House O' Sullivans

Hallee on Day #1 Our Hallee--otherwise known as "Hal" or "Little"--turned five yesterday.  From the time that she was a baby, I knew that she was a strong-willed little girl and felt an immense responsibility to teach her right from wrong.  I knew even then that she would not be a fence sitter, that she would pick a side and stubbornly defend it.  Although she is the originator of the majority of the drama in our home, she is also so full of love and sweetness.  Over the last few weeks she's become overly and overtly polite.  I've been talking a lot about being gracious and grateful, and often she will pull me down to her level and profusely, sincerely thank me for doing things for her.  Last night I overheard her telling Casey, "Dad, thank you so much for getting me this unicorn [a birthday gift she'd received that day], I really appreciate it."  All with a sweet smile on her face.  Today Zeke tripped over a step stool that Hal had left o...

Although spring doesn't OFFICIALLY start until March 20th, when the temperatures rose up into the 70's this week, I was motivated to action.  First, we added three new chicks to the flock: Black, Diamond, and Peach. Zeke with Peach and Black.  Yes, that is poop in the foreground. Zeke picked out this cute Black Astralorp and named her  "Black" Hallee chose a Golden Sex Link and named her "Diamond" Sophie picked out a rare breed called a Wellsummer and named her "Peach" Hallee is in HEAVEN!!!! This week I worked compost into my garden boxes and planted all of my early season crops--radishes, lettuce, spinach, carrots, onions, parsley, arugula, cilantro, peas, basil, and even some hardy broccoli and cauliflower varieties close to the house where it's perpetually warm.  All eight boxes . . . planted!! After sitting under three feet of snow for two months straight, it has all nearly melted. Zeke, posing by what ...

The annual trek to St. George started on the Thursday before last.  According to the weather forecast, it was allegedly supposed to rain most of Friday and part of Saturday.  Instead of backing out, we decided to embrace this fact and enjoy whatever came to us.  In preparation I went to a local thrift store and scored some raincoats for the kids for a pittance.  For about $5 total, they were all outfitted with nearly new, high quality rain gear.  I love thrift stores! We had loaded the van the night before and were ready to roll at 6 am.  The kids were so excited when we woke them up.  They dutifully dressed and loaded into the van where we passed out little bags of fruit that we'd cut up the night before--our mobile breakfast.  Since it was still dark when we started the drive, we pointed out all of the illuminated temples along the way.  When we passed the Draper Temple, Sophie said that it looked like "an astronaut spaceship" up on th...