Getting Ready for Church

First of all, Jacob is a huge wimp when it comes to getting anything in his eyes. I blame it on the gasoline in the eye incident, but that's a whole other story. Anyway, tonight Jacob began to panic, because he knew that him and Luke wasted all of their children's shampoo to make bubbles last night, so he would have to use adult shampoo. He immediately began to cry at the table as he was finishing his dessert, because he knew the bath was next. I told him that I would go look for some old baby shampoo, knowing that we didn't have any. However, I knew that I had a small baby lotion bottle. So, I emptied it out and squirted some of my shampoo into it. Jake didn't even know the difference. He didn't even shed a tear. GENIOUS!

Jacob has been bugging me for the last week if I could "shave" his face, but I kept pushing it off. Tonight when Joe shaved, Jacob came right in and asked and Joe was happy to "shave" his face. Jake took it so seriously. Joe even let him use his aftershave. Jacob was so excited he wanted me and Joe to feel and smell his face. He was happy that his whiskers were gone and he was ready for church tomorrow.

I got bit!

I got bit by something. I'm assuming it was a spider. This is the back of my calf, if that tells you how big the bite was. I hate bugs. Oh, Joe wanted to draw a line around it to be sure it wasn't continuing to swell.

Memorial Day

This year for Memorial Day we had a BBQ at the Wyllie's. It was so much fun. There was a huge homemade slip 'n slide, a jungle gym and teeter-totter, and of course really good food.

Uncle Houston giving Jake and ride on the lawn mower.

Jacob playing badminton.

Luke recovering after the slip 'n slide.

Luke going down the slip 'n slide with Ella.

Books

Joe began his second semester of nursing school this month, which means more books. He is now up to 22 books, which span an amazing 18 feet. I would tell you how much they all cost, but I don't want anyone to pass out!

Mother's Day

For Mother's Day this year, Joe decided to make me some planter boxes, so I could have a mini garden. He took a while constructing the boxes, then came the fun part, PLANTING! Jacob really wanted to help with this part, as you can see.

Luke knew where to hide out, under the canopy of the porch swing.

Unfortunately, the plants never made it. First of all, the boys found something they could dig in. Secondly, the dog found out that she could jump into the beds and dig too. Better luck next year.

The Lake and The Temple

The first Friday in May, I called in sick to work and me and Joe took the boys out to Lake Natoma. We were able borrow Bill and Rachel's canoe and spend the day paddling around the lake. The boys really enjoyed it, after the initial push into the water.

Here's Jake before we pushed off.

Joe and Jake paddling away. Jake was taking it very seriously and was disappointed in the beginning when he couldn't row as fast as dad.


After we paddled up river a ways, we decided to stop and take a break on the shore. The boys (including Joe) LOVE to throw rocks into any body of water. So, for about an hour that's exactly what they did. Joe was even able to teach Jake how to skip rocks. Jake was thrilled with his new found talent.

Here's a picture of Luke, showing me one of his BIG rocks as he put it.

Joe and Jacob found some dead crawdad's. They decided to share the experience with me.

Me and Luke taking a time out from rock throwing.

We eventually got back in the canoe and paddled down river. On our way back to the car, I spotted a mama duck with a bunch of ducklings. I pointed them out to Jake and he informed me that it wasn't a mama duck, it was a baby sitter duck. Joe had the "oh no" look on his face and I calmly asked why is it the baby sitter duck? Jake then explained that it was a baby sitter duck because it had all the kids. So, it wasn't the greatest thing I could have heard, but such is life right now.

After the river we headed back to Bill and Rachel's, but on the freeway from the lake, we passed the temple. I was pointing it out to the boys and Jacob began freaking out because he couldn't see it. So, we turned around and just drove up to it. I admit, I felt a little weird, because we had a canoe strapped to the top of our van, we were dirty and smelly, and we weren't wearing church clothes. However, the boys loved it.

Here is Jake pretending to be Moroni.

All of us in front of the temple.

Me and the boys beginning the walk around the temple.

I took this picture with our camera and was very proud of my photography skills, so I thought I would share it.

Easter Sunday!

Easter Sunday was busy like all holidays are for us. We LOVE it that way though. We are very blessed to live right in between both sets of parents and around all of our brothers and sisters. It is a lot of fun. On Easter we had church at 9, which meant the boys didn't hunt for eggs at our house until after church. Then it was off to Grandma LaRue's and Grandpa Bob's house for the first round of egg hunting and dinner. Then we headed to Grandma and Grandpa Elmer's house for round two. Here are some of the pictures.

Here's Jake hamming it up for the camera.

Luke just wanted to play in the water.

Jake and his cousin the big Owen...and yes there is a little Owen on the Elmer side.

Luke had no limits when it came to finding eggs. He even looked under my grandpa's chair, which grandpa got a kick out of.

Here's my sister Krista helping Luke out, I could take pictures. Every year my grandma will stuff eggs with money for every grandkid, but you have to find your egg. My dad hid mine in his shirt, which was awkward, but everyone else thought it was funny when I went looking.

Then it was on to the craziness at the Elmer's. Lots more kids so it was a little more frantic of a hunt, but the kids have fun. At Grandma and Grandpa Elmer's house there is 1 golden egg that contains money. Hallie was the lucky recipient this year...again.

Dyeing Eggs!

I had the great idea of having the boys dye eggs outside this year. I'm glad that I did this, because there was dye everywhere. The boys did pretty good. Jake is a little bit of a perfectionist when he does this and Luke only leaves them in the dye for a couple seconds, but both of them wanted to do it by themselves this year. Krista came to help...she was sad that they don't color eggs at home anymore. However, she was glad to use my kids as an excuse to dye eggs. This year I didn't have any vinegar, so I mixed the color with lemon juice. Luke took a sniff of the dye and must have thought it smelled good, because he took a swig of it. I tried to get him to do it again for a picture, but he told me that it was yucky...I wonder why.

Easter -- Grammie and Pa's House

I'm a tad behind, since it is now May, but the point is that the pictures made it here...right? Well, the Friday before Easter, we did am egg hunt at my mom and dad's, because my mom had to work on Easter and she really likes to see the boys on holidays. So, we had a little dinner and the boys got to look for eggs...just the two of them, which meant lots of eggs!

Luke swinging on the rope swing.

Jake accidentally broke this branch off of the willow tree and thought it was pretty cool. However, when my dad pulled up he ran and threw it over the fence, because he was afraid he'd get into trouble. We all just laughed at him.

Finding the eggs.

The view at the Culp Compound! Pretty...I miss it.

Friday Night In!

During Spring Break I decided to let the boys decorate some cupcakes. They sure liked it, but what a mess. I had sprinkles ALL over the place. Luke actually poured an entire canister of sprinkles on one cupcake. However, it was pretty easy to clean since we have the dog now. She was like an automatic vacuum!

As you can see Jake liked to decorate, while Luke just liked to lick the icing off.