Our Week - mid July

Sam spent the week at wrestling camp.  I'm so happy to have him home!  He had a great time.

Brianna has been feeling artistic, and was working on a copy of one of her favorite posters.  She's really enjoying getting to spend a lot of time with friends this summer.

The Little Ones have been enjoying our pouch lid collection.  Now that we have puffs in the house again, I discovered that those containers are great for playing with, too.  They have been having fun putting lids in and dumping them out again.

Most activities only hold their attention for a maximum of 3 minutes, so I've really been tap dancing to find lots of things to interest them.  We tried dropping Popsicle sticks into a large beaker.

And we tried simple puzzles, too.

And pop beads.

I managed to make them a couple of dresses and some matching hair bows, which they wore to their visit today.  They looked so cute!

Eli's strong!  He can hold Hannah and Katie at the same time.

I love the way Hannah's hair is flying out as they spin around.  Hannah and Katie went to the dentist this week, and we'll be off to Shriners next week.

I know more things happened this week, but somehow I'm not picking up the camera much these days.  I'm enjoying this season of sippy cups and diapers and laundry.


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Vacation Pictures, part 2

I'm back with the rest of the photos from our trip.  I took a lot less pictures this year than I did last year.  If you missed part one, you can see those pictures here.  

Remember Shoe Tree?  It's basically a wide spot in an otherwise uninteresting road with dozens, if not hundreds, of pairs of shoes thrown up into it.

At one point it was cut down, but many of the shoes migrated to a new tree.

Paul took pictures of the nothingness in either direction.  Notice he's standing in the middle of the road.  You could literally lay down in the road, if you were so inclined.  I think one vehicle passed while we were there.

The annual, "Okay, everybody get together for a picture!" picture.  It's hot, the sun is in their eyes, and they're not feeling very cooperative.  Believe it or not, this is the better of the two shots I got before one kid walked off.

Speaking of pictures, I had planned to recreate the great family picture that Abby took for us last year when we were all in our flag shirts.  I brought flag shirts, but 1) I got a lot of attitude about wearing them (not just from the kids, either), and 2) it was raining the morning we were going to wear them.  So, no family picture.  I was a little bummed.  Last year's picture turned out so well that I blew it up and hung it on the wall.  I was hoping to make a new blog header with this year's picture.

The clouds in Nevada were gorgeous.  Rorschach would have a field day with us, as the kids and I were pointing out all sorts of interesting shapes in the sky, from aircraft to dragons, to a squirrel tea party, to an alligator.

You can see how amazing the cloud shapes are.

And in the evening, those clouds brought us the most beautiful sunsets!

This tent was Jack & Eli's.

This tent was Sam's.

And this tent was Brianna & Abby's, or "Abbianna" as they're known as a unit.

I was curious to see what the camera would think of fire.

This is Eli checking out something on my brother Joel's phone.

And Buddy, my step mom, pitching...

...to Amy, my little sister.

Amy is 4 months younger than my Sam (who is her nephew).  They have a great time together.

Hannah and Katie got to help Buddy bake and frost a cake.  We laughed about the yellow cake with green frosting not being the most typical color scheme for Independence Day weekend.

Paul made his super yummy enchiladas while we were there.  It's a family recipe he grew up eating, and they're fabulous.  He's a great cook.

On the way home, we stopped briefly in Austin so Paul could take a picture.  Austin, NV is not the thriving metropolis that Austin, TX is.  It would be a "blink and miss it" town if it were on straight road.  But it's actually in the middle of quite a twisty, mountainous part of the trip.

In Reno, we stopped at Scheels for a break from the long car ride.  I had never been to Scheels before, but some of the kids had.  It's basically a department store, but with a strong outdoorsy focus, and a lot of interactive features.  Katie and Hannah took turns climbing up into the monster truck.

We loved the giant fishtanks!  There were 4 of these big columns, with two overhead arches full of fish.

I just realized this is the only picture of me from the entire trip.

There was also a shooting game, an impressive taxidermy exhibit, a climbing wall, a slide, and a Ferris wheel.  And that's just what I saw on our brief stop.  I hear they have ice cream, too.

Last potty stop on the way home.  6 miles from where the Donner Party wintered.  The kids ran around a little bit, and we looked at the fish.

It was a fun trip, but it's also good to be home.


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Our Week - the Two Week Version

I didn't do an Our Week post last week, since we were out of town.  So some of these pictures are from before we left, and the rest are from this week.

Eli made this sign.  I thought it was amusing.

I have been trying to come up with toddler activities for our Little Guests.  It's been a couple of years since we've had kids this little in the house, and I'm a little rusty at it.

We tried coloring, but they're not into it.  Buttons were interesting, but they don't yet have the fine motor skills to push them through the slots in the lids.

The colored rice was fun, but predictably, got scattered everywhere.  I'm open to suggestions, if anyone wants to comment with their favorites for the under 2 set.

A silly moment with Eli.

I did a little sewing before our trip.  I picked up the fabrics at Hobby Lobby while Eli and Jack were at the dentist, and made the Little Ones peasant tops and bloomers to wear to their next visit.  The extra bows are barrettes.  They looked so cute in these!  I'm planning to have them wear these outfits to church on Sunday.

