Bowlers B.C. (before cruise)

I had actually typed this a couple weeks before the cruise! I was trying to download a stop-action movie that the kids did, but it didn't work and so I forgot to post this without it! Anyway, I am working on some of the cruise things....it might not get done today, so be patient! Anyway, here is the previous one...

I just love this time of year. Everyone wants to be outside and it just seems like a very active time of year. We have started baseball season. Dallen and Ashton are playing and really enjoying it. Here are pictures of Ashton out in the field and Dallen up to bat. They are on the same team and it really is a great season (for me!). There team is really young, but each game seems to get better and better. Ashton is the oldest on the team and I think it is really good for him this year. He is playing in-field, mostly, and is doing really well at it. I just remember when I tried to do second base and all the things that went with it were too much for me, so I was put back in the out field and knew I could get the ball to the catcher...that was my job! I am glad he gets it! Their coach is REALLY good in the sense that he doesn't yell at the boys when they do something like swing at balls above their head! Instead he says "great swing...just make sure it's down here". Ashton hit a home run this week and Dallen is great at stealing bases. He got hit with the ball when he got up to bat on the first game and so he is a little scared to bat, so he mostly just stands there and for the most part, he walks!

We have finished another Eagle project. Thank you to all those who helped make it happen. He was able to get over 128 hours on his project and it is all because of the help from others. I am impressed with Alec and how he was able to overcome some serious fears that he had of calling people and asking for help or donations, but he did it and I hope he feels a sense of accomplishment from his work. He mentioned that when he went flying with Grandpa the other day for his aviation merit badge, that they flew over the park he did his project at, and he loved seeing all the trees they had planted. They planted 25 trees and I am glad that Alec didn't listen to me. I kept telling him that was a lot of trees and that maybe he should plan on doing 10 or so, but he was determined that it could be done and the city guy helping him stepped up and got some extra help and made it all happen. Here are a couple pictures of the project....

Dallen had a really cool little choir concert. He sang with eight other elementary schools at Tuachan. They had an American Celebration. They sang songs as one group and then sang as individual choirs. It was really well done and I feel bad that I didn't know it was such a big deal. I ended up going by myself! I wish I had known more about it. I just figured it was another little choir concert that no one would care to go to. I guess I need to let others determine that for themselves! This picture is to give you an idea of how many kids there were

Derrek officially got his first set of wheels...

Okay, not a car, but he did get a bike...We have been trying to get him to see the value of saving money and so we decided that having him save toward a goal would help. The first goal was saving $1,000. He couldn't touch that money until he reached $1,000. In fact, he gave me his last $150 to get there and when I put it in, he was still less $1.33 and I told him he still couldn't have it. So, he gave me $1.33! It was funny. Anyway, he had to spend it on one big thing and he has really been wanting a Mountain Bike and found a nice one for $900 and spent the other $100 on accessories (matching gloves and handle bars...so important!). His next goal is $1,500 and can't touch it until he reaches that goal. It has helped him want to save his money and realized that he doesn't need all the little things that he thought he did. Hopefully this sets him up for a more sucessful life.

Can things get crazier?!? Don't answer that!!!

Well, I noticed that I haven't written since Dallen's birthday, which was at least 6 weeks ago! March is now over, so I guess I need to recap what has been going on around here. Dallen had a fun experience where he got to perform in the St. George Tabernacle with his school choir and two other school choirs. Each school sang together, then they did their individual specialties, and then they sang a couple final songs together. There is just something about children's voices singing that bring tears to my eye. They have such an innocence about them and it filled the room.

My cousin, David, passed away this last month and for him, I am happy. For Sherrie, I am prayerful and for the rest of his family. It is hard to be left behind, but at the same time, I am grateful for the little reality checks that death has for me and helps me to realize and re-evaluate what are my goals and am I headed in the right direction. We had another death, our neighbor across the street passed away (liver failure), and Scott had to conduct that funeral. Death just brings reflection and even though I don't like to cry, I am grateful for the chance to change.

We had five dogs at once for about four days and four dogs for about two weeks. That was exciting. It drove Scott nuts, but me and the kids were in heaven. We love dogs and there was one for each child. One of the dogs we watched has a severe love for Shep. She just had to be with him all the time and got jealous if one of the other dogs were playing with him. So we would have to schedule alone time with her and Shep. She also slept way better if she were in the same room with him. It was cute. We are down to just Shep and Angel and the chaos has calmed down. I didn't think, at the time that more dogs would bring that much more, but the noise level was the biggest part of it...It's all good!

