Fairies

So Erica is not real big on the whole Santa Claus and Easter Bunny thing. She thinks that these holidays need to be more focused on the real reason for them, Christ. I agree also but I have to joke with her a little bit, just for fun. The other day I asked her about the Tooth Fairy and she shot that one down too. But I finally came up with something that she will support. I would like to introduce you to the Cleaning Fairy. She is the fairy that comes at night and throws all of McKinley's papers that are scattered around the house. The Cleaning Fairy also threw away the bird nest you made Sophie. It also got the house made out of paper towel rolls. The Cleaning Fairy and I are becoming good friends. Now McKinley doesn't get mad at me for throwing her stuff away. I can also tell her to put her stuff away or else the Cleaning Fairy will come and get it in the night. It's great!!
For you aunts and uncles of McKinley, please don't abuse this new found friend of mine. It works too good to have you guys ruin it. We love you.

Ahhh, the joy of dirt!

Today I rediscovered Tonka trucks. We went to help Garrett work on the cabin and I realized that we would need something to keep the kids busy while we worked. There is quite a bit of sand from when the river flooded so it is kind of like a big sandbox. I asked Garrett if he knew where our old Tonka trucks were and he said that he had an idea. When we got home, we found them and Gavin and I had to try them out. We have two trucks, a bulldozer, and a truck with an excavator arm on it. It was great to push them around in the dirt. I love the bulldozer more than anything. I remember playing as a kid for hours in our sandbox. Piling up dirt with the shovel and digging holes and then using the bulldozer to make roads around everything. We used to have a front end loader but it must have gotten broken and thrown away. There is nothing quite like a pile of dirt and some cool toys to play with. I'm going to search around the web right now and look for a front end loader and maybe another bulldozer. I can't wait any longer!!

It's a boy!!!

So, I grew up on a farm but never really learned much about farming. We learned how to drive tractors and bale hay and feed cows, but never really learned when or why. Same thing with cows. We would always help in the spring to drive them into the corrals and give them their shots, eartag them, dehorn the ones that needed it, and brand them. We knew that Grandpa kept a herd to breed but we never really got too involved, only that we knews the cows had their calves in the spring. I had the lucky opportunity to go help pull a calf. I have never helped before so it was quite the experience.
The cow had started to have her calf earlier in the day but she hadn't progressed much. There were two of the calf's feet sticking out but that was it. We got her into the pen (after some chasing around) and Dad donned his birthing coveralls and some shoulder length plastic gloves. Yep, that's right, shoulder length. We roped her and I held her in the corner so Dad could work. We tied some strings on the calf's feet and tried giving a little tug to see what would happen. Not much was the answer. Dad and Grandpa decided that it was the calf's back feet that were coming out and that he was not turned right inside the cow. Dad made full use of the gloves and got the calf turned right side up. With a few more tugs on the strings the calf came right out.
He was a bouncing 62 lb 13 oz baby boy with dark red hair. The mother is doing fine in case you were wondering.

It was quite the experience! It's not quite what you see in the hospital when your own children are born.

Look at her go!!

I do have to say-I'm a very proud mama right now! McKinley's training wheels broke off her bike 3 or 4 days ago. We figured it would be a good time to see if she could ride without them. Matthew didn't really think she was ready and so we thought we would just find some new training wheels. Matthew couldn't find any at Wal-mart and we haven't been anywhere else. Alas-today was beautiful and we convinced her to try again - and she did it!! She can ride her bike without training wheels! We have to help her start-but she is getting closer! She can ride like the wind!

It's such a satisfying feeling to see your child accomplish something new! Especially when I don't really have any idea of how to teach a kid to balance on the bike. Have you ever noticed that parents don't tell their kids how to balance? They just say, "don't tip over, your leaning too much!" How do you tell a kid what balance is? Anyhow-McKinley has always been talented in the physical aspect of growing-and fast for her age. Walking at 9 months, climbing at 12 months, and riding a bike just shy of 4 years old!! She's going to be an awesome athlete! (if she wants)

Matthew and I are proud to annouce that we are taking a vacation! Without the kids! We have booked a cruise to the Western Carribean and fly out to Miami the 2nd of May. That just happens to be my 28th birthday! The kids are going to stay with my parents in Salt Lake for eight nights! Hope my parents survive! Hee, Hee, Hee!! I'm a little concerned about Gavin as he has never been away from both of us overnight. He is definitely a home body. McKinley will be fine I think. All her cousins live in Salt Lake-so she has plenty of playmates! We will take lots of fun pictures and post them after we get home.

Happy Easter to all! We don't remember holidays very well. We even forgot our anniversary! Okay-we didn't forget. We celebrated early in Logan, UT by going to Le Nonne-the best Italian restaurant ever! We just forgot the day of! It was actually quite humorous. We didn't remember until the day after. Look what 5 years of marriage and two kids does to our memories! Its been a fun, exciting 5 years. This is a picture of us on our honeymoon!

The bottom picture is the only picture of us together that we've taken! All our pictures our of our kids now! Even in our last Christmas letter-we didn't have any of us together!

Well-I'd better sign off. We don't blog often-but when we do, you can't stop me! Hope all is well. May we all be better people and remember the reason we celebrate Easter!