Tyler playing on Sammi's bed with their wonder pets

Ian in the cupboard. I don't know how to spell that word. Pretty soon he will be so big, and won't easily fit in there.

Showing how tall he is in relation to the cupboard for my memories

Tyler's first horse ride. He loved it. I wanted the kids to experience both bareback and saddle.

Sammi making her birthday pizza. I don't have her pictures of her birthday party, they are on another camera. Happy 10th birthday Sam!

The kids 1st ride on horses. They took a few rounds having us lead, and then the kids took to it very well and had fun riding in the pasture. (Sam and John)

Sam and Adam having fun learning to ride by themselves.

2nd time riding for John, 1st time bare back. He loved it.

1st time riding. Obviously the horse pictures are on a different day. We went a week apart. We will be going every week, when the weather is good.

Adam didn't want me to lead him. I didn't want to get the bridles. The first time they came, I only had the oldest 3, this time I had all the kids alone and I didn't want to deal with a run away horse.

The first time for Adam. He loved riding alone.

Adam taking Johnny on a ride

Ian sitting on the horse. He tried to hug the horse a couple of times while sitting up there and would get a mouthful of mane and then sit back up. He loved the horses.

A few pictures of Johnny's 5th Birthday. Happy birthday Johnny!

We have been having tons of fun and lot of work at the same time. School is going well and all encompassing. One of our extra curricular activities is going to be the horses. learning to groom, saddle, ride, and clean up after. The kids are so excited. Of course I am too, as some of you know I lived on my horses as a kid. I would even pick up my older sister from the bus stop on our horse. I would usually have to walk home as my sister would be mad at me for bringing the horse. :) I was a slow learner to what would make her mad. hahaha. But really, I am excited to be riding again, and give the kids opportunities to learn and appreciate animals. I have been offered to have the kids even be watched so I can go riding with adults, on A REAL RIDE! so cool.

Joe and I got a sitter on Sat and had a date getting firewood. We put sides on the truck and with a few delays we finally started around 11am. We loaded the last of it around 400 and came down the mountian. With the delays we had the sitter here for 7 hrs. yuck. We definately couldn't take the van up there. 4wd only. We loaded the truck and have a beginning of a good dent of firewood for next winter. Joe strained his back, that happenes to him quite often. Maybe I should have been a chiropractor.

We have had tons of fun. School is going well. The kids are making friends slowly, because of living in the country, but have had a few places to meet people. I met a family when Adam had a pinewood derby race, and the mom told me about activities some of her friends do. They planned to have a egg hunt between sessions of General conference on Saturday.

We went and Johnny thought it was the biggest party he has ever had for his birthday. His birthday pictures will come later. Johnny had a fun birthday and thank you for the calls. He loves phone calls and loves getting mail. Five is the birthday where he definitely wants to milk the day for birthday presents. As soon as he woke up he was asking when we would give him presents. We made him wait till after lunch to give them to him. He was patient. We had fun and love the fun of Easter and birthdays.

Thank you all who have written and sent notes. It sure has made my day. The notes the ward ladies sent made me cry happy tears and I really appreciate the thought that was put into those notes. Thank you friends I miss you too.

Joe has gone in a helicopter a couple of times for work looking at the lines and has fun doing it. What an experience!

A family in the ward brought us a load of wood and we are so greatful. I know it is much warmer than in Indiana but we use only the wood to heat the house. Thank you.

Ian getting some Easter eggs

John playing

hanging out

Adam playing

Tyler playing

Sammi talking to Ian

The group of kids that went on the egg hunt

Ian so cute

Tyler showing his loot

Sam and Ty

Adam hunting for eggs

Johnny showing his loot

the kids all sang Happy Birthday to Johnny. I think he sang the loudest.
He was so excited to have so many people at his "birthday party"

One of the pirks of the job!!!!!!!

He is found

I was calling the wrong animal shelter and finally got a hold of the correct one. Saturday afternoon we decided we should go drive by the shelter hoping we could see if her was taken there. to our luck he was. We changed our numbers yesterday and the shelter couldn't get a hold of us and since I was calling the wrong shelter they didn't have information for me. Sunday the worker called and told us when she got to work on Sat AM that our dog was there guarding the place. Obviously he liked the place and had that as his homing device. He ran 5 miles to get there and she said he slept the whole day. We went and got him before we went to church and he was happy to see all of us. We are all relieved he is with us again.
John and Ty are taking swim lessons at the Y and are having tons of fun. I will find something else for the older kids to do later in the week.

Dog got out!

We put the dog out last night about 9:00 pm and called for him at about 9;30. 2 gates were left open and he is gone. The kids are devastated and we searched for about an hour. hopefully the pound will pick him up if someone finds him. So that is the end of going to the beach today. Hopefully someone finds and calls for him to be picked up or he miraculously find our home.

I finally have internet again

Well I have not had computer access since we left Indiana on the 5th of Feb. I am so excited! Well I didn't have the chance to tell you all but we have moved again. Oregon is our new home and hopefully now it will be permanent.

We traveled and visited as many people as we could before we arrived and stayed in a hotel for 2 wks. It really wasn't as bad as when we moved to IN. This hotel had 2 rooms a kitchen and livrm space. We had to do that because the rental we were waiting for wasn't available til the 1st of March.

The ward is nice and have met a few people at church. I have been trying to unpack and get the house ready, so I haven't been out much but getting groceries and stuff. We will have the elders here tomorrow night. We are on 5 rural acres and we just got a dog we named Jack at the animal shelter. I really think we found the perfect match. He is calm and loves each of the kids. He has even had the kids not being very gentle with him and he is still very sweet. He is a Lab, Australian Shepard mix and is about 1-11/2. The kids love him and they have fun leading him around.

The kids have had fun running around. Sam got a tick in her bellybutton and I got it out successfully. She is sore but hopefully she won't have problems with it.

Joe is adjusting well in his job. Always tons to learn in a new job.

well I didn't post in order

Well I was going to post Adam's birthday, Halloween, Ian's Birthday, Adam's baptism, Christmas, New Years and the new news. I jumped ahead to Adam's baptism. So now back.

spidey John

playing outside

Ian's 1st birthday looking at the candles

Ian's birthday cupcakes Pictures of his "party" on another camera

our ginger bread house
I got a picture of Santa trying to escape.

Ian put this glove on by himself he was so happy

playing outside

John pushing Ian on the vac

Ok 1st things 1st

All right I know I really have not posted about anything forever!

Here are some picts of Adam's beautiful baptism. Joe baptized him and we had a beautiful program with tons of friends who came to support him. With the help of my friend Robin I made a video to show of Adam when the guys were changing. It was so great to share pictures of Adam with people and for him to see the pictures was fun.