fun weekend

Travis didn't want to wait for the forks before digging in

Joseph isn't sure he should eat something so pink!

Austin is happy it is pink

Daddy didn't wait for the forks

This weekend Travis and I drove to Albuquerque, NM (about 4 1/2 hours) to go to the temple one last time together, before he leaves for Iraq. He will be leaving on Friday or Saturday. So our friends the Lairds watched Austina and Betsy, and our friend Jennica came and stayed with Joseph and Samuel. So, we drove up late Friday night, and got to bed by about 2am. We got up and checked out and made it to the 9am session. It was wonderful to spend that time together just the two of us. We stopped at the book store on our way out and got some things for Joseph for when he gets baptized in June. We got some lunch and drove home. We got home about 6pm, and the kids were very happy to see us. They had a good time with their caregivers, but we were happy to see each other again.

Tonight we had a very messy dinner. Samuel spilled his juice and his milk. Then he kept leaning over the Betsy's plate, and grabbing food off of it with his mouth. Then he got a hold of the honey tub, and stuck his whole hand in it and then stuck it on Betsy's hair, grabbed his car and completely submerged it in the honey, then as I grabbed him he got his hand in one last time and got honey all over the both of us. It was quite the mess, which merited a few baths. Then I made these yummy raspberry-lime meringues, with merinque shells, and raspberry sorbet, with a raspberry-lime sauce, and kiwi's sprinkled on top. They were delicious.

Samuel likes girls in neon green pants!

I was at the Dr. office for Joseph and Austin's sports physicals, and had all 4 children with me. We checked in and were in the waiting room. The nurse (who was wearing neon green pants) came in and called our name, so we started to follow her. I was trying to carry Samuel, but he wanted down, so I put him down and told him to follow the nurse, and pointed to her. He started to follow her, then stretched both his hands out and gabbed her behind and squeezed. He got quite the reaction out of her, she jumped and squeeled. And since he did it just before we left the waiting room, the entire waiting area saw what happened and was laughing. I scooped him up and apologized to the nurse, and told Samuel that that wasn't nice. A few minutes later the nurse turned to me, and said she would never forget Samuel.

Easter Weekend!

We had a good easter weekend. We didn't do too much saturday, becuase we ended up watching our friends autistic son, and helping her get her house clean. But we did manage to go to the easter egg hunt which was on base. But it was raining, so we got our eggs and got out. Also, Travis' Dad and his girlfriend Bonnie were here for the weekend. On Sunday, we went to church, and I played a violin solo of "I stand all amazed" which I was very nervous for. Then after church we did an easter egg hunt in the backyard, and since the wind had blown buckets and cups, and soccer cones all over the yard, there was a lot of good hiding places for the eggs. So the kids had fun trying to figure out where Daddy had put all of those eggs. Then we dyed easter eggs and then had our easter egg roll. As always we had a lot of fun. Samuel loved it a little too much, and threw a fit anytime his turn was over, and Betsy tried to roll her egg away from everyone else's because she didn't want hers to break, but in the end, austin came away victorious. I made Salmon for our easter dinner this year, since Travis' Dad can't eat ham. It was yummy. We also had sweet potato fries, rolls, and a pear salad, with brownies and ice cream for dessert. We had a nice Easter FHE and played no bear's out tonight for our activity

w

Samuel's newest stitches

Samuel playing in the ER waiting room waiting to get his stitches

We were at Joseph's soccer game, and samuel was running down a little hill to a big puddle at the road, and I had just about caught him when he tripped and fell, he caught himself with his hands and knees

but becuase he was on a hill, he fell forward hitting his head on the rough road. So with blood streaming down his face, I scooped him up and grabbed our first aid kit from the van, and ran back to where the other kids were, thankfully my friends the lairds were there to help me clean samuel up and watch the other kids. Poor samuel when he first got hurt, he looked at me and saw blood on me (his blood) and said "mommy, hurt?" My sweet little boy was worried about me, and thought I was hurt. I told him I was fine and that he was hurt, it was his blood. Once I took him in the bathroom to clean off all the blood, he saw himself in the mirror, and realized he was really hurt, and was a bit more upset, but was very brave. After cleaning off his face, I realized that it would need stitches, so I took him to the ER, and my friends (thankyou again) stayed until Joseph's game was over and took the rest of the kids home with them. Sam and I checked in at the ER and Travis met us there not too long after. We ended up being in the ER for about 4 hours. Samuel was acting like his normal boysterious self, and entertained quite a few people in the ER. The wind was also blowing extremly strong, and when it was particularly gusty it would rattle all the window, and sounded exactly like a train rolling by. So everytime it happened, samuel would say" uh, oh, train". Once we got samuel back to where we got him stitched up he wasn't too happy, becuase he knew what was going to happen. They had to wrap him in a papoose to hold him still. They gave him the shot to numb his forehead, and Samuel was screaming and crying pretty hard, and then when the dr. started stictching him up, samuel started making kissy sounds and puckering his lips because he wanted to kiss me.(It takes talent to scream, cry, while puckering your lips and making kissing noises) So in between stictches the dr. would let me lean my face down my samuel's lips, so he could kiss me. Poor little guy, it is so hard to watch them so upset like that. But we managed to make it through, and after Samuel at said "gake-goo" (thank-you) to all the nurses and the dr. we took him home, where he slept very well. Samuel's wound is now healing very nicely, and he had his stitches taken out yesterday

Betsy loves her dad!

We were at Joseph's soccer practice, and Betsy decided to draw in the dirt and rocks, she drew some names, and some hopscotches, and they wrote a note to daddy. I thought that was sweet of her, and took a picture!

Spring Break III

Travis wrote a heart for me in the sand : )

I wrote a message in the sand for Travis

Betsy climbing up the sand dune with her sled

Austin helping Samuel sled down the dune

Joseph sledding away!!

I had too many pictures to post, so I had to break up my spring break posts. I think one of our favorite things we did during spring break was going to White Sands, NM. We borrowed some sleds from our friends, so we could sled down the dunes. It was a lot of fun, although we should have waxed the bottoms of our sleds, so that they would have gone faster, but maybe we'll remember that next time. The kids had fun sledding, and playing in the sand. Travis found some dunes that were very steep, and we took turns going over to them with Joseph.

Man, that was quite the work out. I think I made it up the big one 5 or 6 times and boy was I ever exhausted, but it was sure fun to slide down, after climbing all the way up to the top. All in all we had a fun, memorable spring break!

Spring Break II

Joseph next to a space suit at the space museum

Samuel playing with the space simulator

This was what I saw the whole time we were at the muesuem

beautiful painted horse!

During our spring break trip we also went to a pistachio farm, and wanted to take the tour of the farm. But the kids said it was too boring so we just went into the gift shop and ate yummy samples, and took pictures next to the cool painted horse they had. We also went to the space museum there. It was pretty neat, although the entire thing has ramps throughout the many levels, and samuel found that a little too tempting and I ended up following him up and down the ramps the entire time. There was lots of neat things to learn about space, and even a little simulator that was fun.

Spring Break

The kid train depot! Riding the train!

Taking time to look at the view in Cloudcroft, NM

Samuel having a good day!

Eating Ice cream cones and sitting on tree stumps

We had a fun spring break for the most part this year. Travis was able to take time off of work, so we got to be together the whole time. Joseph was sick part of the time so that held us back a few times. But our big thing was going to Cloudcroft and Alamagordo, NM. It is way up high in the mountains. We went to a train depot, and they had a train at 1/5 the scale of a real train. And we all took a ride around the park in it, I think we got up to 5 mph. Samuel loved it, and Joseph said it needed to go faster.