Monday Fun

Ate here

New baby duckling

New baby turkey

Collecting Eggs

Helping Grandpa in the barnyard

Doing Chores

Checking out the new babies

2 baby ducks, 2 baby turkeys

Bike riding at the church

Ice Cream at Steph's

Which one do I choose?

Party Time - AZ girl is here !!

Phillipines Info

When you think of the Phillipines do you think of this ??

or this?

It's a little of both !!


The first site director at Focus Direct in Bacolod Phillipines was Ryan Beattie, President Porter's nephew (or I should say his wife's nephew).  The Beattie family maintained a blog to keep family and friends at home updated.  Here are a few excerpts from their blog.

Paradise in the Phillipines - Click here
Focus sends an assistant - Click here
Humble Homes - Humble Families - Click here
Schools for kids - Click here
Fruit in the Phillipines - Click here
Lechon - Roasted Pig? - Click here
Spiders - Click here
Trip across the island - Click here
Beautiful Beaches - Click here and here
Good home to live in - Click here
Interesting sites - Click here
Heavy Rains - Click here
Bananas and School - Click here
Fun places to visit - Click here
Christmas in the Phillipines - Click here

Landon and Kacey will be able to take trips outside of the Phillipines, to visit places like:
Bangkok
Malaysia
Australia

Another blog I found describes the DRIVING in Bacolod
The Good The Bad and The Ugly  - Click here
Time to go home - Click here
Recap of their 5 years in the Phillipines - Click here

The cat's out of the bag.......

As some of you know, or may have heard, Landon and Kacey and Payson are moving to the Philippines !  Landon has been made the Site Director over Focus Direct in Bacolod, Philippines. They will be moving in the next 3-4 weeks, and will be there for one year, and most likely longer if everything goes as planned.

We are excited and happy for them.  Attitude is everything.  What a wonderful opportunity for their little family to experience a part of the world that not many people have the chance to even visit.

Landon spent 10 days there a week ago.  It's a LONG trip.  Salt Lake to Seattle, to Tokyo, to Manilla, to Bacolod.  Pronounced Bah KOH lod, with an emphasis on the KOH.

Bacolod is located on the Negros Island on the Occidental side, in the Philippines.  Occidental means WEST, and Oriental means EAST.  (my dad taught me that :)  Manila is located on the Island of Luzon (larger island to the North)  All I knew about the Philippines before this, was that they were located in the South Seas, somewhere SOUTH and WEST of Hawaii.  Now I know (thanks to Google Earth), that the Philippines are just below Japan, and just above Australia.

Bacolod is across the international date line, and is about 15 hours a head of our time.

Focus will fly them home once a year, so we probably won't see them until Christmas.  Thank goodness for Skype :)  Cody and Jordyn Carter will be joining them in a couple of months.  Cody will be the assistant site director, and Jordyn is Kacey's sister.  Kacey is VERY happy about this.  Carol (their mom), not so much :(

Over the next couple of weeks, I'll continue to post information to help us all learn more about Bacolod, Philippines.  Oh, and it looks like a visit to the Philippines just was added to my BUCKET LIST :)

Happy Birthday Payson

Our Birthday Boy - what a cutie.
We love him so much

A Baseball Smash Cake !
He didn't know quite what to think....

Even with the binkie, he couldn't take all of the attention?  pressure?  sugar?
Kids are so funny sometimes, you just don't know how they will react.

Times were wild and crazy with 10 kids under 8, but everyone had a great time :)

Our two ONE YEAR OLDS
Thatch and Pays

My Youngest.......

He's been working really hard these past three months, he has lost 30 pounds (219 to 189), and also 14+ inches by going to Crossfit Unknown 5 days a week, and also he was on the Paleo diet for one month without cheating. 
Also, he's flying off to HERE today - seems like there is always something exciting going on in his life.

He may drive me (and Kacey) crazy sometimes, but it's never boring, that's for sure.

Love you Lando !

Great Weekend so far......

My "Honey" done did, some "Honey-Do's"

These two babies make us smile ALL the time :)

We caught the boy's basketball game with Landon and Kacey and Payson

Angels making Angels.....haha

These two are up to something - we'll share soon !
NO, they are not pregnant :)

I bought Roger D. a little "egg basket" on Morgan Mom's.  He is quite the chicken farmer :)

And finally, we end with a piano solo, courtesy of Thatcher 

Good night

Yes it was........
Bethany cancelled :(..... and I was seriously sad.....
But, that did mean I was able to go with the family to my mom's for dinner.  She really goes out of her way to take care of all of us.  I know it's a lot of extra work, but the love she and Dad have for all of us is evident.
Ham, creamed beans, corn (frozen from Dad's garden), homemade rolls, with butter and jam, augratin  (sp?) potatoes, red jello, with and without mandarin oranges, and of course, pumpkin pie with whipped cream.  Who else's mom makes three pumpkin pies, one for dinner and two to give away, when it's not Thanksgiving??  She. Is. Awesome.

After dinner, we all hung around, and watched the little boys play and squeel, and laugh, and try to walk.  It was so much fun.  It was Thatcher's actual birthday, and he was in FINE FORM.  Payson was all giggly too, and as I bounced them on my knees, singing Pony Boy, and then put them down and they hugged (as well as one year olds can do), I couldn't help but feel so very blessed.
  It was a great night.

After I came home, I helped Annette with Karly's blog.  She went to the MTC today.  She will be a great missionary, and I'll get to help chronicle it ! Yahoo.....you know how I love to blog :)

All in all it was a great evening !

Birthday Boys

Tagg turned 5 a couple of days ago on the 8th

Thatcher turns 1 on the 13th

They did a combined birthday party celebration for the family last night.  CJ worked so hard on it (as she usually does), and everything turned out just wonderful.  We all gathered together, opened presents and had sloppy Joe's

Tagg's theme was Jake the Pirate, and he was so cute.  The cake was awesome with sand, and buried treasure chest filled with edible treasure !  

Payson didn't know if he liked all of the commotion !

Tagg was sure excited for Treyson's present

A roaring, moving, blazing eyed T-rex.  Didn't faze Thatch  (with ball in mouth) at all :)

One of my favorite moments of the night was when Tagg was looking at the "The Year I Was Four" book I made him, and as he kept turning the pages and looking at the pictures, kept saying over and over, "That was good times..... That was good times......."

Thatch LOVED his cake - he was all sorts of SERIOUS with it.  It took him a little while to get going, but boy when he did, he loved it.  (see video below)