More Yard Work

We have spent a lot of our free time doing yard work.  It is finally starting to show too which is exciting.  It has been fun for us to learn new things and to be able to spend so much time outside.  Lydia loves being outside and helping so it has been a lot of fun for her.  The other day Justin had to redo the sprinkler system in the back yard.

 

  Lydia was a big helper and kept pushing the grass back done (even if Justin wasn't ready for it to be pushed back down.  She would push it down and he would have to go and pull it back out).

 

We've had a lot of fun in the yard and know that in time it will look great!

Yard Work

We have been doing a lot of yard work lately.  It seems every spare second is spent on yard work.  It has been a lot of fun though and we are excited to start seeing a difference.  We were lucky enough one day to have my dad and mom come and help us.  They brought my dad's tractor and he tilled up the garden area and the corral.  It made such a big difference.  He was able to do in hours what would have taken us days upon days.  We had to move gravel out of the garden area so he dug a hole in the corral and put the gravel in the hole and then recovered it and moved some extra dirt into the garden area for us.

This is a picture of what the corral looked like before my parents came.

This is what the garden looked like after.  The garden looked just as bad as the corral did.

Lydia loves helping.  My dad also went and got us a trailer load of mulch to put into our garden.  Lydia thought it was so fun helping scoop the dirt into the tractor bucket. 

 

This next picture makes it look like she is telling my dad and Justin what to do.

 

 

After all the dirt was out, Lydia needed to sweep the trailer.  She insists on doing all the work.  She was having more fun than the expression on her face suggests.

Brooke was in charge of watching Daisy and keeping my mom in line.

 

Lydia had so much fun helping in the yard.  She ended up a little bit dirty in the end.

 

 

The pictures don't really do justice for how dirty she really was.  She worked so hard and kept going the whole day.  It was funny to watch her.  At one point in the day she was actually racing the tractor.  She was standing on the side of the corral and when my dad went forward she would run on the tractor's shadow and then run back to the other side too.  It was pretty funny watching.  She has the cutest personality.  When we brought her inside for her snack she seemed to completely relax.  We let her watch some Mickey Mouse cartoons on the computer so she would rest for a little longer.

We are so grateful that my parents came and hauled the tractor with them.  We've been so blessed to have such great supports from both our parents.

Brooke is 7 Months Old!

Brooke is seven months old!  It is fun to compare the differences between where she is at now to what Lydia was doing at seven months.  Brooke loves to be moving.  She also loves to be around people.  Lydia was always content to just play in a room by herself but Brooke does not like being alone in a room for very long especially if she knows someone is nearby and she is getting left out.

Brooke is a very happy and pretty content for most of the time.  Here is a list of things she is up to:

**She started to army crawl just a few days before turning 7 months old.

**She likes to clap her hands.

**She loves to chant dadadadadada.  Lydia thinks it is funny and always tells me that Brooke is saying dad dad.  One day Lydia told me Brooke said grandpa because that is what it sounded like.

**Brooke loves being around people.  She gets a big grin when she knows someone is watching her.

**She is very wiggly and very busy.  She won't hold still if she is being held and is always reaching for something to play with.

**She likes being outside and running her toes through the grass and then she likes to pick the grass up and try to eat it.

**She loves to be fed baby food.  We have to have her baby food ready to go before we put her in her high chair or else she gets fussy.
**She loves to feed herself too.  She loves eating little puffs and yogurt bites.

**She isn't quite sleeping through the night; she still wakes up once but goes back to sleep quickly if I give her the binki.

**She has to have her blanket by her cheek to sleep.

**She doesn't take very long naps at all.

**Brooke only uses her binki while she is in her crib.  She will actually spit it out as you pick her up out of the crib.

 

 

**She loves to stand up.
**She likes playing in her exersaucer and the jump-a-roo.

 

 

**She will dance to music.  She sits and bounces whenever there is music.  

**She is the favorite baby in the ward.  She gets held by someone different during each of the meetings on Sunday and the first thing she goes for is either their watches or their necklaces. 

We love having Brooke around.  It is fun watching Lydia and Brooke interact with each other.  Sometimes when we are in the car Brook and Lydia will start laughing back and forth at each other.  It is so much fun to listen too even though I have no idea what is so funny.  Lydia always tries to get Brooke to say Dad or Grandpa.  They are going to be great friends.

Spring Pictures

We had my brother-in-law take some pictures for us the last time we were in Logan.  I think that they turned out so good.  The girls are absolutely adorable in their matching Easter dresses.

Brooke is the best at posing.  She loved having her picture taken.  She was smiling and cooperating perfectly!

 

Lydia did really well posing too.  We kept telling her to fold her arms in order to get her to stay in the chair a little longer.

 

 

My nephew was there so we were able to get a picture with him too.  Currently, there are only three grandkids on my side of the family.

I like this next picture because each of the kids is doing something different.  Lydia is telling Brady to wait, Nathan is being silly, and Brooke is just smiling as if she is laughing at the other two.

We were also able to get a good family picture and one of just Justin and me.

I love how the pictures turned out!  It is always fun to have updated pictures because the girls are growing up so quickly.

Easter Sunday

We started the day off by dying Easter eggs. My mom's church isn't until 11:00 so we had time before we needed to get ready because the kids like to wake up pretty early. Lydia liked dying the eggs. She made quite a mess, but had a lot of fun. 

Brooke liked the spoon.

Nathan mixed three colors into one cup.  He had a lot of fun.After church we headed to my grandparent's house for a family bbq and Easter egg hunt. My grandma is so much fun because she does a hunt for the kids in the front yard with candy and toys and she does a hunt in the back yard for the adults with household items.  We always try to get a picture of all the little kids.  We can't ever get one of them all looking though.

 

Lydia had so much gathering up all the goodies.  There was so much that the kids actually quit looking.  

  

 

Brooke liked playing in the basket.  She has become just as busy if not busier than Lydia. 

Easter was a lot of fun.  I am thankful for all of my family both immediate and extended.  I feel so blessed to be so close to my cousins, aunts, and uncles, and to have such amazing grandparents!

Baby Animal Days

We went to Baby Animals Days at the American Heritage Center in Wellsville on Saturday, April 7. It was so much fun! The kids were able to see a lot of baby animals. They saw a baby horse, baby cows, ducks, chickens, bunnies, ducks, goats, lambs, and a donkey.Nathan and Lydia stayed close together.We also got to ride on a train. These are pictures of us waiting in line for the train.Here we are on the train.The kids also got to go on a pony ride.Here is Brooke's pony ride. There was also a candy cannon that shot off. My mom went out with the kids to make sure they didn't get ran over by all the other kids.We also watched a mutton bustin rodeo. My dad bought kennel corn and Lydia loved it!The rodeo was at two different times and after we watched the first one went and signed Lydia up for the second one. Kids could participate as long as they weighed between 30 and 80 pounds. Lydia weighed just over thirty (as long as we had her coat and boots on her). Here is Lydia with all her gear on.Here Lydia is before they let the sheep run. The sheep weighed from 300 to 350 pounds. The people didn't position her very well. They had her way too far back on the sheep's back. Lydia wasn't scared in the slightest to ride the sheep (or the baa as she calls them). After she was done with her ride she started marching back to the starting gate. She gave the clown a high five and just kept marching. People around were laughing at how cute she was saying that she was the toughest cowgirl they've ever seen! Lydia isn't afraid of anything...bring on the bulls!
By the end of the day, Lydia was exhausted so we tossed her into Brooke's carseat so she could rest on the way to the car.Baby Animal Days was so much fun. Both Lydia and Brooke loved being able to see all of the animals. The weather was perfect. We had a blast!