Pine Wood Derby

We had a major milestone in our family this past week. Our first pine wood derby! Scott figures he's going to be doing a lot of these over the next 10 years, so he invested in all the right tools to help Josh build his car. We were into Josh's car over a hundred dollars, but Scott tells me it's an investment in the boys' future, so it's worth it. Plus, when we divide it out over all the cars we'll end up making, it really only comes out to about $5 a car, so I guess it's ok. Josh came up with the design and helped cut it out. He wanted to paint it navy blue, but I only had black paint, so he settled for black--with orange flames on the sides. Josh was so proud of his car, and couldn't wait to race it.

We all went to cheer Josh on. The little boys were especially excited to watch the races.

(Sara and her best friend Ady. I love these two girls. They are only one month apart in age, but are both on the either extreme of the growth chart. They don't care, they love each other.)

Josh was so excited for his first race.

But, the first race didn't end so well. In fact, it didn't end at all. The weights that were glued to the bottom of the car, were dragging on the track, and the car stopped mid track and didn't even cross the finish line. Josh was devastated and so embarrassed. He started to cry and thought he was just done. But we explained to him that it was triple elimination, and that we would fix his car and everything would be fine. We pried the weights off the bottom and glued them to the top. Josh wasn't sure he wanted to try racing again, but we convinced him to give it another try. And the next race he won! That put a smile on his face and he enjoyed the rest of the derby.

Josh ended up placing third overall and got a trophy for "Best Racer".

Last Tooth

Savannah is growing up. She lost her very last baby tooth last week. She's a smart little girl, too. She decided to try and cash in as much as she could with it being her last tooth. So she asked the Tooth Fairy if she could get more than just the usual $1. It worked. The Tooth Fairy brought her $5. I guess even the Tooth Fairy gets a little sentimental over things like last teeth.

Sick Again

The last two weeks have been rough. Two days after coming home from Aberdeen, Owen got sick. He threw up and started running a fever on Tuesday. He threw up off and on for three days, and ran a fever continuously. On Friday I took him to the doctor. He had a double ear infection on top of having some virus stomach bug. So, he's been on antibiotics this whole last week, and has been really quite grouchy for most of the week. That same week that Owen got sick, Aaron got sick also. He threw up Tuesday night and had to miss school on Wednesday. Then there was Nate sleeping all day. He went to bed at around 10 Tuesday night, and didn't wake up till 6 in the evening the next day. 20 hours! And the only reason he woke up was because I decided I'd better take his temperature and make sure he was ok. He had no temperature and never threw up, just slept for a very long time. By that Sunday (one week ago), I was sick. So Owen and I stayed home from church. This week everyone seems to be ok (other than a grouchy one year old still). I'm hoping we'll all stay well for a bit. It seems like we've had more than our fair share of sickness lately.

Easter Weekend

I know, I'm a little slow with this.

We spent Easter in Aberdeen this year. We drove to Grandma's house Friday night. On Saturday, my cousin Connor was baptized. It was wonderful. My dad baptized him. After the baptism, we had a friends and family dinner at the fire station. My kids love that place.

Owen made himself some new friends. (With my niece Rachel and with my mom's neighbor Jesus. Jesus and Connor grew up playing together, and Owen really took to him.)

Easter morning the kids woke up, eager to see what the Easter Bunny had brought them.

Savannah got a skip-it, Josh got a glow-in-the-dark kick ball, Sara got a pogo stick, Aaron got a plastic bat and ball, Nate got bubbles and sidewalk chalk, and Owen got a bubble lawn mower.

The kids hunted for eggs around the house (and Josh instantly started into his chocolate candy).

We went to church in Grandma Sorensen's ward. At church, I ran into my best friend from high school's dad. He told me she was in town. So, after church we went over to her parents' house and visited with her. It was so wonderful to see her. It had been way too many years since we'd seen each other. My kids were eager to get home and hunt outside for eggs with their cousins, but they were somewhat patient while I enjoyed my visit. Then it was back to Grandma's for the big outside egg hunt. Heather's girls had come for church (Connor was confirmed at church), so they hunted for eggs with my kids.

It was a fun Easter. The kids didn't want to leave Grandma's house, so we ended up leaving pretty late in the day on Sunday. We got home super late, and had some pretty tired kids when they had to get up for school the next morning.