An Emery funny

We had another two days of long car rides, Thursday and Friday. We went for an interview, but I'm not posting details unless we get the job. Anyways, the kids did great driving. Last night after we had eaten dinner and gotten back in the car, Emery's DVD ended. Trying to distract him, as it was twilight, I told him to watch out the window for deer. Thirty minutes later, he was still awake, it was pitch black and past his bedtime. I asked him to lay his head down and shut his eyes, to which he responded, "No, watch for deer!" This child of mine is far too smart!

"Duck, duck, duck..."

Last weekend was Stake Conference. Because our branch is over 4000 square miles, you can imagine the size of our stake. We're in the Rapid City, South Dakota Stake and Rapid City is about 100 miles from Chadron. I had a work obligation Saturday morning, so we didn't leave Chadron until about 3 PM. We pulled into town and ran a few errands. When we got to our hotel (booked especially for the pool and water slide), the pool was not working. Not good, not good at all. We had been talking to Emery about this swimming experience for a week. He was so excited. Canceled the reservation and tried the hotel next door, $100 for one night. The hotel on the other side, no pool. Both kids are screaming, Clint is getting slightly irritated, I am frustrated as this will blow our budget and why does this always happen to me! We finally settle on a Days Inn, solely because of the indoor pool that we can see from the road, that looks pretty fun. The room was slightly more expensive (what's $30 for the happiness of your child), but we finally got in and fed the kids dinner. Then it was off to the pool. It was fun to break in the new swimwear that the Easter Bunny left at our house. Emery liked the warmer water in the hot tub (it wasn't all that warm, just warmer than the pool), and Chani laughed and giggled, and splashed away in the pool. I was a little surprised that Chani liked it so well, but she would have stayed there all night. Emery loved jumping off the edge of the pool to his dad. On Sunday after Stake Conference, which was great, by the way, we went to the nearby park to have a picnic lunch before driving home. This particular park has a little creek running through it and tons of ducks. Emery had a blast chasing the ducks and feeding them bread. We enjoyed a fun time visiting with friends and enjoying a nice meal before heading back to Chadron. Also included are a few pictures.

-Emery in his Easter outfit

-Chani in her Easter dress that I made

And finally, enjoy this video of Emery and the ducks!

Make photo slide shows at www.OneTrueMedia.com

These are for you Jen!

I was trying to compare pictures of Chani and Emery (because everyone says they look exactly the same), but I got caught up in organizing pictures (which I never do, so they are all a mess) and I came across these I took the day my apron came from Jen. Emery had to try it on, and I had to take pictures of how cute he looked.


These are just a few other random pictures. We had some buckets I bought (I really needed the shovel that was attached) and had six of them around for a while. So, they became hats, we had days when Emery made sure all four of us were wearing bucket hats.

Here's one more. Emery likes to make trains. In addition to his train set (which he loves) he will line up laundry baskets to become trains, squares molded out of play doh, whatever he can get his hands on. This particular day, the diapers were a train, and he insisted that he and Chani ride together.

A Crane!

Just now as I am getting ready to post this, Emery climbed up near the computer and said, "the crane"



There's something about a piece of heavy machinery that excites boys.....especially boys who are 2 years old. A little back story, last summer we had an awful hail storm, the worst they've seen here in years. There was tons of damage, most everyone in town has had their roof replaced as a result. One family we know had golf ball size holes in the vinyl siding on their house from the hail. It was bad. For the past several weeks they have been replacing the roof on the building next door. It's the Fine Arts building, and as far as I can tell, the flat roof consists of a layer of plastic, then a layer of foam, topped by rocks (bigger than gravel). There are several sections of roof, in varying heights. So, as they have been working on the roof, they did the shorter sections, and this morning they are working on the tallest section of roof. The tractor they have been using just doesn't reach that high, so they brought in a crane. Her name is "Bonnie" and Emery has been glued to the back door all morning. Watching her move the rolls of plastic, then the foam, and later I'm sure they'll move the rocks up as well. Every time we go outside and Emery sees the tractor, he says, "I wanna drive tractor." I tell him that in May when we go to Idaho, Papa will let him drive the tractor. So, dad, the tractor better be running by the time we get there, or Emery will not be happy.

And a funny conversation Emery and I had on the way to Wal-Mart today.

Emery: I want to drive our truck.
Mom: You want to drive our truck?
Emery: Yes
Mom: When you are 16 your dad and I will talk about it.
Emery: Ok

HE PASSED!!!!!!!

Clint passed this afternoon. His thesis will be printed and bound and placed in the college library. He will graduate on May 3 (you're all invited to come), and he's also been asked to pray at graduation. Life is good, now if we could just find a job....hopefully we'll get a call on one of the 24 applications we've sent out. Thanks for the well wishes and prayers, Julie and Jennifer, you girls are the best.

Today's the day

Clint defends his thesis this afternoon at 4:30. Not only does he have to defend and explain his study, it's also a verbal quiz of everything he's done in his Masters Program. They can ask anything. He's worked so hard, and it all comes down to this afternoon. The silver lining (to all the worrying) is that they'll tell him if he will graduate or not at this meeting this afternoon. If you can spare some prayers or good thoughts this afternoon, we'd appreciate it!

Our Easter

We had a great weekend! We had a fun visit from our friends Jared and Crystal Bangerter. Jared and Crystal went to school here 3 years ago, and then after graduation they got a job and moved away. We miss them a lot, we used to hang out several times a week. They have Anya, who is just older than Emery, and McKenna who is just younger than Chani. They also have Kasey, a foster son, who is ten. We had such a great time hanging out. They arrived Friday night, and we visited far too late into the evening. On Saturday morning we went to look at the new addition to our church, which is coming along so well and should be done by May. The boys went shooting on Saturday afternoon, and then we all went out to dinner. We all kept commenting on how different it was to go out to dinner with 5 kids in tow. On Sunday morning we went to church together (in the Fine Arts building at the college, since the church is under construction), and then after a quick lunch of leftovers we had a fun little Easter egg hunt in the front yard. We had a very yummy Easter dinner of ham, potato salad, fruit salad, scalloped pineapple, and asparagus. They rolled out Monday morning, headed to Cabela's. We were sad to see them go, it was awesome to have them here!