Mothers Day

Today was a pretty good day. I went to church and was able to go to relief society because the Young Women took over our primary classes. The bishop had tiles made for all the women 18 years and older that said "Find joy in the journey", unfortunately by the time I got back to the back where the Young Men were handing them out, they were all gone. So the Relief Society president asked who didn't get one and I raised my high so the lady sitting in the same row who took 4 tiles would see that some women did not get one. (she didn't do anything). Oh well, she must have 3 less-active women that she visit teaches or something. Anyway, I'll get one eventually. There was a cute little family that brought roses made of velvet and also chocolates and were passing them out to all the women because they were grateful to everyone for treating them kindly when they started coming to our ward. Their kids are adorable, ages 5, 8, &10. When we got home, Calvin made me a sandwich and Abby made me one too.(I think she did because Calvin did). So sweet! Then, the kids let me take a nap. (I slept for about 2 hours, I must've needed it). Then, Clint and the boys cooked hotdogs and hamburgers on the grill and the boys did everything so I didn't have to lift a finger. Then, they cleaned it all up. Then, the kids and I played t.v. tag out back, then we had ice cream. It was a good Mothers day for me.Aren't they so cute?!Thanks to Abby we have this picture to remember Mom playing T.V. tag

Elsa's art work

Dallin is 10 years old. When Clint and I got home from our trek, it was Dallin's birthday. So Grandma had made a cake and Dallin wanted to go to Cici's Pizza, so we went, then came home and opened presents and ate cake. It was a nice evening. As you can see, he got some nice things. Especially the clothes from Aunt Lisa which were sorely needed. (Can you believe he's wearing a size 12, in length. He totally has to wear a belt.) She also gave him a game called Pictureka. Anyway, he also got a little guitar hero game and a book of magic tricks which he loves from Aunt Danielle, and Stephani, and Uncle Anthony. And a harmonica and book to teach him how to play and money for his account from Grandma and Papa. A Fly fusion pentop computer from his favorite parents. (He's been asking for it since it came out about a year ago.) Also a spygear game and Webelos stuff for scouts. He loves being in scouts and is doing so well in it. He's a good looking kid, isn't he?!

Easter at last

.....Yes I'm finally writing about our Easter. Well, Grandma and Papa were still here Easter morning so we had a nice breakfast and Easter egg hunt. Then, we all went to church and then Grandma and Papa left to go home and we had a nice rest of the day. Here are some pictures to enjoy.....Abby had a hard morning that day. She didn't want to put on her shoes. (Lately she does not like to wear shoes, and if she has to go anywhere then she will wear flip flops. She drives me crazy at times.) Well, I don't think flip flops are suitable for church so Sundays are stressful trying to get Abby ready. This Sunday, I told her she could not hunt easter eggs if she did not wear her NEW EASTER sunday shoes. (When I was a girl and my mom bought me new shoes or anything, I would look forward to wearing them.) As you can see from the photo above, she did not like that idea, yet she still did not want to wear her shoes. (And, NO, her shoes aren't too small, or hurt in any way. I checked that already to rule out actual pain or irritability. I think it is just a phase or a control issue.) Anyway, as you can see in the next photo, she didn't have her shoes on and did not participate in the hunt. When she saw all the fun she was missing, she hurried and put on her shoes and by the time she got back outside all the eggs were found, so her nice brothers and sister hid some of the eggs they found so she could find some and have some fun too. We were proud of our children that day. I think they had more fun hiding them than finding them. I'm also proud to say that Abby kept her shoes on all through church. Yeah! Abby has her shoes on!

The Black Parade by Pattie Garner

When I looked at my mail yesterday and saw a letter from my friend, Pattie, who moved across town last summer, I thought, "I wonder what she's doing." When I opened it and read that she had written a novel I was surprised, but at the same I wasn't because she is a school teacher and very educated. I guess I was surprised because that the last thing I would've thought that she was doing. (Writing a novel.) Well, if anyone is interested in reading about her and the book you can go to www.theblackparadephantomseries.blogspot.com.

Pay it forward

I got this idea from Devon and Alicia's blog and thought it was a really great idea. If you go to britta'sboutique.com you will see the same post heading and if you are one of the first five people to comment than I will send you a free gift sometime through this year. While you are there you can check out the rest of my blog and even my etsy shop and tell your friends and family about it too. Thank you for looking!