When we got home from our trip, I whipped up another Pack & Play sheet.  If you're interested, I did a tutorial on how to make a fitted sheet a while back.  I love this Brown Bear, Brown Bear fabric, it makes me smile.

Paul is getting more experience fixing body parts.  Recently, Hannah's kneecap popped off, and while we were on vacation, Katie got dirt caught in her prosthetic.  The button to release her leg from the gel liner was stuck.  A tiny screwdriver, a little canned air, a flashlight, and Baba was able to get everything working again.

Speaking of prosthetics, Hannah and Katie will be going back to Shriners in a couple of weeks.  I'm curious to see how much they've grown.  Hannah usually needs her leg lengthened about a quarter inch or so.

One of these snakes was from last year's trip, but the blue and green ones were from this year.  Eli was coming up with names for them.

We managed to do a little bit of school stuff this week, despite the extra small fries in the house.  Hannah and Katie did handwriting and Hannah did an art project.  Katie is working on the fine art of folding.

Only 6 weeks of summer left, can you believe it?  Sam is off to wrestling camp tomorrow.  The rest of summertime is going to fly by before we know it.  Somehow I don't think I'll be re-doing the school room this year, either.  Ah, well.  I love being busy and being able to help out.  Someday, we won't need a school room any more, and I can clear it out and paint it then, if it doesn't happen beforehand.


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The Wonder of You - book review

You know why I don't like Susan May Warren books?  They make me cry.  Not, "Aw, happily ever after" tears, either.  The characters in her stories are so real, so human, with struggles just like mine.  Take, for example, the newest book in the Christiansen series, The Wonder of You.  Several passages held little nuggets of wisdom, such as when Roark tells Amelia, "It's not about how you feel.  It's about what you do."  Or when Jace tells Max (from When I Fall in Love), "Stop trying so hard not to be happy, and start trusting the life God is giving you.  It just might knock your socks off."

The downside of tears is quickly surpassed by getting totally engrossed in the plot and characters.  I really do become absorbed Susan's stories, even when they make me cry.  This book even mentions adoption, which, as you know, is near and dear to my heart.

The Wonder of You picks up where Always on my Mind leaves off.  Amelia is home from Europe, broken hearted.  Roark follows her to try and patch things up, but he's keeping a secret from her.  A big secret.  And then there's Seth, the boy Amelia dated all through high school.  The man that makes sense for her to settle down with.

I don't want to spoil the plot for you because you'll want to read it yourself.  In fact, you'll want to read all of them, starting with Take a Chance on Me.  I have really enjoyed all Susan's books that I've reviewed so far.  One of the things I like best about them is that we get to check in on the characters from previous books and see how they're doing.

You can connect with Susan May Warren at her website.

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Vacation Pictures, part 1

We recently returned from a trip to Middle O'Nowhere, Nevada.

Last year, I told the girls to climb up on the dino for a picture.  Turns out, it gets quite warm, so this year, I told them to just put their elbows on it.  This is the last fuel stop on the way there.

We saw a whole lot of this.  Which gave us the perfect opportunity to listen to a new audio drama that we'll be reviewing soon.  (affiliate link)

Josiah got to spend some time behind the wheel.  Including his first passing experience.

We had a bonfire and roasted marshmallows to make s'mores.

Which I'm guessing were yummy, from the reactions I got.

Personally, the only way I eat marshmallow is in Rice Krispy treats.

But the kids liked them, and that's what counts.

I can't tell if I caught Brianna brushing hair out of her face, or if she's trying to block the warmth of the flames.  I tried to explain that most people waited to roast marshmallows over the coals, but they weren't willing to wait that long when chocolate was involved.

The menfolk, talking.  That's my dad on the left and Paul on the right.

The next morning, we had big plans for a town picnic, and were a little concerned when it was all gross and rainy out.  Fortunately, the rain let up, and the plan went forth.

This is Brianna panning for gold.

And my sister, Amy, with her gold pan.  The gold tents were super crowded, so I couldn't step back for a better picture.

Josiah and I combined our gold dust in the same bottle.  There are a couple nuggets in there, but you can't see them in this shot.

After gold panning, we went to try our hand at the carnival games.

We managed to come home with 3 stuffed animals.

Jack won one of them throwing nerf balls at milk jugs.

Which he promptly gave to his baby sister, Katie.

Here, he's helping Hannah load her shots on the crossbow.

She could shoot, but she needed help getting it set up.

I turned around and the girls were eating cotton candy.  I don't even know who stood in line with them for it.

Josiah loves being in Nevada.  Here, he's playing soccer with Amy.

Hannah drove the riding mower (the "mow" is disabled).

Jack really mastered the mower, and can start, stop, go forward, and backwards, all by himself now.

One of the best parts of being here is getting to shoot things.  That's Paul with the bow, with Sam and Eli looking on.  I shot it a few times, too.

The town fireworks display was great, and most of us really enjoyed it.  Katie kept asking if it was over yet, and Jack doesn't like fireworks, since he got burned one year.

All in all, we had a lovely time, and I can't wait to download the camera pictures (these are all from my phone) and share those with you, as well.

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