Hair Cuts!

After traveling and not having access to a hair stylist for several months all of us girls were looking quite shabby. I went to get a hair cut and the girls joined me for a fun girl outing. Here are the results... other than me, I don't know why I didn't take a picture of me :( The next day our babysitter came over and curled the girls hair and dolled them up so we took a couple more photos

Scouting

Dallin loves Scouts! He led his first flag ceremony. He was so nervous, but he did great. A couple of months later he received his wolf badge.

A Piece of Cake

Lauren has decided to take up a new hobby that incorporates her love for cooking and her love for art- Cake Decorating! She checked out a book at the library that got her started, but it was pretty advanced. The train was her first attempt.... Then she got a beginner level book for Easter and made this purse cake for her friend, Zoee.
Her most recent cake was a castle for Dallin's Birthday.

I love her creativity, but I'm not a huge cake eater, so we're trying to incorporate a make and give away policy :) Cake anyone?

what's up?

We are back to full activation in our ward, Rusty and I both got callings. I'm the second counselor in the primary and he is the webelo scout leader. It's perfect. We love being with the kids and have enjoyed the chance to get to know ward members better.

Last weekend we had a fun family outing to the re-vamped Ft. Worth Science Museum. We only get a couple of more months to use our membership so we are trying to make the most of it. The highlight of this visit was a great 4-D movie on gathering oil in Texas. 4-D movies include the senses so you smell and feel various aspects of the movie. The little boy in front of us didn't love it when the T-Rex appeared- a little too real. My kids thought it was great.
Katie of course loved the doctor's office where you can take care of all the babies- but with so many people there she had to fight for a doll.

Ben had a great time in the giant train area. I had a proud mom moment when someone asked if Ben was my son and told me that her little girl wanted a train and couldn't find one so he gave her his. You have to love it when they show those glimpses of goodness!

Fort Worth is famous for cattle and they had a whole section of the museum devoted to cattle ranching.

Always a favorit are these awesome building blocks.

Last Tuesday we met a couple of new homeschool families at a park for a nature walk and play day. It was fun for the kids to make some new friends and get out of the house. Lauren and Dallin joined one of the families on Saturday for a birthday party at a fun entertainment center with go carts, laser tag, etc.
On Friday we joined an LDS co-op group North of Dallas for the classes. It was very different than what we typically do. They have 15-20 kids per age group and it is pretty academic. The kids liked making friends and class, but not the drive. It's 1 1/2 hours to co-op and 1 1/2 hours home. That's pretty hefty drive, but I think we will do it for at least one semester. I'm hoping to round up enough folks that we could do something similar closer to home, but I don't know if that's realistic. The LDS population is stronger North of Dallas.
Yesterday after taking Lauren and Dallin to the birthday party I took the little kids to the Children's Museum in Dallas. It was kind of nice to be able to focus on little kid things and just let them play without having the big kids there getting bored. Rusty had a work training all day, but spent a couple of hours with Lauren and Dallin at their party in the evening.
Today, Sunday, Rusty and I spoke in Sacrament Meeting. Then I did sharing time in primary and he taught high priests. It was a very busy day and it is nice to have an afternoon to rest.
Now that we are "involved" again our life is filling up quickly, but it's been a welcome change and we are enjoying the opportunity we have to be a part of the ward and community.

Update

Wow! It's March and I haven't given any sort of an update for months. Obviously it's been busy. If you haven't heard already Rusty accepted a permanent position in Waxahachie, Texas. That was were we went for our very first temp job and he loved it so much we decided to come back for good. Of course it helps that the pay is so much better and housing so much less than Utah, but we were really sad to move so far away from family. Now I am a flight watching junkie- I spend time every day checking on prices to fly so we can go "home" a couple of times a year. That said, once we decided the move to Texas was coming I went up to Salt Lake to spend some time with my family. We were able to be there for my niece, Ryann's baptism. Which was great- you should see the dress my sister sewed for her! To celebrate her birthday we went ice-skating, which was a first for my kids.

Then we spent a few days visiting friends in Cedar City (well the kids visited, I packed and packed and packed). I was determined to make this move a smooth one. Our last move was a crazy disaster and I didn't want a repeat. After visiting it was back to Arizona to pack and clean, and then we took a week off to visit Rusty's family in California.
The kids and I made drawstring bags for an organization that sent supplies to Haiti and received 4 free tickets to Disneyland!Rusty's mom (as a retired Disney employee) had two more free tickets, so we spent a fun day together with Grandma and Grandpa Clarke in Disneyland for free. Grandma and Grandpa spoiled the kids. When we arrived they gave them each a roll of quarters to spend as they chose. Then they bought them fun gifts as well.

