Cliff Notes.....

I have totally and completely been enthralled in Jane Eyre this last week. I have finished every task with the thought of "how fast can I get these tasks done so I can pick up my book again?" I have stayed up until 3 am reading. Somehow I read the cliff notes to Jane Eyre in my 11th grade honors English class, instead of taking the time to read this beloved story. So, sorry Sharon Allsop-Day (my wonderful English Lit teacher). How did I miss out on one of the best love stories ever written. I can't believe I am just now finding that this book I should have read almost 15 years ago is now on my top 3 favorite books list. If you have not read this book...you should. Has anyone seen any of the recent re-makes of this movie? If you have let me know which one is good I want to buy it.

The Evergreen Thunder.....(day 2)

As my Aunt Sandi has said before "it was a great injustice that Jeff never had a daughter" I have to agree. He was so sweet with Gwyn. He must have asked her for a hug 50 times in the 2 days we spent with them. She of course loved to oblige. Here they are swimming together.
Tucker and Seth. Mr. cool in his sunglasses!
I am not kidding, I did not get one bad picture of this boy! Seth is a little more than a year older than Tuck.
I really am proud of this picture! Seth and Susan are beautiful!
C-R-A-Z-Y ABE!

Jake in the Dugout.
The team watching the game.
Abe felt pretty cool hanging by the team.
This was the foursome. They were together non-stop. I really wished we saw them more. It was crazy to see them and have this immense love for them. I can't explain it, but I just love those boys. What a great weekend. After the last game we hit a seafood buffet called "the Experience" it was tasty. Tucker had to walk away as were saying goodbye because the tears were so close to the surface. Once we got in the car the dam broke and flood of tears abounded. He knows we won't be seeing them for awhile! Sweet boy always understands more than he should at his age.

P.S. Gil really was around, he just never stops moving and very few of my pictures turn out of him. The Ausmans got a kick out of how solid he is and he sure thought all those boys were fun.

Ausmans Day 1

This last weekend we had a great couple days with my Uncle Jeff and his family. It has been over 4 years since we saw them last. My Aunt Susan and Uncle Jeff live in Colorado. My cousin Jake had a baseball tournament in Mesquite and Santa Clara. It was so crazy because they ended up playing at the ball field in MY neighborhood. My boys were thrilled to see "my guys" as Tucker use to call them. This is Tucker and Eli together.

When my mom heard that they would playing ball in my neighborhood she hopped in her car and drove down to see her baby brother and family. We always love when Nannie comes. This is Gwyn and Nannie eating sunflower seeds.
Uncle Jeff! Love him. He was a really fun Uncle growing up. Since Bob and I have been married it seems like they were more friends than my Uncle and Aunt.
The boys and a little baseball talk!
This is my amazingly beautiful Aunt Susan. When I first met her at age 11 my brother Brad and I could have sworn she was Paula Abdual. (That was when the music video for "Rush Rush" had just come out.)
Abe just chillin'

Here is Jake in action. I don't have very many pictures of him because he was either playing baseball or hanging with his friends.
Eli Eli O
From here they are heading down to Phoenix to see Grandma. Seth and Eli have a baseball tournament down there. The boys brought candy bars to sell for there team. So here they are pushing a wagon full of chocolates around.
As it turns out, Tucker pretty much sold all of them. He had no fear in asking people if they wanted to buy some candy bars. I think we found him a summer job:)
Gwyn found her self a new boyfriend. She was totally attached to Eli. He was so sweet with her and took her everywhere. He was always chatting with her. She kept saying "where is that boy?" While swimming the next day he stayed with her all day and while all the other "cool boys" were talking he just entertained Gwynnie.

Easter Eggs......

I decided to cut back on the amount of real eggs we dyed seeing that only Bob and I eat them.
Gil wasn't to excited about the coloring of eggs so he was helping daddy mow the lawn instead. So here are my three big kids coloring eggs!
This it the first Easter she has really been excited about. She loved coloring eggs.
She was wearing more dye than the eggs....thank heavens it came out of her clothes. I love how thrilled she is about her hot pink egg!

