Ward Campout

OK, so we didn't really camp out. We took the wimpy route and came home to sleep in our own beds. (It was only 30 mins. away). But the kids had a great time while we were there.

Trenton Time

I have to share a sweet story about Trenton. Mind you, he isn't always so sweet as evidenced by all the bumps on his head and face in these pictures.

Anyway, the other morning Trenton was sleeping in and after no naps for several days, I wasn't about to wake him up. When it got to be 9:00, I decided that I had better check on him. As I approached his door, I heard a soft voice. I didn't know if he was reading or playing, or what, so I opened the door very quietly, and heard..."please bless Daddy that he can go to work, and bless Mommy that she can go to Cho--ir. In the name of Jesus Christ. Amen." I nearly started crying. At least we are teaching him something good!

Now, I still haven't figured out if he is trying to bless his parents with safety or just ask that we will go away so he can have his fun with out getting in trouble.

Kira Turns 6 (April 22, 2007)!

We marked Kira's 6th birthday with a mini-cake and a dinner with Aunt Amber (and of course, a few presents). Now we are gearing up for her big Kim Possible friend party, next week. If I survive it, I'll be sure to give you the blow by blow.

Kira in bloom

We went to Kira's school to do a little celebration of her life in honor of her birthday and these gorgeous sunflowers were there in garden courtyard to greet us!

It made me a little sad, because we will likely put Kira in a new school which is much closer to our home next year. If anyone has experience with "traditional magnet" schools, please share. We have really liked Montessori for Kira, and I think Traditional is quite the opposite in many ways, but the 1 mile commute is much more appealing than our 30 min. drive.

It's a...BABY!

Just wanted to report that I finally went to see the midwife today...and the big round lump in my tummy is infact a baby with a heartbeat and all--not some abnormal tumor or growth. :-)

Everything looks good so far. In fact, for those who have been telling me that I don't look pregnant, I am actually measuring big for 14 wks. I will try and take and post a belly shot soon, but I think things are going to start being obvious, fairly soon now.

Supermodel..Work!

No...Kira's eyesight hasn't degenerated. She is not in glasses now, except for when she is gracing the pages of an eyewear catalog.

We finally got to see the pictures from Kira's first, and only (so far), modeling job. Way back on my birthday, in December, she did this shoot for Marcolin Eye wear. If you will notice, those are real butterflies in these pictures. If you get a chance to look at the catalog, you will see that the grown-ups have butterflies in their pictures, too, but none of them are live like Kira's are. It was a more interesting (and challenging) shoot than any I have ever done. But the photographer, etc. were really great with Kira and seemed to be pleased with her efforts (and mine--I crawled insided the butterfly netting with her to keep her calm and guide the butterflies to her). By the end of the shoot she was very done with having things crawling on her. But all in all, it was not a bad way to start (very professional publication) and she was really excited to have earned some of her own money. Her purchases: roller blades and bubble gum.

Kira turns 6 tomorrow. HAPPY BIRTHDAY KIRA! I am feeling a little bad because we have had to push most of her birthday celebrations off for a while. She was supposed to have her Kim Possible birthday party with her friends today, and a family dinner tomorrow, but Barry is working a gun show this weekend (and there were several other conflicts). Right now we are looking at May 5th for her party and will try and throw together some sort of b-day dinner tomorrow night when Dad's done at the gun show and Aunt Amber can come over for a little bit.

Some of Trenton's favorite people!

Trenton certainly enjoyed getting to spend some time with Aunt Mikelle and Uncle Bobby! They came to our house a few days before Easter so Bobby could go on some job interviews in the Phoenix area--he has been finishing up his degree at BYU.

I had just gotten the children in bed, the night they arrived at our house, but it was only second before a couple of redheads were at the top of the stairs ready to pounce. Trenton nearly fell down the stairs on his way to hug Bobby. The next morning when he prayed, the first thing out of his mouth was, "thank you for my Bobby!" Bobby got beat up on a lot, but Mikelle had her share of dirty diapers and clamoring for lots of attention, and was very patient with the kids and very helpful to me! (She even cleaned my kitchen that I haven't had the stomach to clean for the last several weeks of pregnancy!)

We are really hoping that things work out for them to move down here this summer, and that we can talk them into moving to our side of town!




Of course, Trenton loves his Grandpa, who is so good to read stories to the kids everynight in Prescott--even if Trenton requests the dinosaur book for the 30th time!

April Birthdays and the Chocolate Fountain

While in Prescott we celebrated the April birthdays of Amber (5th), John (Kristin's boyfriend--whose birthday is sometime between Amber's and Kira's), and Kira (22nd).

Grandma thought it would be fun to try a new tradition and celebrate with a chocolate fountain in lew of a typical birthday cake (they are blowing out candles in the marshmallows).
The only difficulty was that none of us had worked with a chocolate fountain before. For future reference, it seems you really do need to use the enormous amount of vegetable oil the machine says you need with your melted chocolate, if you want the fountain to flow instead of sputter and stop (as you see in one of the pictures). We thought since we were following a different recipe, we wouldn't need it. Oops!

Anyhow, it did't slow Kira down much. She wasn't going to stop until we insisted, and she got appropriately messy!


She enjoyed her early birthday presents...some adorable outfits, both from her grandparents and her aunts, the first season of "Little House on the Prairie" (TV show) on DVD from Grandma and Grandpa, and a hard back book with the first two Nancy Drew mysteries, from her Aunts. I LOVED those when I was a kid! I think I will have to read them again with her!

one...two...three...four...ROCKET!

Grandpa got these fun rockets to take outside and shoot around with the kids. Trenton, not quite grasping the concept of a countDOWN, would yell, "one, two, three, four, Rocket!" and then Grandpa would know to launch the rocket--sometimes straight in the air...

...sometimes, straight at the kids.

Kira loved to try and catch them, but usually wasn't too successful.

I do think the big boys enjoyed themselves as much as the little kids.

On the Trampoline

There are lots of fun things to do in Prescott that you can't do at home!

Happy EASTER!

I think I am the last of my family and friends to post some Easter pictures and report. We did have a nice weekend and hope you all did, as well!

We were forced to document many of the lovely Easter eggs in picture so that Kira would allow us to sacrifice a few for devilled eggs for our Easter dinner.

The Quest for a family picture--Easter version

We thought it was a good opportunity to get us in our Easter best. Apparently the children thought the sun was a little too bright.

So we tried again after church...less sun, lots of wind (brrr!), but this was the best we got.

Ah, well! Maybe next holiday.

Easter Sunday for Kira and Trenton

Trenton loved his bunny full of candy he got in nursery.

Kira was a little more willing to pose on her own than she was with the family.

Easter with Grandma & Grandpa

After a time with out too much to share, I am now feeling a little overwhelmed with all I want to post. It didn't help that after eating a little Easter candy Sunday night, I wound up with a headache that didn't go away until this morning. It makes it hard to even do fun stuff, like share my pictures.

We had a great weekend in Prescott doing much more than just Easter. I will try and get the rest posted soon.

Interesting how much better they do when posing with their grandparents than they do with their parents.

Isn't this a nice picture of Barry's parents?

Coloring Easter Eggs with Grandma & Amber

No, Kira! Don't eat it yet!