I sat in church yesterday listening to all of the women around me talk about the wonderful jewelry, flowers, and kitchenware they received as gifts for Mother's Day. And as I listened, I thought of the gift that my family got me.
Does my family know & love me or what? And to top it off, the ward young men handed out full-size candy bars as Mother's Day gifts. Happy Mother's Day, indeed!
opened all of the stuff to have 1 killer T-ball game,
went to lunch & had a HUGE birthday sundae,
and then the males of the family were off! Grandpa drove down & they all camped together in his little Scamp trailer.
The boys had fun climbing the rocks. That's Frank about halfway up with the orange hat on. And if that looks scary to you, Andy says that he was on his way DOWN from the big crack that's almost at the top. YIKES!!!
Andrew & Grandpa had fun competing in the Cornhole Tournament (it's kind of a cross between horseshoes & a beanbag toss), but were cranky when they lost, so they came home. Men!
A little work was required to have this dream come true, but isn't that how it should be?
The little prince was so excited that he wouldn't even change out of his royal PJ's! However, he was a very good helper & did more than his share of unrolling the magic carpet while the princess was away at school. It was a wonderful surprise for her when she came home.
There was so much excitement & joy in their little kingdom when the magic carpet came to life. It seemed to bring happiness to all that dared touch it.
The little family of princes & princesses is so happy now. They will spend all of their free time on their magic carpet, telling fairy tales & eating royal meals.
So thank you, fairy godmother. You have no idea how much happiness you've brought to our dry, brown kingdom.
The Beginnings Of Stan
Emma had LOTS of fun stuffing Stan. Frank liked it, but didn't like having the straw stick to him. Wearing Mommy's gardening gloves definitely made it more fun. 
Stan had to have Daddy make some wire suspenders so that his pants could stay up. Andy knows how that goes. He's lost so much weight lately that his pants literally fall off his body. Men!
So there you have it. Stan now proudly presides over our garden. We embarrassed him by hanging pie tins & CDs from his arms, but he forgives us. He likes his job.
But guess what?
And so far, it's working! (mostly) I've only had 2 plants go missing since the introduction of our newest garden decor. If our garden didn't look white trash before, it certainly does now. And I mean that literally. It really looks like there's trash all over my garden. But I don't care as long as the plants stay put & the birds stay away.
Happy Gardening!
Go Daddy go! The kids ventured over a few times, but didn't manage to help him at all.
He even slaved away in the rain & hail on the day before Easter. It was COLD out there! (Notice that all of these pictures are taken from a distance, namely my dining room window? Mommy leaves this part to Daddy.)
Daddy even installed a fancy sprinkler system. Having fun yet, Andy?
Now that the soil was ready & waiting, it was my turn to bring this thing to life.
A little planting & watering, & voila! BIRD FOOD. As soon as the seedlings came up, they were torn out of the ground & destroyed. Darn birds don't even eat the plants, they just toss the little leaves aside like trash. Sometimes I hate nature.
Oh no! He can't be getting ready to crawl just yet! But sure enough, he's starting to get that whole little body up off the floor. In fact, he had just started to lay back down when I took this, so he was up even higher. Aaahhh!
Jamie K just had a post about "Stickering as a Verb" More than once lately I have walked by a mirror & noticed that I was be-speckled with stickers. The sad thing is that I don't even remember them doing this to me!
And Frank is doing his best to just melt me into a little puddle of goo by flashing those big brown eyes at me. Seriously, how can I hope to even think straight when faced with these?
