BURRRR!!!!!

The theme for our egg hunt was "hurry, hurry find the eggs and run back inside!!!" During church I looked out the window and saw a few flurries flurrying about! I told Dan that I am pretty sure Easter is suppose to be more "spring like"!!

Here is Fern finding her plastic Easter eggs filled with bunny graham crackers and a couple jelly beans!
Riley found one in his "hiking spot"! Jake found a few real eggs and a few "ball" eggs filled with yummy things!!We did a dozen real eggs, we like to dye them with plants. This year to keep it simple we only did 3 colors, blue = red cabbage, green = spinach, yellow = ground turmeric. We then did a couple using a technique Dan learned in Germany, we got a couple knee high stockings which then hold flowers and such in place while we put the eggs in the dye. Then they come out with pretty designs. See the second one from the left on the top row was done with a piece of fern! :)

I hope your Easter was a bit warmer than ours!!!!

A Smatering of Our Trip!

Fern loves to sit with Grandpa on his chair, notice not on his lap but beside him! :) When ever Grandpa gets the nuts out there seems a few grand kids appear!
Well the "river" got filled in this trip, so Grandpa and the boys took a trip to Home Depot and planted a garden! They planted tomatoes, green bell peppers, red bell peppers, some pretty flowers, and it seems like something else. Oh well! :) It was also St. Patric's Day, that is why they all blend in so well with the grass! :)
Tired Riley, cute Fern, ready to pop Aunt Mary, melancholy Jake, and happy Ryan, the night we celebrated Mary's birthday! MMMMM Native Foods and lemon cake!!!!!!
And the end, Fern and Jake found the chairs at the Long Beach airport quite amusing! They kept themselves busy close to 20 min. which made my job much easier!! Fern was full of cheesy grins for me too!! :)

We also got to meet up for a fun evening with some friends, the Khoury's!! It was the first of many get togethers! I didn't get a picture taken but no worries Rima did!! Happy first day officially home with your girls Rima!!!! I am so excited for you!!

We are all just trying to get back into the swing of daily life, laundry, school, ya know stuff! :) We are enjoying Dan being home too, he has had one day trip and now nothing for a couple weeks, but don't feel sorry that he is not flying, his next trip will log close to 35 hours into his log book! I am not sure I should mention where he is going, you all may end up hating my hubby! :)

We were able to watch General Conference this weekend over the internet. Saturday was good, but I think too many people were trying to watch Sunday, BYU tv kept stalling!!! I really enjoyed a few of the talks Saturday morning, they were uplifting to me, Saturday afternoon was a treat as we got to hear about the Tabernacle and then President Hinckley rededicated it! Sunday Dan was excited to get to hear Elder Dieter Uchtdorf speak, he was the area authority during Dan's mission in Germany, and he was a pilot for Lufthansa airlines. Dan saw him on an airplane recently and said hi, or rather Gootentag! :) Dan and I miss going to Utah for conference weekend and spending time with Uncle Jim and Aunt Sandy and Aunt Jo and Uncle John and everyone, but we continue to enjoy the treat of Oreos just like at Aunt Jo & Uncle John's! Luckily I have found some good non dairy ones! It really is a treat, I rarely buy them, Dan thinks that the fact that Aunt Jo's cookie jar is always stocked and that there is always back up in the pantry, heavenly!!

Baby Novella!

Have you ever seen a happier cousin!! Jake was so excited to hold the baby!
Riley was in awe, he did not want to give her up. Riley loves babies in general, but Aunt Mary and Ryan's baby tops the cake!!
Of course Aunt Danna got to hold her! What a blessing to be there and help as much as I could. We can not wait to get to know Novella better!

The Fruit of Mary's Labor!!!

Yea! Novella Royale got here Friday, she shares a birthday with her mama!!! After a VERY long labor little Novella was not doing so well, so Mary had an emergency c-section. But they are doing really well now, Novella is a good nurser too! She was 8lbs. and 20 1/2 inch. And has a good amount of her Daddy's red hair!!
I have some great pictures of the kids meeting cousin Novella, but I will share just one tonight. Here is Fern taking a peek at her new cousin.

