Monet and Mormon

Braxton's "Monet" painting. Elder Terrance Smith (a Seventy) spoke at Stake Conference last week. He said that from 3' away, a Monet painting looks like a bunch of splattered paint. But, when you step back 30', it's a beautiful work of art. Family Home Evening, scripture study, and prayer are the same way. When you're involved, they can be a little messy. But 30 years removed, you see the blessings and benefits. Lisa snapped this picture of Kanyon during the mayhem of preparing for church. I guess it's good to be off in your own little world at times.

I went to the Scout Show with Braxton and Kanyon yesterday. They went through a couple of obstacle courses, made several kneckerchief slides, flew paper air planes and bought a bag of gumballs for $3.00. We had fun. We also went for a hike as a family at Cherry Creek Park in teh morning (Trek preparation).

Travis, how is Tteenneessee?

New Pictures

Here is the first of many new pictures I have from the data Uncle Eugene gave me from Grandpa's computer. This is My Grandpa, My Dad, and Uncle Ron sitting on my Dad's Harley-Davidson motorcycle. My Dad looks young but he must have been in college when this was taken.

This has been a beautiful Sunday. Our home teachers just left and I have had one scout come to turn in his Eagle paperwork. I am waiting for one more tonight.

Tuesday and Wednesday I will be in Oregon with my boss inspecting buildings. We are going to start in the Wallowa Mountains area and work our way to La Grande and then on to Ontario. I should be home late Wednesday night.

Last week I did my 100th Eagle Scout board of review. Not bad for 4 1/2 years of work. I guess I'll just keep doing it until I get tired.

Mom and I took Uncle Eugene to the Amtrak station in Spokane on Wednesday night. We went early so we could get home at a decent hour. We got home at midnight and he sat in the train station until 1:40am. Grandpa really enjoyed his visit and they did lots of guy things. They rode around with me on two different days.

Seth is getting ready to paint Grandpa's house. They bought the paint yesterday and will start as soon as he gets a break from school. They want to be finished by late May.

That's about it. Have a nice week.

Just for Fun

I found this in a clerk's office we haven't used for a couple of years.

You Aint Seen Nothin Yet

Uncle Eugene has been here all week and while at Grandpa's he tried to organize his (Grandpa's) computer (pictures). He downloaded all of Grandpa's pictures onto his (Eugene's) external hard drive and then borrowed our external hard drive and down loaded them all onto ours. He said there is over 50,000 pictures. Many are duplicates because Grandpa would save them somewhere and then couldn't find them so he would start over. This is just one of them. You can plan of many more in the future. I am sitting here contemplating the task of organizing them into some sort of logical order. That will take days and days. Maybe I'll just do it.

New Addresses

I'm off for Memphis tomorrow morning, with a stop in Denver along the way. My friend Josh and I will be driving out together, but in separate cars.

Kelly's new address will be 369 N 300 E, Provo

My new address will be 4375 Hwy 51 N, Horn Lake, Mississippi. I'll have an apartment number, but I don't know it yet so this is just the address for the apartment complex.


Congratulations Ty! Too bad we can't make it to Iowa to see you compete.

Congrats Ty!

Yesterday was the State Competion for Odyssey of the Mind. It was held up in Longmont. Ty's team did a great job and placed second out of nine in their division. That means that they will now be headed to the World Championships to be held at Iowa State University in Ames, Iowa at the end of May. They will compete against teams from the US and other foreign countries such as Japan and Korea. Guess where we are going for our summer vacation???

This is the infamous warthog which is the center of their skit. I thought that I was finally free of this crazy thing, but I guess it will live on a little longer. (I might be borrowing a shotgun when this whole thing is over!) When it tells a lie, the nose extends. The legs move with strings as it "learns" to swim. The tail spins by way of a motor as it "learns" to fly.

Brant

Tis Spring at Last

Remember Robinson Lake Park? The Gazebo was build this last year.

I think spring has finally made an appearance. The weather is nice and the trees and flowers are starting to leaf out. Mom and I picked up Uncle Eugene at the Amtrak Station in Spokane at 2:00am Wednesday morning. He has had a nice visit with Grandpa and I'm sure Grandpa is happy to have him hear. They have been working on genealogy, fertilizing the lawn, and doing some fix-it projects around the house. Friday, they rode around with me. We finished the inventory of the new addition to the Colfax meetinghouse, had lunch at Arbys, walked around the Potlatch meetinghouse, drove by Camp Grizzly and Laird Park (still snowed in), and then walked around the Troy meetinghouse on the way home. Grandpa seemed to enjoy getting out.

