Ranger's Museum

Maybe someday, Quinn, maybe someday..........

The kids in the Ranger's dugout.

The new Cowboys Stadium, taken from the Ballpark in Arlington. Apparently, the story is that the Statue of Liberty could fit inside the dome of the new Cowboys Stadium--kinda tall.

While Scott was at the Church Youth Conference, we went to the Ballpark in Arlington. The Rangers were out of town, but we visited the museum and took a tour of the Ballpark. I was amazed at how nice the locker room was. It was not at all like the locker rooms I'm used to seeing in movies or in school. Wow, fancy! Maybe I should play baseball.

Hunt at Talley's

Alamo Artwork

I like to take a picture to "preserve" the kids artwork. It takes up a lot less space, and makes it less painful to throw away the real thing. So, here's some Alamo Artwork Connor made.
Not bad.

Coloring Eggs

On Sunday, we colored the Easter Eggs. I wrote down some random things the kids said:

Tanner:
"Quinn, look at this."
"Smokey the football."
"Quinn, look at this."
"Ahhh. So warm." (after getting the egg out of the boiling water that makes the plastic stick to the egg)
"Oooooh Mom, look at this."

Allison:
"This is to Sophie. That's why I wrote 'BABY'."
"Mine broke again."
"Are these real eggs?"
"Please pass me another white egg."
"Mom, look at mine."

Connor:
"Whoa, Mom. Look at that egg."
"Mom, look at this egg."
"Mom, it looks like a robin egg."
"The football actually looks cool." (compared to the baseball and soccer plastic wrappers)

Quinn:
"Mom, I did a nice big color."
"I like those little egg wrap around...."
"Make sure I don't have an 'egg-cident'."

Once the eggs were colored,
the kids made some "concoctions" with the dyes (that's what Tanner is doing in the top photo).
Scott and I hid the eggs in the backyard. We think we maybe lost one?
We followed the hunt with eating boiled eggs, some 72-hour kit things we needed to eat,
and homemade chocolate milkshakes!

Baseball Lip

Last night, Scott hit the baseball, and Quinn caught it with his lip! It was a pretty good grounder, and Quinn was ready, then it jumped up and hit his mouth.
His tooth went into his lip and then out of his lip. Fortunately, Scott doubles as a dad and a nurse practitioner and he iced right away. I bet he will think it's cool by tonight's baseball game.
At least it was a "baseball injury", right?!

This happened while I was gone with Tanner to Target. That was probably a blessing.

BYU Buggy

Allison, Allison! I took her picture, the happy one on top. And then she wanted a sad one, the one on the bottom.

I think it was just yesterday, she said, "I can just pull my pants up like a Hillbilly, then no belly show!" (Her shirts are getting pretty short and we talk about her middle showing: "belly show". I guess she just keeps growing up, but denial is where I will happily stay on that one.)

We are excited around here for Teancum's party at the park this afternoon.
Zaret is making a pinata! Connor was talking about it, and he said, "MACHETE" as he was searching for "papier mache".
I think we'll be trying to open up a pinata, and not cutting down sugar cane this afternoon!
Love that Connor!

Tanner Try-outs

Brave Bubba-Tan! Tanner played "Indian Song" (ever heard that one before?!) and "'C' is for Cookie" for his elementary school talent show try-outs. We don't care if he makes it or not, we were just pleased he tried out. He even wore his suit and lucky slicky black patent leather shoes (the ones that our neighbor Charley wore when she tried out in elementary school). I must admit, there was a reward behind his trying out. The reward has changed as time has gone on. It went something like this: First, it was a game cube game. Then, it was money towards cleats he has eyed at Academy for fall football. But alas, he has some Pokemon cards and $3 towards cleats. He is a brave little guy. He's holding up a #5 because he was 5th to try-out. Connor was such a good big brother. He stayed at school until I could get there.

