.::The Things Grandpas do for their Boys Pt 1::.

I came home from helping Kris at school one day last week and here was the sight I saw:

Mr ultra cool Grandpa had set up a big pad made up of his blankets and pillows on the rug, and Max was leaping onto it from the ottoman. He was having an absolute blast.
He would do a countdown:

(note the cool new way to do three, he figured that one out himself.)


this takes a LOT of concentration.


ZERO! Alright, GO!

Woo hoo!



I think part of what added to the extreme enjoyment of this was that in the past jumping off the ottoman in any form has been outlawed. So getting to do it was more than a little bit thrilling I'm sure!

I love this picture. Sultan was coming over to sit on me since I was down on the floor.

Looks like fun, huh? What a fun Grandpa to come up with something like this. I'm not sure he would've ever let us do it when we were kids, but I guess that's what it means to be a grandpa. You get to indulge the little ones.
And who wouldn't want to let this:

Do this?

More grandpa indulgences and activities to come later.

::Easter Fun::

We started our easter festivities early, on saturday. We got together with friends for an easter lunch and egg hunt. My friend Carie hosted the get together. Lunch was nice. We had ham sandwiches made with our yummy homemade bread.

Carie's husband was gone on a business trip, so my dad spent a little time with their baby, Eliot.

Eliot wasn't so sure about it at first, he wouldn't eat any food dad gave him. But he warmed up pretty quickly.
After lunch a couple of dads went out to hide a good amount of eggs.

It was a perfect set up for an egg hunt for those four years old and younger.

We let the kids out and they were very excited for the hunt.

Eliot hung out with my dad.



Carie took the great picture above.

It was extra fun this year because Max is finally starting to understand stuff like this. He did a great job hunting for eggs. Last year he was starting to get it, but still wasn't quite there. He's getting to be so much fun nowadays!

Look how happy he is. Yay.

Isobel did a very good job finding eggs too.


Check out their loot.



We went inside to empty out eggs and the kids started chowing down. It seemed like they had a great time. It was so fun to do this for them. I got a little inkling of how fun it must've been for my parents to set up our huge easter egg hunt every year. Well, fun and also a lot of hard work.

And if you see this guy bouncing off the walls anywhere, don't give him any more candy....please?

.::Found::.

So we have a place to live in Providence now.
One of the wives of a current resident at Kris's hospital was sweet enough to go visit a couple of places for me and send pictures. Luckily one of the apartments she saw we really liked, and the landlord was willing to work with us and hold it until May.
Here is a quick pictorial tour, and by the time you're done with it you'll know as much about our new place as we do! It's a 3 bed 1 bath apartment.
It's in downtown Providence, in an area really near a couple of colleges (Brown and RISD). There's lots of fun activity and walking culture in this area and we really like it.
Here's the outside.

There's an apartment on the 1st floor and one on the second floor. Both are vacant right now so we were lucky enough to score the 1st floor. Which I think is good because nobody deserves to live under both Max and Sultan. Yikes.

Parking is right here on the side of the house. Luckily we're already used to parking in the "elements", so that won't be too much of a change. At least there's parking for two cars at all! In this area of town that's actually kind of rare.
Here's a shot of the front room looking out from the dining room area:

It looks nice, don't you think? Clean and stuff. It's really similar to our current house as far as the way it looks, and probably in age as well.

Here we're looking into the dining room from one of the bedrooms. I'm glad the walls are already painted colors I either like or can live with, it's nice.
Here's the bathroom:

yea, it looks pretty much just the same as our current bathroom, and yeah, we're going to have to share with Max for another couple years which is definitely a bummer, but oh well. At least it looks clean right now!

Here's one of the bedrooms. All three bedrooms have closets, which is great! And they look like they're ok sized.

This is Sultan's yard. We're very pleased at the idea of the nice big privacy fence, which should cut down on midnight sessions of barking at cats. And it'll be a nice place for both Max and Sultan to have fun in, when not covered in cold snow.
And last but CERTAINLY not least, the kitchen!

I'm excited about it. I think it looks so nice. So much nicer than our current kitchen for sure!

It's been remodeled in the last couple of years which is great.
I'm really excited. We love the area the place is in and it looks like a we're going to love it.
What do you think?

