April fun in the sun (or at least not in the rain!)

Silly Chicken, Speedy, and Chepe--our new baby chicks

We added some baby chicks to our family this last week. We have 2 black Australorps and 1 Plymouth barred rock (in case you're wondering...) The kids love to go out and check on them and talk to them. We are planning to let them free-range in our yard. We have them mostly for learning, but we will also use and share the eggs. They have been a lot of fun so far.
Yesterday we went up north to the church camp and I helped design and install a buffer zone to provide privacy to the camp. It was beautiful day and we had fun. Henry worked along side of me for 2.5 hours! He helped plant and tagged all the plants. He really knows how to put his nose to the grindstone. I am really proud of him. Afterwards we played by the river; throwing rocks into it and stacking them, and I took a nap in the sand.

Here are the kids in a huge swing with a barrel to sit in. FUN!
Afterwards we went to Thenos Dairy because they had $1 scoops in honor of their 65th Anniversary. They were huge scoops too. I had French Apple and Peach Cobbler. And as you can clearly see, Fern had Strawberry! Both kids were nasty little messes by the end of the day, but it was a good day out in the sun, being together as a family and providing service.

They sure are cute little guys though aren't they?! Well Monday is supposed to be int he mid 70's! So we are very excited for that. spring has been a long time coming and we are so grateful that it looks to finally be here. Anyhow, hugs and kisses to all. Have a nice week.

Easter Update

Well there are number of things to talk about today. First off: Happy Easter!
April 1st my Bro.Logan came up from Utah with his family and spent a few days with us. Henry and Fern couldn't get enough of their cousins. Logan's youngest; Davis is such a cute little guy. We love them all. The idea for the visit was that we were going to go downtown and see some stuff, but it was raining cats and dogs. So much so that we set a new state record for most rain over two days (in April?) 1.31 inches! My poor Mom doesn't get that in several months over in E. WA! Logan was only going to spend one night but it turned to snow that evening so there was a bonus night.
Friday thru Tuesday it was sunny and low70's! We planted our garden on Saturday, We had so much fun. We spent over 5 hours there. We tilled, raked, set the paths, and got he first round of veggies in. Then the kids got horse rides to boot. We all got some sun and went to bed tired and content. We have been starting our seeds indoors under a grow light, that is placed under the kitchen table, as that is the only space we have in this small house. Oh how we love our garden! On Wednesday we will be purchasing 3 baby chicks, as we will be raising chickens for the kids learning (and some eggs).One thing that I guess that you all would be interested to know is that we are looking to purchase our first home. With e economy so far down, as also the housing market, coupled with massive amounts of foreclosures, there are some great deals to be had. Mostly meaning that we can finally afford a home. Still most home that we can afford are fixer-uppers, but Lyn and I tend to prefer that, since we can feed our own personalities into it, vs a sterile, characterless new home. One nice thing about a foreclosed, fixer, is that there is tons of equity to be gained! The home we are most excited about(a remodeled 50's home) sold 3 years ago for $247K at 1,010 sq ft. Thanks to a finished basement it is now 1,820, and we are looking to pick it up for around $170K ! although we think that we might wait a few months to see how much further this will go down. Even The Fed doesn't think that the economy will stabilize till sometime in 2010. Anyhow we will keep you posted.
Yesterday (Sat 11) we went to West Seattle to the tide pools. We missed low Tide by 2 hours, although the starfish, and Sea Slugs were further out, we still were able to see alot of neat creatures. We played with Sea Anemones, Geoducks (giant clams), and tiny Rock Crabs. Also the afternoon was just beautiful. Henry kept running around exclaiming "Hey, Look at this!" . we wore our rubber boots so that we could wade further out. Rubber boots are essential here in WA for myriad reasons. After that we went to a trendy used record store and found some cool music. Then we saw a cool furniture store and got some ideas for our 50's house. Then finally we found a model train store that was packed with lots of neat stuff. After we got home and had French toast for dinner, we colored eggs, and then the kids feel asleep instantly. :)
so anywho that's about it for now.
have a nice week.

Happy Birthday to..Me

Well Still not much has happened around here other than I finished another year of life. [Caleb] I am now 33. Man, how time flies! When I was a teenager I never thought I would be here. of course as a teenager, I never thought about ANYTHING that wasn't in the here-and-now. I can't believe thought that I am greying in the temples though. I am pretty sure that comes form children,... mostly Fern. I had a cool B-day. Lot's of friends on facebook said hi, that was cool. Henry (Lyn) made me a neat "worker man cake" it was a landscape with grass and flower beds and a house and a hole being dug. It had a 'work ahead' sign and 4 little people that held up the candles. Lyn caught me at such a nice moment... We kinda forgot to watch the candles !!I am so proud of my family. I am so thankful to have the Gospel of Jesus Christ in my life to guide me in raising my kids. I want them to be kind, caring, conscious people who can live, and love in the moment and who can be a force for good. I am really proud of my wife who will be Homeschooling our children (more Unschooling for those who care to know the specifics) and who already raises them without the aid (mostly hindrance) of TV.
I am glad that we are aware of the need for a more conscious lifestyle. So many people just do things because that is what has always been done, not because they have thought of it or because they choose it. I have found that most things SHOULD be evaluated, as they are not optimal for our society, our families, ourselves, or our bodies.
Also I am glad that I get to plant a garden every summer. We just received our seeds in the mail yesterday. We will be doing mostly heirloom varieties [OLD varieties from before the 1950's when most veggies were breed for appearance and shipping durability, not flavor or nutrition].
Some of the sweetest moments I can remember are from us being out in the garden toiling for our food. Sometimes I think of all the good that could be, if every family grew a garden: People would eat so much more healthily, pollution would be dramatically reduced (the average American meal travels approx 1000 miles to arrive at the table) , people would get more exercise, less TV, spend more time with family. on and on and on.
Any way this is a blog and I can share my thoughts, no matter how disorganized or weird they are, and you get to read them, if you want.
So there!

