The Pony Express

Every town has a claim to fame. It may be a famous person who once lived there or a memorable event. Here in Holbrook we have The Pony Express. The Pony Express was only in practice for 6 or 8 months but it was a jumping off point for long distance communication. Holbrook's Pony Express company name was The Hashknife Pony Express Company. Every year in Febuary, the Hashknife Company runs mail from Holbrook to Scottsdale just like they used to do over 100 years ago. Before the run kids from all three elementary schools write letters and then those letters are collected. The morning of the run all the men riding horses to deliver the mail are sworn in as offical mail carriers. Then the race is on! I've seen this happen every years since we've moved here but this is the first time I've actually gotten pictures. You can see the riders on the side of the road all the way to Scottsdale which is around 200 miles away.

Kwynn is 4!!

Wow how time flies! My little red head has finally turned 4. If you ask her, she has been waiting forever to turn 4. Kwynn thinks she is so mature now that she is one year older. She is such a sweet little girl. Some of her favorite things are playing with Lily and Aubrey, the show Go Diego Go, baby animals and playing pretend outside. Kwynn also has some of the cutiest ways of saying things. She says Leggy Bug instead of Lady Bug and Twin instead of Kwynn. Sucking her thumb is the one bad habit she has but I don't think she is quite as ready as I am to kick it. Kwynn has the most beautiful smile that crinkles up her eyes and takes up her whole face. She is also the biggest snuggler I have ever met!! She will sit right next to me and rub her feet on my legs, try to wedge herself under my arm and reach up and rub my earlob when she is watching T.V. Another talent that Kwynn has is the ability to sleep just about anywhere. So my darling girl, Happy Birthday!

Garrison turns 12! Oh my!

On April 23 Garrison turned 12 and I still can't believe my little boy is that old now. I think he had a good birthday. It was Star Wars and Transformers themed (ofcourse) and the presents followed suite. I know his cake looks pink but I was actually going for a red. Garrison being the outstanding kid that he is, didn't mind too much. But the best present he recieved was the priesthood. That was a special occation not only for me but for Dwayne as well. He was the one that gave the priestood power to Garrison. What a great blessing that was. The first time Garrison passed the sacrament I could tell he was very nervous but he kept his hands still and went right wear he was supposed to. I'm so very proud of my exceptional son.

Mesa Temple Visit

While we were down in Mesa for Dwayne's birthday and the Kid History premier, we also visited the Mesa Temple. They were setting up for the Easter Pagent that the temple preformes every year so we got to see the stage for that. We also walked through the visitors center and the temple grounds. The kids liked seeing all the flowers and running their hand through all the fountains. The little girls' favorite thing was rolling in all the grass. Garrison played a good trick on us. In the forier he turned, pointed and said " Isn't that Porter!" I knew that Porter had moved to Idaho but I look all around anyway. "Where?" I asked "Just kidding, gotcha Mom!"  Funny Garrison, Funny.

Dwayne's Birthday/ Kid History

This year Dwayne's birthday was on the same day that Kid History premiered their new episode. We had planned to get tickets, but found that they sold out quickly. Dwayne was really disappointed. So when I found out two weeks later that they were setting up two showings, I got tickets as fast as I could and surprised him with them. He did his happy dance. The kids were over the moon about it was well. They started a count down for our Mesa trip and talked about what they would do and who they most wanted to see. When they found out we were taking them out of school on Friday, they thought the day couldn't get better! We did have lots of fun. The kids were well behaved and happy the whole way there. Denyce, Garrison, Dwayne and myself had a great debate on a Disney Deadliest Warrior. I still don't know who would win between Gaston and Clayton. We checked into out hotel and got settled. The kids wanted to go into the outside pool even thought it was only 68 degrees. They didn't stay long in the water. Then it was time to go to the Kid History Episode 8 premier. We made sure we got there early so we could meet all of our favorite actors. Lily really wanted to meet Brett and I really wanted to meet Richard(hottie hot hottie!) They were so nice! They signed our tickets, DVD and Garrison's hat. The best part was when someone gave Brett a Big Trak. He was very excited because both Big Trak's that he got were run over by cars. Now he got to keep one. That makes more sense if you watch the Christmas episode.Episode 8 was great but Dwayne and I agreed we would have to watch it again because everyone was laughing and we missed some dialog. By the end of the day Aubrey, Kwynn and Lily were tired so we stopped by Bashes and got dinner and a birthday cake for Dwayne. While we ate we watched our Kid History DVD and relaxed. I think it was one of the best birthdays for Dwayne and the kids too!

Aubrey's Birthday

As the first birthday of the year, everyone was excited about Aubrey's birthday. It was a good thing too because she had no idea what was going on. Oh well she's only 2. Picking out a cake consisted of pointing to a white or brown cake box and doing the same for the icing. Very easy for me! The cupcake idea was mine. I like doing that for the smaller kids because it's easier for them to handle and for them to smear all over everything! I don't even mind cleaning it up. Bree got some little animals to go with her one big present which was an animal zoo. The funny thing was, everyone and I do mean everyone from 13yr old Denyce to Kwynn were so eager to "help" Bree play with it that they ended up pushing her out of the way. Poor thing. I don't think she got to really play with it by herself until the next day. Oh the trials of being the youngest.

You do good work.

My wife does a lot of stuff and sometimes I know she thinks it is just stuff, but she is wrong. Not only is she a great mother, but she is the primary chorister in our ward and she does a great job.
This last weekend was my birthday and we went down to Mesa for a premiere of Kid History. Since we were in Mesa I thought we would take the kids to the Mesa Temple visitors center Saturday morning.
In the center there is a room that has the life of Jesus in pictures. Mason walked around to each picture and told Kreslie what everyone of them was about. He also preceeded to tell her that he was going to be resserected after he dies. I was amazed. He is actually picking up what he is being taught.
On the way home we singing a primary song in the car and Mason remembered every word. Today in church I was watching Mason in primary and he again knew every word to every song. Good Job Mason and good job Kreslie. You make a huge difference in the lives of our children.