorgeous tulips with my hubby in the background working miracles on our garden hose.

very, very lucky to have Tracy in my life!

6:00 am Sunday walk with Mr. Smith
It has literally been weeks since we have had SO many blue skies and we celebrated the cool morning beauty enjoying a walk around our neighborhood and then taking care of the chickens after we got back.

MY VERY favorite time of the day is the morning time...
I love the cool air, dew on the lawn and plants, the abundance of birds chirping and the look of everything as the sun is just starting to come up. It's peaceful, quiet and serene. There is not a more gorgeous time of the day to me than early morning time.

Thanks to my VERY artistic hubby,
he has created the most awesome SWOOPS around our lawn edge. This photo was taken at the end of our driveway..

This is walking up to our front porch.
I just LOVE the way the lawn edge and rock wall perfectly match.
All of these awesome things are thanks to TRACY!
All I did was choose and plant what is in the beds
(and I am also the one that nurtures and takes care of everything)
but all of the cool features of our yard...
the hard-scape of the rock wall and steps, the gravel path, the Picket Fence, the lamp post and the lawn shape, were done by my awesome hubby!!
I LOVE MY YARD!
It is my serenity and feeds my soul to be outside in nature and I feel SO blessed to have such a place of beauty to enjoy right in my own yard.

Just as I was taking a moment
to savor and enjoy the gorgeous tulips that are blooming all over my yard....

I realize REAL quick
that I am a mom of BOYS when Jade runs up and shows me the baby snake he just found!

And you know what...
snakes and all, I LOVE each and every moment of my wonderful life with my family!