PHOTOBLOG: The Fence and the Evening Rainbow

For the past week, I’ve been working on building a white picket fence around my front yard as a Mother’s Day gift to my wife. Some of you may have seen a few of the photos from last Saturday on my FB page. But for those who haven’t, I’d like to share with you my progress! 🙂

 

Friday, May 3rd

So I went to Home Depot and rented an auger the night before we were to begin, so I wouldn’t kill myself trying to dig post holes in the clay that Los Angeles substitutes for regular dirt.

Saturday, May 4th

Got up early on Saturday morning and hauled out said auger.

My good friend Jonathan was helping me cut the lumber. These boards were being cut in half to be used as fence posts.

My son Micah using the auger to dig a post hole.

Aaron was lending a hand doing something constructive (destructive?) with this shovel.

Jonathan wanted a turn with the auger and wound up with a small burn on his arm when the auger kicked back and tagged him with the exhaust.

Arielle, not one to be left out, was assisting with clay/dirt scattering. Because scattering is a big part of building… apparently.

I wanted to make sure that each of the posts were not only the same height, but level as well. My dad was supervising.

We decided on an 18 inch inset for the posts near our neighbors driveway so they wouldn’t have trouble getting into/our of their cars.

Jonathan and I discussing the finer points of cement pouring. This is important as I didn’t realize cement pouring had fine points.

My dad mixing the cement for us to, well… pour. Now that we’d agreed on all the finer points.

Fence building is a family project.

Another check of the post height. With all of the posts in and the cement poured, that was all we were able to do on the first day. We had to let the cement set before we could proceed any further.

Thursday, May 9th

My wife wanted to paint the posts before we started adding the rails.

So she went around to all 15 posts and did just that.

My wife’s beautiful handiwork.

Avery decided to show up and demonstrate how easy it is to apply fence paint to clothing.

Rail progress!

Then, in the middle of everything, we had a beautiful evening rainbow that bloomed out of nowhere.

We were trying to figure out what caused such an unusual glow and I later found out that there was an eclipse taking place. The residual light reflected off the moisture in the air, causing an ambient glow that lit up the entire neighborhood.

Friday, May 10th

By the time we were done, it was too dark to get a good picture. So I took a few this morning before I headed in to work.

 

We worked well into the night and managed to get all of the rails up. Now on Saturday we’ll start adding the pickets.

PHOTOBLOG: An August Debut

Well, you’ve heard the quick and dirty version of the birth story, so I won’t rehash that again. But they grow up so fast and I thought I’d share a few pictures of our dear August’s  life so far… all 7 days of it.

I love this shot of him peacefully sleeping in the hospital room. There’s something about these early days of sleep that seem so epically restful.

 

Of course, for the first couple of days there was more sleeping than anything else. Well, except eating. There was a ton of that, which was usually followed by being snuggled up with his gorgeous mama.

 

Here he is with my father, whom the grandkids affectionately call Papa Welch.

 

All the kids call my wife’s mother Ama because it was too hard to say “grandma” when they were younger. And it just stuck.

 

Of course, I am a proud poppa.

 

The wife, the complete brood, and the maternal grandparents.

 

First ride in a car seat. He looks so tiny!

An August announcement. I hung this outside our bay window after we brought him home. We have a lot of dog walkers and moms with baby stroller passing by and they all stop to read it. Even one of our neighbors came over with a present because they saw the banner!

 

My mom, Granny Welch.

 

My brother, Uncle Myke.

 

And no day would be completely without the healing properties of Mommy kisses.

PHOTOBLOG: Aaron’s 6th

My wonderfully enthusiastic and brilliant son Aaron turned 6 yesterday. We had a party for him and invited a few of his friends over to celebrate. It was Star Wars themed. Being that he was Luke Skywalker for the event…

this of course meant that I, as his father, was given the role of none other than…

Lord Darth Vader.

So I thought it would be cool to share a few photos from the party. Enjoy!

Luke is ready to face Darth Vader.

What?! He has help from other Jedi padawans!

Darth Vader is defeated by the padawan mob!

Father and son.

Who knew Darth Vader was a family man?

Princess Leia loves her dark father.

The light saber was a bit too much for the young princess.

Family Portrait: Princess Leia, Darth Vader and Luke Skywalker.

PHOTOBLOG: 8 Is Enough

Someone asked me if I had any new pictures to share and I realized that I hadn’t posted any recent photos of my kids in a while. So, I thought I’d share some from December ’12 and January ’13 while I’m working on my 2012 Year In Review post. 

Myxl, Jr. – 17

Chris – 16

Aaron – 6 (well, on February 2nd he will be)

Arielle – 4

Avery – 1 1/2

The Crew (so far… )

PHOTOBLOG: Zoo Day

We’d been talking about going to the zoo all week but were a bit concerned that it might rain today. So when we got up this morning and saw that there was indeed heavy, falling moisture in the air, we were a little bummed. However, my oldest son mentioned that friends at his school told him that rainy days were the best days to go to the zoo. So of course, I looked it up. And wouldn’t you know it… rainy days ARE considered the best days to go to the zoo. This is for several reasons:

1. The zoo won’t be as crowded since people don’t want to come out in the rain.
2. According to one of the workers at the zoo, the animals are actually more active on rainy days.
3. Puddle splashing and twirling umbrellas only add to the adventure of the day.

Needless to say, we packed up the family and headed out.

I apologize for the fact that there are only 4 pictures. I’m usually the photographer in our family, but I passed off the camera to one of my sons who thought that when I said, “Take pictures” I meant, “Only take pictures of the animals and none of the family actually enjoying our visit.” lol So, here are a few with people in it… and one with a goat.

My gorgeously pregnant wife and Aaron.

Chris and Aaron.

The always lovely Arielle.

The goat.