The Browns Visit

Dan's sister Amy, Jason, and Aidan came to stay with us for a week. It was lots of fun. Amy and Jason were good sports by occupying the boys time a lot (they were very energetic and excited to play together). Here are some fun pics.

Aunt Amy and Roswell

Aidan and Elliott giving hugs

The 3 Mouseketeers in their Cars jammies

Rub a dub dub 3 boys in a tub. Quite a wet job, especially when I was the target. (No they're not playing with themselves, we told them to cover for the picture.)

Uncle Jason and Aidan giving love to Roswell

Great-Aunt Cheryl even came up from Ohio to spend the night with us. The boys enjoyed her reading, but most especially the new whistles that she brought them.

Dog pile! A common scene through-out the week. Poor Uncle Jason!

Another ploy to wear Uncle Jason out!

The boys eating.

Engrossed in Little Einsteins

The cousin choo choo train.

Quickly Growing

Today is Roswell's 1 month birthday! He is growing so fast and already starting to get fat rolls. ( I love baby fat - but only on babies.) He is already 10 lbs and growing like a weed!

Speaking of weeds, I had to spend 2 days weeding our exploding garden. Not only do babies grow fast here, so do plants (and weeds).


Our garden after the weeds were picked. Compare it with this picture which was only 2 weeks ago.

Yes, I would say growing happens fast here!

Here's our first yummy strawberry! MMMmmmmm!

Pioneer Celebration

On July 24th, we celebrate Pioneer Day for our church. For those not familiar with the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, in the mid 1800's members of our faith were greatly persecuted for their beliefs. In order to find relief from the constant ridicule and persecution, the prophet instructed the saints (what we call faithful members) to head out west where we could worship without all the trouble. There were many hardships along the journey, but at the end of the trek they were finally able to find solace. We call these people "pioneers" because they paved the way for the rest of us that would follow in this religion. So every July 24th we celebrate the day they entered into the Salt Lake Valley in Utah, where the headquarters of the church is today.
We had our party on the Sat. following. We had lots of food and fun games that would have been played in that time period. I forgot to take some pictures of fun things like the log sawing contest, stick pull, panning for gold, and the tug of war to name a few. I was too busy watching the kids and helping out with the games that the primary was in charge of. Here's what I did get pics of:

Duck Duck Goose

Pioneer Elliott (with help from favorite babysitter Mindy)

Trek relay race ( they had to dress in period attire and fill their wagon with food for the journey)

Abigail in the girl's outfit
Dono promptly taking his clothes off ( I missed his start of the relay)

Elliott's turn playing baseball with Daddy helping him around the bases.

Dono and the gunny sack races

go, go, go!

We had lots of fun. I even won 2nd place for my homemade strawberry pie in the pie contest. I am grateful for all that the pioneers (like my Magnusson and Stapley ancestors) went through so that we could worship what we believe in.

Roswell

I just love taking pics of Roswell. He's such a posable kid. I thought I'd share some of my favorites.

We are Growing!

Of course we are always growing, especially our kids, but this post is about our garden. We get freezes even in the spring, so it took a while for us to get our garden started. It was quite the process. We built a raised-bed garden for certain reasons but we didn't realize how much work it would be. At least we are done and won't have to do it again! Here are pics of our garden and how things are just now starting to grow.

Our start in the peet pots until our garden could be built.

Our garden. We have rows of pumpkin, 3 different squash, zucchini, leaf lettuce, spinach, green beans, green onion, bell peppers, and canteloupe. I think I'm missing something, but not sure.

One of our 3 blueberry bushes.

Beef steak tomatoes

The first fruits! Grape tomatoes.

We also have a dwarf lemon tree in a pot, a strawberry patch, and herbs (basil, cilantro, and parsley) growing. This seems like a lot (and it is) but we figured it was our first year and we wanted to see what would or would not grow. And either way we'll enjoy the fruits of our labor.

Seeing the Sights

While my parents were here, my dad wanted to see things that Michigan has to offer since it was his first time here. I wish we could have shown my parents Lake Michigan, Detroit, Mackinac Island, and other nice places, but there were some limitations that kept us from taking those long trips, so we went to some of the local educational family hot spots (though the weather was beautiful).

Our first stop was the Potter Park Zoo. We have a season pass, but it was fun doing things that we never have. Or at least for Dono and Nama. They got to ride a camel. It was actually Donovan's idea. We didn't think he would go through with it because he seems to be afraid of everything, but he did it with a smile the whole time, no whining!

And a picture to prove it! We're so proud of you Dono!

Then we visited Impressions 5, a science center for youth. It was geared towards older school-age kids, but we had fun anyway.

The boys being eaten.

Making bubbles with different shaped wands.

Playing at the water table in the 0-5 year old room.

Dono's dream job (besides being a missionary and a fireman) is to be a digger-man. Well you can imagine the fun he had doing just that!

Elliott's turn now.

We also went to the R.E.Olds Museum. It is all about Oldsmobile and shows the beginning to the end. I didn't know that they were making cars even before Ford. I also hadn't realized that they stopped making Oldsmobiles in 2004. I guess I learned a lot this day.

The first steam powered car.

Here's a few more neat cars among the dozens exhibited.

A Hearse

Firetruck

Finally we went to the Michigan Historical Museum. We've been here before, but it was more entertaining for the boys this time around.

Riding the Plank Road

Sitting in a fake wagon. Whee!
Ready for school.

Namas and Papas to the Rescue

I mentioned in the last posts that Dan's parents were here for Elliott's 2nd b-day and stayed until after the birth of Roswell. What a blessing they were. Thank you for coming! The boys had lots of fun with them. They got to go to library story time twice, went out to eat, and we even went swimming at their hotel pool. They gave me much needed rest time to prepare for our new babe. Unfortunately, my camera was waiting in my hospital bag so I didn't remember to take pictures until it was too late. But I did get some hospital pictures with Nama and Papa Earl in them.

Papa reading the "AZ Rangers" a story

Nama and Roswell

Papa and the boys

Thank you for all that you did during your stay. We really appreciated the help and love you gave us.

While Nama and Papa Earl were spending their last moments of their trip with us, my parents, Nama and Papa Elliott flew in. We had a total of 5 weeks of grandparent bliss! It was an emotional arrival for my parents. A few weeks ago the doctors told us not to expect my dad to survive his cerebral hemmorage, so we didn't think Roswell would get to meet his Papa Elliott. We were very happy that my dad pulled through and was well enough to fly out and spend time with us and his newest grandson. My parents (mainly my mom) were a great help in my getting recovered and adjusted to 3 kids. I was happy that even though it was 4 am AZ time, 7 am our time, they were excited to be woken up by 2 bouncy boys every morning. When they would come in my room to wake me up they would say, "Can we go get Nama and Papa now?", not their usual "Hi mommy!" I'm glad they had fun with both Namas and Papas. It was a sad day having them all leave. Elliott was convinced that he was going on the airplane to AZ. He would even hide Nama's shoes behind the door and tell her "I hide your shoes behind the door so you can't leave." I think it would have been better if he didn't tell her where to find the hidden shoes. I was home from the hospital now and my camera was more accessible, so I was able to take more pics.

Papa and Dono giving Eskimo kisses

Papa and Roswell

The boys

Nama and Papa with the boys

Snuggling with Elliott

Nama and Roswell

Nama and the boys

Thank you for coming out to Michigan and spending time with us and helping us out! We love you and miss you already.