January doings

 So, what happened in January??  Not much for such a LONG month!!  January is my least favorite month of the year. . . it doesn't matter how many things I plan or how many distractions I try to create, the month goes on and on and on and on and forever on!  So, here are a few of the pictures from our activities.

This is Addison.  Isn't she just so cute!!!  Her hair is finally growing some, though not as much as one would like.  She's really started liking it done though.

Although you can't see Andrew's face, you can see what a sweet boy he is.  They are usually fighting, but I managed to capture this on camera.  So cute!

These are the eclairs I made one Sunday when I was craving eclairs!!  Really I just wanted a treat and these sounded good.  They turned out really great, and with a couple of changes I'll make them again.

This is the desk that I decided to build in January.  This is what it looked like about half way done.  

This is what it looked like when I was done with it and got it all set up.  I think it turned out ok.  I learned a lot and will be able to make things a little easier in the future.  I couldn't have done it so easily without the help of my friend Jody Rugg.  She makes FABULOUS furniture.  She was a great help!!  Thanks for the help.

 It was custom built to fit perfectly under our tv and to fit all of our components of our desk like the computer, the printer, the speakers, the trash that I keep (really it's mail but it feels like trash), and a couple of projects that I feel like I am always working on that one day I'll actually do and be so happy!!!

The COOLEST thing that happened was that Josh went to India.  He was gone for just over two weeks and really loved his time there.  Here are some of the pictures that he took.

 This picture is for my Father.  It's a laser leveler.  It makes the whole field perfectly flat and even so that the water will sit evenly on it once it is flooded.  Pretty cool.

 This is a picture with Josh and some rice paddies in the earlier phase of growth.  It's what he does, so it's cool!!

This is a picture of Josh with some rice paddies just ready to be harvested.  I couldn't believe it turned so golden it looked like wheat for a second.  I also didn't know it grew so tall.  It's not what I do, so I'm still learning.

                        This is the field after the harvest.  Still different than what I imagined.

This is just a scenery picture from his travels through the country side.  He said it was really pretty and nice to see both the country and the cities of India.

These are Tea fields.  The upper half that is slightly darker has been harvested, and the lower half with a little lighter color has not been.  There was a lot of tea fields over there.

There is two different types of soil in Southern India.  Black soil and red soil.  This is the black soil that Josh is holding.  It has to be plowed several times before they can even plant in it.  That is a large clump of dirt he is holding, not a rock.

The far soil is the red soil. It's not nearly as clumpy and clay like.  These two pictures show the different soils nicely as they are divided by the road.  The black soil that is closer in this picture, has obviously been plowed a few time already.

This is another great picture for my father.  It's the only pivot in India.  The ONLY ONE!!  It was on ICRISAT's campus.  They are an international center of agricultural.  The IRRI of India (IRRI is in the Philippine).  They needed to be able to control how much water the field received (as in no drought issues) so they ordered one from the mid-west here in the states and set it up over there.  It's a cool picture.

One of my most favorite flowers happens to not only grow in Hawaii, but also in India.  I love the plumeria flower.  The fragrance is so fabulous!!

 This is an interesting picture.  The white strands are actually strands of thread bunched together.  The black segments are pieces of rubber.  They wrap pieces of rubber around the areas that they don't want dyed and then they dip it in dye and the exposed white parts change color.  They then take off the rubber and put it in another spot on the same strands and repeat the process until they have the pattern in the thread they are going for.  The patterned threads are then woven into material to create another pattern.  It's really a process.

                                       Here are two examples of how it can turn out.

Then it is weaved together to make the pattern into a piece of cloth.  It really is quite crazy!!

This is a picture of Hyderabad India.  It's a fairly large city (4th largest in India) with somewhere just shy of 14 million people!!  They didn't grow the city up, they grew it out.  So it is sprawled over 250 square miles with approx. 56,000 people per square mile.  That's a lot of people smashed together!!!!
It's known as the city of pearls.

Well, there is a bit about January.  India sounds really cool and I would like to go one day.  I'm glad Josh had such a great experience there and made so many friends.  I'm just glad January finally ended.

Christmas 2011 picts.

Well, I guess it's about time I added a few Christmas pictures!!

 This is on the way to Brayden's Christmas party at school.  The babies are so cute!!

At the school party making a gingerbread house.

Christmas morning. . . Andrew liked sitting on his Dad for a lot of the morning. 

Addison was in heaven with all the presents.  She would tear one open and move onto the next almost without looking at what she just opened!  All the kids are sitting on their new bean bags I made them. 

 Evan did a good job being patient and waiting for his presents.  He's getting so big!

Brayden was just super happy all morning long!!

You can see he was having fun!  He got that cowboy hat which is still a favorite among all the kids, especially Andrew.

Here is cute Andrew by himself.

Brayden with a new game.

Andrew again. 

Andrew's first discovery of the cowboy hat. 

 This is our family picture in our matching pj's.  They turned out well this year.

Josh's dad came out for about a week and spent Christmas with us.  It was great having him here!!  That's his new sweater.

 Addison in her cute Christmas dress riding the pony.  They really look cute riding the pony in cowboy hats and saying yeeeee haaaa!!  Unfortunately, they haven't been to good about letting me get it on camera.

