Take me out to the ballgame and other stuff

While we were on track break, Aunt Steph came into town. We went to the M&M factory to catch the 3-D movie, which turned out to be free. Then, walked through the gift shops, all 4 levels of them. (I think that's why the movie was free, they expect people to buy something.) Of course Aunt Steph had to "spoil" them, so she bought them each a small package of m&m's. (Anything else was too expensive, they had hot wheels car that looked like the m&ms race car for $16.00). Sorry I don't have any pictures there were great opportunities to take some cute pic's but I forgot my camera.

Then, as we walked back to our car, we walked outside on the strip to see some of it. It was a perfect day, weather wise. Then, we got to our car we went to McDonald's, then home to pick up Clint, who had just gotten off work, and headed over to the baseball game. The 51's were playing the Portland Beavers. It was so much fun. Even the girls had a good time. We stayed 'til the end. The girls were getting a little restless by then, but not too bad. Here some pictures to witness our great time....Proof that we were actually at a game, Abby took this.Showing off her toothless grinWe got a game ball with all the team members signatures on it, for being the first few hundred people there. Elsa was happier than she appeared.There's everyone before the game startedWe got the kids pictures as "baseball players", Elsa was the first
one to put her face in, but by the time I got my camera out, she was done. Darn it!
We all put on our "rally caps" in hopes that the 51's would come back and win the
game. They were winning, then the Beavers got a bunch of runs and they ended up winning, but
we had fun anyway with our rally caps and all. Clint, looking goofy as always.Abby even got in on the actionDallin loves baseball games
The next day, we had some tickets to the automobile museum, so we went to see some old cars.
It was interesting, but I'm glad we had tickets. The admission prices were too much. It wouldn't have been worth it if we had to pay. All we did was walk around and look at cars. Don't get me wrong they were cool cars, just not worth paying to see them. They had some James Bond cars, the Startsky and Hutch car, and other cool cars like that. Here are some pictures...This car has 3 wheels. If you look closely you can see that there's only one wheel
in the back. This was one of Clint's favorites.Dallin liked these race carsElsa liked this carDallin really liked this car, I don't blame him, it IS cool.These were Abby's favorite. That little red wagon was pretty cool.This was a pretty cool car too. Some of these cars were for sale, for a LOT of money.

Dallin, I think your a little too young to be at the bar. How would you like to go to this picnic. Yes! that is money all around them.Here's Calvin trying to dodge the cameraAbby really liked this car/couchAbby wanted to take a picture....she did pretty good

Track Break update

O.K. I know it's been a week and a half since the kids have been back in school. I finally decided that it's time to do this even though my dumb computer is slow and my pictures aren't edited. I tried to edit them in Picnik.com, but after a couple of pictures the computer would go way too slow and I would get frustrated and give up. So I'm just going to put the photos on edited or not because our story needs to be told before I forget it.

We didn't go anywhere exciting, like Disneyland or visit Grandma and Papa or anything like that, we stayed here in good ol' Las Vegas and had fun. First, we went to The Old Mormon Fort. It was a great place to take the kids. They enjoyed seeing the old artifacts, and playing checkers in one of the towers. Unfortunately, we could not go up in the tower and look out, because the ladder was out of order. It was unfortunate because the kids were looking forward to that. That didn't stop them from having fun however. While the boys played checkers, I took the girls out and took pictures of them at various spots in the fort. Here are a few of them...The bunk houseDallin and Calvin at the entranceCalvin reading up on the Fort.Elsa took this picture. She even told us how to pose. Abby liked the sewing machine in the bunk house.
(That made her mother proud.)The boys love to play checkers (and chess)
every chance they get.Cute little Abby Calvin trying out the corn separating machineAbby wanted a picture of her sitting on this benchThink Dallin, where can you move?This was in the bunk house. Aren't they the cutest kids you ever saw?These two are the best of friends!After we were done at the Mormon fort, we walked over to the
little park just behind the fort. The kids enjoyed themselves that day. We also enjoyed
some honey treats that the pioneers use to make. They were pretty tasty.
Even Dallin liked them.Abby on the camel who looked like he's seen better days.
Poor camel!
There is still more that we did, so stay tuned for more pic's and stories.

Surprises.....surprises....I love surprises!

I'm working on something really good and REALLY cute! If anyone can guess what I've been working on I will send them whatever it is (or anything else I make) for FREE! (Your choice). So, go to my crafting blog and put in your guesses and on June 30th I will reveal what it is I've been working on. I promise it will be worth it. I'm so excited about this one! Hints? No hints! That would be too easy!

Elsa lost her tooth

On Monday, Elsa was in school when her first tooth finally fell out. It's been loose for quite some time and she hasn't let Clint or me touch it, so we figured that we would let it fall out on it's own and it did, right in the middle of reading time at school. That night she put it under her pillow (in the cute bag that I made her), and the tooth fairy actually remembered to come this time.(not like her brothers) She got 2 quarters.

