Pinewood Derby

Last night was Dallin's Pinewood Derby. I would really like to say that we came in first, second, or even third place. We didn't. In fact, Dallin's car didn't win any of it's races. For one race he was against a car shaped like a school bus (!) and he still lost. It's not our fault that the winners every year are practically Professional Derby Car Builders (I'm talking to you, Ken Dougal.) Even more sad? They had a specific award for the car that was the most "True Blue" and we didn't even win that with our beautiful homage to BYU. (Do you like how I say "we" as if I had anything to do with the car? All I contributed was the Y sticker.) Oh well, better luck next time.

(This pic is for all of you who don't have sons of scouting age yet. Can you believe how high-tech this race is? Computers and headset microphones and all. This is serious business...just ask Ken Dougal.)

In My Kitchen

What I'm seeing:

What I'm tasting:

What I'm smelling:

Don't you just love Spring?

A Warning

Be careful what you blog about. A few months back I wrote about how I spend my days leisurely taking baths and watching TV. Apparently the Lord is aware of all aspects of our lives (even our blogs) and decided that I needed to make better use of my time.

And that is the story of how I became the new Young Women's President of the Shafer View Ward.

The End.

(of my free time, that is.)

Another sign there are boys living here

This is a phenomena I was not familiar with when I just had girls. These are all the jeans/pants that Brady has torn a hole in in the past few months. It's always in the right knee. Apparently there is a lot of sliding on one knee happening during recess. The hole appears about 3 weeks after I've bought them. I've stopped paying regular price for jeans and just buy them at thrift stores for a few dollars since they're only going to last for a few weeks anyway. I used to not let him wear them to school, but now that we're down to only two pairs of jeans that don't have a hole (yet!) I've given up. He looks a little bit white trash when he wears them, but then I notice all the other boys in his class are sporting the same look. Another reason why I'm ready for summer: shorts.

What's making me happy today

Today is the first day in weeks that it's actually felt like spring. Just having the sun out automatically lifts my spirits. I'm also loving everything that's just starting to bloom, including this new bush (don't ask me what it's called) that Mark planted yesterday.

This is the empty field behind our house. Most of the time it looks terrible and full of weeds. But for a few weeks in the spring it greens up and has a lovely purple hue (from the sage? I don't know) that makes it look almost picturesque.

Mark spent his birthday money on a big flagpole for the front yard, something he's always wanted. I love that the flag is just gently blowing today, rather than standing straight out from our almost-constant Idaho winds. (And yes, we have a big BYU flag to fly on game days...our Boise State neighbors are going to love it!)

I'm very proud of this girl for playing "We Thank Thee O God for a Prophet"on the piano at her seminary conference this morning. She has been practicing for weeks and was so, so nervous to do it.
I'm excited for this girl who has out of the blue decided to do cheerleading at the middle school. Only problem: practices are at 6 a.m. (I moved here to avoid early morning seminary, and now I get this?!?)And lastly, don't you think everyone should have a pet that coordinates with their shoes? I highly recommend it.
So what's making you happy today?

Thank You Easter Bunny!

Dallin is at the age where he's not quite sure what to think about Santa, the Easter Bunny and the Tooth Fairy. He wants to still believe they're real (if only to get the goodies they bring!) but he's starting to suspect otherwise. All yesterday he talked about how he was going to prove or disprove once and for all the existence of the Easter Bunny. Kenzie helped him with his plan by typing up the following:

Here's the picture he found on the camera this morning (thank goodness it wasn't stolen!):

After careful handwriting analysis and fingerprint comparison I think we still have a believer, at least for another year.

Hope you're all having a wonderful Easter Weekend. We had a fun day doing all the traditional Easter activities. We started with a super fun egg hunt put on by two families from our former (sniff!) ward. (Our boundaries changed last Sunday...much to our dismay.) They had over 2000 candy-filled eggs scattered all over their neighborhood, plus check out these fabulous prizes!

The boys loved grabbing up as many as their baskets could hold. Then it was time to sort through, looking for the prize eggs. Dallin found one, but Brady was starting to get worried that he would come up empty-handed.

Thank goodness the very last egg he opened held the precious slip of paper. After seeing the big chocolate bunny he won he shouted, "I am the luckiest one!"

We spent the rest of the day watching conference and coloring easter eggs. Plus Brady wanted to repeat the egg hunt over and over and over again in the backyard. Unfortunately our weather hasn't exactly felt very springy. At least it was sunny and not snowing like the previous two days! Happy Easter everyone!