::Oh Yum::

Guess what?

My dad came to visit me and he got us a bread machine! Yipee Yipee!
It smells so good in my house now. And the bread is delicious. My dad is like the bread expert. He's been making delicious bread with his machines for a long time, so he's pretty much the master.

Here's a dorky picture of me with the delicious crusty bread.

Ok, don't look at me, just look at the bread!

If you come over you can have some warm bread with butter and jam, or honey, whatever you like.
Thanks Dad! And we're loving having him here for other reasons besides fresh bread too. I'm sure I'll have more to post later.

.::Cute little Kitty::.

OK I'm back! I've had a lot of school stuff going on that's been keeping me from doing much fun blogging, but something happened a few weeks ago that I've been meaning to post here, so here you go.
There was a nice warmish day a few weeks ago--(maybe a month or two ago, I don't know.) It was so nice we all went on a walk together to combat the cabin fever.. The three of us people and our humongous hairy monster of a Sultan dog.

See? He's big.
So we were walking along the path at the park, and a lady with a really tiny little wimpy dog came walking from the other direction. She got up next to us and Max said,
"Oh look! It's a cat!" He was very delighted to see a cat being walked in the park on a leash.

It was funny to have to explain to him that it was actually a dog. He was slightly confused. And how could he not be, with the manliness of Sultan being his definition of DOG?

See, he's manly and huge. Look out all you cats on leashes, we're coming to get you.

As soon as everyone gets untangled, that is...

::ARGENTINA?!?::

Murphy is going to Buenos Aires, Argentina on his church mission!! (For those of you that may be unfamiliar with our church missions please see the end of this post)
He leaves in June. We're so proud of him and excited for him! The best part is that I should be in Utah when he leaves. I'm so glad about that.
I don't know anything about Argentina really, and certainly nothing about Buenos Aires, so I thought I'd turn to flickr to try to get an idea for what he could expect to see. Here are a few of my favorite images, courtesy of different flickrites.
visit this photo's site for more info here. Gorgeous, isn't it?
The colors of some of the buildings are so beautiful!
This was only one of the many--to see some more vivid shots look here or here. I love it!!
The countryside looks gorgeous.

This photo's page is here.

It appears that people tend to break into spontaneous tangos in the street.
A lot.
There's loads of cool architecture such as this bridge:
Wow! And for more click here.
Well Murphy, all I can say is take your camera with you! It looks like a beautiful place.

**Our church sends willing young 19 year old men (and women who are 21) on a two year mission where they proselytize and teach. They try to find people to join the church and serve and teach existing members. They're sent all over the world. It's a wonderful program, both for the church and for the missionaries. If you have more questions don't hesitate to ask about it.

Congratulations Elder Randle!!

.:.:Might Actually Happen:.:.

Kris and I went yesterday and paid $100 bucks for the privilege of graduating from UMKC.
Well I guess the money was actually for the privilege of being able to wear goofy outfits and walk across some stage somewhere.
I now am a proud owner of a graduation outfit, color: drab. Couldn't they come up with a better color for us business people? I think it's rude.
Kris only gets to rent his "regalia".
So it was brought home to me after we walked out of the school's bookstore, cap and gown in hand, that we might actually for real graduate. It might actually happen. And I'm sorry, but that's blowing my mind a little bit.
It's totally insane.
Now I just have to try to concentrate for long enough on my school work to get it done, so I actually can graduate!!

Yesterday was a really beautiful day out here, and today's shaping up to possibly be nicer. It's so nice to have a break from the winter weather. Just the idea of spring brings so much optimism with it, at least to me. There's light in the house and everything smells better.
And although I'm not a fan of having to wake up an hour earlier, and I'm still trying to adjust to it, having more light has been so nice! I feel like I'm actually alive during the daytime for the first time in months.
So yesterday I walked by a little flower shop that had tulips for sale, and couldn't resist. I went in and got myself a bunch. I have to share them with you because they're so incredibly pretty.

They make me happy. Happy wednesday to everybody. Happy March. We're all going to make it.
Oh, and my youngest brother Murphy is going to be opening his mission call tonight, I'm so excited to see where he's going to be headed! I'll keep you posted.