Gardening

It's finally feeling warm enough to get outside and de-winterize the gardens. I'm having Jacob and Isaac start the Gardening merit badge. It sounds like an easy one, but it involves quite a bit. They helped plant radishes, spinach, beans, peas, and parsley for the veggies, and marigolds and sweet peas for the flower parts. They need to plant three veggies and three flowers from seed, then the same amount from seedlings, then harvest. Plus we chose to do a compost for 90 days (in lieu of a worm factory).
It was fun to watch their enthusiasm for finding bugs. They even found a caterpillar! Jacob thought the grubs were gross and Ammon freaked out when a spider started to crawl in his general direction.
We're gearing up for a yard sale hopefully this Saturday, if I can get it ready in time. Our house is overrun with stuff. I want my house to feel tidy. Even when it's clean, it feels cluttered. Maybe when the kids move out. Most of my friends are super neat freaks so it's intimidating for me to have them over. Plus, how do I get my kids to pick up after themselves? I sure get mad enough that you'd think they would want to, so not to get the wrath of Mom. But nope. I guess I'm using the wrong parenting techniques.
Ah, here comes Ammon. He napped today, so he now gets to be my friend tonight while Justin is in northern Minnesota.

Lasik

One of these days, I'm going to get Lasik eye surgery. If for the only reason to be able to see spiders in the shower. Usually it's a hair or fuzzy, but this time when I was squinting and getting close to it, I realized it was a REAL spider I'd been showering with for the past five minutes. So I had to do the obligatory scream and yell for Justin.

It would also be nice to be able to see what time it is in the middle of the night when Ammon decides to crawl in our bed. Last night it was twice. We rarely get a night's rest without an interruption from one of the kids - usually Ammon. He is very talented at night terrors.
Sometimes he just likes to climb in bed between us. He flaps his blankie on us - he likes to rub the corner on his nose. Then we hear the squishy sound of his "buddy" (binkie) so sleep comes slowly, for me at least. Justin falls asleep through anything. Lucky bugger.

I keep hoping Lasik's will get somewhat cheaper and maybe they'll come up with something not quite as disgusting as cutting your eye open. Hats of to all of you that don't need eye correction.

Fun times with Jen

Justin insisted that we buy a new digital slr camera about 1 1/2 years ago. For the past year and 5 months it's been a point and shoot for the most part. It's been fun, but I knew there was so much more that it could do. I have a friend that is a professional photographer (I'm one of her biggest fans) that offered to take me out and teach me some of the basics. She is so talented!
We went to the state fair grounds. The weather forecast looked great, it was sunny, and everything was going our way.
It did go well, but it was FREEZING!!! Our poor kids opted to sit in the car for lots of the time.

These are some of my favorites:

Ammon and Joyanna

Jennifer

Ammon liked to snuggle with Grandpa. He's showing us his beloved "buddy."

Grandpa Dittmer getting squashed by Allison and Ammon.

Grandma Dittmer is a merit badge counselor for Citizenship in the World. She had Isaac and Jacob enthralled. They got this done in a few hours.

Ammon loves to snuggle with Grandma Dittmer too. This is during the Saturday General Conference session. It was so fun to have Justin's parent's come. They were only able to stay two days, but the kids had a great time. I hope they'll come up more often. *hint hint*

Easter Fun

I wish I knew how to get pictures in order, but here goes...


Justin and I came home from Stake Conference not expecting this delightful treat: the kids found Easter baskets, lined them up, and put their names on them.

My one and only egg I decorated this year.

Made by Justin

Justin getting into his art.

Ammon showing us his blue egg.

Justin didn't know I was taking his picture. He was trying to get Jacob to smile.

We stopped by a local park egg hunt. They had it separated into age groups. ALL of the eggs had jelly beans. Isaac was too old to participate in this egg hunt. He took it quite well.

Ammon loved meeting the Easter Bunny. He kept saying, "I like the Easter Bunny," over and over for about 10 minutes.

Church egg hunt

My kiddos. Ammon, Jacob, Allison, and Isaac.

Isaac's last egg hunt at the church (he's 11 now).

Ammon didn't want to pose for pictures very much. Too many eggs still in sight even though he already had his allowed 12 in his basket.

Allison thought these princess eggs were something special.

Easter at Uncle Grandpa's

Me and my honey.

"Strike a pose"

Dittmer egg hunt
Justin started a tradition where the kids get to choose a color egg to search for, then we hide them in the living room. It helps to keep it even. Also, we count them so we know if there are any still MIA.

We put a "buddy" in one of Ammon's eggs.

Ha Ha. This the one of a kind egg. Allison found it. She was so excited until she read the note inside. It said "Do dishes for one week." Mean Mom and Dad. Of course we won't make her. Wink wink.

"The Screwdriver" by Isaac.
It was an impromptu attempt at the Demolition Derby Elders Quorum activity.
Some of the competition was fierce so he got about 9/10th place.

Isaac coming home from school.

This shows a little bit of Ammon's personality. He was posing for some "cheese."

Visitor

Jacob had his second soccer game of the season tonight and I was able to go. It is eye opening to see him with other kids his age. He stands out as being an odd ball type of guy. Quiet. Quirky. Non-athletic. Loner. Visitor. My heart, as a mother, went out to him. I don't know if he's aware that he's different, or that he even cares. I love my kiddo and want what's best for him and for him to be happy. Maybe being different is what makes him happy. I need to focus on his quirks and love him all the more for them.