St. George

Derick was asked by his work to go to St. George and attend the Utah Builders Conference last weekend. Andrew went to Grandma and Grandpa's and we took Ashley with us down there. His work got us a hotel which was nice to not have to pay for it! Derick golfed all day at Coral Canyon one day with his boss. He got fried! The next day was the conference which was classes all day. So, what did me and Ashley do? Shopped first and foremost. They have an outlet mall down there so I stocked up on summer clothes for Andrew. I also realized that shopping for a little girl is so much fun! I didn't buy too much for Ashley because we are pretty good on clothes right now, but of course I did buy some things. I got her a cute swimsuit for this summer and a cute dress.
We spent a lot of time at the hotel taking naps and relaxing. I did go to the normal mall with Ashley, and that is where these pictures came from. We didn't have to meet Derick for a couple hours so I was trying to kill time. It did look pretty funny pulling up and parking the stroller outside the little picture booth, getting the baby out and closing the curtain. People probably thought I was feeding her or something!

Easter Dinner...not even at the kiddie table

Ashley isn't old enough to sit at the kiddie table, isn't old enough for the highchair, and her parents didn't want to hold her while trying to eat a scrumptious ham dinner. SO where does she end up? Tucked away nicely on the floor at the end of the adult table where no kids could step on her and she could look out the window! Lets just say that mom and dad got to enjoy yummy food and get full while only worrying about keeping Andrew out of trouble!

Aunt Jeneane smiling at her.

She looks chubby in this picture. Don't worry, she is still my little baby!

Barbara from Barbara's School of Dance would be happy to see that Ashley is trying to push up into a back bend.

Easter Sunday

Some of the pictures look all digital and grainy, just click on them individually and it will make them big.

Isn't he so handsome. Thank you to Grandma & Grandpa for his outfit. It was a great birthday present! We especially love his saddle shoes!

My cute girl! You can see that we started off screaming, got the binky, then got a smile when I got in her face!

We tried to take some family pictures after church. Not a good idea when Andrew has had WAY too much sugar! He did alright thankfully!

Here is one tired little girl after a long day of church and Easter pictures!

Andrew & Ashley
are pleased to announce the marriage of



JUST KIDDING! We just thought this looked like an engagement picture! Thanks to Cami though for taking pictures of us!

Easter Egg Hunt a.k.a. CANDY FREE FOR ALL!

To Andrew, egg hunts are another version of trick-or-treating. The fun for him is not in finding them, but what is inside, better yet, how big a piece of chocolate there is inside! Grandma & Grandpa set up a hunt around their yard on Friday. Do you like the picture of me with Andrew on the steps? Grandpa took it mid-sneeze!

Besides the egg hunt, Grandma & Grandpa also set up the big bouncy play thing. You can see how different boys and girls are here. Girls like to pose for pictures and listen, Andrew on the other hand...doesn't.

Aunt Emily and those Alaska moose...

If you haven't already heard, Emily hit a moose last week. She was on O'Malley Road heading to a friends house around 9 pm. If you know Alaska, you know it is pitch black outside by this time, O'Malley isn't lit and the speed limit is 50 mph. She had her brights on and had just clicked them off when BAM, there was a moose in her windshield. This road is only 2 lanes and moose have very long legs, so in seconds it had stepped up onto the street without anyone noticing. This happens a lot, sadly, in Alaska. Moose legs are so long that the bumper knocks them over into your windshield. The airbags didn't even go off because the sensors are in the bumper and the main impact was in the windshield! If you notice, even the steering wheel is bent down.

So what would you do if this happened? I would probably start crying my eyes out and well, I don't know what I would do next! Emily crawled into the backseat, because as you can tell, the front seat hardly existed anymore, and calls my dad. He makes sure she is alright and has her call the police while he comes to meet her. The evening ends up with Emily being checked out in the ER, Gramea's car being towed away to be assessed on Monday and a moose out there with some teal paint on his toenails and probably limping. Oh, and he lost some hair too, so probably has some bald patches.

I can't even imagine being in this situation. Dark, broken down and hurt. Sadly, no one even stopped to help Emily. Take that as a lesson, to look out for people in need. I am so glad that Emily was not severely hurt. Bad things happen all the time in these situations, but she was lucky. In all the years we lived in Alaska, none of us kids or parents ever had something like this happen.

