More about the header pic...

I don't have many pictures of just my three kids together. Most I found were of two of the kids, or the three of them with other kids. I found this one, taken in April of 2005--that's 2 1/2 years ago. None of the kids looks very good--Joel's nose is runny, Rebecca has a did-it-herself hairdo, and Clayton's poor eye was icky. But that's okay because it reminds me of how it was, when Clayton was still just a baby, Joel was only 2, and Rebecca was almost 5.

Header picture

I put a picture in the header area. It looked fine when I added it, but then when I view the blog all I can see is the kids' foreheads. Nice. Let me know if this is a problem for the rest of you, and I'll remove it. How annoying!

The secret's out

Go to Amanda and Mike's blog for some fun news!

I stole this picture.

Yesterday and today

Mom and Dad and the Jer's came on Monday afternoon/evening. We'd been planning to spend these days off together making lefse, a family tradition. It was wonderful, as always. We made 5 batches of lefse yesterday: one for Joel (no butter, no milk), one to eat immediately, one each for Mom and Brina to take home, and one for us. Jaina was a flipper, Mom a roller, I was the mixer-upper, Brina another roller, and Leanne her flipper. Mom didn't feel well-she has a bad cold. But she stayed at her post right to the end. And after that we fixed the fixin's for a turkey dinner. Whew! Poor mom was exhausted. Clayton fell asleep on Grandpa's lap.

Okay. Today. I shoveled. The entire driveway. It's three cars wide and quite long. Who needs a snowblower anyway? Calvin's dad of Calvin and Hobbs once said it builds character. I'm still looking for the character I made today.
I did that. I can't move now, but you should have seen me at 10:00 this morning.

Another weekend away

We were down at Jer and Brina's last weekend. The kids got to go sledding on the driveway Saturday morning. Clayton was still eating his breakfast, and seemed content to watch from inside.
He borrowed Chet's binoculars so he could pretend he was a hunter-guy. That morning we had seen a deer on the hill. Clayton was hoping another one would appear.
Time to get dressed.
Saturday night we left for home at about 7:30. We got a mile down the road and remembered our coffee Thermos, so we turned around to get it. Brina had it ready for us, along with a container I'd brought with muffins in it. We left again at 7:35. Got a mile down the road and remembered that we'd forgotten Rebecca's sleeping bag and pillow. We decided not to turn around again. Then Leanne found my camera on Emily's dresser. Maybe that's where my brain is. I've been missing it for awhile. It could be hard to spot, since some days I'm a complete air head.

December 2007

Some misc. pictures from the last month:
Rebecca made this cabin at school and it sat around the house for the longest time. I think these things are cute and sweet and I wish I could save them all, but how do you file this? So we decided to take a picture and then throw the project away. Except, after I took the picture she took the house off so she could save it. Here mousy mousy mousy!! Yummy pretzel house to nibble on!!
We were up at Grandpa John's house a couple weeks ago. It seems that's our second home these days. John wanted to start his snowmobiles and make sure they still ran, and of course the kids are always up for a ride in the sleigh. Here it is lunchtime. Notice Clayton holding the massive salt shaker. I clearly remember having the same one when I was a kid...we lived in Hayward, WI in a little house on Stockwell road. We had company over this particular evening and I was happily salting my food. My dad became alarmed at how much salt I was shaking onto my food and told me it was enough. I looked at the shaker, saw that there was only 1/2" or so left in the bottom, and told him, "Well there's not much left." I thought I'd just use it all. Anyway, this is basically the same thing Clayton told me right after I snapped the picture. Like mother, like son?
Supper by candlelight. This holds great appeal to the kids. When they were finished eating Rebecca even did her homework by candlelight. It was such a novelty she forgot to remember that she hates homework.
The boys and I went to school for a special art day with Rebecca's class, and then we had lunch with her. Sitting next to Rebecca is her sometimes-friend Alica. Sometimes they like each other, but mostly they're "broke apart." Those are Rebecca's exact words.
This past week the kids made graham cracker houses. I let them have the houses in their bedrooms for "decorations." Mistake. Clayton was the first one to eat his. Then Chet ate part of Rebecca's this weekend and Clayton finished it off. Joel's, miraculously, escaped the feeding frenzy. His still has 4 Junior Mints decorating it. My prediction: they'll be gone by 9:00 a.m. tomorrow.

