spring.

so. i was there at the at the sink doing dishes tonight. i look up and i see this little guy...

y'all know what that means right?

yup. it's springtime.

holla!

it's gonna be a good year. i can just feel it! :)

tree house part deux...

there was more work completed on the tree house this weekend. 

austin and dad added a swing, finished a wall, almost finished a door,  a mailbox (which was my contribution to the project), added a folding table inside and got the pulley system up and running. 

and we were right... hayley loves it. 

i'm getting excited to finish it up!

hayley loves it! see?! 

so does chowder! see?!

she's really good at climbing up and down the ladder...

how cute is this mail box? it use to look like this. 

side note: we're still working on the path... it's pretty wobbly and uneven at this point, but this kid still loves to run on it...

...unless chowder is blocking the path. then she doesn't love it as much. haha.

and she still loves to help papa water the plants. 

:)

tree house...

about a million years ago, tino convinced the dad to help him build a tree house. they had big plans for this tree house... complete with a hidden storage box, a pole to slide down, and a pulley system. well... life happened.... we all got busy. five years have passed and they are still working on this tree house, but now it's not for tino's fort... it's for the grandkid(s) - at this point it's just hayley (who btdubs loves it!). they have been working on it the last few weekends. they have added a ladder (for hayley's safe and easy access) and austin's long-awaited sliding pole. they're making great progress. maybe they'll even finish it this year! my fingers are crossed!

harry...

late last year the mom surprised us by signing us up to host a korean foreign exchange student. his name was jinhyeon jo... although he chose "harry" as his american nickname while he was here. he was from the island of ulleungdo of the coast of south korea. this was more of a cultural exchange than a legit foreign exchange as he was only here for one month. he (and the other korean kids that came) shadowed their ambassadors during school... so he went to all of austin's classes with him, but didn't have to do any of the tests or homework. can we say winner? haha... anyway. we did a lot of fun stuff with him while he was here. the school took them to the UA and an overnight trip to the grand canyon. we took him to texas canyon, kartchner caverns, the desert museum, mt. lemmon, the mall & movies, costco, texas roadhouse, etc. i didn't interact with him a whole lot, but he liked chowder... so he got brownie points for that :) he was a really cool kid... we liked him. austin definitely had fun with him. overall it was a pretty fun month! i hope harry had fun too...

on mt. lemmon...

at kartchner caverns with some other foreign exhange students...

january 23rd was the chinese new year, which koreans celebrate too. my mom had these little glass dragons made especially for harry, austin, and the principal at the school to remember the year of the dragon and our fun times with our korean friends. 

at the desert museum...

taking a dip in the cold pool. austin was telling harry that they were gonna jump in at the same time. austin jumped and harry did not. this first picture is probably my favorite picture from the whole trip. it makes me laugh :)

this was the thank you card that harry left for us when he left. funny, right? haha.... 

yup. good times.

mud love...

chowder loves to dig.... he especially loves to dig in the mud. 

yesterday the dad was watering some of the plants... it must have smelled really interesting because chowder got right in there.... so this is my question. if chowder likes just dirt and he likes dirt plus water maybe this summer he will like just water? 

hmm... we shall see...

a little piece of history...

my grandpa worked at the east oregonian newspaper preparing the typesets when he met and married my grandmother. these are their original "slugs" as my grandpa calls them, along with an original copy of their wedding announcement from monday, august 15, 1955.

pretty neat, eh?

picture time...

alrighty y'all... this is happening. 

i've started my "picture a day" blog. 

head on over to this blog to watch the year of pictures unfurl.

you can also find the link on my sidebar under "a kendle a day."

this is gonna be a good year. 

:)