A MORNING AT BONNIE SPRINGS

Bonnie Springs Old Nevada is an Old Western Town that's only about 15 minutes away from where dad & Bonnie live. We spent one morning there touring the town, walking through the petting zoo and feeding the ducks.

WE ALL LOVE TO SWIM

I think the kids would have been happy if we would have spent our entire vacation only swimming. The condo that we stayed at had 4 different pools (we only swam in 3 of them). They were all great for the kids. One entire pool was only 3 feet deep so Cameron could touch the bottom through the whole pool. One of our other favorites was a "Lazy River" pool. All we had to do was lay on our noodles and float around. Of course there were a few hot tubs also..........which I definitely enjoyed!

Here's Rena "in action" jumping!

Here's Rena and Cameron on their noodles. Rena thought the noodles were pretty cool because she could "swim" all by herself!

Maleah is NOT afraid of the water at all! She loved floating on the noodles and boards and LOVED jumping in to the water.

SPENDING TIME AT DAD AND BONNIE'S

The kids had fun on dad's golf cart touring the neighborhood.

Even though we didn't stay at Dad & Bonnie's house we got to see them daily. We had fun hanging out at their place, swimming with them at our place, and eating many meals with them!

TIME TO GO HOME

Cameron was a big helper at the airport. We must have looked very out of place in Las Vegas with all of our luggage, 3 car seats, the double stroller........and 3 kids! Luckily, we only got a few "looks" during our trip. Most people were very nice!

ALL of us were definitely tired by the time we got on the airplane to head home. Maleah only slept for the first 45 minutes of the flight and then woke up because her ears were hurting (I think). All in all it was a great trip -- the kids were fantastic travelers, the weather was beautiful and the company was great. Now we just have to decide where to go next year...........

OUR YARD

As many people know, I often do some complaining and a lot of teasing about Jeff and the amount of energy, money and time that he spends on our yard. Well, yesterday was no exception.....while he was at work a truck showed up at our house and dumped 10 yards of beauty bark on our driveway. It was a lot of work, but with all of his helpers Jeff was able to get it all moved around to the backyard last night.

This is the area where most of the beauty bark got "dumped". The kids call all of the flowerbeds "daddy's gardens" so now we have yet one more "garden" that's going to need weeding! Jeff did finally agree last night (when he was at about yard no. 6 of hauling beauty bark) that he wouldn't tear out anymore grass and create anymore gardens........at least not anytime soon!

This flowerbed out front didn't get any new beauty bark, but it is one of my favorites and it does show how all of Jeff's time and energy keeps the yard looking good. I have been able to enjoy these beautiful flowers every time I drive in and out of our driveway for the past couple of weeks. I do love our yard!!

CAMERON'S A BIG HELPER

I WANT TO RIDE



Everybody got their turn on the tractor. It definitely didn't help speed up the process, but everybody was happy!

TIME FOR A BREAK

Popsicles for everyone!
Even the rain didn't slow us down.

CAMERON'S PRESCHOOL CLASS PICTURES

OUR TRIP TO CANADA

The kids and I took a trip up to Langley, BC this week to visit our friends Mike, Laurel, Marcus and Adam. We left Monday morning and came home Tuesday night. The trip up took about 3 hours (with the 4 stops that I had to make to try and figure out what was wrong with Maleah) but the trip back only took about 2-1/2 hours (because Maleah was asleep). The kids did great and had a great time with their friends. These are some pictures of the kids at Crescent Beach that is only about 15 minutes away from Mike & Laurel's place.

These pictures are at Crescent Beach also. They were taken on Monday when it was actually too cold to play on the beach. We treated the kids to some ice-cream and Laurel and I to a hot Mocha to get out of the cold wind. Of course the kids wanted ice-cream even though it was freezing outside!! Crazy kids, but they were happy!! :)


Mike really didn't know what he was in for when he arrived home from work to find 5 very active (almost out-of-control) kids running around. I think he was happy when it was time for some quiet story time before bed!

A NEIGHBORHOOD EGG HUNT



Rena was the lucky one that found the one golden egg (with a little bit of help from me) and inside she found 4 shiny quarters!

DECORATING EGGS


I had to include 3 pictures (or should I say 3 attitudes) of Maleah here:
This was Maleah at the start of egg decorating.........happy, excited and clean!

Now here's Maleah about 10 seconds after the first picture -- very unhappy........she wanted her egg out and she wanted it out NOW! (But notice she is still clean!)

And here is the last side of Maleah.....when I have finally given up and decided to let her color her eggs how ever she wants! Notice she has dye all over herself and the table (and all over the floor that you can't see) and notice that her egg is cracked -- but she (and all of us) are happy again! :)

A BEAR FOR A BINKIE

Today was a very big day for Rena -- she gave up her binkie's for a new bear. Not just any bear, though........a "build-a-bear"! We made a trip to the dentist on Monday and she told us what we already knew -- it was time to get rid of the binkies! So, since Rena only uses her binkies at night we told her that she could go "build" herself a bear to sleep with instead of the binkies. As you can see from the pictures below, it was a busy, fun and VERY emotional day.

BUILDING THE BEARS

This is Rena "pumping" the stuffing into her bear.
She had to give it a big squeeze to make sure it had just the right amount of stuffing in it.
Here's the heart that she started pumping to put inside her bear before it got stitched up.
Finally, before getting dressed the bears had to take a bath and get brushed! And then there was the dressing -- Rena's bear tried on 3 different outfits before she picked out the perfect one!

SENDING RENA'S BINKIE'S TO BINKEYLAND!

When we got home from building our new bear we gathered up all of the binkies that we could find and put them in this envelope to send to Binkey Land. Rena even added some colorful stamps to the outside to make it look pretty! And she was very excited that other boys and girls that were littler than her would get to use her binkies.
Then we were off to the mailbox...............
..........but when we got to the mailbox we weren't so sure that this was a good idea.
And once we put the envelope in the mailbox Rena was positive that it was NOT a good idea!!

THE FINAL PRODUCT

By the time it hit bedtime Rena was doing pretty good with the fact that she was sleeping with her new bear and not any binkies. She did ask for the binkies when she was in bed and thought that if we looked really hard we could probably find 1 or 2 that we forgot to put in the envelope. I assured her that every last binkie in this house was in that envelope!!

I'm not sure how long it took or how many times Rena dressed and undressed "Princess" in bed tonight, but she eventually fell asleep -- without any binkies!!
And, yes, Cameron got a new bear also. He named his "Firefighter". Poor Maleah didn't get one, but she didn't seem to care. She helped Rena and Cameron make theirs and never even fussed about getting one. So, I decided to save the money and get her one when she really cares about it! Luckily she's too young to remember "the day that Mom bought Cameron and Rena bears and not Maleah"! :)

YUMMY COOKIES!



We spent the afternoon today making Easter cookies. By the time the night was over we had made a total mess and eaten way to much sugar! We had fun, though!