Yanni Voices (Live)!

So, I am a super big fan of Yanni. I think I got my first CD of his back in high school.... so long ago. After that, I bought every CD I could get my hands on for a while. I just love his music. Anyhow, he is touring again with a few vocal performers. One of their first stops in the US was in Gainesville, FL. I was so excited when I heard, and then I saw the prices. So expensive. So, I realized I couldn't go.


How did I get this picture, then? (By the way, flash photography wasn't allowed during the show, so after the show was over, I pulled out my phone really fast and got this silhouette of Yanni.) Anyhow, one of the vocal performers, who is a member of the church, donated several tickets to members of the church in the area. (He is good friends with a couple in one of the wards here.) Thanks to him, I was able to get my hands on one and go with a friend from church. It was AWESOME! I thought I liked his music on disc, but in a concert it is so neat.

Thanks to the most wonderful husband in the world for securing the tickets and then watching the kids so I could go enjoy an evening of Yanni. I love you, Peter!

On the Hunt(s)

I know it's super late to be blogging about Easter, but at least it's technically still the right month and all. Here are a few pictures of the kids from the Easter Egg hunts along with a shot of all their loot.


Some good friends of ours invited us over to their house for an Easter Egg hunt. The kids had a blast, but our battery died right after this picture of Josh. Oh well. Heather got some great pictures of the kids, I just don't have them on my computer yet, so at least they exist.

After the hunt at our friends' house, we decided to go ahead and hide some eggs for the kids in our backyard as well. Here is Emily finding a nice hard boiled egg. Yummm...

Look at all my eggs. I've worked so hard for them, I can't manage a smile at this point... sorry! :)

Emily with all her eggs.

I should also mention that Peter had to find over half of the eggs we hid in our backyard. When Josh went to pick up another egg, right after the last picture of him in this post, he found it covered with ants! I couldn't believe it. (Ants in Florida are almost always fire ants, too. So you know they are nasty little things.) They'd only been out there a couple minutes. Anyhow, he ended up with several bites on his hands and feet. This provided a swift end to our holiday festivities. But, the bites sure didn't deter him from wanting to eat some of his newly found treasures.

Decorating Easter Eggs

Josh was very excited to decorate Easter Eggs this year. It is such a fun thing to do. Since I love boiled eggs, we do a full 2 dozen. So much fun! We almost forgot to take some pictures. So here are the few pictures we got toward the end of it all.

Hugs

A couple weeks ago, when it was our turn to watch Elizabeth, the kids started playing a new game. Josh was running around and Elizabeth was saying something about hugs. Everytime Josh would pass her, he'd stop to hug her. What a nice game.


Awwww.....

Here's a better picture so we can all see what the both look like. How cute!

Josh the photographer

From the angle of this photo, it definitely looks as though Josh took this picture. I need to let him use the camera more often. This is the best picture of Emily we have. Good job Josh!

Josh's Reaction

I really wish I'd had a video camera for this moment. It would have been great. But instead I just have to describe it to you. At breakfast a few days ago (April 7), we decided to let the kids in on a little secret. I asked Josh if he still wanted a little baby... since it's been on his mind a lot lately. Funny the timing of it and all. Anyhow, he said yes. So Peter said, "Well, there's a baby in mommy's tummy." You should have seen his face. He got a HUGE grin and such wide eyes. He's at such a fun age.

Just to make sure he understood, we asked if he remembered when Emily was in mommy's tummy, and he said he did. He asked where this baby would be born, and we told him it would be at the hospital. He asked "Where Emily was born?" So, I think he understands.

For part of the conversation, I mentioned that Elizabeth's mommy had a baby in her tummy, too. Josh asked what kind of baby it was. I told him it was a baby girl. He said "I want a boy!"

By this time, Emily was emphatically signing "baby." I guess she's ready as well. The funniest part was that he looked at Emily then said "There are two babies. One for me, and one for Emily." I guess we'll see in a couple months.

By the way, the due date is Halloween!

Paynes Prairie

On Nathan's last day here, we decided to go see some alligators at a place called Paynes Prairie. It's a place just outside of town. We'd heard about all the alligators there, and thought it might be fun to go check it out. So, we drove down there and found the main entrance to the place. Turns out, that to see the alligators, you have to go to a completely different part of Paynes Prairie. Oh well. Instead, we got to see a prairie. Isn't that exciting???? Sorry about that, Nathan.


Nathan with the kids. This is the top of a tower that lets you see more of the prairie. Lots of tall grass on one side, and a bunch of trees on the other. Oh well. At least now we know. Can you see how much my kids love their uncle? They were so happy to have him here. I actually have a picture like this with me, but Emily's not smiling at all. Oh well.

Here's Nathan. He was taking a bunch of pictures of the area. I forget that Florida looks quite a bit different from the rest of the country. Specially if you compare it to Utah.

For any of you that have not been to Florida. Here is a picture of Spanish Moss. That's the nasty stuff hanging off the tree up there. It's a parasite that will eventually kill the tree. Funny, though, this stuff is protected. It is illegal to chop down trees with the spanish moss on it. Or something like that. I don't get that one bit. I think it's the ugliest stuff. Oh well. We love living here anyway. :)

Retired Horse Farm

A while back, some friends of ours told us about a farm about 20 or so minutes away that's basically a retirement home for horses. Every Saturday, they let visitors come and feed carrots to the horses. We've been meaning to take the kids there for a long time, and we finally got around to it when Nathan came to visit. It was a lot of fun.


This sign is kind of funny. We tried, but they didn't like fingers. JK

This horse really wanted to be petted. Horses scare me, though, so we got no closer than this. It was very pretty. Emily sure enjoyed looking at the horses.

Josh apparently has a little of his mom's nervousness. Look how excited he was to feed this horse. Eyes closed and everything.

Josh was doing pretty well with feeding the horses whenever Nathan was there to help out.

I finally got up the courage and got close enough to help Emily feed a horse. That was a lot of fun! And we thought the fun was for the kids. :)

Josh got up the courage to feed the horse all by himself! Great job!

See, Daddy came too.

Josh got tired of feeding the horses and decided to feed himself instead. He ate the whole thing. When he got to the green part at the end, he even asked if he should eat the "yucky part." I told him he could. Then he looked at it, and decided, all on his own, that it might not be the best idea. Good decision. I'm so proud of him. :)

Nathan convinced me to try to pet this Clydesdale. It was scary, but I did it. What a breakthrough!

Why am I scared of horses? One bit my ear when I was 5. I'd say, nearly 25 years later, I'm making great progress.