Ole!

In honor of Cinco de Mayo, we had bean and cheese burritos and chips and salsa for dinner. Sigh...I know, I know. I'm just fancy that way. Just call me Fancy Nancy. Really I had planned on making enchiladas with homemade tomatillo sauce. But I was really tired and I just wanted to feed the kids cereal and put them in bed at 5:00. So really, when you look at it that way, beans and cheese ain't so shabby now, are they?

Monday Morning Musings - Y'all Come Back Now, Ya Hear

OK, so Addy, she has started this thing where she picks up her glass of milk by sticking her forefinger inside the cup and bracing the outside of the cup with her thumb and middle finger. And she drinks it that way. And she always spills. And she always gets in trouble for holding her cup like that. So this morning I was putting her oatmeal and milk on the table and I totally spilled her cup of milk. She looked at me and said, "MOM! What did you do to my milk?" Then she kinda tilted her head and squinted her eye at me and shook her finger and said, "Were you just holding it with one finger?"

The other day I was driving in the car with my sister Lauren and she said something about me being from Utah. And that hurt my feelings so I said, "Lauren, if I'm a Utahan, you are too. You live here now just like me." And she said, "Well, your more Utahan than you are Texan." Then you know what I realized? I'm only about 5 or 6 years away from living in Utah just as much as I lived in Texas. BAHHHHHH! I will always be a Texan in my heart, y'all.

I really can hear Texas calling to my soul lately. That sounds weird, but it is true. I don't know how to explain it. It has just been too long since I have been there. It's a strange power that Texas has over its natives.

Yesterday Aubrey was eating some honeydew melon. She asked me, "Mom? What kind of fruit makes you pretty?" And I said that all fruit makes you pretty. She stuck another piece of melon in her mouth and said, "That must be why so many boys have a crush on me."

The other day Addy asked me for some ice cream for breakfast. You can read about her strange breakfast habits here. Anyhoo, I told her no, she absolutely could not have ice cream for breakfast. She said, "MOM! That is not nice. If you want Heavenly Father to live in our house, you have to say nice things."

Zac was reading a Harry Potter book the other day and I said, "Z, haven't you read that book 100 times already?" And he said he has read all the Harry Potter books 6 times each. That seems a little excessive to me. That kid. I can't get him to go to bed at a decent hour because he says up all night reading. I will go up to his room at 11 PM on a school night to find him reading and I will turn out the light. The next thing I know the light is back on. When I insist he keep the light off, he pulls out his book light. It wouldn't be so bad except that the closer he gets to being a teenager, the harder it is to wake him up in the morning.

Testimony of the Book of Mormon

Flashback Friday - It Was The Summer Of 1963....

...When everybody called me baby, and it didn't occur to me to mind....

Liz, Helen, Allyson, Sara

Those were the days. Back when I actually had time to lie around and watch a movie so many times I could quote the entire movie, all the way through. Back when the four girls in this picture were inseparable. We were BFF's, like no other BFF's you've ever seen. We had so much fun together. They might get mad at me for posting these pictures, but that's OK. I know they will still love me. And besides, I posted an extra super nasty picture of myself at the end to make up for it. It looks like we were having a sleep over at my house. And judging from the way Helen and I seem to be singing along with the movie, I am gonna guess it was Dirty Dancing that we were watching. We used to watch that a lot. In fact Helen and I, at one time, could do the dance (see #30) at the end of the movie. Kinda. - Here's to the good ole days!

(And just in case you are wondering, it wasn't actually the Summer of 1963. It was probably the Winter of 1988)

In God's Country: Day 4

Finally. Our last day. I know that's what your thinking. And sorry Facebook people who have had major Moab overload. My blog posts weren't importing so I thought, I'll just upload all the pictures to an album. And then right after that, the posts imported. It's OK though. Just hold on a little longer. I'm almost done.

So my kids started digging these holes. Really deep holes. Right next to the fire pit. Kinda not the safest setup when it's dark and you are walking to your chair by the fire. With a sharp metal roasting stick in your hand. But hey, we all made it out alive and well. It was funny because I was getting dinner ready and all of the sudden I couldn't see Addy anywhere. I started freaking out and the girls were like, "MOM! She's in the hole". The holes then turned into forts and the sand was made into sand bombs and we had all out war raging right in the middle of our campsite. Please note all the plastic utensils sticking out of Aubrey's fort.

They spent pretty much the hole day in the holes. Get it? The hole day in the holes. Yeah, I know....

Emily's Elvis Marshmallow. It really looked like The King in for reals life. The black was his hair and she formed a little face on it. Thank you, thank you very much. You were supposed to read that last part with an Elvis voice. Just in case you...didn't...know...yeah, anyway...

