Here are some pictures....

Easter morning in the hotel room. Wish I had taken their picture all dressed up.

Off to hunt for eggs.
Bethany found an egg.

Megan finds an egg.
Bethany with her "loot".

Megan and her "goodies"

Megan riding the tricycle at Grandmom and Grandpa's.

Rylan, Kyndal, Megan, and Bethany have a picnic.
Megan wearing a real princess crown at Lauren's house.
Shai, Rylan, Kyndal, Megan, and Bethany with their first snow cone of the season.
Bethany loves to pull the wagon at Gmom and Gpas house.

Grandmom getting "fresh from the bath lovin's"!
Megan and her friend Caleb riding the motorcycles at Walmart.
Megan and Rylan baking cookies.
Megan, Lily, and Bethany have a bath at Lauren's. They were all dirty from playing so hard outside.

The girls having a "horsie ride" with Pap.

Where to begin?

So I've been told I haven't been posting enough...... I guess I really have dropped the ball on that. So let's see what has gone on lately? Let's see. Dad's party was the first weekend in April. About 50 people showed up to help us celebrate. It was neat to see so many people there just for Dad. I got to see people I haven't seen in YEARS! How fun! HAPPY BIRTHDAY DAD! (Check out Amy's blog or the Isbell/Anderson blog for pictures, there are links on the side of this blog.) That was also Easter weekend. We had an Easter egg hunt for the kids after Dad's party. They had fun and got lots of candy! It was nice to be with everyone for Easter. The girls all looked so cute in their matching dresses. Too bad there are no pictures. Bethany was asleep and Megan was not cooperating, so I don't even have a picture of my girls. :( OH well..... After lunch on Easter, all the big kids went home with Grandmom and Grandpa. Amy and I took the two little ones with us. We dropped James off at home and headed down to Mom and Dad's for the week. We had fun spending time with Amy and her kids. The kids fought, but they still seem to love each other anyway. After we got home, my friend Hillary came and stayed at our house for a week. She moved to Lubbock in February and I sure have missed her. It was nice to spend some time with her. Life has been "normal" other than that. Our dryer went out last week. That has not been fun. One of our elders came by and changed out a fuse for us. It works now, but the timer still doesn't work right. I guess I will use it until I can't anymore. We are also having plumbing problems....again. The guy that came and looked at it says it's probably a toy down the toilet. I don't think so. We have this problem from time to time. He seemed really young and really ignorant. He did rattle off a bunch of stuff we could do for $200-300 each. Yeah right, not if you can't give me more of a good idea of what it might be, then I'm not paying you any money. So my carpet gets wet if I run the washing machine and my dryer isn't working right. How much more fun can laundry be? Grrrrr. (Can you see me rolling my eyes?) We are talking about selling our house and moving in to an apartment for a while. We could save money and pay off some bills that way. Are we totally insane?
Just 3 weeks until the family reunion. We are excited. Can't wait to see everyone! I usually start gathering stuff up about now, but I haven't even thought about it yet. I am going to have to go buy Megan some clothes, I think BK has plenty. We are trying to take it easy for the next couple of days. Bethany got sick yesterday in church. She threw up all over me during church! I got up and ran with her to the bathroom. A dear, sweet lady who always sits behind us brought me my diaper bag. She also managed to get the keys from James (he was leading singing) and had one of the men bring the car up to the door for me. She also gave James and Megan a ride home. Have I ever told you how much we love Connie? She has always been so good to us! Anyway, B seems to be better now, but we are still going to stay home for a couple of days to help her recoup, and make sure none of the rest of us get sick. Oh yeah, also last week a friend of mine, Lea, took us to lunch and then we went and ran errands with her. FUN! We really did enjoy our day with her. She is always fun to be around. Plus her little boy, Parker, and Megan love to play with together. So it's good for them too. That night we went and watched one of the young boys at church, Zack, play baseball. I love watching baseball, especially when I know someone playing. He did a good job, even with his hurt shoulder. I guess that's about all that's going on. I hope that catches everyone up on what we are doing lately. I will post some pictures above so you can see what we've been doing. Look below to see our friends' new horse, he is soooo cute! Also check my "Long time, no blog" post, there are pictures there too. Thanks for reading my updates. I will try to do better about posting more often. Love you all! ~Amanda

