Spring 2010
Spring is the season to break out the tractor, and Mack is fascinated by Daddy's tractor!
On March 27th, Mack turned two! He loves vehicles of all kinds, so I made him a car cake and he was excited to get a tractor (just like Dad's!) for one of his presents. (Thanks, Abuela!)
Speaking of cakes, here's a cake I made for Zeke's Blue & Gold Banquet.
A couple of years ago we started a tradition that has become a great blessing in our lives. While the boys are at the Priesthood Session of Conference, the other kids and I make treats to eat during Sunday's sessions of Conference--usually appetizer-type items. Abigail loves to cook, so she eats this up. Here she is carefully decorating the cupcakes she made.

Before we started this tradition I was toying with the idea of being more strict about our Conference viewing. The Spirit gently directed me to take a different approach. Instead of requiring the kids to sit and watch Conference, I felt impressed to do what I could to make watching Conference such a pleasant experience that they would want to be there of their own accord. I am grateful for this prompting because since starting this tradition, our kids genuinely love and look forward to Conference--all of it, not just the food! They love the Spirit they feel. Reminds me of sitting in the family room in our basement in Weiser and playing with toys while that powerful Spirit of Conference infused the room.
Gregg and Mack making pies for Easter dessert (the same day as Conference). We enjoyed Easter dinner at Grandma and Grandpa Wilson's house.
Before dinner, however, we enjoyed a big Easter egg hunt prepared by Stone. Here is a picture of all the kids hugging him in exuberant gratitude for giving them an Easter egg hunt.

The weather was cold and windy, as you can see, but everyone still had fun. He placed eggs all over the lawn and flower beds for Mack and Brock, and then he put eggs in more obscure places in the willows by the pond for the older kids.

The loot. Good thing we have free dentistry!
Every spring the girls and I go to Pocatello for Abigail's clogging competition. We usually go with another clogger and her mom and make a party out of it. This year it happened to fall on Ella's birthday. Here's a picture from the party we had for her in our hotel room. Six years old!! (Her hair is wet from swimming in the hotel pool.)
Practicing!
Mad scientists. (Abbie HATED the wig.) That's her on the bottom right.
Here is Zeke as a fish in his 2nd grade music program. He's the one in the middle with the UnderArmor symbol.
Brock and Mack at Zeke's program.
Gregg, Zeke, and Mack at the program.
A few random cute little boys pictures. Look at all the cars Brock lined up! He was so proud.
Our coyote friend that we see occasionally.
Spring is the time for babies! We were all a dither when our cat Rosie had six little kitties in the barn. We only found her with four initially, and then Zeke stumbled upon two more that were not near their mother and were very cold and weak. We warmed them and fed them milk and then they were as healthy as the others. We loved those kitties for about three weeks until they came to a tragic end. But, our other cat Brock (Yes, we have many animals named Brock: Brock the heron, Brock the cat, Brock the frog, and Brock the boy--my favorite.) had five more kitties. The kids love playing with the chubby, furry little kitties. This is Gregg with all six kitties in his hands!
We had three goose families that hatched and then hung around our house this season. Here you can see the smaller goslings on the left and the older family on the right.
The kids rescued a baby killdeer on their way home from the busstop. It died a few hours later. So, the term "rescued" is probably not the most accurate. As you can see, our kids are getting very acquainted with death on our farm!
Stone presenting his project at the High School Science Expo.
Our laying hens--all in a row!
Stone with his full-grown pigs (and Billy). He sold three of them and we kept the fourth.
Abigail and her meat chickens.
In May we went to Pocatello for a soccer tournament for Stone. We had a great time. The games were super exciting and Stone did a great job. Here are the little boys enjoying one of Stone's games.
Here we are at the Pocatello zoo in between games. (Stone is with his team.)
My little brother Derek graduated from Boise State in May and several members of my family flew in for the event: my parents from the Virgin Islands and my sister Emmi and one of her little boys from Seattle.

Here we are playing on the pond.
And playing by the pond.
Every May we spend a weekend in Utah and go to Lagoon for Abigail's Nationals Competition in Clogging. And this year Ella competed!! She was cute as a button. She acted scared before going on stage, but once up there she smiled from ear to ear and danced as well as I've ever seen her. After the first dance when we were in our tent changing into her next costume, she kept repeating, "I loved that! I loved that!"
Brock and Mack, who both love vehicles of all kinds, thought Lagoon was a dreamland. They were able to ride trains, planes, cars, boats, helicopters, the list goes on. There were no lines, so they went on the rides over and over. Mack is a pretty solemn dude, plus he wasn't feeling well that day, but he loved the rides. You wouldn't know that by watching him; he sat there solemn as could be on the rides and would only occasionally crack a smile. But he insisted on going on ride after ride. Few of the rides in the Park had lines, so it was really fun. Gregg and I even went on "Wicked." It was crazy. Stone was next to me on that ride yelling, "this is the best ride I've ever been on!" over and over. Gregg won me a huge stuffed animal while we were there. Then all the kids fought over the huge stuffed animal. Then he won a few more toys to quiet them down. That's my man.

The whole trip was really fun. We stayed with my very gracious and hospitable aunt and uncle whom we hadn't seen in a few years, we spent time with two of my brothers and their families which was a blast, and we were able to visit my grandparents whom we always love to see. My mom also caravaned (sp?) down with us and was able to see the girls dance.

We always have an outside project we're working on. Our current one is our playground. As part of that project we added some playground equipment. Here is Mack enjoying the new swings. It is one of the times we can be assured a smile from him!
We never have trouble getting smiles out of Brock!
The Z
This is Stone receiving an award at the end-of-the-year assembly for being the top Language Arts student in the 7th grade. His teacher said he was not only the best student of the year, but the best student she has ever had.
We'll close out Spring much the way we began it: with Mack, a tractor (well, lawn mower), and his dad. Again, doesn't crack a smile, but content as can be!