Our little Hailey May!

Our little Hailey May, is really not so little anymore. We just recently celebrated her 3rd birthday. We cannot believe how fast the last three years have gone. She is our adorable little helper. She is definitely letting us know that she is a big girl now and can do things on her own. Her latest thing that she does not want any help with is her seat belt. It is pretty funny.
She also loves to color....she goes through the coloring books like no other child I've met....and we're not just talking about a little scribble on each page. When she colors she colors the whole picture and is already doing a great job. As soon as dad was home from work Hailey opened her presents.

Then, we had spaghetti for dinner (she requested what we should have for each meal all day on her b-day). After we finished up dinner, we had the Grandparents for dessert and presents. She had the choice and of course picked to have dessert first. Hailey is very into mermaids right now and told me about 100 times that she wanted a mermaid cake. So I did my best to deliver and she loved it so much I almost cried.



We are so lucky that Hailey came to us. She is a joy to us every day. We love our little Hailey May!!

Yard work and Outings!

Here is one of our latest completed projects. Ever since we lived at the Lowe's we have wanted our own patch of raspberries just like theirs. So we made a plan and now we have our own little berry patch. Of course we went all out and built a new little place for our new raspberries. We dug a trench, put the blocks in, made sure it was all level, and cemented those puppies in. Then we found some free dirt on craigslist and then we transplanted our eight little babies to their new home. It has been a week and it looks like they will all make it except for maybe one little one. We are pretty proud of our little project.


We also have been working on finishing the flowerbed that we revamped last summer. This first picture is from last summer. We brought in some dirt and raised the flower bed so that it didn't slope down into the house, instead it slopes up. Then we outlined where we wanted the flower bed to be.....originally it was that entire rectangle and we didn't want to plant anything there because it seemed like a mile from the edge of the grass to the house and how do you weed when you flower bed is that huge. Well, not that we are going to weed but we wanted a smaller flower bed and more grass. So you can see the new outline and we also bought some periwinkle, and hostas to plant there.


This summer we added the blocks around the window well and planted grass. If you look closely you can see the little baby grass hairs popping up. It is really starting to look nice. I can't believe how much the plants have grown in one year. The periwinkle is very happy in its new home as is the pansies and the hostas.


We have also started on the garden. (you can see this in the first picture) So far we have only planted beets, cabbages, broccoli, and cauliflower ......and we are waiting till the weather is a little bit warmer for the usual things we like to plant. We did make our garden bigger this year so that we could plant more things. Hopefully we will enjoy the extra room and the extra veggies.


Recently Ashtyn's preschool got to go to the fire station to have a field trip. It is always fun to watch the kids and their reaction to everything there. The funnest part is of course the fire truck. They even sat up in the drivers chair for a couple of seconds.


We have also had some recent outings that were pretty fun. We went to my brother Brad's football game. That was fun. It was a new experience for our kids and they loved it. It was fun to watch him play. The girls were all shy around him because he was wearing all this unfamiliar stuff. Kinda funny!


We also went fishing for an afternoon. We didn't catch anything, but we had fun, and ate good picnic food.


And we also went down to Riverfront Park and walked down to look at the waterfall. It is springtime, so the river is high and the falls were amazing. The girls were a little scared at first but then really enjoyed watching how fast the water was moving and how neat it looked.

IT'S A........?????

So for those of you who don't already know we finally found out what we are having. As Sam has told everyone who has asked us that...."We are pretty sure it is a human!" So of course we have been contemplating ourselves what we thought we would have and had convinced ourselves that we were going to have another girl, even tough we would like a boy. I haven't really had any symptoms that seem so different from my other two pregnancies and so we were concluding it must be a girl. I have kind of bounced back and forth. Of course at first I thought it was going to be a boy and then nothing was really happening that lead to believe that it would be anything other than a girl, plus I had a dream that it was a girl and so I was convinced. And then last week the week before I dreamed it was a boy. Come here, which is it?? Well, the day before I really felt like it would be a boy and Sam really felt it would be a girl. Ashtyn has said from the beginning that she wanted a brother because we don't have one, she also was pretty set on twins so that she could have one and Hailey could have one. Hailey has consistently said she wanted a girl. So we went to the ultrasound and there is absolutely no doubt that it is a..............................



!!!!!!!! B O Y !!!!!



Can you believe it?? We hardly can. We have to keep pinching ourselves. We really are getting a boy this time. Yipee! Our little buddy. We are all so excited. Now we just need to make a list of boys names that we like. Ashtyn's vote is Carmel and Hailey said she wanted to name him Cindrellie. We asked her if we could call him Prince Charming and she said NO. Any good ideas for a boy name!

Random Happenings

Over the last month there have been some fun happenings that we have been a part of. First of all one of our favorite cousins came to visit. We were lucky enough to have him for dinner two nights. It was so good to see him. Our girls acted like he was part of the fam, coloring him pictures and giving him big hugs. (Sorry I couldn't get a picture to load, will try later)

Then we have also had a new addition to our extended family. Sam's brothers family adopted the cutest little girl from China. Her name is Summer. Our girls have loved holding her and playing with her.

