Note to self

If suddenly you find that you have a large wet spot in the middle of your hallway ( and you have already done the smell test to make sure that it is not pee) and you think that one of your kids may have spilled a glass of water on it ....well.......After 3 drenched bath towels later think again.
The water just kept coming and coming and then my hallway started to smell like boy's sweaty gym socks. I had Charles pull up the carpet which was no easy task since it was not close to a doorway at all. He could tell that the leak was coming from the wall that backs up to the bathroom. Well another call to the home warranty people (this is the 3rd call we have made since we moved) and I had a nice Irish man here ripping into my wall. Here is the damage that was done but the leak is now fixed. He thought that maybe it was all the way in the attic. (Another reason to keep your closet clean - that is where the attic access is and let's just say that it was not "company ready" )
Now we have to wait a week to let it fully dry out and figure out what to do about our carpet that is going to grow mold any day now. Oh well I had a nice little lesson about copper pipes and flux and why you want to get that all cleaned off.

Soil Envy

So please indulge me for a moment.....last night my uncle came by and plowed up our garden area. We knew that this was the place that the previous owners had done a garden and we were sure that like everything else that we have found here that it was better than promised. All this time that area has been filled with weeds and random grass that we keep mowing down. Well last night when he plowed it up it almost brought tears to my eyes. The soil was absolutely amazing! I am used to the clay like soil of Roseville and the oh-so-rocky soil of Rocklin. This was a sight to behold. There was barely a rock to be found, yummy earth worms all throughout, and we even had a mole that came up out of his hole and was running around in the dirt for a while. The kids took turns "driving" the tractor and those who were not driving the tractor were riding in the bucket. Emmelyne asked if we could do this every week!
This is not our first garden that we have ever planted BUT I would not consider myself a Master Gardener by a long shot. I really know so little however I am willing to try. Do you think that it is a little ambitious to start out with a garden that is almost 3 times the size of our first house! Yep - that's right just under 4000 square feet of garden. Why not set out sights high? What have we got to lose? We only have a lot to gain. We made need help eating through all of the "fruits" of our labors.
The kids and I have been out today making raised beds 10 down - about 60 more to go! Do you have any kids you want to drop by and get some good work in? Bring them by - we could use the help.

Easter Sunday

I do not want to be overly critical however...this was the best picture that we could get on Sunday morning. I realize that the lighting is all funky, that there are big fat shadows across our faces, and that we are all squinting our eyes looking into the sun but all things considered I am glad that I have this picture. I am proud that we took it in spite of:
- us having to be at church by 8:30 am
- us having 2 parties at our house the last two nights (can you TIRED kids and momma) and Charles at a scout campout
- my need to have things perfect in order to do it and we did it anyway
- having a 4 year old that CRIES all morning when he realizes that it is Sunday and he has to change out of his "uniform" (Holes in both knees Levi's and a stripe shirt) to go to church. So fun getting him undressed out of that and into church clothes. :)
- having both of our cars and the trash can in the picture and having to stop everything to move everything
- already being late for church (OK not by anyone else's standards - just Charles' - if we are not 15 min early , we are LATE)

Oh well, I hope that you can enjoy the picture in all of it's imperfections. Notice that we were coordinating and NOT matching. (OK, except for the little boys) My kids think that they are too old for matching outfits now.

Passover Dinner

I wanted to share with you the picture from our passover dinner. We had such a great time with the Rowens. Jennie even brought some of the things that she got while she lived in Jerusalem when she was studying abroad. It was such a calming way to spend our Easter eve.

Spring Egg Hunt!

More cookie making

I just realized that no one except Rexton is smiling in these pictures (but he is always smiling when there is food around) I am sure that it is just because they were working so hard on their masterpieces! They were having fun I promise.

Spring Party Part 1

Since the first day of Spring came so close to Easter this year our Spring Celebration fell on Easter weekend. Emmelyne and Brooklyn enjoyed having their best friends come and participate int he festivities. Everyone enjoyed decorating the sugar cookies and more importantly having their own frosting so they could lick their knife and no one would complain.

Basking in the sun

I think that Hudson has been enjoying the warm sunshine that we have been having lately. I will find him laying down around the property just soaking in those glorious rays. He does not ever really fall asleep but he reminds me of my friend Matt who had a medical condidtion when we were in high school that caused him to fall asleep all the time and anywhere. Or was that just a teenage boys excuse? Just kidding, I know it was legit.
So these pictures reminded me of a great friend from high school who had a medical condidtion that

St. Patrick's Day

As you can see green was the color of the day! We spent St. Patrick's Day dinner with our friends the Fawson's and their cute kids Danny and Kate. In stead of the traditional corned beef and cabbage (which I just cannot stomach) we did an Irish potato bar with all the fixin's. Amber made a giant chocolate chip cookie pizza with green cream cheese frosting and more yummy chocolate.

Spring is Almost Here

These are pictures from our property that are evidence that Spring is almost here.

