The Rhodes Family

Easter Fun

We had a fun, little Easter party this weekend with the Richards, Hicks, and Mudges.

The usual egg hunting activities:

Andy coaches Ella on competitive egg scavenging.

Daniel sports this season's fashionable easter basket.  Work it, Daniel.

Ella shows off her haul.

Some people can't even make it home before busting into the treats.

The three stooges?

OK, that's enough of the kids stuff, on to the adult stuff.  Horseshoes was once again a highly competitive activity.

Don't mess with Crystal, cos' she's serious.

Dead serious.

Richard would never admit it, but after his last horseshoe thrashing, he has been putting in eight hours a day in the backyard working on his technique.

After a full glass of whiskey, Jazz is completely relaxed, and unable to act as impartial judge any longer.

Let's just say, Horseshoes is not my Mum's sport.

Andy had skills, as he found the throwing action mimicked his highly practised beer swilling move.

What do you know? Liz played competitively in high school, and rehashed competitions on home movies with her Dad after the match.

Dad - a bit of a dark horse, and not a bad horseshoe thrower.

Nice technique.

Tori - genius egg finder.

BFF

Cute.

That's all, guess I should eat humble pie, and admit.....I sucked at horseshoes. In. My. Face.

Burn Time

A few more from our bonfire afternoon:

Fire contemplation

Mick Jagger impersonation?

One last one, that will surely keep Brenda up at nights for several weeks to come.

Visit With Charli

Last night, we had the pleasure of a visit with Charli girl, here's a quick look at how fast she's growing:

Hangin' With Ella

While Elizabeth is at the orthopedic office, finding out the fate of Will's shoulder, I get to hang out with the bundle of scrumptiousness known as Ella.

Haircut!

Every now and again a miracle occurs, and Matt spontaneously agrees to a haircut.

Yesterday, I took Ella for her very FIRST real haircut, Daniel got a trim too, and Matt decided at the end that he, too, was ready to shed some head weight.

Another post coming later today with a photo roundup of the year, until then, I present......the new Matthew.

Christmas Day

Hope everyone had a enjoyable Christmas Day.  The boys are finally in bed, after a very LONG day.

We had the traditional early morning wake up, followed by present opening.  In the pictures below, you may wonder why Daniel is wearing only his underpants.  Bill was sent out yesterday afternoon, with the sole task of buying the boys matching pajamas for them to wear on Christmas Eve, he returned home with a tracksuit and a pair of running shoes for Daniel.

So, I present Daniel in his underwear, opening presents:

Why Daniel's shoe is on the couch in this one, I have no idea.

This was actually a birthday present from two years ago, but it seemed to induce some excitement.

Note the small, plastic toys by his feet.

Jazz, full of the Christmas spirit.

So, since leaving Colorado, life has seemed a little dull, a little lacking in risk and adventure, with not a single trip to the ER.  To remedy this, this year we got the kids only toys that would guarantee a broken wrist or two.  Matt got something called a 'ripstick', a kind of skateboard on two wheels, with a joint in the middle.  Daniel got a super cool scooter, that requires hip wiggling to move.

The garage floor proved to be the best testing ground, and the neighbors must have wondered why we all sat outside all afternoon on garden chairs facing into the garage, when we've got a perfectly nice golf course to look at.

Many wrecks, but no major injuries as yet.

 

Nana, Papa CJ, and Jessica came over for lunch, and we all ate ourselves into a coma.  After that, we proceeded to the park to see what kind of damage the boys could do with some open space.

OK, I saved this one for last, because I'm pretty certain Bill doesn't read all the way to the end of a post, but I just love this picture.  Bill at his finest, what makes me so proud, is the fact that he has owned those shorts for the entire time we have been together - 12 years, wow, that's quite a lifespan for a pair of boxer shorts.

Hope that didn't scar your retinas too badly.

Will

We spend a lot of time admiring Ella, so here's a quick look at what a handsome young man Will is shaping up to be.

Thanksgiving

I've been a bad blogger, but I'm back now.  Here's a quick look at what we did, what we ate, and how we felt afterwards.

For the Kentucky Folk

Hope everyone had a good weekend.  Bill and I held our first magnificent feast at our new house, we grilled hamburgers, cranked up the fire pit, and fired off our newly minted potato canon with Caleb and the Hicks in attendance.  The second most popular form of entertainment involved leaping off the deck onto the piles of sand that are waiting to be made into sea wall.  This was great fun, until Daniel managed to face plant, with a consequence similar to 'splinter', but ten times worse.  That was the end of the party, and we took six filthy kids home on the 'limo' - super handy for transporting dirty children.

Anyway, here's the full slideshow of Ella for the folks in Kentucky.  I would have put it up earlier, but I spilled water into my laptop Thursday night, which was cause for much panic.  I turned it off, removed the battery, held a prayer vigil, and let it sit for three days and it seems to be fine.  No more fluids around the computer.

Enjoy.

Make a Smilebox slideshow

Some More of the Same

Sorry, some more pictures of Ella.  Elizabeth and I are such ladies of leisure, all we do is sit around and take photos of her kid.  Then, in a few minutes we're all heading over there to eat meatloaf and drink wine.  Yeah, that's how we live it up while our husbands are out of town.

Anyway, for some reason, Typepad blog does terrible things to the color quality of photos, and I'm done fighting with it, but enjoy anyway.

Kind of like a teeny, tiny superhero.

Next one taken with 50mm standard, wide open at f/1.4 for super narrow depth of field