Grrrr....

It has taken me 2 days to find time to download pictures and to be able to sit down and blog. However...... Blogger is not letting me put pictures up! And there is nothing exciting happening here, so all I had to offer was pictures.

I am sorry. I had some super-cute pictures and I wanted to show you Delaney's red cast, but nope. No pictures tonight. Check back later, when we are no longer experiencing technical difficulties.

If bad things come in Threes.....

The first bad thing was the van. The silly transmission-failing van. But that is all better. We've moved onto the second bad thing.

Oh, things started off great. Rylee enjoyed licking a "rainbow" pancake for breakfast.

Rylee, Delaney and I had a fabulous drive to Little Rock, and then onto Oklahoma. We are visiting Miranda. I was suppose to be here to be a helper to her with her brand new baby.

Unfortunately, 4 hours after we arrived, we were here, in the ER waiting room. Isn't that the saddest little face?!

Poor kid, she was so sad and pathetic. And she's s tough cookie, so you know it was bad. We made it to the back of the ER pretty quick.

They took x-rays on a portable machine, so it was already right there in the ER. That made things quick and easy.

She got a dose of Lortab and a spiffy splint. Awesome! She has a "radial distal fracture". It is right at the end of the bone, clean through.

Here we are, all done! 2 hours after leaving for the hospital, we were on our way home. Delaney has red lips because they gave her a popsicle for being so good. Terrific nurses, great doctor, a really good experience. Delaney was a trooper and did so well. The staff loved her so-not-funny jokes and her cheery (when not crying) smile.

And here is the culprit. Delaney was standing on the top of the slide when she toppled sideways off of it and landed on her hand. I saw her face when it happened and I knew it was bad.

We have to see the orthopedic doc and get a permanent cast soon. Delaney is hoping for a red cast!

Meet the Nephew!

I drove 12 hours to Oklahoma to visit my baby sister. I only brought Rylee and Delaney with me. We came because we like Miranda lots, AND she has produced a most amazingly adorable second offspring. Meet my new nephew, Ethan!

Somebody has some seriously adorable genes going on!

He's gearing up to howl here. Still, isn't he cute?!

Oh, now he's mad! (And still cute!) Quick! Hand him off to his mommy!

Van Follow up

Last week this would have been a vicious diatribe on the van. However, this week, it is old news and I can write a follow up without feeling angry. So, here is the story-

The last Monday in March, the transmission went out in the van. My beloved Toyota Sienna with 52500 miles on it. It is a 2007 and the warranty expired in Jan, so it was 2 months out of warranty. The quote was $4466.21 before taxes. It should be finished getting a new transmission Friday night. I called corporate Toyota and complained. The nice lady said she'd look into it.

The van was not ready Friday night. I heard the explanation through Dan- they had to break something to get the transmission out and now we have to order a $250 part, wait for it and get it fixed too. Fortunately, it was General Conference weekend and we had no need to try to stuff a family of 7 into Dan's car, which seats 5.

The van was suppose to be ready Tuesday, but it wasn't. Wednesday afternoon, I carted the 2 little girls the quarter mile to the front gate to meet the shuttle van, which took us to the dealership to pick up the van. They were able to give us a minor discount and the total was $4544.78.

On the plus side, corporate Toyota eventually called back and is offering us a $1000 reimbursement (which will take 8-10 weeks!).

And that's what happened to the van: 10 days with no van, gobs of money, and a new transmission.

Easter Eggs!

My girls adore egg hunts. I'm not sure if it is the hunt itself, or the candy inside. When I was a kid, there wasn't candy inside the eggs. We had a marvelous time hiding and finding eggs at Easter. Now it seems that candy is the main part of every "holiday" and the egg hunting for the sake of hunting has disappeared. Sigh. We had 2 egg hunts this year. The first was at Rylee and Delaney's preschool. They had a cute little egg hunt in their playground. I liked it. They even hid eggs in the equipment, although there were still plenty just scattered along the ground. Afterwards they had a luncheon.

Rylee was too cute! There was a 16 egg limit and convincing her to stop grabbing eggs was tough!

Delaney had a good time, but refused to look at me. She was too busy hunting eggs!

Check out their super-cute shirts! The yellow chicks are actually their footprints!

I did make them eat good stuff before cupcakes. Delaney was excited to get this one with lots of frosting and sprinkles.

There was also a base Egg hunt, and I took all 4 girls to that. It was crazy It was a hot day and there was no shade and there was lots and lots of waiting. They also had it so the kids went in one age group at a time. So Marian was totally finished before Delaney and Callie (the 5-6 group) went in. And they were all done by the time I accompanied Rylee in. The toddler group was out of control. The number of parents was probably greater than the number of kids. The eggs were just tossed in the grass on the baseball field, and with the toddler group, you couldn't even race to the end because the crush of doting moms and dads was too great. Rylee made a break outside the fence line, so that's how we got to the front! Oh, and there was no egg limit. As a matter of fact, the object was to collect the most eggs! The one with the most was the winner and golden eggs got prizes too.

It went better than I expected. There were LOTS of eggs. Marian and Callie both said they got 59 and neither was a winner. They also said it was worth it. The girls all had a good time, despite the wait and the heat. And they've been snacking on candy for the last 2 days!

They were on the far side of the field, so it was hard to get a picture. Here's Callie with her collection of eggs. They herded the kids off the field to the bleachers to count eggs. That's where they are headed here.

Delaney was a straggler, and was the very last person out of the field! She got a little lost at the end. She enjoyed herself though!

Rylee thought she was pretty funny! Fine, she was!

The first couple eggs she picked up, Rylee would shake. She didn't hear any candy rattling inside, so she threw them back down! Funny kid! I finally convinced her to keep them. She ended up with a whopping 32 eggs. Check out the press of humanity behind her.

My girls and their loot haul.