Day Of Rest...

Yesterday was a pretty relaxing day. My family left to go home on Saturday, but Dustin's family stayed until today. We all just hung out yesterday and relaxed. We went to the park and let the kids run around and play while the guys played catch. Elena Prodan, a good friend of ours, and her darling triplets came with us to the park. All of the kids had a good time burning some of their energy off. We had to break out the sunscreen though, cause it turned out to be pretty warm. I don't know about the rest of you... but I don't think I am ready for the HOT weather quite yet! Anyways, I got a few cute pictures I thought I would share.

A Very Special Day

Dillon's baptism turned out beautifully. Despite some minor setbacks, everything went very smoothly. I think I worried and stressed myself to death for no reason, as usual. The whole week had been completely overwhelming because of all the preparation that had to be done for the baptism program, the scheduling of the building, getting someone to fill the font, arranging stuff with the bishop and the primary, etc., etc. Plus, I was completely stressed because I of course had to have my house perfect, my laundry done, groceries bought for company, I had a Relief Society meeting, baseball game, dance, homework, and all regular routine things that still had to be done. I ended up with quite a few headaches and was pretty much an emotional mess all week. I have to thank Tara and Shawna who helped me out so much. Tara, for keeping my kids over night and allowing me time to get things done that I needed to, and for washing all my blankets for me, and for listening to me cry. :) Shawna, for bringing me lunch from Amigos (mmmmmm... my favorite!) oh, and the diet coke (I really needed that) and for all the food that you gave us and for the yummy guacamole, and for listening to me cry again. :) And to both of you for singing with me at the baptism. I have said it before, and I will say it again, it is very difficult not having family around to help out when you need it. I would never survive down here with out the strong support of friends that I have here. Needless to say, after all of the preparation, worry, and stress... I couldn't have asked for a more perfect day. The program was beautiful... thank you to Shalise, Gloria, Shawn, and Bishop Gorup, for your wonderful thoughts and words of wisdom. And, a special thank you to Marissa Moss for playing the piano, and to Melissa Anderson for all your help in arranging and coordinating all the details. I especially want to thank my dad for baptizing Dillon and to Jeremy for confirming him. You both made Dillon's day very special, and one that he will never forget. I am grateful for the effort that mine and Dustin's families made to be here for Dillon's special day. It meant a lot to us and especially to him. We are so very blessed to have the support and love of great families.
I want Dillon to know that we are so proud of him for making the decision to be baptized. He is such a loving, kind, and talented boy and we are truly blessed to have him in our family. He is a great big brother, and has now set the example for his little sisters to follow. Congratulations Dillon! We love you!












We went to Famous Dave's Barbeque for lunch after the Baptism. YUM! YUM!

Yes, I am a slacker.

So, I have really slacked off on the blogging the last couple of weeks. It seems like since the kids went back to school from being on track break, that there are not as many fun and interesting things to post as before! Oh, sure there is the day to day busyness and running from here to there all of the time, but nothing that exciting has happened lately. We did have Dillon's opening day of baseball on Saturday. They had a parade and introduced all of the teams in the league, then they had team pictures and then later that day they had a game. His first game was actually last Thursday. Sorry to say that they lost both of their first games, but both were very close.











But not today! The METS won their game today and did an awesome job! Congratulations METS! Dillon had two really great hits, and was able to play catcher for two innings and pitcher for the others. He did awesome today! I think part of the reason that he did so good was that my parent's were at the game and he wanted to impress them. :) His coach said that they should be at every game if it makes him play like that. Hee, hee.















We are very excited to have my family here already and Dustin's family coming on Friday for Dillon's baptism. I told Dillon and Ashlynn that they could miss Thursday and Friday of school since they do not get to see their grandparents and cousins very often.
Well, after doing stuff with all the family and after Dillon's baptism, I'm sure I will have much to write about and many pictures to post! Check back soon!

Relief Society Slide Show

I was asked to make this slide show for our ward's Relief Society birthday party. Just thought you all might want to check it out.

"Where's your Easter Basket, Mommy?"

Well, I think I will just summarize our whole weekend. Friday night we started things off by going to the batting cages with Dillon. By the time they were done, Dillon was socking quite a few balls pretty hard. Then we went to Sonic for some burgers afterwards.







Saturday started off with an Easter Egg Hunt at Mountain's Edge Park. Or should I call it an Easter Egg Stampede?... They just scattered eggs all over on the grass and then the kids ran, pushed, and shoved their way to get to the eggs. Neither Dillon or Ashlynn got any eggs. The only reason Samantha did was because Dustin took her clear around to the other side so that she wouldn't get trampled on. Some lady came up to Dillon and Ash and saw that they were upset and gave them some eggs to put in their baskets. So needless to say, the Easter egg hunt was not the highlight of the day. We did get to see quite a few people we know though, and it was fun to visit.





