Spring Break Trip--Carlsbad Caverns

New Mexico is famous for its ancient past and amazing natural beauty. Since we're soon reaching our "2 year living in Albuquerque anniversary", we thought it appropriate to travel to some of these amazing places near us. Scott took a couple of days off of work and we traveled to Carlsbad Caverns and White Sands. Both were amazing natural wonders. On our way to Carlsbad we passed through Roswell, New Mexico--famous for its UFO sighting. I think this was one of the kids highlights of the trip. Alien shaped street lights lined the road, and alien blow-up dolls and painted alien faces adorned every street shop. It was fun to see!

This was our first "not going to see family" vacation, and we loved every minute of it. It was fun to go when we were ready, instead of being dictated by an event we had to get to. We stayed two nights in hotels--both free nights since we used some points Scott had from previous travel. Jared was sad on the way home. He didn't want to sleep in his own bed--he wanted to sleep in the hotel again. Two nights was just right for Scott and I--as anyone with kids knows hotel lodging is not as fun for the adults. Everyone has to go to bed at the same time, and everyone has to wake up when the first person wakes up. We were all a little sleep deprived, but were able to manage amazingly.

Enjoying the Disney Channel at the hotel--a dream come true!

On the way to Carlsbad Caverns Jared told us he had a bad dream. He dreamed there were bears in the cave we were going to. We assured him there would be no bears, but I still think he was a little worried about it.

I was afraid we were going to get kicked out when Scott put Jared on this rock--you're not supposed to touch anything in the cave.

Spring Break Trip--White Sands

White Sands is an incredible sight in Southern New Mexico. Miles and miles of natural, pure white sand dunes. There is nothing like it! We had a great time playing in the sand. We brought sleds and thanks to the people next to us who gave us wax to wax up our sled had a blast sledding down the dunes. The sand was so fine that we came home with a lot--behind ears, stuck to legs, in hair and of course in pockets!

Scott had to take the opportunity to jump--of course!

A tired Kaitlyn after a couple hours of hard play. Notice Ellie's face. She was absolutely terrified of the sand. She didn't even like me sitting on it and preferred when I stood up so she was very far from it. She was also running on about 5 hours less sleep than normal so that could have been a factor too.

Easter Weekend

My kids had about four or five different egg hunts over the past few days--each time coming home with a load of candy. They combine their candy into a little box and peck at it all day. I'm glad today was the last candy egg hunt, but I'm sure the egg hunts will continue for awhile since the kids love to hide the eggs for each other in backyard. It keeps them busy for hours! I'm going to highlight some of the things from this past week.


Last Sunday Jared learned about fish in Nursery and came home with a live goldfish swimming in a plastic baggie. As much as I didn't want "Nemo" (the very original name the kids gave it) I felt like he was entrusted in my care. I reasearched how to take care of goldfish, and then actually felt bad when two days later Nemo died. A couple of days after Nemo's death, out of the blue Jared told me he was having a really hard time because Nemo died. Please! He thought flushing him down the toilet was as exciting as watching him swim around his little bowl.

We had the missionaries over for dinner on Saturday. The kids had a blast filling plastic eggs with candy and hiding them all over the backyard for the missionaries to have an egg hunt. I think the missionaries thought it was fun too.

After dinner the missionaries gave us a spiritual thought about service and charity and they asked us to think of specific ways we could use our talents to serve those around us. They gave us some examples of some ideas other members had. It was a very good message and then suddenly Kaitlyn quipped in, "I have a talent! See, I can fit my whole fist in my mouth." We'll have to get pictures of her talent for you to see.

Ellie's first tooth popped through the surface, and she started crawling on her knees!

Jared showing off his dyed hands while we colored Easter eggs.

Jared, Brynn and Kaitlyn showing off their cool sunglasses they found on their Easter egg hunt. Just what they need for our trip to White Sands coming up!

