Just Today!

Well since our dryer has been broken it has been raining, but thankfully today (as we were running out of clean clothes) it turned sunny! I put this load out this morning when it was still looking threatening, even the barometer was not promising. But thankfully my good faith was well rewarded with warm, drying sun!!!
Our neighbor across the street gave us some of his raspberry bush! He said once it gets established it will go crazy spreading! We also bought a blueberry and blackberry starts! Dan is just about ready for me to plant in the veggie garden!! Yea!!
Look at these weird plants growing in the spring area of our yard! I do not know what they are, they look like lettus to me!
My beautiful girl who is growing too quickly! She picked out her yellow socks to wear this morning and then found her yellow jumper to match, how cute is she!! I love how the wind is blowing her hair!

We are still enjoying Dan this week, although he leaves on Sunday to go to Long Beach! And he will have dinner with Daddy! Completely unfair! Next he'll decide to go hold my new niece and then I may not let him back in! There is nothing right now that my heart yearns more for than to hold Novella! See for yourselves how cute she is!! :)

Ta ta for now!!

Outing!

Today was a great day to go somewhere indoors, it was quite rainy and chilly! So we went to West Hartford to the Noah Webster House!
Here is the house, if you look towards the back you can see the add on, that was for the "modern kitchen", with a pull out arm over the fire place for pots and everything!! :) People lived in this house until the 1960's, crazy!
Jake learned how to card wool, (I remember learning that at 5th grade camp!)he was thankful there was something he could touch! :)
Riley really enjoyed getting to try out the little loom, he loved the big one, and thought it was great to try the little one. Our tour guide was surprised at how many answers Riley had for all her, "Do you know what this is?" questions! :)

Fern thought it horrible that we did not let her run free! And since my tumble down the stairs on Sunday I have not been able to carry her as much as she would like. So she had to put up with Dad!! :) But here is the ONE picture of me, with a little more contented Fern! :)
As always here is Dan with his eyes closed!! Oh well other than that it is a good picture. This is the modern kitchen! It was a good outing, and we enjoyed the fun!

And for our new dryer, the repair man opened the top and said, "WOW", not exactly what you want to hear the repair guy say! Well the drum is broken, big ole crack, and the rollers got damaged because of it. So on Monday or Tuesday a new drum should show up! Crazy!! And for the rest of my day, I got completely fed up with the mess the boys never clean up, (stop laughing mom!) so I took all the toys in their room and locked my self in, in the end I have 3 bags of trash and they each have 1 small box to keep treasures in, everything else went into labeled bins that can be brought out one at a time, and only after asking. Yea mom is mean, but hey there is floor in their room and down stairs now!! I'll post pictures of the pretty bins when Dan gets the shelf up for them, (tomorrow hopefully)!!!

No Pictures!!

Be thankful! You DO NOT want any pictures from our last 2 days!!! Poor Fern has had the yuckies coming out both ends! I know if you are not a parent I have just totally grossed you out and you are now leaving my blog, but for the rest of you all! I have been up and down with Fern, at first I was afraid she got some of the ice melt Jake spilt, then worried that she got some of the eggs I finally let in the house because of begging boys, and now have just settled that maybe it is just a bug. But it seems she is on the mends, THANKFULLY!!! So no pictures, mom is tired and thankful for this little smidgen of time with out a clingy crying babe! So hopefully we will go on our day trip tomorrow (after the dryer repair guy comes) and there will be fun pictures!! Dan has been busy outside, so I'll get some pictures of that too! Love ya all!!

Shopping!!

I really enjoy getting to shop at the 2 local (13 miles away) health food stores, but it is nice to make "THE TRIP" occasionally and go to Wild Oats. I walk in there and feel like a kid in a candy store! There is just so much!! So today, being Dan's first home, he worked all morning outside getting my garden ready (YEA!!!) and then this afternoon we went for an excursion to West Hartford! Here is some of our booty!! :) Sorry the boys are into playing pirates! With a chunk of our tax return we are adding to our food storage, so that is why there is so much, plus I stock up on things I can not get at the local stores!!
On our way there we saw this, I think will be an upcoming day trip, The Noah Webster House. Ya no "Webster's Dictionary"! First dictionary came from Connecticut, it looks VERY cool!
Then we passed this beautiful building, it is The American School for the Deaf. This is the only picture I could find online, it does not do it justice!!

So that is our day, I am hoping to have beautiful pictures of my garden for you soon!! It was 85 here today, everything is budding, it is SOOOO nice to see color! I can't wait to see what our yard will look like with leaves!!

So Where Do You Store Your Legos?

Last night after putting the boys to bed Fern and I came down stairs, I was watching a show and Fern was playing with the legos. Then I turned around and found her with her jammies half unzipped stuffing legos in! I of course RAN for the camera, she tried to hide from me by turning her back, she also tried to get them out fast, but they were all down in the leg, and she could not get them. It was so funny and too cute!!
This is when she gave me the "eyebrows", and I of course kept taking pictures and telling her to "SMILE"!! :) Good thing the background is pretty dark, you can't see how messy downstairs is!! :)

Spring is in the Air!!!

