Yard Work - Making it GREEN!

How can you pick a favorite color when there are so many fabulous ones out there?

My favorites:

Blue - absolutely top of the list!

Orange - well more of a peach

White

But green is growing and life and happiness that brings...

So green has to be in there somewhere.

Silver's favorites:  Yellow....and RAINBOW!

I agree - Rainbow 

Planting bulbs - for Mommy to see out of the kitchen and dining room windows - to see while we wash dishes and eat.

Giving our Swing set a coat of stain.   

All the girls helped.

I was impressed with River who stuck with this project from beginning to end!

Water.  Hoses.  Summertime.  With Johnny Jump-ups in the background on the right.  (They also remind me of my grandma.  That and orange trumpeter flowers.  My memories of grandpa's flowers:  tulips, hyacinth and pansies.  My Dad is pussy willows, fruit tree blossoms and forsythia.)

Colt putting in the sprinkler box

Just behind the sprinkler box, along the fence:  I have LOVED this planter box - Shado got it for me for Christmas - It really kept the plants from drying out too much and they bloomed ALL spring/summer long!

I was SO impressed with Colt.

He was hurrying gluing all the pipe we laid out for him together...limited sunlight, store hours before it closed, etc. and he slowed down when River wanted to help with the glue.  Took considerably longer, but made a memory and a bond between them even stronger than blue glue!

Colt always has a toothpick with him.  Above:  green plackers!

River blowing into the sprinkler pipe.  It was several full-day projects and the girls got creative with the long and short pipes.  

Ice cream break!!

Sprinkling the grass seed - we pretended it was magic fairy dust - like Tinkerbell has!

They pretended they were fairies flitting around scattering seeds

VIDEO:  Silver sprinkling seeds 

1st we sprinkled grass seed on the whole area.  Then drilled the holes.  Put great soil in the bottom of each and then put a "plug" of zoysia grass in each.  Zoysia is a grass that is heat and drought tolerant, but it spreads and takes a while to get established.  The other grass comes up quickly but requires more water.  This was a good mix.

VIDEO:  Silver drilling the holes

River the artist - drawing trees

Silver with hat and shovel - I believe in kid-sized tools to do the job!

Summer and Silver digging pipe trenches

Summer working SO hard!

I love her pink snow/work gloves!

Summer

Watering the Johnny Jump Ups

Paca's dog next door had puppies - oh what fun it is to play with pups!

River and Silver in a deep hole!

Summer River and Silver

Summer is always the first to try things.  She was the first in the deep hole!

Silver

Silver with her "ducky" feet - Gloves on her toeies!

Aaaahhhh!  There is nothing better than green grass.

Except for maybe mowing that green grass :)

Fruit Trees getting established

Almond * Cherry * Apple * Apricot * Pear * Plum * Peach * Nectarine

Red Wagon - Abundance - I'm so Glad when Daddy Comes Home!!

This is one of my favorite pictures of all time!

I love the energy of the picture with Colt & Molly (Kin's dog) running.

I love how the trees are blurry but the girls are crisp.

I love how the edges are darker and the middle has the color - Colt's jacket is even cammo and the girls stand out with the red wagon and the green jacket.

It reminds me in all of the bustle of modern-day life with the internet, phones, computers, tv on demand, etc. that we need to slow down and spend time with and observe where our kids are at.

Get off the computer, Turn off the TV.  Run Outside.  Create Some memories!

3 Nephi 17:23  "Behold your little ones"

Friends of ours gave us this wagon when their kids outgrew it.

Oh how grateful I am for those who pass things along to us.

Colt and I were talking about Principles.  

The First Principle we would like to guide our family by is Abundance.

The gospel is Win-Win.

When we are kind and abundant blessing flow to them and to us.

Live In Abundance!

VIDEO:  Colt and girls with Red Wagon 

Yummy! Chex Mix

Pictures mean more and more to me as the kids get bigger and I look back.

Things that didn't seem that out of the ordinary all of a sudden take on additional meaning.  They were so small!!  

