April Showers...

Hopefully this will be the start of better blogging habits. Hurray for naptimes! I'm hoping it lasts long enough for me to get some pictures on here too. Also provided my computer makes it through the upload- it's been running ever slower these days. I realized the other day that it's around 5 years old. My poor little laptop. It has served me well. Anyway, I've been trying to be more productive with my days since we've discovered a few things that we waste too much time on... (aka mindjolt games on Facebook and www.rinkworks.com, which I spend all too often whiling away my free moments on. Don't look them up unless you are willing to deal with the time you will waste. Or unless you have better discipline than we do.) However, productivity has taken a downturn with the weather- today it is rainy and cold and gray and I felt like laying around all day. But I didn't, I finally got up and at 'em after a lovely morning nap. Which was nice since we stayed up until 1 playing each other at online pool. :)

Things are going well for us- Shoe business is ever booming! Thomas hired my best friend McKenzi's husband, Jonny, down in Provo to be a sales rep for him and Jonny has been doing SUPER! Thomas is really happy to have him on the team with him. Michael is back from his tour with Sound Alliance, and I know Thomas is excited that he is back. It was fun getting to help Qait while he was gone- I was able to go help her with unpacking or watching Ender while she got some work done. Last Saturday we got to play with Ender while she did some work for the managing job they are doing, and we were out in the yard cleaning up the mess of eons past... and tenants past. Our yard had been so overgrown for so long, as we raked out the black and decomposing leaves I wondered which fall they were from, and how long the snickers wrapper or bottle cap had been buried in the dirt there. We also just recently found a broken old aquarium buried in the grass and bushes, and last fall we had found the fish body on the other side of the yard. We've also got quite the quackgrass problem, and we are trying to get it all dug out. We are doing fine in the areas where there isn't anything else trying to grow, but in the north corner of our yard (next to our dear Flower*, may he/she rest in peace, whomever and whatever he/she is) we have some beautiful tulips that are growing (which are starting to bud today- no color yet but pictures will follow as soon as it stops raining) and it has been a challenge to try and get all the grass to stop showing them up. It is SOOOOO much easier pulling it up here in the wonderful Idaho soil, rather than in the AZ dirt. It's actually fun!

Anyway so we were out in the yard reclaiming the earth and I was working over in one of the planters by the raspberry bushes, digging out all the grass Thomas had "clawed" out, and I was using a little hand rake to move the dirt, and then I would grab the grass and put it out in the pile. Ender was watching and once in a while he'd poke me or show me the dandelion he found, but pretty much did his own thing. After awhile Audrey needed me so I put down my gloves and tool and I went to sit with her on her blanket. Ender came over and picked up the hand rake and started poking the dirt like I had been, and then every now and then he would put it down and pick up a piece of grass with his thumb and first finger and drop it over in the pile of weeds. It was so cute! He must have played like that in the dirt for almost half an hour. He had such a good time out there with us- slobbering on rocks, eating dirt, and helping to get the grass out! Here are some pictures I took.

Digging...

Picking the grass out!

It's hard work!

What a cutie!

Audrey hangin out on her blanket!

Daddy working hard!

Cheese!

Our first taste of grass... I'm afraid it was a hit.

*more on precious Flower later. (maniacal laughter)