Happy Birthday Uncle Jared!

Yesterday was Jared's birthday. I'm not sure, but I think he's 29. Can that be possible? My widdle baby brudder is growing up...awwww! I still think of him as being a teenager, even though I'm only 1 1/2 years older than he.
Happy Birthday Jared! I miss you. Come home soon. Love, your favorite red-headed sis.

No pictures

You may have noticed the lack of pictures. I left my camera at Brina and Jerry's last weekend and didn't realize it until Monday when I dropped the boys off at preschool. It was their first day, and I had no camera! I was bummed, but relieved to find out that I didn't lose it, just left it behind.
It's a good thing I don't have a camera right now, or I could be tempted to snap a photo of Clayton. That boy loves to run around in the buff. He's been "nekked" for a couple hours now and resists my attempts at dressing him. Oh well, you're only three years old once.
I think I have the cleanest boys in town. Everyday they ask if they can take a bath. It keeps them occupied and out of trouble for at least an hour and while they turn into little prunes I can relax. They're so opposite of Rebecca--after a week I have to insist that she take a shower. Hopefully as she gets older she'll take responsibility for her own cleanliness.
Rebecca is of the opinion that homework is below her. Each Friday they bring home two little booklets, to be turned in the following Friday. One is math and one is reading. The kids can do one page of each booklet every night, or do all five pages of each all at once. Rebecca falls into the second category. I have such a hard time getting her to sit down and do her work. And it's always on Thursday night, an hour before bedtime. This would give her plenty of time, but she sits at the table and flops her head dramatically onto her arms and moans about how boring it is, how stupid, how absolutely hideous. She uses that word a lot: hideous. Most of the time it doesn't fit in the sentence she's forcing it into. Anyway, last night she finally got every page done and then ran downstairs for story time. After she was sleeping I checked her work. It was hideous. She scribbled all the sentences and the words were completely unrecognizable. On top of one page she wrote quite clearly to her teacher: I hate these booklites and I am sick of them. Her daddy doesn't help the situation. He looks over the problems and mutters about the idiots that came up with such stupid questions.
Oh, only the reading pages are a problem. She loves the math ones because, guess what? She gets out the calculator. I'm pretty sure calculators aren't allowed, but I'm not going to fight her about it.

Hello?

Okay, some of you aren't taking me seriously. Leave a comment!! I'm really interested to know who's visiting and how you learned about our blog. I think the different connections are neat...so please, just this once I'm asking everyone to leave a comment.
Thank you!

Pretzels

I made pretzels today...the boys were excited to help. Rebecca missed out because she's at school. I got the recipe off of www.allrecipes.com.

Pretzels
"Those big, soft pretzels rolled in coarse salt are yours to bake at home with basic bread ingredients you probably have in your pantry."
Ingredients:
1 (.25 oz) package active dry yeast (a pkg contains 2 1/4 tsp)
2 T brown sugar
1 1/8 tsp salt
1 1/2 cups warm water (110 degrees)
4 cups flour
1 tsp baking powder

2 cups warm water (110 degrees)
2 T baking soda

2 T melted butter
2 T coarse kosher salt

Directions:
1. In a large mixing bowl, dissolve the yeast, brown sugar and salt in 1 1/2 cups warm water. Stir in flour and knead dough on a floured surface until smooth and elastic, about 8 minutes. (I mixed it in the Kitchen Aid and let it knead the dough for 4 minutes.) Place in a greased bowl, and turn to coat the surface. Cover and let rise for one hour.
2. Combine 2 cups warm water and baking soda in an 8" square pan.
3. After dough has risen, cut into 12 pieces. Roll each piece into a 3 foot rope, pencil thin or thinner. Twist into a pretzel shape, and dip into the baking soda solution. Place on parchment covered cookie sheets, and let rise 15 to 20 minutes.
4. Bake at 450 degrees F for 8-10 minutes, or until golden brown. Brush with melted butter, and sprinkle with coarse salt, garlic salt, or cinnamon sugar.