Then the fun was done and it was time for serious moving. We were so blessed to have friends and family come and help us. Unfortunately we had to load the truck on a Tuesday so that it would arrive in Texas on Saturday so it was a major sacrifice for people to help us. Tim (Renee's husband) and a friend Matt drove down from Salt Lake to help and Gary Arnell (another great friend) took the day off work - which is a big deal since he works ALL the time. His wife Liesl had our kids for days and days while we packed and loaded. We also had some friends from our ward show up to help- my new neighbor Debbie (whose mother in law I met in Maryland) came first thing even though she had only known us for a couple of weeks. The move went so smooth and we were able to finish by lunch.

The next few days we "did the drive," and of course stopped at our favorite museum in Albuquerque. We arrived at our home on Friday evening and although the home itself was great- we hadn't seen it before we rented- I was not happy with the cleanliness. In fact I was ready to walk out and find something else, but Rusty reassured me and we stuck with it.

The next morning our new ward showed up in droves to help us unload the truck. In about 1 1/2 hours the truck was completely empty!! Of course then we had to sort out the house and unpack- which we are still working on finishing. So we have been here in our new home for a little over 2 weeks, and everything is going really well.

The kids are settling in and making friends. We are loving our ward and the home really is a good fit for us- probably the best fit possible in our price range. We are in a great location close to Rusty's work, close to the church, and close to shopping. If only there was a temple (its about an hour away) and Costco (about 30 minutes away) here we would be set, oh yeah and our family and friends too. Anyone want to move to Waxahachie? We'll find you a good house and job :)

Last week was Ben's birthday- he's 6 now! My babies are getting so big. To celebrate we went swimming and had a little party. As you can see by his gifts he is all boy!

Ghost Towns and Gun Fights

We decided to take advantage of the nearest Ghost town and have a western family adventure. When I told the kids we were going to a ghost town I think the little kids envisioned something akin to a whole town of haunted houses. I think Ben was especially disappointed to find a small town with some old run-down homes and shops.
Luckily this particular town has a unique appeal as all of the wild donkeys that used to work in the mine were set free when the mine closed, but their descendants wander in and out of town every day for the "goodies" they are fed by tourists.

Of course there are hazards to such "free-spirited" visitors roaming the town at will. They block traffic (not that there is a ton of traffic in this little town), and some of the burros have become a bit over zealous in their desire to be fed and follow people around and can get a bit aggressive. We saw one pull a bag out of a tourists pocket and chew on it. Another challenge is that some of the burros are getting quite obese. No one is regulating their feeding and carrots are like candy to the donkeys. There was one that was either super pregnant or it had majorly overdosed on carrots. There is a little oversight as someone puts "no carrot" stickers on the baby donkeys whose teeth aren't ready for carrots yet.

The kids were a little nervous at first to have all these donkeys approaching them with their mouths open, but once they got the hang of it they had a great time.

Another fun aspect of the town is that some of the locals dress up and put on a little gun show. A little cheesy, but the kids got a kick out of the loud bangs.



We decided that this would be a good opportunity to have some of those "old time" photos of our family. In the past when we've considered doing something like that we were at an amusement park, and the thought of spending an hour dressing up and doing pictures after paying so much to get in didn't really seem wise. Now however we had nothing pressing to do, so why not.


My favorite is the boys- that will be a classic! You can tell Ben is in his element.


After a picnic lunch we headed home. Although I did stop to take a few photos of the decorated sage brush on the road. Why? I just thought it was an unusual thing to do, but it did make the drive through the desert a bit more interesting. I believe that the sage brush decorating was specific to a site where someone had died in a car accident, but maybe some of it was simply random.

Down by the river banks

We had two special visitors last weekend. One was Rusty's brother from CA. He took advantage of the three day weekend and stopped by for a bit. We also had a guest from Idaho. My niece Brooke (Mike and Richelle's daughter) sent us her Flat Stanley for a visit to Bullhead City. In their honor we went to Nevada (a quick trip across the bridge) and walked the Colorado River Walk.

Ben taught Stanley the finer arts of scavenging for treasure Dallin dangling Stanley precariously over the fish pond at the Colorado Belle casino.

Adam "chilling" with Stanley on the beach :)

Rusty teaching Dallin the essential skill of skipping rocks

The girls checking out the wildlife on the banks of the Colorado River.