Here we are about 2 years ago about this time of year:

Making pink rice crispy balls

VIDEO:  Sunday Night Making Cookies

Summer stirring the juice

Homemade pizza night!

Family dinner...

There is a reason that God gave us bodies that need to eat 3 times a day.  A time to serve each other by making a meal, a time to be together, to talk together...

Just as important to feed ourselves spiritually as physically...

Summer doing the dishes.

Summer and Silver eating homemade chex mix!

I LOVE this video!  VIDEO:  Girls eating chex mix.  Oh, I love how with kids you can tell very clearly if they like something or not!!  "This is the best ever"  or 2 thumbs way way up:  Only they don't say it, they show it!

Corndogs!

Quote Board

I can tell dinner was so scrumptious when Summer licks the sauce dribbles off of her shirt. Every. Last. Bit. That one's a keeper recipe!

Silver: Mom, I can tell you are getting Old!

Mom: How's that?

Silver: Your face is bumpy and my face is smooth.

Silver: There is a Whole World out there, waiting for us!

Summer: Me want to get BIG!

Silver: I want to stay small. Then I can play on the zip line longer and go father :) Mom, do you like being BIG?

Rain: "Aunt Karin, I like your rules"

Me: trying to keep the shock out of my face: Which rules do you like?

Rain: I like that we can't take blankets outside, that's a good rule!

Me: What other rules do you like?

Rain: That we always need to clean up a room before we watch a movie.

Me: Why do you like that rule?

Rain: Because it teaches good manners! My mom has good rules too - I like that we need to eat dinner at the table and when we're done we get to get down.

I realized through this that kids love structure and rules. If my kids understand why we make the rules, they accept it and follow it much better. The reason we don't take blankets outside is that they get dirty and then we need to wash them. I let them take towels outside, but not blankets, as they are easier to wash. "Oh, Okay!"

I love hearing "Ok Mom!" We've worked on our response to things Mommy asks. I was at the store the other day and it was time to go. Okay Mom! Aahhhh, music to a mom's ears :)

Mesa: "Aunt Karin, I'm gonna miss you"

Oh, Mesa, I will miss you too!

River enjoys asking questions to learn about her world and the people in it. She started asking Colt and I about stories from our lives. Every meal the girls have started to ask for mission stories, childhood stories, dating, college, etc. Summer will ask: "Yous tell me stories is yous lifes?" It's been fun to relate things that have happened to us and to hear stories from Colt's past. She has started to ask grandparents and aunts about their stories. It has been fun to hear stories that I've never heard before. The power of a question!

River enjoys relating things in her everyday life to the gospel: She will tell me and her sisters lessons that she learns. She took Silver outside and had Sugar and Flour in bowls. She taught Silver about choosing the sweeter path. She will talk a lot about how beautiful our world is and that man could "never in a thousand years" ever make something alive or as beautiful as a flower or a tree. "ONLY Heavenly Father could do that!" This is like the gospel she'll say and relate what principle it is like.

Silver was the first to notice that Tanzi was awake! Silver's excited gasp! "She's awake!" Summer then comes running over too: "Awwww! Her SO cutes!"

We set up a serve-yourself lemonade-stand by the side of the road for the girls. It has a sign that explains this is an early start for their mission fund and that they can help themselves and donate what they would like to. The girls think it's great fun to walk down to check their "money box". We swap out the ice daily and re-stock the waters and pop when they are taken out. It has been really fun to take inventory and do it together.

We had a fun family night scavenger hunt. We talked about treasure! And how special it is. Then we talked about gospel treasures and how precious it is. We then went on a treasure hunt to find different gospel treasures around the yard. They would run to find the next treasure from the clues that they were given about the hiding place. Then we would discuss the treasure on their card: Temples, Book of Mormon, Living Prophet, Gospel Truths, Baptism and Confirmation, Sacrament, etc. The very last clue led to a picture of the Savior, with his arm around a blonde girl. We talked of how the Savior is the greatest Treasure - his atonement and example to us.

The girls have enjoyed sitting with Tanzi on the bean bag. It gives them a place to sit next to her while she can be propped up a bit. They read stories to her and play musical instruments.