The Lord's Lighthouse

During General Conference I started a cross stitch. I haven't cross stitched in a long time. (Since 7th grade actually.) I completed it while I was in Texas for one of my young women. President Monson gave a talk in the General Young Women broadcast called "Believe, Obey, Endure". (If you read it, this will make more sense.) The girls went to Salt Lake and were in the Conference Center watching it. I thought this would be a good memento.

Spring Break with Andy

Andy got 2 fake mustaches for free when he changed the oil in our van. The kids loved them.

Luke:

 Anneke:

 Marcus:

 The Bellagio Gardens did a Dutch them with tulips, wooden shoes and windmills. We had to get some shots. (Luke was being a big stinker and wouldn't smile.)

 The rainstorm scared Mal. It was kinda funny actually.

 Since we all finished 2 Nephi we went and got ice cream:

 Not gonna do that again soon at $7 a cone, but it was fun.

 Enjoying the spoils:

 Of course Anneke immediately ate the bottom of her cone. That created quite the mess.

Quilts

A few years ago Aunt Cari made Anneke a beautiful quilt that she uses a lot. (I blogged about it then and just searched and searched for a link and I can't find it.) While we were there Aunt Cari made big quilts for Marcus, Luke and Mal. They picked out their fabric and this what we got.

Marcus (all laid out on Carianne's floor. It was the first one completed.) Nathanael was excited, "Marcus is sleeping in my bed, so I get to use the new quilt."

 Luke's blanket on his bed

 A better view, you can see the side. (please ignore the clutter.)

The back of Luke's quilt

 Marcus's bed with his quilt:

 Mallory's rag quilt. It wasn't as big as I thought it would be.(I just finished it. While I cut Mal would sit on it and tell me no. So, I had to work on it while she was sleeping.)

The finished blanket. She would not get off. She knew it was hers. (She loves wearing that tutu since we got home, too.)

The back of her quilt. Mallory chose the swirly fabric over and over and the yellow minky. Carianne says her color should be yellow instead of purple. Maybe she is right...

My amazing sister stayed up until 3am the morning we left to finish them. She would not let me stay up because I had to drive. BUT, I did help cut, unpick, pin, stitch a bit and set out Luke's pattern. I contributed, but not as much as her. She got the fun part. ;)

Final Texas shots

For our last few days in Texas we took it easy. Saturday morning we went to Lowe's to make something. It was a game. Carlye played with Mo:

 Marcus really enjoyed it:

 Nathanael comes as often as he can and is often the only child participating:

 Surprisingly, Anneke took the longest time. (The younger ones loved the goggles.)

 Noah did really well:

 Luke wanted to keep his hammer:

 Group shot:

 Mallory wanted to take a nap on the couch:

 Sometimes Mallory overwhelms me. Aunt Cari knew just what to do, have her help make dinner:

 Recent renovations at my childhood library had me worried, but the book steps are still there. Anneke chose "Little Women". (She finished reading it today and was so sad about Beth.)

 Marcus chose "Robinson Crusoe" and I like that "Charlotte's Web" is in the corner.

 Of course Luke chose "Make Way for Ducklings"

 Not sure why, but Mallory chose "Honk the Moose". I have never even read it.

 Aunt Cari in her favorite outfit pushing Mal on the swings:

 On the bridge to Tranquility Island:

 When Mallory saw all the water she said, "Whoa" a few times. She was quite careful around it. My desert baby.

Jodi took pictures as usual. Someday I may have them to post. (Again, Cari posted some on her blog.) It was a fantastic trip. The ride home was not bad at all besides getting stuck for 2 1/2 hours trying to get over the Hoover Dam. Being 30 miles from home (and my husband) made it even worse.


