CA trip

This guy and I took a quick trip to CA to meet my nephew.


Also had lunch w/ some old girlfriends.


Celebrated dad's birthday.


And dad made BBQ chicken and ribs.



And when I wasn't sick, I held this little guy.

backlog

I feel like it's been a while and maybe it hasn't been terribly long but I have a random assortment of photos and videos that have been building up and this is a very long sentence. Anywho.....here's the last month or so.


V has taken to trying on all types of shoes.


And some leisurely reading. (he was laying on his belly kicking his feet in the air, but of course got up right as I snapped the pic)


Den got his mount of last year's deer.



It's no secret that we don't do Halloween, but E's class had a book character day and she chose to be Angelina Ballerina. I made the ears and tail, but we had everything else on hand.




I hear a lot about this batman she's sitting next to.


Making a puppet. She took such a long time to color it w/ detail. This is not from me.


Some friends from church offered us tickets to see Voices of Christmas at Living Waters, the smaller theater of Sight and Sound. We took my SIL and niece, it was a fun show. E was feeling stubborn and didn't want to go, was determined not to like it. I caught her singing a long w/ Joy to the World and at the end she confessed, "mommy mommy, i liked all of it." This was said very quickly, almost hoping that I wouldn't hear.


Videos....
#1 - V loves it when his daddy lifts him up to "pet" the deer. He gets this quiver of a laugh that cracks me up.

#2 - I have no idea what brought this on. He just started dancing and getting a kick out of himself. You can see j running around in the back, trying to get in on the action.

#3- SO, let me apologize for my daughter's yucky noises. When she first started doing this to make V laugh, she was NOT making gas sounds. But still, she had him going and I had to share that part of it!

#4- Please ignore the girl wearing the big melisa suit, and do pay attention to my son in the black shirt. This was at our church fall gathering and I talked him into being my partner and he tried to be reluctant about it. I think the serious hoe-down moves that Den captured speaks to J's true nature.

Serving

Last Wed. we took the kids to GAIN, with our friends who had been many times before. Den has been wanting to do this for a while and we finally found a time that worked.


We told the kids to head to the car and this is what I saw...sigh.


They started us how packing seeds for people to grow food to eat and sell.


The kids were really into this at first and were racing to get as many done as they possibly could, but then more people came and it was elbow to elbow.


So instead they made gospel bracelets.




I tied quilts.

I'd love to say that the kids were excited to go. They did NOT want to go. But once we were there they were troopers and really got into it. Praying their hearts grow more servant like everyday.


Two nights ago I made pumpkin cookies and he couldn't get enough. "No more" was not the answer he wanted to hear.

videos

The tubby ones are from this morning and the truck one is from last week. He was dancing to the sound the truck was making, but of course not so much for the camera. Instead you can see him getting frustrated with his big brother.

This and That

These are just a few from the past few weeks, a bit of this and that.


He loves the silliness of wearing something on his head. One night I tied a shirt around his head and he just strutted his stuff loving that everyone was laughing at him.



These are from one of the fairs we went to in Sept.

He wasn't content to just steer the wheel, he had to shift gears too.

I don't know if you can see, but there are ducklings that are climbing up a ramp for food and then sliding down. Twas hilarious.

Last Weekend of Summer

After some minimal begging I got Den to agree to go to the beach for the day on Saturday. We hadn't taken the kids all summer and I just didn't feel right about it. Can it officially be summer without the beach? Not in my world.

It was windy and therefore freezing when we first got there at 9am.

But the kids got over it.

V enjoyed trying to find his way into whatever wind shelter his daddy had created. He also LOVED playing in the waves, of which I have no pictures of, so you'll have to take my word for it.

The kept "warming up" on the sand.

My favorite thing about taking the kids to the beach is how well they play together. There are no distractions of toys or other kids, just each other. This is why I think we should live on the beach.

Joy & Sadness

JOY: My son brought home a cello Monday night. He's so excited about it, and so am I. I'm hoping that he can teach me at home what he learns at school.





SADNESS: I'm pretty sure this is the saddest sock monkey I've ever seen. I made it for Craft Hope. When I first saw the site they were making easy things, like blankets and burp rags so I was excited to be a part of the next project. Not so much when I saw it was sock monkeys! I never liked them, I think the socks I got are too long and skinny, but I promised I would send one so off she went today. And yes, that's a scarf and trust me it helps. Hopefully next time won't be any form of animal, obviously not my forte'. Praying some child still has fun with it or at least has a sense of humor!

The Family That Camps Together.....

Sunday of Labor Day weekend we decided to camp in the woods on Den's parents land. We did this with all his siblings, and a cousin and all their kids (minus 2 babies). Everyone made the same comment when they arrived, "all this stuff for just one night!" But if it was more than one night, the only thing we would have brought more of was food. Overall it was a success and we might just do it again.

Right away the boys were off looking for creatures and building them habitats in buckets. This was a salamander that was trying to escape before his photo shoot.

While Uncle Dave was searching under a rock for a hidden key to his trailer, Aunt Gina spotted this copperhead snake and saved his life. He took care of it and brought it to show the kids.

V stayed with mom mom overnight but hung out for a bit around the fire.

Of course there was campfire singing!

As much as I tried Den would not take his shirt off while chopping wood. He's so uncooperative.

Den and others LOVED when I blinded them with the flash of my camera. They'll thank me later.

The morning after.

That morning we went back to Den's mom's and celebrated her bday at lunch.