50% OFF SW flights to/from the Bay Area - BOOK TODAY ONLY

FYI - for all my Bay Area friends wanting to fly between the dates of May 4 - June 10 (blackout days are May 21-25 and are not available for discount fare) or friends that would like to visit me here in the Bay Area (wink, wink)...

Fly roundtrip between any city that Southwest serves and Oakland, San Francisco, or San Jose through June 10, 2009 for 50% off! But hurry, these low fares are available for purchase TODAY ONLY using the following promotion codes:

San Francisco: LUVSFO
Oakland: LUVOAK
San Jose: LUVSJC

I'm using this promotion to welcome my little brother Clint back from his mission from Brazil!!!!

Click here for more information

Cousins

This is a picture from Easter. The 5 Webb cousins together, whether they like it or not. ;)

And just because I think its amazing to see how fast these little ones have grown and changed, here's one from last summer:

ARGENTINA!!!

My brother Hyrum is turning 19 soon and has decided to go on a mission for our church. He just got his mission call on last Thursday and he is going to go to Salta, Argentina! I am really excited for him to get this chance to serve and also to experience another country. He has a strong testimony is going there for 2 years to teach the gospel and teach about the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints. He really is going to be a good missionary.

I was curious to find out more information about Salta and what it will be like for Hyrum while he is there. It looks like it is a beautiful and interesting place. Salta is at the foothills of the Andes Mountains. It has is the home of the ancient Inca people. In 1999 three children's bodies were discovered in perfect state of preservation at the Llullaillaco Volcano in the Andes range.

These children had been offered as sacrifice to the Inca deities along with a fantastic collection of over 100 objects.Gold and silver statuettes, textiles and spondyllus are exhibited in the museum today.

The city you see today was founded in 1582 and it still bears a distinct Hispanic character and beautiful architecture.

Its varied geography includes high mountains, hidden valleys, steep ravines, lush jungles, turbulent rivers, huge lakes and remote deserts.

Its hard to believe that we wont see him for 2 years because he will be walking around with a suit and a tie talking about religion to people so far away from home, but he my 3rd brother to go on a mission so its not so hard to imagine. My brother Clint is coming back from a mission to Brazil in one more month! It is the same country that my brother Glenden served his mission in. So as you can see, there are going to be lots of bilingual siblings in my family. Makes me feel a little like an underachiever or something....

Congratulations on your mission call, HYRUM!

All CRABS go to Heaven

So I've been talking about getting the kids a pet. The day before Easter we decided to go to the pet store and do something about it. Jason wanted a snake, I thought a frog would be a good idea, Sadie still wanted a lizard, Braden... I'm not sure what he wanted... but after talking about the care of each of those things and what they would need we ended up with...

4 Guppies and a Crab!

We picked them because they weren't a big commitment. (Maybe we have commitment issues?) Only a few bucks and we already a little bowl that I bought for a goldfish a long time ago. Anyway, they have been very entertaining to watch. We got a little crab with little pinchers so he wouldn't catch the fish, but the fish actually were picking on the crab! Poor little crab kept swinging his little pinchers and legs around trying to fight them off.

We put a little house in the bowl that had a chimney that came out of the water so the crab had somewhere to hide and a way to climb out of the water if he wanted. It seemed to work out pretty good, until this morning when I found him all dried up on his back on the floor. Jason found one of the fish out of the bowl one morning and thought he was dead but when he put it back in the water he was fine. I tried that with the crab but no such luck. :( Sadie asked if we could take him to heaven so I tried to explain that the body doesn't go to heaven its the spirit inside that goes to heaven. I used the hand in the glove analogy, I think she understood. So we flushed him down the toilet. His body is with his crab friends in the ocean since "all water leads to the ocean".

So, 1 pet down, 4 to go. Not that I'm trying to get rid of the pets, I'm just not that good with them I guess.

Easter 2009

We had a fun Easter this year. We were able to have my mom here and my sister-in-law with her little girls and we also went to Nana and Papa's house for a nice dinner with Todd and Jen's family and Nate and Betty's family. That's more family than we usually get to see in one day! Since I still haven't bought a camera (I know I'm lame) I figured out how to get my old camera to work. The display doesn't work so I cant see what I'm getting in my picture or if it even took the picture sometimes. Its tricky, the on/off doesn't work but if I push "menu" it turns it on. Anyway, here's what I got on Easter (thank goodness for my photo editing program)

Just after finding the Easter Baskets that the Easter Bunny hid leaving clues all over the house:

Carter Cousin picture at Nana and Papa's:

Nana trying to get Andrew to be in this picture:

Isn't it fun getting kids to take pictures sometimes? And the more there are the harder it gets! I wish I had a picture of the kids with the Webb cousins (hint, hint Patty ;), and pictures of my mom's stay but we'll just have our memories for that.

More Baby Milestones...

