Goodbye's

Just when I thought that I could trust the young women in our ward (especially MY daughter), they throw a surprise in the picture.

Every time I asked the girls what they were doing for activities, they told me that they were working on their "camp flag". Considering all the time they spent on the "camp flag", I was sure this would be the ultimate flag. On Wednesday night, my daughter reminded me that there was a meeting for the parents after the activity. Hmmm.... I was the only parent besides the leaders in attendance. It turns out, the "meeting" was to present me with a quilt that the young women made. They even had a "camp" sleep-over to sew their squares. They each picked out the background for their square and their picture and names were on it. Nellysa was pretty proud that she had kept this from me for over a month by using "camp" excuses.

Today, friends from our ward had a farwell open house. It was really nice to have a chance to visit with friends that we have known over the 12 years of living in the ward. Thank you to everyone who shared in our lives here in Virginia.

No party could be complete without people being thrown in the pool. Kelby was the first and then Nellysa followed. Of course, there were no "big kids" out there in the middle of it right Shawn?!

Thank you friends & ward family!

Kitchen

Half of the old kitchen. Diego is supervising.
Presenting...... The NEW kitchenOld wall New wall & light

I think it is nice. Wish we could have done this years ago.

Furniture

We decided to get a new bedroom set. All of the pieces match and everything. When it was delivered, I was worried that it wouldn't fit because it was so big compared to what we were used to. I guess you could say that we have "big people" furniture now.

Who's House is This??

We never claimed to be very bright, but this became apparent over the last few weeks. We are getting ready to sell our home. We have done a lot of work on the inside (I still need to show you my kitchen), but we recently got the outside spruced up. Why is it that we do all the nice stuff for other people to enjoy and we are content to live in the state of repair and "we'll do it someday"... not very bright.

Above is our home about a month ago.

A couple of weeks ago with a new roof. On each side of the upper windows is where the rotten shutters used to be. The color of the house under the shutters was a mint green. It was not pretty.

The finished product. Kirk also put in a new wood fence along the side yard to the right. I wouldn't mind living in that house!

Must be Spring!

We seem to be finding all kinds of birds.

Kirk was clearing out the backyard and went to move the grill. He tipped it and the lid came open and there was a Carolina Wren's nest inside with 4 baby wrens. This is their mother with food. She goes in under the back of the lid.

Here are the babies all snuggled in their nest.

Close up!
The BRAVE one of the bunch.

We were able to watch them for a few days. Now they are hopping through the bushes and trying their wings. You can hear them once in a while.

I think it's a Condor :-)

We encountered an unusual sight Saturday as we were walking to the soccer fields. The first picture shows a Killdeer trying to distract people by faking a hurt wing.

If you look closely to the picture below, you'll see the reason to distract people from the path. In the top center of the picture in the gravel, is the other Killdeer over her eggs.

Killdeers watch the nest as a couple. The female usually sits during the day and the male at night. They build their nests on open ground, often on gravel. They usually lay 4 eggs per brood and hatch 2 broods per year.
I guess we need to watch our step while walking down a gravel path.

Spring Soccer

We are almost through this season of soccer. Kelby's team has played a good season and will be strong contenders in the tournament. This will be Kelby's last season with this team, but hopefully he will be able to play on a team in DC.

White boys CAN jump!
The "ALL STAR" picture!