every boy needs a rope

For a while now, Emery has been using whatever he can get his hands on to tie things up. The cord from the printer, the vacuum, the dog leash, etc. We were shopping downtown at a cool little mercantile last week and we got him a great rope (lasso) for only $4.00 The kind woman even tied a loop to make it a lasso. Emery loves it. He was trying to lasso the rabbit ears on top of the TV (that poker).

I'm sorry it's been a while. I'm working on something really cool, and I should be able to post pictures tomorrow!

Houston spring break

We had a really fun trip away! The weather was horrible, but we made the best of it. On Wednesday, the weather was 70 degrees and totally sunny. On Thursday morning, when we left, it was 52 degrees. It got colder as we drove and we arrived at the zoo to 48 degrees and a drizzle. It did that all day, and was closer to 45 when we left the zoo. Even with the weather, the zoo was still PACKED with school kids. I felt a bit like City Mama and her trip to Mount Vernon! They all cleared out right after lunch, though and by the time we left there were probably only 50 people at the zoo. It was a fun zoo, but not nearly as great as Henry Doorly, which is our favorite!
Our Favorites: Emery: Sea Lions. They had a little show and did tricks, it was fun to watch. So fun, in fact, that I didn't even take a picture of them.

Chani: she called everything doggies. She was also cold.

Clint: the fish face.

Jill: the 40 day old baby giraffe. He was awfully cute.


And, because everything's bigger in Texas:


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After the zoo we ran to the hotel to thaw out and check in and then we went to the Children's Museum. The nice thing about the museum is that it was free. On Thursday evenings they have free family time, so we took full advantage of that. They had cool exhibits and everything was hands on. Clint and I decided that we could go there every week (for free night) and it would never get old. The only bad part was when I lost Chani for about 1 minute. Scary! But, as I turned around there was a museum employee who saw my panic and got on his radio to lock the whole museum down. Luckily we didn't have to do that, Chani just found some stairs to climb. Sigh! Dinner was a wonderful local place called Star Pizza. If you are ever in Houston, we highly recommend it. It was AWESOME!

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After a night of little sleep, we were off to see Emery's highlight (or so he thought) we went to the Houston Museum of Natural Science.
We saw the dinosaurs:


The space stuff:


The windmill like Grammy and Papa's:


And lots of other stuff. Clint and Emery saw a 3-D movie. Clint went to the Butterfly House. We saw the hall of the Americas, the Gem and Rock Collection, the Energy exhibits, and lots of other stuff that the kids were so bored with that we hurried through. Once Emery had seen the dinosaurs, he was through. I don't think we'll do another museum like that until our kids are way older.

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Saturday we went to Ikea and to Toys-R-Us. We got a new dresser for Emery's room so we can split the bunk beds and put one in Chani's room. We went to lunch at IHOP and I am now living on crepes filled with nutella and bananas. Yum! Chani was so funny with her lemon.


It was an awesome time, and we're glad we got to get away. We're looking forward to our next trip, probably Idaho in June/July/August, maybe we'll see you then!

Vacation

We're headed to Houston for a couple of days while Clint is on spring break. Have a great weekend!

I belong to the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints!

I know this has been posted on a lot of blogs, (you can see two of them here and here) and I'm glad. I read the press release from the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints the other night and I was pleased with how it was written. It's honest and doesn't dance around the subject matter. It is clear and precise. I do care when the church is slandered. It makes me sad that my friends might watch Big Love and other shows and compare me to that. I was reading last night in the Book of Mormon, 1 Nephi 22 where it talks about the wickedness before the second coming. Specifically in verse 23 "For the time speedily shall come that all churches which are built up to get gain, and all those who are built up to get power over the flesh, and those who are built up to become popular in the eyes of the world, and those who seek the lusts of the flesh and the things of the world, and to do all manner of iniquity; yea, in fine, all those who belong to the kingdom of the devil are they who need fear, and tremble, and quake...", and I think we're there. I'm thankful for a living prophet and scriptures and the road map that's been laid for me to follow. I love the promise in verse 25. "And he gathereth his children from the four quarters of the earth; and he numbereth his sheep, and they know him; and there shall be one fold and one shepherd; and he shall feed his sheep, and in him they shall find pasture." I am so glad that I belong to The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints!

Driving moments

I talk to myself (really to other drivers, but they can't hear me) when I drive. Here are a couple of snippets. I'm not very proud of this, but like my dear friend Julie says, I'm trying to keep it real!

Several weeks ago at Sam's Club, I was waiting for a woman to go and Emery said, "Mom, is that a moron?"

Today while we were driving to the grocery store, Emery said, "Mom, let's follow those trucks, they know where to go." He proceeded to tell me where each one was going. That one's going to the library. That one is going to daddy's office. Then he said, "Let's follow that red one. He's not a moron or a maniac."