A Happy Mother's Day

I want to say thank you to all the great mothers in the world.  My own mother has been a great example for me.  I am also really glad that I get to be a mother and have three healthy girls.  These are my reasons for being so happy this Mother's Day.

First, is my wonderful husband who is a really great dad and helps with the kids.  Right now, he is coloring with Whitney and Rachel.  I don't know what I would do without him.

Then comes this vibrant happy girl.  She reminds me that life is for living and laughing.

Next is my sweet two-year-old.  Rachel has become independent lately.  Yet she also likes to trail Whitney wherever she goes.

And last is my beautiful baby.  Megan is such a sweet heart and can always make me smile.

I received some beautiful homemade cards from my two oldest.

And Will brought home lots of tulips for me.  They are making the kitchen smell really good.

And Whitney took a picture of me.  I love being a wife and mother.

Everything Else Utah

Here are some random pictures of everything else we did while in Utah.  They aren't really in good order, so I hope it isn't too confusing.

At the park a couple of hours after arriving in Utah.  It was pretty chilly that first day, so Megan was only outside for about ten minutes, but she was able to enjoy the slide first.

The girls had fun getting to know people again because it has been a few months since we have seen everyone.  Rachel "helps" Kylee eat some dinner.

We played a game of Bunco while we were there because there were so many people.  It has been a long time since I have played and Will had never played before, so that made it extra fun.

My sister, Erin, and her husband have a pet cat.  This cat was mostly patient around my rambunctious children, who liked to chase it around the house.  Here Megan plays with one of the cat's toys - a ball with a squeaky mouse inside.  Life doesn't get much better than that.

We celebrated Zach's birthday while we were down in Utah.  My older girls both made lots of cards for him.  I even helped Whitney spell some words on her cards; she is getting pretty good with her letters.  Whitney was really excited for Zach to open her cards, so she helped him along.

We went out to eat at a rib place for a combination graduation/birthday dinner.  When the waiter found out it was Zach's birthday, he sang a funny song combining English and Spanish.  And then Zach got a free piece of pie.  Again, does life get any better than that?

Will's grandpa lives close to Lehi, Utah and we wanted to go visit him while there.  This was the first time Megan has met him.  It was fun chatting with him for awhile and then we all had brunch together.  My kids had a hard time being still though, so we are going to have to work on that.

We all went to a fun center called Trafalga.  Will was able to play lots of laser tagging with everyone, so I think he enjoyed that.  I mostly hung out with the girls in the arcade center and in a special kids playground area.

They weren't very good at skeetball, or whatever that is called.  But they liked being allowed to roll balls as hard as they could.

And having a dippin' dots treat.  It was the girls' first experience with the special treat.

Anyway, we had great fun in Utah.  And the kids even did pretty good in the long car trips.  Hooray for a fun vacation.

Visiting a Farm

While in Utah, we went down to the farm at Thanksgiving Point.  No one else wanted to go see some farm animals, so it was just us Keelers, but we had a fun time.  And the girls thought everything was great.  Because it was April, there were all kinds of cute baby animals to see.

There were cute little baby chicks that the girls watched for awhile.  They were in a special incubator, so the kids couldn't touch them, but you could buy them for just a few dollars.  I was a little tempted to get a couple, but you cannot have chickens inside the city limits of Umatilla. 

Getting to pet a little donkey.  As long as Will or I touched the animals first, the kids weren't too afraid of them.

I wish I had gotten a better picture, but I was waiting in line for the carriage ride.  Oh well.  Whitney and Rachel got to feed some hay to the horses.

And here we are on the ride.  It was just like a fifteen minute ride around the farm.  It was fun feeling the gentle clip clopping of the horse hooves.

There was a building that focused on how things grow and then it takes the kids on the steps of getting the food from the farm to the store.  This was a fun building because it had a lot of hands on activities.

And Whitney and Rachel's favorite place was this jail.  I have no idea why there was a pretend jail on the farm, but I guess it doesn't matter.  Whitney liked having me pretend to throw her in jail over and over.

Megan in jail and happy about it.

We let the kids have a pony ride; this was their first pony ride and we weren't sure if they would like it.  But they loved riding on the ponies.  Both of them were all smiles and even gave their ponies hugs at the end.

Rachel got the littlest pony and was very content.

There was another spot of the farm dedicated to dairy and showing how milk gets from cows to people.  Megan got to play with a little milk truck.

There was a funny sign at the end.  I don't think any of us got any special animal "souvenirs".  So it was a really fun morning at the farm.  I think the kids loved the trip.

Graduation in Utah

We went to Utah last week for my brother's graduation.  Zach is really smart and graduated in physics with a minor in math.  It was great to see him and all the other family members down in Utah.  BYU has two parts of the graduation - a big commencement ceremony for everyone and then smaller graduations for the different departments.

Zach is somewhere in the crowd of thousands of graduates.  It took us awhile to find each other but we were able to right before the ceremony.  Megan did not like the loud noise of the applause, so Will and I took turns taking her out.  Besides that it was a good ceremony.  We even got to hear from President Uchtdorf.

Zach poses for a picture after the ceremony.  

Then the next day (at eight in the morning, I might add) was the math and science graduation ceremony.  Zach waiting in line for his turn.

And getting his diploma up on the stage.  Congratulations Zach!  We are all happy for you.

The physics department had an almost party after the ceremony.  We went to a physics show and watched some cool science experiments.

Whitney even got to wear some "magic" gloves so she could dip a balloon into dry ice and watch it shrivel.  She was pretty impressed.

Then there was a huge lunch for everyone.  The food was delicious.  I think everyone overate because everything looked so good.

Finally, we went to a planetarium show and Whitney decided to try on Zach's cap.  

Anyway, it was really fun being part of Zach's graduation.  I am glad we were able to go to Utah and be with everyone.  I will put some more pictures from our trip up in a couple of days.

Our Happy Easter

So we had a great first Easter down in Pasco.  It was especially fun since it was Megan's first Easter and she was so excited for all the Easter festivities.

Rachel was given her first egg for dying and she immediately smashed it against the table.  So I guess she watches me with eggs a lot and thought that was what she was suppose to do.

Whitney was one fast egg dyer.  She probably did more eggs than anyone else.

And she has the colorful fingers to prove it.  It took a couple of days for all the dye to get washed off.

Will so kindly let me help Megan do her first egg.  It was all I could do to prevent dye from spilling everywhere.  Notice her blue green fingers from dipping the egg too far down.

So then we just let Megan color her next egg and she liked doing that. I had to prevent too much crayon consumption.

We made resurrection cookies the night before Easter.  The girls had fun smashing and stirring.

And finding the hundreds of eggs and candy the next day was the girls' favorite thing.  Rachel scored a lot under the table.

Whitney did well downstairs and found lots of candy in the bookcase.

Megan didn't get to find any candy.  But she was happy the whole time holding an empty bucket and a plastic egg.

Megan was dressed all cute in her Easter dress for church.  I have been saving this dress just for Easter.  

So we had lots of fun.  Thanks mom and dad for the happy day.