May 2009

In May, things settled down a bit in our house. The floors were done. (You can kind of see how the downsairs floors look in this picture below.) And the yard was completed. This was a relief since as Annika said once that she didn't want to play in a backyard that was covered with "smokes and poops"! There was no landscaping and the previous owners apparently NEVER bothered to clean up their pets' messes and apparently they liked to smoke in the backyard too...A LOT. It really was disgusting! We had a few unpleasant surprises like that. I guess that's what you get when you buy a foreclosed home! Oh well, the "smokes and poops" and relentless animal hair is now gone and it feels like our own home at last. The girls had fun from May to Sept. swimming in our portable pool and running through the sprinklers.

Annika turned 5 May 7th. Things had been so crazy for so long that it was nice to enjoy a little party with just our little family. She loved her new bike and rides so fast she scares us sometimes.

Elora also had a birthday on May 19th. She turned 3 years old. She got a wedding dress to dress up in and I think she looked so angelic in it. I know this picture will have to be shown at her wedding reception someday!

This was my first experiment at making an ice-cream cake. Our family isn't too fond of regular cake for some reason so I tried something new. There is no cake in it. It has a cookie crumb crust like a cheesecake and two layers of ice-cream (Chocolate ice-cream and vanilla ice cream with raspberry puree mixed in it with ganache and raspberries on the top. It was a winner. Now everyone requests ice-cream cake on their birthdays. No more wasted birthday cakes! Yeah!

On Memorial Day weekend we took another trip to Utah so we could see my sister-in-law Shaunna and her adorable kids who live in Texas. We rarely get to see them so we wanted to take advantage of the opportunity while they were up visiting Jerry and Kit.

We went to Thanksgiving point and visited this adorable little farm! The kids got to pet bunnies, ride horses, ride a stage coach, go on a hay ride and see all kinds of farm animals. It was so fun! Elora still talks about it and calls it "my Grandma's farm"! Annika, Emmerson(Shaunna's daughter), Elora, Liesel

Emmerson and Annika

Ben and James