Melissa, Queen of the Trampoline!

The pictures speak for themselves!

A Hint of Spring

Last Saturday was was one of those fabulous days... the high was almost 70, with a low in the 40s. Though it got a bit cold yesterday, and the outlook for this week looks more like winter, it was lovely. The kids played outside all day long; climbing trees, running around, playing baseball with the boys next door and from in the neighborhood. Melissa and I played in the garden.

Oh, playing in the garden is nice. But, to paraphrase the author of one of the Alabama gardening books we've been using (thanks Mom & Dad!), you gotta protect your turf! You see, plant diseases can creep up upon you and slowly destroy your crop, but you can usually see it coming. On the other hand, Peter Rabbit's family can wipe you out over night! So your best defense is to be proactive. (I'm not going to comment on National Defense policy nor how that may change over the next several years...) So like Captain Moroni, we built up a defense againt the marauders. Don't be fooled by the cuteness of these bunnies... they're only here to rob you of your hard work and leave you with nothing. So we built a rabbit proof fence. See below:

So the bottom 6 inches (inlcuding the outward turning portion) are buried about 6 inches deep to prevent the bunnies from digging under the fence.

So that was last weekend. Then, this past weekend was much the same, except on Saturday, Melissa got to do some family history research. Thankfully, she still has her Tucson library card as the Tucson-Pima library has an account on Heritage Quest or Ancestry.com that library patrons have free access to. So she worked all Saturday morning and found a couple more families on the Howe-Parkin side. She was totally stoked. So she uploaded everything to New Family Search (the new online, shareable family history tool) and now there are a couple more families that we can help do the temple work for. She talked to her mom about what she was able to find. Go Melissa!

This past weekend was nice. We played outside a bunch and are noticing the blossoms starting to pop out of all the trees and the bulbs are starting to bloom. Many people have daffodils blooming! I can't wait for the bulbs in our front little flower garden to bloom. Whe should have a hundred or so.

Sunday morning, Dan was up early so he and I took a walk, but because it had gotten cold again, I had to bundle him up. I took a couple photos, and had to share a few. Here's Dan ready for the walk:

Here's the sun rising over the neighborhood:

When we got back from the walk, the girls were awake and doing some art project...

Later as we all got ready for Church, Dan looked so handsome, I had to snap a shot:

Dan Falling Asleep at the Table

Here's a video we thought was great...

Our Christmas Vacation... part 2

Well, it was back to work after our long and rather exciting Christmas vacation. The kids were back to school last week, and I was back to work... which by the way, the worst work day of the year is the one when you've just gotten back from vacation, because it seems to drag on, and on, and on... oh, yes and one more thing... it drags on. Then finally, it's over, and the second day back is fine.

But to help savor the good things about our vacation, here are some pictures:







Here's a good one of Bekah from our little trip to Mt. Lemmon to play in the snow. Thankfully no on was injured!

Here's Melissa and Dan just hangin' out... Dan can endure anything if he has his pacifier!

And here's Morgan sledding down the hill...

And here's Lilly getting instructions on how to saddle a horse from Megan. It was awesome visiting Megan and Pat...

Here's Lilly being walked on "Kemmie", one of Megan's horses.

And here's Lilly and Megan just after a ride...

Counting our blessings

We decided as a family to trade in the standard Christmas for a trip back to Tucson to visit family. We'd all been so looking forward to it. So on Friday morrning (you can hardly call 0300 "morning") we left home to travel "home" for the holiday. We made it to Jackson, Mississippi, and then all of a sudden, "Screeeech", "Bam", "BANG!" We were involved in a six-car pile-up on I-20. Some junk blew out of a truck several vehicles ahead and everything came to a screeching halt, but not fast enough, because we got slammed from behind by a big F-350 diesel and pushed into the truck in front of us. We are all okay... Melissa, and Kate got banged up, and Lillian was pretty shaken up, but we are all okay. After the ambulance ride, several hours in the hospital, and a trip to the rental car co., we were back enroute to Tucson... arriving late Saturday night.

Here's a couple pictures of what's left of our Suburban:

We are thankful for little Kate's prayer as we left the house in Huntsville... we all made it safely to Arizona. We are blessed that no one was serously injured. As we continued along our journey, we saw evidences of others whom Providence hadn't shined so brightly upon.

FHE - A Freak Session

Okay so tonight's FHE was a total freak session... here's proof:

Visit to the Space & Rocket Center!

Well, it's official. We're now fully qualified residents of Huntsville, AL. We've been to the US Space and Rocket Center. It was way cool. To be honest, we've been twice, but the photos attached are from our first landing there. In the photo above, the girls are standing under one of the engines of the famous Saturn V rocket... you know, the kind that took the Apollo crews to the moon! Mondo Hugoso!

Here's Lilly in front of an astronaut that has a bad case of social anxiety... I feel bad for him. His mother pinning a sign to him and all. He probably got beat up a lot as a kid... nerds usually do... and those are just the type that turn into astronauts.

Here's Kate giving Neil Armstrong a run for his money... she's trying to make it back to Earth safely in the Apollo command module... no don't puch that button Kate!!!! Aaaaaaaahhhhhh!!!!

And finally, here's the girls taking a stab at scaling a wall on Mars! I was going to make some comment about one of the climbers not being able to get back down, but to protect the innocent, I'll refrain.