House of Happy Chaos

Well, its been a couple of crazy weeks since I wrote last. It always seems like things all come at once. My brother Patrick and his wife, Alicia, graduated from BYU. Alicia got her Masters in accounting and Patrick got his Bachelors sociology and is going on to get his Masters in public administration from the U of U. Next, Andrew graduated from the U of U with a Doctor of Physical Therapy. It was great fun to see them all finish such big accomplishments. I am so proud of them. As the older sister you sometimes feel like a little bit of a mother hen, so sometimes it is still crazy to me that they are all so grown up - graduating, having kids, living in far flung places. Speaking of having kids, Pat and Alicia are going to have a baby! Yeah! Another big change in their lives and another big congratulations from The Green Hamsters!
With the graduations, my brother, Corbin, has been in town. That has been soon fun for us. We miss him terribly. He is still very busy trying to get his final film project up and running, but we are glad he took time to come to visit. Just having him around makes me happy.
In other news, our fence is finished and it is awesome! We love it. We have also had Jorge put a new garage door on the house. It is fabulous. It closes all of the way! I can even operate it with one hand! It is a beautiful thing. Our next project is our crumbling front stairs. I can't wait. Our front stairs have this hideous AstroTurf covering them and they are disintegrating as I write. I can't wait for the gleam of new, glorious, uncovered concrete.
With all of our Frost family together and with the new additions to our house. We thought we would have a barbecue with everyone. It was a lot of fun. We did get rained on a little bit, but with our screened in porch it wasn't bad. It was great to feel like we could have people over and entertain.
As far as the kids go, Carter had to do a "show and teach" presentation in school where he picked something that he liked to do and then he had to teach his class how to do it. He really likes playing games so he taught everyone how to play the board game Othello. He did really well. His school year is fast coming to a close and we are both having mixed feelings about it. He has grown a lot this year and will miss his class. I can't believe I almost have a 1st grade child. Also, we are trying to get his two front teeth to come out. His new permanent teeth want to come in and they are pushing his other teeth to stick way out. Typical Carter, won't let me touch them though. I am thinking that another visit to the dentist is inevitable.
Lily gave her first talk in church over the weekend. Dwight helped her and she did a terrific job. She was a little nervous, but she did great. She talked about repentance. It makes a mom feel so happy!
Well, I suppose that I'd better get to reading my book. It's The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society. I have been invited to join a book club and our first meeting is tomorrow. I am excited about it. I hope that I can keep up with it. It will be a little bit of a challenge to fit it in, but I am going to try.

Robin Hood

It has been a long, but productive week. We rented a Chevy Silverado truck over the weekend to help us get our yard, screen porch, and garage under control. After 5 trips to the local dump and one trip to Deseret Industries, we DID IT. There were tired backs and hands full of slivers, but we did it. It feels so much lighter. A great weight has been removed from me. I feel like I'm walking around on a cloud. I hope we can keep it up.
I also went and got our first fruits and veggie basket from The Bountiful Baskets food Co-op. It was fun and I am really excited about the food. I was so surprised at the amount of people who were up early on a Saturday morning for fruits and veggies. It was exciting to see. Power the veggie people! It will be interesting to try to find yummy ways to cook and eat them all. We have been trying to get the kids to eat more vegetables and to think about them positively. I decided to try giving them a quarter to put in a jar each time they ate a serving of vegetables and didn't complain. It seems to be working pretty well so far. I don't if that seems silly or not, but I figure anything to get them starting healthy habits. I didn't want to be the parent who is always nagging and yelling at the kids to "eat your vegetables!" I want them to think of healthy food as exciting and good for them. I want them to be different from me in that way. I want them to be healthy and happy.
Last week we also put together our new "Food rotation system" shelf from Shelf Reliance. Let me tell you. It is a sight to behold. Sheer beauty! It is a good deal more empty than I would like, but you have to start somewhere, right? It can hold a TON! I just love it. I am excited to get more prepared with our food storage. We have a good start, but there is now room to grow. Yeah!
One last piece of news from the Green Hamsters, Lily got to go to her first birthday party today. She was SOO EXCITED. She was even telling everyone in Walmart last night about it. "I get to go to Ezra's birthday party!" "He invited me!" "I am so excited that I could just scream!" They went to the Gateway Children's museum and then had a picnic lunch. It was a Robin Hood themed birthday so she came home with this cute Robin Hood hat that our neighbor had made. (Way to go Kinsie!) She looked adorable and she had a great time. Fun, fun, FUN. Good times. Noodle salad.