Learning a new skill

Hailey has been wanting to try cutting hair and tonight she got her wish-- she cut Taylor's, Reagan's, and Leif's hair. Joel just threw the clippers to her and said "have fun!". She did a great job and toward the end of the night I remembered to take a few pictures of her shearing Leif.

Rocks

Ever since I first married Joel we've been carrying around his favorite rocks from apartment to apartment, and later, house to house. He was always finding rocks- in the road, at work, a beach, the hills, a river bed, you name it. The kids enjoyed helping him add to his collection. This Christmas we finally got a nice double barreled rock tumbler. We should have done it years ago! Joel has all ready tumbled 4 batches of rocks and they are so beautiful.
Here are some pictures of the process. Every week, Joel opens up the canisters and rinses the rocks, adding clean water and a spoonful of grit in varying degrees of fineness. The last week he also adds plastic pellets to the slurry. Leif loves helping him.

Taylor

Taylor's growing tall like his older brother and dad. He's having a much better time in basketball season than he did in football. More running and usually less tackling. He scored the winning basket last night with four seconds left in the game! The score: 22 to 21. Too bad I missed that game and had to hear about it second hand from other mothers who went. :-( In the pictures below I'll add one of a battle scar from an earlier game.

Last Activity Day

Today was my last day as Girls Activity Day leader. I will really miss being in there! I just told my mom a few weeks ago how I really enjoy working with kids in the age range of 8 to 11. How I LOVE my group of girls because I can be myself and that teenagers, on the other hand, are intimidating. Almost immediately after that conversation I was asked to be the YW president. Ha ha. Okay, talk about intimidating. Do they realize I have a hard time organizing a grocery list, that half the time I forget to pick up Heidi and Taylor from basketball practice, I put things on burners that are still on, I have a terrible time coordinating schedules, and the list goes on. If I didn't have the amazing counselors that I have I know this would be a complete disaster but they are truly wonderful ladies. We had our first presidency meeting this morning and a young women's activity tonight, so my last Achievement Day activity was sandwiched in between. Sigh. I will miss my "little girls"...... today we made Valentine/thank you cards to parents and grandparents and decorated cupcakes.

Beautiful afternoon

It's so nice today! Spring is in the air. The kids helped me clean out the garden and the flower beds. Under the debris we found the first signs of new day lily growth. I'm so excited for warmer weather!

Pretty mess

I am sewing frantically away on a baby quilt I've been working on because my friend just had her baby yesterday and i'm behind. But I had to stop and take a quick picture of the pretty mess on my sewing table. Doesn't it look a bit Valentiney? I love pinks, reds and turquoise right now.