The Good Sacramento Samaritans

Walking around Old Town Sacramento, we ran into one pleasant person after another. First, we went into an ice cream parlor and Brigham chose Oreo ice cream and so the man handed him his cone. Then, Silas chose rainbow sherbet. Brigham didn't know rainbow was an option and started crying because he wanted sherbet. We ended up getting him a sherbet and giving the Oreo to Adam. But then the man didn't charge us for the Oreo cone. 

I went into a store and bought a couple items and it came to $15.10. I handed him a 20 and he said, "do you have ten cents?" I didn't have any change. So he just handed me a 5 dollar bill. 

Then we went to a little shooting range game. We were watching for a minute and then a guy gave Silas three tokens to play a game.

I forgot to ask for validation for parking so I went back into a little toy shop where I bought a little toy tractor for $4. I asked if I could have validation and they said if I bought at least five dollars I could have it. I said told him it was a little less than five and he said, "close enough" and handed me the validation.

This lady who worked at a trading post was like, "three boys!" And she thought they were so cute. She let Brigham and Silas choose one polished rock each to keep. 

I don't know if we look like we need help or if having three boys makes people have compassion or these people in Sacramento are just so nice, but I can't believe all the nice things that happened to us today. Thanks all you kind Sacramento Samaritans!

Sweet Blessing of Grandparents

My husband grew up in the same city as both sets of his grandparents. I grew up fairly close to one and several hours away from the other. My grandpa Mackley died when I was six years old, so I have memories of him, but not many. 

My boys are lucky to be living a mile down the road from their Bitter Grandparents. It is such a blessing to be that close to them. They get to watch their grandpa work and get babysat by their grandma at times. I have noticed such a great love that my boys have for both of their sets of grandparents. 

It has been a real sweet time to be able to visit my parents since they live 11 hours away now. The boys have really enjoyed being with their grandma and grandpa Mackley. Grandparents just have a way with the children that parents don't. It must be interesting for parents to watch their children raise children. I definitely have a greater appreciation for my parents now that I know somewhat what they went through for us. 

Thank you to all of the grandparents out their (especially Mine and Doug's parents) for being there with unconditional love!

Here are some sweet sunny Sunday pictures of spending time with grandparents.

Journey to Cali; Destination: Russia

Yesterday we had a nine hour drive in the car driving from Twin Falls to my parent's house near Sacramento. The boys were awesome in the car. I have to admit it sure is nice to put in movies and give them a container of snacks and let them be happy. We actually did have 1-2 hours of quietness...no music or movies.  We made it to Winnemuca and had lunch and then Silas and Adam fell asleep...perfect! Everything was perfect until we were at a dead stop right in the middle of the dessert. For 45 minutes we were parked in the middle of I-80. Everyone was getting out of heir cars to take walks and things. I guess a semi rolled over and had totally blocked the road. Well, they moved it and we finished our drive and finally got to Roseville. 

We were treated to an evening in Russia. We went to a Russian restaurant to celebrate my birthday (again!) it was awesome, I have always wanted to try some of the food that Doug has talked about and the food was amazing and totally exceeded my expectations! Borsch, palmeni, blini, schnitzel, and other things...the food was soo good! It was very interesting service though, they would bring out one plate at a time. Then, they forgot to bring one of the plates, but they gave us free dessert. They are very worried about rushing you, so it makes for a long evening at a restaurant. But I was very happy with all the food and thought it was fun. 

26th birthday

Yes, I know! I am young! That's what I hear all the time because  most of my friends are 8-10 years older than me. I become friends with them and then they find out how young I am and I say, "please still be my friend!" Of course they are, I love my friends so much! Three of my friends took me out to eat for lunch while my mother-in-law babysat. Thank you! I also got to have a cake from cold stone. My sweet hubby and kids made me cards and got me some gifts. Brigham came up with a gift idea for me all by himself. I have a broken guitar string and Brigham told Doug that "we should get mommy a new guitar string". That was so sweet! 

So all in all my birthday really blew! Ha ha! The wind was super crazy that day, but it was a great day!

Haircuts and FHE on St. Patricks Day

There are some things that you have to do for your kids that I really don't like doing because they hate it so much. Trimming nails is one and haircuts is another. It was a haircut day for Brigham and Adam. Actually, Brigham was awesome and didn't seem to mind as long as he could watch PBS kids while I was doing it. Adam at first thought it was funny and then it turned to torture, but we made it through! 

I love FHE with little boys. I mean they all run around and don't listen half the time, but it just feels good and I just love it. Brigham led the music, but Adam wanted to help and joined Brigham in waving arms. Silas had the lesson and Daddy was helping. Silas was the most distracted lesson giver I had ever seen. He just wanted to chase Adam in circles. Then when Daddy would ask Silas to share something else Jesus taught he said, "be good" and Doug asked what else and Silas said again, "be good".  Brigham wanted to share his testimony all by himself for the first time and it was really sweet and sincere. We played hot potato for the game. When it landed on Silas and the hot potato "exploded" he said, "oh! It blew me out!" Adam was dancing to the beat and he loved to hang on to the little frog we were passing around and then say, "pass". 

Weekend of disc golf and pretzels!

Saturday was a beautiful day, so of course we had to get our disc golf season going! Brigham is getting pretty good at playing, Silas will throw it a few times, and Adam is along for the ride but we have to watch when he throws a disc out of the stroller. It was fun! Then we went to a park to let the boys play around.

On Sunday we tried something new and fun with our family. We made soft pretzels together! My bread-loving boys and man loved them!