Memorial Day Weekend - Part 2

Ok, so to finish out this ridiculous month of May that I can't seem to catch up on, here is my final post for this month.  Yay! 

We finished up our Memorial weekend by celebrating one of our favorite military heroes: Ralph.  (i.e. - Steve's dad).  Ralph was in the National Guard for over 30 years, and retired a full bird colonel.  Steve grew up watching his dad throughout his military career, and as a result became enamoured by the whole military experience.  It was only a matter of time before Steve enlisted himself.  Not sure if I should thank Ralph for that one or not ;)

Ralph was asked to speak in Ephraim on Memorial Day, so Steve and a couple of his siblings were able to be there to hear him. He did a fabulous job!

Memorial Weekend - YARDWORK!

Most people go out and do something fun for Memorial Day Weekend.  What did we do?  Yardwork.  Some much-needed yardwork!  Last year when we bought our new home there was much yardwork to be done.  As in.... put in an entire yard... again.  When we were looking for our new home, Steve had 3 requirements:  #1 - he didn't want to put in another yard, #2 - he didn't want to finish another basement, and #3 - he wanted a decent sized garage.  Well, 1 out of 3 isn't bad, right?  He did get his decent sized garage at least. :) 

I don't think I took any pictures of the sad shape of the yard before we started working on it.  But I did get one pic before we had the sod laid, so you'll just have to imagine it was even worse than this for starters.  Steve worked pretty non-stop last summer and early fall on getting everything cleared, leveled, and the sprinkler system in.  (Thanks Steve!)

Here is the pre-sod photo...

And here is the post-sod photo...

So last summer we got the sprinkler system and the grass in, then over Memorial weekend this year we started adding some trees, shrubs, and plants, etc.

Aren't those cute little pine trees?  Hopefully they'll be cuter bigger pine trees in a few years.

Then a week or so later I planted some cute flowers...

Zinneas are about my absolute favorite!  Can't wait till these get big and beautiful!

And here's our new little yard at sunset, with a pretty pink and lavender sky.

 

Dallin's Mission Farewell

Well, to keep plugging away at blogging the month of May, here is a little re-cap of Dallin's farewell.  Dallin is my oldest son (ok, not really, but sometimes I like to think he is mine.)  Dallin is my brother Scott's son, who grew up around the corner from us for the past 10 years or so.  My many many faithful readers ;) will remember that Dallin got his mission call to serve in Tonga back in February.   

His farewell talk was wonderful, and so heartfelt and sincere.  This kid will be an amazing witness of Jesus Christ.  We are so proud of him!

Here are a few pics (ok a lot of pics) of the get-together at Scott & Kim's house after he spoke.

Amazing food spread of course.  Isn't that just one of the best things about a farewell?  We Mormons can put on a spread that would put Circus Circus to shame.

One of Scott's friends from work is Tongan, so he gave Dal this traditional Tongan lei.  He looks pretty good in his Tongan attire already...

Now here are a few pics of some of Dallin's biggest fans starting with some cousins.  Taylor, Cache (he's like one of Dal's cousins) and Spencer. 

Jeff & Melissa 

Melissa's kids (Zack, Jordan, Tyson & his wife, Tahnee, and some other people that I don't know :)

Michelle, Mark, J, & Daren

Marky & Michelle, the Smarts, and Byron

Robby and some of Dal's cute friends

Scotty, with Kim's mom, Sheila, and her hubby, Steve

Steve & Scott Loveless

Renee, me, Kim, & Teree

Davey's family

 Dal's friends

Now, a little something that always livens up a Montgomery family party.  Usually one of my brothers comes up with something hilarious to impress another one of my brothers.  Then we all laugh and laugh.  In this case, Scott told Mark that he thought he could do a roundoff backhandspring.  (Yes, the same Scott who just recently had his achiles tendon severed and repaired by surgery and much physical therapy...)

Now luckily for me, Mark wanted to capture the whole thing with his camera, but he accidentally picked up my camera instead.  (Thanks Marky!)

And here goes the take-off...

Sure enough, he throws a backhandspring!

And he nails the landing!  Hi-freaking-larious!

Scott, Kim, and my 3 adopted kids...

Dal with my fam...

Yep, pretty much taught my kids everything they know...

And the last time my boys will play ball with Dal for 2 years.  Kind-of sad...  but of course I'm glad he's being such a great example to my boys.

Good luck Dal!  We'll miss you.

Eric's 5th B-day Party

Wow I'm not very good at this blogging thing.  I need to take lessons from my friend Laura!  She's always keeping her blog current.  I can't even seem to just finish off the month of May!  Here's another attempt to get on it. 

 

Eric had his first-ever BIRTHDAY PARTY this year when he turned 5.  My kids are allowed to have a party from ages 5-12, so he has known that his first party was coming up for pretty much the past year.  Everyone who knows Eric knows he is pretty much obsessed with Angry Birds right now.... so I wasn't too suprised that he wanted an Angry Birds themed party.

We had lots of his best little buddies here, and I think it was a good time had by all.  I don't even think we had any tears, so that's a successful 5 year old birthday if you ask me!

Here are a few pics of the decorations...

 

I made the kids a little buffet table.  You can guess what was popular... the fruits and veggies... not so much.  The M&M's and cheeseballs were a different story.

We made Angry Bird headbands, with feathers...  How cute is this kid?!  Every mother should be a little biased, right?  You can see Eric has chosen M&M's and Teddy Grahams for his snack options...

Then we played some games like "Pin the Feathers on the Angry Bird" and "Smash the Pigs".  You know, just some kids' classics...

Opening presents...

Blowing out candles... (always good to have a little help from your friends with this.)

 The whole cute group... many lost headbands by this point :)

And this is pretty much how we sent them back home to their parents!

Good times!  Can't wait for 7 more of these, Eric!