April Made Dumplings!

Not much to say here... Just a bunch of DUMPLINGS! :D

Naomi and Pound Cake

Look at April feeding Naomi!







Look at Emily feeding Naomi!

























And look at this awesome poud cake April made! Isn't it perfect?!







That's all for now. :D

Naomi and Blogs

April here! Emily and Naomi came to Delaware this past weekend to celebrate Mother's Day (Emily's first!) Here's a couple shots of sleeping Naomi. I am very pround of these photos since I'M the one who put her down without waking her up!



































Also, both Arthur and I have begun our own "nature blogs" that highlight photos and experiences from our exploits in the wild. You can visit my blog here:

http://birdsnbutterflies.blogspot.com/

And you can visit Arthur's blog here:

http://www.whenaturecalls.blogspot.com/

We certainly hope our fans will all take a look. Bye bye for now!

Chinese Lanterns!

Look at April's cute Chinese Lanterns!!

Oh, yeah... We went to the Olympics!!

How could we forget to tell you?!

Here we are at a coffee shop around 5 AM. It was 8 AM Eastern Time, so it was hard to stay in bed. This is the only picture we took of ourselves in Vancouver!

Here is a picture of Apollo Ohno looking directly at us. That was right after April told him she was already married... ;)

Oh, heck, why don't ya just watch the slideshow? Here it is. Enjoy!

You can probably see it better on YouTube. Here's the link:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4nIC6cabtG4

Whatever Happened to the Koch's?

Wow, it's been a long time since our last post! Lots of things have happened since our Autumn move-in. Most of the things were not so fun to post about; for example, April's incredibly tough struggles at school, and Arthur's bad luck with finding a job. In January of this year, April got sick from all the stress, and the Koch's moved to the Durbins' house temporarily. Here's a snapshot taken during April's recovery.






We also had plenty of snow here in Northern Delaware; two big storms left us with about 2 feet of snow and stuck in the house for days at a time. It was a lot of fun - and a lot of work!













Last week we had a "Baby Bash" with April's sisters Emily and Jenn, who each delivered a baby girl this year. Jenn and Seth had baby Miranda on August 19th, and Emily and Tony had little Naomi on December 28th. Here's a shot of the girls at the Baby Bash...

And here's one showing Arthur playing with Miranda on her playmat!








April is doing much better now, but she made the tough decision to resign from her teaching job to avoid having to undergo so much stress again. She is living with the Durbins and working with Delaware Nature Society for extra cash. The Nature folks are overjoyed for her to return to the troupe.

Arthur, on the other hand, has had to face the severe joblessness of the Mid-Atlantic area, and has now moved down with his parents in Chapel Hill, North Carolina. With the help of his mother and godmother, both of whom work in the healthcare field, Arthur hopes to find a full-time job as a Radiologic Technician.





So, for the time being, April and Arthur are separated - but only geographically! We are both working hard and doing our best to improve our financial situation. We are working together on this - because that's what families do. :D

Update on the House

Um... So, yeah... I did this.

I really thought I was turning on the burner that did NOT have the plastic containter on it.

I was wrong. And this is what happened.

Arthur and I evacuated with the birds and stayed out of the house for several hours, leaving all the windows open and all the A/C units and fans running. When we came back, all the smells of toxic burning hydrocarbons were gone. I will check better next time.

This is the cool Welcome Mat that Arthur and I bought at BB&B. We had this huge 20-minute analytical discussion in the entranceway of the superstore, evaluating the advantages and disadvantages of each individual Welcome Mat.

In the end, I agreed to go with the one that Arthur wanted from the start.




This picture shows off our cool new patio stuff! We got two pretty natural-looking patio chairs, and I potted some leftover Coleus from the greenhouse at Woodbridge High School.

The Coleus had been totally wilted, left to die after all the State Fair madness. But they perked right up with some water and fresh soil! And now they make GREAT patio landscaping!