Bousquet Happenings

A few weeks ago, Eva's preschool had a recital. All the classes had different costumes and they sang and danced. Eva's class danced to "Lollipop." It was darling. One of the pictures is of Eva with her friend Isabella. They're having a class picnic tomorrow, and then Friday will be the last day of school.

I saw a sand and water table at a yard sale the other day, and inspired by Aubrey's post on the blog, I bought it. The kids absolutely love it! We filled up both sides with water since we already have a sandbox. I have to change Aiden's clothes several times a day because he keeps getting soaked, but it's worth it because he has so much fun.

I joined a Mom's club in the area (they actually have branches all over; if you're interested to see if there's one close to you, the website is http://www.momsclub.org/), and I'm really excited about it. They organize lots of playgroups and have a book club and do service projects (it kind of feels a little like relief society except I'm probably the only person who is LDS).

The plants in our garden are starting to come up! I was so excited and relieved to see that I didn't somehow kill them before they even sprouted. With the garden beds finished, Jeff has moved on to trying to re-landscape the whole backyard singlehandedly. He loves doing outdoor projects, so that's fun.

Other than that, we're just happy and healthy and hope all of you are too.

Popcorn!! Adam can't get enough. We've started popping a batch on Sunday afternoons to give the kids something to look forward to while they're at church. We watch church videos or nature shows while we munch - I think it will be a fun tradition.



Adam is the best sharer - we know this will change in a few months!

Adam chipped his tooth on the fireplace a few weeks ago - if you look close you can see where the corner is missing.

And last but not least, Brian turned old(er) last week. He doesn't like cake, but he loves jelly-filled doughnuts, so I made a cake out of them and called it good. He is such a good dad - the day of his birthday, he organized a baseball game at the ward father and son's outing (with Brian and Tyler) and they played for hours. Well, it's late and the kids aren't in bed yet...Love you all!

Growing Boys

We are having a lot of fun in Phoenix. The weather has been really good. It feels like Boise in August. its been in the high nineties all week... it hasn't quite hit 100 yet. This first picture is of ben at the YMCA. we reward him with swimming when he is a good boy during "fun time." we put him in "fun time" while mommy and daddy do their "excercizes"(that's what Ben calls them at least).

Ben also loves helping in the kitchen. he is a really good helper. This is a picture of him cleaning off a beater after we made chocolate cookies... or as ben likes to call them, "choc-lookies."

My job is going pretty well. we went wake boarding as a company on Friday. I guess that is one of the perks of the industry that I am in, lots of work and lots of fun. Well we hope that everyone is doing good and we hope that everone had a great Mothers' day.

"Hello" from the Long Lost Bousquets

Oh, wow, I just realized I haven't posted since March! I am a very, very bad sister (and daughter). I enjoy reading everyone else's posts so much; I think I've just been waiting for something exciting to happen before I write. Nothing too exciting is going on, but we're all happy and healthy. Our biggest project of late has been Jeff building 5 terraced garden beds at the side of our house; I've included "before" and "after" pictures (the “afters” still need soil in them and the rebar has since been pounde down, but at least you get the idea). It's been a huge undertaking as Jeff has planned, leveled, dug, sawed, drilled, nailed, and hauled lumber and soil all by himself (well, actually that isn't true; Eva's been helping too :) ). Right now he's shoveling topsoil into all the beds and then we'll be ready to plant the 20 packages of seeds we bought at the store the other day (Eva was so excited!). Besides the garden, we've just kind of been doing the normal stuff. Lots of playdates, going to the park and the library, etc. A couple weeks ago some friends and I took our kids to a park that is also a working farm to see the baby animals that were just born this spring. The kids had a blast! Aiden especially enjoyed "driving" a tractor that was parked by one of the walking paths, and Eva was "kissed" by a calf. Eva and Aiden are getting so big, and they are so sweet. Aiden's favorite thing these days is giving the kittens hugs and carrying them around the house. The kittens are very patient with him and seem to enjoy the attention for the most part, which is good because when he picks them up he just grabs whatever handful of skin and fur is most readily available; this afternoon I caught him carrying Hopper by the cheeks (he was holding the cat against him so it probably took some of the pressure off the poor guy's face, but still). We try to discourage such behavior, but it seems like whenever I turn my back.... Eva 's almost done with preschool for the year. I'm working on trying to plan out activities to keep us all busy without emptying the bank account. Luckily there's a lot of fun things to do out here, so it should be a nice summer (especially the family reunion!). We love you all!

