Happy Birthday Ellie!

Ellie turned one in May. The girls helped me make a birthday cake, and of course we all enjoyed watching her eat it. She ate the frosting, and dropped the cake on the floor--typical kid, right! I remember when Kaitlyn turned one, eating the birthday cake was a big deal--the first sweets for her. Not so for Ellie--but still fun to watch her.

Notice Ellie's little hair barrette. She barely has enough hair to keep it in, but I love the way it looks--and seems to cut down on the number of people commenting on my cute little "boy." She probably has another year before her head is covered with hair.

Ellie has become quite independent. She refuses to eat unless she is feeding herself. Occasionally she can get the spoon full of yogurt in her mouth, but mostly she holds the spoon in one hand, and dips her fist in the yogurt and licks it off. It's a huge mess every time she eats anything!

AHHH!! It's Been a Long Time . . .

I know, I know...I haven't posted something in over a month. I knew if I didn't post something soon my family would stop checking my blog and erase me off their blog links. Blogger drives me crazy and it takes me 3 times as long as I think it will to post something. So for today, a few pictures of when my sisters came to visit. And hopefully more to come in the next week.

My sisters came to visit. It was so fun to have Betsy, Hannah and Abby here. Betsy and Hannah brought their boys so we had the house full of little one's. I just love to have the cousins around. We went to the zoo and aquarium, went to the park and the Nature Center and shopped. I loved having my sisters all here and it made me want to live closer to all of them. A favorite memory, much to Hannah's chagrin, is Sammy's amazing curiosity. He managed to open the gas container that Scott holds gas in for the lawn mower and dump it all over the garage. Luckily we realized he was not part of the pack of kids in the backyard before he found the matches too!

Jared celebrated his 3rd birthday with his cousins. He had a "tool" birthday party. The boys each got a Home Depot apron and then went on a scavenger hunt for a tool box filled with a small flashlight, tape measue and a couple of bolts and screws. I didn't want to encourage hammering or banging holes in the walls and furniture at my house so didn't put in a hammer or screwdriver. Each boy got to hammer nails in a small block of wood and screw and unscrew (a couple of times) a screw with Scott's electric drill. I think they liked that part the best. It was fun to watch them pile in a dark closet to see their flashlights glow. I was so glad Jared could have his cousins here with him. He loved it!

We Love Cousins!

Joe and Andrea and their family came to visit us a couple of weeks ago. We had so much fun, and hope they did too. I loved watching the kids play with each other. For a few days there was hardly any fighting and amazingly no whining for TV. In fact, we couldn't get the kids to sit still long enough to even make it through a movie! Jared and Jeston became quick friends, and Jared still talks about him. The kids were so sad when they left and kept telling me they "miss their cousins already." They are looking forward to seeing them again this summer.

We went to the zoo and aquarium, went swimming at Scott's work, shot rockets and had ice cream at the park for FHE. We loved getting to know Joe's family better. They are all great, and I love Andrea. I was amazed at how well their kids went down to bed--four kids all sardined across the floor of one room. I swear I offered them more rooms, but it seemed to work.

Now we are looking forward to Betsy, Hannah and Abby to come visit. It's definitely on Jared's mind too. Today I grilled salmon (this is only the second time since we've been married that I've done this) and before church told Jared I would be making "salmon" when we got home. He excitedly exclaimed "Sam and" Luke! He was a bit dissapointed when I explained salmon was a food--not his cousins that will be coming soon!

Home Project

Scott's always had very demanding jobs requiring a lot of his time and most of his energy. For the past few years we've felt like we were just hanging on for life--just making it by from day to day. Our Saturday's were filled with "to do" list tasks--all the things needed to simply function. Scott's new job still requires his time, but instead of a constant barrage of busy peaks, we have felt grateful for the slower valley's that have also come. For the first time in a very long time we have had time to do something "extra."

We bought our kitchen table off of Craigslist a couple of years ago. We have used it well, and the surface was showing the use. It was a light oak table, that never seemed to fit with the decor of our house in Albuquerque. We sanded the top and re-stained it a darker color, and painted the base and chairs black. Up close there are a lot of little imperfections, but we like the overall look so much better. We spent a few nights working on it, and we both had fun doing it. It was fun to have a project like this and to learn a little about refinishing furniture.

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!