With the amazing weather that we have being having lately here in California , you would think that it has been spring for WEEKS. I have daffodils that have come and gone already with many more still to bloom. We have had the signs of spring all over our property. The peach trees have these AMAZING pink blossoms all over them. There are bird's nests everywhere to be found. We even got to go and see Aunt Ann's baby sheep that were just a few days old. (She has had 2 more in the last week too) I am really falling in love with this season.
As all the kids get excited about Spring Break, Easter, and having more daylight hours to play with dad in the evenings I realize that Easter is really springing upon us. I am taken back because it is so early in the year and I have not done much of anything to get ready for it.
The last few years Charles and I have been attempting to "wean" our kids off of all the Easter Bunny hype. I love a good party just as much as the next guy (if not more in fact for those of you who know me) but I was tired of doing the whole Easter bunny thing. It felt so contrived and without purpose. The last 2 years we have done something different for the week of Easter and Easter Day. I came across this book: A Christ Centered Easter . I have so enjoyed the ideas in this book. It gives ideas for talking about the days that led up to the death and resurrection of the Savior. The devotionals that it lays out begin on the Sunday before Easter - Palm Sunday and end on Easter day. They can be as simple or elaborate as you want it to be and they have ideas for preschoolers through adults so that you can make it applicable for your family situation. Even if you just followed the recommended passages that they listed to chronologically follow along with the events that took place it would be great. Here is a really cute bookmark that you could print up for your family that lists out some recommended Biblical passages that you could do with out having the book.
We have really enjoyed this new tradition. I have to say that our favorite thing has been the Passover meal that we do on the Jewish Sabbath - Saturday. We eat our dinner the Saturday night before Easter, sitting on the floor around our coffee table. We eat food that would have been similar to the foods at the time of the Savior. We eat with our fingers and turn out the lights and eat by candlelight. Here are some of the foods that we have done in the past. (Obviously this is not truly authentic because I do not think that I could get my kids to eat goat cheese, lentils and lamb!) Dried apricots, Dried pineapple, raisins, nuts - a few different kids, pita bread, honey or honey butter, olives, celery(NO RANCH), grapes, cantaloupe, hard boiled eggs, cheese cubes, hummus, fig newtons (that is as close as I can do to figs), yogurt, grape juice and then I buy a rotisserie chicken that we just use our hands to pull apart and enjoy.
So is there a happy balance between the kids not having their childhood scarred because they never had Easter baskets and over doing the commercialism of the Easter holiday? Absolutely. I think that this is a great idea. I was reading on a blog of a mom that has been trying to work this out for her family and this was her solution. They celebrate the first day of spring - March 20th, which this year is so horribly close to Easter that it ruins this whole idea BUT.......
They go all out with decorating and dying eggs, the egg hunt, decorating a bunny cake or sugar cookies, have a great spring picnic - the possibles are numerous. Usually this will fall at least a few weeks before Easter and you could really feel like it did not interfere with the real meaning of the Easter season. Just a thought. Let me know if you want me to email you some of the ideas that are in the book that you could use for your family if you choose to do this. I just thought that this was a great compromise. Why do you think?
Happy Spring!!!

You have to watch this video all the way through. It's a little long at 4 1/2 minutes, but the end is a great example of why we call Emmelyne our "stalwart" child. Great job Emmelyne, you rock!

Only in Mayberry - I mean Penryn

The fire truck coming to pick her up!

Emmelyne trying on the fireman's clothes. (These belonged to the
Fireman of the Year for 2007)

Mom and Emmelyne after a really fun night

I still go on and on about how much we love it here in Penryn. It feels a little like Mayberry, from the Andy Griffith Show, sometimes. Last week I got a phone call from the school secretary telling me that Emmelyne had been selected to be the Penryn Firefighters Student of the month ( 1 child chosen from the whole school) and wanted to get my permission if that was ok. I said that was fine. In my mind I am wondering why she even called to ask since I am thinking that this would be a little shake of the hand and a certificate. (That's how it was when I was in school) Well this was something quite different! She had to get my permission first because the fire department would be coming to pick her up in the firetruck at our house and take her back to the station and make dinner for her there and then bring her home. What a treat! Emmelyne has been counting down the days and it finally came last night. We were outside waiting for them to arrive and because of the orientation of our house we can see cars coming down the hill before they even turn down our road. We saw the truck and realized that it was taking a long time to come down our road. They probably didn't know if they would be able to turn around so Brigham ran down and let them know that it would work. Guess who rode down with the firemen down our driveway - Brigham! He was thrilled. Emmelyne chose me to go with her and we enjoyed a VERY bumpy and curvy ride back to the fire station. I am so glad that I did not get sick. We got a little tour and met a lot of nice firemen and the chief. Then we enjoyed a dinner prepared by them of hamburgers and french fries. We sat through a board meeting and then they took us home. They put on the lights and siren for us to announce our return. So fun and definitely a night to remember. Like I said before where else does this happen? Only in Mayberry!

Hudson AKA Calvin!

Hi everyone! This is Charles. I'm sure you'd rather hear from Danee, but I promise she'll post soon.

One of my favorite things to do when I was a kid was to read Calvin & Hobbes comics and books. I still have a lot of the books from that time. The older kids have enjoyed them and now Hudson is getting into them. If you know Hudson you know that he loves to pretend and play in his own world. He has now discovered a new world to pretend in. Tigger is no longer Tigger. He is now either Tiger or Hobbes and Hudson is Calvin. If you're familiar with the comic strip (and with Hudson) you know there could hardly be a more appropriate fictional character for Hudson to associate with. It's kind of scary actually.

We sure do love Hudson aka Calvin!