I discovered that IHOP in Kerrville is gross, that I love watching movies with Carianne and she is amazingly talented. We are very similar in our parenting styles, too, which made things very nice. Marcus and Anneke both lost a tooth while we were there. Marcus also lost a few other things including his retainer (which we found) and his CTR ring (which we did not). Luke wanted his dad to come and bring his stuff so we could just live with Aunt Cari. We jokingly called Anneke and Noah "the twins" but it was amazing how similar they are. Mallory warmed up to being there but was very happy to get into the car to go home. She seemed to know we were going to see Daddy. But, I miss my big sister.

Vaseline

While I was making dinner and Andy was watching a show with the kids Mallory disappeared. It was too quiet. We went to check on her and found this:

 Vaseline is not easy to get out. The dress was ruined. :( But, Andy managed to get it out of the carpet. After 3+ washes with Dawn dish soap her hair came clean...ish. I thought she had learned not to play with it. Guess not.

Sea World

At our hotel in El Paso Aunt Carianne found pamphlets for Sea World and the kids each got one. (She was looking for coupons.) Luke and Anneke looked at them a lot. Luke really wanted to go to "Sealand". We corrected him and he said, "I can't wait to go to Waterland." "No, buddy, Sea World." "Waterworld?" Then later in our planning it was "Seawater". I think that one was my favorite. I was sure that after the experience it would never be wrong again. Not so, he called it "Sealand" when telling his daddy about it.

Each of the children had partners. Luke got frustrated and said Carlye was not a good partner because she walked too fast. He was Aunt Cari's partner for a while after that but forgave Carlye later.

Waiting to feed the dolphins: (Luke, Noah, Aunt Cari, Marcus, Mallory, Anneke and Carlye.)

 After feeding the dolphins

 Shark tank (Luke, Nathanael, Carlye, Mallory, Uncle Carl, Noah, Marcus and Anneke)

 Luke was sad he didn't get to ride to the roller coaster (the Steel Eel) so we did a few kiddy rides with Aunt Cari:

 Luke called the shows "movies" and this one was his favorite (Shamu was his least favorite) with the seals, otters and walrus. Mallory just liked eating.

 After the Azul show:

The park closed at 6pm and the kids were bummed. Luke wanted to ride more rides. I have to say it was so much better when the trainers could ride the whales. Carianne has the best pictures on her blog I think. This was one of the best parts of the trip for the kids.

Texas trip update

Before I begin I want to let everyone know Andy passed his qualifying exams! We are so relieved and experiencing emotions we can't describe or express. The end is in sight. He also has another year of funding next year. They need him in the office. Yay! Thank you for your prayers and thoughts.

It should be noted that all the pictures Cari posted from our visit were taken with my camera, usually by me. Since she got first pick I will give you some other shots that may have been missed. 

At the creek for our cook out-Noah, Anneke and Abigail. The kids were telling their dad today about the story Uncle David told them. It involved dwarves and flatulence, always a hit with kids.

 Mallory sucked on the mustard bottle while David shared his story. We are still trying to figure out what the deal was with that.

 Queen B's was a hit. Nathanael is a blur because he was going to remove the hat that Carlye lovingly placed on his head. Marcus and Luke had fun at the "tea party."

 Decorating eggs is always a treat and Carianne takes it to a whole 'nother level. Marcus, Victoria, Nathanael and Anneke got into it.

 The whole crew Easter morning. (Well, besides Mallory. She was still sleeping.) Carlye, Nathanael, Luke, Anneke, Noah, Carianne, Carl's side and Marcus.

 Carlye and I had a lot of fun paying with her presto dots (or something like that). A couple of colors smelled nice but the others were stinky. Combining them was not pleasant, but the flowers were cute.

 Marcus and Nathanael asked over and over to go to Gatti land. While the others played games Mallory was content to hang out with this clown and Uncle Carl. She sure liked her Uncle Carl.

Oh, and I eventually took better Easter shots than the last post. However, it seemed redundant, so here you go. One with me actually in it. 

I will post more from this trip later when I upload the pictures from the camera. I also need to post our pretrip photos. Catch up will commence over the next week or so.