Dear Family and Friends,

Taylor's swing has become the family swing. Currently Spencer and Allison are out there lounging with their books. (Taylor is napping with the air conditioning otherwise I am sure he would join them). Every day after school the kids run out there to sit and eat their snacks and all reading is done while swinging away. Who knew it would be such a hit?!

I spent any free time I had this week out in the yard so it is all starting to come together. For FHE we planted one of our boxes. Not quite an ideal family togetherness moment but each kid planted a plant and was quite proud of the fact. We have in this year: tomatoes, tomatillos, squash, zucchini, peppers, beans, watermelon, pumpkins and beets. See how they all do. Allison is very excited that our raspberries have started to grow. Amazing what happens when you start to actually water them! We planted our flower pots and added 2 hanging baskets to our porch this year. I was most excited about those. Robyn has been enjoying the whole process or running rampant at the nursery, stuffing her pockets from their free bucket of unshelled peanuts and smelling EVERY flower she finds. I am so excited to be planting and a little horrified at the nursery bills that her antics haven't even bothered me. They are probably a good thing as they prevent me from staying there too long. The yard isn't all the way done. I have our weed corner to tackle, a few plants left to put into the ground and a truckload of mulch waiting to be unloaded. The kids have 4 1/2 days left of school so I should make it!

This week Robyn and I discovered Utah's version of Trader Joe's. We were very excited! Its called Sunflower Market and its just a healthfood type store with tons of good deals on produce and then all those yummy not so good for you things - different flavored hummus, a whole rack of brands of tofu, aisles of bulk dried fruits, nuts and then all of the above dipped in different types of chocolate and sugar. You get the idea. So we have gorged on fruit this week and I have discovered I really like frozen cherries. I am trying to make up for the fact that between Taylor's party and Mother's Day I made 4 9x13 pans of really good cakes and we ate up all the leftovers!

This week was made up of just lots of odds and ends. Got the racks put on the van, took dinner into a neighbor who is dying, had the cousins over for a day, had a couple of play dates etc. Normal everyday, sometimes busy, sometimes boring, often funny, occasionally irritating life.

I decided last week that I should stop feeling annoyed that I am looking scroungy till noon as I try to fit in my exercise time so I made the goal to get up early. I know exercising at 6 am is not early to most but to me it is! It didn't use to be a possibility as Taylor had to be gotten up at 6:30 but now I don't have to start kids till 7. I figure if I can keep it up through the summer it will be easier to get my running in too. The first few days killed me and I crashed every night but my body seems to have adjusted to the new schedule. I mentioned it to a friend so I ended up having 3 neighbors join me to run outside M, T, Th. That was fun although they expect me to talk and all I can do most of the time is pant. One of my friends went to Florida for a week and she loaned me her 'transfirmer' videos so I have been trying those out a little bit. Didn't think they were doing much till the day after when I noticed all the muscles I had obviously not been using previously.

Quick run down on everyone: Jeremy has had couple of EQ meetings this week including hauling mulch in a wheelbarrow for an hour or two. He also has been working on a video for the kids' school that they are using at the end of the year assembly tomorrow. Luckily he was able to take a mental health morning Friday and go hike Timp Caves with his photo friends to unwind and enjoy his hobby time. Between the mulch for the ward member and the hike his knees are a little stiff but he is doing OK. He gets the missing hook up for his new BBQ this week and excited to try it out.

Taylor went fishing this week with his school and came home wiped out and smiling of sunblock. He is noticably more cheerful with the sunny weather.

Spencer gets his cast off tomorrow. He decided to do football this summer/fall which I think will be a good thing. It was a LONG debate. He is working on playing Axel F for his piano lessons. We recorded part of it for him to take in for his class talent show. It only took us 20!!! minutes to get the 15 second recording necessary for him to take in. His teacher asked me to practice with Spencer every day. Easier said than done. If I sit there correcting him for every wrong not it turns into an exercise of anger management. He really just doesn't understand the concept of practicing. Hopefully it will click soon.

Allison is convinced that a time without a friend is wasted time. She stayed home sick Friday with a fever she developed Thursday. She was fine except for a fever and not wanting to eat or sleep much. Just puny. But with cousins over she was happy to put on a swimsuit and run around the sprinklers with them.

Robyn is loving the warm weather. She runs around in different outfits or swimsuits alternating covered in sand or water but having a great time. She is doing better on the potty training and only had one accident last week and that was because she couldn't make it to the toilet fast enough. So I am hoping we are getting close to an end of spraying lysol everywhere. Haven't tried to tackle nights yet. I am waiting till days are perfect first.

Love to you all. Lots of pictures to follow. I am sure you can guess which ones are by the professional:) Love Heather



Allison had her friend Kambry over Saturday and they made crafts to sell at their stand in the front yard.








Robyn is LOVING the tiny sprinkler set up.






Friday night pizza and movie night. Everyone had to eat their pizza outside. The good weather feels too good to miss.



Our vegetable garden weed free. I should have taken a before picture for you to really appreciate this.



Cousins all getting wet together



My beautiful baskets. I learned that it takes a month or two for the sides to fill in to get that big lush look. Next year I need to start earlier and use tinier seedling plants along the side. Putting big fat bedding plants through holes in the side was hard and pretty traumatic to the plants I think. I have been wanting to put these up for a few years now so I am quite excited. Now if I can just keep them alive!



Robyn and Luke helping me with our "weed garden". Luke is still Robyn's dress up friend and yes his parents know all about this.



Spencer's video