It's been awhile

So I haven't posted in awhile, just the same ol' same ol' around here. 

Ethan just celebrated his eleventh birthday.  We had a knights of the round table mystery party, it was fun.

Porter turned four a week after Ethan's Birthday! Our cheesy little one!

Here he is showing off his muscles! Kaden is the fine photographer!

Lot's of fun treats that Karl made for Easter!

I dyed these eggs using old silk ties, I't hard to see, but they turned out so cool!

Easter Bunny found us!

Porter was excited that the Easter Bunny brought him a picture of Jesus.  It was cute!

Ethan was just plain excited!

Kaden and Porter painting their castle for the bugs outside.  Kaden is big into recycling EVERYTHING! so this is an old box we had that is now a castle!

We had a fun Birthday week!!!

Do you see the size of those donuts? They are from Bowman's bakery and oh soo yummy.  And the cupcakes are a like a divinity topping dipped in chocolate and a 7 min. frosting with fresh coconut.  Yeah sooo good. 

Creating

Ethan and Kaden Creating a clean kitchen.  Their favorite thing to do together - dishes! :)
Karl gave Porter some old blue-prints to color on, Porter took his ruler and pencil and laughed, ""Mom, I'm making my evil plan."  He makes us laugh.
Porter and Kaden, making play-dough shapes.
Here is the cake Kaden made.  I told him to put the "m" on the 'm & m' face down.  So I was checking on his progress and I noticed a lot of wet M & M's, he informed me he had to lick the frosting off and turn the candy around, because he had put it on wrong.  He got to eat that part of the cake! :)
Kaden creating his own snow angel. 
This is our sad looking snowman, that we made on Valentines day!  Poor thing is about to be eaten by a crocodile. 

Karl Creating a Snow Angel.  Don't let it fool you this is a delicate operation to make it turn out just right.

Karl and Ethan building a Star Wars battleship together.  Ethan won an art contest at Karl's work and they gave him a gift certificate to toys-R-Us for $50, this is what he got.

So some of my friends came over and we made cupcake for new beginnings.  One of the ladies used to teach cake decorating classes.  She taught us all kind of fun tricks.  These were a lot of work, but a ton of fun and ohh so yummy.

We've had a lot of fun creating the last few weeks.

Ok, you have a greased pig and 2 minuteds to catch him!!!!

Yeah, that was the title of one of my philosophy papers, along with the one about a chicken wearing pantyhose, a box of crayons, next week old fat men in speedos. So I went back to school, I am working on a Masters in Secondary Education. My philosophy class is sooo boring. So two days ago I wrote a paper titled, "Yeah that's what you think!" (Thanks for the idea Kathleen) because really isn't that what philosophy is? I haven't received my grade for that one yet I'll let you know. But 100% on all the others. :)
So for all those wondering, we got the word yesterday that we are NOT moving to Missouri. I don't mind Missouri, but I am glad to not have to pack up and move again, well for now anyways. Karl really likes the project he is on here, so all is well for now.
So we are enjoying the snow here in Farmington.Porter particularly likes getting bundled up and going out to play.


We took our Young Women sledding, it was on ice not snow. It was the scariest most painful activity I have participated in in a long time. I have never laughed so hard either. It was a rush. But it took about four weeks for my bottom to heal. It's painful to land on solid ice, while going 60 mph. I guess the stupid thing is was that I kept doing it. So sledding on the side of our house was much safer for the boys. Karl took them later to a better hill, I still not being able to sit properly stayed home.
For some reason I can't upload the video, I'll keep trying! :)

Karl reading to the boys before bed. 'Captain Underpants', I'm not sure who liked the story more, Karl or the boys?

This is just one of my favorite pictures!

Porter after a hard day of playing and eating candy!

Karl's Talents

I was scimming over older post and I realized I posted the talents of everyone in the family, but Karl. I promised to post more later so here are some of Karl's talents.
when we moved into this house, we loved the neighborhood and the area. We found this house for rent , I liked the upstairs - outdated- but cozy. But the downstairs had a couple of rooms with some big issues. The owner was more than willing to let Karl fix them and take some rent off. Gotta love that. Especially when we still are paying for a home in AZ. Here are some pictures:This was the Laundry Room sink. Instead of threatening the kids with a swirly, we would threaten we were going to wash their hair in this sink. :0
Grandpa Wayne putting his expert skills to work. Notice the cabinets have a lot of water damage. The house is 100 years old and I think this Laundry is too.
Here is the new and improved laundry room. I actually don't mind doing laundry in here now. Karl is now working on the downstairs bathroom. I'll post it when it's done.
Here are a couple of pictures of some of Karl's other projects.
The wood floors he put in our AZ home.
Karl Made this entertainment center for me. Still missing the front doors. Just missing the right hinges.
Karl is a perfectionist when it comes to building and making things look beautiful. This used to drive me crazy but he always produces a great product.