Not His Week

Bracken has seen better days.

In the course of one week he managed to add several more wounds to keep his head gash company.  They say things come in threes, but I guess that doesn't apply to Bracky.

Friday evening he fell down just right to land his left ear on a wall corner giving him a giant bruise.

Saturday morning he woke up with pink eye.

Saturday afternoon he pounded Grandma's wall hard enough to make Uncle Dusty's mission plaque fall on his noggin' giving him a goose egg opposite his gash.

And then to top it off we all suffered a stomach bug Sunday and Monday. 

Luckily Bracken's case was the mildest. 

I hope the universe thinks we deserve a brake from accidents and sickness for a while.

Easter Fun

This year Easter snuck up on me.  We have been so consumed with getting our yard ready for my sister's reception and preparing for the youth pioneer trek that Easter almost came and went with little notice. We did manage to squeeze in some Easter festivites but just barely.

Friday evening I decided we had better color us some eggs.  I was so distracted that I almost forgot to boil the eggs.  I had the egg die all ready to go and Nathan was geared up for some wonderful egg dying, but he had to wait.  It took all th patience he could muster to wait for those eggs to boil and cool.

Nathan didn't mind staying up beyond his bedtime to complete the task.  Unfortunately Bracken did go to bed on time so he was not part of the fun.  But I figure we ended up with a little less died vinegar spills that way.

Nathan's favorite egg.

We don't promote the Easter Bunny but we do enjoy filling the kid's baskets with some Eater treats and treasures from Mom and Dad.  Nathan had been awake a full 30 minutes before he noticed his Easter basket.  Like I said, we have not focused on Easter much so he wasn't expecting it.

We gave the boys some new Spanish books to add to our collection and some candy filled eggs.

Last year in the Easter clearance I picked up 2 eggs with Thomas the Train trinkets inside.  I'm not sure what I thought those trinkets would be but I was extremely surprised when the boys opened them up to discover some full sized Thomas the Train figurines.  By sheer luck I had given Bracken the egg with Thomas and Nathan had Percy in his egg.  Nathan already has Thomas so now there is one less argument to be had in our household.  Each boy has their very own Thomas!

Earlier in the week I made these little chicks with Nathan.  He had been begging me to make some chicks for a long time but it took me a while to figure out a way to create what I pictured in my head.  I wanted them to small enough to fit in plastic eggs and fuzzy like the wind-up chicks you see in all the stores.  I love how they turned out!  It is amazing what you can do with pipe cleaner, pom poms, and cardstock.

Sunday morning at 7 am we hit the road for Bagdad, AZ.  Curtis's brother Erick and his wife Karly live there and were hosting a family dinner for the holiday.

We fed our groggy boys breakfast in the car and enoyed our 2 hour drive just being together.  Nathan talked almost the whole drive (he talks a lot these days) and he would get annoyed when Curtis and I dropped out of his current conversation to have an adult discussion of our own.

All dressed up in our Easter outfits.  I love how little boys can't keep their shirts tucked in.

After church we headed to Eric and Karly's house where the women got busy making dinner and guys tried to stay out of the way.  Their sectional has an armrest pull down and Bracken claimed it as his special perch.

I love this picture!  Nathan is talking away and Grandpa is paying attention to something across the room.  Nathan never realized he was basically having a conversation with himself.

They guys chillin' and Bracken still on his perch.

The food was great, the company was even better, and the afternoon activities were awesome!  Curtis brought a water bottle launcher with us and everyone old and young had a blast watching those water bottle rockets shoot up in the air.  Karly's parents drove over from California for the holiday as well and apparently her Dad is a firework fanatic.  Karly has fond memories of hiding in bushes to avoid investigating policemen.  He had a stash of fireworks (purchased in Nevada) that he pulled out to have some fun with.  He had fireworks called "Neighbor Haters" and he was not afraid to use them.  I think he is Nathan's new hero.

Happy Easter!

