Tales from Happy Land: Update - Pictures from March 1

Jeremy has had lots of fun adding trees to our yard. At the beginning of March he got another one. I think it's a peach. His goal is to have trees in front of that fence because that's where the sun shines into the yard just before sunset. It blinds us if we try to sit on the porch swing, and it shines too brightly into the kitchen and yellow room. Benji often lets Buster off to run around in the afternoons, right around the time that Jeremy is watering and whatnot.

Benji and his friend, all ready for the band concert

There's Benji in the back. I wish she'd ever let him do snare, but she always puts him on bass drum, cymbals, and triangle and stuff. He loves cymbals, though, so he's not sad about it. :)

Sleepy Bubby

Sleepy Timmy with ramen

Jill asked me to take this picture.

I thought this was the funniest hitch cover ever. Right after I took the picture the owner came back to her car. Awkward!

Timmy made a bunny for Easter. He loves making decorations for holidays. :)

Caroline gave us a bunch of firewood when she moved, and this particular day Benji and Jeremy were throwing it from the trailer over the fence and stacking it. (We have the trailer parked back there.) I messed with settings on my phone to take these next few pictures. It was fun. My phone pretty consistently takes photos that amaze me.

There's Jeremy waving too.

Jill, Timmy, and Bubby

Benji

Stacked wood

While I was taking those pictures, Michael was begrudgingly feeding Henry some yogurt.

Timmy rolling down the hill at EAC by the auditorium after church

Timmy and Jill

Michael

Bubby

Henry fell asleep on the way home. This boy LOVES stroller rides! If he sees us moving toward the door to go for a walk, her runs over to his stroller and fusses. We usually take him. :) I'm glad he likes his stroller!

I looked out the window, and what did I see?

Henry found this broken GameCube controller and was so happy about it. He dragged it around for days. I think he even slept with it a few times. I think this was during the short time when we again had a working controller (not this one).

Timmy's been doing good at school. I get little notes from his teacher now and then. :) I'm so glad. For a while there I was worried about leaving him in that school, but I'm glad I did. He loves it there, and I think he would have been overwhelmed at a different school. Of course, he's going to be overwhelmed sooner or later anyway, right? Well, anyway, I think it was helpful for him to continue with the things he'd already been doing there. The complexity of the things he can now tell me has grown by leaps and bounds. He can tell me about how so and so won't play with him anymore, and that it's because he was bugging him, and so and so got mad, and now so and so plays with someone else. That's not really a happy thing to hear. So and so is Aiden, and I was glad when they were friends, because he's neurotypical, and he's a nice kid. It gives me hope, though, because he's able to express so many more things, and because he's able to actually be friends with people and understand the consequences of his actions. Pretty amazing.

Jeremy brings me flowers sometimes, just for fun. I love it. I believe these are hydrangeas. :) Jill loves them too. They didn't last long, but they were pretty for a day or two. :)

Henry loves his bottle. He hasn't been using it as much lately, which I'm glad of, but it sure helped with weaning. Thank heavens, too, because he bites me a lot lately. He's been trying to get 4 molars and his upper canines. Whee! Oh, I think I said that in the last update. Well, soon after I posted that I checked and one corner of one of the molars had poked through. And yesterday I checked again and felt corners of 2 or 3 others too.

And speaking of teeth, we did get the medicine for Hyrum. We have less than 2 weeks until he can get those dang teeth out, but it's feeling quite long for him. The first night with the medicine he took the antibiotic and that by itself helped, but yesterday it was bad. He's been alternating with ibuprofen and Tylenol 3. At least they do something, but sometimes they wear off too quickly or don't do enough. He got a blessing last night, too. I'm thankful for that! It helped him a lot.

I have to stop right here to testify that I know that Priesthood power is real. Little doubts like to bombard us from all sides, don't they? But when doubts and wonders come, I can always look back at Priesthood blessings and remember how true it all is. That and there have been certain times in my life that I've been inspired to pray for specific things, and the results have been undeniably wonderful. I'm thankful for these things in my life!

Also, soon after I took that picture we got our tax return, and Jeremy and I were able to get new shoes, and I was able to throw away those white and pink ones. We went to the sports store instead of Walmart, and we got good ones. They are both Nikes. I took the cushions out of my old shoes and put them in the new ones, and they have helped me a lot. My feel still hurt at times, but they hurt less often and less overall. That was money well-spent! I'm thankful for tax returns!

Harry and me

Maybe this is silly, but this shirt was ruined, and I just had to take a picture before I chucked it. Most of my little guys wore it. It brings back sweet memories. :)

In March, Timmy and I finished making this book. I thought it would be great for helping him to learn to read and write, and he likes to draw pictures too. About halfway through making it he started feeling stressed out and couldn't draw anymore. I drew a few pictures for him, trying to match his style, and copying and pasting Mario and Luigi from other pages. And then I had him tell me the words to write for each page. It worked great, and he was so happy to get the book in the mail. He got to take it and show his class, too.

Henry running around on the grass as it starts to grow back. We have some bare patches that we'd like to cover with sod. When they get wet the boys play in the mud there, and then nothing will grow. But there are no stickers in the grass, so little guys can run through it without fear. It's wonderful! We still have some work to do against bullheads, but we're working on it!

The moon over the little hill by the softball field at EAC. We were walking on the track.

Beejee and his secwet weapon

One day some people in our ward asked for teenage boys to come and help clean up their yard because they were getting ready to sell their house. The four older boys went, and they were each paid $30. They loved that, and Hyrum has been asking if anyone else has been asking for work ever since.

