Ethan the Titan

I had to do a post about Ethan. He is a good kid. Not that all my kids don't have excellent qualities, but Ethan strives to do right... even when he doesn't quite get there. Here are a few Highlight of the last few months



Ethan Love the little girls and does what ever he can to keep them safe and happy. They love to have Ethan wind them up! which he does well. Here they are around Easter.



Ethan the warrior. He is not a big video gamer, but he does like Halo, mostly action figures and Legos. I think he like the idea of building cool machines. Yes he has a warrior spirit! BTW he shot me in the butt with that air-soft gun on Christmas!



Here he is heading off to a winter scout camp. The backpack weighs almost as much as he does, the mattress turns out to sleep 3 scouts and there was snacks for 10 scouts hidden in the bottom of the pack.

General Conference Weekend

The past two days have been loaded with activity.

Here is the rundown of the past 48 hours:

Monday morning; kids sleep in, I woke up early to fix the Tiller. After many years of service, the last time I used it, I decided to run the thing without oil... or at least not check that there was any. A tiller without oil in the crankshaft quickly makes awful noises, and soon it was evident that the main bearings were ruined. My plan was to pull the crankshaft and replace the bearings. However, I was able to find a cheap 6.5 HP horizontal engine for under $100 bucks that fit just fine. I think it looks kinda cool.




Lara fixed Bacon and fresh Eggs on toast. there is nothing better. The Kids finally woke up to the smell of bacon and orange juice, and we enjoyed breakfast together.
The first session of General Conference started at 10 am, we realized the Big TV was not hooked up to the antenna so we had to watch the session on my BED! (the TV in our room is hooked up)

Later, we were back outside to work in the yard. Isobell and Elise helped me check on the new chicks. We have 11 right now. (down from 12) There are 3 different breeds; White leghorns, Rhode Island reds/brown, and Multicolored Anconas, which will lay green/blue eggs.



We spent the rest of the day sorta 1/2 listening 1/2 watching the second session of conference, then Ethan and I went to Priesthood session at the Church. After the two of us went to dinner with Bill and His father-in-law Doug, and cousin Chris. We dined at Mi Ranchito. Yum. Slept great with chicken enchilada mole in my tummy.

Sunday we woke up and fixed crepes with whipped cream,strawberries and bananas, and link sausage. None of us will need to eat until Tuesday...but probably will. Hooked the Lap top up to the big TV in the front room and streamed conference. Nice HDMI picture until the WIFI signal glurps and makes President Uchtdorf's face freeze in unnatural positions. New couch works great.



Ivie made us do her sadistic "Boot Camp" consisting of lunges and squats and moves that make my lungs and legs burn and my ego frail. It is a good work out, not pretty, but the laughing is half the work.

The Kids Spent the second session drawing and creating what someone dubbed "Conference Zombies"... voodoo-doll style sock puppets held together with hot glue and yarn. Ivie achieve some sort of record when Aaron proclaimed her puppet "Creepy". When Aaron says your Conference Voodoo Zombie sock puppet is creepy... you've probably overshot creepy and moved into Tim Burton's neighborhood.

Ivie's 14th birthday Party...SURPRISE!

Ivie is 14 years old! Her BFF Tiffany organized a surprise party with Lara. There were 14 teenage girls at our house hiding in Ivie's bedroom. She had been tipped off by a few clues throughout the week. She has amazing powers of deduction, she gets that from her mother by the way. Her friends know her well; they brought her Bacon for her gifts.



they played a few games including minute to win it, unravaling crepe paper.then they played night games, then Ivie got a happy birthday phone call from GOLEM. (a friend of mine from work)

Amelia the Cook

Sweet little Amelia wants to help.. with everything! So the other day we were making breakfast for everybody, I stepped away to answer the door and came back to find Amelia had taken over my sausage duties.

New Couch

We moved all the kids upstairs so we could have a comfy family/TV room. On the wall facing the couch is a 47 inch flat screen. Its a good time to watch a movie... but no matter how much space there is on the couch, the little kids are sitting on Lara's Lap!

SCARY!!!!!!!

The Fam carved jack-o-lanterns last night. A person's true identity is revealed whilst one is digging the guts out of a pumpkin. Isobell was timid and would not touch the seeds until someone else got them out of the pumpkin, Elise wanted to squish the orange stuff between her fingers, Amelia dug in full bore and flung guts abroad! Aaron and Ethan argued about how to make their pumpkin, and was it to be a "Halo Master Chief" or the "Price of Persia" (they settled on Jack the Pumpkin King.) And Ivie wanted to know what was to eat. Todd was bossy dad guy and Lara was lovely mommy.


The weather is to turn cold soon so yesterday we hauled in our garden. we have a mess of canning to do in the next few days.

Sunday Drive

We took the Fam up the Squaw Peak road at the mouth of Provo Canyon Sunday, the leaves were beautiful so I took a few pictures for some paintings. The kids were enjoying the drive but Ethan got a bit of Vertigo when we would go around outside corners... he could see out into the valley, and was rather disturbed that most of the valley was below him. We got to the turn around at the top and took this Family picture (A very nice young man was there on a date and took the photo for us.)

On the way back down the road we saw two deer, most of the kids were happy enough to just see these quiet animals, but not Isobell. Isobell said "Oh man, I wish I could shoot those deer and eat them!" We cracked up the rest of the way home.

Amelia turns the big 0-2!