We got home late last night (or early this morning) and are enjoying being together as a family. 2 1/2 weeks is a long time, and our house is all pretty, maybe I should leave Dan home alone more often!! :) Naaaa! :)

Dan's Pictures!

Since you all can't see what the kids and I are doing, I thought I'd let you see Dan's pretty pictures from Europe! Here is the Eiffel Tower, doesn't this picture just make you want to sing "Paris in the Spring Time"? Dan took this one just for me, because I like daffodils, I love the barely budding trees and the misty-ness of it too. Pretty, Pretty!
Here is Dan in Rome at the Colosseum, pretty handsome guy, wish I was there with him!! :)
Then at the end of their trip they stopped in Ireland for fuel ON St. Patrick's Day! Do the Irish pinch too??

We have extended our stay in Calif. (I can not say "sunny" because it is raining!) until Saturday. We are praying that the babe will decide to come on her own before Mary's midwife thinks she should come out! Mary is 41 wks. and 4 days today, so say your prayers too! Dan is getting alot of work done on the house with out the 4 of us to get in his way, so maybe you all will see more pictures of our house soon! :) I can't wait to see what it all looks like! :)

Look What We are Missing!!

Yep, it snowed, big time. Dan got home last night and had to shovel snow!!! He said there is about 6 inch. And here we are enjoying the sun! :) He He!

We are still waiting for our new niece/ cousin to decide to meet us. She has decided that she is just not quite done being in Mary's comfy belly! :) So we wait!

Thanks Dan for the picture!!

Where is Danna?

Here I am!

There have been no post because the kids and I are in Calif. eagerly awaiting the birth of our new niece/cousin! And of course as it is when I travel I can not get pictures off my camera, so you have to deal without seeing my cuties for a little while! But so that you do not feel too bad for me I thought I'd show you this photo of the beach in Encinitas, and tell you it was 80 degrees F. yesterday! I hear it is going to cool down but that is certainly a relative term after trying to acclimate to Connecticut this winter. (And a mild one I have been told!!)

So if you need to get ahold of me the best bet is email. Also don't worry about Dan foraging for himself, he is flying around Europe!

Mail!

The package that Aunt Mary and Ryan sent with the boys skateboards got here today, I think they may get a package back!
Maybe two!
Fern thought the skateboards should be hers! Jake gave her rides up and down the hall, when he decided he wanted to play with it, we all heard about it from Fern!
Jake summed it all up when he said," I am not a cowboy, I am Ryan!" He enjoyed posing for this action shot! :) Thanks Mary and Ryan!

White Fun!!

Well for the two days Dan was home we got a TON of snow, every other time we have had enough to play in he has been gone. He we so excited he took the kids out three times in one day to sled and such! Here is Miss Fern who decided she would brave the snowsuit and the cold and go play with Dad.
Here they are happy as clams. Why do we say that, are clams happy? Not when they are being eaten I suppose.
Fern is NOT sold on sledding, but Dad is sure if he keeps taking her she'll learn. :)
I got the boys to stand still for one second and I got this photo, then they took off in opposite directions!!
We finally had enough of the right kind of snow for Riley to get his snow man! He was so happy! The snowman later got attacked and knifed and his head got rolled down the hill at my Honda. Poor snowman, poor Honda.

Shhhhhhh!

Dan comes home this evening and this is part of his surprise! I completely cleaned out Fern's (aka:paint/storage) room, hauled stuff to the attic, made a box for Goodwill, and actually put stuff away! Then decided to set up the crib & changing table. Well the movers did a number on the crib, I was venting about it to Mom and she saved me by buying Fern a new crib so last night we got it all set up and today I hung a couple pictures. Since we got out the changing table I finally got out the cloth diapers! So this is a picture of Fern's new room and our first cloth diaper in CT. Now all she needs is a door and she can sleep (at least nap) in her own room! The other part of the surprise is I did some work in my craft/school corner downstairs. It was just a wall of boxes, now I can actually find school supplies and there is a good 4 feet square section of floor exposed! Now if I had only been able to keep up with laundry and general clean up around the house! I have a cold so I am not sure much picking up will happen this evening, unless I crack the whip on the boys! So hopefully he will be so surprised by these two projects that he will not notice the general disarray!

