Spring Activities!

I have been taking pictures that I intend to post, but it's not happening.  So here are gobs of fun pictures from our spring time adventures. 

This is a picture of my boys following my brother Matthew while he mowed my parents yard.  They marched behind him and then would run as fast as they could while he turned the corner in order to keep behind him and not let him "see them."  It was hilarious!  Uncle Matt is the grumpy uncle sometimes so it was fun to see him have a sense of humor with them.

The next two pictures are from when we first arrived and were staying the hotel.  Harmon fell asleep with the book on him, which is really funny because I LOVE to read at night and enjoy the fact that my kids like to do the same thing. 

The boys have had to share many beds recently and they always seem to end up in some crazy configuration of one boy using the other for a pillow.  Just last night I heard Ella dreaming saying, MINE...MINE!!  I imagine she was trying to pull her blanket on herself and was sleeping on it.  Oh kids are funny!!

 The following pictures are from a walk we took with my parents and my sister's 5 kids.  I was going to title that post "HERDING CATS."   That is exactly what it feels like when they are all around.  Here's the break down when all 9 kids are together.  11, almost 10, two 7 yr olds, 6, almost 5, almost 4, 2, 6 mos.  It's nuts.  I am definitely not one of those special women who could have had a dozen kids. 

Here they are checking out the big fire ant mounds.  Asking for trouble they are!

Part of the herd.

Grandpa was giving them a geography lesson regarding the conjoining of the two rivers.  Later on in the walk he taught them to skip stones.  That was fun until Ella fell into the river and then threw a massive fit over wanting to walk but I wouldn't let her because she was covered in mud and wet.  And she screamed for qutie awhile.

Sam was happy to chew on his fingers and blanket.  He is such a sweet baby.  Happy and smiling all the time.

Ella turned 2!!!!  And oh my she has been a busy two year old lately.  That is for another post though!

At first she didn't think she tried to give her unopened gifts to everyone else.  She didn't understand that they were all for her and that she got to open them up herself!  She figured it out pretty quick though!

Spring Fair!

Every year the schools/town have a spring fair and parade.  The boys had a great time getting their faces painted.  In this picture Porter is waiting for the fire trucks to come. 

Happy Sam!

Porter was amazed that everyone was throwing candy.  It was magic!  I don't think they have ever been to a parade before!  Pretty sad.

Ella did not like the loud noise so much.   She stood in front of 3 men who she didn't know.  It was funny.  She kept backing up into their legs trying to find a safe place.  They just smiled and let her stand there, all the while with a terrified look on her face. 

And last, but not least, UNCLE SAM!!!  The kids get to march in the parade.  Harmon thought it was quite fun but was disappointed that he didn't get to collect gobs of candy like Porter did.

Phew...that's it for now!

Kitchen Sink

Micah sent this last week:

We had a busy day yesterday hauling stuff to and fro. We went out to a Forward Operation Base (FOB) to drop off some troops and supplies.  Anytime we land at a remote FOB we can expect swarms of people waiting to get out. I normally do what I can to accommodate requests because we burn the same amount of fuel regardless of if we have a full load or if we are flying empty. Also, if I was stationed at a FOB I would want the same treatment when my time was up and I was ready to get out. This time when we landed they asked for help in moving a demining device(machine used to clear land minds and IEDs). They had been trying to get it out for a couple weeks and even broke it down to its componentparts to make for more manageable loads. None of the helicopters landing before us had been able to help because of their small usable loads (heat, altitude, and surrounding mountainous terrain do that to helicopters). Once they told us how much it weighed I said we could take the whole thing. They seems a little surprised but not concerned enough to talk me out of it - I didn't explain to them how we were very light on fuel for a planned follow on mission . Once they loaded it up with their bobcat they wanted to know if we could take anything else.Again they seemed surprised we could take some extra troops and gear as well as the machine. When it was time to go we had a larger than usual crowd gathered to watch. I know some of them doubted the old Russian  birds capabilities so I elected to do a max performance takeoff to highlight its capabilities. It was as if Uncle Rico of Napoleon Dynamite fame did actually throw the football "over them mountains".Looking back it was probably a bad idea because next time we are there they will expect us to haul everything including the kitchen sink.

Sunday Best

I took a few pictures of the kids on Sunday before we went to church. Pretty cute considering they all had ants in their pants!

And one of myself and Sam.  My double chin is hiding in this picture, so it turned out pretty good!  :)