Andrew's baptism

Andrew was thrilled with his baptism on April 7. We were so excited to see his enthusiasm. He said he felt the Holy Ghost all day.

Here are the happy people. We love Andrew!

Cost of food

Sorry for the ramblings lately--and no photos of cute kids. However, after working on budget and finances I was frustrated with the increasing cost of food. I know my children are growing and eating a bit more, but they aren't growing as fast as the cost of food. Just to be sure I wasn't imagining it, I looked at the USDA's Cost of Food at Home reports. According to this, if we were cooking all food at home and eating in the very thrifty category, we should be spending more than $700 on food each month for our family of six. (Which we aren't since I don't have a budget that allows that much right now.)  I started to check back a few years and saw that in the past year or so, the cost of food has increased about $40 a month per person. In the past five years, the cost has gone up more than $100 per 4-person family, per month. So I'm not imagining the increasing prices (and decreasing sizes of containers). And I'm not suddenly becoming a terrible shopper who is throwing away money on expensive junk food. Food costs are rising.
P.S. Kirk blames the government for their policies on ethanol.

Outsourcing

A week or so ago, I happened to pick up the BYU Kennedy Center's alumni magazine and was glancing through it. I read a very flattering article about a woman who is a foreign service officer. She also has a husband who can follow her around the world to her different postings. And she has two girls. When she was asked the obligatory "how do you balance job, husband, and kids" question, she said, "I outsource the laundry. I outsource the cleaning." She also talked a bit more about changes in work culture and so on. Since I happened to be cleaning the bathrooms at the time, I thought, "I could handle outsourcing my cleaning and my laundry."
On further reflection, I realized what she had left out of her answer. She also outsources the care of her children.
***
So Friday evening, after dealing with grouchy children for several hours, I turned to Kirk and said, "I'm ready to outsource the care of my kids." He agreed that it would be a good idea--at least for a few hours.
Unfortunately, there was no one to whom we could outsource the kids.
So we put them in bed and watched a movie.

Spring

We have a nice spring, even though the flowers and everything aren't quite as gorgeous as usual. We haven't had any snow to speak of, or even much rain.

 I love my daffodils.

 We even have some blossoms on our peach trees.

A surprise

I opened the fridge and saw this.

Henry was busy adding things. He also likes to put things in the trash cans--and sometimes take them out.

The 'puter

Lucy built her own computer, which she calls a 'puter.

Here she is playing "Angry Birds." She is holding her "mouse."

Andrew's birthday

Andrew turned 8 this past week. He only reminded us every day for a month that he was going to have his birthday. He wanted both a cheesecake (nice choice) and a cake with a natural disaster on it. So Kirk made a cheesecake and I decorated it.

 The cake has a tornado that has destroyed a house and is on its way to destroy a pizza shop.

The children loved the decorations. We all enjoyed the cheesecake with raspberry sauce.