The rest of the story

So Kelly thought that having two older brothers would make this little thing known as ear piercing a breeze for Em.
I did too.
It didn't.

The whole thing started last Thursday when my aunt got her ears pierced. Emily watched her and it didn't look like a big deal. For the last week she has talked and talked about getting them done which is a huge change from us asking her and her giving us a flat out NO! She got off the bus yesterday afternoon and, running up to the house, said in the sweetest little voice and the biggest grin,

"I just can't stop thinking about getting my ears pierced!"

How can you argue with that? I told her to call daddy and ask him and of course he said yes. He did it kind of quickly and called later and asked if we really wanted to let her do it. I told him we aren't dressing her up and putting her on a street corner. He had all these visions of hoops and dangle earrings flashing through his head. I reassured him that we would keep her in small ones for a while and he was alright with it. As soon as he got home we were off.

Emily was so excited. We get to Claire's and she picks out the cute little pink flower studs she wants, we get the final picture of her without her ears pierced,

and then reality sets in. The tears flow freely and she decides she wants no part of it.
No way.
No how.

Could she look more forlorn?

She finally said they could at least dot her ears.

We are making progress.

Again, she looks pitiful.

Then the tears start again. Those two women holding those two guns were just too much for her. She wanted to go home.

I knew if we left that as soon as we were gone she would say she wanted to go back so I wasn't about to leave.

We talked about when she got her shots and she didn't cry and how those hurt so much more than this. Perfect strangers told her that it wouldn't hurt at all. More talking. More head shaking and tears.

Maybe dad could do better than i was.

I guess bribery works. A necklace and three additional pairs of earrings did the trick. Pretty soon I was back up there with her and so were the guns. I told her to squeeze my hands tight and before we knew it, it was over. And without even a flinch.

You did it!!!

I honestly don't know who was happier. Her or me. I was so proud of her for facing her fears and doing it anyway even though she was scared. That's my girl!When it was over we had to go for dinner and ice cream to celebrate. And, of course, she is thrilled with them and so happy she went ahead with it.

I love ya Sis!

I spy with my little eye...

...something sparkly.

geesh

austin and spencer have been friends since the day we moved in.

spencer is two years older than austin.

spencer is 15.

spencer just got his license.

spencer gave austin a ride.

mom is freaking out because austin is not far behind.

and because spencer is driving my son around.

deals ahead

Albertsons is having a sweet sale this week. I got all of this for $88 which might sound like a lot but I brought home 93 items, which averages out to less than $1 for each, and between coupons(i had one for almost every item i bought) and preferred savings I saved $175. Here's a list of the food I brought home.

16 boxes of cereal
5 boxes of crackers
2 5lb. bags of flour
2 barbecue sauces
2 grands biscuits
4 enchilada sauce
3 cookie mixes
2 fiber one granola bars
2 fiber one toaster pastries
4 kashi cereal/granola bars
4 flat bread sandwiches
12 suddenly salads
8 macaroni and cheese
12 yogurts
2 frostings
2 fruit rollups
4 boxes scalloped potatoes
3 muffin mixes
2 brownie mixes
1 cake mix

My receipt...54 1/2" long!

Weekend fun

Friday
--church to put together a packet for keith.
--a trip to greenhurst nursery with skye.
--football sign ups for taylor.
--more work on the garden. we are almost there!
--a big salad and pizza from idaho pizza. yum!
--slumdog millionaire.

Saturday
--up early for more yard work.
--taylor's football game. they won 38-0. woohoo!
--tilling up the side yard where the fire pit is going.
--tilling all of the fertilizer/dirt/sand in the garden.
--church.
--barbecue at rodger and terry's.

Sunday
--up early and ready to plant.
--raking up all the grass in the side yard and hauling it off.
--rigging up a sprinkler system for the garden.
--planting! carrots, broccoli, four types of lettuce, onions, spinach, parsley and strawberries. the rest come next month.
--celebrating honor's first birthday.

Football

Just a few pictures of our guy playin ball.

I like this picture becuase this kids dad played basketball with Rob at C of I.

"He is not here, for He has risen, just as He said" Matthew 28:6

We had a very blessed Easter. I fought with whether or not to host it again because I had to sing that morning and wasn't sure if I would be able to pull it off. After much thought and offers of help from my precious family and friends we decided it was worth it to keep the tradition alive. This was our 6Th year hosting and as usual we had a great time.

The celebration started with church on Saturday night. It was an awesome service! Towards the end there was a cardboard testimony, like this one, to Healer. What a testament to the grace of our Savior! Our God is so good!

Sunday morning we got done with church and I raced home to get things together only to find that Rob had picked up the house all by himself. What a HUGE help that was. I really didn't have much to do so I just hung out till everyone showed up.

We had about a jillion eggs to hide so the mommies and daddies got busy with that. Please pay no attention to the yard. We are putting in a garden and taking out the swing set, that's why it's sitting in the grass. We also put in an underground electric fence for the dogs so they will stay on the side of the house and we can finally have our grass...well actually the whole yard back.

Then it was time for the kiddos to attack the backyard.

I love this picture of the boys. This is the one reason I was indecisive about a garden. The kids always have so much fun in the sandbox.