Well I was inspired by Cherish's spring time post on her blog, and thankfully just yesterday it got a bit warmer here!! Yea!!! Here is my first daffodil blooming! I planted a few bulbs late in the fall, the ground was already a bit frozen and I did not know if it would take! Lucky for me I have daffodils!!!!
There are a couple plants starting to show the signs of spring around our yard!
The kids and I were able to play outside yesterday and today!!

Tomorrow is Earth Day, are you doing anything fun? It is a bit hard for me to get out and supervise 3 kids running in opposite directions, but we are going to attempt an outing to an Earth Day fair at the local Natural Food Store. They have a bunch of fun (FREE) activities and tasty things to try! So we will see if mom survives and comes home with all 3 munchkins, and her sanity! :)

Crazy Fun While Dad is Gone!

Here are a few videos to start you out! First Riley yesterday hamming it up! Then Jake the daredevil, would you go head first? And finally Fern who graciously let me take this before she said no, and was done! :)Here is my fashonista yesterday, she has decided she likes to pick out her clothes, gosh the boys have never been so opinionated, vocal, and so young in their clothing opinions! She loves to hang like this on the banister, I have finally convinced her not to go further out at least!!
Splish, splash is an understatement for this trio!! Everything is soaked after Jake is though, add Fern and watch out. Riley spends the entire time yelling, "stop splashing me!!!". Riley is a funny guy!! :) Fern starts peeling off her clothes the second she ether hears the word bath, or she hears the tub faucet turned on!!

Dan is still enjoying the sun, and tried his hand at snorkeling yesterday in the Caribbean. His trip to Bora Bora got changed to the Truks & Cacaos Islands, ruff hu! :)

These are the pictures I was going to put up yesterday, but blogger wouldn't let me, I guess I should get up early (before all the west coast wakes up) and get my blogging done!! :)

Intresting Read!

I know no picture, I'll post one later, but I just read this and thought I would let you all read it. It is a link in the musings for today's comic from "Hathor The Cow-Goddess" . Interesting, and thought provoking hu! :)

A Giggle for you!!

I thought you all could use a good giggle, this picture just makes me giggle! Jake's cheesy grin, Dan falling asleep, and Riley, well it is just great! The boys were showing off their new haircuts! :)

I am in the middle of a new book, so we'll see if much gets done until I finish. What a slacker mom! :)

Oh I almost forgot!

To post these pictures!! Two weeks ago we all got to go for a ride in "Dan's airplane", they had to reposition it to New Haven the day before a flight, so we rode along then drove back home!Jake was very helpful during Dan's checklist time!
This was Fern's favorite seat in all the airplane! I just loved her little feet sticking out!
Time to take off, Riley got to ride in the "jump seat" right up front and watch Dan and Tory fly! You have never seen a smile so big!! I promise!
Jake was comfy on the couch in the back, he got to watch the TV screen, it was showing us the view from the "nose wheel camera". It was a bit trippy watching the take off and landing from the nose!!

Fern was much less happy with her set in the back, she kept trying to run up to Daddy!! :)

But we made it safely to New Haven, mama and Fern were a little queasy, it was a REALLY windy day. They seem to have alot of those here! And now we can all say Dan has flown us in "his" jet!

Just Like Mama!

Proof positive that actions speak louder than words! I will admit that I have a small addiction to the computer, I use it for many things. And I am always trying to get the kids to find sources of entertainment out side electronic media. So maybe mama should take a little of her own advice!
Fern jumps into my seat when ever I get up and forget to close the computer cabinet doors. We have a baby lock on the outside (that Riley has figured out), maybe I should get a mama lock, maybe one that is timed and only opens at certain times of the day. :) We'll see.

Today's Adventure!

We decided that since it was a nice day out that we would finally get out to explore the area! So we went to Hop Brook Lake. We actually never got to the lake, we found a great trail in the wetlands of the park and took a good 2 hour hike. Dan has decided that Jake will be my fellow tree hugger, and that maybe a career in the Forest Service would be a great fit, and I have to agree. Jake did not want to leave!
Fern enjoyed exploring this squirrel dinner table. There were tons of broken acorn and other nuts shells. Fern thought this was great.

Fern fell asleep before we left the park, and Jake was quickly asleep as we drove home, so we now have a pretty quiet house as Riley is unloading the dishwasher, and soon will be doing some school work.

I hope your day is as lovely!

Fern Got a Package!

Fern and Dad are opening it, the suspense has pulled Fern in!!
OOO, pretty!! Fern's baby quilt from Grandma Hook!
Fern admires it!

What's next? Time to try it out! Lets get cozy!!
AAH, Fern is chilling in style!

And as all good gifts come in a box, the box wins in the end!!!

Thanks Grandma Hook!!

Ok, so blogger really did not want you all to see these pictures! I have been trying to load them since 5 pm yesterday, during which I shut down my computer twice in hopes it would shake the bug! But thankfully it has worked this morning, other wise you may not have heard from me for a long time as I would have thrown it out the window! The computer that is!! :)

We will see if you get any more post today, Fern has been complaining about her ear, she is quite clingy and grumpy, we'll see if I even get though the laundry today!! :)

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! :)