They ARE Whole Foods!

Yes Danna has finally fallen off her rocker! For dinner tonight I served oven potatoes and popcorn. And I made Ronald Regan proud, ketchup was our veggie. Have you all fallen off your chairs? Riley was so excited he asked if he could call and tell Dad, so I let him, so he told Dan, then Jake told Dan, then when I got the phone, Dan asked me what we were having for dinner. I smiled and told him, he thought the boys were dreaming! :) I did have some happy campers at dinner! But hey at least they meet the criteria for whole foods; they remember where they came from. I scrubbed the potatoes we picked up at the farm, and I pan popped that organic popcorn! So there you have it a crazy night, with very happy kids at the Hook House!

Today!

Here is miss cutie! What a good camera hog, and it is completely impossible to stop taking pictures!! It is hard to see, but the reason I was taking pictures of Fern is because she is wearing barrettes in her hair. One on ether side, they are cute snap ones covered in blue and white gingham ribbon. Grandma J. bought them long before Fern had much hair!
Then Jake came to join the photo shoot, Fern LOVES Jake a ton! Except of course if Jake wants her to do something. Fern loves to tuck the boys into bed every night, and she often times gives Jake a few rounds of good night kisses, and hugs. It is too cute!
I know another X, but it is a great video of the boys new game, Jake was not adventurous enough to let Riley push him! Smart guy! :) Fern wanted to get in on the pushing Riley over the edge action too! Don't mind the messy downstairs, or my mountain of unfolded laundry!! Have a great day!

#101!!

Wow can you believe it, this is post number 101!! Crazy!

Well as you can tell I start them young around here! This is Fern this evening helping make dinner! She did a great job and was only reminded not to touch by the pot a couple times! :) She did not want help, she pushed Jake off the stool when he tried to climb up, and don't even try to put your hand over hers!!! Fern is just growing way too fast! Gosh, I have been telling everyone that she is almost 16 months, but I guess she is 16 months today. Crazy!!

On the weather front, it snowed today while we were at church, and I would have left when it started except today was the first day of teaching in my new calling! (R.S. teacher) Luckily it did not snow as much here at our house, so I was able to get up the hill! Our ward building is about 35 min. away, a bit of a difference from our last place!

On a sad note, My Uncle John died last night. Some people may not have gotten along with him but we both had respect of one another, and I enjoyed him alot. I will miss him, and his wiggly ears! I am sad we are so far away. But I am thankful that I know that we will see him again, how sad it would be if I thought death was the end.

An Old One You Have Not Seen!!

This is from Oct, actually I think it was on Halloween, but it is so sweet with Fern's eyelashes and all so I thought you all might not mind an old picture. Especially since it will be the only one, I let the batteries in my camera die, so I missed the too cute fun of Dan and the boys out back in the ice trying to build an igloo! By the way there was ice inside on the slider again this morning! Yesterday morning it was frozen shut!!!!! AAAAAAAA!!!!!!!

Wild Cat!

How cute is this little girl!! She is wearing Riley's "coon skin" cap that Grandpa bought him on his fist trip to Disneyland when he was 10mo. old! But now it has changed from the "Davey Crockett" hat to the "wild cat" hat, because Grandpa M sent us a care package a while back and he included a DVD of a mini series of Little House on the Prairie. Now I grew up watching the Michale Landon Little House on the Prairie, so I was quite skeptical! But this was great!! We loved it, and have enjoyed watching it! Anyway in the mini series Mr. Edwards wears a coon skin hat because he is a "wild cat from Tennessee", so now when Riley puts his hat on he says, "I'm a wild cat"! It is great! So here is cute Fern when Riley put it on her! :)

ICE!!!!

You may have to click on this photo to see but there along the INSIDE of our slider door is ice!!!!
And here is outside, that is ice, not snow! It is hitting every side of the house! The wind is blowing SO hard. It is accumulating on all the window sills, and pinging on all the windows! It has only gotten to about 19 degrees! BUUUURRRR! So needless to say we are having a very nice indoor Valentine's Day!