I changed things a bit--I didn't want to make monster-sized pretzels so I divided the dough into 32 pieces, each about the size of a walnut: Divide the large ball of dough in half and set one aside. Divide dough you're working with in half again, then each half in half so you have four balls of dough. Divide each of the four balls in half to make 8 balls, and divide yet again to make 16 balls. Do the same with the dough you set aside. This makes pretzels that are 2 1/2" to 3" across.
Also, after I dipped them in the soda water I sprinkled them with salt right away before I baked them. Joel can't have butter, so I had to eliminate that somehow. My solution worked very well. I made some with cinnamon sugar and some salted. Joel informed me that the salted ones are better.
I made two batches because we're going to a potluck this weekend. Whew! Got that done.

Huh.

So, I put this cool map on my blog. It's supposed to tell me where people live and how many visited every day instead of a collective total of visitors. I'm a bit depressed though, because every time I check it says 0 visitors. (Do I have too much time on my hands? Nah...) So, where is everyone? Put yourself on my map. And leave a comment while you're at it. I'd like to see how many lurkers I can scare out of hiding. It's okay. I don't bite. Usually.

Granola

This must be my day for recipes. I made some granola the other day and it's gone now. I almost made a comment about being a regular gal, but then decided that would be too much information.
Okay, so on to the recipe...
2 1/4 cups rolled or quick oats
1/4 cup wheat germ
1/4 cup oat bran (I used ground flax seed instead)
1/4 cup honey
1 1/2 tsp. cinnamon
1/2 cup orange juice concentrate
2 T olive oil
1 tsp vanilla
Preheat oven to 300 degrees. Lightly oil 10 x 15 pan. (I used a 9 x 13 glass baking dish) Mix all dry ingredients. Blend all wet ingredients and add to dry ones. Mix well. Spread evenly in prepared pan.
Bake 30-35 minutes or until light brown, stirring every 10 minutes. Be careful not to burn. Cool in pan. Store in tightly covered container.
I got this recipe from Carolee K. It's delicious! I'm not sure if the original recipe called for o.j. concentrate, or plain o.j. I used concentrate and it's wonderful.
Oh, and I got impatient after 1/2 hour of baking it and it wasn't getting crunchy like I thought it should, so I upped the temp to 350. Just be careful, as mentioned before, that you don't let the granola burn.
When it was done baking I added dried chopped fruits, sunflower seeds and shelled pumpkin seeds.

Squash soup

I made some really good soup last night...partly from a recipe, partly made up.
I cooked one good-sized squash in the crock-pot on high for about 7 hours. (Peeled and cut into chunks, with maybe 1/3 cup water added.)
Closer to supper time:
2 peeled, sliced apples
1 large onion, cut into chunks
2 carrots, cut into chunks
Arrange on a jelly-roll pan in a single layer. Coat all with olive oil. Roast in 400 degree oven until the onions and apples get soft and carmel-y and the carrots start to brown, stirring every 15 minutes or so.
In a blender, combine all ingredients--squash, apples, onions, carrots, and water from cooking squash--you might have to blend it up in two batches. Add 1/4 tsp nutmeg and salt to taste.
Yum E.
I like parmesan cheese on everything, and sometimes on nothing (I eat it plain). I'm a parmesan cheese junkie. So I put some on my serving of soup.

Another new Blogger!

My mom and dad are attempting to have a blog...I set it up while we were there but she's had a bit of trouble adding pictures. And that gets frustrating. Anyway, check it out when you have a minute!

Clayton just loves this song. I finally got a video of him singing it. If you listen carefully, at the end you'll hear him whistle. He's the only three-year-old I know who can whistle. It amazes me. He loves loves loves music.

