I turned 35! Calvin, Devon, and Emily made cookies for me. They were great!
My parents came for a visit. Ty, Tiff, and Shi took over Ma's lunch, and had fun eating her salad, and feeding her also!
Mom's birthday is 3 days after mine! She got the same yummy dessert made by the kids. 
We got baby ducks! It's amazing how fast they've grown. In just one month, they have gotten huge. Dev's duck is named "Pig", Calvin's is "Lightning", and Emily's is "Raindrop."
Ducks drink tons of water and they are very messy eaters/drinkers. Calvin constructed an outside cage for them which is portable, and cuts down on messes since they relocate it every day to a different spot on the grass. The ducklings love to follow the kids around outside! We hear ducks are as trainable as dogs, and they are very loyal to their owners. We're looking forward to eating duck eggs! (We've tried them before and they're yummy. They are especially good to use when baking.)
We found this beauty under a pile of wood in our garden. I was lifting boards from a pile and moving them to a different spot in our yard. As I began this project, Colin warned, "watch out for wasps and spiders!" I found some of those, but really didn't expect to find this huge guy coiled up under a piece of wood! Needless to say, I screamed, "SNAKE!" Colin had the tiller on and couldn't hear me, so I ran over and told him. We yelled to the kids who were inside eating, and in a flash, shoes were on, and they were on the scene. 
Poor little fella. Coin wanted to see how strong his bite was, and then it got stuck on his glove! We really thought we would have to decapitate him to get him off. Eventually, we were successful.
We have several apple trees in our yard. Shiloh was the ring-leader on this one, and Tiffy followed close behind once she heard Shi calling, "Daddy! I climbed the tree!"
The trees really aren't that far off the ground, but we made them come down when they tried to climb higher. They were not too happy about getting out of the tree!
One of my favorite things to do with Calvin, Devon, and Emily, is to wake up around 5:30AM and head up to the Mt. Timpanogos cave trail! Now that the weather has been getting warmer, they've been asking when we could go. Devon requested muffins (you can see he has a big bite in his mouth in this picture) which is a tradition on these hikes. So, I made a batch of corn muffins and zucchini muffins Fri. night, got some oranges and waters, and had our back pack all ready to go for the next morning. Dev brought his binoculars along so he could try and spot owls or hawks. He's been studying up in one of his favorite library books entitled "Birds of Utah" and he's gotten really good at identifying many of them. We were also on the lookout for tarantulas, because we learned once at the Bean Museum at BYU that tarantulas live in this area. We didn't have much luck spotting birds or tarantulas, but we sure had a fun morning!
We've done this picture before, and we knew it would be locked because it doesn't open until around 7am on Saturdays. We went anyway because we knew we'd be able to hike a little more than 1/4 way up the trail before coming to the locked gate. After our descent, we walked down to Swinging Bridge and hiked around there for awhile before heading home.
One of the funnest things on this hike are memories! The kids remembered things from last year like, "Look! There's tattoo rock!" The rock got its name because one time there was this man with his wife and child, and he happened to be covered in tattoos, and he climbed up this big rock that was on a serious ledge. Another memory was, "Look! It feels good if you put snow down your shirt!" This really crazy guy would take a chunk of snow and put it down his shirt, and he was telling everyone who passed by what a great idea it was. The kids remembered that spot too! They also remembered where the fault lines were, and other interesting landmarks. They made up this funny rhyme last year that they like to say while skipping on our way down the mountain called, "Two Bald Ladies". It goes like this: "Two bald ladies skipping down a trail! They both jumped off cuz they thought they could sail! Down they dropped, into a boiling pot. 'Ouch!' cried one. 'Oosh!' said the other. They both cried together, 'I'm burning my tush!'" It goes all the way to 50, but so far they've only made it to "Ten Bald Ladies."
After about a week of researching "potty training multiples" online, I decided it was time! The day after Mother's Day, we began. Days 1 and 2 were 12 hours straight of potty training. I'm not kidding. I wondered if they would "get it" and understand the whole concept. They "got it" a little bit too well! Let me just preface by saying, I'm not a believer in giving my kids candy. Especially the little ones. I'm not big on rewarding with food/treats. A kind word, an enthusiastic hug, that's what I do for rewards. NOT THIS TIME! Potty training three toddlers calls for serious "bribery/rewards" to preserve my sanity! Since the "triplets" never eat candy (oh, okay, we did let them have about 4 pieces each last Halloween), seeing a jar of M&M's was a HUGE big deal! It only called for a short explanation of "pee in the potty, then you get a candy and a sticker". They really couldn't have cared less about the stickers...it was more for a visual for me to track how often they were using the potty. 
