We're back!

Well, it's been over a year since our last post. Did everyone think we forgot? We kind of gave up since dealing with anything online was so slow and frusterating. We still don't have superfast internet service, but we do have a new computer and that helps a little. Here are some picts of the family. The boys are busy with baseball, scouts, youth activities and other stuff. They are the principle weeders and pickers in the garden, which is huge this year. Van is working a lot which is good for the money but hard otherwise. Rachel is doing great and eating a little more. I am still hanging in there, enjoying the kids being home from school even if it is crazy.

Here's the garden in April. Van almost doubled its size from last year. Can we keep it up???

Wyatt had a piano recital in May -- he played his favorite composer -- Chopin

Van, Ty and Rachel built this sand castle in the arena.

Ryan will be 12 this July. He's excited!

Rachel likes to eat plain sour cream. Also -- chocolate milk, honey bbq fritos, toast and quesadillas with sour cream.

Wyatt got a letterman's jacket for his birthday.

Van borrowed a neighbor's tractor to move gravel around to set up the pool. He'd love to have his own -- he loves those John Deere's.

The older boys always pick on Ryan. They're having fun while the pool fills up.

Ty and Ryan show off their muscles before they unload a bunch of wood they split for the winter.

Here's the garden now -- pretty soon we'll be canning.

Another free digital scrapbooking design by Smilebox

We took a vacation to Walt Disney World this week. I took a few of the photos and put them in this digital scrapbook thing. It's kinda fun. Kids had a great time, so did Van and I. Gramma and Grampa Floyd took us and we enjoyed spending time together. None of us had ever been to the deep south. Weather was hot and humid. Swamps were interesting to see. Van drove the whole way except for the last hour home. We drove 2500 miles! We also saw the church ranch in Florida where Grampa Bake worked in the 50's. It was really neat. We also took the kids to see the ocean - Cocoa Beach. We spent an hour there playing in the water. What fun!

April 2010 — The Latest

Ty does the long jump, triple jump, 200m-dash and 4x100 relay in track.

Rachel made blue cupcakes for FHE one night and ate almost half of it!

Van and my mom by the calves' pens.

My sister and her daughter, Natalie

My sweetie!

After church today (4-11-10)

Feeding Rachel's and Wyatt's calf - a Holstein heifer named Anna (after her cousin)

Ryan named his heifer calf Speckles. He's pretty happy.

Van built a nice little barn for these two. There are actually two more pens on the other side.

March 8th (2 days after Wyatt's 15th birthday), celebrating with presents and cake. He got his driver's permit a few weeks ago.

Rachel lost her 2nd tooth. She put it in an envelope under her pillow and was pretty happy with her coins the next day!

We just thought it would be fun to post more pictures of what's been going on lately. Van has been off work from shoulder surgery since Jan. 12th, but will be going back on April 13th. He doesn't want to, but he's glad he has a good job.

The kids and I have been busy doing the usual stuff - School, Ty in track, Wyatt in several school-science and academic groups and projects, all boys in scouts and piano lessons; Van still teaching seminary (about 10 students); and I am running all over the place, doing laundry, feeding my family, cleaning, and trying to quilt for fun. In general I'm happy. I think we all are. Life is definitely challenging, but good. We really enjoyed General Conference. My sister, Noelle, came to visit this week from San Diego. It was fun to see her and her two girls, ages 6 and 2.