Clare

We were down and Mom and Dad's this weekend. Sunday afternoon Clare and Debbie stopped by for a visit. As Jerry jokingly put it, "Clare's nice guy, but he just has one fault. He doesn't like kids." The boys were completely entertained by him. I don't think my boys had ever met him, but within two minutes they decided he was a good guy. Clare gave awesome bucking bronco rides.And told exciting stories. One started like this: "There were three little boys, and their names were Joel, Clayton, and Chet. One day they decided to go into the woods..."
Clayton was totally engrossed. Now Joel and Clayton tell a lot of stories that start like this: "There were three little boys, and their names were Joel, Clayton, and Chet. One day they decided to go into the woods..."

Three boys

Chet, Joel and Clayton were playing together on Sunday. Chet is the oldest, so he gets to say what they'll do. Joel and Clayton mostly just do what he says. Sometimes Clayton will speak up if he doesn't like the plan. Chet: "We're playing cops and robbers in here. Get in." "No Clayton, there's not room. You're not allowed."
Joel came to his rescue, and it was decided he could play.

Backrub chain

Jaina had to be her own backrubber.

Knitting

Oh! oh! oh!

I'm knitting. My first project of the winter. Yesterday I went out in a near-blizzard because I HAD to buy some yarn and knitting needles. It was a small obsession.

I've already finished two dishclothes. They're super easy and quick. That's my kind of project!

Knitted dishcloth--from Grandma Myrtle and Mom

supplies needed: Peaches 'n' Creme cotton yarn (1 skein); size 8 or 10 knitting needles

Pattern: cast on 4 sts. Knit 2 yo, knit to end. Continue in pattern until you have 43 sts. K1, K2 tog, yo, K2 tog, K to end. Continue in pattern until you have 4 sts on needle. Bind off.

Now, the pattern really only calls for one small skein of yarn. Me being me, I bought the gi-nor-mous 1 lb. cone. That's 754 yards of yarn. We'll have dishcloths coming out of our ears, or else I'll need to find something else to make with this yarn. Let me know if you have a pattern I could use!!

Tucker

Most of you know how much of a trial our dog has been to us. He's 21 months old and a very active Golden Retriever. Last Friday night, both John and I had HAD it with him. John let him out to play, and next thing we knew Tucker was gone. John went out looking for him but had no luck, so he came home and went to bed. The next morning, still no Tucker. But it didn't take long and the phone rang--it was a lady down the street. She was very nice when she told me that Tucker barked under her bedroom window until 12:30 a.m., her husband is in the hospital, and just had an operation for prostate cancer the day before. I was so un-impressed with Tucker. We've gotten calls from every neighbor within a 2-mile radius that has dogs, saying Tucker is there and could we please come get him. We've been called by the County Sherriff twice, and were told that if it happens again we'll get a citation.
So we decided to get rid of him.
I listed him online, and then I went out to tie him up on his cable in the backyard. As I turned to come back into the house, Tucker laid his head against me and closed his eyes. He's never done that before. Usually he tries to knock me over. John and I are softies. How could we look into those big brown eyes and then give him away? We just couldn't. The next day I removed the listing. We are keeping Tucker. But he'd better behave.

Lefse

I made two and a half batches of lefse today. It's so easy and so good. My brother Lee found this recipe somewhere:
3 cups mashed potatoes
3/4 cup sweetened condensed milk OR half and half
1 T. salt
1/2 cup butter
2 1/2 cups flour
Mix in mixer. Roll out 2" balls thinly on floured pastry cover or cotton towel or pillowcase, with a sock over the rolling pin. Cook on very hot griddle (450-500 degrees), flipping once. Makes about 25.
Serve warm, rolled up with butter, brown sugar, and cinnamon, or your favorite jam. It's a winter tradition.
By the way, do NOT try to mix up more than one batch of lefse at a time in your Kitchen Aid mixer. You'll have a lefse dough explosion. I should have known...

