Fun Stuff

We’ve been having lots of fun celebrating Becca’s birthday for a few days…

Today we had her family birthday dinner and for dessert she chose freshly baked chocolate chip cookies with ice cream on top. She got a candle AND sprinkles, too!

On Friday I picked her and two friends up from school and took them to the new pottery painting place in town. We had such a good time! These are their “finished” projects (we left them there to be fired and the story is that the color will get a lot brighter after it’s glazed and fired). These girls were such sweeties!

On her actual birthday we brought Rice Krispie Treats with m&m’s to her class. I also got to stay for the whole morning to construct bats out of toilet paper rolls and construction paper with all 75 first graders for Bat Centers!

We don’t really do the trick-or-treating thing, though I do miss the Harvest Parties we used to have with all our friends from before we moved here. Those are some of my most precious memories! Anyway, the girls always have fun coming up with their own costumes. This year Sarah was “the girl who couldn’t decide what to be.” Love that! Bethany was one of my favorites of all time. She was a PUN! She has smarty pants, and a thinking cap. In the cup is water, which is marked information and on the tray is a sponge is is marked information soaker! Ha! She also has gears and wheels on her tray, and a long term memory rock!!! Sooooo funny! Becca was a cowgirl and Elise was Ariel. The reason we have that Ariel costume is because I had a weak moment in a thrift store and felt like being a “yes mom” for once.

I liked that.

Happy Birthday, Becca!

My dear sweet Rebecca,

Making Rice Krispie Treats for her class

On this day, 7 years ago, a third beautiful baby girl entered our lives and things have never been the same.

You have been so much fun and so full of life, and God brought you to us exactly when we needed you.

The twinkle in your eye and the bounce in your step bring us delight and we are amazed every day at you.

When you were a toddler, you probably would have been in a lot of trouble if you hadn’t been so cute!!

As you can see, I had some fun going through your baby album and picking out some of my favorite memories from your first year!

We hurt when you hurt because of your arthritis, but you continue to be brave about that and we are so proud of you. You are learning so much about God’s world and His story in the Bible and you love every minute of learning, and that brings us joy! We can’t wait to see all the amazing plans God has for your life.

We also want to wish my grandma a very happy birthday! We give thanks for your life and your spirit, Grandma! Sending you lots of love from the family! XOXOXO

Catching Up

It’s been a while since I’ve blogged about our daily lives, except to say that things have been busy. Here’s a taste of that busy-ness:

Becca’s been writing stories.

(read in two columns, not all the way across)

I have also baked a few pies and apple crisps with our yummy apples from the apple picking day. Oh, how I love apple pie!

I went with Elise on her preschool field trip to the pumpkin patch! It was a little tough to get all of those preschoolers to look at the camera at the same time…or even three of them.

Elise and two of her friends, showing off their pumpkins.

Elise and her amazing preschool teacher…Grandma!!

Sarah using the downhill well at her most difficult XC race – the course was a loop they had to run 3 times, and about 1/4 of that loop was a LONG, STEEP hill. Everyone had their worst time of the year, but Sarah placed the highest she’s ever placed – FIFTH out of 72!

The Junior High XC team stretching before their last meet.

Close-up of Sarah stretching. I just wonder who she is listening to and what she is thinking. I hope it’s not a boy…

Coming in, finishing up her last race of the year.

She got her best time at the last race: 10 minutes, 18 seconds - coming in First for her team, 7th overall. Sarah, we are so proud of you for working hard and for running your best and for giving God the glory! It was so much fun to watch you this season and we can’t wait to continue to watch you run!!

Last week the 7th and 8th graders gave a music assembly. Sarah’s in both choir and band and loves them both. It was great fun to hear the choir, band, and also the orchestra. It’s such a blessing to have all those music teachers in the lives of my children. They are talented and fun and sincere Christians who teach my children to love music and to use it for God’s glory. It doesn’t get much better than that.

Sarah really does enjoy playing my her flute.

Bethany spent a large portion of today working on a model of a cell. She used all crafting supplies.

It turned out pretty great, don’t you think?

That’s pretty much it for our daily lives. Plus a bunch of other stuff I didn’t take pictures of and don’t remember anymore. Plus some stuff we’re in the middle of that I’m not ready to blog about yet, but you’ll see it all soon!

