Easter and Spring!

So after our camping trip we were so looking forward to a quiet weekend at home watching conference. That is just what we did and it was wonderful.

On Saturday morning Brandon woke up in our bed and said "I need to go pee." Which was strange since I hadn't talked to him about peeing in the toilet for a couple of weeks. Then he jumps up and runs in the bathroom and takes his diaper off. At that point I figured I better go make sure everything was done correctly. And it was! He had just decided to be potty trained. He did awesome that day. Since then we have had a minor incident or two. For some reason he doesn't tell me when he has to poop. He has done that in his underwear a couple of times. But if I see him trying to hide somewhere or looking like he has to go and I ask him, he says he has to go and does great. I don't know why he hasn't figured that one out yet. Also, he thinks the bubbles that are in the toilet after he pees are cool, so there have been a couple of times that he comes out with wet hands and he has stuck his hand in the toilet. Nasty! I hate that. But for the most part he is done and we are all thrilled.

Saturday morning was spent planting the garden. We had an awesome garden last year, and are so excited to see what we can create this year. Steve even bought some topsy turvy things to see how well they work. They are looking good so far.

{strawberry and tomato topsy turvy hanging from a For Sale sign post. Steve is so smart! }

Then we enjoyed conference for the rest of our Saturday.

Sunday morning after Easter Bunny excitement, Steven gave us a Family Home Evening Lesson on the story of Christ's death and resurrection. He did a very good job and it was great to spend that time talking about Christ. Then Steve and I helped each boy bear his testimony about Christ and we each took a turn too. It wasn't necessarily spiritual, but it was a great starter to get them comfortable with it.

{Jacob with some of his Easter loot. The Easter Bunny brought these slingshot airplanes that were super cheap, and they are very cool. You can shoot them so far. Jacob took his for share day this week.}
{Easter Bingo we played after our lesson. Bad idea to use jelly beans when playing on the couch. They wouldn't stay put.}

We again watched Conference all day Sunday and then for dinner we had pulled pork which is called a "Boston Butt" here in Georgia. It was great!

{The boys had the opportunity of watching the first session of conference with us, and this is how Jacob, Nathan and Brandon enjoyed the session. Brandon got sent to his room and is asleep under Jacob's bed. }

This week has been so nice to have the boys back in school. We went to the 911 center on Monday night with the tiger cub scouts to see how they communicate with and help the community. Brandon and I went to playgroup on Tuesday with the church group and it was SOO HOT at 10:00am that we didn't last nearly as long as we usually do. Wednesday I did an activity for the YW of making care packages for the missionaries. Thursday was going to be a crazy afternoon with 3 different ball games in two places at the same time, but as we were walking out the door to go we got a call that everything was canceled. We were under a tornado watch. We got some awesome thunder and lightning and a decent amount of rain but no tornado thank heavens. Friday morning I went on a field trip with Jacob's class to Georgia Southern University. We went to the wildlife center where they did a bird show and then took us on a walk to see some of the animals in the wetlands. It was a great field trip and I enjoyed spending time with Jacob. Brandon was at my friends house. The afternoon was relaxing, especially since Steven went to a friends house for a couple hours after school. It always surprises me how much easier things are even with one child missing. Now today we did sports in the morning, set up the pool and now Steve has taken all the boys fishing and I am here alone again. Yahoo! He must have taken my hint in my last post. :-)

{Here is a video of the Easter Egg hunt. This is one of the MANY reasons I LOVE Steve. He sang this song for a good twenty minutes as each boy took a turn finding an egg. I think you all will appreciate his song abilities. It makes easter egg hunting so much more fun!}

Spring Break campout

Wow! I love spring break. The weather is great, and there is so much to do. Our spring break started on Friday night with Swing Into Spring! That is opening night of spring sports where the teams get to run through a tunnel, there is food and bounce houses, and then it all ends in fireworks. We have three boys playing sports this spring, and it has already proven to be almost too much for me. On Friday night Jacob and Nathan both played their first Soccer game. This is the first time our family has played soccer. So, Nathan runs ahead of us to get to his game on time, and when I get there everyone is looking at me. They wanted to know where his shin guards are. What?? I know nothing about any shin guards! Well, he can't play without them. Great, so there is my first mistake. Well, the coach comes up with this brilliant idea that maybe one of the other teammates can just switch with him when she subs them out. Sounded good to me. The problem was the girl she asked to share had these guards that you have to take shoe, and sock off to slip them off of her foot. So I am taking her shoes off and putting her guards on Nathan when she says to me. "I think I need to go tell my Mom". OOPPS! I turn around to a Mom on the other side of the field looking at us with a "What the CRAP" sort of look on her face. So I quickly finish switching then run over to her to explain. I said he would just wear them for five minutes and then I would switch them back. That was embarrassing.
Right after that Jacobs game started on another field. So for the rest of the hour I was running with a two year old between the two games, not really being the supportive parent I should be for either of them. Steve was working late that night so he could make up for time he lost to go to school. He did make it for the ceremonies though. I am just going to have to be better at having three kids in sports I guess. :)

Even after that frustration I took the boys on a fantastic camping adventure Monday morning with two other Moms in our ward. No Dads! Not that we wouldn't have loved to have the Dads, they were just all busy with work. We had 3 Moms, 12kids (including 3 in diapers) and 2 young women with us. The kids did an amazing job at starting the fires. I got the hot spot of cooking over the fire which I loved. And I would say we ate pretty dang good during our trip.

The boys hard at work putting up our new 3 room tent. Love the tent! Hate the set up.

This is Nash, a 9 year old boy that stayed with us the whole time. He was awesome!Hot Dogs one night.
See the lake just behind our campsite. We spent some time letting the kids swim and fish there.

We ate lots of smores
Let the kids chop some wood
There was also a playground right next to our campsite which was wonderful. The two year olds stayed busy there.
We went on a great one mile two hour hike
The lovely brown river. This is pretty much how all the lakes and rivers in Georgia look.

We had such a great time and I am so happy that I have friends who are brave enough to go camping. :)