Mommy!!! Come look at the Hawk!

We were sleeping peacefully Saturday morning, hoping to sleep later than usual after a long and late night of carving Styrofoam. I hear a commotion, a noise, that causes one eye to open warily. Quiet for the moment, and I'm up anyway, I decide to get up and use the bathroom. I can hear the kids talking excitedly through the walls. My curiosity piqued, I go to investigate.

"Mommy!!! Come look at the hawk!" comes the chorus from my children. What hawk? In the garden on the fence... Um... that's not a hawk.

What is this ungainly bird preening himself on my fencepost?

I sent Audie to get the camera and quieted Chloie and Dougie so that we could open the window for better pictures. The vulture quietly shook, ruffled, and cleaned only once stopping to look uninterestedly at us at the window.That is one big ugly bird. The kids were afraid that he was going to eat the plants in the garden, but I explained that he prefers animals that are already dead. A rather morbid start to the morning, but then again it worked well to get me in the mood for a vicious dragon required for this Saturday's wedding cake.

Apparently he didn't want to clean long, because shortly after I snapped these pictures, he flew away, leaving me unable to capture his full wingspan.

Tim's Camaro... and a suprise!

I was a sneaky little fiery dart last week for Tim's birthday! He says he'll have to watch out for me from now on, but I think he'll forget before too long after I lull him back to our normalcy. Hehehe!!!

So why was I sneaky? Well, he said he hadn't had a birthday party in quite some time. I'm not sure how long, but I decided that if I didn't do it as a surprise, it wouldn't happen. I asked our friends and family if they'd be interested, and most said yes. They all knew not to tell Tim. The only inkling that anything was up was when I talked to Steve and Hannah at Hannah's birthday party. The only thing I told him was that Steve and Co. were coming to dinner on Saturday, which was the truth, but not the whole truth.

I got off of work early on Friday and got hamburger, hot dogs, chips, etc. for the party and hid it all in the kitchen where he usually doesn't look. He knew I was working on his birthday cake that night, but because he was on night shift, he didn't know what it looked like or what else I accomplished while he was away (potato salad, cantaloupe, and other prep work).

I let him sleep and gave the kids a bath in the morning. While they were getting cleaned up, I worked more on cleaning out the garage. We went to two birthday parties that morning/afternoon and put everyone (but me) down for a nap. While everyone was asleep, I made hamburgers and swept out the garage. As I was sweeping, I heard the garage door open... I thought one of the kids was up... it was Tim!

After a bout of rather poignant questioning, he tells me that one of my guests was lost on the way to the house and had called Tim's phone for directions. I was THAT close!!! 15 more minutes, and it would have gone flawlessly! So since he was up, he helped me finish setting up.

Here is the cake I was up until 2am working on. The humidity caused a little problem with the fondant, and it looked like the bumpers fell off, but he liked it (his favorite Mounds cake recipe).Here is my little sleepy dude on Mom. Dougie didn't want to get up for anything! Abbey making funny faces at her Aunt Hannah (behind the camera)

Tim's brother, Steve, and Eddie Mueller at the party.

Over all we had a good time talking and laughing while everyone munched on hamburgers, hot dogs, home-made potato salad, chips, soda, Kool-aid, and cake. Some of the kids in attendance got a little muddy playing in a stream they found running under the rocks. Someone proudly brought us a crawdad (yikes!) and Audie's finger got smashed under a rock. Luckily it's not broken, but enter panicked mommy mode (PMM) - I still insisted on a blessing the following day at church. I'm not taking any chances!

Family Home Evening

I know I'm a little behind on the pictures.

This is our family home evening from last week. Seeing as the topic during Sacrament was Zion, we decided to carry over the theme for our activities. The center picture is the destruction of Babylon, while the pictures around the outside are Enoch and his people in Zion. We talked about why Babylon was destroyed, why Zion was taken into heaven, and the differences between the two. We then went down an impromptu list of activities and asked which city they belonged in. For example, fighting amongst ourselves belonged to Babylon; being kind to one another belonged to Zion; following the Lord's commandments belonged in Zion; and drinking alcohol and smoking belonged in Babylon. The kids understood that by doing the right things, they could live in "Zion" and not be in "Babylon" when it is destroyed. Everyone then got to color their own picture of Zion. Counter-clockwise from the top left is Tim, Audie, Chloie, Dougie, and me.

You won't belive what we found in the garden!

The kids were helping me work in the garden last week before it started on this week-long raining streak. Tim managed to get the beds tilled, and we cleared out the puff balls on day one.

On day two, my munchkins helped me plant the green beans in the bed by the compost, and we decided to clear out some leaves and brush that had accumulated along the fence. As I'm moving the leaves, I see a scurry of red...

Um... I really hope that was not a spider. It looked awful big. One deep breath later, I still see a hint of red, so I dig it up, move the leaves, and smile...Isn't it cute?!?! They tell me it is a salamander.Audie and I decided to take pictures and show Tim (he was in the back chopping wood). And finally, here is Audie and his new friend.
Would you believe I even picked it up? I think it was a little scared because all of a sudden my hand was wet... Praise the Lord and pass the sanitizer! We put him on the rocks behind the house where the rain water trickles down the mountain before we went inside for the night.