Today we had our "televised" stake conference from Salt Lake today. It was nice and there were some good messages. Many of the general authorities seem to be talking about being positive and enduring these trying times.

Friday night we had a ward social. It was at Robinson Lake Park. It was kind of cold and rainy to start with but it turned our quite nice. We had hot dogs and hamburgers with all the other stuff. Most of the ward was there - I think they just needed a break from studying.

We're headed to Richards this afternoon for dinner with their family, Grandpa, and Uncle Eugene.

Congrats to Ty and his group. They are headed to the world competition in Ames, Iowa next month. Good Luck.

Have a nice week.

Easter

" The Butterfly"

"The Dog"

Saturday some families from our Ward got together and held an Easter party. They had a potluck brunch and activities for the kids. Aimee and Katie were excited to have their faces painted. It was a little chilly but the kids all had fun.

" Our Easter Family Picture"

As you can see our family did not pose as well as your kids.

Brant

EGGS!

Mom was kind enough to boil eggs for Weston to color. He was very diligent and dyed all 36 of them. He was so excited about Easter this year, and I wasn't so much. Good thing we have grandma's keeping things real behind the scenes.

We went up to Spokane yesterday to check out the Labor of Love Creations store for my vinyl. I am so excited!!! The store is very cute and I'm excited to see how my style fits in. We met Seth's parents at Spokane Falls Community College where Ned was playing baseball. They brought some lamps over for me. And we'll go back to Spokane on Friday to drop the lamps and some signs off at the store. I received a call from the Farmer's Market people this week. I have been approved as a walk-on which means I can fill in for the regular vendors if they decide not to show. When the lady called, she asked a lot of questions to clarify my creations. When it came down to it, it seems that the panel didn't think that all my creations were hand made. I assured her that I design, cut, paint, decorate, and embellish everything with my own hands. I guess it was a compliment in a way, that the pieces looked too professional to be handmade... I dunno, everything happens for a reason and this way I'll be able to do some other craft fairs and events. It'll be interesting to see how the summer turns out.

Hope everyone is well!

Happy Easter

This is what happens when Braxton gets a hold of the camera.
And this.

Isn't there a picture like this with Kevin, Travis, Matt and Lacey showing their new Christmas gifts (only we were about 10 years older).

Happy Easter.

We attended the Cub Scout Blue and Gold banquet on Tuesday. Braxton isn't 8 yet but Lisa helped to plan it as a member of the primary presidency. The theme was careers. I presented a booth on landscape design and tree climbing. I threw my rope over the basketball support and spent the night hauling kids five feet into the air. They loved it.

Yesterday Lisa had another activity, the Primary Easter activity. It went well. They tried, successfully, to put more of an emphasis on Christ and his life.

Lisa made the girls' Easter dresses. They turned out really good. Yes, I am praising my wife.

Dad, we hope your cough gets better.

Easter Rolls

We got up bright and earlier this morning (well maybe not so early, but it was bright) and made some orange rolls for breakfast. We didn't have any trouble knocking back the whole batch with just the two of us. Church was great and surprisingly enough our ward actually sang Easter songs on Easter.

I leave next Monday for Memphis, Tennessee. Rumor has it that I'll actually have a Mississippi address when I get there because the Memphis metro area crosses the border into Mississippi and Arkansas.

Anyone want to help move 20 boxes of books out of our house this week?

Happy Easter

Matt holding his Birthday Cake of Felecia's Friends
Dinner, Dying Easter Eggs, Cake, all in one day.

Grandpa and Weston.

We had a nice week. Weather was in the high 60's. I was sick from last Sunday, missed work Monday and Tuesday, felt a little better Wednesday but cough was hanging on, Thursday cough was worse, Friday cough was unbearable, went to Quick Care, got three medications, Saturday cough is a little better, today I think I may survive. It was so bad that I had to sleep sitting almost straight up from Monday until last night. I tried to sleep in my bed last night but only lasted 2 hours. Maybe I'll make the whole night tonight.

I go in Tuesday for a checkup on my toe. It feels great.

Yesterday was supposed to be "work in the yard day" but it started out raining. By early afternoon it had cleared up and was fairly nice. I fertilized the lawn and weed eated the edges getting ready to mow but then determined that it was so wet it would probably leave big deep ruts in the grass so I quit. I picked up trash, blew off the deck, talked to the neighbors, moved the lawn chairs up by the fire pit and called it a day.

