Easter

We had a nice Easter and enjoyed commemorating the Resurrection of Jesus. We also enjoyed watching conference on the television through the internet. A couple of weeks ago we got a cable to connect our computer to the tv and it worked really well. We colored Easter Eggs, but in the midst of the decorating Gabby grabbed the camera and broke it, so we need to buy a new one before I can take any more pictures. Ahh, the joys of children. Luckily, I already had downloaded pictures from it before she messed it up.

Spring Break 2010

Last week was Spring Break and the kids were out of school. Dan took the week off and we headed to Denver for a few days. Denver is only two hours away and normally we like to go someplace a little farther from home, but we decided we didn't want to drive so far this year.

Monday we toured the Denver mint where they make coins for the United States and other countries. We went to Casa Bonita for dinner which is kind of like a Mexican ChuckECheese. Emma, Ben and Eliza like it, but a costumed gorilla scared the living daylights out of Gideon and he was horrified of all dimly lit places for the rest of the trip.   

 Tuesday, we went to the zoo and toured Hammond's Candy Factory. It was 82 degrees!! It felt nice after a long Wyoming winter.Though the kids kept complaining that it was too hot. The rest of the days were much cooler, but it was a great day to go to the zoo.

Wednesday, we went to the Museum of Nature and Science. Here are Gideon and Gabby working at mission control.

Below, Gideon and Gabby gathering moon rocks. 

Gabby and Emma are riding the sheep. Gideon and Eliza are on the llama. Ride 'em cowboys!! Yeehaa!

Emma, Ben and Eliza are uncovering dinosaur bones. Explorers at work.








Thursday, we went to the Red Rock Ampitheater and drove home.

Here we are on stage where the Beatles, Willie Nelson, the Mormon Tabernacle Choir, Norah Jones and many others have preceeded us.

This picture is to give a little perspective. The rock walls provide amazing acoustics. We saw a video at the visitor's center that had a few different performers that said this was their favorite place to play because the acoustics were so good.

All of us had a great time, but we were glad to get home and rest on Friday.

Snow, snow and more snow

I actually took this picture on March 24th, but I could take the same picture again today. We keep getting snow storms coming through. This is the time of year that we hate living in Wyoming. It feels like the rest of the world is celebrating spring, but we still have a few more months of winter to deal with.  Our big task this spring is going to be landscaping our yard.  We have been planning it the last couple of months and submitted our plan to the HOA before we left on vacation for Spring Break. Hopefully it will be approved and we can get moving on it. We plan to bring in tons of compost (quite literally) and putting in some special sod that is suppposed to need less water and still be pretty durable. We are going to create a couple of terraces in the backyard because we have a pretty big slope to deal with. The back terrace is going to be xeriscaped and the front one will be a vegetable garden. We are looking forward to working on it. We know it will be a lot of work, but we hope it will be really beautiful when it is done. I plan on posting pictures as we complete it.

Goodbye Crib

A couple of weeks ago we decided the time had come for Gabby to move into a toddler bed. We made the change and she has really adjusted well. It was kind of sad though to take the crib down one last time. We bought it at a garage sale in Virginia and since then it has been through five kids, been set up in four different states and been through six different big moves and countless other room changes. Now we are looking for someone to give it too. I laugh about it because when we bought it I thought we would use it just for a couple kids until we had the money to buy a "nice" crib, but it has worked well for all of them and I have to admit I'm a little sad to see it go.  On to the next phase of life.

Service

I have been feeling a little down in the dumps lately. I think it might have to do with the weather. Around this time of year I feel like spring should be coming, but here in Wyoming we still have to wait a couple more months. Anyway, on Saturday I received an e-mail saying a lady in our ward needed someone to babysit for her. Of course at first I thought of all of the reasons why I couldn't do it and then I decided to volunteer. I watched her kids all day and invited them over for dinner that night. It was a very long day to be followed by Enrichment (or whatever they call it now) after the day, but I feel so good today. I think the idea of losing yourself in service is really good. I'm not saying I am a great person or anywhere near it. I just wanted to share the joy I felt from helping someone out. Now if only I can remember this the next time I am down in the dumps:).

Total Girl

I know Gabby is going to be our little girly girl and this morning proved it. She is 15 months old and I was in the middle of doing laundry. She had gotten bored and wandered off, but I figured she couldn't get into much trouble. Boy was I wrong.  She got into my makeup! She found my favorite lipstick (of course it had to be my favorite) and got it on her face and hands, clothes, the floor, etc. I didn't think she would start into the make-up until much later. I should have taken a picture, but I never remember when something like this happens until I've already cleaned everything up.  All well.

Emma is 10!

Emma had a Birthday Party!! She wanted a Rainforest Theme, so we decorated with "vines" and big "leaves". 

They painted boxes. These are our kids boxes. We forgot to take a picture of all the girls' boxes. They did a great job and were all very beautiful. 

She had an elephant cake which Dan and I had fun making the night before.

They played pin the beak on the toucan.

They also played pass the fire ant (hot potato).

And of course, we had a snake pinata, that unfortunately for eveyone but Emma, broke on the birthday girl's first hit. Next time we'll use more layers of paper mache.

I think everyone had a good time. One of the girls even said it was her best birthday party ever as she was leaving. I'm just glad it is over. I've got 3 more months until Gideon's. Then we'll have 3 more months after Gideon's until Eliza's and then we have 2 months after her's until Ben's. They are spread out pretty well which is nice for Mom and Dad to recoop.