We have been working hard on Eagle projects around here. Calvin completed his. You know, I never thought that an Eagle project would bring so many spiritual experiences in our home. It's mostly been of prayers being answered, but these little teaching moments begin to mold and help my children to develop the faith that I have been trying to teach them all along. Calvin did his project on fixing a trail for the City of St. George. He did ALL the work or organizing it himself. It was really cool to watch him use his strengths and find out things about him that I didn't know were there. Anyway, the day that he was to do the project, it was supposed to be really bad weather. So, I just told him that the only person that could help him clear the weather was Heavenly Father. He was also worried that people wouldn't show up to help, so we gave him some suggestions on how he could go about getting people to come and then offered the advice that if he prayed for that too, Heavenly Father would help. Well, the day came and the weather was AMAZING!!! We couldn't have asked for better weather. Also, he was able to clock 79.5 man hours because a lot of people helped. I am so impressed with those that showed up. He had one whole family that came and helped. A lot of dads with their kids and it was just a great experience. The other experience we have had with prayer is the other night, Derrek and Alec were going to the Eagle Board to get their projects approved so they can start working on them and we couldn't find Alec's papers. I was frustrated because we had worked so hard on convincing Alec that it is something he could do and it would be worth it and here we couldn't find the papers to actually let him do it. He had signatures on them that he needed and to get those again would take time that he didn't have (he's trying to finish it before the cruise). Anyway, he prayed, Derrek prayed, I prayed. It was 15 minutes until they had to be there and we found the papers in the weirdest spot, but they were found by one of us having a thought to look there. The fact that this experience had more than one of us on our knees asking for help. To hear that Derrek was praying that his brother would find his papers was such an act of kindness and a blessing to Alec. Today they had people sign up to help and some of it was needed in the form of money and the boys said that the older men in the ward were so excited that they could help with something (because Calvin's was mostly labor intensive). It has really been a great experience. I wouldn't recommend doing three together, but this is actually how we have done everything with the three oldest. They are practically triplets and it's really hard for us to seperate them. Calvin even asked if he could have his own Eagle Court of Honor so that he didn't have to share that with his brothers.

We had a fun little family hike during Spring Break. Gorgeous area (Red Cliffs, I think it is called). I wasn't feeling well that day, but it was still fun to be there and with family. Rod's family went, my parents and Jenette. Calvin and Ashton were CRAZY and jumped in the river. It was freezing (snow run-off water!). But, it was fun!!!
Dallen and Ashton have started baseball, and I feel I am super blessed because they are on the same team this year. I was stressed, wondering how I was going to make this happen, but I only have one practice to get them to and the same games, so that we aren't there for four hours each game night (just two!). They are also on the same team as Dallen's friend, AJ, and it will be good. Ashton is the oldest one on the team and AJ is actually the youngest. I was torn whether or not to put Ashton in the lower league, but he didn't play last year and when he did tryouts this year, he left with tears in his eyes because he wasn't able to do things like the other boys. So I thought I would rather have him on top than the kid that lost every game (not that he would, but he is so hard on himself!). We start games in a week, every Wednesday and Friday night. I love sports (Scott, not so much).

I think that catches us up right now. We are counting the days until the cruise and are so excited. About four more weeks!!!

Dallen in the double digets!

Dallen had his 10th birthday on Friday. His day started out kind of rough. He came home from school and was just sad. I wasn't able to do what I normally do for birthdays because Scott and I have both had to work at our Parade Home and it had consumed that day, too. So, he got home from school and was bummed and since I wasn't able to take him out to lunch, we had invited his two best friends (named Ashton) to go do something fun with us on his birthday. So, Dallen chose ice skating. Did you know that had an ice rink in St. George?!? It's new this year and not permanent, yet. They are trying to raise money to make it more permanent, but for now we are enjoying it until it gets too warm. So, Alec had been many times and said he would stay with them while I went home and make Dallen's birthday dinner (and wrapped his presents!!!). It was crazy. But, Dallen and friends and brothers had a great time...falling down a lot! Then they came home and we ate dinner (Chicken Crescents) and then we had family and his two friends come over for cake. He wanted an "I-pod" cake and I had just got this recipe for fondant (it's in my "recipe of the week"), so I decided to try it. I forgot to add color when I was supposed to, so he got a white I-pod, but I was so proud of myself for making my own fondant and it actually tasted way better than the store-bought stuff. All in all, it was a great day and thanks to family to make it that much better. He really needed the attention and I am grateful that they would take time on a Friday night to do that. This is a picture of Dallen with his three best friends named "Ashton" (including his brother).


Derrek went out on his first real double date, in the sense that he actually asked a girl to go on a date with him and he paid for everything! They went and played laser tag. Got the 50 piece McNugget meal (yuck!) for dinner and then went to the spinning park (that's what we call it because everything there spins). Then when they were sick from spinning, they called it a night. The group took our big van and had a great time. It was fun to hear him talk about his night.


Like I said before, Sunwest has been doing their Parade of Homes this week. It actually has been a really good 10 days. We have had A LOT of people come through the house, and hopefully just one will want to buy it from the customer we built it for a couple years ago. The decorator did an amazing job and she has had a lot of business come from this, too. It is just amazing to see the Lord work in these few lives with this one event. I was going to have to miss church again today to be there (I had to miss last week), but I am grateful to my sister who had the thought to come so that I could go to church. It was a great meeting. But, it is just cool to see His hand in all the little things as well as the big things. I know the house will sell for our client. I don't know what will come of it for Sunwest...maybe nothing, but I do know that we were supposed to do it. It has been good.