Picking up where we left off...

I have been busy, busy, busy...as usual!  Things never slow down around here!  I'm not sure if that's a good thing or a bad thing...maybe some of both!  We have had all kinds of fun lately...and are absolutely loving the warmer weather (and the rain...I almost forgot what rain was).  So anyways, I'll just pick right up where I left you last time.  For science, we did a unit on Rocks and Minerals.  My mom in College Station sent us all kinds of great stuff to go with our studies!  She sent a fantasitic rock and crystal collection, an incredibly thorough identification book and some geodes!  I remembered finding geodes when we were young, and what fun I always thought that it was to discover such pretty things inside a rock!  So she sent us some and they were awesome!  What kid doesn't love smashing things open to see what's inside!!

 Here's Rykin showing us his!

 Here's Braydon in action!

And here's Afton!  He was hilarious!  He was so determined to break it open all by himself!  I do have to vouch for him though...those were some strong little geodes!  I even had a hard time getting them to crack!

 Stage 1

 Getting up a little higher to see if that would work!

 And now, with all his might!  So silly!

 And here's little Miss Kaywen...harder than she thought it was going to be too!

What fun!  

Well, so now that we are back in Childress...stake conference is 2 hours away, so we just make a weekend of it.  We went and stayed in a hotel so that we could attend all of our meetings and have a little get away in the process!!  On Sunday after church we always gather at the park and have a big picnic before everyone heads out on the trek home!  The park that we were at is always covered up with ducks and the kids love it!

 Braydon and Garron went right down to the edge to check it all out!

 Boys will be boys!

 Girly Girls!

 Christian and Afton trying oh so hard to make a mean face to show me how tough they are!

 Me and my baby!  (And Kenney in the background...Hi Kenney!)

Braydon's smile...I just love his sweet, sweet smile!

Rykin's new excitment has been the start of Cub Scouts!  He loves the idea of scouts, but more so, he loves knowing that he and his daddy will be doing it all side by side!  Rykin loves his daddy!  So, to start off the year, we had to build a pine wood derby car!  What fun!  And might I add, that the turnout was very spiffy!

 Rykin with his car right before we left for the race!  He did an excellent job! 

On another note, for that very busy day...Kaywen and I got to make a quick trip to the Doctor to get her head stapled back together!  She, in all her grace (NOT), raised up under a cabinet door that had been left open and split her head!  She ended up only needing a couple of staples, but still!  

 This picture of her just makes me sigh.  She is 'seemingly' a total wimp ;)  Anyone who knows her, knows how very fragile her emotions are, but let me tell you...this is one incredibly tough little girl right here!  She is truly amazing to me for all that she has been through and all that she deals with on a daily basis!  I love her so much!  Here she is with Richie at Rykin's race.  She tied a scarf around her staples and went to support Rykin  even though she felt miserable!  What a girl!

 One very tired little boy with his favorite person at the end of the day.  His car came in second to one of his very good friends, so they had lots of fun with sharing their secrets on how to build the fastest pine wood derby car!

Me and My Crew at the Abilene Zoo!!
(sorry...I just couldn't resist...HA...it's late...you understand right!?!)

Grandma Judi took us to the zoo!  What a blast.  My kids love animals and the weather was beautiful!  So off we went!  

 I have a few 'wild things' of my own!

Everyone just had to get their picture made on this concrete worm!

 Feeding the fish with Grandma!

 Afton and Garron (saying cheeeeeeeeeese)!

 Braydon has always had this weird little obsession with prairie dogs.  So, you can only imagine how totally cool it was to find a tiny little statue of one!  Ha!  What a nut!

And here's my Rykin hiding from me behind the big leaves...he thinks he's sneaky!!