Spring break + Grandma & Papa = Fun

That's exactly what happened. While we were trekking Grandma and Papa came down to watch the kids and spend some quality time. On Thursday, they helped the kids grow a flower and veggie garden. The kids were great little workers. They planted tomatoes, bell peppers, cantaloupe, sunflowers, & a lemon tree. Then flowers around the lemon tree and in the front yard. Then on Friday, they went to the Springs Preserve and spent pretty much the whole day there. Then on Saturday they dyed easter eggs. It was so nice not to have to worry if our kids were o.k. Grandma and Papa had them and the kids always have fun with their grandparents. It was also nice to come home to our pretty flowers and freshly planted veggies, not to mention our laundry done, things around the house fixed, and everything else clean. Thank you Mom and Dad (Grandma and Papa).

Pioneer children sang as they walked and walked...

.....and walked and walked.
On the 9th of April to the 11th, Clint and I had the opportunity to be apart of the youth pioneer trek. We were the Ma and Pa of one of the families. We got a great group of kids. Not one of them complained ever. They all had great attitudes! Our company consisted of 3 families. In our family we had 3 boys and 3 girls, in the other 2 families there were about the same number of kids. Our company was awesome. The first day we walked for about 9 miles, stopping every mile to do challenges and eat lunch. The challenges the first day were finding chickens (or chicks, peeps) to get meat for our lunch. Then we sat together as a family and ate ham and cheese sandwiches, apples, vegi's, and of course our peeps. Then we, as a company, headed out again on our journey. Our next challenge was when we got our baby, which was a sack of sand with a baby's head attached. We got it from a "pioneer woman" who couldn't take care of her baby any longer, so we had to care for the baby until the baby died, then we had to bury it in a well marked grave. The staff was supposed to tell us when our baby died but they never did, so we took turns carrying that baby the whole time. Everyone in all the company's wanted their baby to die just so they didn't have to carry it anymore. It was pretty heavy, I mean how many newborns do you know that weigh 10-20 lbs. There were lots of great memories with our babies. Then the next stop was the trading post. Everyone got 2 wooden nickels to buy snacks. Then when everyone got to the trading post, they read a proclamation from Pres. Brigham Young that said that all the Pa's and boys were needed to help fight in the Mormon Battalion. So while they were gone, the Ma's and girls continued on with their journey. We pulled their handcarts alone. We came to a pretty steep hill where the Pa's and boys were, cheering us on. We all pushed and pulled those handcarts and made it up that hill. It was a good lesson to learn for the girls because that's really what happened with the pioneers. They had to go on even though the men of the family were gone. It gave me greater respect for the pioneer women. Then the Pa's and boys came back and we continued our journey. As we walked and did more challenges our testimonies grew a little more. There was one girl in particular in our group that made such an impression on me. When she was in 8th grade she broke a vertibrae and it never healed quite right so when she does any type of walking and sitting for long periods of time she is in exrutiating pain. She was such a champ. She walked that whole day, slowly. The rest of the family wanted to give her a ride on the handcart, but she insisted on walking. Finally on the 2nd day of trekking she let them carry her. There was also a Ma in our company who was 7 months pregnant. (She was a champ too!) She let her family give her rides, but she walked most of it too. On the second day, we had more challenges. The first one was odometer. We had to create our own way of figuring out when we had gone 1 mile. So we measured how big around the wheel was and divided it into the number of feet are in a mile, and then put our stake on the wheel and counted how many times the wheel completed one circle and did that until it turned 406 turns. Well, we totally understand how some pioneers went crazy after that one. Then we learned how they trapped animals for food and we tried to set up the traps and set them off. I never got it, but everyone else in my group did. One boy in our group was timed to see if he could do them all (4 of them) fast. He did them in 32 seconds. Unfortunately someelse did it in 29 seconds later that day. Anyway, another challenge was black powder shooting. We had to hit one of the targets to get our meat for our lunch. I shot it and almost hit the turkey target, but it went right over it. Fortunately, some other people in our family hit targets so we got our meat. Then we rested down the road a bit and ate our lunch. Other challenges that day were rope making, navigation, stopping at another trading post (which wasn't a challenge, except to choose what snack we wanted), having one of our family members break their leg, changing a handcart wheel, building a fire, building an emergency shelter, going over "Rocky Ridge" then coming out of it. Also, on the 2nd night while we were sleeping it rained. Clint and I were o.k., but the girls in our family got washed out of their tent and even used our baby to plug up a hole in the tent. They finally went to one of the staff members cars and spent the rest of the night in there. One of the boys of our family was sleeping out under the stars and of course his sleeping bags got drenched. He ended up just sitting by what was left of the fire trying to keep it lit. The next day we walked back to the buses (about 2-3 miles in the rain.) singing all the way. It was great times had by all and I'd be glad to do again in a heartbeat. Here are some pictures.....