She is such a cutie with her "one tooth missing" grin. I especially love the top one on the left. (Dwayne syndrome and all.) When Elsa was born her eyes always looked crossed when she looked in a certain direction. When she was about 18 months I took her to a specialist and he told me she had Type 2 Dwayne's Syndrome, where she can't move her left eye to the left. It just moves to the right and center then stops. She doesn't know any different because she's always had it. It used to freak me out when she'd look to the left, now I think it's adorable. She's adorable!

Calvin.....what a kid

(This is what he made for me for Mothers Day in school. Pretty cool huh?!)

You gotta love this kid. He can drive you crazy sometimes, but then totally surprise you just by being a sweetheart. This morning when I woke up, I came out to the kitchen and on the way I smelled good things being made in the kitchen and the table was all set. (I thought it was Mothers Day again). Clint was out in the living room going over some papers for his meetings at church and he told me that Calvin was in the kitchen making pancakes for me. I was really happy, to say the least. They were really fluffy and delicious bytheway. Then, later in the day, at church, he was so good and volunteered to say the prayer in his class, and read a scripture for sharing time. Then, we came home. I wanted to go over the boys Faith in God requirements, but Calvin had a different idea. After Clint came into the picture Calvin sat and listened as we learned about the Aaronic Priesthood. When we were done and for the rest of the day, Calvin wanted to play "speed" with anyone who would play with him. We taught him how to play today and he totally loves it and is getting really good. (He hasn't beat me yet though, so how good can he be, right? :) J/k. I love that kid. He's been a great sport about it, when he loses, he just says,"I want a rematch!" and laughs. Calvin is so good with his sisters too. Also earlier today he put up a sign for Elsa and Abby's room so they could have a store. He loves to play with them and help them whenever he can. He is also a great brother to Dallin. I could go on and on about him, but for now enjoy the pictures....look how much he has grown. I just measured him again and he grew 4 inches since November. Crazy!

Oh yeah! How can I forget? Calvin's 2nd grade class had flag ceremony on Friday and Calvin was so excited because he was going to help with one of the flags. He told me he was going to carry the blue flag. I said, "You mean the Nevada flag?" He excitedly said, "Yeah!" Well he did a great job and for some reason he carried the U.S. flag, but that's o.k. he still did awesome. His class sang"God bless America", which he had practice all week, and sounded great. He's such a great helper!Calvin loved Spiderman. This is him slinging his web while waiting in line at Disneyland.So strong!He was about 4 years oldFishing on the curb with Elsa and her "twin" Scott Keele
aka, he is a year older. 2004Pirate Calvin in 2004I love this picture
2004Look at Abby's hair. I'm so glad it's back!

New Mothers day post

I finally finished my Mothers Day happenings. You have to scroll down a bit to read it because I started it then saved it to finish it later, then put another post on and now my mothers day is ready and it was posted in the same order that I wrote it.
Also I wanted to tell anyone who is interested that I opened Elsa's blog up to anyone. So if you want to read how she is doing with her SM you can go there now. Have a great day!

For all you Mothers out there! I was checking my emails and this was one of them....

Moms are the Best!

Everyone knows who the really famous moms in the world are. But in the United States alone, there are more than 80 million regular moms doing the real work of motherhood day in and day out—without any of the fanfare or fawning press coverage.

We read that the average mom puts in a 13-hour day doing what she needs to do for her family, working paid and volunteer jobs, and doing family-related chores. That means more than a billion hours a day are spent every single day by moms taking care of the rest of us. Think about it. A billion hours a day. Even at a dollar an hour, that’s a lot of value.

But it’s the little things moms do that get us really choked up, especially when we think about that fact that these little scenes play out constantly in the lives of American families.

For example, one friend’s 2-year-old had been working really hard with the sidewalk chalk when big raindrops started to fall from the sky. The mom and her daughter dashed inside only to watch the masterpiece melt in the rain. The 2-year-old did what kids that age do—she melted down. And so her mom took her down to the laundry room, gave her more chalk, and let her recreate her masterpiece on the safe, dry walls, walls that had just been cleaned of fingerprints.

Another friend, who’s going through all sorts of sad times with her extended family, has a tradition of baking her kids any kind of birthday cake they want. This year she set aside her troubles and made a giant rainbow explosion of a cake—just as her daughter hoped for, because moms don’t let their own broken hearts get in the way of their kids’ dreams.

You probably have memories of your own mom reading stories to you at night, or digging through the trash can for your retainer, or of the time she drove you all over town looking for just the right kind of soccer shoes. And if you’re a mom, you’ve probably done these things yourself.

And if that’s the case, you probably shrug and say it’s all in a day’s work. But it’s more than that. It’s a lot more than that. It’s the kind of work that makes everything possible for the people who will one day be running the world. It’s the kind of work that makes all the difference for us when we need it most.

Here’s to all those moms out there making the future great, one small, quiet act at a time. We owe you more than you could ever know.

--Martha Brockenbrough