HAPPY ST.PATRICK'S DAY!

St. Patrick's day has been long awaited at our house for about the last 11 months! Seriously.  Since I had Tuesday off, and worked Wednedsay we had our St. Patrick's day breakfast on Tuesday...We had green shamrock pancakes and green milk. Braxton and Tanner each found a 'pot of gold' next to their plate and Troy made us some sweet shamrock placemats.  The boys were so excited when they got up and came down to eat and saw the table &  pancakes, & even more excited that mom let them have a few pieces of candy from their pots of gold for breakfast!! I wasn't sure Tanner would go for the green milk but he loved it.  Camrie even had a paper shamrock on her bottle which was half eaten before I realized it!!

Notice the rollos eaten & an untouched green pancake!

Last year's trap....

Candy left  by Leprachaun last year.

 Last year Paige helped Braxton construct a Leprachaun trap, & when the Leprachaun escaped and left shiny candy, the plans quickly began for this years trap. Now I had never heard of this before last year, so of course this very uncreative mom turned to the internet to find some ideas for Leprachaun traps.  We found what we thought would be fool proof design and Braxton began conjuring up ideas as to what he would do with a Leprachaun after he caught it.  He wasn't quite sure what to feed it or how to keep it contained since they are magic.  I also wanted to make a Moon Box which is decorated all shiny & placed in the window seal the night before. The moonlight shines on the box, which attracts the little green fella and hopefully if he likes what he see's he may leave a treat.  Braxton wasn't to keen on the moon box idea so we stuck with the original plan. 

This year's trap.

Our trap this year,  was a Leprachaun hat with a ladder leading up to a shiny gold coin and candy placed on top of a trap door enabling us to capture the fallen Leprachaun. We left it outside with the porch light on and hoped to find him in the morning.  Braxton & Tanner woke up to find a huge mess in their room (books, diapers, toys, etc all over the floor) and noticed the living room was 'trashed' as Braxton will tell you.  He went out to check the trap & found a note from the Leprachaun saying that although we had made a clever trap,  his foot got caught on the top rung of the ladder as he fell in &  pulled the ladder down into the trap.  After picking up the coin that was ontop of the trap door, he just climbed right back out & away he went.  He did notice the boy's shiny pots of gold candy through the window and magically got in our house making  a huge mess trying to find more. (they are very mischieveious you know!) He did leave a few little green treats and each a little green race car in the trap which made up for escaping in Braxton's mind.

I didn't get pictures of the fine mess that little green devil made, because Troy & I had been up all night with a very unhappy Camrie & I hadn't been to sleep at all in the last 24 hours, so as soon as Troy took the kids to school and daycare, I said goodnight to the mess in the boy's room and went to bed until noonish hoping a little fairy would come and clean it all up.   I was suppose to work a 12 hr shift, but luckily was an extra person in Perinatology to learn their machine that day, so I just went in 5-9 to finish my shift.  And as for the mess, it just got cleaned up tonight....mostly by me! Hopefully next year that Leprachaun won't be so messy or at least leave a number for a good maid!  Hope you all had a fun day!

NASCAR

Last year, about this time, Braxton- on his own- became a NASCAR fan.  Sunday afternoons we would watch a little of the race that was on and soon it became quite interesting and fun to watch as we learned more about the whole NASCAR thing and the strategy involved.  Santa, in his most magical way, left 4  tickets to the Sprint Cup at the Las Vegas Motorspeed way Feb. 28th on our  tree this past Christmas.  Of, course Braxton could hardley contain himself, and over the past few months both Troy and I have gotten pretty excited about it as well.  I printed out the rules and regulations and read up on them and we invited my dad to come along.  We weren't sure what to expect but lots of people filled us in and Nick supplied us with earplugs from MRI.

We left early  Sunday morning to snag a good parking spot (only took 45 mins from parking lot to freeway after the race) thanks to some seasoned fans from Beaver who know just the right place to park.  Some people say getting out of there can take up to 4 hours...uggg!  Of course our seats were as far away from our car as possible!! We were in the Richard Petty terrace which is on the opposite end of where we parked and came in, good exercise eh!  We found our seats which were on the 2nd row next to the track, can't possible get any closer nor any louder!! :) It was fun to be close and also right by Pit Road to see all the crews in action and how fast they work.  There were over 100,000 people there, and the weather was great!

If you have never been to a race, there is no way to explain that first lap under the green flag.  AMAZING!!! to watch a race on TV does not do it justice!  The only thing I could compare it to would be waiting in line at Lagoon for the Colossas rollercoaster when the cars go over your head and everything shakes and how loud it is...now compare that by at least x100!! We were on turn 1, so it was fun to be able to see the cars coming and going.  We also rented a pair of earphones and a scanner so we could tune into each car and listen to the drivers and crews.  That was awesome! plus it helped with the noise level in addition to the ear plugs. I learned that not only could I not hear one thing, I also stink at reading lips...my dad looked at me and  asked a question, I eagerly nodded my head and said ( let me rephrase that...YELLED)  "OK" and dug into the treat bag pulling out a big apple for him.  He looked at me shook his head and busted up laughing, we had to wait until the cars were on the other side of the track for him to yell in my ear, asking me how many laps the race was, he had forgotten! (267 laps)  We had a good laugh over that one!

Since M & M's are a staple in my diet, I've always liked #18 sponsered by M & M's even tho Kyle Busch isn't a fan favorite ( we learned that after he got booed from his Vegas hometown crowd during driver introductions). Braxton was wanting GoDaddy.com # 5.  Our cars battled it out for quite a few laps, which was fun for me and Braxton.  Braxton was a little concerned that we were missing church for the race, I assured him it was ok, especially after passing a few 'Christ's Calvary Church' 12 passenger vans in the parking lot!! Now there's an idea for Ward Conference! Too bad me and Troy just got release as the ward activities chairpersons!

We all had a great time, and well worth it to take Braxton and see him get so excited.  G.pa Smith bought  the #9 Kasey Kahne hat for Braxton and the minute he walks in the door at home, that hat is on his head! thanks dad! During dinner in Mesquite we all noticed the black rubber pieces in our hair and black on our faces.   We can deffinately say we had the complete NASCAR experience! We even DVR'd the race and watched it again after we got home.  Also, thanks mom for staying with Tanner and Camrie while we were gone. We love you!

This past Sunday after church both me and Troy laughed as we were in a hurry to get home to watch the race, which proved to be an exciting one with some good wrecks at the end! Who would've thought we'd ever become racing fans!! 

Last night Braxton designed his own race car in the Toyotaracing.com contest for the best race car design. The winning design will be used on an actual race car throughout the season.  He is pretty sure his will win so after his car design is approved go to Toyotaracing.com search and vote for BRAXTON'S FAST CAR username RACINGISFAST.  There's only 8600 cars so far,  but the faith of a 6 yr old is strong!

Our camera got left in the car during the race,so thank goodness for phone cameras:) hopefully I can figure

out how to get the pix on here, if not I posted them on my facebook photo album.  What a fun day!!

Braxton listening  to his #5 car

View from our seats

Braxton all ready for the green flag

G.pa Smith & Braxton by Jimmie Johnson 's #48 car

Braxton and Earnhardt Jr. car