This is the quilt I made for my mother.  It has all her Grandkids on it.  It was the family gift to her this year.  She really liked it which means it turned out just fine.

 This is just after they opened their pj's on Christmas eve.  Addison is saying TaDa!  She loves having pajama's like everyone else's.  It was really a cute reaction.  She kept saying "Evan pj's, Brayden pj's Andrew pj's" and then pointing at hers with a big smile.  She thinks it is great!

Christmas morning all ready!

Evan likes to be silly.  He wanted to hang his stocking from his ear.  I don't know why, but he is a cutie and likes to make people smile, so I took a picture.

Well, that's all I have for now.  Hopefully now I can capture a few other cute pictures soon and post them!!

Merry Christmas!!  (a month or so ago!!) 

November 2011

Well, I guess it's time we left October and pumpkins and finally let you in on the twins 2nd birthday!!!  I know, can you believe it!!  They are TWO!!!  Addison had gotten the hang of the Happy Birthday song when it was Braydens's birthday, oh ya, and then my birthday.  So, when she realized it was HER "happy day" she was just so excited!!!

Andrew on the other hand (as you can see from the picture) was in a bit of a grouchy mood.  It got a little better throughout the day, but he just took it all in stride.

 

He did love playing with all the presents that Addison unwrapped for him, though.  I think he opened one and just didn't care that Addison opened the rest.  She would open a present and then put it down and go find another one to open.  I can imagine what Christmas will be like for her!!

See, he was happy later on.  He loves Evan's scooter.  Doesn't he look handsome in his new church clothes!  I tried to get Addison in her clothes, but she wouldn't hold still, so all the pictures were fuzzy.  I'll get it when she wears that dress again.

Again, another Andrew shot.  He holds still.  These are the clothes he got from Grandma and Grandpa Dance.  He look super cute!

He even took the time to "hang" around Dad!

This is their cake I made for them.

They loved it and Addison, was super excited.  

Here is the singing video.  Notice how brave Andrew is after he burns himself!!!  He didn't go in to help blow out the candles after that, but he didn't cry either. 

See, she was a cutie on her birthday too!!  It's funny so many of these pictures were of Andrew, but most the video I took was of Addison!  She was just so happy on her "happy day".

Andrew did enjoy his cake.  They both love chocolate.  Yes, they have known the word chocolate for some time now.

We got brave and made the jump to toddler beds.

They look cute in them, but after the last week or so. . . 

I wish I could go back.  

They like their beds better than the playpens, and are happier, but they have TOO MUCH FREEDOM!!  Oh well, it is a good thing they are so cute.

Halloween 2011

So, here is our Halloween post!!  About a week before Halloween we "carved" pumpkins.  Actually, the kids painted and drew and stickered their pumpkins.  Josh and myself had every intention of actually carving out pumpkins, but it got too late and then we just never did it!!  Maybe next year we'll just do a couple and let them help in the carving aspect.  Who knows, we'll see.

 Addison was super into drawing on her pumpkin.  She LOVES to draw.  She wanted to use paint, but I didn't see the need for that kind of mess.

 Brayden painted on his.

 Andrew drew on his and then found out the stickers were SO cool!

 Evan had a cool face drawn on his.  He has requested I get a better picture before throwing the pumpkins away.  I really meant too!!!  At least I still can.

The next thing we did was our ward's trunk or treat.  It was on Friday night before Halloween, and the kids were super excited and cute.  They had loads of fun and were able to come away with some great buckets of candy!  

 Aren't my Mario and Luigi SO CUTE!!

The Sunday before Halloween was Stake Conference.  We had signed up to feed the missionaries.  This is what we made them.   

 If you can follow it, here is the list of what we had:  Dragon Dung on the far left, then a vegetable pumpkin, a brain, eyeballs, ghosts, and bones.  Evan made the bones and really did an AMAZING job making the breadsticks look like bones.  Overall it was really fun.  The kids thought it was just SUPER!!

 For desert we had made these chocolate covered apples.  Oh SO GOOD!!

Then the big event arrived.  Halloween day was BUSY!!!!  I took Addison and Andrew to the Y for their Halloween party, then we got home, pretended to nap (no, THEY DIDN'T!) then off to the school for the Halloween parade and classroom parties.  The kids were cute and had great fun.  Then we came home, made dinner and finished laundry (Monday is laundry day! even on Halloween) and got ready for trick or treating.  It was probably the third time I had put their costumes on them in the day, ok, maybe only the second time for the older boys.  We headed out about 5:45pm.

 Because of the NO NAPS this was a super hard picture to get.  Andrew was pretty cranky, though he LOVED trick or treating and did a WONDERFUL job!

 Here is my cute little Elmo number one.

 My Mario Brothers (or Mario Bros. as they liked to call themselves).

And of course, my little Elmo number two.  Everyone just thought the twins were SO darling and just SO cute, like having two Elmo's was just a genius of an idea!  It was since I already had the one costume from the other boys!!  Andrew loved it and when he wasn't wearing it, he was caring it around like a stuffed animal.  So funny.

Well, that's Halloween for us for 2011.  Hope it was wonderful for you!!

Happy Halloween!!

He said he wanted to do it. . .

Josh was sweeping the kitchen.  Andrew walked in and said "me do it, me do it!"  So, Josh let him.  Serious cuteness then followed.  So glad he got it on camera!!!