There'll be a hot time in the old town tonight - FIRE! FIRE! FIRE!

After over a month of beautiful spring weather, it is cold again. So we had our first fire of the season tonight. We have had a great Sunday. We have 1 o'clock church now. So mornings are a bit leisurely. Then after church we eat and then wind down for the evening. I enjoyed a great game of Settlers of Catan with the kids. It was Isaac's first time playing on his own and he won! He was very excited about that. Then we read "Puss in Boots" and the scriptures and sent everyone to bed. All in all, it's been a great Sunday.

Vote for Pedro - I mean TOBY

Toby decided to run for student council this semester. I was really surprised, but excited for him. He had to collect signatures from 22 of his peers & 5 signatures from teachers; then he had to make a poster and give a speech in front of the 4th and 5th grades. He did a good job on his poster and made up his speech on his own. He thought he would just get up there and be silly. We did kind of push him to prepare a bit and practice on us. SO this morning I went to watch - and was very impressed. He had the longest speech and got the most audience participation/reaction. He started off breathing into the microphone saying, "Luke, I am your father." Then made promises he couldn't keep; i.e. pizza everyday, ride your bike in the halls, no homework or TAKS test, getting paid to go to school, etc. The kids loved it and laughed in all the right places, as did the adults. Then he ended by saying,"Well I probably can't do all that stuff, but vote for me!" He did a great job and I was very proud of him. They voted later that day and Toby is now on the student council. When I asked him what the student council does, he just said, "I have no idea." So here goes nothin'! Side note: about a 1/3 of the 35 students running used ideas from Napoleon Dynamite. It was kind of funny to watch.

Hazel

So I bought this dress for Hazel a couple of months ago. It was too cute and I couldn't resist. However, I misjudged how much Hazel would grow. I thought she would be able to start wearing it in May, when she might be closer to walking. However, I was wrong. She will be grown out of it by then. So I am a poor judge of growth rate for her - I've therefore decided to not buy her clothes a season ahead. Sure, I'll miss out on the great deals, but it isn't a deal if it doesn't fit at the right time, Right? It's still a cute dress.

"It's gonna be a bright, bright sunshiney day."

We decided to take advantage of the beatiful weather and go for a hike this morning. We went to a park about 40 minutes away and hiked the trail; we went about 3 1/2 miles. It was pretty fun and not crowded at all. Lots of shade and 3 lakes for skipping rocks. That is always the kids' favorite part. While there we found some cattails. I have never seen them as they are going to seed and we discovered that the heads are like giant dandelions. There are millions of little seeds on the head of the reed and when we touched it they blew away in the wind. It was pretty cool. Even Hazel had a good time and stayed awake until the last quarter mile. I am a little sore. Hiking up and down hills with a twenty pound child on your back is better than the stairmaster at the gym!

Happy Girl

Hazel just makes me smile.

Happy New Year!!

We rang in the new year with lots of noise and running around on the golf course. Hazel slept through the festivities, of course. But Aspen made her a hat anyways. She never wants anyone to be left out.

Special Visitors

Vickie and Earl came to visit for a few days. We had a great time. The kids always love to play with Grandpa and Grandma. This time we made glass beads with Grandpa. It's a pretty cool project!