(Adopting sister's blog) Monson Maddness: A poem sent by a friend (Turkey) to warm my heart!...

Monson Maddness: A poem sent by a friend (Turkey) to warm my heart!...: "I received the poem below in an email from my friend, Turkey. Turkey - Thank you for sending this poem. It made me cry and when I need com..."

Monson Maddness: Memories from the weekend with Arlee

Monson Maddness: Memories from the weekend with Arlee: "We got to watch Arlee while my sister, Chelsey and her husband Hans, went to Louisanna. I have been reminded again that kids are a serious..."

Easter Fun!

Here are some pictures from our Easter Egg hunts.

 Brock and Arlee at Grandma and Grandpa Hoge's house.

 Brock is getting to be such a little man. He will be four in a couple of weeks.

 Arlee, Brock and Landon... and of course Chief.

 Arlee and Brock

 I had to include all of the three pictures since they look so funny. I mean... Awesome

 Arlee finding eggs on Easter morning. Granted there aren't a lot of places to hid them so they are as you can tell- right next to each other. Oh well, she had a lot of fun.

 You have to love her bed head hair,

 Hans and Arlee taking a look at their movies (tradition in my family)

 Kasiah at my parents' house

 Arlee at my parents' house

 When Arlee would find one she would say: "Blue one daddy, blue one. I get it daddy. I got it daddy. Blue one daddy." She did this just about everytime. I call her my little narrator.

 Action Shot!

 Kasiah empting all the eggs (Grandma in the background)

Arlee enjoying her chocolate found one egg.

We had a great time spending the Easter holiday with family and watching everyone of the kids getting so excited about finding the eggs.

We are so grateful for what Jesus has done for us and that we can celebrate him on this special holiday.

Happy Easter!!!
The Hoges

Pictures at the Park

I got a call about a month before this to remind me to get our pictures taken. So I made the appointment for after we got home from Louisiana. Hans got home from work changed. I had woken Arlee up from her nap early to make it there on time. We arrived there five minutes early and there was already someone waiting there. They were on lunch still so we waited as well. After about five minutes they got back from lunch and started checking people in. Then comes another family. So now we have three families and two photographers. This made me a little bit nervous seeing that we all arrived at the same time. I got checked in first and they kept asking me the same questions. I am thinking to myself that there is no way that I have come on the wrong day or the time. Then they tell me that they can't find an appointment for me anywhere. By this time, I was pretty frustrated since they called me to make the appointment. I told them that I have an appointment for 3:00 PM today and they called me to set it up. What the heck? She then tells me that these other people have an appointment so I need to wait for them to be done then they can squeeze me in. Mind blown I just turned around and asked Hans if he really wanted to wait for an hour or if we could just go? He didn't want to wait and I was so mad that I didn't think that taking pictures was the thing for me to do there. (Yes, I do know that things happen and I should be patient, but I thought that was pretty dumb given the circumstances.) They didn't even offer us anything for free for waiting or their mess up.  I tell you nothing.

Anyway, needless to say that we left and tried to make the best of our situation. We called up Hans' sister in law, Amy. She met us at a park and we took some pictures. Here are some of the good ones. Amy did a great job, but Arlee was not really in the mood anymore and Hans wasn't ever looking at the camera. Either, because it was too bright or he was trying to get Arlee to smile. I can tell you this much.... We will not be going back to SEARS at the Fashion Place Mall ever again. I do need to get Arlee's pictures done though and possibly some family pictures when Arlee is smiling and Hans is looking and I am not ticked off. : ) 

 I love Arlee's face in this one. Totally captures her personality.

I hope you enjoyed my rant and of course the pictures.

Thanks again, Amy for coming and taking our pictures on short notice. You are the best.

Church History Museum

Well this last week's outting was the church history museum and then to the park to have a picnic. Here are some pictures from our adventures. By the way it was all free too. : )

 Arlee and Landon playing on Noah's Ark. They can fish over the edge, but I couldn't get a good picture here. They can also help build the ark with the little puzzle pieces that are to the left of Arlee.

Arlee and Landon trying to figure out what they are supposed to do. The screens have these dancers on them and they teach them how to do these hispanic dances.  The kids get to wear costumes and the parents can too.

