Pops and Granna's visit

Pops and Granna came for Madelyn's baptism and we all enjoyed their visit. We took a hike at the Nature Center and loved seeing all the fall colors.


Pops packing Rhece.


This shot will not be featured on our Christmas cards this year :)



Parker insisted on having hiw walking stick.
While they were here there was a lot of reading (Granna brought lots of favorite books), and Adam and his dad installed a new kitchen faucet that looks great.

Happy Halloween!

I won't even offer an excuse as to why it's been FOUR months since I last posted here. But here are some cute Halloween pictures. It was a busy week and I think I can say that we celebrated Halloween thoroughly enough!


This was at our homeschool Halloween party on Thursday. The kids got dressed up, made a ghost, heard some cute Halloween stories and did some games. For lunch we had spider web pizza and candy corn pizza. With all the sugar the kids would be consuming in the next few days, Jessica was good enough to bring some veggies and Rachel made some bread sticks that were completely divine. Kendra made a darling Frankenstein pudding cup to top off the party. And, while we got pictures of the kids eating the food, we have no picture of the festive food before it was summarily ingested!


Here's the crew ready to trick-or-treat on Saturday night. Madelyn was Kirsten Larson the American Girl, Parker was a U of M football player and Meredith was his cheerleader. I made Madelyn and Meredith's costumes and borrowed Parker's, and I figured Rhece wouldn't care so he got a ghost sewed to a shirt. Maybe next year he'll get a real costume:)

We went to the ward Trunk-or-Treat on Friday night at the church. There were a lot of fun games and Parker in particular was a fan of the apple bobbing. Some of the other highlights included a cake walk (because the kids totally needed more sugar) and a game where you stuck your hand into a box and tried to guess, based on the texture/temperature, what was in the box. Parker was grossed out by the slime that stuck to his hand in the "brain" box.

Last night we hit up a town that was holding their trick-or-treat festivities Saturday instead of Sunday. Apparently the rest of western Michigan got the memo about that neighborhood too because we weren't the only ones there :) Adam kept waiting for someone to ask for some ID to prove we lived in the neighborhood before they handed over the candy. We met up with some other friends from our stake and took the kids around. The kids were pleased with the stash they amassed and went to sleep quickly once their heads hit the pillow.

June in Review

I’m out to right a wrong. While picture-taking and fun-making have continued, family journaling has fallen by the wayside of late.

The beginning of June found us on beautiful Hilton Head Island, but that deserves its own post. For now I will chronicle June’s strawberry picking and Rhece’s first birthday celebration.

While not nearly the hectic adventure that last year’s strawberry trip was, we had a great time this year. We got there about an hour before closing and the kids filled our large bucket quickly. Rhece got his first taste of fresh strawberries and that, to him, almost made up for the fact that he couldn’t get out of the backpack and crawl around in the bushes like he really wanted to do.

On June 23rd Rhece turned one! We decided a few weeks before his birthday that his big brown eyes and sweet cheeks were begging for a monkey-themed cake, so I did my best to create one. He liked the cake well enough, and when he was through eating it he let us know by throwing it off the tray.

A few of his one year stats:

Rhece has seven teeth; four on top, three on bottom.

He is a very proficient crawler, he cruises some, but has not really shown an interest in walking

(thankfully!)

Rhece goes to bed between 6:30 and 7pm, and wakes up at about the same time the next morning.

The kitchen vent provides him with endless fun, especially if it is on. He figured out how to get the cover off. When Parker was sweeping the other day he noticed and retrieved a measuring cup and a toy that Rhece apparently put in the vent for safe-keeping.

Until earlier this week Rhece almost always had a binky clipped to what he was wearing. He managed to pull it off while we were running errands. I didn’t have an extra of this favorite one. I noticed just before we were heading home and stopped to get one. The one I got was not acceptable to His Royal Highness and after giving it a few sucks he took it from his mouth and threw it across the floor. So for the cost of one new binky, Rhece is now binky-free.

Just Delicious

What more can I say?

This little boy is on the move and every one of us adore him. He is now crawling and sitting up and getting pretty vociferous when it's mealtime and he's not eating. More and more he insists on being at the table with us and having something too. The underside of his belly usually looks like a dust mop, regardless of how frequently I sweep. If we could we'd have his sweet cheeks for dessert every night!

Snow is Falling All Around

We had some good snow fall here this week, which made for a snow day on Monday. We had another storm later in the week and on Saturday we (Adam and the kids) shoveled the driveway and worked on a lovely snow person (Madelyn insisted it was a "she" while Parker was adamant that it was a "he"). Madelyn donated a scarf, Parker gave his mittens to the cause, and they all searched for the perfect natural elements to make the facial features. They came into the house quite pleased with themselves and proudly looked out the window. A half hour or so after they were done, Parker looked out the window and reported with dismay that the snow person's head had fallen off! Apparently it was a bit top heavy. Seeing as how all their snow gear was thoroughly soaked, no one wanted to go out to fix the situation, so now our cheery winter scene looks more like a morbid Halloween scene; I'll spare you the gory picture!

Dinosaur Comforts

Parker is our local dinosaur expert. He knows things about the species I had yet to learn in my 32 years of life, like the fact that the Compsognathus was the size of the modern chicken and Deinonychus had a sharp claw on one of its toes. He routinely begs for us to go in the woods behind our house so we can go fossil hunting.

Monday was a snow day here and Parker thought it would be great fun to go fossil hunting. I told him that it would have to be done in the house until the spring time when we could reasonably dig around in the dirt outside. He dressed in his fossil hunting garb and disappeared. After a while he came asking for a piece of tape so he could put a sign on the bathroom door. Admittedly, I was a little suspicious of any sign a five year old boy would want to put on a bathroom door. When I read the sign I had to laugh; if there are any dinosaurs passing through the neighborhood they'll now know where to stop in for the comforts of a lavatory thanks to Parker!

Rhece's Two-fer

His first two teeth for the price of one teething session--I do love a deal! When I poked around in his mouth last week there was nothing, and then yesterday these two little teeth. I was surprised because he has been a bit fussy, but not teething fussy.

In other news, Adam is in Lake Tahoe for a fellowship interview this weekend. I don't envy his travel schedule (although I wouldn't mind a trip!) which usually includes late nights and early mornings with lots of driving and/or flying in between. We'll be glad to have him back more regularly by the end of the month.

Madelyn and Parker have both started piano lessons. We planned on starting Madelyn now, and then Parker later. However, after the first lesson, Parker was completely distraught that he couldn't start too. For now they both practice happily and frequently. I thought I'd better record that in writing. I know that is liable to change at some point! If you're looking for a peppy rendition of "Skip To My Lou" or "Mary Had a Little Lamb", come on over for a recital!