Happy Mother's Day to all the Mamas out there

So, it is Mother's Day and I got woken up by my 4 year old, 6 year old and 5 month old (the 7 year old was still in bed). My 6 year old gave me my gift in bed. He made me a hand-made card and a bookmark with his school picture on it as the head and then a paper cut out body with magnets to hold the bookmark to the pages of the book. It is awesome! I received a bracelet (hand-made) from my 7 year old once he woke up. My Mother gave me a bath set that is Margarita scented and made by SkinnyGirl. And My husband gave me the newest Sookie Stackhouse novel by Charlaine Harris titled Deadlocked. I am only a page into it due to feeling exhausted! But I absolutely LOVE her books! I own all 12 books, including Deadlocked, and the last 4 of them are in hard back.

There is a funny story behind how I first started reading The Sookie Stackhouse novels and how I  managed to start reading them in order! I ran across a book that had just the lips of a vampire on the front, and being fascinated with vampires, I decided to buy it and read it. This was Dead Until Dark. It was a pretty good book. With the exception of the fact that she killed off most of the characters in the book. (I wont say who just in case you haven't read the books yet. Or watched the television series, True Blood on HBO) Once I finished the book there was a little bit of the next book, Living Dead In Dallas, in the back of it. So, of course, I just had to have that book too. And that is what kept me reading the series of books. I had recently lost my job at that point and reading was relaxing. I ended up reading each of the following 6 books, in order, over the next week. Yes, that's correct. In just one week I purchased and completely read all of Books 3 through 8. Then it was time to wait for book 9, Dead and Gone.This was in May of 2009. I purchased that book, read it and then had another year to wait for Dead In The Family and another year to wait for Dead Reckoning. Now, here I sit with Deadlocked and I am almost sad to read it. Specially since it very well could be coming to a close. I read on Charlaine Harris' website that she is only contracted to do 13 books on Sookie. This does not include any extra stories such as the ones in Sookie Stackhouse: The Complete Stories A Touch Of Dead. In any case, the stories are about a telepathic girl who dates vampires, werewolves, shape shifters and is, only slightly, a fairy! All those "creatures" mixed together, with the occasional appearance of a troll or elf, make for a great read! I applaud Charlaine for all her hard work on these books.

Picture A

The reason it has taken so long for me to get back on here and type up a post is because we had a rather busy week. I ended up going to town every day last week, Monday through Friday and Saturday too. Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday were all due to helping out my mother and making sure she could get to her job. Then Thursday it was to help my Mother to get home from her job and we ended up picking up the materials for my Husband to build us a free standing deck. Well, we purchased the materials for him to build it. Friday morning the lumber was delivered to our house around 11am. Home Depot officially has my vote for best customer care award! My 4 year old was there with us when we were purchasing the lumber and the woman who helped us was wonderful. (See Picture A) She ended up giving him a Home Depot apron, a hat, a small tape measure, a Home Depot pencil, an LED flashlight AND let him pick any kind of candy he wanted off the candy rack (he picked out not only the biggest thing, but the most expensive), he chose a bag of Flipz pretzels (Yum! Too bad I can't eat those too LOL) He left being a very happy boy! She also taught him to say "Never Go To Lowe's!" and told him to kick and scream if we ever took him there. So now, whenever we ask him, "What do you not do?" he says, "Never go to Lowe's". It is sort of cute, however we had spent most of our time that day pricing lumber at Home Depot and at Lowe's, so he had been to both. Also, every day during the week (except Friday) I picked my boys up from school to avoid my 6 year old getting int too much trouble on the bus. Well, one of those days it was very very hot outside and I was trying to keep myself, the 4 year old and the baby all cooled off. We did this by letting the baby experience grass for the first time! He was slightly amused... until he fell over, then, not so much! See Picture B below.

