Sounding Off

I am so frustrated by complete strangers who make comments about the number of children we have.

Today at Walmart, we were standing in line to checkout. There was a mother and daughter behind us. They began talking about our family in a somewhat rude way. They were saying things like, "Oh my gosh, they have twins and they are going to be having another baby. You think that twins would be enough." After hearing the first comment I kind of zoned them out and concentrated on entertaining the kids. We were waiting in the line for a while and I would occasionally hear them referring to us. I didn't feel that it was necessary to say anything to them, but honestly do they think that I am deaf? That I can not possibly hear what they are talking about even though they are standing three feet away?

When we finally got up to the checker I took the kids into the front aisle of the store and stood there waiting while our items were being checked out. Almost every other person walking by had something to say to Darin and I about our (almost) three kids. By now, the comment, "You've got your hands full," has really started to get on my nerves. Another thing people always ask is if we are having twins again. Do I look like I am unusually large and about to give birth to twins again? Complete strangers will ask me if this is going to be our last baby. Honestly how do you respond to that? I usually say, "We'll see," but I don't know the future. I don't know how many children I will have. Isn't that a personal decision between a couple and God?

I honestly don't know how people like the Duggars and other families deal with the stares and comments. My family is almost a sixth the size of theirs and people think I have tons of kids.

It seems like in today's world if you aren't open minded about certain things you are looked down upon and labeled as being a bigot. Why can't people be open minded about families that want children, consider them a blessing from God, and want to raise them correctly in a conservative and Christian way?

Our Newest Addition!

We have acquired a new addition to our vehicular family... Golda!

Golda is certainly not the car of our dreams, but it was within our price range and had nearly every characteristic that we were looking for in a van.


Golda is a 2004 Nissan Quest LS.

She has leather seats.

She also has four bucket seats (That was our highest priority).

She has about 90,000 miles--which is a lot, but at least not over 100,000.

She has all of the available extra's that were offered in 2004 except the moon roof feature. I really didn't want a DVD player in our van, but Golda has one (we won't be using it anyway since our kiddos are rear facing until 45 lbs.)

The strangest thing about Golda is that all of the gauges such as the speedometer are in the center of the front console. The previous owners said that their grandchildren referred to this van as the millennium falcon because of this strange feature.

The thing that I love most about Golda is that we were able to buy her from a private seller instead of having to haggle a dealer over fees and everything. The downside to that is that in Texas you have to pay an additional tax when you buy a vehicle from a private seller. Boo Texas. But it is still better than paying all of the dealership fees. Not to mention we got this van below bluebook by about $1000.

We are very excited about our new van and hope that it has many years of running well ahead of it!

A Mess "Right Here"

Happy Easter!

(Don't you just love his face in this one? Ha ha!)

Easter is so much fun with little kids! This year the twins had a lot of fun searching for eggs, dying eggs, and learning about Easter.

We took them to two community egg hunts. The first hunt was very well organized and fun for the kiddos. The twins would pick up an egg and try and open it and play with it--they didn't exactly understand the concept of gathering the eggs and looking at the treats later. They eventually caught on and had a fun time. When we saw a giant "Easter Bunny," Cameron became scared and kept saying "Home," Dallin wanted to go and meet him. It is so funny how differently they react to things.


The second egg hunt was HORRIBLE! This just shows how corny some people can be. They divided a park into sections and our kids were with the 0-2 age group. They had hidden several "prize eggs" and were giving away some really good prizes like a bicycle and other things. When the buzzer rang to begin the egg hunt, several ADULTS dashed into the melee and grabbed up all of the prize eggs. Then as Cameron and Dallin began walking to pick up eggs, other adults started scooping up candy into their kids baskets. One man saw Dallin with his three eggs and handed him one of the fifty eggs he had gathered for his tiny granddaughter who hadn't done a thing. Let me tell you how annoyed this makes me. This event was for the kids, not for parents to win prizes and gorge themselves on candy. It IS a good think that our kids didn't really care about what went on and really the don't need a ton a candy. But hmph.


The Easter Bunny visited our home and left a few small things for the boys. They enjoy their tiny soccer balls, peeping chicks, and magna doodles. They enjoyed finding eggs around our house and I love that they are young enough to appreciate eggs filled with raisins and cheerios as well as eggs filled with chocolate and jelly beans.

It was my turn to teach primary sharing time on Sunday. It was so special for me to be able to teach about the resurrection of Jesus Christ on that beautiful morning so many years ago. They always say that when you teach a lesson you are the person the gains the most knowledge and understanding. It was so good for me to be thinking of what Jesus did for us all day on Easter. Sometimes it is easy to remember the worldly views of holid

Jumping Boy

On Monday Cameron took his first little jump. The twins have been trying to jump for a while now, but they never really got off of the ground. Yay for Cameron!