April 2008 Update

Well, another month is past and gone. Where does the time go? We had a fun and exciting March. Let me tell you all about it…

My mom came for a visit from March 14-24th and we had a wonderful time visiting with her. Normally when she visits we have a fun-filled week planned, however she happened to be here during Spring Break this time and we wanted to avoid the crowds at Sea World, the Zoo, etc., so we pretty much just spent time hanging out and relaxing. Mom and I were able to go to the Temple, lunch and shopping one day. Boy, do I need that once in awhile!!! Mom also helped me with some redecorating ideas for the boys’ room (I’ll share more about that later). She also accompanied me to Scrap Night and we had a lot of fun making cards together too. It’s so nice to spend time with her! I recently bought a bike for myself and a trailer to pull Logan and Carson in. It’s so much easier to go to the park than pushing the double stroller around. The kids love going for rides and it’s helping me to get the exercise I need!

Austin has spent a lot of time outside lately riding his bike and playing on the trampoline. I keep telling Rhett we need to get a big play structure for the backyard, but he’s not quite on board with the idea…yet! Austin is getting great grades in school and loves to draw. One of his recent favorite things to draw is an outline of the United States (including all 50 states). He was drawing it with crayon at a restaurant one evening and the servers were amazed at his ability.

Logan loves to play in the dirt. If you let him outside, he heads straight for it. He loves playing with buckets and shovels and dump trucks. Maybe he’ll be a landscape architect someday?

Rhett took Carson’s crib apart and built a Trundle for under the bunk beds. We bought a twin mattress and voila, Carson is a big boy now! He loves sleeping on his new bed by his brothers. Since the crib is now gone, I did some rearranging in the boys room and I painted the walls a light blue. I also bought matching patchwork plaid comforters for their beds and it looks great! There is so much more space in there now. It feels like a new room. See the pictures below.

Logan & Carson are recovering from some viral infections that they picked up somewhere. The Dr. thought Logan had Strep Throat, but the test came back negative, so it turned out to be viral. Carson on the other hand had little “ulcers” or blisters all over inside his mouth, but after being to the Dr. it turned into what’s called “Hand, Foot & Mouth Disease”, which means he ended up with little blisters all over his hands (a little), feet (a lot) and mouth of course. Luckily they both felt pretty good through it all. It’s amazing what Tylenol and Ibuprofen can do!

That’s all for this month I guess. We are truly enjoying our “Spring” and have been doing some overdue yard work. Temperatures in the 70’s and 80’s equal perfect conditions for being outside. Hopefully we’ll have just as much fun this month!

Hope to hear from all of you soon! Love – Rhett, Maren, Austin, Logan & Carson

PS. Okay, so before I even sent a message out to all of you about this update, we had some crazy happenings...on Monday afternoon I was busily paying bills, checking email, etc. When I was finished I came out of the office & noticed the carpet looked wet. I opened the bathroom door and there I found about 1/2 inch of water EVERYWHERE and water coming into the bathtubs and toilet. I ran to get some towels from the other bathroom and found water in there also. Long story I'll try to make short: I called Roto-Rooter & they came to clear the line ($225), while doing so they hit a couple of "hard spots". Because we have many large trees in the front yard they thought it could be a root problem, so I agreed to them doing a "camera" ($275). Lo and behold about 30 feet out in my sewer line they located a separation in the pipe...and it just so happens to be not only UNDER THE DRIVEWAY!, but also only about 3 feet from where it would be a City issue. Aren't we lucky? Needless to say I've been playing hostess to our home insurance inspector and several plumbing companies coming for estimates. Thank goodness for our tax refund we got last week! Although we were going to use that towards buying a second car... Anyway, that's my week in a nutshell. I'll probably post pictures next time of our yard & driveway dug up. That should be fun!