The beds

We found the camera and will catch up on pictures. Here are the beds Jillian made for the girls:

And here are their beautiful occupants, sleeping.

Oh, Yeah....We are here, just sort of busy.

And the camera is missing, so if you've seen it, give us a jingle would you?

As an update, we love the home we are renting.  It has beautiful landscaped flower gardens, space for a veggie garden (which we've already planted with tomatoes, peppers, eggplant, garlic, onions, potatoes and basil.)  There is a raspberry patch, strawberry patch, and gooseberry patch, all of which are either in bloom, or we've harvested since being here.  There are grape vines with teeny-tiny grapes on them, and we are just waiting to see what happens.  There is also a very happy and productive apple tree, and a few smaller fruit trees that probably won't produce this year.

We've found a great CSA that allows us to get completely local produce, including canning quantities of beans, tomatoes, cucumbers, onions, etc.  This is a big deal because our little garden isn't that huge here.

I spent the first three days building beds for the girls so they'd have wooden beds (yes, built, not bought and put together), and I love them.  I have great photos of them...on the camera...which is somewhere.

We've been to both Rexburg and Geneva, ID once to visit both sets of grandparents AND both sets have visited us at least once already (a much higher average than we had in NC!). 

We L-O-V-E our new neighbors.  The neighborhood is so peaceful and quiet that the children are able to run back and forth to each others' homes to play.  My kids are rarely inside, which I love.  Yesterday, as the neighbors decided to irrigate their lawn (they flood them rather than use sprinklers, each family gets a turn), the kids spent the day outside eating Otter pops and splashing in the grass.  In the first two days of being here, we'd met them all because they came to us and introduced themselves and brought either cookies or bread.  That being said, I can't wait til Christmas around here, and I'm grateful I'm gestating then and not watching my weight...hee hee!  Plus, I look forward to repaying all the kindness with some traditional cookies from the Tueller home.

There's more, but I have much to do.  Like find the camera.

ABC Cereal!

Have you ever heard of Alpha-bits cereal?  Well, my kids have heard of it, and I didn't realize what an impact knowledge of it's existence had on the youngest.  We bought some Cheerios (because cold cereal is easy to eat while packing!), and she exclaims, "It's the A-B-C cereal!  See!  O-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o (to the tune of the ABC song)."

I love having a toddler around. 

Home Schooling

So, it's almost June, and there are kids everywhere (school's out, eh?).  It's not a bad thing, but it does keep the library busy (which I think is awesome, kids in libraries!  YES!).  However, today really made my day.  My children were interacting with each other at the library, and an older gentleman (probably my children's grandparent's age, so not very old) came up to me and said, "I'm going to venture a guess based on how your kids are treating each other and acting in here, that you have home schooled them from the start."

I smiled and said, "Yes, I hope you mean that as a compliment."  He replied that he did, that he was impressed with the way they spoke and behaved.  I must say, that on days when you just wonder if things are going well, the kindness of a stranger really can make a big difference. 

Plus, what you, as a stranger might not realize, is that when a compliment is bestowed in a way that all of the children overhear you, it makes the rest of the day EVEN better, as they try to live up to what they have heard about themselves. 

Happy Memorial Day

Happy Memorial Day!  Please take the time to remember why we are celebrating this day.  NPR's The Story featured Colonel Jack Tueller, Stephen's grandfather's cousin.  He was a bomber pilot in WWII.  It's only about 20 minutes long, but is very informative and brings to mind the sacrifices made by the brave men and women in our country.  

http://thestory.org/archive/The_Story_53011.mp3

Misc. Pics found on my phone

Chayce @ marbles museum

Payge on a walk with daddy

Payge the monkey

Chayce climbing the wood hut the kids made @ the park

Payge on the freezer, hanging out with dad while daddy works at home

Zach and daddy mountain biking with the tandem

Family Home Evening

Click to make bigger.

Zac taught family home evening tonight.  Complete with the above illustration, which he did himself as he explained his lesson.  I had asked him to make sure it was tailored to meet the needs of his little sisters' understanding of the scriptures, and I think he did a wonderful job.

If you can't tell, or don't know, the above is his depiction of the story about the iron rod and the tree of life in Lehi's dream.  He illustrated that the fog we go through allows us to be tempted, but holding to the rod (the word of God) allows us to say NO.  He was adorable as he explained to his little sisters that when we don't say no to temptation, we end up like the people at the bottom of the page: grumpy, because things don't go right without guidance from the Spirit.  It was simple and wonderful, the way he interacted with them and taught them his perspective on the story.