Picture B

Thursday night we measured and marked off the area we wanted the deck built on. (The baby got sat down on the grass and did not like it one bit, at least not that time. See Picture C) Friday, I met my Mother and Husband with the 4 year old and 5 month old in tow at Fred Meyer where we bought 4 sling chairs, a glass topped table and a Chat Set (2 swivel sling chairs and a small side table). Later Friday afternoon/evening we all spent our time "relocating" our lawn. My Husband had dug out the area where the deck was going and had all of our grass to the point where we could move it to another spot. (By hand that was not an easy thing to do) We completed that and on Saturday, My Mother and I took all 4 boys on another "Nature Adventure". This time they got to feed Peacocks! Awesome birds. I really wished one would have fluffed up its feathers for the boys to see, But they did not, sadly. Only one had really pretty feathers anyhow. We found those lovely birds at Petersen's Rock Garden and Museum. (If you click here you can get a little bit more information from roadside america's website on Petersen's Rock Garden) I hope my pictures I took there turn out. However, I notice from looking online... People tend to take the exact same photos I took. And at the same angles too! (See Picture D to see the house that has had a lot of pictures of it taken over the years that thee is now a picture of My boys standing in front of! LOL) While there I was able to get more "into" the picture taking since my Mother held the baby. (Picture E and F) Well, she offered to put on the "baby backpack" as we call it, and tote him round. That meant Mommy got to chase kiddos down and that was just fine! We all had a blast!

Picture C

After the stop at Petersen's Rock Garden we went over to Tumalo State Park and had our picnic lunch and the boys enjoyed feed some of their crackers to a very demanding goose! My Mother threw 1 single tiny cracker at the goose and it was over from there. This thing would not stop coming back. I finally got my boys to understand that they could not feed the bird anymore or it would just keep returning. By this point it was hissing at them any time they would even move so it was a good thing they stopped. The boys then ran around and played a game with each other. You know, shooting, chasing, typical boy stuff! (Picture G is the boys playing at this park) I nursed the baby and then I needed to find a restroom. So to the car we went and off to the grocery store we went. (We needed to pick up some food before heading home too) Because my boys were so good all day, my Mother and I bought them each a donut. You would have thought they were in heaven. The 2 oldest, no dummies here, ate their donuts really fast. The 4 year old however... He took the chocolate icing off with his finger, then licked the donut clean and then ate the "bread" part last. He also fell asleep about half way through his donut and was out like a light until we stopped to pick up the mail on our way home. Poor little guy was all tuckered out!

Picture D

Picture E

Picture F

Picture G

Once home we got the groceries put away and then the kids were all off in different directions. The 4 year old was playing outside while watching Daddy put together the tables and chairs and the 6 year old earned himself some computer time and the 7 year old was also on his computer while the baby and I set off to the bedroom to nap and eat! And that pretty much brings us to today!

Picture H

I enjoyed myself this last week, regardless of how tired I was and still am. I also got my first shipment of many still to arrive! I had ordered more Whey Protein Powder from About Time since we use it in almost all of our baking. (Picture H) They had a trial offer of smaller packets of different flavors and I ordered the Birthday Cake and Cinnamon Swirl flavors in that and then I ordered one of the bigger jars of vanilla flavored powder. I also ordered my 2 older boys' school "Spring" photos. They just now came home with their class photos, I am sure it will be a bit before we get the Spring Photos back. I was supposed to pick up the recently taken photos of the baby yesterday. However, with being so busy I forgot! I will be picking those up tomorrow for sure!

Picture I

Picture J

Tonight, We ate dinner on our new deck while sitting at our new table! And those are the chairs too! Ha ha... (Picture I and J) As far as eating outside goes, it is something my entire family enjoys around this time of year. The weather is warming up, we are having highs in the 70's and 80's during the day which means that around dinner time it is still decently warm out. The main reason for buying this furniture was so that we can get our entire family up to the table at the same time and eat outside rather than inside where it can typically be stuffy and uncomfortable for any or all of us. I think that the set is pretty as well and couldn't be happier! The framework in the background of Picture I is the frame (or legs) of the gazebo that we purchased last year to have out in our yard to have a shady place to sit in the summer. Once the deck is stained and all set up the way we would like for it to be we will move the gazebo up onto the deck, attach it and the furniture will go under it! The deck is pretty, the chairs and table are pretty... I am happy with it! And my Mother seems to be as well. And that is what counts! Now, I am so very tired. I feel it is time to lay down and put on a sappy movie... The Vow is on my "To Watch" list. Maybe that is the way to go! Happy Mother's Day to all the Mama's! I hope you enjoyed yours as much as I did mine! And a super special Happy Mother's Day to my sister and my mother... Sister: Next year your little one will be here and you will know the joys of being a Mother as I have found them and as our Mom has. I love you and I am so incredibly happy for you! Just over a month and a half away from the baby shower... yikes! I may need to step away from my book and go into super knit and super crochet mode! Mother: Thank you for all you do! I truly hope you had a great day relaxing as much as possible in a house full of boys! LOL! I love you more than anything! I will be back to update everyone on everything again! Thank you for reading and taking the time out of your life... To read about mine!

~TTFN!