Chirrrp Chirrp

Sorry guys about NO new posts, but we have had nothing of note happen lately. Except for the fact that it snowed here on Sunday. This is like The Winter-that-never-ends. We are seriously considering moving to somewhere warmer if next winter is like this. How 'bout Austin TX? I've heard lots of nice things about it lately. Anyhow, I guess that one other thing that is really cool to tell you about is that Henry gave his first talk in church yesterday, and he went to the front of the Primary and he gave his talk all by himself, completely unassisted! I was so proud I could burst! He and I developed a system of pictures that reminded him of what to say, it worked out smashingly. Anyhow that's about it. Oh and the power went out last night(Sunday 15th) that kinda sucked, but it reminded us that we normally DO have electricity and that so many people in the world do NOT.
Random picture for you amusemnent. Twirps- Dec. 2006.

A day in the life at home

I've found that some days (definitely not all) can actually work out really nice and by the end of the day I feel like I did my job as a mom and my kids responded well and we all just got along nicely. (These are usually followed by a couple of days that make me question my aptitude for being a parent, so please don't think that I live a relative life of ease...)

A nice day: A couple of days ago we (me and the 2 kids) went to 5 stores on errands plus making a $ deposit at an ATM and no one freaked out (not even me...), Fern fell asleep for her nap peacefully in less than 10 minutes while Henry quietly played in his room without interrupting, made a jacket for baby penguin together with Henry telling me how he wanted it (a simple fleece cloaklike thing with a hood, button and ribbon "belt"), made dinner and everyone liked it and ate it (pizza...kind of hard to go wrong...), then Caleb put the kids to bed (this is what usually happens--very nice to have him be the bedtime person at the end of the day; even a good day!)

So glad that I have some of both days (well, not so much the frustrating ones...) so I can truly appreciate the happy times and silly memories. (I guess even the soap incident isn't so bad a couple days after...)

2 weeks worth here

So we have lot to go over here, so pay attention! Ok good!
So 9 days ago (Fri) we left Woodinville to go over to my parents house. We spent the night and the next afternoon we left to drive to Utah. I know what you are thinking "Wow! they're brave!" Well you would think either brave or foolhardy, but in the end my children did exceptionally well. While we were down there we spent time together as Bros. We have alot of fun! We saw my and sis, and cousins got to see each other and we got to see our Aunts and Uncles and My grandparents Hulse. We ran down to Provo (in the middle of a storm to see Lyn's Grandpa and parents. That was fun, Man you shoulda seen the look on her moms face when she opened the door to see us - Awesome! It was Grandpa Hulses 80th B-day so we had a celebration. The truth is that he is not doing so well in his battle against cancer and we don't think that he'll be with us much longer. I am really sad to see him like this and I will miss him. But I am thankful for the knowledge that I will see him again in the afterlife and that we can be together as a family. Any how, Monday on the way back they read and played for nearly 11 hours without any fuss. So as a reward we let them watch Disney's Fantasia on my laptop. They could have made it the whole way with out, but I thought that it would be a nice reward for them. I really don't understand why parents put in DVDs for their kids when they are going across town, or even a few hours away. Haven't they read that TV is the suspected cause of ADHD? TV really does rot the brain!
The weather here has been incredible, sunny and mid-50's for most of the week. Friday Lyn and I went to the NW Flower and Garden Show.(w/o kids, thanks to our dear friend Laura) It was downtown so we took the bus. We (I) had alot of fun seeing fresh new landscapes and cool new plants. Afterward we went to the Westin Hotel to the Coldwater Grill for a VERY fancy meal. (we had a buy 1 get 1 free coupon) It was probably THE fanciest meal we have ever had. Super classy! As we ate we realized that we had missed Valentines the week before, so this was our V-day. I proposed to Lyn 10 years ago!!!!! Wow time flies.

Yesterday we decided to go Hiking. We went over to Issaquah to a place called Poopoo Point. It was a 1.5 mile hike with a 1,500 foot elevation gain. At the top you could see for 70 miles And we had an unobstructed view of Mt Rainier. Henry hiked the whole thing by himself AND had energy to run around chasing a Frisbee afterwards. At the top is where Paragliders jump off. After we had been there for 45 min a truckload of them came up. One by one they set up their chutes and flew off. It was really cool. We had such a nice day. Today we are kinda sore, this being our first hike of the season (and I had to carry Fern on my back the whole way) I think that we will do the hike more often. I have set a goal to Summit Mt. Rainier in the summer of 2010. So I need to get in shape.
Well that's it for now. Remember to leave a comment so that you can continue to enjoy entertainment like this for free [pledge drive voice]