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!!

Out My Door!

This is one thing I love, almost above anything else about my house, the view out my back door. I probably look out it a million times a day, and night. This is what I saw tonight as I looked out. I was worried I would not get the beauty with my camera, but it actually came out pretty true to life. Tomorrow is the full moon, it is neat the moon rises out my back door, and usually is setting out my bedroom window when I am up nursing Fern. I love seeing it. So now you all can see what I am seeing! Good Night!

SNOW!!

This was taken the night after we had gotten back from Calif. The Snow we have had usually falls at night when the boys are sleeping, so they have not seen it. Well this night it started falling (lightly) so Dan took them all out to see it. They all thought it was really cool, the boys even stayed out in the back yard for a while playing. You can't really see it in this picture, but there are a couple flecks falling! I stayed inside, I may have moved here, but I am not THAT crazy!! :) This morning we woke up to a little snow, so the boys were out trying to sled in our side yard, but it melted quickly, ya no because it was so warm like 34 degrees F.!! Crazy!! Next year they will have to find an alternate hill, I think that is where I am going to put my garden. At least they are enjoying it this year! :)

Dan is off again, actually in the air right now! He is only gone for 1 night, although then he leaves again Friday until Sunday. Oh well! I keep thinking about taking the kids to the library, we use to go every other week, but I would just rather hunker down and stay out of the cold! But I am afraid that once it warms up, we'll want to play outside, not visit the library! Maybe I will have to brave the cold.

Jake!

Jake is at that age where he teeters between telling me "I am a bigger man" and "I am just a little guy mama". It is too cute, and I know the days of my little guy are numbered. Soon he will not think he is my little guy. :(
Just the other evening he was helping me in the kitchen, then all of the sudden I was saying "where is Jake"! Well I found him on the couch! He never woke up for dinner and slept through the night. What a cutie. He looks so small in this picture, but he is a pretty big guy! No matter his size I am glad he is mine!

Range of Emotions!

Look at those eyebrows!!
Look Ma, I have teeth!
You talk'en to me?
Sorry these are all so blurry, Fern was getting really close and moving alot, but they were so funny! This was just after the pirate pictures, she just decided it was time to pose! These were all taken with in just a minute. She has recently found that she can use her eyebrows to make her unhappy feelings known. It is too cute, I usually end up giggling! :)

Pirates!!

Here are my 2 pirates and the damsel, not in distress! :) The boys got play silks from Aunt Mary for Christmas, they have been put to good use!!
The damsel then decided that she was going to pose! What a smile!

Party!

There are many pictures of the shower, although not many I was happy with. :( But it was great fun, lots of gals and no boys! Of course it was Mary's party, but I think all would agree that 3 other girls stole the show! So here are the 4 party girls!

#1. Mary got many wonderful gifts.

#2. Fern thought they should be hers, Aunt Mary found out how strong her niece is!

#3. And Fern's new friends, Maya & Sahara. Don't ask me which is which, they were both just adorable! Sorry for the blur, moving targets!! You can see clearer photos on their Mama's Blog.

It was great to see old friends and make new, and of course lovely to be with family! Can you see Mary's cute belly, she is getting good and round now. The dress she is wearing is one she made herself! Oh, if only everyone were so talented!! :)

More California!

Here is our gang of skaters, good thing they are better behaved than the previous skaters I hung with! :)

Ryan and Aunt Mary got the boys skate boards for Christmas, they had a blast landing on their faces!!

So here is Riley winking while skating, Ryan trying to show Jake he should stand on it instead of belly ride. And Miss Fern our skater girl with the help of Grandpa M. It was a lot of fun, too bad there was not enough room in our luggage to bring them home on the plane, so we are waiting for them to come in the mail, of course that is another fun thing, getting mail!! :) Thanks Mary and Ryan!!

The last photo is our family shot, we were going to go to a portrait studio, but we partied too long at Mary's baby shower. So this will have to suffice! It seems we end up taking quite a few pictures with the timer, Dan thinks I should get a tripod. He just doesn't like all my balancing acts!! :)

Dan is enjoying Florida sun, yesterday it never got out of the teens and with the wind chill it was negative!!! Today we got in the twenties, and watch out tomorrow it is suppose to be in the low 30's, toasty! :) Dan will get to enjoy the negatives tomorrow night when he gets in. Then off to New Mexico next week. I have recently decided I'd like to see New Mexico, maybe I'll go there someday! :)