Crawling

Here is a video to make you smile. Clark recorded Benjamin crawling from his room down the hallway, this is just one small segment. He is such a sweet, happy little boy.

Corrizo Springs, Texas

A friend of Clark invited our family down to visit his hometown, Corrizo Springs, to visit the biggest onion farm in the world! (see Dixondale Farms here) His family told us they pretty much supply most of the nations onions, it was all amazing. To top it off, they had five Daschunds for the children to play with. Rebecca took to the cute little dogs quickly and was running and chasing them. David was nervous at first, but then quickly made friends. They loved them so much, especially one named Beans.
Here are a few fun pictures of the trip:

On our drive down, we took a rest stop. We had a good laugh that this water spout was right next to a sign that said "Danger High Voltage".

Rebecca is our little cowgirl. When we visit farms, she always climbs the fences to watch everything.

Benjamin was amazed by the animals. He was watching them so closely. The little kids (goats) sounded so much like Benjamin, or maybe Benjamin was imitating them.

David loved taking pictures of all that he saw, too bad we forgot to take a picture of them with the cute dogs. Here they are learning about the irrigation system and also looking at cantaloupes.

The family let the children pick a bunch of onions to take home. David wanted to keep picking the whole row. We we arrived at the farm and opened the door, there was a delicious smell of onions in the air. What a good smelling farm!

David picking away!

They also let David and Rebecca take turns driving this giant tractor. David did well, stayed mostly on the road.

This gives you an idea of how big this thing is. It has four giant wheels in the back and the two smaller ones in the front. The biggest tractor I have ever seen!

We had a lot of fun visiting this little town and spending time together. Although, we are always so happy to come home. At least mommy and daddy are... I have found the most fun I have on trips is seeing my children have a wonderful time. We had fun driving down and playing games and reading books. I drew on a sheet of paper all sorts of pictures for the children to look for on our drive, put it on a cookie sheet and gave them some magnets. They had fun finding the matches to their pictures and putting magnets on it, when they used up all the magnets, they would get a treat. Then, when that was all done, we pulled out a bag of books and read books the rest of the way. Good memories.

Little Photographer

We took our usual trip on Wednesday to San Antonio to visit the temple and decided to go to the zoo again. We love visiting those wonderful places. This time we let David take pictures of things he liked. We were given an old camera from a friend and Clark thought it would be fun to let David use it for picture taking. Here a two of my favorites:

I love getting to visit the temple. While Clark did a session, I took the children to a nearby park and we had fun playing in the cool morning air. The children have grown so much, they are able to climb everything and play everywhere, they especially liked the dome. They climbed all over it, even Rebecca!

Benjamin and I had fun swinging and then when he got tired, he liked staring up into the trees and watching the birds. We love bird watching around here because there are so many different kinds of birds: Mockingbirds, Finches, Doves, Red-winged Black birds, Grackles, Killdeers, Scissored-tailed Flycatchers, Cardinals... Just to name a few, and those few I have spotted around our house and neighborhood.

We love watching nature. Yesterday we found a poor little baby bird and were sad to find that we didn't know how to help it. So we tried to keep it safe and hope that the parents would be able to help it too. Spring is so beautiful, but I have been so sad to see the reality of living in a world where there is opposition in all things, where the young little birds and nests are exposed to so much danger. I will try to imagine that the little bird finally was able to get off the ground to fly back up into the trees and be safe from the harm on the ground.

Those are my thoughts, and now we are off on another adventure to explore the South end of Texas! Away we go!

Comfort and Discomfort

I wanted to share some good news. Our Stake Relief Society service project is to make quilts and at our Women's Conference we will gather together to tie them. These quilts will then be sent to the church's Humanitarian Services where they can be given to those in need. I volunteered to sew a quilt and here it is. I am excited because it is the first quilt I have ever sewn together! I hope that whomever ends up with this quilt will find it sturdy and cozy.

Now for the uncomfortable part... When my in-laws were visiting, they sounded sad that they hadn't seen any fire ants yet. I thought I would do them a favor and send a little video of a colony living near my house. This is why we are very careful not to tread on their big, beautiful homes. (Fire ants are very aggressive; they first bite you and while holding on will then sting you)

I hope you enjoyed that. If you can't see very well, the dirt looks like it turned red but that is really lots and lots of ants pouring out to attack the disturber. These ants build mountains all around and the mountains seem to get bigger just after a rain storm. I always thought it was interesting that one of the first things our little children learned while they were still very young is to spot a fire ant colony. The things our children learn to stay safe.

Easter and a Visit!

