Springtime fun

My friend Nicole heard of something fun to do here in Lubbock...and we are always looking for things to do since it isn't the most eventful town. So we gathered our girls in the car and went to the local tractor supply store to see the baby chicks, ducks, and rabbits. The girls loved it. Hattie would reach toward the chick, I would pick one up, and then she would be too afraid to touch it. But she loved looking at them! She would love to be at my dad's house now with his new bunch of baby chicks.

Danielle was brave enough to hold the bunny

I think this will become a springtime tradition!

Paul is going to be seriously outnumbered

This morning we found out that once again, we will be having a baby girl! Paul is thrilled. He wanted a girl partially because we have a lot of girl names we like whereas we can't decide on a boy name for the life of us. And now we have a lot fewer preparations for this little one since she can wear all of Hattie's clothes, especially since they will both be September babies. We are glad to share the news!

It's Conference Time

This is the only way that we can watch Conference in peace.

P.S. The volume on the movie is off but yet she remains completely enthralled.

Oh wind a-blowing all day long

I have really come to love Lubbock. I can't believe that Paul is almost done with his first year already. It really is a great place to live.

Except for the wind. It never stops. Even when the radio says it'll be a nice calm windless day, it's not true. It's always blowing. And with the amount of dirt surrounding this isolated city, it's usually very dusty wind. Doing your hair is pointless. Sweeping the front walk is futile. Picking up the tumbleweeds that are blown into your yard can always wait another week because they'll double in number by then. Cars are always dirty.

I have been driving my father-in-law's pickup recently. A few weeks ago I was strapping Hattie into her car seat. While I was perched up in the truck, a gust of wind slammed my open truck door into the vehicle next to us. Looking at the dent in the car, I estimated it would cost around $700 to fix...just what we needed. I dutifully left a note and left it on the windshield, cursing the wind for blowing the door open (which I had carefully checked would not hit the neighboring car.) Grrr. But I suppose that there is good and bad wind...because they never called me about the dent. The only thing I can figure is that the wind blew my note away.

But that's certainly the only time the wind has helped me. Other than that, it's constantly forcing me to hold my skirt down when I walk, or chase after trash at the park. It never lets up. Is it like this everywhere in the Midwest?? Does it drive anyone else insane??

Just keep spinning

Here's a little snippet from playgroup a few weeks ago. The girls loved this. They've never played together so well. I love all their giggles.

The Pub Maze Trap

St. Patrick's Day came again! And lucky for us, we had Daniel and Christina (Paul's siblings) here to help us build a trap to catch the leprechauns. Like last year we documented our trap-building with step-by-step photos.


We found these wigs and hats at Wal-Mart. They're now part of the St. Paddy's day tradition.


Covering the trap with green paper, thus luring the leprechauns to our trap


Christina working on the artwork that would decorate the halls of our maze


Paul built the stairs leading up to the maze/trap


Working on the outer wall of the maze with the trap door in the middle...think "Tri Wizard Tournament"


The stairs are in place


More of the walls are going up


My new green braids


Doesn't he look handsome?


We dangled the keg right above the trap door, hoping to catch them and their leprechaun gold


The finished product: Our Pub Maze, tantalizing the leprechauns to enter and find the keg found in the middle


All that green has to entice the leprechauns this year


The leprechaun hunters


Sadly, we couldn't catch the leprechauns, but Hattie was pretty excited to see the trail of candy that they left


She would pick up pieces as she went and kept saying "cha-key" for chocolate


She was more into the candy than the trap...and she loved the stuffed animal her grandma sent her


Enjoying her Lucky Charms with green milk...she didn't even mind eating green bread


We wake up a little early for Christina

Dumpster Digging

This particular piece of garbage has been in the trash for about two weeks. It's the packaging to some Gerber onesies that we recently purchased for Hattie. Every time she comes in the bathroom, she sees it and cries, "Baby!" She pulls it out and starts to snuggle it and give it kisses. We have attempted throwing it away in a different garbage but she still finds it somehow. She even gets excited when she sees the print of the Gerber baby face on the inside of her onesies. She is certainly a little girl!