Abby and Eli After Church Easter Sunday

Abby eating a chocolate bunny. This won't hurt her appetite for dinner one bit! Look at this great pic of Eli!! He is not making a pig face, devil horns, snarls or any of the many faces of Eli when a camera comes out. An Easter miracle.

Abby's elaborate hair do. And Jen says I need a hobby....

More on the chicken coup

As you can see, the roof and siding are up and the priming has started. But due to rain, it will be a day or two before it is ready for the barn red paint to go on. When Ron is home this next month, the play yard will get started and also the trim on the coup. This thing is big (for chickens) and I am so excited to get it done and chicks in it.

The Chicken Coup

So, I thought it would be great to get some chickens this year, which meant we would need a coup and my husband really ran with it. The stones for the foundation came out of the woods behind our field.

10 X 10, which means I can have a nice size flock. Plus there will be a fenced yard for them. It will be so cool and I will post more pics as we complete different phases.

Vacation in California

We went out to California for a week to see family and attend Archer's blessing. It was great to see Debi's family.

We went to the zoo with Mark's family, and fed the giraffes. The boys said they would rather not do that again.

Wow, that turtle was sure big!!!

Ronan and Odin.

Archer on Grandma's lap again.

My hubby, his brothers and nephew in law helping Mark out on his addition.

Ray taking stock of the project...

These old guys complain all-the-time!!!!

What did I get myself into?

Odin and Ronan were big helpers too.

The view is great.

Long shot of the addition.

The Joists going up.

A bit of relaxation after Mark's slave driving all day. Ray was an awesome race car driver.

Ron, Russ and Justin playing Wii.

Ray's truck was stuck in the snow Sunday morning after it had snowed all the night before.

On the way to church we had a bit of snow too.

Church on Sunday for the blessing. Ray, Russ, Odin, Ron and Mark.

Baby Archer being so sweet.

Ronan caught holding still for two seconds.

Ummm...snow cones from fresh snow!!!

New Family Craft Blog

I've started a new family craft brag site (OK, I'm also hoping to steal some of your creativity!) called Closet Crafter. Why that title? Cuz all my crafting has gotten so out of hand I took over a large walk in closet in our guest/sewing room. (Sorry in advance to guest who no longer can hang up their clothes!!) You can see the link to it here in my favs. To summit projects use the same password as we use for the family recipe blog and my email address. If you don't know them then let me know and I will give it to you. Don't feel limited to paper crafts. Any thing you craft or sew would be cool. Oh and try not to spoil anyone's surprise by posting a card or gift on the blog before you give it to the recipient!!! Hope this is fun for the family crafters. Diana

Italy

We were lucky enough to travel to Italy in Jan. Here we are in Pisa.

This is the Baptistry next to the Tower. The carving was amazing.

This is inside the Baptistry.

This is the font.

Think of all the people who have climbed these stairs through out history. A little spooky.

This is the Cathedral from behind while we were in the balcony of the Baptistry.

Ron climbed the Tower. It's purpose was as a bell tower-hence the bell.

No way was I climbing a tower that leaned. So this is me sitting on the steps on the left.

The ceiling inside the cathedral.

Our next excursion was to Rome. Here is a picture of inside St. Peter's Square across from St. Peter's Basilica.

I don't believe I had ever seen opulence until we were at Vatican City. This is just one of the alcoves.

A past pope's final resting place.

Scary, huh! They still have masses here and on Wednesday the Pope leads a mass and blesses tourists icons.

After all that we needed a pizza and some pasta. Now that's what Italy is all about. Food!

We then took a tour of the Colosseum. Talk about grusome. Over 700,000 people died in the "games" in it's hayday. They don't know how many animals. sorry Ron has his eyes closed but the photographer is an amateur. Shortly after this shot was taken we were on the streets of Rome when an anti-Israel protest was beginning. We should have hopped on the train right then but there was more we wanted to see. So we stayed and before long were in a crushing mob of people trying to get past the protests. Quite exciting. It was on the news that night!!! Another adventure!!!!

This is the Santa Maria del Fiore Cathedral and Baptistry in Florence.

While in Florence we went to a number of museums. This is a view outside the Galleria degli Ultizi. This museum houses the Birth of Venus and more paintings from Catholic churches than one could have imagined existed. At another museum we saw the statue of David by Michelangelo.

Me again in front of a huge castle. I am on the Third of fourth story balcony of another building, so you can imagine how tall the castle is.

Ron and I are taking a break after hours of art appreciation. (Oh, look at that one, his nose is so big. Oh and this one needs a pair of pants! Another picture of the assention of Mary...enough already.)

This domed ceiling was in Santa Maria Cathedral in Florence.

Another view of the cathedral. I hope someday we can return.....