Jack and the Pinewood Derby...

Time for Jack and Pinewood Derby.  Merril's not the kind of Dad that makes the car for his son so that he can win.  If Jack makes a slow car, so be it, as long as he did the work himself.  Jack's car is driven by a Lego guy.

Jack said the backwards cap makes him more aerodynamic.  *raised eyebrow*

It must have worked because he won in the 1st place in the Bear division!

The winners' plaques have dowels to hold the car in place.  I think they're pretty awesome!

Mikayla's Easter dress...

Mikayla wanted this dress for Easter.  Since I prefer dresses to have sleeves, I decided to buy a larger size, cut the excess off the bottom and then alter it to have sleeves.  I also purchased the most amazing sewing machine and was dying to try it out.

Before:

After:

My new/used machine is a Babylock.  It is computerized, does small embroidery, threads the needle, cuts the strings.......it almost sews itself.  If it ever goes kaput, there's no way I'd go back to a regular machine.  It.is.amazing.

Odds and Ends of Spring Break...

Some other odds and ends from Spring Break included a trip to the brand new Fiesta Fun Center.  They built a new facility with bowling lanes.  Maxine played in the arcade and won a mega jackpot!  Everyone who didn't win the jackpot was upset about her luck and made sour faces.

Merril purchased a snowmobile and went to play in the snow with his buddy Jason N.  I'm glad he has friends who like to do those sorts of things.  I'm more of a sip hot chocolate in the lodge type of gal.

And lastly, a traveling exhibit of the Vietnam Memorial Wall came to town and we took the kids.  Merril's great Uncle Maxwell died during the Vietnam War and volunteers were able to help us locate him on the wall.  I was more moved than I thought I would be.  I'm sure the original is even more so.

Goblin Valley and Capitol Reef National Park...

Merril had some work to do in the middle of nowhere Eastern Utah and he suggested we all go and visit Goblin Valley.  It was Spring Break so we loaded up in the Tahoe and headed out.  We got Arby's for dinner and Mikayla was so tired, she fell asleep chewing her Arby's sandwich.  I hope she doesn't choke.

Driving through little towns with small populations always makes me wonder, "Who lives out here?  Why do they stay?"  I guess you can get Netflix anywhere with an internet connection.  You could watch it 'till the cows come home, for realsingtons.  So we stayed in a motel in Caineville and then got up and visited the goblins.

I guess it was originally named "Mushroom Valley" which makes more sense to me. Not sure why they changed it.  I know Galaxy Quest, a space movie, had a portion of it filmed here.  It does look like Mars or something.  This area was totally open to hikers, which made it fun for the kids to explore.

Then we visited Capitol Reef National Park.  It had some nice Native American pictographs or petroglyphs.

It was a quick little getaway and we had a good time.  :)

Maxine and ZPPAF-Zion Piano Performing Arts Festival...

My friend and Maxine's piano teacher, Sara G., offered the opportunity for her students to perform at ZPPAF, which stands for Zion Piano Performing Arts Festival.  Maxine practiced her piece, Watch My Fingers Rock!, for months.  It was a catchy, swing tune and she became really good at it.

She performed and then the judges critiqued her piano technique and told her how to improve.

She did so well in her category that she won a $25 gift certificate to a music store in town.  :)

Tub time...

The tub is one of the happiest places for my little kids.  There are several cars in the tub that hang out on a permanent basis.  Oh, I'm in love with his eyes.  They rim in a blue/green but the centers are yellow, which makes them seem more green.  I find it unusual but very handsome.

He likes to try and stick items in the faucet.

He's been cutting eye teeth for a while but they're finally in and he's back to his happy self!

SAR-Snow and rescue...

Merril's buddies from Search and Rescue asked if he and the fam wanted to go play in the snow up on Kolob for fun.  Merril called home and we got ready as fast as we could but we were still behind the SAR guys.  We were in a truck that Merril was going to fix and then sell and decided that we didn't want to go all the way to the top of Kolob for fear of getting stuck.

So we pulled off and started to play in the snow part way up.

There was plenty of it!

It had snowed a lot the previous couple of days and we were digging it.

We could hear the SAR guys on the radio and knew they were around and just kept playing where we were.  After an hour or so, we were thinking of heading back and saw the SAR guys coming down the road.  The lead guy stopped and said they had happened upon a lady who was stuck in her car.  She had slid off the road, had no cell service and had slept in her car that night, running the engine when she got cold.  She was hoping and praying that someone would happen along but that road is so bad in the winter, the odds of anyone driving it are slim.  These Search and Rescue guys in their huge Jeeps felt a prompting to drive up for a fun Saturday activity and found this poor lady!!  It was supposed to snow a ton more that whole weekend and her odds of survival, with little gear, would have been nil.  When they spotted the car and headed toward her, she jumped out of her car, waving her arms and crying, so thankful she'd been found!  I'm so thankful to know that our Lord is mindful of us and prompted them to head up there.  The SAR guys were prepared with food, water, and tow straps.  They pulled her out and she road down in a Jeep while a SAR guy drove her vehicle down.   

It makes me proud to know that Merril is part of this group of real-life heroes.

New Paint for the Tahoe...

