History in the Making

My Life is Pretty Boring...

2012-02-08T21:33:00.001-08:00

So I have really tried to come up with things to post on the blog, but have realized my life is pretty boring! I go to work, come home, hang out with my boys, plan for the next day, sleep and then do it all over again. It's pretty exciting, let me tell you! :) But I love it and wouldn't trade it for the world!

2011 is now 2012!

2012-01-04T20:34:00.000-08:00

Hello 2012! There are so many things I would like to do, but I am never much for resolutions. they just never seem to stick, or maybe becuase other things become more of a priority as time goes by. I mean who wouldn't like to lose another 5 pounds- I think that is on 99% of our "lists". (Heck, my number is a little bit higher than 5 but we are getting there!)

As I think back over the years I am amazed by some numbers that I see-

I have been out of highschool 17 years. (ouch!)
I have been teaching for 13 years (still seems weird)
I have been married for 10 years, 11 this summer
My little man is 4 years old.

Those numbers astound me. Maybe I am the only one who used to think a year was such a long stretch of time. But the older I get, the faster they fly by. I mean, my little man will be starting Kindergarten in the fall! Saying it makes it sound like it is a far way off as we are in the middle of winter (or at least they say we are- although the temperature outside doesn't reflect that at all!) But I know that this school year is going to be over in a blink of an eye and the summer will fade away just as quickly. There will be tons of things between now and then, it just seems like I can't get enough of what really matters.

I guess I am just excited about what this new year is going to bring, but a little sad at the same time. Once the time is gone, you can never get it back

Merry Christmas 2011

2012-01-04T19:44:00.000-08:00

Wow! Where did 2011 go? The past 6 months have been a blur and I haven't posted anything about it! I have decided I can no longer just keep hoping to go back and catch up, it's not going to happen. So I would rather start anew and at least return to the world of blogging for record keeping purposes if nothing else. Anyway, enough of that...

We had a great Christmas! Lincoln is getting to that fun age where the magic of Christmas really is something spectacular! Lincoln and Mabry had a awesome time decorating the tree- I mean who doesn't need 5+ ornaments on each of the lower branches!
Lincoln and I also had fun decorating Gingerbread houses with the Terry's. Rachel had her own "Terry Village"!
Santa came for a visit to our house! It was awesome. I think Lincoln was in shock but he quickly warmed up to his unexpected guest. Santa brought him presents and knew quite a bit about him, so it was easy to warm up to the man in red.

I was able to get quite a few of my nativities up for display, not quite as many as my Mom or my sister have up in their houses, but enough that I was able to enjoy the fact that I do have a collection.

Lincoln had a blast being spoiled on Christmas. He had so many presents, he really didn't know where to start. He pretty much got everything he asked for from Santa- except for his last minute request for another DS. :) He said his Daddy needed one to play with! But I don't even think he remembered that request after opening all the fun things he did get!

I think a few of his favorite things are the treasure box from his Aunt Christina (even though we probably aren't going to let him play with it- as it has actual "teasure" inside.) His Mario Cart indoor race track and cars- he loves ot watch them go round and round the track. His "lifesize" Mario Kart racer from Nana Fe, and his EazyRoller form Nana Lac.

Camping..Or Maybe Not

2011-06-09T23:06:00.000-07:00

The weather has been so not normal for Vegas, it's been almost on the pleasant side, and that's saying a lot for the start of June in this town. I am not sure if it was this unique weather or just the need to start our summer a little early, but we planned an impromptu camping trip this past weekend. We had grand ideas of spending time outdoors, enjoying the beautiful weather, hiking, cooking in the Dutch oven, and just being unplugged for awhile. At first we were going to go over to Bryce Canyon, but we got out of town later than we wanted on Friday Afternoon and decided we needed to head somewhere closer, so we opted for Cedar Mountain. And it was beautiful, but as you can see, maybe not quite ready for camping!

It might go without saying, but we turned around and went back down into Cedar City and found a hotel. Lincoln was a little confused at first, and kept asking where the camping was. But once we ran by Walmart and picked up a swimsuit and some floaties, he pretty much was in love with the "o"tel. (He keeps asking when we get to go back!)

Girls Camp 2011 Video

2011-04-12T16:05:00.000-07:00

So last year I was in charge of making the Girls Camp Intro video, and I think it turned out pretty well. And although I am not the Assistant Camp Director this year, I am in the Stake YW's presidency, and we are working very closely with the camp leaders. So I was asked to once again put together a video. This year was much harder for me, I didn't want it to be just a repeat of last year, but still include the same pieces of information. Hopefully this video fits those requirements!

Moving

2011-03-27T19:46:00.000-07:00

Who knew that when you put a house that wasn't a foreclosure of a short sale, it would get a cash offer four days later. We definitely didn't imagine it. Maybe that's why it came as a shock to be in that exact situation. Especially after finding out that the buyer was wanting to have control of the house on the 31st of the month- giving us not quite 3 weeks to move out. And since we have awesome renters in our house and would love to save money for a few future endeavors, decided that moving back into our house wasn't an option, we have found ourselves downsizing again. This time we are moving back in with the LeFevre's, hopefully they are ready for us! A three year old definitely adds a little bit to the mix!!
We have been moving a little bit at a time, ever since we found out the house was officially sold. And can I say It's amazing how much stuff a person can accumulate. And how many places you can find to store it all. Why are we so connected to "stuff"! And I don't even feel like I am much of a hoarder, as I can toss stuff out without much trouble. Heck, There are times I would like to just toss it all out. But then my practical side kicks in, and I realize it is a good thing to have some things in reserve. Now If I could just find a place to put our food storage :0)

Emerie's Project

2011-03-21T20:44:00.000-07:00

MIA

2011-02-20T15:06:00.000-08:00

Man, it has been awhile. Every time I have thought about sitting down to update the world (because I know all of you out there having been chomping at the bit, to find out) on how the LeFevre's are doing, something else manages to get in the way. Then I tell myself I need to wait, until I can go back and get caught up on the happenings in our family, but I can see that is never going to happen. So lets do a quick rewind. Summer was great, school started back up, and we had a great Christmas! There you go, now you are all caught up!

I just deleted an entire paragraph, feeling as though it was too negative. Life is good, just tougher right now. I think I need a nap.

Home Means Nevada

2010-07-18T21:15:00.000-07:00

If you are of the opinion that Nevada doesn't have much to offer in the area of beauty, you probably aren't alone and I might have been in agreement with you prior to this past week that we spent traveling the state! This was Justin's first official vacation since obtaininghis job at UPS, and since times are tough everywhere we decided to try and keep our costs low but our fun level high. So we opted for a family "camping" trip.

We started our adventure in Sunnyside, a very small town about 2 hours outside Las Vegas. My Aunt Sherri and Uncle Tom have a house out there, so we hung out with them for a few days. Lincoln loved everything about Sunnyside!!

Here is with the snake that Sherri and Tom caught for him on their property before we arrived.

And here he is fishing at the lake. He did really good for a 3 year old stuck on a boat out in the middle of a lake.

Look at the fish Daddy caught!

Lincoln loved the "motorcycles"!! Once he had his first ride, it was hard to pry him off. He was nothing but smiles the entire time. He loved the hills, and would scream "Yee Haw"and always wanted to go faster and faster.

After leaving Sunnyside we headed further north towards Wheeler Peak, the highest peak in Nevada. It is part of the Great Basin National Park, home of Lehman Caves, which I had never been to before. And it was pretty cool!! On our way there we stopped in Ely and rode the Ghost train.

Here is Lincoln enjoying his first steam engine train ride. We were pretty happy to be inside the passenger car, as the open car got pretty sooty.

Here is Lincoln and his Daddy at our campground at the top of Mt. Wheeler. Our campsite made us feel like we were the only ones there.

What a big helper!

He's got a little bit longer to go before he fit's in his Daddy's gloves! :)

Lehman Caves was pretty dark, at least from Lincoln's perspective! And he was very interested in touching everything the Rangers told us not to touch!

After leaving Great Basin National Park we made our way up to Elko and got our first glimpse at the Ruby Mountains. We stayed in a hotel in Elko the first night before heading up to Lamoille Canyon. (And I feel sorry for those that live in Elko, we didn't have many dinner options while in town) After a quick dip in the pool and a hot shower we were ready for another round of camping. And what a beautiful place it was!

Our campsite was in a campground called Fletcher Canyon, and it was right next to a swiftly running stream. The sound of running water was so soothing at night! And look at the view! :)

As we traveled back home, we headed down a new road to check out some other parts of our state. We saw some little towns, including Eureka, Pioche, Panaca, and a few others that you will miss if you blink. But just outside Panaca we found a hidden gem. The Cathedral Gorge State Park. This place is pretty cool. Lincoln loved walking up into the crevices. And once we were inside it really did remind me of the tall cathedral walls I saw while in Europe, but made of mud instead of stone.

Overall, we had a great trip. And it reminded me that I really do like camping, but I am still not a huge fan of bugs. And I despise bug spray and love hot showers and flushing toilets!

Success!

2010-07-08T23:49:00.000-07:00

Have you ever feared taking your one of two or maybe even three kids to a portrait studio to take pictures, hoping that they can all smile long enough to get one good picture. Well, then you my be able to understand a little bit of what we went through yesterday when we took my Mom's 10 grandchildren to get pictures taken! Try getting 10 children ranging from 10 to 6 months to all look at the camera at the same time and be happy and smiling when they do. It is not a task to take lightly, but luckily our photographer was up to the challenge and I think we got some great pictures! (By the way my Mom made the girls dresses and the boy's ties! Isn't she amazing!)

Happy Birthday America!

2010-07-04T22:46:00.000-07:00

I have always loved the 4th of July. i don't know if it's the Historian in me or what, but I love this Holiday. I might even say it is my favorite, although there are many others I also enjoy. But between the smiles and excitement that the fireworks bring to my little man, and the food the generally goes along with a hot summer day, I just love the feeling this day brings. We are so truly blessed!

4th of July Parade...a day Early!

2010-07-03T00:28:00.000-07:00

Since the 4th of July falls on a Sunday this year many of the celebrations are occurring a day early. Which is nice for those of us who might not want to go full party mode on Sunday. We started the day at the Summerlin Parade, and it was pretty fun. We have never been before, although Rachel has been multiple times, this is the first time we opted to wake up early enough to join the festivities! We arrived early enough to get some great seats at near the start of the parade, which is nice because you have to wait less time for the parade to actually get to you and all the performers are still fresh. Not to mention that the end gets to you sooner as well, which means you get to leave before the heat is too overwhelming!

The kids had a good time showing off their homemade 4th of July T-shirts (they made Eagles using different parts of their hands), collecting candy, eating donuts, craning their necks to see what was coming next, and hanging out with friends and family. Overall, they had a great time!

After the parade most of us ended up back at Nana's house where the kids and most of the adults cooled off in the pool. After which we headed over to a friends house for some more merriment, a few fireworks, and fun. By the time the day was over Lincoln was exhausted and we all slept very well!

Adventure at the Shark Reef

2010-07-02T00:01:00.000-07:00

Brian and Ann and the kids came down last week just in time for Lincoln's birthday. So it has been fun to let all the cousins spend some time together. Today we took the kids on an adventure to the Shark Reef at Mandalay Bay. They all had a great time, and the fun started before we even got to the exhibit. They have an interactive "wall" as you are nearing the entrance that reacts to your movements, as if you were disturbing the water. Come to think of it we probably could have called it a day there and then! :)

But then we wouldn't have been able to see their excitement at the different exhibits inside. Or this fun picture of all of them wearing their 10 year anniversary hats! They were all so excited it was hard to wait their turn in the line. But the wait was worth it when they got to see a Komodo Dragon up close and personal, as well as an octopus on the move. And most of them were brave enough to touch the Manta Ray's.

I think the reason Lincoln liked to touch them was that he loved the fact that he got to wash his hands after! Everything was automatic so he thought he was so cool getting the soap himself and pulling off his own paper towel.

The kids also enjoyed the Jelly Fish and the shark room. My mom even treated all the kids to a small item from the gift shop, so they thought they were pretty cool stuff.

A "Super" Party for a super kid

2010-06-25T09:58:00.000-07:00

For those of you who are unaware, Lincoln is pretty much obsessed with everything Mario. He loves to play the games on the Wii (Super Mario Brothers and Mario Kart), he would wear a Mario shirt every day if he owned that many, and he can spot Mario from very far away. So when I started thinking about his birthday, I knew it needed to be revolved around his love for Mario. Sadly, there isn't a lot out there right now in terms of Mario, and even a search online doesn't bring up much. (Enough to get the creative juices flowing and allow for some purchases of items, but no all in one stop for ideas and supplies)

The first thing we had to do was put together an invitation, so I used some images I found online and some Photoshop magic to put a little something together.