Uncle Eugene is arriving in Spokane on Amtrak Wednesday morning at 1:40am. Mom and I will pick him up. He is staying about 10 days. Grandpa is looking forward to him being here.

That's it for now.

Easter

Rett would not sit with the rest of the kids for a group shot this morning.

Dying eggs Friday night.

Hallee made sugar cookies and the kids had fun decorating them with our cake decorating kit.

Raya's Bday

The cake with purple frosting. (Thanks Katie for the Birthday crown)
Sleeping Beauty dress

Thanks for the gifts. It was definitely a Princess Birthday.

We Survived!

This is the inventory I created for the fair. The final count was 150 products, most of which were created in the two weeks before the fair.

Heather and I in our booth. We received many comments that we look like sisters. We didn't purposely coordinate our outfits, it just happened. I asked Mom to make an apron and Heather asked her mom. The first morning we got ready and realized we had dressed rather similar. Little does everyone know, that we have actually only hung out four or five times. We usually drop by their house when we go to the Spokane Temple. Heather's husband went to High School with Seth. They stayed with us Thursday and Friday night. They are great people and it was very fun to have them here.

Setting up the booth. We went on Thursday night and took the furniture. The boys were kind enough to haul our entertainment center to and from. We have good husbands. Bright and early Friday morning, Heather and I set up the products in the booth. We enjoyed meeting the crafters and made some friends with the other newbies and the old timers.

During the show, my lamps were a big hit. We had a couple of ladies who asked about selling our products at their stores. I really am looking forward to working with a lady from "Labor of Love Creations" out of Spokane. They have a retail store in River Park Square between Nordstroms and The Gap. They sell some pretty high end vinyl signs and she wants to sell my lamps and some sheet metal signs. I am working on getting more lamps this week and then we'll head up to Spokane this weekend to check things out. A lady from Seattle also wants to sell our products in her baby boutique but we're not so sure on that one. And a lady from Ephrata is opening a gift shop next month and will be contacting us shortly. So, it was definetly worth it and we really enjoyed hanging out with Heather and Larry.

Now, I just need to check up on Farmer's Market. I juried for that last week, so I am hoping to hear from them soon. It's all been rather exciting and a ton of work. We both have very great supportive families.

Hope everyone is well.

Finally

I threw this one in just for fun. It was in the drawer with the rest.

Can you read the Indian sign language on the side? I think is says, "Many waters".

Notice the cool "white lettered" tires.

How's this for style?

Here are the cars you requested Kevin. Again, Mom knew right where they were.

Finally, the sun is out and the neighborhood has come alive. Yesterday was great also. We went over to Beasley Coliseum to see Lacey's booth at the craft show. It was very nice and she did sell some "stuff" (I'll let her tell it in her own words). We came home and took Weston and Koper down to the pond to see the ducks, but alas, not ducks. We did see hundreds of goldfish and one turtle. The two boys stayed with us for two nights while Lacey had her show and Seth had major tests. In the afternoon they rode trikes at Williams and shot baskets at Shears. Yes, spring has arrived.

This week I hope to fertilize the lawn and get the mower ready to mow. Right now the snow is almost gone and there is a standing lake between Stavros and us in the front.

My toe feels great. Once I got the big blue wrapping of it didn't look too bad. I walked all around the coliseum yesterday and not much pain. Today it is even better. What little pain there is does not compare to "bumping" it with the ingrown toenail.

Hope you all enjoyed conference. I heard most of it through my ears although some had to seep through by osmosis (if you get my drift).

Hope you all have good weather this week. Enjoy Raya's cake with purple frosting.

Irish Dance

Last night was Kelly's first Irish Dance Recital. She has been going to dance classes since just after Christmas. She got to do a reel with the adult class and performed excellently.

Here's a video of her dance. Sorry about the quality. I took it with our regular camera and not a video camera. I think it'll give you an idea what it looked like. Kelly starts out on the far left.

My Thursday Morning

Thought you might like to see how I spent my Thursday morning. I'm still in good humor because the pain killer hasn't worn off yet.
PS - We got 6 more inches of show this morning. I had to hobble out through the snow from the doctors office (actually, Mom backed up to the door and I only got the bottom of my foot wet)

Denver Happenings

Trent's car "Silver Blue"
Trent with his medal

Korbin and Rett in one of our snow storms

Halllee cut 10 inches off of her hair to donate it.