Thursday, May 27, 2010

Locomotion

With the nicer weather showing up, more and more we are using every opportunity to get outside and enjoy it.

Seth has recently mastered the "peddle" and loves to whip around the circle in Grandma and Grandpa's driveway.


We introduced Ellie to one of Seth's scoot-around toys with a push handle and she can't get enough. Won't be long until she is up and running (or at least walking).


Sometimes it can turn into a real traffic-jam!


Rush Hour

Thursday, May 13, 2010

Fanning the Flames

O.K., that is a dorky title, but its what came to mind so there it is.

Just before we got back to Washington from our little jaunt around the country last December, they enjoyed a couple of weeks in the deep freeze with the temp. down in the single digits (don't laugh too hard there in North Dakota- for Washington that is a deep freeze!)

During that time Mom and Dad's house was between renters and although Janice thought to run some heaters and leave the water at a trickle, we still ended up with a few frozen plumbing problems. The biggest issue turned out to be a cracked propane hot water heater. Its been running at a constant drip into the dirt basement ever since.

Well today was the day that Joel tackled the project!

We did some research on line and ask around and decided to go with a tankless hot water heater this time. So out with the old...


... and in with the new!


While Joel busy with his project, Seth had a little fun of his own. He and the neighbor (Mikey) wanted to roast some hot dogs. This was Seth's first time running a hot dog stick mostly on his own
and it looks like he did pretty good...
... until you see the other side (yuck!)

Dinner is served!

Friday, May 7, 2010

Happy First Year Ellie!

A year ago today, our sweet, spicy redheaded Ellie joined our eternal family.


What a joy it has been to watch her grow...

and grow...

and grow,



and develop into quite a little character.

She is just a hop, skip and a jump from stepping from the world of a baby



into our little toddler.



And boy did she enjoy her first birthday cake!
Happy Birthday Baby Girl!
Love your family,
Dad, Mom, Andrew, Sheridan, and Seth

Monday, May 3, 2010

Special Delivery

Joel received a package the other day with some diving fins he had ordered and was excited to open. The kids thought the fins were o.k., but the box was a true prize! Seth managed to get the packing tape off and proceeded to adorn both himself and Ellie with it.
They both paraded around pretty pleased with themselves...
until, that is, the time came for Mom to help rip it off!



Our ward put together an 'Emergency Preparedness' activity this last Saturday called "The Morning After". The idea being to help get everyone aware and prepared for things they might need to know and do after a big disaster hits our area.

I was ask to teach a class on 'Heirloom Gardening', or planting seeds and growing produce that you can collect seeds from to plant again the next year. (Something not nearly as easy and straight forward as it sounds and I thought it was!)

This is something that I knew nothing about, so I spent many hours looking stuff up and figuring it out. This book "Seed to Seed" was a great resource and I would highly recommend it to anyone who would like to harvest their own seeds.


As part of my class they ask me to have a plant start, to hand out to help people get started. They told me I could order starts and just turn in my receipts to the ward, but that seemed like a waste of money. I bought some heirloom sugar pumpkin seeds and containers and dirt and hoped I could get something to grow before my class.

Seth got in and got his hands dirty and helped me get all the dirt in the pots and even helped put the seeds in.
And Seth and I are glad to report that our efforts were a success! (and the class went well too)
I don't know that I will become the green thumb in the family, but it was fun to see something grow of our own efforts.