There has to be party games of course, but since its 100+ degrees outside, we didn't want to spend the whole time out there unless it was in the pool. And the inside of the house is a little small for the large number of family and friends t

hat would be joining us. So we kept them to a minimal, but I still think the kids had fun. Here are the games we played-

Yoshi Egg Hunt- I found some plastic Easter Eggs in April that reminded me of the Yoshi eggs on the game, so we filled them up with candy and coins and hid them in the yard. We limited the kids to how many they could find to keep it fair, and then also gave a prize to the person who hadthe most coins inside the eggs they found.

Goomba Stomp: We bought brown balloons and added plastic coins inside of them in different amounts prior to blowing them up. Once they were inflated, I added a printed out image of the Goomba to the balloon. For the game, we had all the kids stand in a circle and then dumped them all out into the center . They had a great time trying to break ope

n the balloons by stomping on them. Once again the person who collected the most coins received a small prize.

Chain Chomper Pinata: With a little pain and some paper we turned a soccer ball pinata into a chain chomper,

chain and all. Justin did an awesome job putting this guy together and the kids had a great time trying to break him open!

We also put together some pretty fun party favors if I do say so myself. I wanted to make boxes that looked like the question mark boxes on the game, but found some awesome yellow colored chinese food cartons at Party City that I think turned out great. Not exactly square, but so much less work!

I then found some inexpensive water bottles that I personalized with a variety of Mario Brothers characters.

As well as some funny straws that I did the same thing with. But I think the hit of the party was the life size Mario that my Mother made for us. It turned out great!!

I didn't make the cake myself, with just coming back form camp and preparing to leave again for my tech conference, I took the easy way out and ordered the cake instead. I did create the image that we used to print and place on the cake, but I let some one else do the baking. I feel a little guilty about that, but I don't think he will hold it against me in the long run.

Girls Camp

2010-06-21T09:20:00.000-07:00

Wow! I can't believe it's over! Thankfully, the week went great. The weather was nice overall, a little chilly the first night (okay it was downright cold) and a bit of wind on Tuesday (okay it blew a few tents over), but we all come out of it fine. We all stayed dry and that is the best blessing of all, because in my mind camping in the rain is the worst.

It was a pretty nonstop week, from the Stake Activity to the Hikes and the Certification Relay, we kept the girls going. Which I think is a great way to have peaceful nights! :)

I was in charge of creating the after camp video, which turned ou

t good I think. It is about 20 minutes long though so I am not going to post it here, but I think it showcased the week pretty well if I do say so myself!

It was our first really big event as the new Young Women's Stake Presidency. We had a great time getting to know the girls and each other.

Making Memories on Memorial Day

2010-06-04T22:17:00.000-07:00

What better way to celebrate Memorial day than to spend time with family enjoying one of America's favorite past times- swimming. Sadly we have had a few blustery days prior to the holiday so the water was a little chilly. Ok, it wasn't just chilly it was down right freezing! But we swam even though our skin was turning red from the cold not the heat!

And the kids swam for a surprisingly long time considering it was so cold. And I still managed to get a pretty decent sunburn which is no surprise. But it looks like Lincoln might take after his Daddy, I think the little man is going to have a pretty good tan line by the time this summer is over!

Baseball Fanatic

2010-05-28T21:26:00.000-07:00

My little man has been obsessed with baseball lately. He loves to throw the balls, hit the balls, find the balls, etc. Pretty much he loves the ball part of baseball. So we took him to the 51's baseball game. He had a great time, although a 9 inning baseball was a little long for a 2 year old. Thankfully, the stadium realizes that kids need a place to run off a little steam so there is a grassy knoll that they open for families. Lincoln and I spent quite a bit of time there! :) But he had a blast acting like a big kid, running around trying to join into the different games the older kids were playing.

We were lucky enough to have awesome seats- (thanks Grandma and Grandpa Worthen) so we were close to the action. And had a perfect view of the fireworks that they set off after the game was over. Overall, it was a great time. But if we do it again, we might pass on the first few innings of the game! :)

You have a what for me??

2010-05-17T22:25:00.000-07:00

You know how sometimes you figure that having two callings is pretty safe. You figure there isn't much else they could ask you to do. Heck, you don't really feel like you are living up to your potential in the callings you have. And then as you are already rushing to a meeting that starts in 5 minutes you miss a text from a member of the Stake Presidency, asking if they can meet with your and your husband right after said meeting. And since you don't respond he tracks you down at said meeting to see what can be worked out. You think nothing of it really until you truly read the text and see that they want to extend a calling to you. at first you think they must mean your husband is getting a new calling, but then you read it again and realize it is you they want to extend a calling to. But you still don't really think much about it because you already have a stake calling as an Assistant Stake Camp director. You try to call your husband to see if he can run down, but there is no answer. And the meeting has already started so you need to focus on that, and by the time he responds it has already been decided that the counselor in the stake presidency will just come to your house instead. So you drive like a mad woman to drop off a computer you had to coax back to life to your father and then still arrive before your preisthood leaders. So spend a good 15 minutes wondering what in the world is going on, only to have an epiphany as soon as you see who arrives with the counselor. And when they ask you to be the secretary in the new Stake Young Women's Presidency you are speechless but not completely surprised. And after some one sided conversation in your head as you move through all the reasons why you are not cut out to accept this calling, you accept it anyway. And then you are not allowed to tell anyone until Stake Conference that the call has been extended, so they are all about as shocked as you were when your name is called in Conference. Well, if you have ever had this happen then you know how I feel right now! Totally and completely overwhelmed and underqualified for such a position. And the crazy thing is I wasn't released from either of my other two callings :) So if I thought I was busy before, I guess I haven't seen anything yet!!

Love is in the Air

2010-05-17T21:14:00.000-07:00

We traveled to Denver this weekend to celebrate the marriage of my cousin Chantelle. We are so excited for her and this new step in her life. We were a little afraid that none of the cousins on my Dad's side would ever decide to tie the knot!

Justin, Lincoln, and I flew into Denver on Thursday and my Mom joined us on Friday. The Temple Sealing was on Saturday with a reception after. It was a great time. We filled some of the hours by taking Lincoln to the park, hanging out at GiGi's playing with blocks, and seeing family.

The trip was a little more interesting than I would like when I realized late Friday night that I had forgotten to grab my temple recommend out of my temple bag. Luckily, I happen to have an awesome member of the stake presidency that was able to call the temple and get me a pass :)

Our garden

2010-05-11T21:10:00.000-07:00

We planted a garden this spring, here is the first fruits of our labor!

First Time in a Tent

2010-05-08T22:09:00.000-07:00

At the same time I was having my party, Justin was at the Father's and Sons with Lincoln. The ward did it pretty simple by taking everyone up to Warm Springs. I talked Justin into taking an actual tent for him and Lincoln, thinking that would spur them to stay a little longer the next day- since I knew it was going to be a late night for me.-too bad they still got home by 8:30 in the morning :( But Lincoln did seem to enjoy his night in the tent, (even if daddy didn't) and the opportunity he had to go swimming! So for him it was the perfect outing!!

These are a few of my favorite things...

2010-05-07T21:29:00.000-07:00

Okay, so if you have ever read my sister-in-law Ann's blog you know she celebrates her birthday by hosting a party that revolves around her favorite things. It has always intrigued me and I thought what better reason to steal her idea than my own birthday! :)

Here's the invitation I sent to a few of my favorite people
I really wanted to revolve the party around my favorite things, so for the food I made some of my favorite salads including BLT salad, Mexican chicken salad, Tri-color Pasta Salad, Vanilla Pudding Salad, & Grape Salad. I also had some of my favorite beverages including water and rootbeer. For entertainment we played a few games, including Sound of Music Trivia, Mad Libs, and Minute to Win it Games.
Since I didn't want the night to be just all about me, I asked everyone to bring one of their favorite things to share. I had everyone wrap them in brown paper bags when they arrived, so all the gifts were identical. Then we had a game to try and guess who might have brought the item in question. It was great to see what people brought, and so many of them were things I could have chosen as well. I guess that's why we are friends!! :)
Throughout the night I shared 33 of my favorite things with everyone, and here they are in no particular order! Liquid Laundry detergent, Sees Candy, DVR, Zabas, Travel, Iron-on Patches, Demotivators (seen at http://despair.com), Cream of Soups by Campbells, New Recipes, Deep Covered Baker/Crockpot/Rice Cooker, Crocs, Spell Check, Sam's Club/Costco, Digital Clocks, Camelback backpack, new socks, turkey, Matryshka Dolls, amazon.com, fruit leather, mint cookie ice cream by Ben & Jerry's, Shutterfly, Post-it Notes, Wendy's, Santa Maria Seasoning, baby wipes, mint m&m's, books, A&W Rootbeer, Potato Pearls, Musicals, Smiths Case Lot sales, everything Apple!
I also handed out prizes to those who won the games that of course was something off my favorite things list and everyone got to take home a "brown paper package wrapped up with string" as a thank you for coming to my party! I think it was a huge success and I am glad Ann let me in on a few of her secrets! I just hope everyone had as much fun as I did!

Brian Head Birthday Weekend

2010-05-02T20:58:00.000-07:00

Don't you just love getting away from it all! I definitely do, but never seem to get enough time to do it. So when Justin suggested getting away for a weekend away from home to celebrate my birthday, I was all for it. Luckily, we have a generous friend who allowed us to use his family's cabin up in Brian Head. (Thank you Robert & Janet)
We thought it might be a little chilly, but we never expected that it would snow on us. We drove in on Thursday and had barely entered the house, when it started to snow. And other then a few short moments of reprieve it snowed on us the rest of the weekend! We had a great view, but most of the time you would not have known it, since the clouds and snow were so thick at times.
Lincoln had a grand time playing in the snow, although at times it took longer to get him suited up then the time he actually stayed outside playing! :) Justin's Mom and sisters came with us as well. So we enjoyed playing games, hanging out, watching movies, and of course eating!
The trip down the mountain was a little rough on Sunday, especially considering we don't have 4-wheel drive, but we made it down in one piece. And although Lincoln was suffering with what we later found out to be Strep throat, it was overall a great weekend. And as with all good things, they have to come to an end. Hopefully, we can do it again soon!

Bountiful Baskets

2010-04-18T19:20:00.000-07:00

So the Idaho LeFevre's have been participating in a program called Bountiful Baskets for awhile now. Basically, you go in with a bunch of other people to buy produce direct from the farmers. The kicker is you never really know exactly what is going to be in your "basket", just that it is going to be a combination of fruits and veggies. We have all been a little jealous of the opportunity they have had to have access to farm fresh stuff, but no longer! We now have the same opportunity right here in Vegas! So I got online and ordered two baskets- one for us and one for Carole and the girls! We picked them up yesterday morning at 7:00 am at a park in the Northwest part of town. And it was just as awesome as we had expected-

We got lettuce, swiss chard, mushrooms, broccoli, potatoes, tomatoes, carrots, pineapple, bananas, apples, blackberries, and some type of melon- all for $18! I have already used the mushrooms, potatoes, and carrots with a roast as well as the lettuce and tomatoes in a salad for Dinner this evening. Lincoln has been enjoying the bananas, and we tried the blackberries. I am excited to keep finding ways to use the items, but am going to have to look up something to do with swiss chard. I was really excited when I first saw it, as I thought it was rhubarb and had a brief thought of making a strawberry rhubarb pie. But now I am not so sure what to do with it- so if anyone has ideas!

We are going to try it again next weekend- if a basket is offered and see what we get! To check it out here in Vegas go to http://www.bountifulbaskets.org/ . You have a very small window of time to place your order and you also have to pick it up within a 20 minute period, but since it is all volunteers doing the work you can not expect them to wait around all day!

A Little Early for Swimming but....

2010-04-10T15:35:00.000-07:00

Lincoln had to try it out anyway! Justin has been working on the pool the past few days so the cover has been off and the pool itself was just getting refilled. Lincoln wanted to play in the pool, so Justin figured the minute he put his feet in, he would decide maybe he didn't really want to do that. But the plan back fired, Lincoln didn't seem to think it was cold at all. He ran back and forth along the step and jumped and played seemingly unaware that it was freezing! I think we could be in trouble if he thinks it is time to swim already!

A Fair Day!