This chart is day 1. Needless to say, I emptied the potty over 100 times that first day! I felt horrible about how many candies they had eaten by the end of the day, but darn it, it worked! We started out by giving them 2 M&M's each time they went potty, but as soon as we caught on to their strategy, we reduced it to 1 M&M. Their strategy was this (especially Ty): They would go about 1/4 tsp. of potty, get their sticker and candy, then a minute or less later, they'd go again! Amazing bladder control! Luckily, towards the end of the week, they had lost interest in devoting their whole day to peeing and getting candy, and normal life has pretty much resumed thankfully. Playing with toys and having outside adventures is much more fun than sitting on the potty all day. The good thing is, they are remembering to stop what they're doing and run to the potty most of the time. We have a few accidents from time to time, but for the most part, they are expert pottyers, and we're so pleased with their progress!
After the first day, we changed the potty candy to carob chips (like chocolate chips but carob). I wanted to give them a slightly more healthy reward, but they're still sweet, so it worked out great! My visiting teacher used to do scrap-booking, so she had all these extra stickers that she gave me! At first, there was a lot of crying when one would get a candy and sticker and the other wouldn't. They just didn't understand. But now, their bladders are pretty much synchronized, and when one yells, "POTTY, POTTY!" one or both of the others will come running and have to "go" as well. Then everyone gets candy at the same time! The older kids have helped out quite a bit ... especially when I told them if they help the little ones at the potty, they can get a candy too! It's cute to hear them all clap for each other and yell, "yeah! Ty Ty went the potty!" "Yeah! Iffy poo poo!" "Yeah! Shi Shi potty!" I can see now that although it's been utterly exhausting, in some ways it's been easier training 3 at a time because they all motivate and encourage each other, and follow each other's examples of using the potty. 
Tiffany is teaching her toy chick how to use the potty.
Ty is amazed that all he has to do is pee in the potty, and he gets M&M's! 
One of the sites I went to in my research said to give them warm water with cups they can play with while on the potty. The warm water helps them "go". It worked great! We did end up with lots of water on the floor through this whole process, but I'm used to cleaning up spills and messes, so it wasn't a big deal, plus it was kind of like cleaning the floor.
Mother's Day was great! Colin and the kids made pancakes and eggs for breakfast, then we had a nice visit with Dennis and Marilyn Sniffin (my dad's brother and his wife) who were in town for a quick visit. Calvin gave an awesome talk in Sacrament meeting about eternal families, Dev and Em sang with the primary during Sacrament, and then we walked around Swinging Bridge (foresty area close to home in the canyon) in the evening. In this picture, Emily is signing "mom" and "I love you." 
Dennis and the boys looking at their scout book. Dennis was an Eagle Scout, so he was reminising and checking out the new scout book. We were impressed with how much he remembered the scout oath, law, motto, and some of the merit badges he earned! When Calvin was young, he used to call Dennis "Two Pa's", because he looks so much like Pa! 
Calvin and Devon decided to do the gardening merit badge for scouts. It takes about 3 months to complete. One of the requirements is to find or buy 1000 worms, and put them in some sort of worm environment, and then put them in your garden. It had been rainy earlier, so the kids set off on a worm hunt! An hour or so later, they came back and excitedly showed Colin and I their massive find! They sat there and counted each worm, and the total came to 199! They just couldn't believe they were 1 worm short of 200, and then Calvin exclaimed, "Wait! Here's one on my finger!" He hadn't been able to see it at first because his hands were completely covered in dirt! This bowl of worms now proudly sits on our kitchen counter with saran wrap over the top (they poked holes in it for air), and some bread crumbs for them to feast on. I think I'll be happier when they are relocated to the garden!
YUM! 
Yesterday, our neighbors' goats, sheep, and llamas found an opening through the fence and came into our back yard! We all agreed it was a win-win situation since our field needs mowing and their animals can do the job (eating), and the kids were ecstatic to have all these fun animals right in our back yard! 
I think this goat's name is Clover.
Another mama goat. It was fun watching all the "kids" (baby goats) frolicking around!
Something the triplets like to do is hold onto the Daddy train! They hang onto his legs for dear life, and he walks, dragging them along, and they love it!
Colin and the kids have done an impressive job sectioning off rows with stakes and string. I shoveled grass from the lawn mower in between some of the rows to keep the weeds down (does anyone know if that works?). We are excited to have a garden this year and I'm looking forward to learning how to can after the harvest! We WILL pull our weeds this time, we promise!
Becoming one with the earth. 
Calvin securing a stake.
Devon hammering away!
