Signs of Spring

Well, it appears that Spring has finally arrived at our house. We all have a little sunburn on parts of our bodies where we missed the sunscreen, the dandelions are in full bloom in our lawn, we have our garden planted, and we are seeing lots of bugs outside.

Emilyn has forgotten bugs from last year and every time she sees even an ant or a fly, she screams like she has lost a limb. We have been teaching her that she is bigger than bugs and that they won't hurt her and once in awhile she is even brave enough to step on them. We have recently been finding a lot of lady bugs in our yard. One morning, Emilyn, Carter and Julianne were outside looking at a lady bug and holding it and talking about how they are good for our garden-again trying to reassure Emi that they aren't scary. When, all of a sudden, she stomped on it and squashed it flat. This time Carter freaked out and was so upset, he cried. At least Emilyn wasn't scared...

Leprechaun Catching

For St. Patrick's Day 2009, Elise decided she wanted to catch a leprechaun. Her parents were hopeful this would work, as we could use the pot of gold. To capture the leprechaun, Elise devised and created the patent pending Leprechaun Catcher (see pictured item). She left the "catcher" outside overnight, baited with paper gold coins. She was sad in the morning that no leprechaun was caught; however, he did leave a note and some green oreo cookies in his wake. The Poem: "You think you can trick me with rainbows and gold. But I'm really fast, even though I am old. Here is a treat to help you play. I hope you have a happy St. Patrick's Day." Maybe better luck next year. I'm kinda worried though for the Easter bunny this year.

Goblin Valley & Green River Excursion

On a spur of the moment decision, since Rick had Wed - Fri off work, Julianne had a dislocated shoulder (thus no skiing as previously planned), and the trailer now has new tires - we decided to go exploring. We didn't decide on where to go until moments before we left the house. We ended up in Green River, Utah with the plan to go to Goblin Valley. We did go to Goblin Valley and had a great time running around, on and over the hundreds of "goblin" rock formations in the valley (those little bumps in the background are 2 to 20 foot rock "goblins") .

But the real highlight ended up being our paleontology exploration of dinosaur fossils! We found a Green River brochure that described an off-road bluff that has at least a hundred rocks that have dinosaur bone fossils and / or casts of bones. Once we figured out what we were looking for, we saw tons! Carter and Elise are pictured proudly displaying a rock that has a cast of a sauropod (aka brontosaurus) neck.



Another day we again went off-roading, this time to a location of some native American wall drawings. Elise deciphered that the drawings meant "new chief," and of course we have no way to prove her wrong!

When we decided to buy our trailer last year, this was the exact kind of impulsive weekends we'd hope we would do to create fun memories for and with the kids. Mission accomplished.






And of course, a true sign of a great vacation is wiped out kids. No, drugs were not needed to induce these slumbers. Looks like we need to invest in more pillows.

Logan Trip

For President's Day weekend, we decided we needed to get out of town. So we headed to Logan, Utah and stayed with Julianne's sister, aunt Janaka. We took a day trip to Lava Hot Springs, ID and enjoyed a relaxing soak in the hot pools. The kids were once again so well behaved. On Monday we went to a park and had Janaka take some family pictures of us in the snow. We should have thought that snow on the ground would equate to cold temperatures and would have dressed our kids in warm clothes, but alas, this detail escaped us. So most of the pictures show shivering and crying children with parents telling them to "Smile !#$*" One of these choice pictures is now our "2009 family picture". Now we see why people go to JCPenney for indoor family pictures :)

"Dad, are you dead?"

On Sunday evening as Rick is sprawled out on the living room floor, enjoying a peaceful coma-like state, Emi strolls by and asks, "Dad, are you dead?" As Rick laughs as an answer, Emi responds with her puckered lip "Oh tay", and walks off. Glad to know she cared enough to ask.

Rawlins Family: 101

For those needing to catch up on the Rick and Juliane and Elise and Carter and Emilyn Rawlins family, here's Rawlins 101 for February 2009:

Rick: Rick is still enjoying his job as a therapist / supervisor at Valley Mental Health. He supervises two treatment units for children and adolescents, specializing in child abuse. At church, he was recently released as the Young Men's President and is now working with the Old Men as the High Priest Group secretary. In his spare time Rick is training for his 5th marathon, the Ogden, Utah marathon in May 2009. He still holds the fastest time for a marathon amongst his slow running buddy friends. When he's not chasing his dream to run in the Boston Marathon, he's chasing his 3 kids as they tackle him when he comes home from work.

Julianne: Julianne is still going strong as the maternal head of the Rawlins clan. Her latest parenting feat is boasting that Emilyn is now potty trained. We're trying to determine the best "diaper send off ceremony" as now all three kids can potty on their own. When she's not doling out treats for successful toilet use, Julianne is helping Elise practice the piano and do homework, or scraping Carter off her legs as he begs for her every waking moment. At church, Julianne is still the Young Women's President and enjoying having a full group of Laurels with whom to text weekly.

Elise: Elise is now 7 and in the 2nd grade. She is the most creative and kind girl one could hope for. We cannot throw away anything of "craftable" use, as Elise will retrieve it from the recycle bin and make a craft that Martha Stewart would be proud of. Elise is in her sixth month of piano lessons and at times still loves it. She does great at school and at home is always good for a snuggle and a hug.

Carter: Carter is turning 5 in March and will be starting kindergarten in August. He currently goes to pre-school and already has a girl friend. She doesn't know that yet, which is fine with us. He is a very happy and entertaining little ball of energy. If action movies ever need a foley artist, Carter would be happy to help them out - as he's always making crashing and exploding noises as he whirlwinds through the house.

Emilyn: AKA, Emi (pronounced "M" "E", which is way too fitting as you'll see), is two and a half going on five. In fact, if Carter doesn't start growing soon, she'll be taller than him in no time. As stated above, she is now (knock on wood...) officially potty trained. Once she decides she wants to do something, she does it; especially if it's something we don't want her to do. Don't cross her unless you are sporting some quality earplugs. But those earsplitting moments are lessening and she is becoming a very sweet girl. One example of this cute yet self-assurred girl is when she's going to sleep, she'll say "daddy / mommy, snuggle", but then after 37 seconds, she'll turn over and say, "Go Away!".

Well, that's the 411 for our little fam. Things are going great for us in our little corner of the world.