23,000+ words

You know how a picture is worth a thousand words? Well, you'd better put on your reading glasses! I haven't posted any pictures for a while because my computer was having trouble and I got tired of reinstalling the camera. I've now been trouble free for a long enough time that I was willing to reinstall yesterday. Now we play a little "catch up".

Joseph is growing up! He has recently discovered that he is tall enough to reach the piano keys and make his own music. This is really good, because we can always use a little more noise around here!

Look who's almost the same size as his walker! He is actually using it, too. He's about a week shy of 10 months in this picture. NO. He is not allowed walk yet.

Joseph learned a new trick this past weekend. Isn't he cute? You can't see it, but he's smiling (proudly) under there.

Nathan got upset by something I said while he was doing his homework a few weeks ago, (I never did figure out what it was.) so he started pouting. For those of you who don't know Nathan very well, he is a master pouter. He has stamina that would make Olympians jealous.

He pouted so long that he fell asleep! Please giggle along with me.

Feeding time on the farm. Look at all those cats! Why aren't they out catching mice? Let me introduce (top to bottom, left to right) Nightmare (up for adoption for anyone looking to add free animals to their new farm), Shadow, Trouble (our best mouser and the sweetest cat ever), Tabby, Patches and Fair (she only has 3 legs, but eats like she has all 4).

We've been enjoying the fruits of our labors. Unfortunately, our labor tapered off and so did the quality of our fruit. The peppers and tomatoes are doing fine on their own. Apparently, the watermelon and cantaloupe wanted to be watered. They grew, but not very big.

We also enjoyed the fruits of others' labor, too. Chad parents gave us some produce a couple/few times. Once we had some blue potatoes. They were fun. They reminded us a lot of the geodes we bought on our honeymoon. The kids thought we were feeding them a plate full of mushrooms. But they tasted just like chicken, I mean potatoes.

Rebekah turned 3 on the 30th. She was so proud to be honored on her own special day. She'd requested a kitty cake. I found a picture in a coloring book and did the best I could motivate myself to do. As a 3 year old, she loved it.

Joseph enjoyed the cake at least as much as everyone else!

Rebekah had plenty of help opening her presents. Daniel would have helped if he hadn't been in his room at the time.

We went to the Eastern Idaho State Fair on Rebekah's birthday (purely coincidental...they didn't have it then just for her). Daniel stopped by a local new station's weather booth and got to stand in front of a blue screen.

We let each kid choose one ride. The girls both chose the elephant ride. When I was putting them on, the ride operator informed me that Rebekah was too little to ride without an adult (couldn't he tell she was a whole year older that day?), so he made me get on the ride, too. He said he wouldn't charge me. As I was squeezing my ample behind into that elephant, I was thinking, "Believe me, I'm already paying."

Surprisingly, Chad caught a picture of Nathan as he zoomed by on the roller coaster. That's him in the blue car. I barely got a shot of Daniel on the slide. This was a practice shot because I thought I had some time before they came down. Daniel is at the top of the green section.

Here we are at the end of a long 4 hours. All the kids had a sticker on saying to take them to the lost children booth if they were lost. I thought that was a dumb sticker. Where else would you take them? I wrote my cell phone number on each sticker...much smarter IMHO. (In My Humble Opinion)

We had the Price family stop by for a visit a couple of weeks ago. We showed them around the farm and let the sheep out to play with them.

We tried to get a nice, happy shot of all 9 kids before they left. This is what we got instead.

Sometimes it's a blessing to have a brother. Sometimes it's a trial. Guess which experience Nathan is having. He was wound up in some drapery fabric and got a "friendly" push from Daniel. Darn that coffee table. The bump is gone now, but there is still a bruise and I'm sure it's still tender. In his prayers, Nathan says, "Help my bump to get better."

Daniel has been struggling with some timed math facts in school. To "encourage" (trick) him into practicing, we turned it into an obstacle course/game. He and Nathan raced to complete a strip of 5 subtraction facts, then had to jump a hurdle and circle a cone before coming back to the next strip of problems. There were 5 strips and Nathan was only behind about a strip and half when they finished! (We helped slow Daniel down out in the field.) The next time Daniel did the timed practice in school, he got 100%. He was VERY pleased. And his parents are a little pleased with their creativity.

And there you go. You're caught up with us now (and behind in your chores because you spent so much time reading).

Chad is still working away on a fence that refuses to be finished. He has almost gotten the chicken coop done, too. We're expecting the hens to start laying any time. He's also getting a new calling. Things don't slow down for Chad...they just evolve.

We did some canning yesterday. We've got a batch of pears and a batch of peaches ready to go down to the store room. Therefore, I mopped this morning. It's now a dare for the kids to spill something today. I still have a batch of peach jam to do. I wonder how I can explain this to Joseph?