The Tahoe had navy blue paint.  Cracking, peelilng paint.  Merril found a guy who does great paint and body work for a great price!  We had the Tahoe painted black!  The guy even took the doors off and painted the door jams and it looks great!

We got all new head and tail lights too and I feel like the Tahoe looks almost brand new!  Yay! 

Jamie's 35th birthday!

Just after Mikayla's birthday is my birthday!  I turned 35 this year and Merril rented a Dodge Challenger and we Grandma Campbell watched the kids for a night so we could spend a night in Las Vegas!  Wahoo!  Mini VACATION!

It was lots of fun to drive!

There's a new observation wheel in Las Vegas, just like the one we rode in London about 8 years ago.  It's called The High Roller, and it's what we went to Vegas to do.  ( I didn't want to lug a camera so we just used our phones to take pictures.  I kind of wish we had brought a camera.)

 View from the top.

We wanted to go to dinner at the Cheesecake Factory but the power was out in the back of the Forum Shops so that option was out.  We ate dinner at a Mexican Food place instead.

We had dessert crepes at The Paris and watched the volcano show at our hotel, The Mirage.  After we got home, I had some German chocolate cake waiting for me.  

I'm going to have to work pretty hard to top that for Merril's birthday!

Valentines 2015

Valentine's Day started bright and early.  I made pink, heart-shaped pancakes and put a chocolate covered strawberry on their plates.

Towards the afternoon, an Edible Arrangement for me!  I've always thought they looked delicious and Merril ordered one up for me this year!

Between myself and the children, it had disappeared in under 5 minutes.  It was delicious!  Merril is my bestie.  I'm so lucky to spend my days and hours with the person I love most in the world.

Mikayla's 3rd birthday...

I blinked and now I have a 3-year old!  We had a heart-shaped cake and she wanted to put the candles in herself. 

I keep wondering if those lovely, blonde curls will go away or relax.  However long she keeps them, we'll play them up.

And then my girls pulled together for this picture.  It's my latest favorite!

Horrible dream...

The other night, Mikayla woke me up at 1:00 a.m. to tell me she'd thrown up.  So after changing sheets and washing silky blankie, we went to sleep in the spare bed.  I was asleep quickly but had the most horrible dream.  I dreamed that the kids and I were outside.  I was across the street, talking with my neighbor, Dana.  We heard a plane, and turned to see a small aircraft flying rather low behind my house.  Something fell off the plane and once the object hit the ground, lava poured into the street.  I yelled at the kids to get out of the way, "Move! Move!"  Little Mark was in the middle of the road and the lava surrounded him.  He started crying and tried to keep his feet out of the lava but it surrounded him.  I tried to get to him and screamed, "Merril!" because he was closer to Mark.  He was able to reach in and pull him out of the lava.  My heart was tight.  We ran up my Dana's driveway and there was a kiddie pool with water.  Mark had lava on his feet, hands, and it had splashed on his face.  We put him in the water and I was just sick, thinking about his little feet and how they probably wouldn't be able to save them.  I was screaming and sobbing and then I woke up.
I'm so sorry I couldn't save you!  I'm sorry I wasn't fast enough to protect you!

I lay there, blinking in the dark with my heart pounding.  I was so sad thinking about how I couldn't help Mark when his little feet were burning up.  I was so far away and couldn't get there for him.  I dislike dreams like this.  It probably took me 45 minutes to calm down enough to fall asleep again.

Thankfully, it was only a dream and my little guy is smiling at me today!

NO MORE BRACES!

Wow!  It's been a year and a half and Jack finally got his braces off!  His teeth are looking great.

I can hardly believe his one front tooth lined up behind his bottom.

And now he has to wear a retainer at night.  I had completely forgotten about retainers!  Hopefully he doesn't lose it!!

Do you like silly faces?

Mikayla has a million goofy faces.  Here are just a few.  Oh, and I couldn't resist a few silly faces too.  We have a lot of free time on our hands.  

Oh, and I swear I brush her hair some days but she really doesn't like it.  So some days I don't.  It's easy that way.

Sounds like trouble...

What a little mess maker.  That boy is into everything!  If it's not the tupperware, it's the pot lids.  If it's not the lids, it's cereal.  Today, it was a new box of sandwich baggies.  

I'm sure he's learning something.  Right?  At least he's cute.  ;)

Phone takes a dive...

Mark threw my phone in the tub!  Mikayla was in the tub, figured that wasn't good, and pulled it out like a good girl.  I was out of the room at the time.  When I came back and saw the phone sitting on the edge of the tub, still dripping, I hurriedly pulled off the case, powered it down, and threw it in rice. After 24 hours, I tried to turn it on.  It was acting a little strange.  It would work while plugged in but when I disconnected it from the charger, it would immediately go dead.  I figured there was water trapped inside, found a YouTube video explaining how to take it apart, and proceeded to do just that.  Woah, it was way more layers than I thought.

Things were looking grim.  After pulling it all apart, water was discovered in the battery compartment.  I dried it all out and put it back together.  It totally worked!  I've been using it for a few days and nothing appears to be wrong with it!  I can't believe it!  Now I don't need a new phone!  Yeah!