Jeremy helped Hyrum with investing over Spring Break. Hyrum puts half of his paycheck into savings, and from there he and Papa are building up an army of pieces of stock. It's been kind of fun.

Sleepy guy

And again (I think I'm obsessed.)

This is my first selfie with my new haircut, as promised.

We went and stayed the night at Jennifer's on Friday of Spring Break. We had a breakdown in communication. Jennifer and I had agreed that that weekend we would go to the zoo together. It was kind of our last chance because we had free passes, but those and our membership were due to expire at the end of March. Well, Jennifer forgot that we'd decided on a date and thought we'd decided to postpone again. (We'd been trying to do this since fall!) So the day we were set to go I texted her saying, "Excited to see you guys tonight!" And she said, "Uhhhh... we're kind of booked this weekend." I said, "What?! We've been planning this for months!" Anyway, she had planned CJ's birthday party for that day. She still let us come and stay the night, but they couldn't go to the zoo with us. Darn it! We tried to get my parents and Kelly to come, but it was too short notice, and Rick didn't want to be pushed around in a wheelchair like a gimp. Drat!

Anyway, it was nice to be there and see those guys! Jennifer made us pizza for dinner too. :) I took this here picture because after we brought in all our stuff it looked like we were moving in. Ha ha!

Michael, Brooke, Benji, CJ, Joshua, and Hyrum

Hyrum and Jill

Timmy

It was maybe a little floppy, but it was good! :)

Jill was very happy that Jennifer had some grapefruit. Jennifer sent some home with us, and Jill ate most of it. Ha ha!

Jennifer cleaning up after dinner (Sorry it's a funny one, Jennifer! Ha ha!)

Bubby asleep the next morning

They suckered us into buying this picture, but we gladly did so because everyone was looking!

Jeremy, Jill, and Henry

We got smart this time and got two double strollers. It was so great! We didn't have anyone running away hardly at all! We only lost one child, and only temporarily. I think it was Bubby, and he'd run down to the bathroom while we weren't looking. (Of course, it was Bubby! He's quite a runner. He can't stick to the satus quo.)

Bubby and Timmy

Michael, Benji, and Joshua

Hyrum

We found that we could play Pokemon Go at the zoo! So those of us with phones caught a lot of Pokemon and got lots of Pokestops too. It was fun for a minute, but then my phone battery got low and I got frustrated that we were focusing on our phones instead of each other. So I put it away and saved my battery for pictures. Good thing! Still, for a few minutes I was quite happy with all the Pokemon I was catching! :)

I like this one! Hyrum and me

Elephant

Joshua doesn't like elephants. I don't understand why. I like elephants. :)

Pelicans

I took the four little ones to the petting zoo while someone else ran to the bathroom. They had fun. :)

So enthused!

Timmy and Bubby

Jill

Bubby

Timmy

We found this cow, and some of us milked it.

Papa and Bubby

Timmy and Michael

Bubby and Joshua

Benji and Jill

Bubby and Timmy

Chickens

Michael

Michael and me

Michael really only wanted one thing at the zoo - the peddle boats. And we didn't do that. Poor guy.

Papa was excited to see the alligators.

Benji and Hyrum

Henry

Timmy wanted to see a bear. There ya go, Timmy. :)

Flamingos

Orangutan

Hyrum

Joshua

See the cute baby orangutan in the background? So cute! He was fun to watch. :)

Michael and Benji

The traditional face in the tree pictures

Michael

Benji

Jill

Joshua wanted her to smile.

Laughing at himself. :)

Bubby

Everyone pushing Michael out of the way. Ha ha!

Timmy

Michael and Joshua

Jeremy and me

And then I said we should try again with our sunglasses off. Ha ha!

This bird was hanging upside down from the ceiling of the aviary.

Joshua, Benji, and Michael

We like this spot in the zoo. It's a nice long, open walkway with pretty flowers and trees and the lake.

Hyrum

Jill and Henry

I look these next few because they are funny.

OK, well, this one's not really funny, except that flamingos are funny. Their legs bend backwards, and their beaks look like they're upside down.

zebra

Giraffe - my favorite!

Jill in the giraffe lookout

Timmy and Bubby had a great time climbing up and down and up and down the lookout while we waited for the train.

Benji and Henry

Giraffes

Jill and Henry

Folks on the train

We were at the front of the last car. We soon wished we'd sat further back because the speakers were right above us, and they were LOUD! A few of us ended up with headaches. Still, I LOVE the zoo train! You learn all sorts of things that you just don't learn walking yourself around. Plus, each driver tells you different things. It's fun!

Bubby and me

All tuckered out

This was a first. We had never taken all of us to In-N-Out before. It may not happen again very soon because it's expensive with a capital E! But it was a fun once-in-a-while thing. :) It was really crowded, and Jeremy and I didn't ever get to sit down, and Hyrum, Michael, and Henry ended up across the store at different seats. It worked out, though. We all enjoyed ourselves and were well-fed. And on the way down the road later we read the scriptures on our containers. ;)

We stopped to see Kelly and Rick "on our way" home. I hadn't seen Kelly since before she married, so that was nice! It was fun to see where they're living, too. Bubby kept running here and there and being mischievous, so at one point Kelly just grabbed him and held him. She says they're too old to have kids. Ha ha! If I'm not too old, she's DEFINITELY not too old!