It seems that every time all the brothers get together the bikes come out. This time was no different. Matt and Austin had this hair brained idea. The funny part was it actually worked.

After laughing hysterically at the two of them we sat on the front lawn talking til it got cold. It was a perfect day.

$25 Albertsons Gift Card

Want a chance to win? Go to Discount Queens and leave a comment. Good Luck!

Newspaper subscriptions

An FYI for anyone interested in subscribing to the Statesman. They are running a special online where you can get the daily paper for only $2 a week. We have been paying $1 a week just for Sundays and Holidays so this is a great deal. Just go here and down to package selection to sign up.

Part 2

I was very excited to visit a ghost own while in St. George. I love history, not in books but when it comes to life and i can actually see where things happened. I think that's why I loved Boston so much. Anyway I had been reading about one such town that was touted as having "homes, churches, specialty shops, a brothel and even a Chinatown" and I couldn't wait to get there and have a look around at all that history. Sadly it was not to be. The "town" consisted of the bank and this

Talk about disappointed! We couldn't even tell where anything used to be. There were a couple silver chutes that had pieces of them left but no homes, no Chinatown and definitely no brothel. What a rip off. We did get out and walk around for a while and were told that anything we find on the grounds we could keep. I found about eight handmade pottery cups that I am going to use as planters and Rob found an old mountain dew can. We drove around and look at the cemeteries which was fascinating too. Most of the tombstones were from the 1870s. Crazy. We found an abandoned mine too. It was blocked off so we couldn't see in more than 50 feet or so but standing at the opening it's not hard to imagine what it was like when it was bustling with workers mining silver. This is one of the chutes. I'm assuming it has to be about 150 years old. It reminded me of this scene in The Mask of Zorro.

Another much anticipated activity was Zion National Park. I hesitate to even show pictures because they aren't even a smidgen as pretty as seeing it in person. There is an ehike that has some great pictures of the park. We saw some people doing what they are in picture number 12. Never in a million years could I do that. Just looking at the pictures gives me vertigo. We did do two hikes, the Riverside Walk and the Emerald Pools hike. The Riverside was a nice walk on a paved path. It leads to the world famous Narrows. Never heard of them? I hadn't either until we got there. Apparently people travel from all over the world to hike them though. It was cold so we didn't go any further up into the canyon but what a cool trip that would be. Our second hike was a little more work. The Emerald Pools, which by the way are not emerald green, was quite a hike. There is a lower, middle and upper pool. Once you pass the lower pool it is climbing, climbing and more climbing. Mostly on small boulders and sand. Then the upper pool was a nasty rust color. I could've done with seeing a picture but we had a good time. I somehow misplaced all the pictures from the second part of this hike so I will post a few and once I figure out where they've gone I will post the rest.

It is amazing how being in a place like Zion makes you feel so small. And it shows how big God is. This is only a fraction of what he did and it is breathtaking. I thought of this song while looking through the pictures.

After we left here we headed to another ghost town called Grafton. This one was better than the first in that it actually had buildings standing. These building are being restored so they look very nice.

This was the church/school.

This is a house on one side of the street...

...and directly across is this "little house on the prairie" house.

I can't imagine what life was like living in a place like this.

I love that on the tombstone it says he was killed by Indians.

And to end part two...any mother can tell it's been a long day when she turns around and sees this.

Spring Break Part 1

My whole family decided to head down to St. George Utah for spring break this year. None of us had ever been and we had no idea what to expect but we were all ready for an adventure. We left bright and early Saturday morning not too excited about our nine hour drive. Emily and Taylor left the night before with my parents so only having Austin made travelling a lot quicker. Not so many potty breaks :o) We actually made it all the way down with only one stop and in the nine hours we planned. When we got here everyone was dying of hunger so we cleaned a little bit of road grime off of ourselves and headed to dinner. Day one was just about over and we were ready to start day two.

This could get really long so I think I will just highlight the things we did every day so as not to bore anyone to tears.

Sunday

*Dad woke up with chest pain. My brother and mom take him to hospital and thank the Lord he was OK.

*Mom is fighting off bronchitis and losing. Not a great way to start a vacation.

*Our condo was right on the desert edge which meant that the kids could literally walk down a small hill and be amongst the cactus and dirt. They were in love!

*We were all about exploring while we were there. Lots of canyons and hills to examine up close. The first two days that's exactly what we did. Lots of bouldering, hiking and believe me, no stone was left unturned.

*Our first time out we hiked a canyon and had the most fun. The kids were like monkeys climbing up and over the rocks. Taylor was crawling under a huge boulder and found a geocache. He was thrilled!

We had been climbing for quite a while, all wanting to make it to the end of the canyon, when the narrow canyon opened up into this valley. The picture doesn't do it justice. It was absolutely beautiful. We enjoyed it just long enough to get pictures. It was getting dark, it was starting to sprinkle and we still had at least an hour walk back. Good thing our kids are tough.

*I also have to mention that every time we went hiking we brought home rocks for our yard. Not just little rocks but large flat rocks to go around the fire pit we are building. By the end of the week our pile was slightly ridiculous.