Home By the Creekside

We pulled out the slip n slide for the kids. We bought a girl one and a boy one. Lyndee was a little apprehensive on it so we did not set hers up. My little warrior, Brayden, was awesome. He zoomed on it and had alot of fun with it. Even the crazy dad had a good time and showed Brayden how to dive on it.

We are creating a walkway to our garden and camp area. We had a bag of cement lying around so we thought we would try it and it was fun. We ran out of cement and were able to do 2 1/2 molds. We are going to make more this weekend hopefully. It will look cool by the end of the summer. I will post pictures then. We planted our garden on Saturday. I hope that I can actually grow something in it. It is my first experience with a bigger garden. I kind of suck at gardening as I give up or I forget to water it..But I am determined to make this garden grow..darn it! I still need to plant some cucumbers, watermelon, and my gigantic pumpkins. Clay and I also spread out some more grass seed today on more of our acre. We have about 2-3 more bags to go and we will be done. We decided to skip putting in some sprinklers which will be on our list for next year. (Maybe) We decided to put grass in our campground. We were going to leave it bare but my other sprinklers hit so..might as well seed it. I re...

(before) Lyndee was invited to her first birthday party last weekend for a girl in her primary class. In her invite, she was asked to wear her dress up clothes as her fairy wings and accessories await her. Such a cute idea and she had lots of fun! (after minus her dress)

I served this at our card exchange the other day. I got this recipe from a neighbor down in our old ward in Mesa. We loved this salsa so much we desperately needed the recipe. Okay..I really needed it. 1 15oz black bean (rinse them) 1 can 10 oz mex-style diced tomatoes with lime juice and cilantro (Rotel brand) 1 can 8 3/4 oz whole kernel corn (drained) 1/4 cup chopped onion (I use the red) 2 tsp olive oil 2 tsp balsamic vinegar (a must) 1 tsp garlic salt 1 tsp ground cumin Combine all ingredients; stir. Store in airtight container in fridge for 4 hours. Email me if you try and like it.

Brayden had his first tee-ball practice. We are not sure if he likes it and he is not sure as well. He was a little awkward as he is a lefty and has no clue on how to play the game. He told us that he never wanted to go back because his hair was wet from sweat. It was quite warm for practice. Then later he decided that he liked it. I told we are not quitters and he has to stick this through since we already paid for it. His first game is June 1st.

On Wednesday, I sent Brayden out to look for his sweater in the car. On the way back into the house in a rush to go to the bathroom, he tripped, bonked his mouth, and knocked his baby tooth back. Frantically, I call the dentist. He tells me to bring the tooth forward since it just happened. So I yell, "Hey Clay, move the tooth forward." Screaming in agonizing pain from Brayden emerged from the bathroom as Clay realigned the tooth. Clay took Brayd to the dentist real quick to make sure everything was a-okay. The dentist said to bite down and don't bang it. After that episode, Brayden felt fine and even went out to play in the neighborhood. Fast forward next day, Brayden had blood all over his pillow the next morning and his mouth had puffed up so much. I felt such pain for him and I called in for a sub mid-morning. Thank goodness she was great since it is towards the end of the school year. I took Brayd back to the dentist and he reassured me that he will be fine and that ...

Lyndee's first dance recital was this past Monday. She did two dances with her co-dancers. The first dance called Animal Crackers was tap. I thought she would bomb this one. She actually did really great. However, the second dance was called Smurfin Cowboy. She did so-so. We are so proud of her. Before going into this recital, we were thinking about not continuing lessons next year but I think we will. She loved the glam part. After the recital, I asked her if she saw the people watching her dance. She said in her little girl voice, "They were clapping for me." So adorable, Lyndee Lou. Of course, she liked the fact that she could wear makeup. I really slathered it on for her.

More pictures to come. I tried getting video from her practice but it was too disorganized and she was not focused. Hoping for better pictures from the real thing.

My little man has gradutated from preschool. He will be in kindergarten.

Last Wednesday was Brayden's preschool graduation. It was cute and each of the kids had parts. I was sad that Brayden did not speak up enough into the microphone. I was unable to post it because of that. So here is a cute little song that they sang.

Here is my card for our card exchange this Thursday. I have had a good time with these wonderful sisters. The theme is Father's Day or manly cards. I tried making a fishing/hunter's vest whatever you want to call it. The inside is not finished yet as I have not figured out what to do with it yet...I still have a couple more days to think about it.

I have been getting really confident with my cooking here in Idaho. Today for Mother's Day, we (the kids and I) made apple streusel bars. We got the recipe from " here ". I have this awesome corer apple slicer that my mom gave me. It peels it, slices, and then cores it. The kids took turns slicing up the apples. This dish was done in no time at all. Helpful hint on the glaze: If you are glaze fan, have at it. If I make this again which I definitely will, I will cut the glaze amount in half and use granny smith apples.

Before....just dirt and weeds. During....getting excited!! During.....almost there!! Finished garden. Ready to rake and get ready for some Idaho goodness. This is my plan: a garden. I tried square foot garden in two boxes and it was not for me. Now I get the whole family involved in raking it, making rows, planting, watering, and of course eating it. This weekend I am going to plant some of my garden in egg cartons and then transplant outdoors when it gets warmer. I am also going to plant huge size pumpkins. I have seeds from a huge pumpkin that a person from work grows. Hopefully, we will be munching on the healthy stuff come August.

That's right, my boy, Brayden, started whistling this week. Way to go! He still is jealous that he can't wolf whistle like his dear old mom.

We bought and put together the thatching attachment that goes on the back of our lawn mower. It took us about 2 hours to put it together because we are retards when it comes to putting things together and reading instructions. Then after Clay went around the 1st part of our lawn, the cotter pin that hold it on our tractor fell off somewhere in the lawn. We had to halt. But, the kids loved riding with daddy around the yard. We did finish dethatching our lawn.