2010-04-10T14:31:00.000-07:00

We took Lincoln out to the county fair this morning. We headed out to Logandale at about 8:30 this morning and it took us just over an hour to get to the fair grounds. We had a really close parking space and there really was no traffic on our way in-unlike the traffic we passed on our way out! The fair didn't open until 10 so we had a few minutes to get ourselves situated and buy the tickets.
We both thought it seemed a little smaller than last year, but we both agreed it was probably due to the economy. That didn't stop us from having fun though! Lincoln had a chance to see some animals- chickens, ducks, pigs, goats, sheep, lizards, snakes, and a cow! As always he was fascinated by them all! There was a whole building of pigs and he made sure to go up and down every aisle. But he wasn't too sure about those that were actually awake. so he kept his petting attempts to those that were asleep. :)
He thought the roosters were loud and funny at the same time. Some of them were so huge! Almost majestic looking! He was a little annoyed that all the animals were in cages and not on the ground for him to chase! But he still managed to upset the cow. Lincoln would stomp his foot and the cow would almost charge the fence- almost like a bull would! It was crazy. Lincoln of course thought it was hilarious!
He also had a chance to ride a pony, or onies as he called them. The pony he got to ride was brown and white, and his name was dandy. He had so much fun riding that pony around in a little circle. It was especially nice because they fastened the kids on the pony with a seat belt, so I wasn't worried about him falling off.
They even had a free area where the kids got to see and touch live Stingrays. Lincoln thought that was pretty interesting. He would point them out as they swam past and did not hesitate in attempting to touch them. These were small babies compared to the ones Justin and I had a chance to swim with on our Cruise, but they were easy to see and the water was shallow so Lincoln had an easy time reaching them. He probably could have stayed there all morning.
There weren't as many shows this year, but we did watch a pretty interesting dog show. The guy is a national frisbee champion along with his dogs! It started to get a little windy right before the show, but they were still able to put on a pretty decent show. A little too much talking, but nice nonetheless. He has some very interesting dogs, one called a Catahoula Leopard Dog, that climbs trees and stalks like a cat. It was so interesting.
We managed to bypass the carnival games again, which is probably one of the bigger money pits for parents in the fair. Luckily, he is still young enough to not really know that he is missing anything. He was more then okay with the ice cream cone he got to eat! :)
We headed home shortly after the dog show, and I think the secret to the fair is to make sure you get there early. There was a huge traffic slowdown coming into town when we were leaving. And I have no idea where they were sending them to park, but it definitely was not close. So if you are thinking of going, go early!

An "Eggstra" Special Day

2010-04-04T20:41:00.001-07:00

What's better then an easter egg hunt on Easter Sunday? How about two Easter egg hunts! That's right, Lincoln got a chance to participate in two easter egg hunts today. One at GrandNana's with the Cousins, and one at Aunt Dawna's. He had such a good time "founding" his eggs! The Easter Bunny aka. Justin and John came to Nana's house during conference, and hid all 10 dozen eggs. The front yard was deemed the easy hunt for the little kids, and the backyard area was for the big kids. And even though there were almost 5 dozen eggs out in the back, you could not see one when you scanned the yard! But between the two areas, we only came up one egg short! I don't think there is another time we have only been one short, usually we are missing multiple eggs! :0)

After our yummy breakfast and egg hunt at Nan's we headed out to Henderson to Aunt Dawna's house. Lincoln loves them and their back yard, tons of places to explore. And as we found out tons of places to hide eggs. (Between me and you, I think we had a harder time finding those 36 eggs than all 10 dozen of the other ones! Aunt Tina knows how to hide those eggs!!) But Lincoln had a great time finding them!

My Mom made some cute ties for the boys and what I am sure will be awesome dresses for the girls. (She ran a little short on time, so wasn't able to get all four dresses done.) Here are all 6 kids after the Egg Hunt!

Check out Lincoln- he was a star Easter Egg hunter!!

Introducing the Camp Theme

2010-04-03T14:56:00.001-07:00

For those that are unaware, I was called to be an Assistant Camp Director for Girls Camp. Our camp kick-off is next week, and as a way to introduce our Theme- The Incredible Journey: Protecting the Path to Virtue, they asked me to put together a short video. This is what I came up with, I hope it's what they were looking for as this was not part of my camp experience in the past!

Egg-citing Times

2010-04-03T14:32:00.000-07:00

Perhaps I am the only one that hates eggs. I try to like them, I really do. But I just can't get past my dislike. They are bearable when scrambled covered in ketchup, or as part of omelet loaded with cheese and ham. But by themselves, I just can't gag them down. The yolk is just so nasty! Runny or hard-boiled it's all inedible to me!
So why do I find such joy in dying Easter Eggs? Perhaps it is because with patience the eggs can become so colorful. Or maybe, its just the memories I have of hunting for egg's in Nana's yard and being fascinated with just how many eggs could be hidden in the ivy! I know it's definitely not the promise of being allowed to eat them after the hunt, so it could just be the process itself! Whatever it is, I love it. And I think most kids do too. I know these one's had a great time last night, although only the girls lasted through all 10 dozen eggs! (Yes, we boiled and dyed 10 dozen eggs!)

Lincoln did pretty well dying his eggs, I think he only managed to crack two of them in the process. But he wasn't very patient. He put them in the dye and took them right back out again. So his eggs never got very bright! Some still looked white! :) So generally, I would take the egg and but it back in the dye without him knowing!

Now, all we have to do is wait for Sunday to get here so the Easter Bunny can attempt to hide all 10 dozen out in the yard- I bet at least two dozen go in the ivy! But as for all the others, I think the bunny might have to get a little creative! :)

Here's just a sampling of the many different eggs the kids created!

Just so Darn Cute!

2010-04-01T20:30:00.000-07:00

Outing to Bonnie Springs

2010-03-31T14:12:00.000-07:00

We took Lincoln up to Bonnie Springs today! And although it's just like I remember it, that didn't stop us form enjoying the trip. It was a little chillier than it had been the past two days, and the wind picked up at times, but we all survived and Lincoln had a blast chasing ducks, chickens, peacocks, and deer around.
They still have a "petting" zoo area, although most of the animals are not available for touching. I'm not sure it would be safe to allow children to pet the Lynx or the wolf! :0) But there were some deer roaming around and a few small goats and mini horse wandering around. And you could get one finger into the rabbits hutch! So I guess that fulfills the petting aspect of the "zoo"!
There is some food that you can purchase to feed the animals, but Nana Fe had us covered with bread and a box of cherrios. (We were a little afraid she was going to get us all in trouble by ignoring the "No Food" rule that was posted, but only one worker even asked any questions, and Nana was able to show them it was probably healthier than what they were getting in the first place!) So the animals and Lincoln both had a treat- he was more interested in eating the cherrios himself, than he was in feeding it to the animals.
He also had fun riding the stationary horse outside the restaurant. And probably could have gone through another couple of dollars worth of quarters- but the promise of chicken nuggets distracted him long enough to move him away from the toy. {Is it bad when your child can point out the stores that carry chicken nuggets and slurpees? I swear I do make dinner most of the time :) }

Seven Kids and a Little Wind

2010-03-30T20:48:00.000-07:00

We took seven kids up to Redrock this afternoon and completed the Children's Discovery Loop. It was a little windy, but not as hot as we were afraid it was going to be. The wind helped cool it down and we got in a little later than usual, so we had the shadow of the mountain to cool us off as well. Lincoln had such a great time leading the pack! Literally!! He was up in the front showing all those big kids what was up! It was freaking me out a little considering I was in the back helping Mabry. (Rachel was carrying Afton, so her hands were pretty full!) But we all made it and Lincoln walked the whole way! I had to practically beg him to hold my hand on the rough spots.

It was once again the time of caterpillars up at Redrock. They are the weirdest things, huge web like sacks filled with caterpillars. I am not sure what type of moth or butterfly they turn into , but there are hundreds of these sacks all over the park. Lincoln and Mabry are examining one here in this photo, and Lincoln kept pointing them out every time he found one! Which was quite often! :)

There was a ton of water at the end of the trail, probably the most we have ever seen. We actually had to pick our way across the dry rocks to make it across the creek, just to get to the first set of stairs. And then the pool up above was quite full, and the waterfall was huge! Tons of water coming off the top! That didn't stop Lincoln from wanting to climb the rocks like the big kids. And he had to make sure that Mabry or Mabs as he calls her, saw him everytime he got some place higher than the first! He is so dang cute!

On top of the hike today we put together Lincoln's new trampoline at Nana Fe's house. He was so excited to see a trampoline being built in the back yard! He loves to jump!

A Park or Maybe Two!

2010-03-29T19:53:00.000-07:00

Okay, so today was the first official day of Spring Break and it was a great start to the week. But if it is any indication of the days ahead of us, it is going to fly by! We started the day at Rachel's house to try on Lincoln's new Easter clothes and determine which shirt to keep. (The 4 was a little tight so we went with the six! This is my 2 1/2 year old we are talking about!! He is not supposed to be getting so big!) He of course took the opportunity to jump on the trampoline, and basically spent an entire hour trying to convince everyone else to stay outside with him. (Anytime he was the only one left he would come in side and ask each kid to "jump with me trampoline?") Rachel's kids are pretty good sports so he could usually find a sucker to jump with him! :)

After Rachel got back from learning what her keys opened at the church-she is the new second counselor in the Relief Society- we ran to Sears to exchange the shirt for Camp to a larger one. And we ended up saving my Mom about 6 dollars, because the shirts were on sale. And we learned that if an item goes on sale within 30 days of when you purchased it, Sears will give you back the difference! How great is that, and since we had the receipt with all the shirts on it, they refunded her the money!

From Sears we headed back to grab the kids and some stuff to have a picnic. We were going to meet Justin's family at the park out at Mountains Edge. (Justin and I discovered it one day as we were driving around the area on our way to the Bass Pro Shops but it was raining so we didn't get to play and decided it would be fun to go back.) It is a pretty cool park, and has a old western town theme running throughout the park. The play area itself is made to look like the different buildings you would find in a old western town and it's huge so there is plenty of room for everyone. Which is good, because it was quite busy today! But even though it was busy, we didn't feel like it was overly crowded, we got a table so the adults could sit in the shade and the kids were able to do everything they wanted without too much worry from the adults. Although I did follow the two youngest ones around just to help them get up on things and make sure they didn't come zooming out of a slide or something.

We also talked the kids and most of the adults (Lorina and Carole stayed behind to tend Afton) into trying out the hike that traveled out from the park to the top of the small mountain the park is nestled next to. Lincoln walked the whole thing by himself, and basically ran the entire first part of the trail! And everyone made it to the very top- great job Aunt Tina!! We didn't come very prepared for a hike, but we were able to get to the top and back without too much difficulty!

We ended up spending almost 3 1/2 hours at the park and I think I should have thought to put sun screen on- my face is feeling a little warm right now!

But as if that wasn't enough park time today we had already made plans yesterday to meet a family from our ward at the park this evening. So after only being home for about an hour and a half we packed up our drinks once again and headed over to the park across from Bonanza. And even though Lincoln had been at the park pretty much all day, you never would have known it. He was totally loving it again! We spent another 2 1/2 hours at the park running and sliding! So although Lincoln doesn't seem to be any worse for wear, I am exhausted! :) Here's hoping that maybe he will go down early today!

Oh, and I might have a future photographer on my hands. Lincoln took this picture today of Mabry while we were on how hike! Pretty Impressive if I do say so myself!

Walking With Dinosaurs!

2010-03-27T20:47:00.001-07:00

We took Lincoln to see Walking with Dinosaurs, the Live Experience today! And it was so worth the wait. (We actually bought the tickets back in October, because we had heard how great the show was and how fast the tickets go. So it seems like we have been waiting forever for today to come!) The dinosaurs were so lifelike and so huge! We didn't pay top dollar for the tickets, so were near the top of the bottom level, and it was still easy to see everything. Although I think it would have been really cool to be right next to the rail were you could look eye to eye with the Dinosaurs.

Lincoln was pretty much glued from the moment the show started, he got a little antsy at the end, but the mommy T-Rex gained his full attention again. She was huge and loud!! Or perhaps it was the toy that Nana bought that gained his full attention! :) It is a light up spinning dinosaur wand thingie. And he loves it! You should have seen his smile when we got it out of the bag for him! He was so happy!!

The one thing we wish might have been a little different, is the fact that all the dinosaur scenes had some type of conflict and/or fighting among the dinosaurs. Yes, we agree that was probably how it was, but could we not have just given us a glimpse of what they might have been like without that. But overall, we all had a great time. It was truly amazing what they did with those dinosaurs.

