Backyardigans

These pics are of the annual game of Jump The River, a traditional game played at every one of Quinton's birthday parties. I think my mom came up with the game when we were kids.

This was one of the winners, our favorite neighbor. He's got about 20 lbs of pure Tongan muscle over Quinton, and man could he jump!

Jacey was pretty good, and she thought it was way cool to be one of the big kids.

Backyard baseball has been in full swing in this back yard. Jacey can not and will not be left out!

Gotta love it.

Yellow ribbons all around!

My parents returned from their mission in Indiana. We went out to welcome them home, and then we went out the following weekend for their homecoming sacrament meeting. It was wonderful. Jacey instantly took to her new grandma and grandpa. Here she is with PA and Cami, Kent's youngest girl. Great grandma Mildred in the background.

These next photos are graphic in nature and should be screened by parents before letting youngsters view. Ha. So my brother coaches three sports at Uintah high. I call him Mr. Uintah in my head -- I don't tease him like that to his face -- but I found out his more prominent nick name is Scotty the Hotty. His basketball team took a narrow loss to Salem Hills in the first round of state. His baseball team also suffered a heartbreakingly narrow loss to Salem Hills in the first round of state. Needless to say, he wasn't very pleased to see me wearing my SHHS volleyball tee shirt; however, Jacey had a coughing spell during the prayer and did this to the tee shirt in question, which earned some smiles with the Vernal crowd all around. His son had on a favorite football jersey which also got thrown up on (this time by the youngest Mansfield cousin Kason). Too much irony for one night. If Texas takes a fall this season, we'll know why.

This beautiful rainbow showed up while we were out there, and it sure made Dry Fork Canyon sparkle. These shots are taken from the yard in the home I grew up in. I'm goin' back to my roots and it's feelin good. The best part was seeing my family again.

Bling City

Kira had quite a weekend the week after Easter. She dressed up for school on Friday as Goldilocks for Fairytale day. On Saturday, she attended a birthday party at Primrose Retreat, which was pretty cool. They had a little dress up area and tons of dresses to choose from. They also had a runway on which to model those sparkly dress ups. Kira had fun trying on a Cinderella dress, a princess dress, and a fairy dress. Quite a fun birthday party. She had a really sparktacular weekend. BTW, this is what our yard looked like Saturday morning.

Easter Goodness

Coloring the 5 dozen eggs! Tradition dictates we do this with our favorite Vaitohi neighbors.

The girls did not get Easter dresses made for them this year. They are in the works still. Oh dear. You'll see them later!

Crazy Hair Day

The kids' school had a crazy hair day. Wouldn't you know it Jacey had to join in too. I didn't get a picture of Q but he had pointed spikes all over his hair. He had been telling people that he would just wake up and go without doing anything to his hair for crazy hair day (he has the most amazing cowlicks you've ever seen in your life), but I decided a little styling would be in order. Kira said her hair was the wildest in the class. Hmm.

Unspotted

In honor of Jenny, Melissa, and other volleyball friends who keep me laughing, here's my go at LDS SATIRE writing:

Some friends of mine recently enlightened me about a very good way to keep my family more pure and unspotted from the world. After I explained that I get too much clutter on my 'coffee' table, they gently pointed out that perhaps I should be calling it my 'Ensign Table'. I was completely humbled to think that for a very long time, I have been polluting the minds of my children by calling it a 'c-- table'. How terrible! My kids probably have mentioned the c''!> word to their friends, thus polluting a whole ward full of kids. How much more appropriate to call it an Ensign table!

In keeping with this rule, I have devised a list of other ways we can keep our children further unspotted and more holy than other children.

1) I propose we call our husbands "Ensign Hot" instead of "Smoking Hot". May that phrase never be uttered about movie stars or anyone other than our husbands.

2) There is a color a little pinker and darker than ivory which we sometimes call "champagne". I propose that the aforementioned color could be called "Ensign Ivory" rather than the blasphemous word mentioned above.

3) When we put together our Jell-O salads, let us never put "Fruit Coctail" in them. Rather, I suggest we tell our children we are adding "Fruit Friends" into the Jell-O.

4) As spring is upon us and we will soon be seeing roses bloom in our lovely yards, it might be fitting for us to mention that we are going to cut some "Rose Friends" rather than "Rose Buds." The mention of a brand name of beer could entice some youngsters to try it out -- you never know.

5) My husband has a nasty little habit of barbequing. We used to make "Smoked Salmon" on the barbeque, but we have decided in our parental counsel meeting that we will try to refer to our delicacy as "New Era Salmon" in order to purify the minds of our children.

If every one of us will just make these five changes in our every day language, think of the blessings that will flow into our lives -- and the lives of our children! I challenge every one of you to implement these five things that I thought of to make your lives more unspotted from this evil world.

Ha ha. April Fools a little late!

Lovin' on baby Kason

I went down to Kanab again last weekend, taking Jacey and Kira with me. It was so warm and nice one of the days, I was wishing for shorts. We went to a playground very near my sister Michelle's house, and we also visited Coral Sand Dunes, a very beautiful place. Of course, the best times were spent lovin on that sweet baby Kason.