Hope your day is a little warmer! And that your having a great Valentine's! Love ya!

BIRTHDAY BOY!!

Riley and his birthday loot!
Dad did another awesome cake (fighter jet) , this definitely rivaled the Larry Boy one for #3 birthday!
Yes and I lost my marbles for those few short minutes I was at the store and I bought loud party blowers. Fern is full of these "eyebrow faces" lately!

These were all on the 12th, Riley's birthday was the 11th but Dan was in Florida, so we waited and partied on Monday. Riley spent Sunday as any birthday boy should... in his PJ's! The whole day!! He also was quite spiffy and got numerous phone calls of happy birthday wishes!! I can not believe my baby is 6! It has just gone way too fast! :)

Keeping Us Warm!

Grandma J. is doing her best to keep her California babies warm! We got packages from her, the kids each got a stocking cap, Jake got a great Orange one, Riley a blue one (he says it keeps his ears really warm, but does mess up his hair), and Fern got this pretty pink one! I opened the package for Fern then told her to pull it out, she cautiously put her hand it, when she saw it she immediately put it on her head. How sweet does she look!!! No one else was up for posing! :) It was mostly in the teens today so these are welcomed! Fern has a little cold though so she will not be trying hers outside just yet!

Movie Day!

Ha Ha, do you all remember this movie? I rented it for the boys and I to enjoy, it was perfect for this snow day! When I was a little girl I really liked this movie, I remember watching it with my sister Mary and my cousin Nancy, we would then pretend to be witches, we'd get old books and pretend they were spell books. It was like a precursor to Harry Potter! As a side note the final Harry Potter book is being released July 21!!!! I love that so many people line up for a book release, just like a movie release. If only all books got that much attention! :) Anyway back to the movie, it was great, Angela Lansbury was very young, and I had more fun than the boys watching it!! So go rent it!! It's on DVD now!

Fun Outside!!

Of course we all went outside! It took us over a half an hour to get all the warm stuff on, Fern and I are lacking in that department! Here are the boys making their first tracks!
We had some good sledding down our little hill.
Fern screamed from when I put her warm clothes on until I took them off. Jake followed close behind because his hands hurt so much. (He would not keep gloves on). So I put a movie in for the 2 party poopers, and went back out to play with Riley, we had a great time sledding. We then thought it would be good to shovel our driveway. Yea, we have a bum shovel that is bowed, the center does not touch the ground. So I was using the kids shovels, but Fern just could not handle life with out me, so I went inside. I am hoping the shoveling fairies will visit so I can go to church tomorrow. We'll see! Riley played outside for over an hour, his cold feelers must be on the fritz!!!

Outside!

Here is what we saw last night at dinner, look we still have grass! There was no snow on the ground when this started!

Here is the same picture this morning! Look at the roof of the shed!!
Here is the front of the house. As an inexperienced snow dweller I'd say we had somewhere around 3-4 inch.!!!

Look What Happend Today!!!

Well we finally ventured out into the cold and went to the library! It was nice to be there, I have missed it! I did not get to get a book for me, but that is ok, I have a couple. But they have a good children's library, it is separate from the adult library, same building but the children's is down stairs. They even have an area with toys! It was nice because they had all the books little kids might like in the center in almost bins, separated by first letter, or they had a couple popular areas, like a bin for all the Aurthur books. Then under the bins there was a bin sideways, that is where all the board books were. This wasn't little ether, probably 8 feet long, 2 bins deep.

The big news was that Riley got his very own library card! The rule was that he had to be able to write his name (full) on the little line. We have been working up to this for a couple years, it made it so special! We filled out the info, then we started looking for books, when the librarian was finished making the card she called Riley, he went up and got it then came running back and gave me a big hug! He is so proud of himself!! Then after he had picked out 3 books he got to go check them out by himself! The librarian was great, explaining all of it, and telling him when they were due. Now Jake is looking forward to when he gets to get his own! So here is Riley with his books (are you surprised about the first book?) and his library card. He is so excited! I hope it lasts!!