We made robots from discard foam hunks and packing material at the Scrap Box.  Naby’s is Plex.  Oliver’s is Robe.

Merry Christmas!

We recently spent an FHE decorating candy houses. This year I tried to make the gingerbread house walls from scratch. It tasted fantastic, but the roof wasn’t exactly tight. We patched it with some good ol’ Bob’s sweet stripes. Our “royal frosting” recipe from williams sonoma worked really well. We originally had pieces to make two houses, but we (Nabby and I… okay mostly I) couldn’t stop eating pieces. I don’t regret it. Gingerbread is so divine right out of the oven.

A few more photos from my trip home in June.

I miss my Illustration teachers and friends. I miss the Brimhall and AKH. I miss demos with pagan brushes by Richard Hull. I miss Bob Barrett telling me to “think, feel, recheck angles, stand back, squint, feel, and think”. I miss croquet. I miss Bethanne’s ski stories and her faith in me. It was the best place on campus in my opinion! My teachers were superstars and my friends like family. So I was thrilled to be in town the same week as the opening of the alumni show at the Harris Fine Arts Center. And I miss them even more now that I’ve seen them again.

I love hiking and backpacking with my dad. It’s how he choose to connect with me when I was a kid and it still works today. We spend time in the mountains and we get caught up even after being apart for 6 months or more. Same thing with my mom and gardening. If I feel crazy I run or do yard work to get my head straight. She taught me a lot picking raspberries.

I think there should be a reality show about surviving long flights with babies.

I only cried twice.

I was going solo this trip with both kids.  Many will scoff that I define a long flight as 5 hours, but to me it is.  I will not do it alone again without a paid seat for Nabby, a portable DVD battery that lasts for longer than 2 hours and/or a transporter.  BUT, it was all worth it for parents like mine.

Moo, Baa, La La La! There are all kinds of free family activities set up for the grad students by the Rackhem school each year. Recently we went to one of these at the Dominoes petting farm just outside of town. There were LOTS of animals including peacocks, buffalo, guinea pigs, lamas, sheep, goats, and donkeys. Nabby liked the rabbits and baby ducks. Oliver liked the pony and tractor. It is Dominoes farm as in Dominoes Pizza so they even served us a pizza lunch at the end. So much fun! I loved the baby rabbits. (Don’t you miss them Kevin?)

Jas will be done with classes next week! I doubt I’m as excited as him for finals to be over, but I’m REALLY excited to see him more. He’s my best friend and I miss him. (baby step to April 28th!!) The kids miss him too, but they might have to fend for themselves. I won’t hesitate to get a babysitter as often as I can. Kidding. I guess I can share him…a little. Here’s photos of us around the house hanging out with Dad. Life is always better when he’s home.

… that I forgot to post before.

These are great photos of our snowman and elephant in the backyard and Nabby with a cold. The snow from this particular storm was so deep and so warm (warm for snow I mean) that it was a blast to play in. You can see from the elephant trunk how sticky it was. We had a great time. I hope it’s like this next year- though I hear this was a really mild winter (temp wise) for Ann Arbor. Click on them for captions.

Or Grandma WAS here that is. Oliver and Nabby (and their parents too) were in heaven for a week last March when Kendal, Grandma and Grandpa Kotter flew into town.

We had SO much fun. Thanks a million times Grandma and Grandpa for such a great spring break! We love and miss you!

This year Easter was wonderful even with Oliver throwing up Friday night three times. He’s doing better and my cold is almost gone too. Yeah!
Conference was fantastic and we feel deeply blessed for the advice and instruction from our prophet and apostles. I really enjoyed Sister Beck’s Saturday talk.
We colored eggs and hid them in the back yard for Oliver to hunt Saturday. That was uber cute. Nabby ate like an elephant all weekend. That doesn’t have much to do with easter except that we had a lot of good food in the house for the holiday. She ate everything from cabbage to roast beef, to carrot cake and she’s still getting four cups of whole milk a day. Maybe she’ll catch up to Holly one of these days.
There are captions for the photos when you click on them.