Happy Birthday Paul

Today is Paul's Birthday. I've been thinking about him and who he was and what he has done for our family. He was a great person. He had the biggest smile and a tender heart. He loved to make people laugh. He had a pure and strong testimony of the gospel and loved to share it. He made my sister glow and taught us all many things.

A month ago I was bored while Spencer was studying and so I started watching some Mormon messages on you tube. Some are cheesy, but most are really good. I posted this particular one on my blog and re-watched it again tonight. It's entitled "what matters most". For Paul's birthday I thought I'd do what he would have done--spread a gospel message. This is by President Monson and he counsels us to spend time with, cherish, and express love to those we hold most dear.

This is the link:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KYhDhiojBPA

Miss you and Love you Paul. Happy Birthday Bro!

Tulip Festival

My Grandma Lloyd was a life savor and drove with me and the boys from Boise to Seattle. She spent a day with us before heading back to Boise and so we decided to take her to some fun places. We started with the Tulip festival and ended with the Space Needle and some of their delicious fudge!!!

THANK YOU GRANDMA!!! You're the best!!

Benson could care less about the flowers--he just wanted to play in the mud.
I think she looks so pretty in this picture!

We got ONE picture with both of them looking! That is called success!

My favorite tulips were the purple and pink ones. I think I need a girl!

They had TONS of different fields you could visit, but we choose Tulip Town. They structured everything after Holland (the tulip capital of the world). They had windmills, music, kite flying, and all kinds of things. We like to think we traveled to Holland!

Dunkley Farm

The boys and I have enjoyed taking care of the Dunkley farm for the past 2 weeks. Spencer was very kind to let us stay after the funeral and help out the family while my mom spent a week with Kristi in Pocatello. Reece's job was to take care of the chickens--he was so dang cute. He has watched my dad feed them many times and so he followed his routine with exactness.

While my mom was gone we got 50 new chicks. The boys LOVED them. We had to feed them all day long.

Benson would stand in the same corner and watch Reece while he did all the work.
Reece would first collect the eggs, then empty the food bowl, fill the bowl up with food, catch a chicken, and then would go to the next coup and do it all over again. Check out his farm boots!

He's good at catching the chickens--and is fearless. Benson loved to hold one egg. It survived it's trip to the fridge about half the time. The other times it would end up somewhere in the yard.

Where are the eggs?
I found one.

Easter

Grandma and BensonReece shook every eggs to make sure there was something in it before he put it in his basket!
Balloon fight--Reece won!

Boise--Dunkley Family

KITE FLYING
Grandpa Dunkley (papa) and Benson

Reece & Natalie made a great team.
This is a typical Benson look. He is pointing at "eece" because it's time to share with Benson.
"one, two, three" as loud as his little body could project

Spencer made the girls Green eggs and ham. They looked disgusting but tasted good!

Life would be so boring without our drama queen!

and without our Harley Davidson Grandpa!

hmmm... I wonder where Reece got his looks from?

Benson helping us feed the animals.

The kids spent more time outside then inside. I can't blame them--the Dunkley Park is one of a kind.

Benson was OBSESSED over the helicopter

Boise--The Miller family

This picture makes me laugh!! They were watching a movie and Natalie and I rudely interrupted to take pictures--you can tell in this picture that they were done taking pictures. Kylie and Reece make me laugh the most with their fake smiles and the "I love you" sign!! hahaOne cute picture of the crew--we missed Colby and Ethan greatly.
Benson and Jake became good buddies! They sat on chairs next to each other and smiled for the camera!! Good kids!
Jake!

Happy Birthday Benson!!

Benson turned 2!! Unfortunately, he cried every time we sang Happy Birthday. But, he went around telling everyone he is "two" while holding up three fingers because he couldn't keep his thumb tucked in!The boys favorite activity is beating up on Dad with the balloons!
Benson got a basketball hoop and loved it!
The box made a great race track--who needs what's inside?? :)
Benson refused to wear the "Happy Birthday" part facing forward.

The excitement of opening presents!

more spring break....

Ok, I think this is the last of our pictures for spring break.

This is a really cheesy picture but it's fun. Benson was being super cute and that's what i'll remember.This is Reece's interpretation of a sand volcano erupting. He was making the noises while showing me what it looked like!

CLASSIC Reece & Spencer. Reece has this weather book he got for his birthday which he LOVES and has just about everything memorized in it. They went through the whole book on the ferry ride speaking in their scientific terms...it was cute!

Famous Benson

I'm not really sure how this happened, but while we were at the Butchart gardens 2 sets of foreigners started to take pictures of Benson. He must be famous!

Victoria, B.C, & Olympic Peninsula

BEWARE: picture overload. Sorry--it's for the journal.
We went to Victoria, B.C to visit the world famous Butchart gardens. I told Spencer many times while at the gardens that this is what the Celestial kingdom is going to look like. It was the most beautiful place I have ever seen. Here are some pictures: Benson LOVES to give Reece random hugs!
Spencer is sooo good-lookin!

This picture makes me laugh because Reece was in the middle of his sentence saying, "mom, will you please stop taking pictures of me!". :)

Beautiful water fountain!

The sunken garden--my favorite section. It was heavenly.

You can't make it without the double stroller!

We had to take two ferry rides to get to Victoria. The boys LOVED the ferries!

On our way to Port Angelos to catch our ferry to Canada we stopped at an animal farm. It was SOOO COOL! It took about 45 minutes and we drove through this park that was full of animals. We say bald eagles, tigers, Kodiak bears, elk, bison, rhinoceros (Reece's favorite), lions, coyotes, etc. It was a highlight of our trip.

Benson fed this deer

LOVE this picture!

HUGE elk! By the way, they LOVE to eat bread!

I thought Spencer did a really good job with this picture. He got skill!

The Lamas are greedy and wanted to eat all our bread. We had a hard time keeping them out of our car.

Benson on the ferry.

Reece on the ferry.

Benson found a car game on the ferry. It was a hit.