After the park thing we went to the brand new Wal-Mart that they built not too far from us and got some groceries. Then we went home, hurried and ate lunch, and then headed to Dillon's scrimmage baseball game. Dillon did so awesome! He ended up hitting a beautiful homerun! He socked that ball clear out to right field. It was the cutest thing, he was just running like he was running for his life. He never even looked to see where the ball was. Everyone was standing up screaming and yelling.... it was great. I think it built Dillon's confidence quite a bit, when one of the dad's said, "That wasn't just a hit, it was a BOMB!" Dillon kept saying all night, "Isn't that cool he called my hit a BOMB?" I wish I would have had my video camera, but since it is a little outdated, (okay, alot) I don't really use it as much as I should. I'll be more prepared next time. That night after we got home, I got all of the kids occupied and then had to escape to Target and Ross to do my Easter Bunny duties. Yes, I am a procrastinator. But, in my defense, the kids have been on track break for a month and have been with me every waking minute. So, it is hard to get those type of things done with out them knowing.















These are pictures of the kids in their new Easter shirts from Grandma and Grandpa Morris.





Sunday started out with the kids finding their Easter "wagons". Nana and Aunt Shalise sent them little red wagons for the Easter Bunny to fill. They were darling. Each of the kids got a new shirt and shorts, and some gold fish crackers, fruit snacks, and granola bars. Yes, the Easter Bunny is healthy at our house! lol The girls also got a little stuffed puppy that whimpers and barks, and Dillon got some Legos. Dustin also got an Easter basket full of new church clothes. We were so excited to have him go with us to church yesterday. But, of course my kids are not dumb and picked up right away that mommy did not get an Easter basket. Ashlynn kept saying "Where's your Easter basket, Mommy?". I told her that I had talked to the Easter bunny and that he said that I could go pick out my own Easter stuff cause he didn't know what to get me. Dumb me, I should know by now that nothing gets past them. Anyways, we went to church and then came home to a very un-traditional Easter dinner. We had lasagna and french bread, then I made a pretty, yellow Easter cake.



Samantha got a hold of the ice cream and was eating it right out of the container!

We ended the day with the kids dying eggs (and their hands and fingers) all kinds of pretty colors! Even though it wasn't the traditional Easter with extended family that we are use to, we still enjoyed our day and just being together.

Red Rock Canyon

Today we had a wonderful time at Red Rock Canyon with our friends Tara Reynolds and the Vincent's. The kids had the opportunity to become "Jr. Rangers". They were required to fill out these little work books as they were going through the exhibits in the visitor's center and going around the trails outside. All of them worked really hard together to find the answers they needed. After they finished the required pages, we took them in to the visitor's center and gave them to the "ranger" at the front desk. He went over the answers in their books to make sure they were correct and then filled out Jr. Ranger certificates of completion for all of them. Then, this was the part that cracked me up... he took them over to this corner of the main lobby area and had a "swearing in ceremony" for them. lol He had them raise their right hands and repeat after him a promise to keep Red Rock Canyon clean and safe for everyone, etc. etc... He then pinned their little Jr. Ranger badges on them while everyone in the visitor's center was clapping for them. It really was cute how he made them feel so important. Dillon told me that we need to go back tomorrow so he can get to work on his new job as a Jr. Ranger.



All in all it was just a great day. We had a really yummy picnic lunch and just had fun enjoying the beautiful weather and scenery. Tara and I had a good time taking tons of pictures. She has an awesome camera that makes taking pictures even more fun. Since most of you know how much I love taking pictures... you can imagine how this could be dangerous. I wanted to take her camera and run..... (just kidding.) It was a lot of fun though..... Thanks for sharing Tara. And thanks to Tara, Sabrina, Luke, Isabel, and Sylvia for coming with us and making our day so great.

Happy St. Patrick's Day!

First thing this morning the kids were worried about getting dressed in something green. So, I dressed them all in the "greenest" clothes that I could find. They were really concerned that I just had my exercise clothes on, none of which were green. When Tara came over to go to the church with us, they noticed that she also did not have green on. We both ended up tying green ribbons in our hair. After we got home from exercising we made green smoothies, or "green shake" as Samantha calls it. Sometimes I wish I was still a child and could get so excited over something as simple as a green smoothie.



Here they are...Mmmmmmmm, Yummy!



And here's Ashlynn being a goofball. :)