Allison Asleep

Why do they look so angelic when they are sleeping? It doesn't matter why, but I love it! Allison took a little nap the other day. She doesn't do that very much anymore. That was one of those moments that rips my heart out when I think about her going to kindergarten in just a few months. I love it when she crashes during the day.

Some scouting....

Connor earned his Webelos Rank in Cub Scouting. He also got a couple of beltloops: chess and bicycling. He looked at his beltloop later, only to find that apparently he has already earned the bicycling beltloop. Two are better than one, right?!




























Tanner earned a chess beltloop and a bicycling beltloop. We are grateful for their diligent den leaders.

Q can't get enough

Quinn is playing on the Rangers this spring. He has pitched! He took a pitching lesson from a real ball-player, which was totally cool. Quinn is the one who took the photos of his glove.

Cool Clouds

There were the most amazing clouds I have ever seen.....Scott had just left to go back to work after lunch, and he called me and said to go outside and check out the clouds. They were unbelievable and like nothing I have seen before. I called Christine and told her to go see them. They were like little dips all over, like someone took a bunch of scoops out of the sky. It was a neat thing to see. Quinn said he got to see it at school.

A Tiny, Beautiful, Morning Treat

Last Tuesday, Allison and I had the most wonderful morning together. A friend at church, very cautiously and sensitively asked if I would tend her beautiful baby girl while she went to the dentist. I'm so glad I said "yes." (My friend Andrea said it gets better.... You know, about holding others' babies when you'd just give anything to have another one.) Anyways, this tiny baby's name is Juliet. Isn't that just soooo pretty? We fed her, changed her, played dress up with her (and Allison changed her own clothes to match Juliet) and gave her her pacifier. We hoped she would laugh, but she just smiled and smiled. She was a total doll the whole time. It was just what I needed. Thanks, Suzy.

Tanner's Photography

Those Sunday afternoons sometimes spark creativity around here.
Tanner likes to glue lollipop sticks: he made a "fort" thing and spelled out "Allison's" name.
No photo session would be complete without a picture of himself!
I love the picture of the white flowers from the backyard.

Who knows, maybe he'll be a photographer?

.....And then again, maybe he won't....

At school, he responded to the following:
"Draw a picture of what you want to be when you grow up. Explain the reasons."

I want to be a dentist so I can get a lot of money and not get poor.
Also I can by game systems, food, and clothes.

The teacher, ironically named Mrs. Prince, and a favorite teacher of ours wrote to Tanner,
"Would you like to work on people's teeth?
That might be something to think about."

"Buggy" in the Backyard

Wild Basin Hiking

Hiking at Wild Basin in the hills of Austin. It was perfect weather! Uncle Dan bought the kids a souvenir rock to keep.







Quinn hiding in his Ranger's cap.





































Allison hanging out with Grandma and Grandpa.
















Allison, Mattie and Aimee.
Quite the trio!

Glass Bottom Boats

On Friday, we had a "service project" at Grandma Goodwin's. We planted flowers and mowed and made her yard look nice. Scott and Scott washed Grandma's car. It was sweet to see the little kids picking up the leaves Eldon would trim off. We also played kickball at the school.

Saturday was the big day to go to the Glass Bottom Boats in San Marcos. (Thanks for making the reservations, Mom). You sat around a middle section that had glass along the bottom.
You could see so clearly into the water. There were underwater springs everywhere!
There were also a couple of museum-y type places we wandered.
We picnic-ed and then headed to Wild Basin to hike around.

We were glad Dan came up with George and Ben, but we missed Melissa and baby Henry.
We missed John, Melissa, Josh, Hy, Matthew, and Seth.
And it wasn't the same without the Utah crowd, either.

The girls were so funny with baby Sophie. They played and played and played with her. Stephanie is so sweet to let the girls smother her.
Allison is always in heaven with Mattie and Aimee.

We appreciated all the planning Sara and Anne did. Edd took some great pictures. We had a chili cook-off (Sara, Anne and I tied!).
We've made crepes a couple of times since the trip thanks to Sara.

The Capitol

The first Austin stop was The Capitol Building.