Touch-A-Truck Experience

2010-03-20T11:04:00.000-07:00

Now the name is a little weird, but the event was great. Basically, they bring tons of large vehicles together in one place and let the kids have free reign of them. I guess they have done it in years past, but we had never heard of it before. The only reason we knew about it this year was a flyer we picked up at Mirabelli. It sounded pretty cool, so we decided to take Lincoln. It was held in the parking lot of the New Orleans Arena, and they probably had 75 or more different types of big vehicles. Everything from a big Diesel truck to a fire engine. The kids were allowed to drive, push buttons, honk horns, climb on, run though, and touch pretty much every part of the vehicle that they wanted to. They even got a chance to spray water both from the top of a water truck and from a fire engine.
There was tons to see, so we basically let Lincoln guide us through the displays. He liked the big rigs and had a great time running through the trailer of one of the trucks, but his favorite things were the buses. He couldn't get enough of the different buses. There was a tour bus, a city bus, and a very colorful school bus. He had a great time running up and down the aisles, jumping from one seat to the next, and driving them. Here he is driving the city bus! It was hard to get him to give up his position as the driver, but he did pretty good taking turns. :)

The Tunnel

2010-03-19T10:48:00.000-07:00

If you read my previous post you know I am pretty much annoyed with all the construction around here. But there is one postive thing that has come of it, Lincoln has a tunnel to play in! Right now there are about 60 giant concrete square pipe pieces all laid out in a row a mere half block from the house. We took him down to see the work that was being done and then let him run through the pipes. He loved it! He probably could have stayed there all afternoon. At the time the tunnel went almost entirely down the street, so we got a pretty good workout. I was a little worried, as there was a small crack between each pipe, but he had no problem navigating his way over these small obstacles!
There was also an access ladder he climbed up and down, and that this Daddy scared him through more than once! (Justin was on the outside of the pipes -as he could not walk upright on the inside and it was starting to crick his neck- and he would run ahead to the opening and then yell as Lincoln arrived!)
I then decided it would be nice to use the timer to take a family picture, but once Lincoln saw this awesome feat of technology. He wouldn't let me take a picture using the normal method. He would make me put the camera down and set the timer to take his picture! :) We did this over and over again, but we did get some pretty good pictures!

Petition to Change Nevada State Tree

2010-02-26T20:05:00.000-08:00

Okay so if you don't know the current state tree of Nevada is the bristlecone pine. They grow in high elevations, generally right below the tree line. Because of cold temperatures, dry soils, high winds, and short growing seasons, the trees grow very slowly. Due to the harsh conditions they live in they are usually small and contorted. The wood is very dense and is thus resistant to attacks of bugs or fungi. Due to these factors they are not very plentiful, but are considered to be one of the oldest single living organisms, one has even been dated to be 4,789 years old! So yes, this sounds like a pretty cool tree. The problem is, no one ever sees one, there is not much first hand knowledge of this specimen with the citizens of Nevada.
My suggestion for a new tree is the well known, it can be seen every where, they seem to go up in seconds and are around for what seems like 4,000 years. They come in varying sizes and seem to multiply at a moments notice. They can be enjoyed by everyone throughout the city and probably the state for that matter, although my first hand knowledge is limited to Las Vegas. They are resilient and can rebound from direct hits quickly and are easily moved from location to location without any damage to the from itself. The colors are bright and generally hard to miss, unless of course they have been moved into inappropriate places. I think my choice of replacing the Bristlecone with the Traffic Cone is a good one and I hope you are all with me. Because it's the only thing that might make all this craziness around town, a little bit easier!

Okay, if you can't tell I'm completely annoyed with the amount of road construction in this town. Every time I turn around more cones have gone up. Now in general this would not bother me, but I never seem to see anyone working in this areas that have been closed off to traffic. If you are going to close it off, at least make it look like you are doing something.

What can they come up with next?

2010-02-26T08:30:00.000-08:00

This is not an illusion, it truly is a giant birthday cake. My sister somehow got roped into creating "decorations" for the Cub Scout Blue & Gold dinner last night, even though she is not on the Cub Committee. All she knew was that the theme was a birthday party and that it was celebrating 100 years of scouting. She wasn't really sure what she was going to do until Tuesday, when she thought it might be fun to make a giant birthday cake. So of course with one day notice and thought my Mom and Sister were able to build this cake using supplies that they already had. And just as a side note the top tier rotated! Now although I did go and help them complete the masterpiece, the creativity was all theirs.

It's pretty scary isn't it!

Boys will be Boys

2010-02-20T13:59:00.000-08:00

My boys went camping this weekend and left me to fend for myself. (Which I must say led to a very relaxing couple of hours!) And from what I can tell they had a great time themselves. They went out to the dry lake beds yesterday afternoon and came back right around noon this afternoon, so it wasn't a very long trip. But they filled the time they had with friends, food, and fun. It was a pretty large group that ended up going. I believe this is a list of those that went; Justin & Lincoln, John, Rydman, & Cutler Terry, Allen, Tyler, Matthew, & Micheal Weinand, Lars, Henry, & Jack Larsen, and Clark Orme.
According to Justin Lincoln had a good time. A few melt downs, but overall he did really well. Justin took his Big Wheel so Lincoln rode all over the dry lake bed on it. He also spent a lot of his time with Micheal. And he managed to only fall into one Mud Puddle. (The boys were a little afraid the dry lake bad would not be dry considering the amount of rain we have gotten in the last few weeks. But I guess the skies have been clear enough to let a large majority of the space to dry out)
When they finally made it home today, Lincoln was a mess. He was so dirty! His face was covered with dirt! I hope Justin just did not wipe it because he wanted to show me how dirty he was, but if it had been me I could not have left his face like that very long! :) But I guess dirt is just a part of camping out!

See My Pretty Flowers!

2010-02-17T08:25:00.000-08:00

What a great husband I have :)

First Slurpee of the Season

2010-02-16T14:21:00.000-08:00

Jumping Star

2010-02-15T17:15:00.000-08:00

Since we had the day off we thought it would be fun to take Lincoln over to SkyMania. This is a large indoor facility full of trampolines. I had never been there before, but knew Lincoln would love it especially since he had been there once before with the LeFevre's. Plus he loves to jump!! So it wasn't much of a stretch to think he would enjoy himself. Thankfully, they were having a special today, everything was 1/2 off. So instead of $9 dollars for an hour of jumping, it was only $4.50. Which is a much better deal. And as expected Lincoln loved it. He jumped for his full hour and probably could have kept going if he has been allowed to. By the end he was so sweaty! But so excited to be jumping and even though we did not jump, it was fun to see him having such a good time. Here is a short clip of his experience-

How many Lincoln's do you see?

2010-02-12T08:26:00.000-08:00

We had a ward activity last night to help fundraise money for Girls Camp. Now I know it was close to Presidents day, so perhaps that is why we had a special visitor, but there was no program exactly. So I am not sure if this is somethign he does every year at this time or what is up exactly. But he definitely could pass for Lincoln.

And just in case you are wondering there are 3 Lincolns in this photo. So yes there are two little boys named Lincoln in our ward. The little Lincoln just turned 1 a few months ago so we had the idea first :)

Crazy Cozy Coupe

2010-02-08T07:13:00.000-08:00

The Lion King

2010-02-07T20:45:00.000-08:00

Wow! If you ever get a chance to see the Broadway version of the Lion King you need to take it. The show is amazing. Great music, awesome costumes, and great additions to the original story.

A big thank you to Ann and Brian for getting my Mom the tickets for Christmas. It was the perfect gift! And another big thank you to my Mom for asking me to use one of her 4 tickets! What an awesome night we had!

It was basically a girls night out with My Mom, Rachel, Sherri, Nana, and myself. (There were only originally 4 tickets, but there just happened to be two empty seats in the theater, one of which was right next to our original 4. So that worked out great and we were all able to go. And did I mention it was AWESOME!
I have always enjoyed musicals and have dragged Justin to more than a probably has enjoyed. Heck one of the first dates I took him on was to see the Opera in Utah! Good thing he is a good sport about it, and I think he secretly enjoys them too! I have also had the opportunity to see two different shows on Broadway in New York. And this one was just as spectacular as those. I wish I could have taken pictures during the event, as it is so hard to try and describe just how amazing the costumes were! (I did do a google image search though so here are some representations of how cool they were!)

Family Adventure

2010-02-05T23:25:00.000-08:00

Sometimes being a teacher has its perks, on top of the very obvious ones such as no Holidays, summers off, great hours, etc! This evening we enjoyed one of those hidden benefits! We took Lincoln to the Shark Reef at Mandalay Bay for free! That's right other than the gas to get us there, it was free!! Basically, because I am a teacher I get free admission for myself plus one guest! But you are probably wondering how it was free considering there were two others beside myself. Well, as luck would have it, Children under 5 are FREE too! So we all got in for free! It was awesome! And even better was the fact it was nearly empty so Lincoln could run around without us having to worry about losing him in the crowd!

After seeing our fill of fish and sharks, we decided that it might be fun to take Lincoln to the Rainforest cafe, since we were already downtown. And I think he loved it!! What was even cooler is we happened to stop by a small kiosk in the store area to find out exactly how to get to the restaurant and were given a coupon for the Cafe. It was a coupon for a free kids meal and priority seating as well. We did not realize how awesome this coupon was until arriving at the Cafe and being escorted to a special line, only one family in front of us, which bypassed what looked to be at least a 30 minute wait in the regular line. And then to make the deal even sweeter we got Lincoln's meal free and considering they would have charged us $10 for it regularly we thought we had struck gold!! So our night was full of hidden bonuses! And it was so much fun on top of it all! I love spending time with my boys!

Where did January Go?

2010-02-05T23:17:00.000-08:00

I can not believe it is February already! last month was super crazy! With two cousins getting married and all the activities surrounding those events, as well as receiving a new ward calling, working, making cake pops for said weddings, attending meetings for my stake and ward calling, and trying to fit some time in with family, January has slipped right through my fingers! Luckily amid the chaos that was January I managed to snap a few pics of my handsome little boy! I love his smile, which I can only get if I tell him to show me his teeth!

This is the only picture I have of the hundreds of cake pops I made last month! Literally, I made hundreds. Some for Kristin and some Kimmy! I think they were a hit, especially with Lincoln! Some of the finished pops never even made it to the wedding thanks to my little thief!

Bring it on 2010!!

2010-01-01T23:10:00.000-08:00

Well although we couldn't take the kids out on the roof, (ever since we bought our house we have had the party at our house and the kids would go out on the flat roof outside Lincoln's bedroom to "ring" in the new year) I think we still had a great party to ring in the new year! Thankfully Nana allowed us to host this years event here at her house! Which I think was nice because she always enjoys visitors! And there were plenty of them! We ate, chatted, ate, played games, ate, laughed, and did I mention we ate? Needless to say there was more than enough food to go around and we had fun "ringing" in the new year even if it wasn't from the rooftop! (Our ringing includes banging on pots and pans just enough to annoy every neighbor in a 5 block radius!)

Dollar Bowling

2009-12-29T23:00:00.000-08:00

I took Lincoln bowling today with his cousins and my friend Lisa and her son James. She actually planned it, I just tagged along! And although there was a slight melt down on my Son's part about half way through, it wasn't all that horrible! And can I say my little guy is one buff kid. He was lifting his bowling ball all by himself and carrying it to the lane. Of course it wasn't a 15 pounder or anything but even with a 6 pound ball I was pretty impressed!

Tuesdays is dollar bowling at the Texas station so it makes for a fairly inexpensive activity. Especially if you can stay away from the snack bar! :) We bought two games for all the kids, but I think if we go again the little ones really don't need that many. They were pretty much done after the first round. So the other kids got a few more chances to practice their bowling skills!

After bowling, Lincoln and I picked up some lunch and headed over to the park to enjoy the beautiful weather we were having today! It was gorgeous! While we were there, I got a call from my sister who then came and joined us along with Lisa and James, and the Weinands. I think I spent over two hours at the park! And although I am sure there were other things I could have done today, like finishing the Christmas clean-up that was much more fun!

Merry Christmas 2009

2009-12-25T22:33:00.000-08:00

Even though we split the day between two families I did not feel totally overwhelmed as in years past. To get the day started we had to wake Lincoln up for Santa at our house, so it took him a minute to warm up to the idea of opening presents. But once he realized he was getting some cool stuff there wasn't much coaxing to do . Other then trying to get him to stop playing with one toy long enough to open the next one :)

He has been into Dinosaurs lately so many of his gifts revolved around that and of course he got some new cars, because what little boy doesn't love to push cars around on the floor! Sadly, we didn't have much time to play at home before heading up to my Mom's house. But it wasn't much of a loss because once there we got to enjoy a yummy breakfast and open more gifts. We got some great things including some new Wii games, including Toy Story Mania and Super Mario Brothers. Both of which I think will be a blast to play.

From there we headed up to the LeFevre's where Lincoln once again got to open some awesome gifts. Including more dinosaurs and Mario Cart- which he was totally excited about! I just hope they realize what they have done to themselves! When he goes to Aunt Rachel's house that's all he wants to do! Now he will have his own game to play, and since he doesn't actually play the game he is going to need some help! We also ate a wonderful lunch, Prime Rib to be exact! It was so good!!

We did get to hang out for a little while at the LeFevre's before heading back to Nana's for another get together there with the family. Thankfully, we missed dinner as I am not sure I would have been able to eat anymore! Although, I did manage to leave room for pie!! And I must say it was so yummy too! Maybe it tastes better when you are the one who makes it!!

So overall, it was a very full day, but it was great to spend time with family and celebrate with my little boy!