She is adorable. We were able to go to her blessing and then about a month after that we were able to go to see her sealed to her family for time and all eternity. http://www.heartrockshome.com/photos/uncategorized/2008/03/23/carson_here.jpg
What a neat memory for their sweet little family. Because of the sealing we were also able to see one of our favorite aunts, Aunt Amy. (I couldn't get this picture either) She is so fun to be around. We sure did miss her hubby and her kids though.

And then just for fun I wanted to show some funny pictures from our Spring Break. A lot of people get to go on a trip but we stayed home and were lazy all week. Of course, Sam was still working but during the day the girls played dress up and barbies and princesses and then the best part of all was playing mermaids. Now they found their new swimming suits for this summer and wanted to put them on and we weren't going anywhere so of course I said yes. So they were both running around pretending to swim and slide down slides and kick the feet like mermaid fins. It was adorable. And it didn't only happen one day it ended up happening every day for the rest of the week. So Wednesday, Thursday, Friday and Saturday I had at least one mermaid at my house. Hailey didn't want to wear anything else. She just wanted to wear her swimming suit nonstop. Of course there were a couple of times when we had to leave the house and she had to change and she also had to wear her pajamas to bed but other than that she was hooked. Then on Saturday we went to her grandmas house and Hailey had been downstairs playing and when she came up stairs she didn't have any pants on just her shirt and panties and I said what are you doing and she said, " I'm the naked mermaid." I wasn't so sure about that but I let for a little bit and then the next time I saw her it was only underwear on and then I had to try to convince her to get some more clothing on. She loves the little mermaid Ariel, and so she is just taking this to the limits. It is pretty cute. This last one of Hailey in her swimsuit, she is roasting a hot dog (magnetic magic star wand with a lipstick case as the hot dog) over a fire of crayons and colored pencils! That was just too cute!


Then the next week after spring break our daddy had to go out of town on business and we tried to do something fun each day he was gone so it didn't seem so long. My favorite was when the girls got out the umbrellas and started playing with them. It was actually sprinkling a little this day too and so they were so excited because it was like they were using them for real.

We love Holidays!

Okay, since I have been a slacker and haven't really posted much about our family since before Christmas, I am going to try and have a little catch up here. We have had a lot of fun holidays lately and it has been fun to celebrate them with the girls. They get excited over the simplest little activity that we have really enjoyed the holidays.

Here is just a little glimpse from Christmas since I didn't post one thing for it. Some of our funnest things we got to do were: making gingerbread houses, looking at lights, being with lots of different family (cousins, aunts, uncles, grandmas and grandpas), our ward activity (where we dressed up like biblical times and got to be in Bethlehem when Jesus was born) and of course decorating the tree and opening presents.







I am going to share a little of our Valentines day. We had yummy pink heart shaped pancakes for breakfast, and we had our little heart shaped sandwiches for lunch, and of course we had a fun candle lit dinner for four, including one of our favoritest foods....SHRIMP. Our family loves shrimp!


Then for St. Patricks day of course we wore green and then we had lots and lots of green food to celebrate. I didn't do the corned beef hash, that just doesn't sound appetizing to me, instead we just ate the foods we like that are green. Starting with breakfast we had green milk on our cereal. For lunch we had green juice and green grapes. And then we finished the day with a dinner fit for a leprechaun. We had green spinach tortillas that we used for burritos, which had green salad and avocado and cucumber on them. We also had lime green jell-o and more green juice, which was followed with green ice cream. Needless to say we won't be wanting to eat anything green for a while.


Then we had Easter and we enjoyed that too. We had our easter egg hunts on Saturday. First we woke up and found the little hidden treasures left by the Easter Bunny and then we loaded up and headed to the church for a Primary Easter egg hunt.



The girls had fun all day, they were just so excited to find all the little spots where the eggs were hiding. And then on Easter Sunday they wore some new dresses that I found. ADORABLE!! And Ashtyn even gave a talk in Primary about Easter. It was a great day for us to remember the Savior and all He has done for us.



Then on the 24th we celebrated Ashtyn's 5th birthday. We went to story time at the library and then went to lunch at dad's work where she got to open a present. We stopped at the park, by Dad's work, on the way home and the girls played for a little bit and then we headed home for some down time.
Then that night as soon as Dad got home Ashtyn opened the rest of her presents and we enjoyed her request for dinner which was hamburgers. Then we had a little party with her Grandmas and Grandpa and Uncles. (It was also her Uncle Brad's birthday so we did a little bit for him too). Then we all enjoyed Ashtyn's delicious Castle cake (also her request for this year) with ice cream. Even the ice cream was happy that it was Ashtyn's birthday(2nd pic, isn't that hilarious?). She has two of her favorite presents on in the third picture. A pink guitar and pink cowgirl boots. She has been the singing star at our house this past week and has almost worn her boots nonstop. It was a great day for her. And we just can't believe that we are already old enough to have a five year old. YIKES!!