Apple skins

Today Joel asked me where that peeler thing is because he wanted to skin an apple.

Rebecca

Every night at bedtime, Rebecca gets even more clingy. I was knitting upstairs and John was tucking the kids in last night, when Rebecca came up the steps and said to me she wanted me to come down to tell her good-night. Why? It seems silly to me, when she's right there by me and I could tell her good-night just as good in the living room .
Another thing she does: she likes to read in her bed, but she needs the light on for that. I go upstairs to clean up or get my pj's on, and 15 minutes later here she comes. "Mom, I want you to come down and shut my light off."

You have to try this

I made a really good lunch for myself the other day: one spinach-herb wrap folded in half and filled with: some cooked chicken breast cut into small pieces; 1/2" slice of feta cheese, crumbled; some colby-jack and parmesan cheese shredded; fresh rosemary; black pepper.
I cooked it in a cast-iron skillet until the cheese was all hot and melted together and the wrap was browned and crisp. Delicious.

I hadn't ever made Baklava until about a month ago, and it was so good I'll be making it again someday soon.

Baklava
4 cups walnuts finely chopped (16 oz package)
1/2 cup sugar
1 tsp cinnamon
1 pkg Fillo pastry sheets (16 oz fresh or thawed)
1 cup melted butter
12 oz honey
Grease 13x9 pan. Mix walnuts, sugar and cinnamon. Place 1 sheet fillo in pan at a time and brush with butter. When there are 8 sheets in pan, sprinkle with 1 cup walnut mixture. Put 6 more layers of fillo and butter. Sprinkle with 1 cup walnut mixture. Repeat this process 2 more times, ending with 10 or 12 sheets fillo. Brush top with butter. With sharp knife cut halfway through layers in a triangle pattern to make 24 triangles. Bake at 300 for 1 hr 25 minutes.
Syrup: Heat honey until hot but not boiling. Spoon or pour over hot baklava. Cool in pan for at least an hour.
To serve, finish cutting through layers.
In my opinion, this is one dessert best enjoyed when it is fully cooled. It's just not as good when it's hot out of the oven, but I couldn't wait to taste it.

Day at the park

On Friday John didn't have to go into work so we went to a local park/zoo/conservatory.

Thanksgiving 2007

Jaina and Leanne model the lights John and Jerry put up for me. The job kept us up until 1:00 a.m. Yawn!! The pies: Pecan, chocolate pecan, two pumpin pies, sour cream-raisin in the blue-green dish, cranberry-apple-pecan, and apple squares.
The main dishes: green bean casserole, Swedish meatballs, cream cheese mashed potatoes, ham with mustard sauce, corn bread stuffing, traditional sage stuffing, cranberry sweet potatoes, turkey, squash, and cranberries.
Carrots, celery, olives, pickles, cream-cheese pudding cookie salad, jell-o salad, homemade rolls with homemade jams, and a pear-dried cranberry salad with vinegrette dressing. YUM.
The grandkids: Clayton, Nathan, Emily, Heather, Rebecca, Jaina, Neal, Leanne.
Front row l-r: Doug, Luke, Joel, Chet

Allergy visit

I took the boys down to La Crosse last week--Monday, Nov. 19. Three days before we were to have the entire family at our house for Thanksgiving. But John and I felt that Joel's allergies needed a bit more attention, so I took the first appointment we could get down there.
We stopped on our way to Brina and Jerry's to stay the night at Mom's work. Throw the cow over the fence some hay. That didn't come out quite right. We stayed the night with Jer and Brina, but first we stopped to see Mom at work. Got it? Good. So anyway, this is my beautiful Mom as you might have guessed, with Joel and Clayton. At her work. Tuesday Joel and I left for La Crosse at 8:15 a.m. His appointment was a 9:20. He got seven pricks on his arm, all representing different allergens. He's allergic to six of them, including cats, dogs, mold, and some trees. Not sure which trees that includes. He also had blood drawn, again, from his little arm. We still don't know the results of that test. Should find out next week. So anyway, that's a long introduction to this picture. After the appointment, we met Julie, Erin and her boys, and Brina with her boys at the hospital cafeteria. I used to live with Erin and Julie and it was so fun to have lunch with them again.
Our boys--Ethan (cutie Brina babysits), Clayton, Chet, Ty, Connor, and Joel. We even got a compliment from a perfect stranger about how well behaved they were. Whew!! Fooled another one!