Happy Birthday x 2

2009-12-07T21:25:00.000-08:00

Today is Justin's birthday (he turned 32) which he will now share (something he is not too excited about) with our new...... niece! (Rachel never finds out what she is having so we are always kept in suspense until the end) The baby doesn't have an official name yet, so we can only refer to her as Baby Girl Terry but hopefully Rachel and John can figure something out before they leave the hospital. Brian and Ann say it is quite a hassle to leave and have to complete all the paperwork after the fact, an experience they had to deal with when they left the hospital with Danin. But they have a few more days to figure it out, as they probably won't be released until Wednesday morning.

I took Nana up to see the baby, so here she is holding her newest great grandchild! I can't remember what number this puts them at but its getting up there!

Christmas Lights

2009-12-05T22:18:00.000-08:00

We took Lincoln to see the Christmas lights out at Sunset park again this year. Basically, a bunch of different companies from around the valley set up light displays throughout the park. Then between Thanksgiving and Christmas the park is open to car tours for a small fee. They even have a radio station you can tune in to for Christmas music to listen to as you move through the park. Lincoln's favorite displays were probably the "dinosaurs"! (Not all of the ones he pointed out were actual dinosaurs, one was more like a sea serpent.) But he is two so we will give him a break!

I took pictures, but can not seem to find them aywhere, but will post them as soon as I do! :)

My Little Entomologist

2009-11-30T22:11:00.001-08:00

Okay, so Lincoln has been overly interested in bugs lately. He follows them around, picks them up, and gets excited when he sees a fly! He has also decided that Bees are great things. Nana Fe has a bunch of bees in her backyard, and he loves to watch them. He even talks to them from inside the house. Well, today he tried to touch them. And I bet you can guess what happened- that's right he got stung. But he did not just attempt it once, but twice in one day. So he did not learn his lesson very well. Luckily, we did find out that he's not allergic, so I guess that is a good thing!

Happy Turkey Day!

2009-11-26T21:49:00.000-08:00

It was a day full of family, food , and fun! But since there was no football, it wasn't truly Thanksgiving, at least according to Brian! But I think, we had enough of everything else to make up for it. It was pretty crazy as usual, as we split the day between two families, but they were spread out far enough from each other to not make it completely insane.
Lincoln started out the day by making a new friend! GrandNana found a praying mantis in the backyard, so they put it in a jar and Lincoln carried it around. He was so cute with it. Talking to it and showing it the turkey. And when we were on our way to the LeFevre's he wanted to make sure the bug was ready to go too. It was adorable!
We hung out with the LeFevre's during the morning, blowing bubbles and taking pictures. Lincoln is obsessed with the camera, but he doesn't want to be in the picture, he wants to take the picture. SO it is quite hard to actually get him to smile and look at the camera without his arms stretched out for the camera. Sadly, most of the pictures Lincoln takes are just slivers of objects as he places his fingers over the lens. One of these days there might be more than one that comes out clear without help! But here is one of Aunt Rina that he had a little bit of help with the hand placement!
After enjoying some great food and pleasant company we headed for Nana & Papa Emersons, or in other words we went home! We enjoyed some more yummy food like the traditional Curried Cauliflower and a very moist baked turkey as well as a fried version. But sadly had to resort to canned gravy due to a little bit of scorching of the gravy--oops! I myself have never attempted to make the gravy, as just the explanation of the process is more than I can handle! :) For heavens sake how are you supposed to take it to the edge of being burnt without really completing that process? So although my Mom was frustrated with herself, we all survived!
Overall, we all ate too much as usual but sure had a ton of fun doing it! I hope everyone had a Happy Thanksgiving as well!

Disney with the Girls

2009-11-14T18:53:00.001-08:00

What is it with Disneyland! Perhaps it really is a magical place!? Whatever it is, I am enjoying it this weekend! Some of my old buddies from Roy Martin came to Anaheim for a Girls Weekend and so far it has been great. We drove down yesterday after work and will drive home tomorrow. So we don't get to spend to much time living it up. But I think that's okay because I'm already missing me boys!
Two of the girls have never been here before so it's fun to see their reaction to everything Disney! I think we have taken it pretty easy on them so far though. We are going to go into Disney California this evening so we'll see how they fare on Tower of Terror! I love that ride!! (Justin doesn't though so I like being able to ride it without being by myself.
We were a little worried when we first entered the park this mornig becuse the lady that ran our tickets through really made a fuss of telling us we had to make sure and get our hand stamped if we left- even those with Season Passes - because it was really busy. But based on the crowds we've seen we are not sure what crowds she was talking about. For heavens sake the standby line at Indiana Jones was only 25 minutes long. I think the longest line we stood in so far wa for the Matterhorn and that's only ecause it broke down while we were in it and we contemplated waiting for it to open back up. And to top it off the weather has been great, right around 65. So not to cold an not to hot! It's the perfect weekend to be here, but I hope no one figures that out. :)

Stuck

2009-11-11T08:02:00.000-08:00

I think the video speaks for itself! :)

Loves to Play

2009-11-11T07:51:00.000-08:00

My little man loves to play outside. And he has no fear at all. He will climb up almost anything, jump off everything and swing out over edges with no hesitation at all. No worries though! I have enough worries for the both of us!
I keep thinking that one of these days all his energy will wear off, and he'll just drop from exhaustion. :) But that day still has not come and I probably should not hold my breath that it ever will! But I have high hopes!! For now I guess I will just enjoy is enthusiasm.
He amazes me everyday! His Aunt Lorina sure is teaching him a lot of stuff. We are so lucky to have an early childhood specialist among us! And he just loves to learn. He is talking so much, and trying to really tell us all about what he knows. It's so much fun to be his Mom!

Update from my Phone??

2009-11-07T09:33:00.001-08:00

Okay, this is the first time I am going to try and use my phone to update my Blog.

I'm a Coyote

2009-11-02T19:03:00.000-08:00

Okay, for those of you who don't know I transferred schools this summer. I left Roy Martin Middle school where I had been working since I started my teaching career 10 years ago. What's strange is I was not even looking to leave, I was happy with my job. I loved all the people I worked with, and I really did not mind the work load. But an opportunity arouse, I applied, and I was hired. So now I am a member of the Southwest Career and Technical Academy. A brand new High School that opened up here in Vegas this year.
Although, I was a little worried about the transition. I must say a really do love my new school. It has been pretty exciting to open a brand new school. A little different than opening the new Roy Martin campus, but that experience has been very beneficial to what I have done this year. It helps to already now some of the questions that need to be asked. :)
I definitely miss all my wonderful friends from Martin, but I can honestly say I don't miss the work load. To be able to leave work when the sun is still out is a definite improvement! I have been able to spend so much more time with my little man, it has made the move worth it. Who knows maybe I'll stay at SWCTA for another 10 years!

Happy Halloween!

2009-10-31T21:33:00.000-07:00

What a great day! We started the morning at Soccer, followed by Donuts! How can that be bad! From there we hung out until the Ward Trunk-or-Treat this evening. And although it was a pretty small gathering, the kids still had fun and Lincoln collected enough candy to keep his Daddy happy for awhile! :)
As we were trying to figure out what to do about a costume this year, we just couldn't find anything "cute" that fit our little boys personality! But then I came across a UPS Delivery Truck costume online, and I thought that was the perfect fit. (For those of you who don't know Justin works at UPS!) So I ordered it online and it came quite awhile ago, just waiting to be opened.
But for some reason, I started thinking I needed something else to make it really "pop". So I decided it would be fun to try and turn his wagon into a UPS truck. Of course I did not think of the idea weeks ago, so instead had to make this thought a reality today. But considering, I think it came out great! (It went even better once my Mom and sister stopped by and gave me the idea to go over the top instead of all the way around! That was soooooo much easier!!) And it really did make the "outfit"! I also made him a box to act as his Trick-or-Treat bag. Overall, I think it turned out great!

Nevada Day=Fun!

2009-10-30T22:49:00.000-07:00

Can I say I love Nevada Day! Always have! Maybe it has something to do with the fact that the celebration of said day always fell on Halloween as a child growing up, which meant a vacation day was in store. (Which many times meant a quick trip to Disneyland to take advantage of much smaller crowds-since not everyone gets Nevada Day off!) And now as an Adult it still means I get a day off of work right around Halloween! We did not plan a trip to Disneyland but we still had a great day.
Lincoln woke up at 4 in the morning, so that wasn't the best start to the day. But luckily, he did go back to sleep so I got to sleep in a little bit past my usual 4:45 wake up time! We met Justins family at Claim Jumpers for Lunch-love their pretzels!! If you have never had one, don't! It's better that way, because once you have them no pretzel is ever good enough again. It is kind of like pizza. If you have never had New York Pizza, you don't realize just how bad all other pizza is! :)
It is always fun to spend time with family. And Aunt Donna and Uncle Alex love spending time with the boy. I imagine they like the rest of us too, but Lincoln is generally the center of everyone's attention!
After lunch we headed out to Floyd Lamb State park. Justin and I had not been back there since taking our engagement pictures. Quite a bit has changed since then, but it's still pretty much the same as it has been. We brought a ton of bread to feed the ducks. And what started out as a fun adventure for Lincoln turned into a feeding frenzy!! You would think those animals had not eaten in months! If it had just been ducks it would not have been bad, but with the large number of geese that we attracted, everyone had to retreat to the table tops, just to get away from them! It was crazy how many of those dang birds we attracted. Lincoln wasn't too scared of them, but he wasn't too excited when they tried to eat out of his hands. It did not take those birds long to eat every piece of bread we had brought!
We took a kite with us, but did not even bother to get it out of the car considering their really was no wind. I swear this town has the strangest weather! One day the wind gusts are up to 65 miles per hour, the next the temperature soars into the high seventies. It's just weird!

Mr. Jack-o-Lantern

2009-10-29T21:59:00.000-07:00

We found an awesome Pumpkin at Costco a few weeks back and have been waiting for the perfect opportunity to turn it into a Jack-O-Lantern! We thought about it doing it earlier this week, but it was extremely cold and windy. (Okay, not as cold as some places, but cold enough to not want to stand outside carving pumpkins!)
So today was the first time that we were both home without anything pressing on our time and the weather was cooperating. So we went ahead with the carving process. Now Lincoln has been engrossed with his Pumpkin ever since it came home with him, but he was not too sure about touching the innards! The only reason it looks like he might be helping is he wanted to hold the tools. But if we are being honest, Daddy did all the work. Well, Mommy cut off the top and pulled out some of the guts, but generally Daddy did do most of the work.
We had a few different books of possible pumpkin carvings to choose from, but then decided they were all a little small for this giant pumpkin in front of us, and Lincoln really did not have that much of an opinion about what to do. We even contemplated carving two or three different ones all around the pumpkin-which I am glad to say we opted against!
Finally, we decided to just do a run of the mill Jack-o-Lantern. We asked Lincoln what shapes he wanted for eyes, the nose and the mouth. Which he is used to because he goes online with Aunt Rina and builds "virtual" pumpkins quite a bit! So he chose triangles for the eyes, a circle or oval for the mouth and a happy mouth with "teef"!! According to Lincoln, it is a cute pumpkin!

My Little Soccer Stud

2009-10-10T18:56:00.000-07:00

We signed Lincoln up for the Fall soccer season and he has been playing since September. He loves soccer, but sometimes he is not much of a fan of the actual "practice" and "play with others" part of soccer. But he is only 2, so I guess it is to be expected. He is amazingly coordinated for a two year old. He can run and keep the ball with him as he goes, so in my book that is pretty good for a two year old.

My Poor Neglected Blog

2009-08-24T22:37:00.000-07:00

Man, what a slacker I am. I guess I have been enjoying my summer so much, I have not taken the time to actually post the goings on for over a month! And now I am back at work and so there will be no more fun to speak of! At least not for awhile. I think I better gear up for crazy mode again! Opening a school is just one problem after another, on top of the normal set up that needs to occur to get a school rolling in the first place. Anyway, we did do some fun things since July so I will try and make it back here and tell you a little bit about it. But right now I am exhausted and I have no idea where my camera is. And it would not be fun to tell you about our activities without some pictures to go along with the story. I hope everyone else has not been as neglectful as I have!

Seeing Shamu

2009-08-10T19:16:00.000-07:00

Since we wanted to pick up a few things at IKEA to help with storage at Nana's house, we decided to make a weekend of it. (It is pretty sad that we don't have an IKEA here in town, or maybe it's a good thing we don't. I think I could spend a lot of money there.) Anyway, we headed down to San Diego Friday after work for a short weekend trip. And since we had Lincoln with us, we decided it was time to introduce him to Shamu.
I have actually only been to the Sea World in Florida, so this was my first trip to the San Diego park as well. I love all the shows they offer. It is so interesting to see how different animals can be trained. Lincoln enjoyed the Pet Show the most I think, but he was also really into the whales during the Shamu show as well. He also was enthralled by the Walrus and the fact hat there was Popcorn everywhere! :) He was not too sure about the whole getting wet thing. And I was extremely glad that we had seats a little higher and to the left than some other rather unfortunate audience members when we watched the dolphin show.
Overall, we had a great time at the park. It was a pretty nice day considering it was the middle of the summer- not too hot and not too crowded. Plus we had plenty of time after to make our way to IKEA to pick up a few closet organizers and doors for the Food Storage area we are trying to build at Nana's.

