Rattlesnake!

Some excitement here! In addition to our usual "clean-up" of black widows, we found another "friend." James went to chop down some weeds in our front yard, which is quite small, and heard a rattle in the bushes; then he saw a snake wiggle out. He came to tell me he thought we had a rattlesnake in our front yard, which I of course, didn't believe. So we went out and Big James pushed the weeds a little, and we heard more rattling. Then we started believing! :) We called our neighbor over, Nick Ryan, who had lived in "the woods" for awhile and was used to lots of rattlesnakes. We pushed the weeds aside and sure enough there was a snake--quite a small one, but STILL a rattlesnake--in our front yard! Well, we took care of it. Our neighbor said that actually rattlesnakes are protected animals, but as we had a lot more "animals" around, he would defer to protect them. Being our next door neighbor, and by default hearing all our "living" sounds each day, I'll have to smile at him referring to our sweet children as "animals!" :)

Bro. Ryan, victorious!

Our unwelcome guest

Hannah is a wonderful girl!

Hannah was preparing a spotlight for a girl in her Young Women's, and was a little stumped at the typical questions--"favorite food," "favorite color." Something a little more deep?!? The girl is very helpful with her handicapped brother, and Hannah came up with the idea to frame the famous Harold B. Lee quote "The greatest work you will ever do will be within the walls of your own home." The frame also had a place to put a picture of the girl and her brother. She did the quote herself, and I was impressed by Hannah's creativity in focusing on a real talent the girl had. Hannah is a wonderful girl!

Our hiking trip!

Exciting! We are starting our yard . . . again! Let's hope we can enjoy it before having to move again! :) I think Dad particularly loves "playing" with the equipment!

Placing a tree--MUCH better than a shovel!


We had so fun the past two weeks when we had a LOT of cousins in town for a family reunion. We had picnics, park days, hikes, airplane shows, museum trips--just lots of fun! And the girls got their fill (well, not quite) of dress ups! :) And James enjoyed playing chess and doing computer "stuff" with his cousins. Here are a few pictures of our hiking trip to Aspen Falls. The boys begged to continue up to the top of Timp, but us out-of-shape moms vetoed that! :) Maybe at the next reunion! It was beautiful, and was the "year of waterfalls," with beautiful falls cascading everywhere from all the rain. And what a variety of wildflowers!
If you get a chance, head up soon!

Hannah loved being with Lara again

Cute girls!

Ephraim

The water was VERY cold--straight from the frozen tops of Timp; but a great A/C!

James and Mary

Mom & Dad's Anniversary

For our Mom and Dad's anniversary dinner on Saturday, we decided to make it a BIG event! This is the first time when we have been semi-"settled" and able to do anything! Finally! We decided to do a large dinner with 5 courses, including china, candles and the whole works! Everything was made from scratch, without any mixes, etc. so we were quite proud. Below is the menu; click for a bigger size. (If you see a recipe that interests you, send Hannah an email (hannah@stoddardhome.org) and she will be happy to send you the recipe.)


The beautiful table, BEFORE the dinner Our neighbors were more than kind to offer some of their beautiful roses for a fresh bouquet.

The Main Course

"Behind" The Scenes

Before:

After:

Website and Graphic Designing

James and Hannah enjoyed a day of working on a website for our families buisness. It should be up by June 6th at the latest. Today's project was desiging header for the Brigham Young Academy, our buisness' educational resources website. Below is the finished header (there will be a flashy animation in the empty red space). Click on it to see it in good quality!

James is deep in the world of HTML and CSS coding, :)

Hannah was the graphic designer and James kept us laughing no matter what the stress. Thank goodness!

Our future secretary hard at work

James always has time to smile, most of the time. :)

P.S. While building a fort, a couple miles north of where we live, James and Leah came across a strange centipede.

Little Kids are a Blessing

To start off our blogging adventure, here are some pictures of the little Stoddard kids!

Ephraim reached a milestone when he folded bath towels for the first time!

The proud, almost 4 year-old!

Mom's future pianist!

Isaiah and Ephraim enjoy a game together

Mary loves to be spoiled!

Mary's favorite part of the entire house, the deck!!

Mary just can't stop smiling!

Welcome to our site

We've entered the blogging world, and are very excited! Thanks for letting us share what we've been doing with you. We love to hear from you all!