Hippity, Hoppity, Easter was a long time ago...

...O.K. O.K. I know easter was like a month ago, but I haven't posted the pictures yet. Better Late than Never right?!


THE LOOT

There were disgusting amounts of chocolate and candy in my house after easter...after the fun egg hunt at Grandmas (that we forgot to take pictures of) and the easter bunny coming to our house, We had to do LOTS of teeth brushing.


The Easter bunny brought the boys new BIG kites, peeps in their favorite colors, and books, and lots of other fun candy and stuff like cool socks and Peeps Chapstick :)






THE OUTFITS


I will openly admit here that Easter is the one time of the year I am sad I have no girls...those puffy, ruffley, adorable Easter dresses line the aisles of the store seem to taunt and tease me and pull at my heartstrings...and to add further insult to injury all that's available in Michael's size is the same old ties and shirts that have been there since Christmas...sigh...well after some searching and waiting for a good sale (of course) I found these gems....



Not quite a ruffley dress with pretty little ankle socks and new white shoes...but handsome none-the-less.


I did add this accessory for fun...



Hey...a mom of boys has to have some fun right...and they actually really LOVE their diamond socks.


Thanks mom for teaching me to go a little crazy for holidays it sure is fun (and my sweet husband is finally getting on board with all the craziness!!)

In Memory of Stripey...

STRIPEY (the big cat in this picture)
May 2008-May 2009

Our beloved Stripey met an untimely end this weekend on the road by our house. We saw her on the way to church (luckily the boys didn't see) we weren't sure it was Stripey since there are lots of grey and black striped cats in the neighborhood, but Grandma stopped and took care of "burying" Stripy for us and the lack of a tail confirmed it (that and the fact that she wasn't at the door to greet us when we came home from church)

I was terribly sad and was afraid to tell the boys, but they took it surprisingly well. Here's how the conversation went.

Me-Boys, I've got some bad news to tell you
Boys- What?!
Me-Stripey got killed in the road today down by the bridge
Boys- Is Spots still alive (our other cat)
Me- Yes...
Boys...Phew!! Well Stripey did live a long time.

We've had Stripey for less than a year. Guess when you live out in the country, you learn that a couple months is a long time for a cat. They commented on and are comforted by the fact that Stripey has many friends in Kitty Heaven. (they named off several of the friends she could play with there) When this was all over, Thomas hugged Michael and said..well now we'll just share your cat. I was shocked by the lack of sadness in them...it was almost funny.

We talked about why we shouldn't play in that road, and Thomas made us all write a safety rule for cats on a piece of paper that he's going to show to Spots so that she can be safe.

Thomas will miss Stripey, but will be able to remember him when we go to the grocery store, because he is convinced that the picture on a certain type of cat food is actually stripey and he often stops people in the store to show them his cat.

Aww...I'm a little misty eyed now, so I'll end this post with Dave's Ode to Stripey he wrote awhile ago.

Hello Stripy,
Where's your tail?
A pleasure to watch
Yet, you're dangerous to feed.
The boys enjoy hugging you tight
But you're no Sally cat.
You're cute with Spots
But food selfish
Love, S8SFAN

(Just a note on the food selfish thing...Dave said 20 minutes before we saw Stripey in the road, she was stealing food from Spots...so maybe Spots put a hit out on her ;))

Feel free to leave any memories of Stripey in the comments...as I'm sure we all have special things we remember about Stripey and in times like these it is important to share memories.

Why I blog/going private

I've been doing a lot of thinking the last little while about this blog (yes..I have better things to think about, but it's been on my mind none-the-less) I've been wondeing why I spend the time doing it...

Then while blog surfing one day I came across this quote (it's from one of the blogs on Adam and Sherry's list)

You will have significant experiences. I hope that you will write them down and keep a record of them, that you will read them from time to time and refresh your memory of those meaningful and significant things. Some may be funny. Some may be significant only to you. Some of them may be sacred and quietly beautiful. Some may build one upon another until they represent a lifetime of special experiences.
-Gordon B. Hinckley

And I thought...there is is...that's why I blog. This is my way of keeping a record of what is going on with my family. I'm not doing it to get comments from others (although I LOVE them and get sad when I don't get very many) and I'm not doing it for the whole world to see (which really kind of freaks me out), it's for me.

That being said, I want to share these things with friends and family and friendly blog stalkers :) (I know you're out there..LOL) So...I'm going private with my blog but want to include anyone who wants to be included (as long as you're not creepy) so if you want an invite...just leave me your e-mail address in reply, or e-mail me your address and I'll be happy to include you. I won't be offended or think you're weird if you want an invite just so you can look...I do that to an embarassing amount of blogs...I've just got a couple of hits lately that have me worried...so I'm taking the reigns so to speak.

Well, sorry so long winded...I'll be going private in a week...so send me those addresses to ngarrits @ msn . com.

Robert's Blessing

Yesterday was a special day for our family. It was Robert's blessing day. I love being a mom on days like this!!

His brothers kept telling him from the minute he woke that today was his special day. For some reason I was very nervous, but everything was perfect. He didn't puke during the blessing (he has had a cold and when he starts coughing, it induces projectile vomiting!!) He didn't even cry once during sacrament meeting for that matter. (unlike his mom who couldn't seem to stop crying!!) It was almost like he knew it was a special day, and was excited for it too!

It meant so much to me to have so many worthy men surround my baby boy with love as he was held in his daddy's arms and given a beautiful blessing. He was told many things in his blessing, but the ones that stood out to me were that he would make good friends, develop a testimony and have a desire to share it, he would make learning a part of his life, and that he would make good choices and be able to descern the spirit when he felt it.

After church , we had a wonderful dinner (sloppy joes, salads, veggies, chips, great desserts, etc!) and enjoyed time as a family afterword. Thanks again to all those who came and helped out by bringing yummy food!! And thanks to those who were there in spirit even though they couldn't be there otherwise.

Really it was about as perfect as a day could be....and was summed up so well by Thomas as he said his bedtime prayers..."Heavenly Father, thank you so much for Roberts special blessing day. It was emotional and exciting....." I checked with him afterword to make sure he really said emotional (a rather big word for a 5 year old to use!) I had to explain to Michael what emotional meant, and he was rather upset that Thomas knew a word that he didn't (LOL)

I'll finish off this post with lots of pics of my little man and the people who love him!!

The men in my life...oh so handsome!!!

My boys and Grandpa Mullen

4 generations

Our family (this is actually our first family picture...thanks Sherry)

Grandma and Grandpa Walker (unfortunately the ones without me in them too didn't turn out)

My sweet boy wrapped up in the softest blanket EVER (thanks mom!!)