Hunting and first snow

In preparation for going hunting this year, John bought a deer call. All the kids had to try it, and of course John needed to perfect his new-found talent. So for the next 45 minutes, it sounded like we had an extremely lonely buck in the house. One morning--Nov. 9 I think--we woke up to huge flakes of snow. Rebecca was off to school as always, and the boys had to get out in the snow too. Even wanted their shovels and had plans to make a snowman. Joel was quicker with a shovel than Clayton and had the entire garage apron cleared of it's 1/2" accumulation in a record 3 minutes. Clayton was pretty upset by that. And the snowman never did take on a physical form. He's still a dream in our kids' minds.

I may have mentioned before that we made four trips up to Grandpa John's house in a row. I get the medal this year for most loyal wife...four weekends in a row is a bit much for all of us. Anyway, on our last trip there (that'd be our fourth, for anyone who wasn't paying attention before...) we got to see eagles. I think they're eagles. Pretty sure. Or who knows, maybe they're flamingos. But anyway, neat.
While we were loading up the truck to come home Clayton fell asleep on the floor.

Well, what are you then?

I was getting lunch for the boys today and Clayton was sitting at the table waiting. He was staring off into space and then suddenly turned to me and asked rather indignantly, "Mom, why does Grandma Pam say I'm Darlin'? I'm NOT a darlin'." I tried to explain that it's a good thing...like Sweetheart or Punkin, but he still wasn't convinced. I asked him what he'd like to be, if not Darlin'. He muttered, "Just a boy."

Crazy kids...

This afternoon I'm reading a book, enjoying my quiet time while the boys napped. They wake up and immediately start wrestling with each other and to my eyes it looks like it's getting rough and someone's going to get hurt. Then Joel stands on Clayton's back and balances there and I'm grimacing inwardly, thinking we'll be making a trip to the emergency room this evening. I say to Joel, quite calmly, "You'd better be careful...I think you're hurting Clayton." And Clayton says in a thin little voice as his breath leaves him in a rush, "No I like it! Oof."

I took Joel to the La Crosse Allergy Clinic last week and while we were waiting for him to get poked, Joel said to me out of the blue, "When I get big I'm not going to have kids." Visions of grandchildren faded away and I asked him why not? "Because you have to feed them." Yes, that's generally required...So I got to thinking, maybe I make too big of a deal out of mealtimes? Granted, my boys want to eat literally ALL the time. They eat more than I do and I am in the kitchen all day long, preparing food or cleaning up. But maybe, just maybe, it's time I accept the fact that kids do need to eat, and since I'm their mother I do have to feed them...

Another thing he said to me was that he's going to marry Rebecca. Instead of getting into the in-breeding issue I just nodded and said "That's nice." He expanded on the issue: "Sometimes I feel bad that when I get big I won't live with Rebecca and Clayton anymore." So apparently, his solution is to marry Rebecca. I wonder where Clayton comes in? The ranch-hand, perhaps?

If you'll excuse me now, it's feeding time at the zoo.

Happy Birthday!!

Happy Birthday to my older brother Lee (November 18). He'll be...let's see, I have to do the math. He was born in 1972, so what does that make him? Okay I've got it...35. I hope you have a wonderful day Lee!
And a belated birthday to sis(-in-law, but who really cares about those two extra little words?) Brooke. I am sooo sorry I completely forgot your birthday. Can you forgive me?
And last, but not least (I hate that saying, not sure why I just typed it...) Happy Birthday to Amanda. She's officially 29 and holding.

Our little girl

I love her dimples.