Going to the stake center, ready for our adventure

In this collage there's a picture of the gals pulling the handcarts (we're awesome), then there's me shooting a black powder rifle, and then there's Ma Yates, who's pregnant shooting the rifle, then there's a few pictures of us doing the traps, and more trekking, and us preparing the beef stew, and the beef stew.

The picture on the bottom left is the youth choir, then there's us walking back to the buses in the rain, singing, then more of us trekking, then there's one of our boys sitting in one of the staff members atv holding the baby(resting), then there's the kids building a fire, trying to burn the string first.

These were our kids....great group....great attitudes....great fun!

Blackmail

While we try to teach our children all about life, our children teach us what life is all about.
-Angela Schwindt
This was taken when Anthony, Danielle and James came for Anthony's graduation. After dinner we took a walk through the outdoor mall across the street from the restaurant. James and Abby are the best of friends and I hope they stay that way! Just in case they don't we have this picture to prove that they once did like each other.

Remember the good ol' days

I was up LATE tonight (I'm so dumb) trying to get some little conference packets ready for the kids, to watch general conference tomorrow. (I remember how much my brothers and sister loved it when our Dad did that for us.) Anyway, while I was putting them together I was watching home movies on my computer and came across this one that I had forgotten about. (I didn't forget that we did this, but that I took video of it). I'm so glad I did, Dallin and Calvin and Elsa are so little I can't believe how fast time flew by. I can't believe Dallin is going to be 10 next Saturday. Can I really be the mother of a 10 year old. And Calvin and Elsa are 8 and 6. Ahhh! Which means I'm getting up there too. I love my life though and am proud of my age. As long as I have my family I say bring it on old age. Enjoy the video!

Weekend Update

This weekend was pretty hectic but fun at the same time. On Saturday morning there was the Craft/yard sale at the school. Clint and I decided we were going to make chalkboards and take the dress up carousel to show people what we could make for them and we would take their orders. We planned this for about 2 months and about 2 weeks ago Clint came home to tell me that he and his scout group were going camping on that same weekend, it was the only weekend they could all do it. Well, that meant I was on my own. I was a little nervous about it to say the least, but after I got there and set up, people started coming and they loved the chalkboards and especially the dress up carousel. Some of them thought that the dress ups (on display) were for sale. They would come up and look through them. I would quickly stop them and kindly tell them that they were not for sale. Well, it was pretty good exposure for us. We only got one order for a chalkboard, but 4 people signed up as being interested in ordering later. And one woman is VERY interested in a dress up carousel. (I don't blame her, it is cute!) Anyway, it was fun and the school is most likely going to do it again in the fall, so if anyone has anything to sell come on down for a visit and we'll share a booth.
The rest of the day, we just hung out at the house, did a little cleaning, worked on our website, and worked on pinafores. (Which turned out cute if I do say so myself.) Anyway, on Sunday we went to church, then came home and hung out at home again, watched "Mobsters and Mormons", ate a little dinner and finally went to sleep. It was a nice end to a busy weekend.

Another weekend gone

This was quite an eventful weekend. On Saturday we woke up, made the waffles I had promised my kids for a while. Then, at about 9:00 I took Dallin and Calvin to their Cub scout day camp. Then came home and got the girls ready and the rest of us went shopping. We went to Sears first to get some new sheets that were on sale and Clint got a tool that was, of course, on sale also. Then we went to Sportsmans warehouse to see what they had on clearance since their stores are closing. We got a really nice tent for a really great price. Then, grabbed a quick bite to eat through the drive thru at Taco Bell on the way to Uncle Anthony's graduation from La Corton Bleu cooking school. It was a good ceremony and I'm sure Anthony's glad to be done with school. He's still going to work at the Olive Garden until he finds a better opportunity. We are all very proud of him. Then, after the graduation, Clint, the girls, and I went to get the boys from their friends house who took them home from day camp. Then went home long enough for the boys to change their clothes, then went to dinner at with Anthony, Danielle, James, Anthony's parents, and of couple of friends of Anthony and Danielle. We all had a great time.Sorry this picture is blurry....it's Elsa and Anthony's dad having a chopsticks dual...Elsa had fun with everyone this weekendEveryone had fun with those chopsticks...until it was time to eat with themJames and Abby were the best of buds the whole weekend Anthony's parents and Aunt Stephi enjoying themselves

with good company and YUMMY food!The graduate himself and Aunt Danielle,
Eve, Danielle's friend, James and AbbyClint even was having a good timeAbby, sharing her binoculars....Isn't sharing fun Abby!?I tried to get a good picture of Calvin...
and he always hid before the camera took the pictureAbby and James playing on the
fire hydrant outside of the restaurant