Spring!

Something I planted is growing! I was a little sceptical last fall when we planted a million bulbs in our flower beds. I hadn't ever done it before and had no idea how well it would work! They are growing so well you can actually see where we buried groups of 6 or 9, etc. Here is a daffodil, isn't it cute! Ok, well I just wanted you all to see. (Don't look too closely, we still haven't weeded this year...)

Tony Hawk Groupies

It continues. If you are bored of this, sorry, but I am still laughing. Today I get another knock on the door from the neighbor boy and his friend down the street (ages 8 and 12 probably). I see who it is through the peep hole and don't answer because Derick, their new BFF, isn't home and I don't want to deal with them. A couple minutes later I hear this banging on the concrete on my driveway...skateboards! Ashley is upstairs screaming her head off trying to fall asleep so I thought I would go ask the boys if they would go play somewhere else. We have an RV pad on the side of the garage so the kids were skating into the street, jumping off the curb. Real safe, I know. Here is the conversation I had:

"Hey, the kids are trying to take a nap right now, so could you guys go play somewhere else?"
"Oh ya, sorry," said the reasonable neighborhood boy whose parents probably knew where he was.
"Umm, I guess," said the boy who is grounded yet I guess our driveway is allowed.
"Hey, is Tony Hawk home?" said the boy whose parents probably don't have a clue where he is.
"Tony who?" I asked.
"Tony Hawk, your husband," he answered.
"He probably won't be home until after your bedtime," I said playing along with this whole Tony Hawk thing.
Then the boy who was grounded asked if he could ride Derick's bike. Derick's bike isn't just any old bike, it is an expensive one you use for trials. I told him no and he said that Derick let him play with it yesterday, which I knew probably wasn't true. Anyway, the kids finally left.

I went inside and called Derick because I knew he would laugh at it. I told him that the one kid called him Tony Hawk. He said yesterday he asked if that was his name and Derick said yes. The kid told Derick he had seen him on TV a lot and that he was cool. So I guess Derick is playing along with it too.

Derick's RAD buddies...

In case you were wondering, Derick was out skateboarding and riding his bike for the neighborhood kids again. The boy next door came over as soon as he saw Derick's truck drive in the driveway. He brought with him some other kids and wanted to show Derick the tricks he had been working on. He also wanted to have Derick show all of them the cool stuff he can do on his bike. It is just so funny because as soon as I go to the garage and yell "Derick!" the kids all say, oh, do you have to go in now? Like he has to come in and do chores or homework or something. I hope you all are getting as good a kick out of this as I am!

Here is a good laugh for you all...

Last night I was doing dishes after dinner and the door bell rang. Who could that be? I look out the peep hole and it is the 12 year old boy that lives next door. Last time he came over he was asking if we had anything he could help us with, as a service project, so he helped Derick put up Christmas lights. I immediately started brainstorming what he could do as I opened the door.
"Hey," he said.
"Hi," I responded.
"Can Derick hang out?" he asked.
Did I just hear that correctly? Was he asking if Derick could come out and play?! I kept back my urge to laugh and told him that Derick was changing a diaper and I would send him out when he was finished. Did I feel like a mom or what! So Derick went out there and the boy asked if he wanted to skate with him (skateboard). They got their skateboards out and played for a while until it was time for the boy to go home! I just thought that was funny.

Beautiful Baby Girl

I'm sorry, but Ashley is just the cutest thing alive! She is doing really well these days, especially when she gets her Prevacid and Desitin! I am very lucky that everything has turned out so well with her. Lately she has been good at being entertained by dangling toys or rattles or music. This lets me lay her down on her mat and she will be happy! (knock on wood) I love it when I have left her there for a while and I come back to check on her and as soon as she makes eye contact with me she gets a HUGE smile! Today I tried to run and grab the camera and get back to her smiles, but she always just wants to check the camera out and not look at me! Come on, your beautiful, adorable gorgeous mother, or a silver, cold camera?! Anyway, We are just so glad to have her in our life. I know Andrew is too, even though he does get into trouble when he wants to maul her with his love. :) Oh, yesterday Amy was holding her and she was talking the most I have ever heard her! She was having a full on conversation with the new ceiling fan! It was so cute, I love their little voices!