GNOMEO the 1st

on my dad's birthday the kids, sean, and i sent him the following message:

"dear grandpa, happy birthday!!! we hope you have a great day. every time we look at Coolie we think of you. we hope that you will think of us every time you see this present. we love you!!! 

love, emily, sean, b, max, and chase."

and what did we send you ask?

we picked out a fine present,

the most perfect present, 

for one of the world's best grandpa's!

a present to be delivered, wrapped, and ready from amazon.com.

a 10.6 inch statue garden grandpa gnome.

hand crafted from fiber glass and resin.

bringing a touch of storybook whimsy to your decor.

the kids have already named him 

Gnomeo.

i recommended they put him at their back door,

{the main coming and going location for them},

INSURING

that they would think of us just as often as we think of them 

with our 6 foot Coolie looking at us in our living room each day.

i give you my dad's response.

"thank you for my gnome. {insert laughing here}

have you forgiven us for the bear yet?"

we waited in anticipation for where our sweet Gnomeo would find his home.

i received this picture and email from my dad last friday:

"he is happy to be at the lake. Dad."

.....

banished to the lake house.

next year, i'm going to have to go bigger.

10.6 inches tall just doesn't look as big in real life.

i wonder if they make 6 foot tall gnomes?

isn't he the cutest little gnome you've ever seen?

stay tuned for slumbering gnome and strike sleeping gnome.

we are so excited for them to join the family soon.

..............

P.S.

we really have grown very fond of Coolie,

and i'm happy to say that he is officially part of the family,

but i just won't be satisfied until one of our Gnomeo's sits on the fireplace in the living room.

{there's nothing more entertaining than harassing your parents through online ordering:)}

HAHA!!!

pomp and circumstance

brennan graduated from preschool today.

i can't believe i'm going to be a REAL mom with a REAL kindergartner in the fall.

my favorite part of the year end program was watching brennan shake his bum next to eden, 

doing all of the pinky grabs, little hand movements,
and twists to the floor to the three different songs in spanish.
waving balloons on sticks to different parts of the songs.
26 preschoolers doing what looked like the cha-cha.
so SO cute.

{all three of my kids fought over the balloons on sticks for the rest of the night.
they were a BIG hit! balloons=magic. always.}

he's growing up.

i'm happy and sad about it.

and it feels so cliche,

but i can feel that my life is on the cusp of change.

it's almost palpable.

and i just keep reminding myself to savor every minute until it does.
b/c there's a shift a'comin'.

so strange.

     eden & brennan                                                                   cade & brennan

chase squawked at the balloon the entire time.

and pulled the stick off of the balloon about a hundred times.

hilarious.

max grandma hopped between grandma gibson and grandma carol.

my busy max,

back and forth:)

miss kim and brennan.

missing: miss jamie

WE LOVE 

miss kim & miss jamie:)

i feel like i might have strep again.

but whenever i have a sore throat i always think i might have strep first.

PTSD from last winter still.

i wanted to lay down on the floor of the park pavilion while we were watching 

brennan get his little preschool diploma.

i was so glad brennan picked to go to shave ice after.

my throat was so happy sucking down that deliciously flavored ice.

it's probably just a cold.

i have this super sexy raspy voice though.

yeah baby.

pass the NyQuil.

good night:)

letters to Emily {PHD program, bike riding, & learning German}

Dear Emily,

Wow, your garden looks great!  I can't wait to have a garden of my own one day.  One day.  Well, you will be happy to know Bryce did indeed get excepted into the PHD program here!  I was so excited!  It was a great honor, they told him 75% off applicants got denied.  My smart Bryce.  So we will be out here for a few more years!  More European adventures to come....but the best adventures happen with in the walls of my home and being with my family.  I have learned so much being out here, just not enough German!  Gosh.  I am going to take classes soon.  I know enough to understand a bit but not enough.  Bear will probably know more than me by the end of the year!

It was Bear's first Sunday in Nursery last week.  I had to sneak out. 

They brought him back to me after an hour.

He was sobbing.

But this week he made it!

He made it all the way through to the end. 

So proud.

Did I see little Chase swinging on a big boy swing?  

Wow! 

That is impressive!  He is getting so big!

The weather has been rainy/sunny, pretty typical for Germany, that is why everything is green.  But mostly rainy.  Bryce and I ride our bikes to church pulling the kiddos and we thought it was a light drizzle, so we put the kids in the bike trailer and it was pouring!  We showed up to Church looking like wet mice.... Our boys loved it.  It was actually kind of fun.  

I think I have found my favorite thing.

Biking.

Love it.

Especially with the kids.  

New family tradition:

Bike then Gelato.

Bear shovels it in.

So fun.

Life is great.  Being a mom is amazing.  I am so glad there are people like you in the world.  You motivate me to be better....

LOve you Em!

Beth

p.s. Did you get the Chico Reunion letter from Connie Nelson?   Are you going?

Ffffffffffffffff {wishing weeds & pots of gold}

while talking to the wishing weed...

"i wish that i was half spider-man, half batman, and half lizard man. Ffffffffffffff." 

