New backyard patio!

We hired our neighbor's construction company to install the cement back patio!  Today is the day for cement!  Yay!  It looks so big.  They built this little ramp on the North side of the house and wheelbarrowed the cement into the back yard! Here it comes! 

This is Scott, our neighbor.

 It came out so slick and so nice!  I'm super pleased with it and it cost way less than I thought it would!  I'm so glad this part is done!

I just tossed these extras pictures of Mark in because it's so cute that he wants to fix the Jeep.

Mark the bike riding shark...

The total bonus of having older children?  They can teach the younger kids life skills so I don't have to.  Bwah ha ha!  Example?  Jack and Mikayla wanted Mark to try his bicycle without training wheels and he took off!  To be fair, Mark has had a balance bike for about 6 months and that has helped a ton!

Mark is so comfortable with the way the bike feels when it leans because of the balance bike. 

I wish we had had balance bikes for all of my children!

He already looks like a pro!  Go bubbies!

Conference quilt...

Not that I need another project right now, but I got a hankering for a warm quilt.  My kids take all the warm blankets downstairs to watch TV with.  That leaves me upstairs, freezing when I watch TV.  I purchased some clearance flannel a long time ago.  I have quite a lot of navy blue, tan, and this peach color.  I was trying to do a quilt on the cheap and I had an old mattress pad/liner that I was going to use for the batting, and browsed sheet section for a quilt top. 

I counseled with facebook to see whether using a sheet as a quilt top was okay.  Everyone agreed and said they do it all the time. Sweet!  I found something that matched well enough and away we went!  Mikayla and I got it all prepped for conference weekend!  Eeeee!  I LOVE CONFERENCE!

I pinned the quilt and then used my free-hand-quilting foot to make heart shapes.  Mikayla controlled the foot for some of them. 

Some of the hearts have an M or a J next to them but most of them are just hearts.

Then I got crazy with the free hand foot and did a dragonfly.  It's not too bad for a novice.  It's harder than I thought it would be to do a big pattern because it's hard to see where you're going.

I normally machine stitch the binding but conference weekend gave me the perfect opportunity to sit and blind stitch the binding by hand.  Kids would snuggle up next to me under the quilt and listen to conference.  

It was finished on Sunday and everyone wanted to lay on it.  

Now if I can just keep it upstairs and keep my kids from thieving it, I'll be a happy camper.   

Backyard patio progress...

Our water heater started leaking and so Merril, Superman that he is, ran to the plumbing supply place and picked up a new one.  Our old one had a problem not that long ago but I guess that was just an indication that it was on its way out.

The kids loved playing in the box.

After 2 years of saving, it's time to start building a backyard.  On this day, our backyard patio got prepped for cement.  Our neighbor, Scott Jones, has a construction company, and we had him prep it and get it ready for concrete.

They drilled into the house foundation to secure the cement pad to the house.  

Next step: Concrete!!! Yay!

Jack's Mountain Bike Race and a hike...

Merril and Jack have become friends with a family in the ward, named the Phipps.  Logan (Dad) and Collin (son) both like to mountain, like Merril and Jack.  They often ride together, fathers and sons, and it's been fun.  Logan and Collin were riding in a mountain bike race and said Jack and Merril should too!  We signed Jack up, mostly because it was pretty cheap, Merril's race was more expensive.  Jack took off well.

Jack had a hard time of it.  His chain fell off twice out on the course.  But Jack is Jack and still finished the race with a smile on his face.  😃  He's pretty good and I think he would've been a pretty fierce competitor, had his bike worked.

Along the same time, we went hiking in Zion National Park.  We ate at Oscar's, because we had a gift card from Merril fixing something.  Jack can attack a HUGE hamburger like no one else in the family.  He's growing up!

The air was crisp but still.  The sunset was perfect.

We saw some mountain goats, which were quite tame because they're national park goats.

Crazy face selfies with the peeps I love!! 💛

Jack's Arrow of Light...

Merril was amazing and helped Jack finish his arrow of light award for Cub Scouts.  I was over it but I am proud that they pushed through to the end and earned it!  Yay!

Spring Break RV trip!

Since we own an RV, we decided to take a trip with some of our other RV friends.  Darryl Zitting's family, Dan Zitting's family, and Jake Mortensen's family and us decided to head out towards southeastern Utah.  Between here and Lake Powell, there's a hike called "Toadstools."  Funny little rock formations that remind me of Goblin Valley. 

We visited Horseshoe Bend.  

This is a little too close for comfort for some Moms.  They seemed okay to me.  

Stole a picture them squishing together for a selfie.

  

Hilarious Bubbies faces.

We camped out by Monument Valley.  Left and Right Mittens are always a good time.

Merril arranged a tour of Monument Valley that ended with dinner and a show.  We learned some Native American dances and it was really interesting!

The next day we drove out to 4 Corners Monument.  This has been a bucket list item for me for a long time!  It was exactly what I thought it would be.  Cool!  Take a picture!  Okay, let's go.

It's kind of in the middle of nowhere.

The RV caravan.

 It was a great way to spend Spring Break!

My little sleeper...

When Mark gets out of the bath, he likes to warm up next to the heater.  So I wrapped him in a towel and turned on the heater and left to do something in the kitchen.  About an hour later, I was thinking I hadn't seen Mark in a while and went to investigate.  He totally fell asleep, in front of the heater, without any clothes on.

I guess when you need a nap, you really need a nap.

Little swimmers...

Mikayla is a fish!  She loves to swim and so winter is hard on her.  It's not nearly lake season yet so I promised her we could go to an indoor swimming pool while the kids were in school.  The Sand Hollow Aquatic Center opened the earliest for open swim so away we went!  The place was completely empty!  We had a blast!

And I don't know why but I'm throwing this picture in right after it.  It doesn't have anything to do with anything.

Emergency???

Early one morning, Maxine started yelling from the basement that something was wrong.  She was writhing on the floor and holding her stomach and said it hurt really bad!!!  So we took off to the InstaCare in St. George because it was a Sunday.  They ran a bunch of bloodwork, examined her all over and couldn't really come up with anything.  

They suspected that something might be wrong with her gallbladder.  Gallbladder attacks are triggered by fatty foods so they said if it comes back after a greasy meal, we'll know for sure.  We went home and she got better.  Greasy foods didn't trigger any worsening pain.  Who knows?  She's fine.

Boys Mexico Trip...

Merril and Jack, Darryl and Will, and Ryan and Kaden had been planning a trip to Mexico on motorcycles for a while but it got pushed back because Merril had to recover from surgery.  He was finally well enough to go!

They drove the truck and parked it at a Walmart in San Diego, CA.  They unloaded motorcycles and headed south.

They camped by the ocean.

Beautiful!  They pulled oysters off the rock and cooked them.  Jack said they weren't very good.

This is at Coyote Cal's.

Jack and Daddy had some cow head tacos at a small taco shop and they said they were really good!  Jack was the oldest of the boys who went and Merril said he did the best (didn't complain).  They all made it back safe and sound!