Children's Day

Children's Day is upon us once again. 

Our kids have been practicing for the races.

Every class got matching shirts.

The school provided lunch, awards, and water games today.

Tori in her first race.

Benton participating in his first Children's Day events.

Many ribbons were won in our family this year.

Adalyn was a good sport the whole time.

She cheered on her siblings.

Alex is our speed demon. 

She earned several FIRST place ribbons.

We learned that Benton's main event was the sack-race.

He won by leaps and bounds.

This kid has some hops.

Benton was placed with the Kinder kids because there was only 2 pre-schoolers.

They did very well.

My competitive boy was brought to tears when the 3-legged-race didn't go as planned.

Better practice for next year.

Children's Day continued in Casas.

The Fair came to town along with the Circus. 

All the kids got in for 1/2 price.

This was Adalyn's first time on roller-coasters (only in Mexico)...and she LOVED it.

The faster...the better.

Benton, on the other hand, liked the slower, calmer rides.

Our kids brought some friends with them and we spent two solid hours on straight rides. 

They had a blast.

 HAPPY CHILDREN'S DAY!

10 years

Today we celebrate our 10th Wedding Anniversary. Garrett surprised me with a large, wrapped box. Inside it was a card that said he was good for an I.O.U. I put the card aside and went on with my morning. He kept asking me if I was disappointed. I told him I wasn't and continued to get the kids ready for school. A few minutes later I noticed another gift on my bed. I brought it out for family scripture study and decided to open it in front of the kids. In this box was another wrapped box...and in it was another, smaller wrapped box...and in that smaller box was a tiny box...a RING box to be exact. I opened it and beheld my missing wedding ring!! Not only was it sparkling like new but I had a band of diamonds on either side of my original engagement ring! I was so surprised. He had worked months in advance with our jeweler in Utah to get this done for our anniversary. I jumped on his lap and showered him with kisses...to which all my kids chanted GROSS!
I couldn't have asked for a more symbolic gift to celebrate spending one whole decade with this incredible man.
Happy Anniversary!!

It's not about the Bunny...it's about the Savior

Baby in a Basket.

This year we did our annual decorating of the eggs for the ward Easter Hike.

Most of the ward was out of town so we had a very small party.

Easter morning the Bunny delivered new clothes and treats to everyone.

It was fast-Sunday so we had to wait until after church to have our Easter Egg Hunt.

I prepared a ham dinner for our family and the missionaries.

Benton spoke in Primary and talked about the true meaning of Easter.

Adalyn attended Nursery for the first time and loved bossing everyone around. She must be from the right family!

After an absolute sugar high we all crashed.

My girls were lucky enough to get 2 outfits from the Easter Bunny.

The ultimate test is the "twirl-factor".

Everyone was happy.

Happy Easter!

the cold front

We were hit with a cold front. We went from 80 degree weather to below freezing...overnight.

 

The first day of Spring and we were shoveling our sidewalks.

Since the schools don't have sufficient heating...school was cancelled.

The kids had a great time playing in the snow...before it melted.

We had a fun afternoon of hot chocolate and friends.

All the farmers in town were up all night long trying to protect their crops. Everything was lost. It was beyond their control. 

The last of the peaches for March 2012

Photograph by Shauna Neilsen

 

 

 

 

 

 

weekend with family

It was Spring Break for El Paso.

All the family came in for the weekend.

We filled our time with relaxing in the steam room...

shopping for designer shoes and glasses...

eating out...

platica and candy...

horse back riding...

golfing...

lashes...

temple session...

playing hard and getting dirty...

football practice...

chips and soda...

basketball games...

kitty scratches...

tacos...

wrestling...

and much, much more.

We love our time with family.

And I didn't get one single picture!

Genius

My kids are genius! 

Today was no school.

Tori spearheaded the idea to sell cookies in front of our house.

I told them they had to do it all themselves.

Tori made the sign and even baked the cookies.

Benton and Alex helped set up the table and chairs.

They waved at every driver that passed. 

Who couldn't resist cute kids sitting on a corner with a COOKIE sign?

Little did they know they were going to pay TOP dollar for these cookies.

Tori charged $10 pesos or $1.00 for each and every cookie!

Highway-robbery!!!

...unless you are buying from three cute little kids, right?!

Well, no one turned down these million dollar cookies and my kids made a small fortune! 

They had a line-up of cars waiting for cookies!

In one hour of selling they had made over $200 pesos and had to turn down customers.

Too bad there IS school tomorrow! 

Nice work my little entrepreneurs.