9-1-1

What are the chances that Carly would be playing with the phone, get it turned on, and push 911 in the right order? Well, it happened this morning while I was doing Jill's hair for school. I heard talking on the phone, saw it was 911, and hurried to hang up. (Looking back, I should have talked to the dispatcher to tell him it was my 11-month old baby and that there was no emergency). I expected them to call back. But then 4 minutes later Austin called and asked if Carly had been playing with the phone. A sheriff called him to ask if everything was okay at his house. They know him well since they are frequently at his school. Austin told me they were coming to make sure everything was okay. So I hurried to put on make-up, and then Sheriff Stewart came to our house. He was very nice and said his baby had done the same thing a couple days before. He just took my name and asked if everything was okay.

Lesson of the day: don't let your baby play with the phone

We want Spring!

March tricked us with a few days of nice weather, but then we have had lots of storms and more to come. We are all ready for spring weather!

We celebrated Hanna's 8th birthday! We went to Sizzler for dinner, went swimming at the high school for her friend birthday party, and she got scriptures for birthday gift. We love having Hanna in our family!!!

HANNA'S BIRTHDAY PARTY

Hanna got baptized 4 days after her birthday. Grandpa and Grandma were able to come from Canada. Lots of family came from my side of the family, too. It was a great day. Hanna was showered with gifts. Thanks to everyone! Aunt Sarah sewed Hanna's beautiful white baptism dress. Today she asked me if she could wear it to school. I told her that would be like me wearing my wedding dress to the grocery store.

HANNA & AUSTIN ON BAPTISM DAY

HANNA & AUSTIN ON BAPTISM DAY AT THE CHURCH

OUR FAMILY AT THE BAPTISM

Grandpa and Grandma brought down our two horses that we bought the horse sale in Canada last August. Jill's horse is Lena and Hanna's is Spurs. They have been to see them everyday so they can become good friends.

JILL & LENA

HANNA & SPURS

Snow, hair, gymnastics, bargains, birthdays

We thought spring was coming and our grass was bare. Then on March 9 we got 24 inches of snow in one dump. Austin shoveled before he left for work. Then I shoveled after lunch. Then our neighbor used his snowblower in our driveway in the afternoon, and then another neighbor came by with his tractor at night. Lucy in our doorway during the storm.

HAIR
The other night we were all brushing out hair before bed, and Austin came along and decided he wanted to see how big he could get our hair. So he designed our fabulous hairdos. Then we all had to wash our hair to get out the load of hairspray.

Lucy is taking gymnastics. She loves it. In fact the other day in church during the prayer, she tapped me and said, "Isn't this a good pike?" She had our legs out straight on the bench with her toes pointed.

Lucy in a "tuck" on the rings.

BARGAINS
I am the clearance shopper expert. I got Austin a $55 shirt for $6 and a $140 suit coat for $28 at Dillard's. He needed another suit coat to change up what he wears as he sits on the stand every Sunday in the bishopric. Maybe he can wear it to the 8th funeral our ward has had since he has been in the bishopric (14 months).

DIANA'S BIRTHDAY
We decided to make the trek to Salt Lake to celebrate Diana's birthday with her. We had a quality time at the Mayan Restaurant. The kids loved exploring and watching the divers. They certainly didn't win the fast service award, but it was fun. Happy Birthday, Diana!


CARLY

Carly is 10 months and so much fun. She loves to empty every drawer and basket and cupboard. She is sleeping through the night!

Funny 4-Year Old Comments

This was my conversation with Lucy in the middle of the night after I took her to the bathroom.
"Mom, can I have a boyfriend when I am 7?"
"No."
"Eight?"
"No, 18."
"How about 15? Is 15 a lot of pounds?"

Another Lucy moment was when we got to church on Sunday, she wanted to sit on the second bench, but we always sit on the third bench, so I made her move back. She said, "But Mom, we haven't sat on that bench for years."

Valentines Day

Lucy loved Balemtimes Day . My kids made me breakfast in bed. The night before they put a menu on my pillow, and I had to check off what I wanted. So then they brought me breakfast in bed with a couple cards. Then we went to Jill's & Hanna's basketball games.

Our Valentines Day tradition is that I make a string maze through the whole house, one for each kid, that they have to follow to find their gift at the end. This year they got a candy bar, a box of microwave popcorn, and 3 coupons (new sandals, a date with Mom, and a date with Dad).

Then after lunch we went to the movie to see Pink Panther 2 (with free movie passes, of course, which made me feel better about spending the whole movie wandering through the hall and lobby with Carly). Then we ate a heart pizza and watched City of Ember.