Arlee beginning to make dinner for the missionaries.

 Arlee serving the dinner (there are wood cut outs of the missionaries that are on the other side of the table.)

 Landon working in the garden.

All three of the kiddos at the park which was a couple of blocks away from the museum.  Arlee and Brock played tag and had so much fun throwing dirt into the water. Amy and I are a bit surprised I think that one of the kids didn't end up in the water.  (Arlee also has her mouth full of fruit snacks)

Louisiana Trip/ Interview

Hans and I went to Louisiana this last weekend for an interview.  We left Arlee with my mom and then Abbie would pick her up after work. My mom took us to the airport and then took Arlee back to her house to wait for Abbie. I was about to cry when we were walking away and I looked at Arlee with her arms out stretched screaming and crying for us to take her with. It is always sad leaving our little bug, but we must do it every now and then. : ( She was fine soon after. Thank goodness for everyone!

We left Friday afternoon and came back Sunday night. It was a fast trip, but worth it. Hans had his interview on Saturday and it lasted a little more than six hours. It went great until they said that they didn't need us to come down for a year! WHAT the... I thought that was crazy. I don't really think that is going to happen, but that is just my thinking that I don't want to move rather than maybe that might be something that we need to do.  We will see. They are going to keep in touch with us.

Here are some pictures from our trip:

Sugar cane fields are every where. Lining them are roads and huge trees.

Hans riding in the car with the people "interviewing" him were showing us around.

 Hans looking out at all the sugar cane... As you can tell it goes on forever.

 Sugar Mill

 Sugar Mill

 Sugar Mill

 Sugar Mill

 This is where the sugar gets dumped into the barges to be shipped all around.

 Bayou Teche from the car.

 Louisiana is very flat and green, except when the sugar cane has been cut down.

 Hans standing next to some trees that were by a place dedicated to the first Franklin guy to die in some battle (can't remember right now)

Me and Hans standing together with the trees. They are tall and skinny and have moss on them. I actually didn't get any pictures of the huge oak trees that canopy the trees. Weird, I know.

 Hans and Jerry Fournet (interviewer/business owner) walking over the bridge to look at the Bayou Teche

 Here is a better picture of the Bayou Teche

 A little restaurant off the Bayou Teche

 A picture of the trees that Hans and I were standing next too. The Fournet's house is just a few to the right of this picture. They also took us to their house.

 The houses that are built off the Bayou Teche

 I thought you might be able to see the water under the bridge, but I guess not, but this is what the bridge is made out of.

Here are some pictures from the plane. I always have to get some.

 Louisiana

 Colorado.... I thought this was pretty cool with a bunch of mountains with no snow and then one in the middle of them all with snow.

 The white spot on the top left is from the same mountain from above, just zoomed out.

 This is the same mountain as as above, just zoomed in... way in!

 Even more zoomed in. I like to play with the camera. Can you tell?

 River from the airplane.  This is also in Colorado.

Colorado again. This time with clouds.

The pictures from the plane are just if you like to see the difference, but no real significance.

OH YES!!!
I tried shrimp and liked it. Those that don't know me really well, I don't eat seafood, lake food, creek or stream food. This however, my cousin, Natalie talked me into trying. I wanted to try it and told her I would try things once, but I have to tell you I was scared out of my mind. The last time I tried shrimp I hated it. The last time it was dipped in cocktail sauce and absolutely gross. This time it was with a jalapeno and wrapped in bacon. Hans had to tell me wear to bite it off and once I did; it was delicious. Now, I am not going to think that I like any kind of shrimp now, but this was good. Natalie was telling me that it is really fresh there so that may make the difference. Who knows? I am not going to be the judge of that.

Ulla you should be proud of me. I actually like some kind of variation!

We are so happy to be home even though we enjoyed our visit. 
Thank you to the Jordans for being our hosts.
Thank you to my mom for picking us up and dropping us off at the airport. Also for taking care of Arlee.
Thank you to Abbie and Matt for being second parents to Arlee while we are gone. Sorry she was not the best sleeper, but what little kid is? Well maybe it is just her, but she enjoyed the time with you.
Thank you to Hans for letting me tag along on the adventure.

Where will we go next? Stay tuned....

Chels