We had some huge storms in November and December that tore up our trees and anything else we had left outside. Many trees blew over. Our trampoline, even though we tied it down, was taken apart by the wind. I love these storms, even when they're violent. I have always loved rainstorms. And they turn our hills beautifully green. And afterwards we often get the most beautiful rainbows.
Often we can see the whole thing--from one side to the other. This rainbow looked like it ended right in our hills. If there really were pots of gold at the end... well, we could have our entire 6 acres professionally landscaped by now!!
Every Christmas, like in many families, our kids get new PJs. This Christmas Cliff and I had the *brilliant* idea to create a family crest and print it on tees and then buy PJ bottoms. Well, we thought it was brilliant anyway. My mom liked it too! The kids were less impressed. Oh well.
Anyway, the kids and I had a hilarious time taking pictures together after they all had their t-shirts on. I think I took dozens of pictures trying to get the "perfect" one. But once they started laughing, they couldn't stop. So I didn't get any "perfect" photos, but I got a lot of adorable ones.
We have been blessed with a lot of bread for many months now. This is something we LOVE. We are full of gratitude for those that make it possible. Not only does it stretch our grocery money, but we are able to share it with others. Bagels anyone?
There is no season more beautiful here than Spring.
I looked at last year's Easter pictures and our front yard was all dirt. We had a few trees and a few straggling bushes. Last year my mom planted a few poppies and this spring, after a few good rainstorms we had THIS in our front yard! 
Those poppies self-propagated everywhere and they look so beautiful against the deep purple lavender. We have so many poppies that Mom has had to weed some out. They blossom everywhere--even in the cracks in the concrete. So now we know two things that grow eagerly here: poppies and lavender. Oh! And you can't see it in this picture, but our ornamental cherry tree (in the front) blew over in one of the storms--it didn't get uprooted, though--it just got ripped away from half its roots. Dad gave it up for dead, but Cliff went out there and reburied it and staked it. And lo and behold! It lived! It is in glorious blossom also this spring. I'm so glad! I've never grown so attached to trees as I have here because all of the ones around our house are babies and we want so much for them to get big and lush, so every loss is a sad one. I've posted pictures of the sycamore in the back... we lost that sycamore. We've lost our Asian pears (the ground squirrels ate them), most of our ornamental cherries, and several of our oaks. Some get uprooted in storms, some get chomped by our co-tenants here and some just... don't like it here. Since no one's lived here before us, we are starting from scratch with everything. It's very interesting. Gives me a feeling for those frontier families (Little House on the Prarie maybe?) who settled and planted and hoped for the best. With no grocery stores to fall back on. Our garden for the last few years has been straggling along... very little produce because we were still trying to figure out what works here. This year we've moved the garden and hopefully we'll have a very big harvest. Already there are seedlings all over the house--in all the warmest windowsills--and in our little makeshift greenhouses in the yard. Go garden!
My dad called me out to look at the lavender this afternoon. All of the bushes were buzzing! Someone around here must keep bees because we had hundreds in our lavender bushes, industrially gathering good good pollen that will make somebody some very tasty lavender honey. Bees are good for our orchard and our garden too. Beautiful bees. Can you see them in the picture? Look for the little yellow bodies.We had a very fun Easter this year, even though our Rayne couldn't come home for it. I'm trying to think of different things to do to tweak our traditional Easter activities and make them a bit more interesting for my older children. This year instead of our traditional huge Easter egg hunt, we had a much smaller one--a glow in the dark one--at night. We taped reflector tape on the eggs and sent the kids out with flashlights to hunt. It was a lot of fun! Then on Easter morning, rather than the traditional clue-driven hunt for the Easter baskets, we tied the end of a ball of yarn
to each basket. White for Chase, dark red for Isaiah, pink for Allegra. Then we strung that yarn all over the house, into every room, out to the garage, in and out of cars, out to the front and back yards... we strung yarn until each ball was used up. Cliff and I had to crawl around on the floor to get back to the beginning of the maze! 
Then we gave each child his end of the yarn and they spent the next 15-20 minutes following their yarn and rolling it back into balls, finding their baskets. They really liked it and so did we. I think it was one of the best Easters we've had in awhile. Except for missing Rayne. And our kids are old enough now to voluntarily watch all the sessions of conference and they LISTEN and we even DISCUSS it. Amazing, I know. Yes, they did built a huge blanket fort in the family room, from which to watch conference--bless Chase's heart for still being willing to play with his siblings!! It was a wonderful weekend. Chase, by the way, is in the midst of getting his mission paperwork ready. Our part was easy to fill out. It's the doctors stuff that is taking some time. Word to the wise: keep good track of your kids' immunization records cuz you'll need them. I thought I kept pretty good track, but I spent quite a few hours tracking down dates from a variety of locations. And he's needed some dental stuff too. We've kept on top of that, so that hasn't been too complicated, although he's got to get all 4 wisdom teeth out at the end of the month. Cliff has a sense of urgency to get it all done. I want to get those papers in too, but Chase is so nice to have around.... and once he goes it'll never be the same... and Isaiah will miss him so much... I guess I just don't have quite that same sense of urgency. By the end of the month, though, those papers will be in. AND the car will be painted. (See, that's the only mention of the car I'll make in this blog even though it's a subject of considerable interest in this house and has been for lo, these many months.)
I go to visit Rayne in Rexburg next week. I'm very excited. She leaves in a few weeks for her study abroad program. We won't see her until she returns in late May. So I go to help her pack, to ship her unneeded stuff back home, to store stuff that may stay in Idaho and to find good shoes (think we can agree on the meaning of the word "good"?) and a perfect carry on bag (which is all she's allowed to take with her for 6 weeks in Europe). I can't wait! I'll take pictures.
And perhaps I'll post again soon. Perhaps. I'm not very good at this blogging thing. Hopefully I'll do better....