Pay it Forward

Pay it Forward

Your mission, if you choose to accept...

A couple of my sisters are doing this pay it forward thing. This is how it works..... The first 3 people to leave a comment on this will receive a hand made gift from me during this year - (it is supposed to be a craft, but from me a handmade gift will probably be a batch of cookies) When and what will be a surprise. There's a small catch...You knew there would be didn't you? Post this on your blog then come back and leave a comment, telling me you're in. Fun, huh? Remember, only the first 3 comments receive the gift.

This should be LOTS of fun!

January Review

*We got the heater in our van fixed. We had to trade in our firstborn to pay for it. We will miss you, Jill.
*Jill & Hanna finished their Jr. Mustang Basketball games. Austin was a great coach. All the players improved, and they were fun to watch. Now Jill and Hanna are playing Jr. Jazz basketball in Logan. It's not the same with a different coach and girls they don't know, but it is giving them a new experience and more time to play basketball.
*Carly is now 9 months old. She has learned that there is water in toilets, that she can stand up in her high chair, and she can crawl up and down the stairs by herself.

*Austin jumped into Hyrum Reservoir for his 3rd year in a row as part of the Polar Plunge which is a fundraiser for Special Olympics. At least the sun was shining this year. Then I was driving him home so he could shower and change, and I got pulled over for speeding. Luckily Austin knew the police man because he had been a school resource officer, and he let us go.

*We went with Jeanette and her family to the Draper Temple Open House. It is a beautiful temple and such a great chance for our kids to go inside a temple.

*Lucy celebrated her 4th Birthday on January 31. She has been looking forward to it for a long time. We had a royal birthday tea party. We invited the girls to dress up like princesses and the boys like princes. The girls came in princess dress-ups with their hair curled, their nails painted, jewelry and crowns. Neither of the boys came dressed up. One of them brought a sword, shield and helmet in a bag. Jill and Hanna dressed up to be the servants. We had doughnuts and pop for our tea party. Then we played pass the hot slipper, made a magic carpet, made royal jewelry out of skittles wrapped in saran wrap, and opened presents. The attention span of 3 and 4-year-olds is about 60 seconds. It was a fun party.

We also went to Old Grist Mill for Lucy's birthday dinner. We are glad to have her in our family.

Happy New Year

After Christmas, we made a crazy journey to Canada. It was crazy because our van heater isn't working, and we came across every type of winter road condition. We took lots of blankets and stopped a few times to get hot chocolate. We also stayed in a hotel in the middle of Montana on the way up and on the way down so we could just drive during the daylight.

First we went to the ranch to see Joe & Joan. We exchanged Christmas gifts. Austin helped one of the girls there who is training young horses to get on the horses for the first time.

Hanna, Jill, Carly, Lucy in front of the barn at the ranch

Then we went to see Grandma & Grandpa. It took many guardian angels to get us through about 30 miles of horrible fog. It was scarey. We had a fun visit. We exchanged Christmas gifts, played games, rode on the sled behind Pilgrim (Grandpa's horse), Austin & Buck went to the indoor arena to team rope, Austin took the grandkids to the movie, and the cousins played on the haystacks (Jill got stuck and Taylor came to the house toget help. The whole way to the haystack I was worried that she broke something or was crying, but she was fine. I dug her leg out and pulled her up.)

Jill & Hanna got to see their horses that we bought at the horse sale in August. We will bring the horses down to our house in the summer.

Jill and Lena

Hanna and Spurs

Austin on Pilgrim with Lucy and Julia finishing their ride

Hanna, Kaela, Jill, Taylor playing on the snow hill next to Grandma's driveway

Grandpa Buck as the jungle gym for all the grandkids that didn't go to the movie

For New Year's Eve, we went to Sarah's house to party. It took a few more guardian angels to get us safely there. We went through a horrible ground blizzard near Magrath where you could barely see in front of you. There were tons of cars off the road, and at one point there were emergency vehicles leading the cars through. Plus we also drove through a few snow drifts. We made it 1,025 miles without getting stuck or breaking down, and then Austin got stuck in front of Sarah's house. It took Grandpa's mighty car to pull the van back onto the road.

When we all got inside Sarah's house, we had a delicious dinner, the KidZone Band performed, we had a dance, played games, and toasted with sparkling cider at 11:30 p.m. (We pretended it was midnight).

After driving through more icy roads, wind and snow on our way home, we were very glad to get back safely to our own house. We made lots of memories at a cost.

KidZone Band

Austin and Lucy dancing

Grandma & Grandpa dancing