Things have been kinda weird here since Alexis has gone home. The kids are in school and it is pretty quiet during the day. I have had a wave of emotions and it just seems to be getting worse. I have been cleaning the house and I keep finding more of her things. It sets me off every time.

I get to have phone calls with her starting today which is good:) I am very excited to talk to her tonight. She is just such a sweet little girl! The kids have really missed her to.

On a lighter note. We have been having fun with our chickens. We have five now. One is a white leghorn/barred rock mix, one Rhode island red, two rose comb Rhode island reds and one silver lace Wyandotte.

The Rhode island red and one of the rose comb Rhode island reds are laying eggs. The other rose comb should be laying any time now. The other two have a few months to go.

The silver lace is the most friendly of them all. The Rhode island reds all have attitudes! I guess we will eat them first! That'll show them!

O.k so summer is nearly over. The kids have two more days until school starts. They are ready to go back but not ready to go back. This summer has just gone to quickly! We haven't been able to do anything super fun. I really wanted to do some camping but it just didn't happen this year. We hope to get the boat running this winter so we can use the heck out of it next summer. We have had some really great rain storms and one very impressive hail storm. The kids and I got a little freaked out it was so bad at one point. I took a video of it because it was so nuts!

Summer is here in full swing! Holy cow it is HOT!!! It has been in the 100's already. The kids are all tan from being outside so much.
We have two chicken's that Teresa gave us and they are so much fun. We like to watch them and check for eggs. Dustin is a regular chicken catcher! He can just scoop them up. Sarah is so funny because she is afraid of them! She will hold them but not pick them up or try to catch them. FUNNY! Rat girl is afraid of a chicken!
Every one is doing good and feeling good. I sure hope it continues. :)

So we went to SLC this weekend for Kevin and Alisha's wedding. It was nice and the kids had fun. Everything was kinda crazy and confusing but it turned out good. Jimmy, Cameron and Dustin took almost all of the pictures I have on my camera from the wedding and most of them turned out pretty cool. I was impressed!
I think we got to visit with everyone for a short time and the kids loved to see their cousins again. I am so happy to be back home in the sunshine again though. My fans are running and we are in shorts and T-shirts. :) One of my tomato plants must have gotten blown over though because when I went out to check on it this morning I had to very gently stand it back up and smash the cage back down into the ground. I think it will be ok but we will see I guess.
Sue is coming to our house tomorrow and I need to do some cleaning so I guess I will stop procrastinating......

For some reason my cauliflower went funky. It was growing good and then the tops of them went kinda a purple color and almost looked like they had gone to seed. They were all spread out instead of tight together. Any way I pulled the worst one out and left the rest to see what will happen. My tomato plants are doing amazing and same with the beets. The peas have seemed to slow down and we haven't seen any peas on the plants yet. I have been so busy with kids and paperwork I have kinda neglected the garden for the last few days. I do know it is getting watered because I have seen Sarah out there doing it. She is amazing! She even did the dishes and picked up the house last night. I love it!!!! We planted corn in our front yard. I hope it grows just so the neighbors WILL think we are weird. Kuz we are. :)

The weather has been so nice for the last few days the kids have been constantly outside. I have my windows and back door open cuz it feels so nice! I think I will take the kids to the splash pad this afternoon when I pick Sarah up from school. They have been begging all week!

Cameron won some races on field day at school.

I think he is blinded by the sun in this picture :(

Sarah on crazy hair day!

Alexis on the day we brought her home. :)

Alexis being a goof ball!

Well court came and went. It was Tuesday the 27th. I guess not much happened because Matthew didn't go. I was rather surprised to hear that because they drove home so far to get him there. I am not really sure what is going through his head at this point. Mom said he "isn't going to play their game" but I don't know if he understands the consequences of not complying to what they are asking him to do. There will be another court date on May 10th and at that point they will make some major decisions for Alexis' future if he doesn't show up again. They told mom and Dad on Tuesday if he didn't show up he would loose his rights to Alexis and she would be placed up for adoption. Sadness....I just don't know what to think.

On a happier note we are all doing great! Our garden is in full swing and we have been able to harvest our radishes. The kids were so excited they just popped them in their mouths and ate them up. :) We will soon have tomatoes, peas and cauliflower to eat to! I have a cucumber and a green bean plant that just sprouted. Sarah said the green bean plant looks like Shreck because it has horns like him. Kinda funny. :)

Alexis is doing great. She is one amazing little girl! We love her so much. She has brought a special spirit to our home. It is amazing! Her belly is always poking out because she eats so much! Yesterday after dinner she held her shirt up and was rubbing her belly. It was so funny. She was looking at it like...hum this is weird why is my stomach poking out so far?

We are getting used to having another little body hear full time. Things are calming down slightly and Alexis is feeling pretty comfortable. A few more dishes and a little more laundry never killed anyone. She has had a ton of fun playing with the kids and running around in the back yard. She is such a cutie!
We went yard saleing today and found some great treasures. I found several (50) books all in new condition mostly from Deseret Book. There are some really great authors! I am so excited to get reading! The first one we are going to read is "The Secret of Nyhm" I love this story and I am sure Sarah will like the part about the rats :) We also found some pants for Sarah and Jimmy and of course a few toys for the rest of the kids. I love to find great deals at yard sales!!
We are having a block party tonight and then our ward is having a parking lot junk swap and serving desert. Yum!