Grandma Julie and Grandpa Ray's visit to Albuquerque/Scott's Birthday

We had our yearly, wonderful visit from Mom and Dad on the weekend of Scott's birthday. They were able to come on the 16th and stay until the 20th. As always, they came ready to tackle some projects and we got right to it on Thursday evening.

When I went to get Sterling up from his nap, he wanted his blanket. He then climbed up on the chair and pulled the blanket on top of himself. :)

Mom and Dad got here about dinner time and then the men started to dig a hole for our soon to be Magnolia tree.

Friday morning, Stan had to go to work for just a half day so Dad and I took Scott to Lowe's to get supplies for our projects. At one point, Dad was looking at something in the hardware section and Scott was so funny picking out all of the hard core tools he wanted. "I need that one and Mom buy this one..." Supplies on hand we went home to tackle a couple things. Dad put in some peep holes for us, changed the doorknob on our garage door so that there was a deadbolt AND a handle (I love it!), and worked more on the hole in the backyard. The funniest thing that happened that morning was Scott was out working with Dad digging the hole and he came in, his face pink from working, took off his shoes before coming onto the carpet and said to me "Mom, I need to work out." I thought I misheard and said "What?" "Mom, I need to go work out." So he had me go and turn on the light in the bedroom where the weights and bench were, he climbed up on the bench, and then asked me to hand him some weights. As I walked out the door he asked me to shut the door.

Come to find out, Dad had said something to him about when he was stronger that he would be able to shovel the dirt a little better. He then left Dad and came in. He, on his own, had put together that if he wanted to get stronger he needed to work out. Such a funny kid.

Stan came home, we had lunch, and then got back to work. Mom and I worked on caulking the kitchen and got Sterling down for a nap. She was so nice and let me go take a nap while she kept working. Stan and Dad worked on fixing a closet door track that hasn't kept the doors on it very well. (I love this fix too!!)

Saturday morning, Stan and Dad went first thing to Home Depot to pick up a rototiller for our garden. They also went to Lowe's to get a few more supplies.

Scott getting a sneak peak at his birthday presents for the next day

Mom was nice and held down the fort inside with the boys while Stan and I worked outside. I pruned the rose bushes and cleaned up some there while Stan did the rototiller.

Stan brought out all of his trees for some real sun since it was a beautiful day.

Scott was a great helper with all of the jobs on Saturday.

With the rose area all cleaned up, we were ready to lay the ground cover down. Here's Dad getting it ready.

And then the boys playing with it...Sterling LOVES to do whatever Scott is doing. He is such a copycat :)

Sterling picked up the broom and started to help

Another job we worked on Saturday was to prune a tree in our front yard that is half dead. We really couldn't have done this job very easily without Mom and Dad. We are so grateful for their help!

Having just finished a ground cover project at their house, Mom and Dad were the experts here and did such a fast, great job!

Starting to pour the bark.

We needed to pick up a little more bark and it was just about dinner time so we took a break. Scott has wanted to go to Chick-fil-a for forever and we have promised him that we could go for his birthday, so that was our dinner plan on Saturday evening. He loved every minute and we had to pull teeth (almost) to get him to leave.

Sterling isn't quite big enough to roam the playground but he wants to try so bad. He fell a time or two trying to keep up with the big kids.

And he got pummeled once or twice sitting at the base of the slide too

Leveling it all out

Looks wonderful! Another job that would have been way, way, way harder without Mom and Dad.

Well we got the boys bathed and in bed and the house all put back in order and ready for Sunday and Scott's birthday. With our tradition of opening presents in the morning and having 9am church, we had to open presents before breakfast was quite ready. Scott didn't mind one bit.

I love this picture because of the smile on Scott's face. He was opening an airplane.

The airplane is one you can build and he LOVES the power drill it came with. He is constantly using it on everything.

A happy boy and his presents.

Love the bed-head

Scott's cousin Ashley drew him an awesome picture. It is still hanging on our fridge and he looks at it calling it "his picture".

A fun gift we were able to give Scott was this slide. A friend in the ward is moving and was getting rid of it. So nice of them and Scott loves his castle.

No birthday is complete without German pancakes! Scott wasn't about picture taking anymore...

So happy with his Buzz Lightyear...and Sterling's too

On our way to church with our boys and their Buzz's.

Before dinner picture, not all looking but all smiling! I love these boys

Grandpa helped Scott figure out how to put his plane together. Sterling wanted in on it too.

Almost done. Look at that concentration!

Scott has insisted on having a construction cake for a long, long time. The week of his birthday he informed me that the cake needed to be a white cake with white frosting. So we decided our cake was either in the snow or in White Sands. He loved it!

He made sure the construction trucks actually did some construction during the cake making processing. Here he is pushing the cake across the frosting.

Filling the trucks with "boulders"

He was so pleased

And another round of build the airplane.

Playing Monday morning before Grandma and Grandpa left

We had so much fun with Mom and Dad here. Scott said all day that he was missing them after they left. They are so good to us and so fun to be around!

And then later that day. They love this new toy and are so fun playing out together in it