The Last of the Visitors

Elyse loves the Science Center

Last week we had our last visitors of the season.  This makes us very sad.  It was been a very fun winter full of so much family that it hardly seems that we are far away.  Lainey's cousin Elyse and her baby Nels came for a week! 

Elyse had not been to Phoenix since she was a toddler, so we showed her the town - the Science Center, the Mesa temple, the shopping, the cacti, and the swimming pool.


We attended the Mesa Easter Pageant at the temple with a couple in our ward.  The wife is a new convert to the church and was baptized the day after we attended the pageant.  It was a neat experience in which to participate.

On the Bed of Nails

Elyse and Nels were here for Easter weekend and were good sports to tag along to a few activities.  We had a fun picnic with friends and Easter dinner at Fisher's employers home.

Nels and Bubba really enjoyed each others company. 
Nels worked with Bubba on sitting up and
Bubba encouraged Nels to roll over.  

Bubba helping with the baking

Lou gives Nels tough love

Curly keeping Bubba warm and happy at Easter dinner picnic

Easter Sunday

Elyse was impressed with our Artichokes. 
Fisher looks a little more thrilled than I do

Lou loves strawberries!

At the end of the week, we all (including Elyse and Nels) loaded in the van and drove to Idaho.  Elyse joyfully volunteered to help me make this drive and I am forever indebted to her.  More to come  on the fun we are having, but if you want to see what we have been up to, check it out here.

Dear Grandma Betty,
We dyed Easter eggs for Family Home Evening on Monday night. It was only natural that on Tuesday we had egg wars and from the peeled eggs we made egg salad sandwiches. I always think of you when I eat an egg salad sandwich. The girls refused sweet pickles, but I, of course, know that egg salad is not complete without sweet pickles. I toasted the whole wheat bread, spread the egg salad and topped it with crisp lettuce. I cut my sandwich in half and imagined that if I were back in the cozy basement kitchen I would put one half on a plate and bring it to you for your lunch. And then, I would get to listen to you ooh and aah over the deliciousness of that sandwich. I miss you and hope you get to eat a good egg salad sandwich this spring.

Paisley in Peoria

My sister Paisley is getting ready to leave on a mission. We all adore her and were ecstatic that she flew down for a quick visit this week. She was here for just two days, but we managed to do a lot! We went shopping together and ended up buying the same shirt.

She really wanted to help me paint my kitchen and I wasn't about to refuse great help, so now the dull white wall is a very warm yellow. All it needs is some colorful red curtains so we went on a fabric hunt, but found nothing... at least no promising curtain fabric.
We visited The Science Center. The little plaza outside the center is quaint and historical.

Paisley held Bubba and played with Curly and Lou and we discussed who much they will grow while she is serving her mission. She will grow too, just no in the same way.
Remember what I said about finding no curtain fabric, well we did find a cute floral print and decided we should make skirts. They were quick and fun and very full! So we had a good laugh in our matching "German Milkmaid Skirts."

Firsts

Over the past few months, our family has experienced many firsts. As mentioned in the previous post, Fisher now has his first official workbench. Look how nicely those tools are organized - it's kind of like a piece of art.

I am now an official minivan mom. Meet our Sienna. I still have mixed feelings about this - we were squashed into our car before and it is very nice to have lots of space and plenty of room to pick up friends for preschool or the park... but the first time I filled the gas tank, I almost cried.
Bubba has been experiencing all sorts of first from discovering her tiny toes to rolling over. She also tried her first solids this week and she is a fan!

I tried my first attempt at pressure canning. That pot looks a bit beastly and intimidating, but with some guidance from my friends and a rainy Saturday at home, we put out 21 quarts of various legumes.

We have successfully grown our first Artichoke. Isn't it beautiful. It was delicious too!

This spring we have had our first success at gardening with lots of sugar snap peas, lettuce, broccoli, and now the tomatoes and zucchini are coming on.

Oma and Grandpa

A few weeks ago Fisher's parents came for a weekend visit! It was our first official visit from both of them together and we were all very excited to spend time with them.

Fisher and his dad spent a lot of time in the garage setting up a workbench

area for Fisher. They created a nice lighted space to organize all of Fisher's tools - so now he has no excuse to be behind on the "Honey Do" list :)

We spend an afternoon at "The Science Center" and enjoyed dinner at a German Restaurant while the kids were at our babysitting coop. The German food was okay, but the company was great!

It was General Conference Weekend so we spent a lot of time cozy in the study in front of the computer. Oma was busily knitting and I was stitching a wall hanging for Bubba. Curly thought that looked fun and so I made her a little stitchery sampler and she did pretty well with it.

Oma found some cute princess theme Easter Eggs at the store and had an Egg hunt for the girls.

The princess eggs were pre-filled with Candy. The girls ended up with some atomic fire balls. Curly was brave and tried one...

When her tongue started to burn, she was desperate and tried to wipe it on the grass.

We had our own little heat wave that weekend and almost hit 100 degreees. We took advantage of the evening coolness and took a walk together on Sunday. Bubba was her cute little self the whole time. She is the sweetest, mellow baby. Thank goodness! I am having a hard time keeping up with her fireball sisters.

Curly and Lou had fun playing games and rough housing with Grandpa. They spend a lot of time preparing a show for us complete with programs that Curly wrote. They read "Thank you for coming. We hope you enjoyed the show." It was a ballet show.

Thank you for coming Oma and Grandpa! Please come again soon!