Our little Amelia, AKA Millie Pie turned 2 years old yesterday. We celebrated with some cake, ice cream, and homemade root beer. Amelia was thrilled with all the fun gifts her cousins brought her; ladybug pillow pet, pink boots, new jacket, and socks!

Amelia and A-Bunny

We named our black bunny A-bunny; a play on the word Ebony and the fact that the animal is a bunny. I know, we are so clever. However, the little girls are going to kill A-bunny. As soon as the older kids are off to school the 2 little ones are out scooping up the bunny from her cage and carting her everywhere, stuffing her in the cargo area of the big wheel, and losing her in the house. Amelia calls her "bundy". how cute is that?

Roma Tomatoes Etc,.

Our Roma tomatoes went wild this year. We planted them around Mother's day, and have been eating them for a while now with bacon and lettuce on homemade bread. Last week we picked all the super red tomatoes, a few annahiem peppers with some large green bell peppers and a few hot peppers (I am not sure the variety). All together it made 15 quarts of tomatoes and green chilies(we use this as a base for Mexican chicken soup). I helped pick the tomatoes but Lara cut and bottled everything while I was at meetings.

ThanksGiving Point Plien Air Event

It snuck up on me again! The annual Thanksgiving Point Plien Air event in the gardens at beautiful Thanksgiving Point in Lehi Utah. The last three years, and this year too, I have painted the Koi and lily pads in the pond,(big pond!) why break tradition? I did two paintings; the first was very average, not even worth showing!

This is the second painting. I think it turned out pretty good. It is a 18x30 inch, oil on linen. It didn't win any awards, and nobody bought it (the best award ever!) but I had many positive comments on it. I titled it "school of orange crush"


I think this year I will paint more in this series.



While I was painting a blue heron was entertaining me. He was eating the small fish that came too close to him in the shallow water. I was watching $20 and $30 fish disappear down his gullet at an alarming rate! He finally picked one out that was too big for him too swallow. In fact he could not fly with it in his bill. I know because I chased him down, he dropped the fish about 20 yards from the water to get away from me! I threw the medium size fish back into the water. That fish will live another day... or at least until he is caught by that same heron.

Last Floor murals of the Season

Lara and I spent 3 days in San Juan Utah last week while we worked on San Juan High school's gym floor. Have a look.




The Principal was a really nice guy, he added these paintings on, luckily Lara was there to help out. She basically did them herself.

Dorito Pie

Pie (AKA Millie pie or Amelia) thought she was funny walking around the house with this bag on her head, Ethan Cut eye holes for her and now she is a super hero.

Halo on the big screen!

The Boys had a late game night yesterday, we set up the Xboxes (yes 2 of them) and pushed the trailer next to the big movie screen to serve as a second screen. With the help of 2 digital movie projectors and 2 separate sound systems we were able to play 8 players at a time! Unfortunately these pictures (taken at 11 pm) are lit by lightning... so about 30 seconds after I took the last photo we felt the first drops of rain... it was a mad dash to get about $1500 worth of high tech gear inside and out of the torrential rain that came down. the couch was free so if it doesn't dry out we will haul it to the dump and find another on the KSL classified section for free.

I have just returned form the mystical land of San Juan County. I was working on two gym floors, one for Monticello High School and the other for Albert R. Lyman Middle School. The ARL school had an old school logo on the 12' circle that extended 13" out on either side, this meant that I would have to make the new Logo big enough to cover it up. As you can see form the photo the running horse (they are the mustangs)is 20 feet tall!



I had some dry time between coats of paint so I was in the right place to see a spectacular sunset in the desert.

Floor project in Cheyenne

Here is the latest floor mural at the new South high School in Cheyenne Wyoming. Lara and I went up for a few days and worked on this one together, at least for the first day, then Lara took some much deserved time off. The 7 hour drive from AF to Cheyenne was not fun.

Day at Lagoon!!!

The Fam had a really fun, slightly wet and cold, but extremely memorable day at Lagoon in Farmington Utah last week.



We had just run rattlesnake rapids when we took this picture, moments latter the sky opened up and hailed on us. it rained lightly for 2 hours and we took shelter in the car for a time. Dried and warmed we headed back out to a great day in the park!



Amelia was not super happy about being up so high in the big Ferris wheel, but she soon relaxed, Ethan was more nervous about spinning the gondola than me, I hate to spin, he was not digging the height! Lara, Aaron, and the little girls rode in the next gondola.



I spent the day with the little girls: they went on many fun rides. Isobell was old enought on ride with Aaron on the bat this year so they had a good time, until I lost them. Aaron kept his wits about him and took Isobell to the lost kids office where I recovered them about 45 minutes later. Good Job Aaron!



We left as the sun was going down. No one protested; they had all had their fill of fun! Thank you Grandma Orchard and Grandma Linda, We love you.

New Logos finished

I finished 5 big logos at Herriman high school this week, I need to spend a few days on my chiropractor's table now! sitting on the floor for hours at a time makes me very sore.

Potato Alien part 3

I found another one!

Ethan the reluctant Daredevil

If you have a minute and 35 seconds you have to watch Ethan swinging from the globe willow in our front yard. I honestly thought I was going to be sending this video to AFV when he crashed to the ground...but he survived...that is a good thing 'cause I can't afford a trip to the emergency room right now!

MMMMMM Bacon!

Ivie found this sign on-line...she loves bacon so this resonated with her.