Awhile ago I had to call the insurance company and the billing department of the urgent care I took Rebecca to (she'd had yet another bladder infection) because I thought we'd been billed in error. I was getting more and more upset because the insurance company said I had to call the clinic and the clinic said I had to call the insurance company. What I finally figured out was that if the urgent care is connected to a hospital, they have a right to charge whatever they want. Had I gone to a free-standing urgent care, we'd have only owed the co-payment. Luckily, I didn't go on the third Tuesday after a full moon because then we'd have really gotten charged. And watch out for those urgent cares that have automatic doors! Chances are, they're more expensive. It ended up that we owed the doctor's uncle and I bought the receptionists a fancy supper that night. Payed the light bill for the entire clinic, and the janitors too. Had I only known that a few bricks would make the difference between $100 and $20...no kidding. ANY way, the point of this story is that I was upset. Noticeably. The boys were napping and Rebecca knew I needed quiet time. (She didn't have school that day.) While I was reading a book, she was very busy writing me a letter. She gave me a pile of coins with the note.

To Mom and dad,

I am giving you this money becuase I want you to have it to keep becuase I know we are poor so I want you to keep this money so you are a few sens more so you can buy what you need and I don't give it back to me becuase we all have needs and you have a biger need then I do so keep it entell you need it and for if you need it. Love, Rebecca

I laughed and I cried: laughed because she thinks we're too poor to pay the bill--when really I'm just upset about the seeming injustice of it. Cried because she gave me all of her money. I love it when I can see a little bit into her mind, and I can see that she really is compassionate and caring, even if most of the time she comes off as having a terrible attitude.

Lately she has been very insecure for some reason. She constantly calls "Mom?" if she hasn't heard me moving around in the house. When I answer she says "I just wanted to make sure you're there." After awhile I get tired of it...where does she think I've gone? This is so unlike her--she's always been Miss Independent. I think it's just a stage she's going through, and I don't mind it (most of the time) because I'm reminded again that she's still just a little girl inside, not the almost-teenager she likes to pretend to be.

Boys playing

Tonight the boys are jumping on the couch downstairs, and I decided to start typing everything they say as they play. Here it is, almost word for word:
I’m a big boy. Boing!! Hehe. OWWWW. AHHH!! Uhuh. Now watch. Bounce-a bounce. Bounce-a bounce! Boing! It’s fun skating. Watch this Clayton. Watch. I did this! I went like this. Wight? Now watch. This is gonna be funny. Wight? He went like that. Now watch. The monster truck is going under the bridge and he doesn’t know the red car is coming! Boom. He’s going vroom-vroommmmmaama. Clayton, ‘member what we were doing? Where’s mine? AHHHHH! Now watch. I wanna do it. It’s fun. Can I do that? Fine. Then I’ll go on your side. Is the police comin’? Watch out!! OWWW! Whoa!! A donkey’s coming and I’m getting start up! I’ll say pa-chew! I’ll go whoa! And a squirrel is coming and it’s a talkin’ squirrel and a guy is walkin’…I slipped off of my kickboard!! Yeah! A cannonball comin'! Here I go! He was swimmin' and it bounces on the mountain. Wight? Now I'm gonna jump on 'kay? I'm gonna do bachew! And I fall on it like a mouse! Whoa whoa whoa!
This is all in about 5 minutes. Busy busy boys. And they really should be in bed. But how can I ruin their big fun?

Sunday drive

Sometimes John gets a wild hair and suggests that we drive down to Jer and Brina's for the afternoon. They live almost 3 hours from us. Makes for a short afternoon, but we try to pack in as much as possible. Rich and Judy decided to go too, so that was nice. The new house is really coming along. Eventually it won't look so top-heavy because there'll be a covered porch over the garage.
This is upstairs, where all the bedrooms will be.
Leanne, Brina, and Jaina
The view out Jaina and Em's bedroom window.
And I'd just like to pass along this tidbit: ladders and skirts and sisters and cameras mixed together equals an interesting picture. Make sure you're not the one on the ladder if you find yourself in this situation.

Saturday morning sunrise