Should have known better!

2009-07-05T19:44:00.000-07:00

Over the past couple of days Lincoln has decided it is pretty funny to take off his own diaper, pretty much whenever he feels like it. Especially, if his pants have already been removed for whatever reason. So I should have known better than to take his pants off today after church. But he just looked hot, and I really did not think to much about it.
Well, after dinner Justin and I were cleaning up in the Kitchen. Everything was pretty much done and I had started on making some shortcake, so Justin went into the front room. And what he found was totally disgusting! Lincoln had decided to take his diaper off, the problem was that the diaper in question was full of "poop"! Now let's just say that Justin does not do well with messy diapers, so when he found Lincoln covered in his own feces, I was afraid I was going to have two messes to clean up!!
I rushed Lincoln up to the tub and cleaned him off, while Justin gagged his way through the cleanup in the Living Room! I am hoping we can save his beanbag, but that is yet to be determined! Maybe I need to seriously consider this potty training thing! I just don't want to start to early! But if he is going to take his diaper off, he needs to know that he just can not go to the bathroom where ever he wants!

Happy 4th!

2009-07-04T22:32:00.000-07:00

Happy 4th of July! What a fun filled day! What's better than swimming on a hot day followed by fireworks! We had tons of fun at Nana's house swimming with Rachel, John, the kids, and Nana. It was a perfect day for it, being it was over 100 degrees here in town!
Lincoln started "swimming" on his own. Okay, he still had floaties on, but he was moving around on his own without the help of Mom or Dad. We started out with a small distance between Justin and I and had him quick his way to the other person. Pretty soon he was all over the pool. I tell you it does not take much for this kid to pick up on things! He doesn't use his arms very much but he can get around pretty quickly! And I wouldn't trust him without the floaties, but he seemed to love the independence "swimming" allowed! Here is a short video showing off his new skills~

We went over to Worthen Circle this evening to participate in a Potluck/Fireworks ward activity. It was fine, Lincoln had fun running around with all the other kids. I kn ow I have said it before, but that kid sure can run fast! He was chasing Rydman on his Bike and was keeping up pretty well!
He loved the fireworks! He was all smiles. And he clapped for everything. Even the smoke bombs! (My question is why anyone wastes their money on those!! Sorry to anyone who lists these as one of their favorites!) There were tons of fireworks, and we did not have to spend very much to enjoy them. Everyone combined their firework hauls, so it made for a pretty big show. The kids were loving the sparklers we brought as they were not the basic ones, these changed colors as they burned, so that was exciting! :) Other than that, we just enjoyed the numerous fountains that were set iff as well as all teh illegal fireworks we coudl see overhead throughout the neighborhood! I'm not sure about enyone else but there seemed to be even more illegal fireworks aroudn this year than in years past. I wonder if it has anything to do with the fact that the Casino's don't provide a big Fireworks show anymore? I'm not sure if that is really why, but it is kind of sad that they don't do large display's anymore! But we managed to enjoy ourselves just fine and overall, it was a great 4th of July!

Junior Rangers

2009-06-30T22:01:00.000-07:00

Who knew there were so many national monuments around Flagstaff, Arizona! I sure didn't! But there are 3 within 20 miles of the town. And since the kids were on a roll with the Junior Ranger program we thought it might be fun to do three more. So we started out early and headed for our first stop, Walnut Canyon. At this stop the kids got to learn more about how the people in the area built their homes on the canyon walls. It was cool to see the remains of their homes still perched high on the canyon wall. We did not take the hike down to the bottom of the canyon as it was very steep and consisted of 240 steps on the way out. Rachel and I were pretty sure we did not want to carry the little ones up that many steps!
We were a little disappointed about the fact that they were a little to protective of their Junior ranger program here. We have been to at least 5 other places and no one minds that the babies "earn" their badges. But at Walnut Canyon they would not hear of it. They almost did not let Cutler do the work for the badge. And then when he was almost too shy to talk to the Ranger, she was not going to give it to him! Needless to say we were glad to be done with that stop.
From Walnut Canyon we headed over to Sunset Crater. Which if you can not tell from the name is a volcano crater! It was amazing to see the lava flows and how they moved and hardened through the landscape! We took a little hike near the base of Sunset Crater and you would have thought Lincoln was a teenager the way he was running ahead. He is so independent! The kids worked hard to finish the Junior ranger booklets, even the babies got into it! Right in the middle of the floor inside the Visitor center! They were so funny, they both wanted to be one of the big kids!
Once we learned about Volcanoes we were off to our last stop, Wupatki. At Wupatki there are Pueblo remains. But this is not your ordinary one room pueblo. These ruins are humongous. The Wupatki pueblo is thought to have been at least 23 rooms. And what was even nicer is that they were found right outside the Visitor Center, so there was no long hike to get to the ruins. Once again Lincoln wanted to run ahead, which made me a little nervous due to the drop offs right next to the path.
Overall, I think the kids had a great time earning their badges. And I think they learn something at the same time.
For example, last summer we went to Devils Tower and completed the Junior Ranger program. Well on our drive, Rydman asked if I remembered the story about Devils Tower. and I have to admit I did not. But those kids did. Together they told the story about how the Native Americans believe the tower came to be. So even if we don't think they are listening, they are!!

So after our Junior Rangers took their last oath to protect the environment around them, we were back on the road. Thankfully, the drive home was quick and uneventful! Now it's time to recoup from our exciting and very full vacation! It is good to be home!

Aquarium and Artifacts

2009-06-29T22:07:00.000-07:00

Well, we spent the night in Albuquerque last night. And although the beds were not the softest around, it worked out fine! The hotel offered a continental breakfast which we took advantage of and the kids enjoyed. Having breakfast in the hotel every morning probably saves us about $40 a day, so we have made it a point to try and make sure we always stay some place that offers that service!

I looked online to see what there might be to do in Albuquerque and found out that they have an aquarium. Since we did not go to the one in Denver we thought this might be something fun for the kids. But I also found that the Petroglyph National Monument was just a few miles from where we stayed. So we decided to go there first before the aquarium. And I am glad that we did. It was pretty amazing, at least to me! I think the kids had fun too and they were able to earn their Junior Ranger patch. We earned a few of these last summer on our vacation, so they were excited to add to their collection.
After the park, we headed over to the aquarium. And for the price it was really quite nice. Lots to see for not very much. The kids had a blast looking at the stingrays and jellyfish, but their favorite thing was probably the giant shark tank. It had tons of different varieties of really big sea creatures! What was really nice was that it did not take very long to go through the entire thing. And since we still had a 4 hour drive ahead of us, that was a good thing. The biggest frustration was trying to use the penny squashing machine. We needed change in order to let the kids smash their pennies, but we were only allowed to get $2 worth of change, well that only allows 4 children to smash a penny and when you have 6 that does not work out very well. Luckily after some digging we were able to get pennies for everyone!
After grabbing some lunch we headed out towards Flagstaff, Arizona our destination for today. On the road along the way we saw a billboard inviting everyone to come visit the Petrified Forest National Monument, so we decided that would be a great place to stop for a break. And once again I was glad we did. It was pretty cool. So strange to find petrified trees when there was not a live tree in sight! And what was even better the kids earned another Junior Ranger badge.
After our stop we continued on into Flagstaff, found a hotel, and got the kids some dinner. What was strange was how dark the city was. I guess it is the first dark sky city and it was dark. There were lights, but they were strange. For example the kids were wearing red shirts, but under the lights they looked brown. It was weird and kind of hard to drive in, or at least that is what Rachel said! I was only the passenger and thought it was very strange! You probably would get used to it, if you lived there, but as a traveler it was very different!

Happy Birthday Lincoln!

2009-06-28T23:19:00.000-07:00

Happy Birthday to my Little Boy! He is officially two years old today! I can not believe my little boy is getting so big! It feels like yesterday that we brought him home from the hospital. Now he is walking and talking and running crazy most of the time! We sure do love you little man!

We started the day out by attending GiGi's ward for Sacrament meeting. Hopefully, we did not call too much attention to ourselves. There are not very many little ones in that ward!
From there we headed to GiGi's where we made Lincoln some pancakes in the shape of the number 2. It did not take him very long to eat his 2 number 2's! But the festivities were not able to last very long as we had to return my Mom to the airport in Colorado Springs and begin our journey home.

Once we dropped my Mom off, we were on our way. We decided to go a new way home since we were already an hour and a half outside Denver, we did not feel like it was necessary to drive back that way. Instead, we continued on the 25 towards New Mexico. Our goal was to make it to Albuquerque, and although it was a long drive, we finally made it!

Dino Ridge and the Alpine Slide

2009-06-27T22:36:00.000-07:00

We went to another new place today, it was a place called Dino Ridge. It was actually really cool. We decided to take the shuttle bus tour which was well worth it and way better than just walking through it on our own. The driver was very well informed and told us a lot about the area and what we were seeing. The kids thought it was really cool to see dinosaur bones still encased in the rock they were discovered in. And even cooler that they got to touch them. What was crazy is how different the bones felt from the surrounding rock, the bones are very smooth while the rocks are very rough! They also got to see dinosaur tracks that have been preserved over the years. It was very interesting to see the large variety of dinosaurs that walked in the area. The kids really got a sense of just how big the animals were from the footprints that were left! It was a great time.
After we left the ridge, we went on to Heritage Square. They have an awesome Alpine Slide there at the top of the park. We would love to be able to do it multiple times, but the cost is quite high so it tends itself to only one ride down the mountain.
Everyone except Mabry took a turn on the slide, she was asleep so we did not bother to wake her up. This was Lincoln's first time and I think the scariest part of the experience was getting to the top of the hill. They take you up on a ski lift where you are just open to the elements. Luckily, Lincoln sat still the entire time so that was a little less nerve racking! He seemed to like the ride down. But since I was behind him driving the sled, I did not get to see his facial expressions on the way down.
We also gave the kids a chance to do the zipline there at the park. It is not very long, but they had a great time doing it last year. And this year everyone, including the babies got a chance to ride it! When we asked the workers what the age/size limit was they said there was not one, so we decided to see how the babies would do. And once they got the belts on, they loved it! They were so cute!! I took some video and will post that next, it is not very long because the trip down does not take very long! Both the little ones look so small, but they are so cute! Enjoy!!

Here's Lincoln:

Here's Mabry:

Congratulations Chris and Cassandra!

2009-06-26T23:48:00.000-07:00

Rachel, my Mom, and I attended my Cousins wedding this afternoon in Colorado Springs. The kids got to spend time with the Lacouture family out at Cary and Karens house in Franktown. So that was a great blessing, as we got to enjoy the wedding and the kids had a blast hanging out with everyone. (Thanks again everyone!) They even took the kids out on the Tennis Court and let them try there hand at that. Lincoln was not much into the hitting of the tennis balls with a racket, but I guess he had a great time kicking them all over the court! And from the look of his shoes he must have been at it awhile! The entire front end of his croc that he wears on his left foot is almost worn away!!
The wedding was very nice. They looked so happy and everyone had a great time celebrating with them. I don't have a single picture from today, but I bet they have plenty of their special day. Congratulations guys!

The Best Zoo Ever

2009-06-25T21:53:00.000-07:00

We love the Cheyenne Mountain Zoo! I have been there a few times and every time it is well worth the trip. It is located in Colorado Springs, so the drive is a little out of they way, but it is not every day you can feed the giraffes! Plus we had to pick my Mom up from the airport in Colorado Springs so we had to go that direction anyway! There are so many pictures, I am going to make a slideshow and post it for everyone's pleasure!