Ellie Bellie

The other day I walked in the kitchen to where Scott was with Ellie in my arms. Scott looked up and Ellie flashed him one of her amazing smiles. Then she plopped her thumb in her mouth. Scott looked at her thumb in her mouth and replied, "I knew you had a fault!" This made me laugh since she truly is a happy and good-natured little baby. Ellie, at 9 1/2 months old is running on her own schedule and making my life easier at the same time! She still doesn't have any teeth and never drools! She is not in any hurry to get moving around. She army crawls, but is content to let me hold her through soccer practice without fighting me to get down. All the other kids started walking at about 10 months--Ellie is not even close! I've enjoyed having a little baby for longer. The other kids relish her every accomplishment. A couple weeks ago she started pulling herself up in her crib to stand which still brings screams of delight when the other kids go in her room and see her standing there with a huge grin on her face. Ellie loves when Scott wrestles her, but gets nervous when he's wrestling and throwing around the other kids. She loves to swing and laughs every time Scott swings her in his arms or throws her up in the air. Brynn loves to stick Ellie in the laundry basket or any box big enough for her and push her around. Ellie just grins through it all. Everyone always comments on how happy and smiley she is. Her smile lights up a room and makes everyone happy.

One of the most amazing things is when what she does at night while we're putting Jared to bed. She is sharing a room with Jared and I usually put her down about a half-hour before Jared, but sometimes she's still awake when I come in with Jared. When she is she sits up in her crib, scoots to the side and puts both hands on the bars of the crib and peers through her "jail bars" at me and Jared. She quietly watches wide-eyed while I lay by Jared for a minute. Then I lay her back down and leave. No fussing to be held ever! It is so cute to see her peering through those bars at us! My friend called her a "trick" baby--she's so good she'll "trick" us into having another one. She hasn't done it yet!

On another completely different note, the other day we were reading a few minutes in the scriptures before school. We were reading in the illustrated Book of Mormon for kids about the brother of Jared and the people trying to build a tower to heaven. Looking at the picture and hearing about the event Brynn remarked with excitement and said “Awesome!” Apparently we need to do a better job of getting the message of the scriptures across.

Spring Gardening

Saturday was a busy day--we had two soccer games, a baptism and of course we had to make time to plant the garden. The last week we have had amazing weather--in the low 70's! Scott got the bug to get the garden started. Last year our garden didn't do as well as the year before, so Scott was much more meticulous this year at preparing our soil. He emptied two wheel-barrels full of our old dirt and added a mix of new stuff--manure, compost, fertilizer, potting soil, etc. I had the fun job of using our little tiller to till the ground. I love using that machine! Scott planted lettuce, radishes and peas--all early spring vegetables that like a little cold. We'll add more in another month or so.

The kids thought it was the funniest/grossest thing that Scott was putting "cow poop" and "chicken poop" in the garden. After checking on the garden this afternoon and smelling the not so fresh air, I'm sure our neighbors are indeed thinking it is the grossest thing and not the funniest thing!

EBAY Anxiety

Kaitlyn was the "Star of the Week" a few weeks ago and needed some pictures of her to bring in to put on the bulletin board in her classroom. After going through our computer files of pictures and printing them out, Scott and I both decided it was time to buy a new camera. There was such a difference in clarity from the pictures that were taken with a better camera than our cheapy one.

I started my research of camera's--just feeling more frustrated. There are a million cameras out there--probably many of them about the same. After weeks of reading reviews, trying out a couple, and talking to many people we decided it would be fun to have a camera that was a little nicer than a regular point and shoot camera, but not as nice as an SLR.

One night while I was on the computer I came across one of the cameras that was higly reccommended to us on EBAY for--with just six minutes until auction close. I did a little ebaying over Christmas and realized if you were going to win anything you had to bid at the last second. I spent the next six minutes surfing the internet making sure this was the one we want and with Scott behind me bid on the camera and won! Now most people would be excited, but I was just sick with worry and anxiety. We bought it for much less than the retail price, but it came from the Best Buy Outlet on EBAY. They sell store returns in working condition in original boxes, but they only show stock photos. I worried for days about the condition of the camera. Scott thought it was funny that I was so worried about it and asked me several times a day how the camera I bought was--just to add to my anxiety!

Luckily it was shipped and received very fast. I was nervous just opening the box! The camera was in perfect condition, and the knots in my stomach finally dissipated. We have had fun learning the features of this camera, and I hope it will motivate me to take more pictures!