This was a pretty much major nightmare. I have always hated this brush. But this is the brush Em packed. And I told her to use my brush to brush her hair, but she wasn't listening to me because she was mad that I was making her brush her hair. So she took this really great brush and started hacking through her hair. It was twisted and wound around the brush so tight. And it had hair going one way and then hair over that going the other way and then the other. It was impossible to get out. I really, really thought I was just going to have to take the scissors to it. And I would have but she is growing her hair out for locks of love and that would have just messed everything up. So I put conditioner on it and used a comb and picked the hair out. I am still surprised I was able to get it out. Although there was a pretty massive amount of hair that came out with it. The hair and the brush immediately went into the trash.

The kids spent most of the day in the holes. Steve and I spent most of the day loading up. The day before Steve got a call saying that they were going to be ready for him on a job in Colorado on Monday. So instead of driving all the way home and then turning around and driving all the way back, he decided to stay in Moab and drive the few hours past that to the job. He drove his truck down with the camper and I drove my mom's truck down with the trailer with the 4 wheelers. I have never driven a trailer that far all by my lonesome. I was a little nervous but the kids were great on the way home and we made it with no problems.

Here is a picture of Aubrey's shoes when we got home.

In God's Country: Day 3

We spent our third day doin' a little off roadin'. Our friends that we were with had their jeep from home and rented another to drive and we road our 4 wheelers. Addy road in the jeep and Aubrey road on the back of my ATV for 1/2 the day until she got tired and moved to the jeep. It was an AWESOME fun day. We did a trail called the 3D Trail that we had never done before. It is definitely one we will be doing again. We LOVED it. The above picture is of Zac.

Tough Stuff Emily goin' up the hill


Emily and Zac

We stopped for lunch and there was a little trail that lead up to a tunnel through the rock.

On the other side of the tunnel was a GORGEOUS hidden little valley.

Emily, Zac, Aubrey and Garrett

Zac (this picture will totally freak my mom out)

Steve and Emily

Zac

Allyson (that would be me) and Zac

Takin' a break on the rocks

It was late afternoon and we were so close to the end of the trail when suddenly Emily's ATV stopped moving forward. Upon inspection it was discovered that she broke the frame. Way to Em!

We caused quite a commotion there atop the rock. Everyone was anxious to help. All the teenage boys thought Emily was pretty cool for breakin' the frame, which made her blush.

We moved things around a little and kicked Aubrey out of the jeep and back on the the wheeler and loaded Emily's wheeler into the back of the jeep. We made our way carefully back to the road and feel back into camp exhausted, hungry and happy.

In God's Country: Days 1&2

We were on Spring Break the week of April 5th. The above picture was taken in my back yard on April 6th. I cannot tell you how thrilled I was to leave behind our eternal winter and head south to one of our favorite places. We loaded everyone up and set out Wednesday morning to go camping in Moab. I have to warn you, I take way too many pictures. I have narrowed it down from a whole bunch of a lot of pictures, to a whole lot of pictures. I decided I should go easy on you and break it up by days. Here are SOME of the pictures from days 1 and 2.

Day 1:

Marshmallow Addy

Roasting marshmallows and making s'mores around the campfire. I am totally freezing as you can see from the picture.

Hey! We had reception at the campsite. Great.

Day 2:

The week before we left, we were at my mom's house and her neighbor came over and we were talking and we found out that we were going to Moab on the same days so we drove down together. We also spent a few days together while we were there. Day 2 was one of those days. (just in case you were wondering where the extra kids came from)

We started out this day by driving out to a place that has a ton of fossils. Moab is an ancient riverbed and we were able to find a ton of really cool fossils with shells and shark teeth and other things that I don't know the name of, but Zac does. Smarty pants. Anyway. That big hill is where we spent a good portion of the day searching for fossils. And that is also where I got a major yucky sunburn while I was wearing my one shirt with a really high neckline. So I have this stupid ring of a tan around my neck now. But I digress...back to the pictures....

Too Cute Addy

Hey look, we have reception here too! In different times I would have minded. In today's world, I'm just glad this man has a business that is busy enough to need his attention on a regular basis. And if his being able to take us on a trip means that he has to spend time on the phone, well, so be it.

Too STINKIN' CUTE Addy

Splitting open rocks to find their ancient treasures

You can't see them because they are so camouflaged, but somewhere in this picture is Zac and one of his best friends Garrett


Addy, Aubrey & Jess


I have a ton of pictures of Addy because she was the only one who stayed with me. Or she was the only one I followed around, however you want to look at it.

She was so cute here because we were all alone, just the two of us on top of the hill and this is the view we had in every direction. We couldn't see everyone below us. She got this excited look on her face and said, "MOM! This is where Heavenly Father and Jesus and Papa live! I am going to go find them!" And she took off running along the ridge. It was the sweetest thing I have ever seen.

Aubrey and Emily

When we were done there, we went for a little hike to see some dinosaur tracks in the rock. Once again, there are two boys in this picture. See if you can find them.

Garrett, Zac, Emily, Braxton, Aubrey, Jess and Addy

Steve and Addy

Dino track

Aubrey, Addy and Emily

Me and the old man. I hate to say it, but I'm kinda the old lady now. YIKES!

Does It Make Us Trailer Park Trash...

...if we leave a trailer like this parked in front of our house for an extended period of time?