Hello from sunny Boise

Dear Family,
BethAnne and Grace are loving our new sand and water table, which only has water in it so far. The weather is beautiful here and we are all healthy and happy. We are very happy that we will be able to stay in Boise for hopefully a very long time. As most of you know, I am going to Mexico on May 20th to have Gastric Banding surgery (on the 22nd). If you would like any more information on this you can go to www.gastricband.com . We really feel that this is the right course of action for me and I am looking forward to better health and more energy in the future. I will go down by myself for the first two days and then Mark will join me. We really appreciate Mom and Dad watching the kids while we're gone. I hope you are all doing well. Have a great weekend!
Love,
Aubrey

Better Header

Thanks to Lisa getting me the original grandkids photo, I've updated the header. Some of you were noticing that it was a little tattered and grainy. Don't forget your Mom's and Grandmothers on Sunday. Also, it's Grandma Baker's Birthday today. She'd love to hear from you.

Rick says Hi from Rexburg!

From the looks of things, Rick is having fun at Ricks! He'd like y'all to meet Melanie Hansen from Driggs Idaho. Hi Melanie!

Family Fun!

Hi Everyone!

We are so glad spring has come! On the left you see my birthday present. Well, the loved ones are present enough - but I mean the nifty airplane in my backyard! Rick and Mark put it together for me, and the big and littles obliged by taking flight. The little ones twirl the propellor and pretend they are flying over farms and fields. This is a picture taken on BethAnne's princess birthday weekend.
We are so proud of Chrissy - and Carl! We had a wonderful, memorable time celebrating Chrissy's graduation. The outfit looks just perfect on her, huh? And Carl - we missed you but had you in our hearts. Dad and I feel so blessed to know we have good, brilliant children who have integrity and love in their hearts.

And here's the king and queen of the Baker clan! We really enjoyed this weekend - first at Kim Shurtliff's wedding shower and then at Grandma Baker's 80th birthday celebration. All of Dad's siblings were there - and many of the cousins. Aubrey and family came down, and Lisa and Adam too. We loved it! It was a joyous time, and we are so grateful that Grandma is recovering and still with us. Happy spring all my loved ones!

Hi everyone...

I thought I'd post a picture of Grandma's birthday (and cute BethAnne and Grace helping with the candles) for those of you who didn't get to come last night. We had a wonderful day - Kim's bridal shower in the afternoon (with all of the Shurtliff women), IKEA with Aubrey (crazy big store, but nothing too exciting), and then a huge birthday bash in the evening (Sumners, Craig and a few of his kids, plus all of the Orem regulars). Everyone seems to be doing pretty well - Grandma looked a ton better than she did when I saw her in the hospital!
As for my boys, they are all big enoug to eat their cereal by themselves, which means that Adam actually gets to eat breakfast now (before he wouldn't let me feed him anything with a spoon - he'd rather go hungry than eat baby food!). I found a baseball helmet for the boys. Instead of putting Brian in T-ball this year, I'm going to coach the three oldest in our backyard two nights a week. I think we'll have a fun time. Anyway, that's about all for us. For those of you who saw Adam yesterday and were worried about him, he is doing quite a bit better today - in fact, he's downstairs playing with the other boys as we speak.
I hope Omaha is treating the Hastings well. Love you all! Lisa