dance festival...

A couple weeks ago, they had the annual dance festival at school. Each class gets to perform a dance on the high school football field. We had dance festivals at my elementary school, so it was neat for me to be there. I loved that the 5th graders did Tinikling. It's a dance from the Philipines where two people bang together bamboo poles to the beat on opposite sides of each other while dancers jump in and out between them. Make sense? I was especially excited about this, because in my elementary, the 6th graders got to do this dance every year. It was so much fun, and I have very fond memories of doing this dance.

The kindergarteners did a March of the Penguins dance. I applaud the teachers for getting being able to coordinate the kindergarteners together and keep them seated for the rest of the performance! And other than sitting directly in front of the speaker and having to keep our hands over our ears for the entire thing, it was fun! Great job Zane!

baby evan's blessing...

3 kids sure makes things a lot busier. We had Dr.'s and Dentists appointments, school testing, and a baby blessing last week. Zane had his spacer put in to hold the place of the molar that was pulled. He did great, and it has been no problem for him. He had his end of year kindergarten testing as well. No surprise that he passed off everything. His teacher had him do his reading at Level 20 - (Kindergarteners should be at Level 3-4), but said she thinks he is probably more like Level 26-28 (that's like 2nd-3rd grade). Smarty pants.

Evan's baby blessing was this Sunday. What a better day to do it than Mother's Day? I must say that I don't mind doing it on a Sunday other than Fast Sunday, because then I don't have to get up and bear my testimony. We had a very special meeting that day that was done by the regional special needs mutual. If I wasn't already weepy from hormones, I still would have been crying. John was especially touched during the blessing, about how grateful he was that we have a healthy baby. It is unusual for him to cry, and I even worried that maybe he had some sort of "revelation" during the blessing. I was glad to learn later that he was just really touched by the special meeting that day. It was very sweet.

We were so blessed to have my parents, John's parents, both sets of my grandparents, and my sister's family there. It was so nice to have family around for that special day. We love you all, and wish we could see you all more often.

after school...

this is what after school looks like at our house

babywearing...

So, I have done a little sewing already since the baby was born. Partly out of "necessity". I was meaning to make a wrap style baby carrier before Evan came, but didn't get to it. So - here it is, in all it's glory. (It's a crappy self - portrait and I had to cut my head and body off, because it just looked too horrible, but give a girl a break - I just had a baby).

And a view from the top with him sleeping snugly and soundly inside. Awwww!!

Today is a good day!

stories...

Zane has taken to telling people "stories". Ok, some of you might call them lies, but they are just too imaginative for me to do that. We have told him that it's fine for him to tell these stories as long as he says "just kidding". He mostly tells these stories to other people and not us -I'm sure looking for their reaction.

Recently - he told our neighbor that John's work is moving to Hawaii, and we are leaving very soon and have to pack up. He is very convincing, she called me in a panic. Ha!

He told my grandmother all about his brother "Josh?(I can't remember the name)" who lives in Salt Lake and is a scout.

He often talks about his brother "Jake" who died, and even goes so far as to pretend cry about it.

And this is my favorite thing he has been doing lately:

These are signs on the play room/craft room door that say: Funland - Bob's carnival games And cafe - Open Forever, never closes.

They make Donut Soup there. Yum!

the first week down...

Evan is 6 days old, wow! Thanks so much to my mom for coming down and helping out. It really was nice for the kids to have Grandma to play with, even though I'm sure they wore her out. The real test will be next week when I am on my own. Evan is still doing good, although he seems to have days and nights just a little bit mixed up. Some nights are better than others. He's not really awake at night, just doesn't sleep very restfully. He doesn't really settle in to sleep until after midnight, and then wakes every 2-3 hours - so unfortunately I don't get a lot of sleep. Such is life with a baby. Other than that we are doing good, and I'm trying to not expect too much of myself. (My house is going to be messy and I don't care if I stay in my jammies and even my bed half of the day.) Lily and Zane seem to be doing "ok" with the new baby, and I hope that continues. They both love to hold him and give him kisses. It's very cute. He is a sweet little baby. Now - pictures!

the pictures are here...

We are home! I feel great, everything went perfectly. Evan is doing wonderfully, too. Here's a few pictures for now and then I'm going to take a nap!

Evan Bradford Collins

Abi is still at the hospital, but I (John) wanted to let everyone know that Evan was born this afternoon at 3:19, 7 lbs. 7 oz., 20 in., and both he and Abi are healthy and happy. I'll let Abi post all the details (and pictures) when she gets home from the hospital, but anyone interested can know that they are both healthy and happy. I love each member of my family very much, and I am glad that each one of them has chosen to be a part of my family.

--John--

happy easter...

lately...

