so proud...

...of this young man. He started Awana this year at our church and loves it. Yes, he gets to take a bus there and back. And yes, game time is a kick. But this little guy can memorize the Bible like you would not believe. All on his own. This book that he's holding is supposed to last him the entire year. But he finished it last week. Memorized 34 verses in just 6 weeks. And he KNOWS them.

Patrick and I gave him his first big Bible this week as a way to congratulate him and tell him how proud we are. He's an amazing kid. Strong and loud - but with a gentle heart for the Lord. Love, love, love him.

halloween 2010

Halloween week was busy and fun. We're developing some neat family traditions that everyone looks forward to.

Carving the pumpkin with Dad.


Decorating sugar cookies.

The kids dressed up for Awana as their favorite Bible characters. Meet Queen Esther and her Uncle Mordecai.

Mummy dogs for dinner.

Super girl. Bob the Builder. And a soldier.


We trick-or-treated with good friends.

And after a fun evening - everyone plunked down on the sidewalk to enjoy the fruit of their labor.

Sorting. Organizing. Trading. This was always my favorite part of the holiday!

And now we're off to sell our candy. No kidding. A local dentist in town will buy it and the kids want the money more than the sweets. Fine with me!

crazy hair night

It was crazy hair night at Awana this week. Audrey designed this masterpiece all by herself. And Liam discovered the magic of AquaNet.

brilliant

My garbage disposer was stinky. I cleaned it. Bleached it. Put ice and dish soap down it. Put vinegar down it. Still stinky. Picked up a book on cleaning hints and found one that said to freeze ice cubes made of equal parts water and vinegar and then put them down there. Made sense. What they failed to mention is that having vinegar in your freezer overnight will leave your freezer and your refrigerator smelling like vinegar for many days. The smell seems to have been absorbed into every porous surface. Are you kidding me?

Oh, and my disposer still stinks.

NANA!

My Mom came for a visit this weekend. My little guy of few words learned how to say Nana this week. And for some reason it is always yelled, "NANA" at the top of his lungs. But that's pretty much how we all felt about her visit. Thank you God for NANA!

We all went to soccer games on Saturday. We were thankful that it only rained for the last 30 minutes or so.


Ethan was trying to catch raindrops in his mouth and saying "YUM" whenever one hit its mark.

We had a very successful trip to Red Robin Saturday night (in sprite of the fact that Ethan missed his nap that day).

It was a great weekend. Always sad to say good-bye but so thankful for a Nana who is willing to make the trek over the mountains to come visit.

word of the week

I decided to add vocabulary lessons to our schooling by choosing and posting a word of the week. (I actually got the idea from a great book we read, suggested by Misha, called The Boy Who Loved Words by Roni Schotter.) The goal is for each of us to try to use the word correctly at least once a day. Last week our family word was GUSTO which the kids had fun with. And today I posted and explained the word SUPERFLUOUS.

A few minutes ago Liam was in the bathroom and Ethan wandered in. I hear Liam yell, "Ethan, that is a superfluous amount of toilet paper!"

Love it!

fall is here!

We took our annual trip to Stoney Ridge Farm yesterday. It was a beautiful, warm day and we had a great time.