Candy Making and Train Riding

2009-06-24T23:07:00.000-07:00

No matter how many times we go to Denver, we still manage to find new things to do. Today we took the kids to Hammonds candy factory. A factory that specializes in hand made candies, specifically the ribbon candy and candy canes you see around the holidays. They offer a free tour, so we thought we might as well check it out.
We were a little bummed that we ended up on the tour with a very large "camp" group as it made it much harder to see things. But we did have a great view of the ribbon making area. It was really cool to see the process in real time. They have to move pretty quick to get it put together before the candy hardens.
We also went to the Denver Botanical gardens for the first time. They were having a special exhibit called Jurassic Gardens. It sounded like it was going to be a lot like the Dinosaur park up in Ogden. And although they did have some life size dinosaurs, it was not near the scale of the park in Ogden. The kids did have fun finding the statues, even though there were not as many as we had hoped for.
The highlight of the park was probably the fish pond. There were tons of giant fish that loved the ritz crackers the kids decided to feed them! Lincoln also really wanted to touch the fish and could not understand why I would not "get it" for him!
After all this fun and excitement we still had time to kill before dinner, (Wednesday is FatBurger night in case anyone was wondering!) so we took the kids to ride a train and pet some animals at the Farm. Both of which were located at the park next to the water park we went to yesterday. Both things were a $1 so it was a pretty cheap activity. The kids had fun on the train and loved the animals. It was nice because we went in right before closing so there was not much of a crowd! The kids got to pet all the animals they wanted without much interference.
After all that fun, it was amazing the kids stayed awake to enjoy dinner. I guess the family in Denver have started going to Fat Burger every Wednesday night for half price baby Fatburgers. I have actually never been to Fat Burger before, so it was a new experience for my family. We met a few of my uncles and aunts there for dinner. It was fun and the burgers were not bad either! I wonder if that special exists in Vegas? Maybe I will have to check it out when we get home!

Double Park Day

2009-06-23T00:16:00.000-07:00

Today we took the kids to two parks. One was just the normal playground type of park and one was a waterpark. The kids loved both, but I think the winner would have to be the water park. I don't have many pictures from either place, but take my word for it the kids loved it. We have been to the water park before, it's a place called "Pirates Cove". What is said is that we live in the middle of the desert and in order to take the kids to a water park we have to go to Denver! That is a pretty sad fact!
Rydman was a little worried about Tornadoes, (a big thank you to whoever put that thought in his head!) but I was able to convince him they were not a huge threat. Like I am some tornado expert, but I figured we were pretty safe. I know the area has been getting some, but I was not about to try and explain that to him. Thankfully, it really was just the usual afternoon thunderstorm! And even luckier is that the kids were pretty much done with the park, so the storm did not cut our play time short!
We met Anna and the girls at the park. Or at least that was the plan. We had a little problem when it came to locating each other due to a pool closure-someone mistook the pool for a potty! So by the time we found each other the girls were already off doing there own thing with the friends they brought with them. But we did get a few minutes to chat with Anna before it was time to head out. The kids also got a chance to get a sno-cone, even though they were all already freezing at that point. It did not stop them from getting a freezing cold drink! Cutler was the first to finish, and the bright blue tongue is a definite badge of honor! In his mind anyway!!

We Made It!

2009-06-22T22:42:00.000-07:00

Okay, flying with an almost two year old is not all that bad. I think the worst part was trying to keep him occupied before the plane actually took off. Hauling everything through the airport comes in a close second though! I was a little worried that Lincoln would be hard to confine on the plane, and I think it was a very good thing that I took his car seat on the plane with us. The plane was loaded to capacity, not an empty seat in the house! So he would not have had any place to go if he had been allowed a little freedom.
Overall, I have to say he did a great job on the plane. He only the kicked the guys seat in front of him a few times!! I am glad I don't have to travel that way every day, but it sure is a quick way to get someplace. Let's just say i am not too excited about the fact that I have to drive home!

We really did not do too much today. My cousin Chantelle picked us up at the airport- thanks again! and took us to GiGi's. We just hung out there until Rachel and the kids arrived, and then went to Fazoli's for a late lunch. From there we headed over to the Hotel we were going to be staying out and after a few speed bumps got checked in. After getting everything situated and letting the kids unwind a little we headed back to GiGi's for dinner. And that was it, we are currently trying to get the kids down for bed, which should be an interesting task considering there are six of them in one room. This might be normal for Rachel's kids, but Lincoln is definitely not used to all the hustle and bustle! I hope he goes to bed sometime tonight!

Denver Here We Come

2009-06-21T23:22:00.000-07:00

Lincoln and I are on the way to Denver tomorrow. Justin does not get to come with us, due to the fact that he has to stay home and work. :( We will definitely miss him tons while we are gone! I am a little worried about the plane trip and navigating through the airport by myself, but hopefully everything will work out. I am going to take Lincoln's seat with me on the plane, as I know a lap belt won't keep him in one place for long! This will be the first time we travel alone on a plane, so it should be interesting.
We are meeting Rachel and the kids in Denver. They spent last week at a Worthen Reunion in Aspen Grove so instead of coming all the way home to Vegas for two days before heading back to Colorado, they took a side trip to Grand Junction to spend time with the Hunt's. And my Mom is flying in on Thursday, so that should be fun too. What's nice is that we get to visit with family and get to attend my cousin's wedding. Although, that is our main event of this trip I am sure we will have plenty of time to fit other things in!

A Big To Do!

2009-06-12T23:23:00.000-07:00

We celebrated Lincoln's birthday today. He does not actually turn 2 until the end of the month but with everyone heading out of town for different vacations, it was now or never. Lorina made up some awesome invitations and we sent them out to friends and family inviting them to join us for a BBQ swim party get together this evening.
It was so much fun! A great big thank you to everyone who found the time to celebrate with us! Lincoln really loves all his great presents. We could hardly pull him away from them when it was time to go to bed! :) He was so excited about everything especially all his new cars and balls! He sure is a cute little guy, but I might be a little biased!
The party was great. I was a little worried the water in the pool would be too cold since the weather has been quite overcast lately. But the kids did not seem to mind too much. The food was great as usual-I might be a little biased about that too! Thanks for the great BBQ Justin!

Piano Recital

2009-06-12T23:18:00.000-07:00

Rydman, Emerie, and Quincy had their first piano recital today. They have been taking lessons since January, so this was their first time on "stage". They all did great but I think they were all a little nervous. Each of them got a chance to do three pieces to show off the different skills they have learned.

Good Job guys!

Hiking with the Scouts

2009-06-10T22:10:00.000-07:00

Justin and I are currently Den Leaders for the Bear Cubscouts in our ward. This month we are working on earning the Leave No Trace Award. Part of that award is teaching the Boys about the front country guidelines and how to interact with Nature using these guidelines. So we took the boys up to Redrock to help meet the requirements for the award.
Instead of taking them to a trail we have done before, we wanted to experience something new and push them out of their comfort zones. So we decided to do the Keystone Thrust Fault Line trail. And I have to say it was a great choice. Thankfully, the weather was somewhat overcast. I don't think this is a hike you would want to do in the full heat of the summer. There is not much shade to be had anywhere on the trail.
It is a pretty straight forward hike and was very well marked. Which is good because if you happened to take the wrong turn you could end up doing the Madre Spring Loop which was 6 miles long compared to out 2.2 mile hike! :)
It is also not a very popular hike, or at least as not as far as we could tell. The turn off is not marked, and the main access road is dirt, so you could very well pass it without thinking twice. We did not see another hiker until we were near the trail head as we were returning to the car. It was kind of nice to be "alone" with nature!

Does Everything Come in Pairs?

2009-06-07T21:24:00.000-07:00

Okay, perhaps we should all stay off the roads for the next little while. As you might have seen, my Mom was in an accident on Friday afternoon. Who would have guessed that my grandparents would have the same experience the very next day! That's right on Saturday afternoon my grandparents were heading home from the store when they stopped at a stop sign, and the guy behind them decided that must be an optional thing to do!
Thankfully once again everyone was okay. And their car was still drivable. But it just makes for one more thing they have to worry about. I think I am going to stick to walking for awhile! :)

Accidents

2009-06-05T15:59:00.000-07:00

Do you ever feel like when things are at their hardest, things tend to only get harder! My poor Mom was out shopping this afternoon and got sideswiped by some lady who did not even slow down for her RED light! The crazy thing is my Mom was not the first one in the line of cars. Two other cars were actually in front of her. SO this lady had to be totally unaware of her surroundings! Luckily, she has a larger model car so it offered more protection than a smaller car might have. As you can see she was basically hit right on the driver side door, so it is a blessing that she is okay. But I guess the insurance company has already decided to total the car. They are not even taking it to the body shop! It is going straight to the junkyard!!

Hiking Ice Box Canyon

2009-05-25T21:39:00.000-07:00

We took advantage of the holiday today and the fact that we were both off work by heading up to Redrock canyon with the Meads and the Thompsons. Instead of heading for our standard destination we decided to hike Ice Box canyon. It has been a long time since we have made it all the way to the end of the trail, but that was our goal to day. And I must say that we accomplished that goal!
It was a much longer hike than I recall, but it was fun. Justin carried Lincoln for the first leg of the trip and probably would have carried him longer but once we were in the canyon it was too hard for Justin to duck the tree branches and climb the boulders at the same time! So I took over and carried him the rest of the trip. Let's just say he is one heavy little dude!!
But it was nice and Lincoln had a great time. He is fearless! He just wanted to try and keep up with the bigger kids and did a pretty good job of it! He was so tuckered out from the hike that he fell asleep in the backup on the way back down the mountain! Must be tough to be carried around all day! :)

Sometimes...

2009-05-07T21:56:00.000-07:00

I hate to admit that I have my share of "Blonde" moments! Case in Point- This evening for Dinner I wanted to make Parmesan Chicken but realized I did not have Parmesan so decided to make fried chicken instead. I had also decided to make BLT pasta salad to go with dinner, which I have actually been craving for awhile but have not made due to not having one of the ingredients. Can you guess which ingredient I did not have?? That's right I have not made the salad because I did not have Parmesan cheese!! But that did not stop me this evening. At the same time I realized I did not have Parmesan cheese for the chicken, I was cooking the pasta! Argh.. what a dork I am. Sadly, I did not get to make my salad but I do have the pasta ready to go for when I actually have all the ingredients! :0)
And to make my dinner even more exciting I decided to experiment with how heat would effect plastic. Here's the process in general if you ever have the desire to follow suit: Shortly after removing your boiling pan of noodles from the oven to be drained, grab your large newly filled flour bucket and place it on the stove. Measure out the necessary amount of flour and proceed with your cooking as if nothing is occurring next to you. Upon completion begin to clean up the kitchen. Attempt to grab the flour bin, only vaguely wondering why it does not respond to your attempts at putting it away. Become serious about getting it back in its proper place and give it one final tug, At which time the bottom separates from the main piece and flour releases all over the stovetop. Thinking quickly on your feet you turn the flour bucket over to try and save at least some of the flour, which results in the lid popping off and the rest of the flour taking its rightful place on the stovetop as well. So there you have it, a simple way to prove that heating up a plastic container will cause it to melt!

Happy Hunting!

2009-04-12T20:27:00.000-07:00

Well, the Easter Egg hunt was a hit as usual! Nana Emerson has the perfect yard to hide tons of eggs in. You can probably hide at least two dozen in the ivy alone!
Lincoln was much better at finding the eggs himself this year. Although, he was still more interested in just walking around asking us what everything was! He is talking so much these days, it's so cute. But it also makes me realize just how much he is growing up! This time really does fly by!

We also got to spend time with Justin's family. Lincoln fell asleep on the way to Nana Fe's house. But he did wake up enough to find some more eggs. He really liked finding the eggs here because they were full of fun things like candy and cars!

Here is a picture of all the Vegas kids in their new Easter clothes. My Mom sure does an amazing job. The girls each had an English Smocked section on their dresses. And each one was a little different. Oh and don't forget the ties for the boys! (I have to take a little pride in those since I actually sewed them. There was a lot of instruction from my Mom, but I did put them together with the help of my sewing machine! Maybe this will be the start of a new hobby! I doubt it, but you never know!!)

Dyed Eggs and Hands!

2009-04-11T20:10:00.000-07:00

Easter means it's time to dye Easter Eggs again! It is always an interesting experience with the kids. They are usually very excited, but in the end the adults tend to do most of the dying! And I guess considering there were 9 dozen eggs to color, that is to be expected.
We gave Mabry and Lincoln there own eggs and color. Which for some reason sounded like a good idea, but turned in to a giant mess! In the process of trying to get our cameras ready and things set up both the little ones dove right in--literally! Before we knew it Lincoln had a blue hand and Mabry had orange! Thankfully, we were able to get the colors off there hands in the tub!

County Fair

2009-04-10T19:43:00.000-07:00

Justin and I experienced another first today! We took Lincoln to the Clark County Fair. And by the time we were through we were very grateful that he was not big enough to think he had to do any of the activities! It could cost you a pretty penny to take your family out there! For Heavens Sake, they wanted $6 to ride the ponies! Lucky for us Lincoln did not know what he was missing. And there were plenty of free things to do, so we still had a lot of fun.

There was an animal extravaganza show, they had tigers and a monkey as well as a few other varieties of cats. Lincoln was enthralled with all the animals, and it was a free show, so it was well worth it! There was also a large warehouse full of animals-all of which had been entered in the competition. So there were lots of chickens, rabbits, goats, and pigs. Lincoln liked everything except for the fact that he was not allowed in to the cages with the goats! (I think he was remembering his experience at the Zoo!!) He also wasn't too fond of the giant mommy pig that brushed up against him when he was looking at her babies. I actually think it was a reaction to another child's intense dislike of the pig that caused him to think he needed to react in the same way!

