Sorry about that

I stopped by to clean up the comments.  What an incredible selection of options.  I could travel, get any illegal drug I want and see pictures of  things I never thought possible.  Or thought of at all, really.  For any of you who (used to be) are subscribed to comments.  My deepest apologies.

But since I'm here.....
My kids are still amazing. And exhausting.  It's raining and my plants are drowning.  Life goes on.
C is getting more practice with photography.  He is amazing!  I'll try to get some pictures moved around such that I can post some here.  C had a maternity photo shoot a few weeks ago, he has another portrait shoot this week and a senior portrait shoot in July.  He is also working hard on the yard. I posted one collage picture of the house back when we first bought it, but I don't think I ever posted a good picture of just the yard.  It was crazy overrun with weeds.  Nothing had been cared for in a looong time.  So we have a bit of work to do.  Soon, (I hope) the landscapers will be able to tear up my front yard and make it look like less of an eyesore.  They will also re-seed the backyard and make a new flowerbed.
For now, C and a boy from the ward have been working on the garden.  The house had an amazing garden area.  But the soil is not great, it doesn't really drain, and the amount of weeding we would have to do after 3 years of weeds taking over a going to seed was scary.  So raised beds it is.  Seven 8x4 beds and one perennial bed of a different size.  The ground is prepped, the sprinkler pipes are in, the lumber is cut and 2 beds are in.  3 total are built.  Next up is digging holes for the posts and building the rest of the beds.  Unfortunately, C hurt his back, so nothing more is gonna happen there until the nice young man (with the teenage back) can  come help again.  What with the rain and the construction delays, I am looking forward to a nice fall garden.

Baby M is now 13 months old.  She is trying out some steps and is so cute with those wobbly little legs.  She is also getting to be a pretty good climber.  She loves to sing--with hand motions!  And she is getting curly hair.  Oh, and she loves the potty.  Me thinks I'll be helping 2 kids potty learn in July.  I would do it sooner, but I am NOT taking 2 potty learning kids camping for a week and on a drive to Idaho.  NOTNOTNOT!

The boys are getting restless with all the rain.  I send them out to play as much as I can.  But I do need to keep an eye on E or he gets into all kinds of trouble.  I don't really want to stand out in the rain. Plus there are always a million things to do inside.  I miss the sun.

G is done with his year at preschool.  I put him in preschool because he would ask every day who we could play with.  He loved preschool. Adored it.  Then when he found out preschool would end, demanded to go to kindergarten.  None of this be taught at home with mom junk.  He wanted to ride the bus, be with kids every day.  So I've signed him up for kindergarten.  He is just mad he has to wait until September to start.  So I've ordered some stuff from Rainbow Resources and am going through the old homeschool supplies so we can "school" this summer.  He is sooo different from his older brother!

Speaking of older brother.  This has been a rough year with M.  I suspect a lot of it is me, but we were conflicting so much during the day, that I screamed "Uncle".  Our relationship sucked big time and C and I were arguing over M learning.  So, M has been attending public school in the mornings since March.  On  the one hand it has been really rough on him.  He is not too good at the strictly age-peer environment.  Of course I could go on for some length on my views about a strictly age-peer environment.  But he has made tremendous advances in his writing, spelling and math.  What is really awesome is that I feel like he and I are getting along much better now.
It has been really weird to deal with the school though.  Just not something I'm used to.  I am laughing though that we are legally homeschooling for the first time ever though.  Since he is enrolled only half time, I had to fill out the paperwork to declare M as homeschooled.  LOL  At the same time, I am now trying to figure out my role as essentially a non-homeschooling mom.  We will homeschool this summer.  I'm hoping that M having experienced public school, learning to write, and me having had a break, we will do pretty well.  I have always said I would never send a child to middle school.  I am hoping to be able to keep that promise.

For pictures of the kids for now, I'll just send everyone to my dad's post about their visit to see us this last week.  Hopefully I'll be back to write more before another 5 months go by.  I'm off to help with bedtime.  That's a process around here to be sure!