The end result!

Hurray for Easter!

So here is Gwyn in Easter dress # 2!

Happy Easter! Here is our family right before heading off to church. I would love to say that we were just so happy but this picture tells all! I think next year we will do the Easter Bunny on Saturday. We had to rush through all festivities to make sure we got to church at 9am. I got up a little after 6am so I could be ready(that is just sad on Sunday) . It didn't even get light out until 8 am. I have to say that I was a little more grumpy than my family would have liked! Sorry. We ended up being 15 minutes late and that is a crime in my world.


My sweet boys could hardly sleep with the anticipation of the Easter Bunny. Yesterday we went to the Art Festival here in town. (pictures to follow) On our way out Abe spotted a basketball hoop for Gil and asked what we were doing with it. We told the kids that the Easter Bunny does not bring toys he just hides eggs, and that we choose to give them gifts. I am torn on the whole Easter Bunny thing.

Gil looking very dapper in his new Easter clothes. He didn't quite get the whole looking for eggs thing. He just toddled a long watching the goings on and shooting baskets in his new hoop.

Mom and Gwyn matching a bit!

Hope everyone had a great Easter.

Easter Dress # 1

Is it pathetic that she has at least 2 Easter dresses? I found this a few months ago and fell in love with it. I have been counting down the days to dress her in it. We tried a new Princess-do and she loved it....I did too!

It was really rainy here today so my lighting was only okay but I will take what I can get!
Gwyn and Rose on the rocker. She loves her Bitty Baby that her Nannie gave her. Rose went to church with us today and sang hymns and listened to the speakers with us.
I pretty much adore this baby girl! Happy Early Easter.

Gwyn's episodes~

If you know Gwyn at all you know that she can throw up at a drop of a hat. When she purges is ALL comes up. She probably throws up at least twice a week. It is usually when she is sleeping and many times she just sleeps through it. This sounds bad, and it is, but we really have had her checked out. She has had a gamet of test run and it turns up nothing. She just has a really sensitive stomach. She is a big healthy girl so they don't worry about her. Friday night was no different than many nights. I heard a little whimper and then nothing. I checked on her and sure enough she was sleeping soundly in her own vomit. Bob and I are pros at the this now and so I bathed her and Bob cleaned up her crib (yes, she is still in a crib!). She was so tired that she slept through her bath! I laughed really hard to see her sleeping like nothing was going on that I ran and got my camera! Ah, just another day in the life!

Spring Break ~ Day 1

We went to the park today. i met a bunch of my friends (kids friends too) over at the new Ivins park . My two older boys thought it was amazing. Tucker keeps telling me it's not fair that the babies get to go to the park all the time......dang that school thing:)
Cute Tuck just hanging out.

Staci brought a lens for me to try out. This is about the only picture I got that turned out. I think I need a little more time fiddling around with it. I am trying to decide what new lens I would like to get....I am open to suggestions.? Did I mention that I

have a really hard time getting pictures of my little's.....this is why Gwyn is in mid-sentence.

Tucker on the Basketball court.
My awesome friend Andrea and her very cute daughter Piper. They were my models today!


She is a GrEaT Mom!


This Tucker saying "enough pictures mom."

Gil having a really happy moment!

Abe just hanging out

Piper doing a little jumping on her soon to be thrown out chair!

Gil finding the wood chips to be very fun to throw around....let's just be glad it was at no other child.
Tucker was thrilled to find several kids from his class at school playing at the park. Here was the game that they were playing for a while until the orange broke all over. Tucker has been SO sick this week with the Influenza A. He was so grateful to be getting out today.
Abe and Sklar had a mean game of tennis. They are starting tennis lessons the end of the month, so they were practicing.
Gwyn and Pipes posing for us.