There were tons of food vendors and rides. But we pretty much stayed away from those. We did break down and try Deep Fried Oreo's, and lets just say they were an experience!

Taking it Easy

2009-04-09T22:07:00.000-07:00

I can not believe it is already Thursday, that means Spring Break is almost over!! :( I must admit it has been a pretty full week, and we got quite a bit done. For example, Justin fixed the sprinklers in the front yard, well added some in more than fixed. There was an entire corner that had no sprinklers, which has made it almost impossible to keep anything alive over there. We also put together the bookshelf we bought at Ikea, and I have gotten some of the Spring cleaning items on my list marked off. This was on top of all the fun we have been having together. So I guess it is not a bad that we kept the activities to a minimum today.

Lincoln and I went to the park, and he and Justin got a haircut, other than that we stayed pretty close to home. Lincoln loves the park! He could probably stay there all day if we let him. He also loves to be one of the big kids and will basically try to do anything the other kids are doing. Today, it was just him and a little boy who was probably 8. Lincoln just about mimicked everything that little boy did. Or at least tried to! There are still some things he is just not big enough to do!

The Vegas Zoo

2009-04-08T21:41:00.000-07:00

Okay, If you did not know about the Zoo here in Vegas you probably are not the only one. But the image of a Zoo you have in your head, probably needs to be modified a little bit for this Zoo. First, it's is hot in Vegas so there are no animals on Display that aren't able to handle the heat. Second, the Zoo sits on 3 acres of land, so there really is not a lot of room for any large exhibits.
Now prior to today, I had only been there once in my life. And my memory of that place was not a great one. So I was a little apprehensive about taking Lincoln there. But I must say I was pleasantly surprised. Now, once again this is not a place I would go in the summer, as I imagine it would be a hot, smelly place. But it really was not as bad as I remembered. It is no Denver or San Diego Zoo, but Lincoln had a great time, so that's really all that mattered.
There are lions, otters, monkeys, turtles and tortoises, ostriches, emus, and a few other animals in exhibits. But the biggest attraction for Lincoln were the birds. And not the ones in cages! There were tons of pigeons that have attached themselves to the Zoo, as well as chickens roaming free. Lincoln thought it was hilarious to chase these birds around. He chased those birds form one end of the Zoo to the other, laughing the whole way. He nearly trampled some of them as they did not move very fast!
He also had a great time in the with the Goats. It is the interactive area where you can feed and pet them! He was not scared of them at all, and found quite a bit of joy in running back and forth on their bridge! (If you have not noticed, running is pretty much how Lincoln gets everywhere!) He also got to feed the birds, which he loves to do. He is not very good at it, but he loves it anyway!

Redrock & Swimming

2009-04-07T21:24:00.000-07:00

We got a pretty early start to the day this morning. Nothing like when I have to actually go to work, but pretty early for a vacation day! Our first adventure of the day was a hike with all the kids up in Redrock Canyon. We opted to complete the Children's Discovery Hike for two reasons, one we had a time limit and two we knew all the kids could handle it. And since we still only have one child carrier it was not a good idea to take an unfamiliar route where Lincoln might not be able to walk on his own.

It was Lincoln and I, Rachel and her 5 kids, and our friends the Meads. So we had a pretty large group. What was nice is we arrived so early in the morning we actually got a parking spot , usually when we go we have to park along the side of the road. And we only saw one other couple on their way down as we hiked up. So when we arrived at the water fall, our kids got to enjoy the area by themselves for most of the time. What was so crazy is we all made sure to take our jackets, but we definitely did not need any of them! It was quite warm.

The kids also had a good time playing with all the caterpillars we found along the trail. I have no idea what type of caterpillars they are or what they will turn in to later, but there are hundreds of "nests" writhing with them among the bushes. Lincoln was the first to spot one on the trail, but from there I think every child was able to touch a live caterpillar, that is those that would actually touch them!

Lincoln has learned that Mabry despises having someone touching her stuff. So his new passion is to annoy her at every turn! If she is sitting in the high chair he will walk over and grab the edge, if he is in the car seat next to her in the car, he will place his hand on her chair. He doesn't need anything, but he knows it pushes her buttons. And the more she complains and tries to push him off, the more determined he is to keep his hand there! I have no idea how to get him to stop, or how to tell Mabry to stop letting it get to her, so I hope he grows out of it soon!

We also went swimming in Worthen Circle this afternoon. The pool is indoors and heated, so although it has not been warm enough to heat most pools, we were still able to enjoy the water. Lincoln loved it and had a good time jumping in. The only problem was the tiles in the pool area are very slippery, so there were quite a few times he slipped as he tried to jump from the side. It did not seem to slow him down very much but it made me a lot more nervous. He also went down the water slide. Which although he initiated the climb up the ladder, I don't think he was too sure about it when arriving on the top. But he went down without much hesitation. I caught him at the end, and although he did not go down again, I think he liked it!

Needless to say he took quite a good nap this afternoon. He was a very tired little boy!

Cleaning Up & Springs Preserve

2009-04-06T22:42:00.000-07:00

What a day! I spent the morning straightening up a few odds and ends around the house. I even got to clean out the bathroom cabinets thanks to Lincoln hanging out with his Aunt Lorina and Christina this morning! That's a job I am pretty sure he would not have willingly let me do alone if he had been here! He loves to open those drawers!!
But no worries I got to do something fun too. Rachel and I took the kids to the Springs Preserve. This was our first trip to the preserve, so we were not really sure what to expect. Because money is tight for everyone and we brought along some extras, we did not actually pay to enter the main buildings. Instead we took advantage of the free areas. And in case you were wondering just how many kids we had with us for this little adventure- there were 9!!
They have a large playground type area for the kids with rocks to climb on and a train to ride. The train does not actually go anywhere, but that did not seem to matter to Lincoln. He had a ton of fun steering the train even though it was not moving! He even got to see what it might be like to be a turtle!! And there was a giant rattlesnake that would hiss and rattle every so often, which was very exciting to Lincoln. So much so, that he would join in with the hissing!
After letting the kids play for a while we walked through a small part of the gardens. They are pretty nice and they identify the plants for you so you don't have to wonder what the plants are. We did not get out to the actual trail area, so maybe we will get to that area next time.
On the way home we stopped at 7-11 and bought the kids some slurpee's. There is nothing better than that on a hot day! And if you have not tried the new Mutant Berry I highly suggest it! It's yummy!!

Spring Break

2009-04-05T23:15:00.000-07:00

Spring Break officially starts tomorrow! I am so excited to have the time off, hopefully I will be able to get everything on my to do list done! I should probably be in bed already if I am ever going to have a chance to do that, but here I am!

My Little Daredevil

2009-04-03T23:22:00.000-07:00

Congratulations Lauren!

2009-04-03T22:34:00.000-07:00

We were so glad we were able to make it up to Rexburg to celebrate Laurens baptism with her. (Even if it was freezing cold, at least by our Vegas temperature gauges!) It was a great time and our only regret is that we could not stay longer!

Lincoln did really well considering the number of hours he got to sit in his car seat. We tried to keep him entertained, but there is only so much you can do from the front seat of a car. You would think the car ride would put him to sleep like it does to everyone else, but he really did not sleep much longer than usual. Shorter even maybe on some days!
We did split up our driving into two days each way, so that probably helped out quite a bit in keeping ourselves sane. This of course did not allow us to stay in Rexburg as long as we would have liked, but we filled as much fun as possible into the time we had as possible!
The kids swam in the pool everyday we were there. and I think Lincoln has found a new passion. Last summer he was still pretty small so probably has no recollection of swimming, although he has done it before. He is now old enough to really become an active participant in the act of swimming. Although, I think he likes the jumping part of it more than the swimming part. I got a total upper body workout as I caught and then lifted him out of the pool over and over again! (As you can see in the video!) He started out a little hesitant about the whole thing, but by Sunday night in Cedar he had no fear whatsoever!
The Baptism went well, although Lincoln was not very reverent! He escaped under the bench in front of us (which was completely empty) and before anyone could stop him proceeded to run back and forth in front of the baptism kids and their Dads who were sitting on the front bench. I was stuck in the middle of the row so could not get out and for some reason Justin went to the back of the chapel thinking he would run the full loop, which he did not. He just kept running back and forth between the two aisles. Luckily, Landon finally grabbed him and handed him back! Hopefully, they have all forgiven us for the small disruption! :)
On the way home we took Lincoln to Valley of Fire. It has been a long time since either Justin or I have been there, so it was fun to experience it again. Lincoln seemed to like climbing on the rocks but he was probably most excited by the Lizards, he just could not understand why they did not want to stay and play! They have a new Visitor Center, with a few live animals (snakes and scorpions) that Lincoln was quite excited to see. All I know is it is probably not a place you would want to go in the summer as it was pretty warm and it was only March!!
Overall, we had a great time on our little vacation. We might not get a chance for much more than that this summer as Justin does not get any official time off until after his year mark with UPS. That's not until November!! :( So we are going to have to make the most of our weekends this summer as we can.
**Since I don't have my brother living close, I have to make due with purchased furniture so we purchased a new bookshelf at IKEA that we get to put together for our Bedroom. The original bookshelf has been taken over by Lincoln and all his toys in the Living Room!

Vacation Here We Come!

2009-03-25T23:13:00.000-07:00

It is hard to put into words just how excited I am to be preparing to go out of town tomorrow! We are going to Idaho for Lauren's baptism on Saturday. And both Justin and I are long past due for a little down time. The past few months have been quite busy, and the past few weeks have been even worse. I think last week Justin was starting to feel like a single parent! So I think this short vacation might be just what the Doctor ordered! Let's hope Lincoln cooperates with our plans for a relaxing long weekend!

My Camera is Toast :(

2009-03-24T22:10:00.001-07:00

I am so sad to have to say goodbye to my beloved Kodak camera. :( But it had a little mishap and the screen is broken.(It accidently got dropped a little too far!) Which would not be a huge issue except it does not have any other type of viewer! So you can not see what you are pointing at or if you got a good picture of the subject. Luckily, I did get a new camera for Justin on Black Thursday, I just don't like it as much because it does not have a rechargeable battery and it eats through Double A's like they are going out of style! But for now it will have to do and I am sure it will do just fine!

Nashville Tribute Band

2009-03-20T22:57:00.000-07:00

What an awesome concert! I traveled to St. George this afternoon with Carol, Lorina, Lorina's friend Bonnie, and her husband. The concert was held at the Tuacahn Amphitheater, which if you have never had the opportunity of going to, you are missing out. The Nashville Tribute Band is also an awesome group if you have not heard anything by them you are also missing out!

They have two CD's out right now- Joseph: A Tribute to the Prophet and Trek: A Tribute to the Pioneers. They both have some awesome songs on them. I think ever since Lorina gave me the Joseph CD it has been playing almost non-stop in my car! I have not yet purchased Trek, but it is the next item on my list. Maybe, someone will get it for me for my birthday! (Hint, Hint) They also announced they were in the process of creating a new CD that will have a missionary theme.
Even though the drive to St. George was longer than the concert itself, it was well worth the trip! Maybe, they will come to Vegas soon!

Happy Birthday Mom

2009-03-14T22:28:00.000-07:00

My Mom is awesome! I still have so much to learn from her it is not even funny. From her uncanny ability to create things out of black nut cups to her amazing smocking skills, I might never learn enough! Oh well, I guess that's why she is my Mom- to make up for my shortcomings!
Anyway, we decided to celebrate her Birthday by taking her out for a Girls Night Out! So Rachel, Sherri, Nana and I took her to dinner at Carmines and then went back to Nana's house and played games. It was so fun to be out with just the girls. Not that we don't love the little ones, but sometimes it is so nice to have a sit down meal without trying to control the chaos the occurs when food is placed in front of a small child!

(I took my camera, but I of course never got it out of the purse!)

Bonnie Springs

2009-03-13T21:58:00.000-07:00

The LeFevre's took Lincoln up to Bonnie Springs today. It was a pretty good deal at $20 a car load and he loved it! So that makes it all the better!! He got to pet bunnies and feed ducks. What's not fun about that!!

He loves animals. Much to the dismay of BeeGee (Nana's Dog) and Sparkle (Rachel's Cat) as he tends to get a little rougher than they might like! So getting to actually touch all kinds of animals must have seemed like heaven to him!

Blowing Flowers!

2009-03-10T21:51:00.000-07:00

We took Lincoln to the park today. And he was enthralled with the Dandelions. It was so funny to watch him try and blow those little pieces off each flower. I think he ended up eating more than he blew off! He wasn't too impressed with their taste!