10 Months Old!

Mackenzie is turning 10 months in a couple of days! She now has 2 teeth - the 2 bottom front ones (since 8 1/2 months) and crawls the "regular" way (since 9 months). She just learned to clap, wave bye, bye and figured out how to do that "motor sound" with her lips. So cute. She is climbing up on things and walking along walls and furniture.





She is getting over a little bit of Pneumonia right now. The cold she caught last week worsened into a lung infection and ear infection. :( So she has been on breathing treatments and antibiotics but she has been cooperating very well with her medication which is good. We spent one day in the ER when her breathing became very concerning and the bottoms of her feet started turning blue. I will be happy when everyone is 100% around here again since both Sadie and Braden also had colds and ear infections!

A Walk Down Memory Lane

My sister-in-law Patty found these old pictures of me when she was cleaning my grandparents house. She was kind enough to scan them and send them to me. Just for fun, I'm posting them on here. Hopefully the fashion police doesn't find out because there were some major crimes committed.




Age 2

With cousins: Anna, David, Sharon, Stewart... I think. I'm the one with the curly hair. :) You can see part of the farm I grew up on with my cousins in Idaho in the background. We lived 30 min. from the nearest town.



This picture got a few more smiles. And my baby brother is in this one, right below me.


Age 4. Posing on the deck of the new house my parents had built

My 4th Birthday:

My dad holding a video camera and my brother are in the background. My cousins starting from the the left next to me, Katie, Sharon, Anna, David, Rory, Stewart.

Age 5 - Wearing my favorite Cabbage Patch Kids shirt. ;) No wonder I'm not very happy in this picture... look at those dolls!

Age 6 - Halloween - Glenden and I were clowns, Mom and Dad were Robin Hood and Maid Marion. I remember not being very excited about the makeup my mom made me wear that day.


Age 7 - Over sized t-shirts were in style then. Especially if you wore tight pants and big socks over the top of the pants. :)



Age 4 or 5

With the cousins - notice the protective hand over my brother. I was a bossy and protective sister... hmmm.... just like Sadie :)

With my best friend and cousin, Sharon




Picture of Sharon and I maybe age 7 and 8??? LOVE the clothing styles...

Cousins: Katie, (Me), Ian, Rory, Sharon, David, Glenden

Growing up close to family is the best!

In case you wondered who Sadie's crazy hair comes from:

And who Braden learned his funny faces from:

What is Disney teaching little girls?!?

Sadie and I had a conversation at lunch today about "tummies". Sadie was pointing out the different sizes of our bellies. She told me that my tummy keeps getting big and little again. I asked her if it was little yet and (bless her heart) she told me it was little. I asked her if hers was big or little. She said "Its a little bigger. I need to get it little like this (pushing her tummy in as far as she could) because that's how Ariel's tummy is."

Scary! First off, Sadie is already toothpick skinny. She can barely keep her paints up - even the slim fit ones. Secondly, don't you think Ariel almost looks a little anorexic in "The Little Mermaid"?!

Sadie seems to bring up the size of her tummy pretty often so I hope she doesn't get too obsessed with it. I thought this wouldn't be something I would have to worry about until she was much older!

Heart Breaker

Two days ago Jason found a Gecko outside the Church building. He brought it home to show the kids and Sadie fell in love with him! He was a leopard Gecko and pretty big, probably 12 inches long, and friendly to people. I think he must have been someones pet who was either let loose or somehow got away from his owners since he was so big and not in his natural environment. Also he had been wounded on his back and his left eye had been smashed. :( Poor guy. He really was cute though. Sadie picked him up immediately and pet his head, Braden held his distance. (Sadie isn't the typical girl that is afraid to touch things or get grossed out, while Braden is the opposite)

Anyway, since we don't have any pets I thought maybe we could keep him. The kids and I took him to the Petsmart to find out what we would need to get to keep him. A big container, a heat lamp, sand, crickets or worms... it was going to be $80+! And I didn't even know if he would make it because it looked like he was week for lack of food and hurt too. So I asked the Pet shop if they would take him and they did. On the way out the door Sadie realized the Gecko wasn't coming with us. I tried to explain to her that the Pet Shop was going to take care of him because he was smashed and not feeling good. I said "I feel really sad that the Gecko was smashed." Sadie told me, "I don't feel sad, I feel mad! People need to be more careful because he is really cute and nice."

I don't know how many times since that Sadie has asked, "Is the Gecko better now? Can we pick him up yet?" I don't know how to tell her he isn't coming back. Maybe she will forget...

So maybe I should stop being a Scrooge and get the kids a pet. The only thing I am really looking for in a pet is one that cleans up after itself. Any suggestions?

*April Fools*

I came across this and I just had to share...

Google has a new option for Internet service... FREE!!

Google TiSP (BETA)

TiSP in-home wireless broadband is:
Free, fast and highly reliable
Easy to install -- takes just minutes
Vacuum-sealed to prevent water damage

Follow the link for more info:
http://www.google.com/tisp/

Finally! I knew someone would figure out a way to make Internet free eventually!