Does this make me domestic?

No one would say that my mother is “domestic”, despite her immaculate house. I’ve always believed that my mother is hiding some sort of magic in her dust rag, because no matter how hard I try, my house will never be as clean as hers. However, she doesn’t do much else that would be considered domestic. She has a few signature things she cooks & bakes that are amazing, (cookies and potatoes), but I never even knew macaroni & cheese could be made without the blue box until I was 27. She’s not crafty. She still touts the fact that she sewed curtains with her grandma 29 years ago as her most domestic project ever.

Unfortunately for me, I didn’t get the few domestic genes she had to give. I mean, I’m crafty – way more than my mother – but I’m pretty sure I got those creative genes from my dad. We’re both capable of measuring never and cutting once. I do like to cook and bake, but I don’t like a “challenge” in the kitchen and my favorite meals are ones I am served in a restaurant. I hate to clean and when I do clean you can’t tell I did, so I definitely missed out there.

However.

I think my friend Lea has taken it upon herself to try to make me domestic. I asked her a few questions about canning and all of a sudden, I’m at her house, with apples and freshly washed jars and brand new jar lids, learning how to can applesauce!

Lea’s a good teacher, and we managed to get over a dozen quart jars of applesauce done in just a couple hours!

I heard the lids pop when they sealed, and we only broke one jar when placing it in the boiling water. Thank you, Lea. I am officially a canner.

Does that make me domestic? ‘Cause if it does, maybe my efforts to clean my house will go better…

Senior Photos

I took a friend’s son’s Senior Photos on Sunday afternoon – we had a great time and I think I got some good stuff! Here’s a sampling…

Still working on more edits…

Thanks for a fun afternoon, you guys!

Pet Peeves

I have a friend with some pet peeves. I won't go into them all here...I'm gonna leave that up to a wittier friend to blog about. But, one of this friend's pet peeves is the word "BUSY" and the fact that everyone is just always so busy. In light of that, I apologize in advance to her for this post.

This post is to apologize to all my family & friends who rely on this blog to keep updated on our daily lives. I am sorry for the absence of updates. We are fine, all is well, life is good. I am just busy.

The other night we took a walk

and this is what we saw:

And it was even better than that in real life. I think God has fun coloring the clouds.

Fall Favorites

My Katsura Trees

with heart-shaped leaves

yummy warm deliciousness in the form of the new Marbled Cinnamon Mocha and the new Toffee Mocha at Starbucks

My new travel mug, which has the best design ever and keeps my coffee HOT for over an hour!

  Apples

   at the apple farm

 and all that type of wonderful goodness.

      Cuteness at the pumpkin patch

Here is where my list of fall favorites takes a break. Not that I don’t love this old wagon filled with pumpkins. I completely do. But usually, my kids climb all over it, we take fun pictures, no problem. But today…

A microsecond after I took this shot, that pumpkin Becca was leaning on started to roll, and when one pumpkin rolls, many pumpkins roll, and so do little girls. She, and about 6 pumpkins went rolling off the front of the wagon. She did a complete flip, landing on her face on a pumpkin. I was scooping her up as quick as I could, but the pumpkins kept rolling off the wagon. It was like when you’re at the grocery store and pick up an apple and all the apples start tumbling. Only with pumpkins and my baby, tumbling onto cement. Thankfully, Becca was not hurt, nor did any pumpkin smashing occur. We did break off a few stems, though. If you look at the picture of all the pumpkins on the wagon, (actually taken after the accident), you’ll see a couple pumpkins with half-broken off stems. That was the worst of the damage. The owner wasn’t very happy with us and acted like the kids should never have been up there. “Round things roll, you know,” he said to us. So, I guess now we know, and perhaps a “stay off the pumpkins” sign is in order…

Back to my favorites…

a traditional shot

We always get their cider donuts. Can someone say Delicious? Notice there are no pictures of the actual donuts. I think they were gone in about half a minute…

a new feature at the farm this year..it’s fun to mow like a cow when you’re “dressed” like a cow!

The annual trek to pick apples and visit the pumpkin patch is always done with friends. It’s a favorite day.

There are a few more things I still need to get pictures of to add to my list of Fall Favorites, but it definitely seems like my favorite season has arrived!

(Dee & Amy – I’ll be emailing more pictures to you eventually!)