A Baby Horse

Bethany with our friend Laranda and the new baby horse


Megan gets to pet the new horse.
Bethany pets the Mama Horse


Megan with baby and Zoey the Mama horse










Some friends of ours have horses and the girls love to go pet them. Their horse finally had its baby last Wednesday. We went to see the new baby when it was just over 24 hours old. Just thought I would post some pictures, hopefully I can get you caught up with the rest of the pics sometime tomorrow. Love you all!~Amanda

Number 1000

If you look at the bottom of this blog, you will see my counter. It is quickly approaching 1000. Keep an eye on it and let me know if you are #1000. No cheating! ;)

Long time, No Blog

Bethany as "Cinderella"
Grandpa and kids on the swing. Grandpa told Megan to stick out her tongue, and she did. Thanks Grandpa!






Megan playing dress up at Grandmom's. Isn't the wig a riot!?!

Shai on the carousel at the zoo.
Bethany on the carousel at the zoo.
Megan on the carousel at the zoo.
Bethany, Megan, and Shai "riding" a komodo dragon at the zoo.

The girls and their souvenirs from the zoo.

Looking at the gorilla...

Elephants...
If you look real close you can see the lion....
meercats...
and monkeys.

So, where have I been you ask? Well, we've done lots of stuff.

Shai came and spent Spring Break with us. We didn't do anything too exciting, but we did go to the zoo. I quickly learned why you should NOT go to the zoo during Spring Break!!!! It was a madhouse. I think Shai had fun though. We got to see just about everything and ending our day with a ride on the carousel. Shai's shoe broke when she was getting on the carousel, so she had to limp back to the car. It was a LONG way, I felt so sorry for her. All three girls got a stuffed animal to complete the day. They were kind of like Build-A-Bear, you picked your animal and they stuffed it for you. As soon as I find the cord for my camera I will get pictures on here. We also took Shai to the mall twice that week, so I think that made her happy too. Dad came on Friday to get her and their new couch, so we hitched a ride back. On the way to the furniture we had a little fender-bender. It was no big deal, no one was hurt, but I think it hurt Dad's pride. It also "ruined his perfect record" at work. :( POOR DAD!!!! We made it back to Mom and Dad's that night. We had a good time visiting with them, but stayed way longer than we planned. James ended up going to be with his grandfather the weekend he was going to pick us up. So we just stayed with Mom and Dad. While we were there, their dog, Mocha, had her puppies. They were so little and so cute! I can't wait to see them again and see how big they've gotten. During our visit with Mom and Dad, the girls got to go outside a lot. They loved it. I would sit on the swing and watch them go up and down the driveway, Megan on the tricycle and Bethany dragging the little tractor behind her. They were so cute. I wish we could live out in the country like that. We finally came home last Wednesday and I've barely been home since... I would like to have an evening at home just to relax, oh well.

James grandfather is doing better. He is still in the hospital and will be there until he can get strong enough to get out of bed by himself. Hopefully he can go home next week. Keep praying for him and for Mama Nody.

Dad's birthday and Easter are coming up. We have been trying to get ready for that. Mom and I went last Saturday and bought table cloths, plates, cups, napkins, etc. I think she is about ready to go. I think Dad is getting excited too. I will have to post all about it when I get back, although I think most who read this blog will be there..... We are also getting things together for Easter. The Easter bunny has his baskets packed and is ready to visit the girls. I can't wait to see Mom's 4 granddaughters all in their matching dresses too! They are going to be so cute!

That's pretty much it in a nutshell. I will try to not let it be so long before posting again. Love you all. ~Amanda