Ryan and Heather Moore Family

Well, It is 4 AM and I am up as usual. I have struggled this pregnancy to sleep much and usually fight getting out of bed. I usually lay there - tossing and turning and watching the clock change every few minutes. But today, I thought I would just get up and do a couple of things. So I am trying to catch up on my blog this morning. It is so quiet this early in the morning and I can actually spend time thinking and pondering the many blessings I have.

I am so grateful for spring. I love the flowers, warm sunshine, being outside, and blue skys. Yesterday was Saturday and we spent the morning cleaning the basement (getting it ready to paint) and afternoon working in the garden. We mostly weeded and at the end we actually got to plant some tomatoes, onions and other veggies. We struggled to get the kids to help, but they did do some and I hope it is something they can appreciate as they look back. We will let Collin and Megan grow some of their own plants and be in charge of weeding some sections of the whole garden. As we were out there working, I have to admit it wasn't fun, but there is a good feeling once you do work hard and can see the results. I wish I could learn the trick of teaching kids the value of work.

I want to catch up on some of the things we have been doing this spring. Back in April, the kids had spring break - just after Easter. It was beautiful and warm on Easter day. Monday we had a picknic at the park and the kids wanted to play in sprinklers. The kids settled for playing with their waterguns in the backyard. By Thursday, we had a huge, wet snowstorm. We enjoyed building the best snowman of the year and eating our peeps in hot cocoa. It made for an interesting spring break. My daffodills were in full bloom this week.

The begining of May the kids got to spend a long weekend with Grandma and Grandpa Bogue while Ryan and I traveled to some neat places in the East. We went to Detroit and saw a Tigers Game, then drove to Kirtland Ohio, next to Palmyra, NY, and then back to Niagra Falls. It was a fun long weekend getaway for us. I don't know how much Grandma enjoyed being in charge of kids for a long weekend. But she sure had a positive attitude about it. We appreciated all she did to take care of the kids which gave us a few days to spend alone on our trip.

Now we are approaching the end of the school year. Both Collin and Megan earned their "Distinguished Dragon" award - which means they worked hard this year and did well in their classes. To get this they had to pass off some minimum requirements for their grade level and even did some extra credit work. The kids have been working on end-of-the-year programs, along with tests. We just went to Collin's "Rock" Concert - where all the 4th graders sang songs about rocks. It was kind of cool. Megan's program will be next week - along with having her birthday. She is looking forward to the begining of June when she will be baptized.


Caleb is anxious for Collin and Megan to get out of school. He loves it when they are home. Caleb and I spend a lot of time together and he gets rather bored with my entertainment. I think he is enjoying the warm weather as well. His favorite things to do are play with friends, ride bikes, jump on neighbor's trampolines and go to the park. I have started him on a computer preschool program where he gets to learn some of his ABCs and pre - reading skills there. We hope to find a good preschool with other kids in the fall. He still has another year before starting Kindergarten.

Well, Ryan and I are keeping busy trying to get the basement finished and house in order, along with keeping up with the kids and their many needs. We are getting anxious for a new baby to join the family soon. We love our kids but they sure take a lot of energy to raise. The trip we took gave us some valuable time together - to focus on our relationship. I am so grateful for a loving husband to work with in this life. Ryan helps me in so many ways.

Time out turned into nap time. This was just one of those moments you had to catch on camera. It was an evening when Caleb didn't get a nap and was starting to get into trouble. Often when he starts getting out of control, we put him in "time out" on one of the steps leading to our family room. I guess he was getting out of control because he was just really tired and instead we should have just put him to bed. I don't think he was in time out for too long before he just decided to lay down and go to sleep.

Caleb had a fun birthday in November. We went to the Children's Discovery Museum on his birthday (after the big kids got home from school) and had McDonalds for dinner. Those are two of his favorite places to be. We got home pretty late from our fun activities and had a quick bowl of ice cream with bananas. Caleb didn't seem too disapointed that we didn't have cake.

We spent the weekend before his birthday at Grandma and Grandpa Bogue's home in Idaho Falls. On the way back home to Utah, we stopped at Grandma and Grandpa Moores' home to celebrate Moore family birthdays and have dinner with them.

Caleb loves to ride bikes, but his old bike was a little different from this new one he got. This new bike has brakes (when you peddle back wards). His old bike didn't have brakes. If you peddle forward, you go forward, and if you peddle backwards, you go backwards. When he first got on his new bike, he tried to go backwards and it wouldn't go. So he was excited to get some new toy tools for his birthday. He spent hours the next day trying to fix his new bike with his new tools. Finally after a few hours of frustration, I made him take the bike outside and taught him how to ride his real bike with brakes. It may take him a while to get used to it. Maybe when he gets more comfortable he will even want to take the training wheels off. I hope not too soon.