We had a fun time this weekend, especially because Clark's parents came to visit us! Yeah! The children loved having Grandma and Grandpa for Easter. They loved having them read books, play at the park, and go to church with them. Unfortunately they had to leave to go home yesterday, this morning David and Rebecca were taking turns standing at the front door sadly calling to Grandma and Grandpa to come back. "Grandma.... Grandpa.... Come back..." Thanks for visiting us!

Here are some fun pictures of the fun.

Grandpa reading to the children.

Benjamin loving his Grandma.

David and Rebecca getting ready to go on an egg hunt! Our hunt was done by the Primary out behind the church, it turned out to be really fun!

Counting all her eggs she found.

David finding eggs.

Rebecca enjoying Easter morning.

David enjoying his Easter morning. You might notice the olives in the background. We decided to add something to their Easter treat that might remind them of Christ and the real reason for Easter. We put olives in and when the children asked why, we told them of Gethsemane and how it was an olive tree garden, etc. I hope to continue the tradition of adding something each Easter that will help us remember the real reason for Easter: Christ's sacrifice and resurrection.

Rebecca ready for church.

Benjamin on Easter, munching his toes.

They Spoke to Us

Picture David drew during a talk on temples

We had a wonderful General Conference weekend. For those who don't know what this is, it happens twice a year where our church gathers world wide to listen to the prophet and apostles and other general leaders. You can find the talks here.


Our family has a few traditions we keep during this wonderful meeting that we watch on our computer at home. We have a bowl of candy for good listeners, the children pick a word to listen for (for example: "love"), and when the good listener hears that word they get to eat a piece of candy. The children really love this game and it also helps them to listen.


From early on in our marriage Clark and I have enjoyed eating deviled eggs for our lunch during one of the sessions. I don't know why we chose this, but I think we had it once and loved eating them and just decided to make it a tradition.


In the past, Clark would come home from Priesthood session and I would sit with him and eat ice cream and hear all that he heard there. We haven't kept consistent with that, mainly because it is too late for ice cream for us; however, he still tells me all that he heard. I am amazed at how well he relays the messages to me. When I go to read them later in the Ensign I feel like I already heard the whole talk before, and then I remember it was Clark who shared the talk with me.


I love listening to the Prophet, the Apostles, and the General Authorities. I feel more determined to live a Christ-like life, to be better in my life, and serve others more freely. My testimony of the truthfulness of the gospel is strengthened. I love General Conference.

Being Thoughtful

After seeing or hearing a lot from people who have read "Mere Christianity" by C.S. Lewis, I decided to read it too. I really enjoyed his "Chronicles of Narnia" and the religious comparisons, and figured this would be fun too.

I have really enjoyed it. I am amazed at how he parallels my beliefs in so many things. There are a few things that he has very different views from me on, but the similarities are amazing. He really must have been a very thoughtful person.

One of my thoughts lately has dealt with the reality that there is a God. Everything good points to the fact that he is real and his hand is in our lives. I have many favorites songs I love to sing or play on the piano, but there is one in particular "From Cumorah's Hill" by Steven Kapp Perry and Brad Wilcox. There is a song, The Power of God, that goes with these thoughts. The chorus says:

"For the power of God is plain to see, there are wonders on every hand
To those who will see through eyes of faith beyond the mind of man

For how could we hope to see his face who never could see his hand?"

Recently as I was singing this song, I really thought about that last line, "how could we hope to see his face who never could see his hand", and I came to see that if we don't attribute blessings we receive to God and see that he is in our lives, we will not know him even if we saw him. Our faith must not be based on actually seeing Him, we must first have faith that he is there and blessing us (and recognize when he is helping us) then we will come to know him better so when we will see him we will know him at once.

Another favorite song I love singing and playing on the piano is "Learn of Me" by Janice Kapp Perry. The second verse says:

"When I was yet a child so clean and pure,
I doubted not and knew God's love was sure.
I knew he lived, for every bird and tree,
By breath and leaf were witnesses to me.

But now the world would fill my mind with doubt.
And so my soul, in search of truth cries out.
How my I know? I plead to Him above
Then I recall these gentle words of love:

Learn of me and listen to my words,
walk in the meekness of my light
And I shall give you peace,
my love will never cease,

For I am Jesus Christ.
Learn of me.

I have loved this song for many years and has taught me that we are blessed when we recognize Christ's hand in our lives. Even by just looking at birds and trees we can know that Christ lives. As we learn of him he will bless us with peace and happiness, he loves us.

So, although we have struggles and there is much of chaos and contention in the world, that doesn't mean there is no God, because if we turn around and see all the good and see it with an eye of faith, we can all see there is a God and go forward and spread that light and happiness.