Ryker is four months old today! I guess he's breaking his sleeping through the night streak since it's almost midnight and he woke up :)

Today Madi was by the fridge looking at a stop sign magnet and she said, "Mommy, that an octagon? That's an octagon!"  ...answering her own question.  I couldn't believe it!  Our 2 1/2 yr (almost) old can spot an octagon.  I have briefly mentioned octagons to her when drawing shapes, but I'm thinking the iPhone taught her this one...  So I grabbed my camera and took a few videos trying to get her to say it again.  She kind of says it at the beginning of this video but it's hard to understand...but she says it really well towards the end of the video.  I LOVE this video :)  It's so cute how excited she gets at the end!





Here's one of Madi's latest activities....she loves hanging out in all the baby toys (bouncer, swing, bumbo chair, etc...) because she can still fit in them :)

For some reason Madi really does not like the vacuum, we think it's because of the noise, but we're not really sure...

So Mike let her wear his earmuffs and try vacuuming

She thought it was pretty cool...although now she's going to want those earmuffs every time I vacuum!!!

wow, no yard pics!!!  but the sprinklers and rain today are doing their job keeping our grass seed moist!
 

Yesterday we got our Hydro seed!!!  Mike was so happy to take a break from the yard and just sit and relax and watch others spray the hydro seed :)  (Although it kind of looked like a fun thing to do)  He has put so much hard work and time into our yard.   Some days he would even get up earlier to work out in the yard before going to work.  (He's crazy :) )  But it's coming along!  He is amazing!  Madi wasn't too happy to be in the pic...

We can see the grass already!

Now we just have to run our sprinklers throughout the day and keep it moist

Hello Ryker!

Mike crashed yesterday afternoon and took a nap, I think it finally caught up to him.  Then we went to the park for some fun.  After dinner we decided to pop popcorn the fun way!

Madi liked it!  Ryker wasn't too sure about it.

My students (2 yrs ago now...wow) LOVED to earn this activity for Fun Friday.  But don't worry, I didn't let them eat it like this :)

Here's how it works!  Just spread a big sheet out on the floor, take the top of the air popper and let it go crazy!  Poor Ryker started screaming at the end of this movie, he really wasn't a fan of it.  Maybe next year he'll like it :)

Raking with the broken rake that is now her size

Climbing the dirt hill in the empty lot behind us with her friend

Her friend is a year younger and about the same size

They've even made a slide

First layer of rocks down

Covering her ears while Daddy was using the chainsaw to cut railroad tie pieces to finish off the garden border

Madi's latest thing:  washing her hands on her own.

She carries her potty over, lifts herself up turn the water on

then washes!!!

What a big girl!

The missionaries also helped us with this little section of rock

Getting more iPhone lessons from big sister

Just tap here :)

Trying out the bumbo chair

Fine tuning the yard for grass seed

Second layer of rocks

Oh and if you are needing a yummy treat to make, try these Maple Bars, click HERE

Hmmm once again, no shoes...but hey she has a hat!

When we have shade from our house, Ryker enjoys being outside in his swing with us...and then I can actually help a little.

Tuckered out

Madi shared some dirt with him

The missionaries helped a few times this week again. They helped set some fence posts because sprinkler heads needed to go by them.  The ground is starting to look flat again!

Only a couple trenches to fill in

Garden is close

Cute helper

Here is our rock wall after the Stewart kids helped us stack and move rocks.

But it wasn't quite what we were looking for...

So we decided to rearrange the rocks

We did a lot of it at night when the kids were in bed so I could help :)

Which was possible thanks to Mike's movable light stand  :)

Swinging is tiring work :)

Last Saturday part of the Stewart gang came to help us in our yard and see our home

The kiddos helped stack rocks and move them off the "grass" areas to get it ready for grass seed.  Uncle Jerry brought his 4-wheeler and drag to help level out the ground

I can't keep shoes on that girl!