Butterflies and strawberries

Couple of other notable things to add:

Becca's birthday present was a butterfly house with 5 caterpillars in them. We watched them go from very little caterpillars to great big ones in a few days, to forming their chrysalids and now, they are out! All five came out in the last few days. Painted Lady is the species and they are beautiful. We will probably let them go in the next week, but the girls loved putting down watermelon and carnations with sugar water on the petals and watching them stick out their long, curly tongues to get a taste. We'll have to take some pictures of them before we let them go. Julie got them from a company called Insect Lore that mailed them to us. www.insectlore.com

The other thing we've enjoyed lately are strawberries! Julie found them for not very much at a local store and they have all been so delicious. David especially loved helping cut them up and making jam and freezing the rest. We had Cool Whip and strawberries on shortcake the other night and seem to go through them as fast as we open the packages. Julie may go back and get more tomorrow.

David has also been begging to sleep outside in the tent in the backyard, but we will not consider it until we have a fence. No definite date for this either, but we hope sometime this summer. He really did love Fathers and Sons and I'm sure will be ready to go again next year.

On a lighter note...

Here is Emma crawling and walking. She loves to unroll the toilet paper, have me hold her finger while she drags me where she wants to go, walk up and down the stairs like a big person (holding my fingers of course) and feeling like she is big. We went to the park the other day and she climbed up the steps and looked back and gave me a great big smile that said, well what do you think of that, I am BIG! Sarah loves to do her hair. She hates it. I am not a hair trainer. No bows, no ponies and now that she has enough hair she just rips it out (because I didn't train her to leave it in...oh well.) She is a wee bit distracted in this video. Our neighbor was driving around on a newly acquired riding lawnmower and she was fascinated.

Hard week

This post is mostly journaling so beware. Drugs. They have such a horrible impact on all the lives they effect. This week I took a lady to the instacare because she was really sick and couldn't stop throwing up. She had a kidney infection. She was so sick and they couldn't get an IV in her because she had been so sick in previous years. She was a meth addict a few years ago. She literally destroyed her body. As I was sitting in the room with her listening to her cry and throw up I thought to myself if every person who was thinking of using drugs could see her now I think they might rethink their decision. It was just sad!

Then on Friday a neighbor's son hung himself in their garage. It was just sad, sad, sad. I am a YW leader and his sister just graduated the night before was asleep because she had stayed up for a graduation party saw him when her dad found him. I called her leader and told her. She came home early from work and was just in tears. We went over to try and comfort her. she was sobbing to the point of hysteria. We tried to tell her that it was NOT her fault (she thought if she hadn't gone to her party she would have been awake and had been able to talk him out of it) so much for a 17 year old! The family was really heart broken. It just broke my heart to see them suffering. The parents are so great and loving it just killed them. If my children (or anyone I love) ever reads this, PLEASE if you are feeling like there is no hope, there always is. I told her that if he would have been in his right mind he would have known how much this would hurt his family.

I told you. It was a hard week.

Emma's first steps!

Today Emma took 4 steps all by herself! They were a bit wobbly, but it was all by herself.

I also took Becca to the Olive Garden (she had a coupon for a free kids meal) for lunch today and she ordered a pizza because it was pizza day at school. She said that she liked the school pizza better! I asked her if maybe we should have eaten in the cafeteria but she said she was having fun at the restaurant.

I took Sarah to subway (her choice) on Tuesday. She was amazed that it was just me and her, not even Emma. I really need to spend more one on one time with her. She LOVED it. She had a coupon for a free ice cream at Maggie Moos and it didn't open until 12 so we had about 15 minutes to kill so we went to Home Depot and she helped me choose a color for my bathroom. Then we went back to Maggie Moos. She had a hard time choosing, but I told her that she could taste some and then choose from there. Then she had to choose a mix in. She doesn't really like to make too many choices so it was cute to watch her try and decide.

I have an awesome neighbor who watched Emma and David so I could take the girls to lunch Tues and Thursday.

Father's and Sons/Girls night in

Last weekend Aaron took David to Father's and Son's. They had a total blast! Sarah was really jealous and wanted to roast marshmallows and set up the tent in the backyard. I wanted to do something special just for the girls. Becca got some puff paint from Grandma Smalley for her birthday so I got some shirts for them to design. Sarah made an orange dragon shirt and Becca made one with lots of color and shapes. Then we watched the first Harry Potter (too scary for David, but NOT too scary for the OLDER girls.) I made some chocolate chip cookies and popcorn in a pot...so much fun!

Then today I took Sarah to lunch, just the two of us. She was so surprised that it was just us. I think I will make an effort to do this every year. I am taking Becca to lunch on Thursday.

Thanksgiving Point

We went to Thanksgiving Point quite a few times over the tulip festival. It was simply beautiful. David and Emma liked the sand pit the best, Sarah liked the baby owls and Becca , Aaron and I loved the beautiful tulips.

Happy Birthday Becca!

I kind of went overboard on Becca's presents this year. I felt like she got ripped off at Christmas and just went crazy for her. She is such an easygoing person and doesn't really "want" anything but I got her things that I thought she would like.

She is a bright, fun loving ray of sunshine and I love her so much.

Do you like the home made butterfly pinata?? And the ribbon in Becca's hair was on a present from Grandma Smalley.

Oh, and Emma finally figured out how to crawl!