Snow fun??

First of all we have had a winter full of more snow than I have seen in a while. And while it was here we enjoyed it. We went sledding, made snowmen, (in this picture it is actually a snow mom and her snow baby), made snow angels, and of course had some taste tests. And although we loved it at first we are tiring of it now that it should be acting like spring. Well, I should say Sam and I are tiring of it. We keep thinking that it is going to act like spring but it just isn't, and it has been seeming more and more like winter since March 20th, which was officially the first day of spring. The hardest part about it is that we got a glimpse of spring for about one week and it was wonderful. The girls had started riding bikes and I had taken them to the park one day for just a little while. We also took a little outing up to Long Lake and threw rocks in the lake. This picture is the cousins watching Uncle Cody throw the BIG rocks into the lake. It was so nice to start doing more things outside and now it is acting like winter all over again. We all feel like it is January. We are definitely ready for some spring like weather, although the girls have been excited during this last week, because almost everyday there has been surprises of snow. Two days in a row we even had all of the possible forms of weather. We had snow, sleet, hail, wind, and even some sunshine. Here the girls are hopefully enjoying their last tastes of winter.

How to win the Pinewood Derby, Period.

Our Elders Quorum had a Pinewood derby for all the guys in the group. The only rule was no open flame. Other than that , it was wide open to what ever you wanted to do for your car. It had to, of course, stay on the track long enough to cross the finish line, and was still subject to laws of physics, such as gravity, drag, etc.

I live in a ward with 3 brothers that are extremely talented in the art of crafting. They have a family metal shop that supports a good part of their family. Needless to say, they have every tool at their disposal, and during the weeks before the race, were talking about and planning their cars with each other. We also have a good number of other guys in the group that are somewhat skilled in such arts, and judging from their weekly EQ discussions, were actually spending time and resources on their cars.

I knew I had a formidable challenge, and up until the day or two before, was going to simply go to the race with the expectation of loosing. I would do a modest job on my car, with a modest design, and just hope for the best. I am not a competitive person. My high school coaches would get frustrated with me, because the fear of loosing what NOT a motivation for me, especially when the other team was trying so hard to win.

I toyed with several designs in my head, including: fan with motor, mouse trap, motor to axle, RC car modification, CO2 cartridges, and the like. Now remember that I have as my foes guys with endless tool resources, and a couple of them have more time on their hands at this time of year due to the weather.

Well, with some urging of my wife, I decided to take on this challenge with a little more thought, and spent an afternoon in the garage working. While I was out there, contemplating the different designs and what I would need for each, a thought came to mind to just make the thing heavy as a tank, and just go strictly with gravity power. I had a weight in my “project supply” bin that would fit pretty well on the car, and was definitely heavy enough. I was toying around with the idea of just sticking to gravity and admitting defeat against the other powered cars, when that light bulb went on.

Just like some martial arts, I need to make their strength their downfall, and use it against them. But how will I be able to do that? How can I just steal their speed or design, no matter what it is? One word came to mind: an ARM. I would just have a bar of some sort sticking out in front of their car, and then just put a piece of wire on my car out in front of that, and I will win, every time, no matter what.

So, here it is.

The arm lays on the track, and at the starting line, the other car has to line up behind my arm. I made it so I could pivot the arm to either side, depending on the side of track I was on, and put that weight on the back to make her stable.

I made no modifications to the block of “Pinewood,” and spend about 2 minutes putting the wheels on, straight out of the box. No graphite. No smoothing of the axle nails. No turning of the wheels on the lathe. No tuning so only 3 wheels touch the track. No tilting of the wheels so only the outside edge touches. No aerodynamic paint. No exact weigh in the day before.

#1 -Screw on the weight.

#2 -Screw on the brackets. I made them with a Skil saw and drill press.

#3 - Insert the branch from the back yard tree that is the pivot for the arm.

#4 - Drive nail in front side of arm, to assure I am in the lead.

#5 - Attach wheels.

#6 – Done.

Now, you will have to prepare yourself for some mocking and scorn, but you will be victorious. No way around it.

When I walked in and set my car on the table of all the cars, most of the guys sort of chuckled at the crudeness of the car, and then it would register… “Wait a minute…” I also heard a couple, “Oh yeah, I thought of that.”

My first race was against one of the brothers of this family. He had obviously spent considerable time on his car, as it had twin fan props mounted to twin electric motors with a rechargeable battery for power. He set his car down and then said, “I’m not even going to turn my car on.”

I said, “O.K.,” and won.

The entire night was changed from “Who has the fastest car?” to “Who can beat Sam’s car?”

It was a lot of fun. Now, go make your own car, and get to winning.

It is unabashed cheating, but is it no rules, or is it no rules?

Front View:

Rear View: