The Artist/Sculptor - WARNING! NOT FOR THE MALE READERS!

In case you didn't know, Maddie is 8 years old. For some reason, she has been enjoying laying on my bed, watching TV in the afternoons while I work. Yesterday I found this little beautiful piece of artwork in her bedroom on the floor. I said "Maddie, what are you doing with these? Where did you get these? These are mom's personal items." She looked at me with her big doe eyes and said "What's the big deal? I found them in your bathroom and wanted to make something." So I preceded to tell her that they are something private for teenagers and women and they go in your underwear. She had way too many questions and I was not about ready to take away her innocence. It was hard enough having "the talk" with my 11 year old son a few months ago. Not about to do that to Maddie. (I don't care what you say Keysha and Angie! J/K! Love you guys.)

**FYI - I'm thinking about cleaning out the bottom drawer of my nightstand and storing the items in Brandon's gun safe in the bedroom closet. Who knows what kind of sculpture she would make with that stuff! YIKES!!

Dances with Goats

By request of Shannon West, here is a picture of our goats. Their actually pretty good to stay in the yard and eat our weeds but one day they escaped and went on quite the adventure to the dog pound. Brandon had only the car and wanted to get them out before the place closed for the night and so he put them in the back seat of the Buick. What was that? Did you ask if they crapped all over the place? Yeah! They did. And somehow it was my fault and I had to clean it up. AWESOME!

Girls Softball in Grantsville

Well I have finally made it to some of Maddie's softball games and have some pictures. Grantsville softball seems to get great support out here. There are twice as many softball teams in Maddies age groups as there are in little league baseball, which is awesome and it seems to pay off. The high school softball team has been doing quite well since we moved out here.

Maddie seems to really like playing softball so far and they have won there first 2 games and tied in her 3rd game. Yes they keep score, play 3 outs, and play by all the other normal softball rules. It is so fun to watch them, there are tiny little girls out there playing and all dressed up in there uniforms.

Maddie after she hit one up the middle and then the ball got by the first baseman.

Maddie's hit up the middle!!!

Spring Break and "BALL"

Last week was spring break for our kids, they were out of school for a week. They were plenty busy with softball and baseball going on every night for one of them. Laurie is helping coach Maddie softball team and I am helping coach Braydens Outlaw team and the coach of his city league team. Yes that's right Maddie got talked into playing softball by Laurie's boss Chad. He told her he would buy her and Oreo shake if she would sign up for softball, and she took the deal. So they have been having practices twice a week for a couple of weeks now, and after the first practice she did not want it to end. Maddie was suppose to have games this week but with this lovely Utah weather they have been rained/snowed out.
Brayden played in another baseball tournament with his TC Outlaw team in Spanish Fork. The boys played pretty well and made it into the semi final game of that tournament before being eliminated. Thursday and Friday of the tournament were nice weather but then it rained all day Saturday. Brayden again played pretty good, as did all of the boys. As a coach and dad it is nerve racking sometimes, but has been fun to see all the boys progressing and getting better each time we play. Brayden was happy to have both sides of the family come out and watch his games. I have not gotten any pictures of Maddie playing yet but I will post some as soon as she has a game.

A drive to the right center fence for a double!!!!

Picture of Brayden pitching, Laurie thinks that he looks just like me in this picture.

Ready to make the play at first.

"Dancing Machine"

The big event for the first week of April was Bryaden's school program. They were celebrating Utah as a State. They had county reports that they had to turn in, a creative building of popular things in there selected county, and of course the program, which Brayden was a Western Square Dancer.(Yes he had to touch a girls hand, that was rough!!) They sang all sorts of songs about the state and songs that had something to do with every county in Utah.

Brayden chose San Juan County. After Jim and Nat moved down there he has been interested in that part of the state. It was fun for him to search the internet for interesting facts about San Juan County and he is excited to go camping this summer down there.

Western Square Dance

This was during one of the county songs.

Brayden's San Juan County project was Lake Powell with Rainbow Bridge.

"LAS VEGAS"

After we had soaked up all the sun we could handle for one day we decided that we would take a trip to Las Vegas so that the kids could see the BRIGHT LIGHTS of VEGAS(they have never been before). As we got into Las Vegas the kids wanted to go on all the rides that they could see. Brayden was taking pictures with his camera about as fast as he could. We only intended on going to the M&M store and having dinner at Toby Keith's Restaurant, and driving down the Las Vegas Strip. We did go into the MGM and see the LION SHOW ( that was pretty cool!!!) Then to the M&M store. Called to eat at Toby Keiths and it was a 2 hour waiting list so we drove down the STRIP and then ate dinner at IN-AND-OUT BURGER.

When we pulled into the parking lot near the MGM, Brayden notice the HOOTERS hotel and asked what that was. Laurie tells him that it is named after women that do not wear very many clothes. So after we are leaving Las Vegas we ask the kids what they remember about Vegas and Brayden says this town has HOOTERS all over the place, on almost every sign. This was not the answer that we were looking for of course!!!!

Maddie at the M&M store!!!! Lots of stuff to choose from.

Picture of the Lions at the MGM.

Fun in the Sun

After the baseball tournament was over we stayed in St.George for a couple of day just to enjoy the weather and have some fun. We took the kid hike up on the DIXIE rock and through the red rock narrows, chased lizards and soaked up some sunshine. It was a nice relaxing weekend!!!

Brayden and Maddie on DIXIE rock with St.George in the background.

Brayden climbing the redrocks in St.George......


Maddie posing for a picture in the redrocks, she loves to climb and is not scared at all.

Chasing lizards!!! Of course the kids want to catch one and bring it home.

Maddie sqeezing through the narrows. She was happy as could be climbing all over the place.