How old am I?

 

 

Is it January 25th already?  Laura's birthday celebrations were a huge success.  With Breakfast in Bed, 150 Primary Children singing Happy Birthday, Gifts Galore,  Dinner Made by a loving family, a pink topped Cream Cheese Pie and talking to family on the phone who all wished her a happy birthday....it was the perfect birthday!  But, no....the birthday celebrations continued!  On Tuesday, Clay had the day off work and randomly said..."Laura, call a couple of girlfriends and go shopping!  I'll watch all the kids!"  Oh my goodness...that is a stay-at-home mother's dreams come true!  So, after Laura got over the initial excitement, she called up Julee and Jodi and off they went to main street.  They shopped, went to Lunch at the LunchBox and had a great time being kidless and their "lady-selves" for an afternoon.  It was pure heaven.  Thank you Clayboy for a ladies afternoon out! 

Toastie Tootsies

THE BOYS love FIRE!  Everything about it - starting it, adding paper to it, watching it, sitting by it, and of course warming their feet by it!  This is a common scene in the Ward household - all boys laying down warming their tootsies!

Famous Family on MLK Day

For Martin Luther King Day, the kids had the day off school AND Clay had the day off work - now that doesn't happen very often!  So we decided to take advantage of the day off, plus the unusually beautiful weather in January.  We packed up a picnic lunch, loaded up the motorcycles (and token 4-wheeler) and went on a picnic.  On our way, we were stopped by a car passing by....low and behold it was Tony Bullocks with the Clovis News Journal, our local newspaper.  He wanted to take some pictures of us!  The next day - we were all in the newspaper!  Then, the following Sunday, Detric was the "pick of the week" picture and featured!  We had a great time on our picnic and motorcycle ride, plus we had the thrill of being in the paper!  Happy Martin Luther King Day everyone!

 

 

 

 

 

 

And where there is mud....of course he will find it....of course!

 

 

 

 

Queen Elsa

The cake of choice, was of course ELSA!  Last time Grandma and Papa were here and we made a princess cake...it didn't work out very well for the princess!  After she was complete - she went diving into a sink full of water!  We made sure to do things a little differently this time around!  Detric is now well practiced at blowing out candles - so Papa had to help refrain him from blowing out Aparri's candles!  I think we had to relight at least 5 times because of "other" children blowing out the candles before the birthday girl had a chance to even suck in air to blow!  That little man is fast!  But, eventually it was a success and Aparri made her wish and blew out her own candles!

5 is Divine

 

The Princess of the house is now 5!  We can hardly believe it has been 5 years.  Aparri is so fun to be around. She loves dressing up, having her nails painted, dancing, and playing with dolls - but with 3 brothers she also loves to ride motorcycles, bikes, scooters, wrestling, getting dirty, getting holes in her pants, and is one tough little lady! Her favorite colors are red, blue, and purple.  She loves Pasta Roni shells and asks for them on a daily basis.  She also loves the Frozen Queen, Elsa (like every other little girl on the planet!).  We were lucky enough to have Grandma and Papa here to celebrate in the festivities! Aparri brings so much fun and personality to our family.  We love her.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

CarlsBAD? Oh no...CarlsGOOD!

Stan had been to the Caves before, back when he was just a wee lad.  His memories of the place were patchy. He could remember the elevator, a sack lunch down in the snack area, and it being memorable - but that was about it, so he was excited to go back and see the caves again!  It was Amy's first time down into the caves.  Both Stan and Amy were amazed at the beauty, grandeur, and size of the whole cave. Carlsbad Caverns is a very beautiful, exhausting, and unique experience. 

As we were beginning our hike into the caves - the guides/rangers encouraged everyone to speak in whispers as the cave carries and resonates sound.... as we hiked down, it got dark pretty fast.  And wouldn't you know it...our party couldn't hold a straight face!  Everyone was laughing, snickering rather, trying hard not to "laugh out loud" as we see a dragon dancing on the wall.  Laura was POSITIVE this was Clay's doing...it seemed right up his alley!  As Laura attempted to keep her giggles to a minimum, take a picture, and  watch the dancing finger puppet on the wall - Laura realized...wait a minute...Clay is right there - his hands are down, and the dragon is still dancing....low and behold...it is CJ!  Having a great ol' time making cave friends come to life!  I guess the apple doesn't fall too far from the tree does it?  Clay Jr.... oh boy!