We have had a busy week. We got new callings at church recently - John is the new Cubmaster, and I am the Cub Scout Commitee Chair. Basically that means we are in charge of making sure things are running in the scouts, and then we do Pack Meeting once a month. This week was the Pinewood Derby - probably the "biggest" deal pack meeting of the year. So, we were busy. I think it turned out fun for the boys, at least I hope so.

The weather has been so nice, so we have been enjoying that too. The kids (Zane mostly) wanted to go out and run in the sprinklers one day - so I suited 'em up and they had at it. It was great fun to watch Lily who wasn't quite sure what to think of the "spray" as she called it. She is really becoming a funny little girl, and she LOVES to do anything that big brother does.

Today, we went over to the Arts Festival, even though it was rainy. I was surprised that there were still quite a few people there. Zane and Lily both got their faces painted. Lily got a cute butterfly on her cheek and she couldn't stop saying "fly, fly" the rest of the day. Zane wanted tiger stripes and green eyes, to match the tigers on his shirt. He also made a creative little hat. We also got the house clean and finished up everything ready for baby and Easter tomorrow. Zane says that Monday is Wester, haha!

(I hope to get another post in tomorrow night before baby comes on Wester!) Enjoy the pictures - and make sure to check out the 2 videos in the post below - too funny.

what happens when you are 39 weeks pregnant...

Two videos for your enjoyment. The first one - what your kids do when you are too tired to care anymore. The second one - much more scary - what they do when you are not watching or paying attention at all (Zane took this video of course).

Ok I know that last one is REALLY scary. I know that she's been getting these plug covers off for awhile now - I just never knew how she was doing it. Kudos that Zane knew enough to tell her "No, No", but yet he did stand there taking a video of it. And, yes, I know - this one would qualify me for "worst mother of the year" but I'm over it.

it's official...

Baby Evan will be born on April 13th , unless he decides to come earlier. Yay! We are excited!

fun in the church parking lot...

Well, we have a really *ugly* driveway for riding bikes, so when the kids are itching to go bike riding, we head over to the church parking lot. These pictures were taken this past Saturday. Love the weather this time of year. Oh, yeah and a picture of my pretty pink glitter toes too, thanks Steph!

ghost towns part 2...

Zane has really been into this ghost town thing. So we decided to go up to Silver Reef last weekend. Even though there are a lot of people that now inhabit the "ghost town", it was fun to look at the old memorabilia left from the mining days.

Since we still had spring break this past Monday - John decided to take the day off (the only time he did during the whole break!) to hang with us. We decided to go to Jacob Hamblin's home. Zane wanted to see a "pioneer" house, so we thought that would be a good one to start. There are LDS missionaries that run the tours of the house, and so we were greeted by a nice older gentleman when we arrived. Zane was his precocious self, talking away to the guy, so the brother was excited to sit him down and tell him the story about Jacob Hamblin. We sat in the living area of the house, listening to the missionary tell us the story. Zane leaned over to him and said "I have to tell you a secret." "Ok," he says. Zane says, whispering in his ear, "You're taking too long!" Haha! Ok then, that was the end of that! (I forgot to take pictures!)

Zane has been complaining about a sore tooth off and on over the past couple weeks, but last week the gums around it seemed quite swollen. I decided it was time to call the dentist. It was a molar that had previously had a root canal and filling, and our dentist said to come right in. Sure enough, very infected. The tooth had to come out! He was a very brave boy, even having to get 4 separate shots! The molar came out quickly and I think it is extremely disgusting looking (I won't even post a picture, it's that gross). We love our dentist, he's great! The tooth fairy left Zane 2 shiny quarters to add that tooth to her collection.

the FIESTA easter dress...

Ok, I finished Lily's easter dress. I did it with bright colors instead of pastels and I used grosgrain ribbon instead of satin. It turned out AWESOME, even if it is a little "fiesta". A visit to San Antonio may be in order...

the only picture I could get of her in it, she wouldn't stay still

If you noticed a difference from the other picture - I added the green ribbon between the bodice and the skirt this evening, it needed more green.

ghost town...

Zane read a book from school recently that had a ghost town in it. We decided we would travel out to the nearby ghost town of Grafton. It's a little town close to Zions National Park. Some of Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid was filmed at a house there. There is a small cemetary where they think approx. 70-80 people are buried. Some of them are infants and small children who died of disease, and there are a few Sioux Indians buried there as well. The last known residents left in 1945. Any trip lately with Zane is an "are we there yet?" sort of thing, but after getting there we had a nice time looking around at the old houses and peeking inside the old church/schoolhouse. There were lots of dead flies all over the floor inside, and I think that the kids thought that was the best part. Not bad for a free, outdoor, half day activity!

outside the church/schoolhouse

on the porch of one of the homes

John could barely stand up inside this house - he definitely had to duck through the doors. I fit just right!
cutie Lily

cutie Zane