Our weekend update

I'm going to try to do a weekend update from now on. I'm going not going to promise that I'll do it every weekend, because I know myself, but I'm seriously going to try.
So here goes.
On Saturday, Clint got up at 5:00 in the morning to go with the youth to do baptisms, then I got up around 8:00 and we ate breakfast and cleaned the house and did some laundry before Clint and I had to go to the pioneer trek kick-off. We were asked to be Ma's and Pa's for the Youth Conference pioneer trek in April. We had a good time and the youth are awesome, we are going to have fun on the trek. (I'm breaking in my new hiking boots.) Anyway, then we came home and I took the babysitters to their presidency meeting, then I came back to finish cleaning the house and laundry. While I was working on it, Dallin came in from outside and told me that Clint needed my help. I went out to see what he needed. He was trying to get part of the exhaust pipe off of the catylic converter to see if it were clogged. We worked on that thing for atleast an hour, maybe longer, I didn't really keep track. Well it was finally starting to wiggle a little and so with me pulling down on it and Clint prying it out, it finally flew off right into my forehead. My head slammed onto the pavement. I sat up shook it off and declared that I was O.k. then Clint looked at it and declared that I was bleeding. So we went into the house and started to wash it out and after seeing it in the mirror, decided it was worth the trip to the emergency room. So we loaded up the kids and made our way to the hospital. When we walked in, the receptionist took one look at me and handed me a paper to fill out and told me a nurse would be with me shortly. We weren't there very long. They got me in right away and after five stitches and a tetnus shot. I was on my way home. (Right after dinner at Cici's pizza). Yum! Then we went home and Clint and I got ready, the babysitters came, and we went to chapparone the youth dance. It was quite a memorable weekend. Today, Sunday, we went to church and now we're just hanging out with each other and now I've got to go make dinner for this hungry crew.

Wow! It's been a month!

Sorry it has taken me so long to update this. To recap the month of February since Elsa's birthday. The kids were out on track break so we went to Aunt Hannah's house to help her get ready for baby Norah and also see those little baby girls. The kids had too much fun hangin' with Uncle Micah and Aunt Camille and Nigel. Nigel was so cute, when he saw Abby he couldn't stop saying Abby's name. (I guess because it's fun to say.) Abby and Nigel got along great! We can't wait to go back and hang out with them some more. It was so nice of them to take the kids for a while each day we were there so that Hannah and I could get stuff done. We also had fun with everyone else who lives there at the weenie roast. Here are some pictures of those days....The kids love to climb Hannah and Jeff's tree. It's always a hit!Abby loved to play with Laurel and Maisy
Abby was testing out Laurel and Maisy's little playset.
Why is it so hard to get them to smile at the same time?
They are so cute though!There's a smile from Maisy
Can you believe these two are big sisters?

Our lil' girl.....growing up

Elsa, you are our little sunshine. You lit up our lives when you were born and you still do now. You are such a sweet girl. I can't believe it has been 6 years since I held my sweet little baby. You have had so many good things happen in your life and so many more good things to come. I can't wait to share those things with you and watch you as you grow.

Is Elsa really 6?

Yes. It's true! Elsa just turned 6 years old on Sunday. We just celebrated with our family this year and I don't think Elsa missed having a "friends" party at all. She had a good day. We went to church, she got sung to in Primary and got to pick out a ring from the primary presidency. Then, when we got home, we ate dinner, then she opened her gifts (from her Grandma and Papa, Aunts and Uncle and cousin from San Antonio, and her Aunt in Indiana, and, of course from her Mom and Dad) and then blew out her candles and ate cake. What more could a girl want, huh? She had a good day. Here are the pictures to prove it. Thanks Mom and Dad for the Littlest petshop planner.
I love it! Elsa was happy to get this outfit and game from
Aunt Lisa Thanks Grandma and Papa, for the new room for my doll house. Thanks Aunt Stephi, Danielle, Tracy, Uncle Anthony, and James for my cool mp3 player.

I love it and so do my brothers, even though it's pink.Isn't it funny how kids love new toys no matter whose they are?
Case in point belowCalvin is such a good brother to play "Pretty, Pretty Princess"
with the girls