It's a three thing, you wouldn't understand

The birthday boy

I can't get over how cute he is!

Can you believe this is one of the first family pictures we've taken since Bennett was born? How lame are we?

I can't get over the fact that I have a three-year-old! Of course he acts like he's 7 so I shouldn't be so surprised. This year I let Wil pick the theme of his party. He told me all he wanted was party hats and chocolate cake. Easy enough. When I asked him what kind, he told me Elmo, which is really strange because we never watch Elmo, but whatever. At least it was easy to find the hats. I also felt compelled to make his cake this year because I've been seeing so many sisters and friends who have made phenomenal cakes for their children that I decided to give it a whirl. What I mean when I say give it a whirl is that I show up at Heidi's house, she has the cake and the frosting already made and she let's me do the nose and half of the fur before she kicks me off for doing to too slowly and tells me to do the cupcakes! (Love ya, Hides).

The party was supposed to be a water party with pools and water balloons and slip and slides, but the weather didn't cooperate, so I changed it to a puddle jumping party. I knew Wil would love that. But, when all the cousins came they disappeared into the backyard not to be seen until cake time. Apparently puddle jumping wasn't really necessary! Wilson had a great time and didn't even cry when we sang "Happy Birthday" to him! He got lots of good stuff and had the time of his life. Thanks everybody! Sunday was his actual birthday, but it was pretty quiet. When Ben got home from his meetings, he took Wil outside to jump in the puddles. Then when it got too cold we all went inside and had a cupcake carpet picnic and watched Mickey before bed. I can't wait to see all the shinanigans that we will see from Wil in the up coming year!

Party for Perry

Precious Perry

Proud mama with all her goodies!

Molly with Perry.

This is Elena. She is in our new ward and I really want her to be my friend. She probably won't be if she ever sees this picture!

My cute clothsline idea

The spread

These are Lisa's old high school friends, Chelsea and Erin who co-hosted the shower with me. They are cute girls!

My friend Lisa and her husband, Preston, just adopted the cutest little baby boy, Perry Jamal. So, of course we had to celebrate! We planned to have the baby shower in our neighbor, Molly's, backyard, but the crazy rain threatened to make us go inside. Well, I said my prayers and it didn't start downpouring until about 5 minutes after the shower was over. I felt a lot of pressure to put on a good shower because Lisa is so creative and over the top with everything she does. Every creative bone in my body hurt after this one. It was a really nice time and I am just so happy and excited for Lisa and her family. Now, if that little Perry could just learn to sleep at night and not all day long!

4 X 4 Farming

The Supervisors

I have always wanted to have a garden, but it seems like we can't even keep our lawn alive, let alone any tiny seeds and plants. But, with a lot of help from our parents, we built and started our own little veggie garden. It is an above ground 4 X4 box garden. It was our fhe on Monday and it was really fun. Even Wilson wanted to help water (a.k.a. drown) the plants and planted his own pumpkin seeds. This may seem like a small thing to most people, but it was a monumental moment for the Hardings to get it together enough to do it. We are excited about our new project and hope to get some kind of miniature crop. I will be very discouraged if everything dies! I am glad we have had so much rain to give us a good start. We planted tomatoes, peppers, cucumbers, one zucchini plant (enough for the neighborhood according to my dad), carrots, beans, squash, parsley, basil and one pumpkin. Happy farming!

Bennett is the Train Wrecker and GI Joe

Wilson recently acquired the coolest train set from his cousin, Zach, who outgrew it. I knew Wilson would love it, but what I didn't count on was Bennett's reaction. Pretty stinkin' cute!

Bennett is now 9 1/2 months old. His head is in the 95th percentile while his height and weight are in the 50th. That is why it's such a feat that he can even move around! Just kidding, he's crawling, can you believe it? He chose the same mode of transportation as Wil did at around nine months, army crawling. He is really fast now and into everything. His favorite new forbidden zone to play in is the bathroom. I don't think we ever really baby proofed our house to the fullest extent because Wil was never interested in things like cords and outlets. Bennett on the other hand would rather play with my curling iron than his many toys. This one is trouble already. The best part is that now he never has to get left behind. Every time I have to leave a room for something and Wil goes with me, Bennett just screams because he hates being left. Now he just gets down on his tummy and follows us! Bennett's other new favorite thing to do is dance. It's super cute. It doesn't even really matter what song, he just loves to get down! He is getting funner by the minute and is such a sweet and happy baby. He, Wil and Ben are my joy!

Line 'Em Up

Lately Wilson's new favorite thing to do is to line everything up. Chairs, pots, letters, boxes, you name it and we've lined it up. It makes me a little worried, but the only thing I've ever read about children lining things up is that it's a sign of potty training readiness, but I know that's not right! It's pretty hilarious though. Everything is daddy or mommy or Wilson or Bennett sized. Every family member has to have a pot or box or chair assigned to them. At least he's good at inclusion. My sister, Carina, my neice, Janae, and my baby nephew, Seth, all have lawn chair assignments on the back porch. He likes to spread the love. Let me know if I should be worried, if not I just hope he never takes my mommy-sized stuff out of the line up!

Twelve Years of Friendship

So, my family moved around a lot when I was younger. We never stayed anywhere longer than like 5 years, so I never really had a chance to make really good friends until we moved to Utah. Now, boy do I have some good ones! I got to reconnect with two of my college roommates that I absolutely adore, Jana and Shelby and have lunch with them. Shelby surprised me first by telling me she was pregnant and second by telling me she was having a girl! (She's one of those stick girls that only looks pregnant in the belly and only if you look really hard!) We also reminisced about the good old college days and how we graduated from Snow 10 years ago and had known each other about 12 years. That may not seem remarkable to some people, but it's an absolute miracle for me to have friends for that long. It was a great time and I am so glad I got to stop and catch up with all they have been doing! I am blessed to have such good friends! Yeah for girl's lunch out!

Bragging on Ben

Wilson busted sneaking strawberries!

Even Bennett ate his all up!

The culinary master himself!

Happy Mother's Day to me!

So, I fully admit that I don't give Ben nearly enough credit for everything he does, but this last week he outdid himself, so this post is dedicated to him. The week before last was a tragic week at our house. Ben and I were both sick and broken. It took it's toll on me. Last Monday I spent 5 hours at the doctors trying to figure out what the heck was wrong with my face (feel free to insert face joke of your choice here). It was swollen and I was Quazimoto. Anyway, when I got home from the doctor's that night Ben was there with flowers and declared it Mother's Day week. Every day for that whole week he did something nice for me. The list is as follows:

Monday: Flowers

Tuesday: Scrubbed my kitchen floor on his hands and knees

Wednesday: Chocolate iced cake donut from Holiday (white trash I know, but oh so yummy)

Thursday: Apple Pie Caramel Apple from Rocky Mt. Chocolate Factory

Friday: Another cake donut (can't get enough of a good thing)

Saturday: Full service date including a chick flick of my choice and the Cheesecake Factory

Sunday: Crepe breakfast before church, he made the pistachio salad for dinner and gave me an overnight getaway to Park City with my sister!

Can I ever go back to normal life again? I'll tell you, it was hard today, but I am grateful for such a sweet husband who is constantly trying to make me happy!