We did it!

Our GRASS is done!!!!!!!

There are still a few minor things to touch up.  We got better at cutting with each piece so we have a few patch jobs to do.  And we could use a little more infill to help the grass stand up a little more in some places.  But it is in and we LOVE it!

Step 1: We had to remove the existing decomposed granite (aka nasty stuff) and pull out the old weed plastic that was torn to shreds.  Then we had to level and compact the ground to prep it for the curbing.

Step 2: Curbing - By far the easiest step because we hired it out!

 

Step 3: Lay new weed cloth and bring the deomposed granite back in for the sub base beneath the turf.

We almost have it filled back up!

Our support team.

Helping Dad haul the decoposed granite with his dump truck!

 

Step 4: Level the sub base. 

Step 5: Compact the sub base.

And I did't get pictures of cutting and placing the grass mostly because it was done in the dark on random evenings and I was helping out a lot witch hampered my photo taking availability.

But here are some pictures of the boys enjoying their new grass. 

This summer is going to be great!

Grass Love

As we were nearing the installation point with our turf, we decided to roll out the 500 lb beast to see exactly how we were going to go about cutting it.  Nathan was in HEAVEN.  Both the boys rolled, jumped, ran, and played all over the grass.  They were having so much fun I did'nt have the heart to make them come in for dinner.  So we brought dinner out to the grass.

We were quite the site having a picnic right in the middle of our grass covered driveway.

Several people did a double take as they drove by and one couple walking their dogs stopped and admired our lovely patch of green.

I couldn't get both boys to look at the same time.

We LOVE our grass!!!!!!!!!

Being a little borther is rough sometimes...

Sunday evening Bracken had an accident.

Nathan was driving him around in the Jeep and didn't judge the distance from some baseboards hanging off a work bench well enough.  Bracken's forehead crashed right into a sharp point.   

It was my first experience with a head gash so I was not sure if it needed stiches or not.  It wasn't very big, but it did seem deep.  More and more I hear about the ER just using super glue and I figured I could handle that myself and save us the ER bill.  While Curtis held him tight I tried to get the blood cleaned up long enough for some glue to take hold.

Bracken was acting fine and only fussed when we were doctoring him up.  When he woke up Monday morning I could tell that it had been bleeding some more so I figured my glue job hadn't worked.  Our Pediatrition got us right in and when they looked at the cut all but one tiny end was glued up and it looked great.  They put some suture strips over it to help out and sent us home. 

Hopefully my choice to glue it up myself turns out alright in the end.  Luckily it hasn't slowed him down one bit.  He is as busy and happy as ever!  He just has his first battle scar. 

Hopefully The Last

This past Saturday we woke up to a good 6 inches of snow. 

We have had snow into May before so having snow in April is not too surprising, but it was a lot of snow for a random Spring snow fall.

Nathan was SUPER excited to break out the snow gear for one last fling.  On his "Must Do" list: snowballs, snowman, snow angel.

Bracken was timid about walking out in the snow, which is strange because he usually can't wait to keep up with Nathan, but this time he was content to observe.  Unfortunately several snow bombs dropped from the pergola onto his head.  He didn't like it.

This is what Nathan gave me when I asked him to smile for the camera.

Bracken trying to avoid snow bombs and one of the dump trucks full of snow.

Nathan gave his best effort trying to sled on a flat surface, he would get a running start and belly flop on the snow boogie.

You can see our grass peeking through!  Luckily for Nathan the grass held onto the snow a lot longer than anything else in the yard and no mud!

Before snow bomb....

After snow bomb.  You can see some snow in his hood.

By the afternoon all the snow was gone.  Good thing we made the most of it while it lasted!

Ladder Ball

We have been speinding a lot of time in the yard lately. Bracken would live outside if he could so he is extremely content to explore and play while we work.

Here he is perfecting his ladder ball skills.

 

 Showing Mom the balls.

And just being silly!