-brennan 5yrs old

1/2+1/2+1/2=whole.

according to brennan.

and then he went to hunt down more wishing weeds.

making the same wish 3x in a row.

love that little super hero.

we walked home in a rainstorm.

after our wishes were about worn out.

a warm one.

the rainstorm.

not the wishes.

the boys hid under the stroller shades.

max and i got all wet.

not a hood to be found on our backs anywhere.

hair,

face,

clothes,

nose.

it was great.

warm and great:)

it was that warm summer rain that smells soooooo good.

and guess what?

we found a pot of gold in our backyard when we got home.

fancy THAT!

{thanks for the picture shana}

such a lucky,

lucky

day:)

he now knows what "torture" means.

how's your day after memorial day going?

lots of crying over here.

bored 5 yr old=bugging brother and sister ALL DAY LONG.

torturing is more like it.

which he has now officially added to his vocabulary.

after i told him to stop torturing max,

and he asked me what it meant.

chase and the giant peach {giant alberta to be exact}

directions:

1. cut hole double the diameter on each side

{this took all of our mental power, trust me.}

with a depth even with the top of the tree's potted dirt.

{say that sentence 3x fast.}

{i even had to google it to make sure i wasn't mixing up my diameter and radius memories.

and then call the nursery again to make sure we had it right. 

i blame my three kids entirely. don't judge. i'm a product of my environment, HAHAHA!},

2. loosen roots out of bucket,

soak roots and dirt around roots with root stimulate.

3. mix two shovels of regular dirt with one shovel of compost fancy dirt.

4. DON'T COVER GRAPH at base of tree.

{"don't forget this," said trevor at wasatch shadows nursery.}

5. water by drip for 2-3 hours, 

more root stimulate around base of newly planted tree.

6. spray for peach bugs {can't remember their names} 

now, 

in 2 weeks, 

and again in 2 more weeks again.

{in a brand new spraying thing b/c it needs it's own spraying thing.}

........

this paper is like gold to me.

i scribbled it down at the checkout register with three sticky kids seated in shopping carts and at my feet.

i bought them each a sucker to suck on 

while i had trevor the tree specialist {future physical therapist} 

repeat all directions for care of our newly purchased peach tree.

they are oh so very patient over at wasatch shadows nursery.

go there.

you will love them.

chase was supervising.

so if it's a crooked peach tree,

we know who to blame.

i need a day to recover from the last four days.

and an entire bottle of ibuprofen.

it feels so good to work in the dirt.

and then take a long hot shower.

i finally had to scrub my feet with my foot stone to get them clean.

i'm ready for a tree full of peaches right now:)

patience is a virtue? 

i've always hated that saying. 

  millions of peaches, 

peaches for me!!!

{in 3-5 years}

SUMMER BEGIN!

:):):)

{i officially give you my permission}

.................................

P.S.

max has a sliver the size of texas in the pad of her ring finger.

credit card or tweezers?

AND

my tomatoes haven't died yet.

fyi.

in fact,

they look fantastic:)
phew.

memorialing.

memorialing our family.

there's just something about american flags.

gets me every time.

oh happy day:)

letters to beth {garden planting & calling the president of the USofA}

dear beth,

at 1:33pm yesterday sean started rotatilling our dirt.

it was SO SO SO exciting.

max pulled up a chair for some good old fashioned front row viewing.

I JUST LOVE this time of year:)

we loaded up all of our beds with mulch {aka horse manure}, 

with the hopes of fertilizing {but not killing} all of our vegetables.

i have since been told that sometimes the manure can burn the new seedlings.

we were so excited about manure in our flower beds to keep down the weeds 

that we didn't really stop to think about anything else.

so i'm just hoping that if all of my hard work is going to die, 

that they will all die fast. 

b/c i think costco will still have tomato plants for sale by next weekend.

dear plants, if you're going to die, please die by next weekend.

or show signs of dying by next weekend.

i take it back.

don't die plants.

please don't die.

but

if all of my little seeds die, 

i will tearfully go hunting for replacement plants to buy. 

i hope they don't die.

more than anything,

i will just be devastated if i can't have garden tomatoes this summer.

this fall we will put the manure down in the back gardens so we don't have to worry about over fertilizing the garden for next summer.

to let all of the manure and such soak down into all of the salts. 

or something fancy like that.

that's what the lady at home depot told me on friday.

but she also reassured me that if we just mix up the dirt really well,

then we should be ok.

i love talking to people about gardening.

there's so much to learn.

hopefully we mixed it in well enough that they will live 

b/c every day for the last two months i have nurtured a good majority of the plants 

i planted yesterday afternoon,

and it would be sad to see them go.

as i was planting my corn last night i just couldn't help but think about how our society has it all wrong.

they pay entertainers the big money,

and you know what?
as i was leaning over my tiny corn kernels, dirt covering me all over, 

it came to me. 

farmers should be the multi-millionaires.

the amount of time and effort it takes to prepare, nurture, grow, and develop food should be more valuable than nba tickets and front row seats to whatever concert of so and so.

the food we put into our body.

INTO our bodies.

that's where the big bucks should be.

farmers and mothers.

so there you have it.

i'll phone the president immediately.

love,

emily

P.S. 

and school teachers.
farmers, teachers, and mothers.
we all get paid with stuff better than money.
amazing.