A Little Bit Is Better Than Nothing

The weather reached a high of +4 at 2pm last weekend so Edwin and the girls put up a few strands of Christmas lights.  The girls had plans to make the entire yard and house glow, but I told them they have to wait until we have a house of our own.  Without any complaint they put up their lights that they are completely happy with them. After driving around the neighborhoods to enjoy the festive lights Grace said, "A little bit is better than nothing."

One night the kids got a bit unruly, so I turned them loose in the kitchen.  Anne made chocolate chip cookies all by herself.  They were delicious.

Grace made biscuits on her own.  

We learned mom uses half the salt the recipe calls for, so we will be revising that recipe for the kids this week and try again. It was a job well done nevertheless.

Sunday afternoon we had a small herd of deer in our backyard.  The kids enjoyed watching them from the sun room.  The deer have been back a few times, but I think the electrical company that is digging around our house this week scared them off.  

Edwin had a successful ice fishing trip this weekend.  A member of our ward invited him out for the day.  The weather was a perfect 34 degrees and according to Edwin the men he went with have lots of extras that made the experience delicious and enjoyable.  There were 5 kids to 6 adults and they must have been having a good time because they stayed all day.  John and one of the kids we watched that night were entertained by watching Edwin fillet his catch so we could enjoy a scrumptious dinner Sunday after church. 

When Anne grows up I'm afraid she's going to be the old lady with 500 cats roaming around!  All she wants for Christmas is a giant fish tank and real cat.  We told her no real cats. We'll wait and see what Christmas morning brings for a fish tank.

Happy Thanksgiving

We had a happy Thanksgiving. We hope you did too.

Baptism and Family Life

Anne jumped on the counter to read out loud to me.  Before I knew it all the kids were piled up for book reading.  We moved the sofa upstairs this week to accommodate our group reading problems.

John loves to have books read to him in the morning.  Grace and Anne are happy to do the reading.

John let himself out the other day.  I'm glad he got at least one boot on. 

Our sun room it quite warm and the kids like reading and doing home school there when the sun is shining.

Grace was super thrilled to be getting baptized.

Father and daughter in their white clothes.

Both grandpas were able to make it to the baptism to be the witnesses and assist in the confirmation of the Holy Ghost.  They are wearing ties with Grace's picture on it when she was one year old.

Quiet activities with Grandma Peggy.

A Pink CTR Ring!

Cousins Jackson and Kenadee came for the weekend.

Quiet time with Grandma Butler Sunday morning.

Home School Days and Family Vacations

Every day has elements of learning it, but some days are a bit more memorable than other days.  Here are a few things we have enjoyed with home school this fall.

 Some days I wonder how we can get it all done.  We seldom get it ALL done, but some days we get quite a few accomplished, and we are experimenting with learning while doing other things.  Grace read out loud while John ate the apples we were preparing to dry.  Reading on the kitchen counter is becoming a norm around our house as I prep a meal or do the dishes one of the kids will sit beside me and read.

 John likes helping with the school projects.  Everyone has a good time....even if there is a whole lot more clean up!

Anne recently finished a history unit on Ancient Egypt. To celebrate we spent the day getting ready for our Egyptian party.  The day included  art lessons, jewelry making, dancing to traditional music and preparing lots of food.  

Dad made it home for dinner.  He didn't get dressed up with us, but he sure was happy to take our picture!

For our local home school outing we went to a pumpkin patch and enjoyed the afternoon at the corn maze.

We all learned mom does not like corn mazes, John can't swim despite his head first plunge into the creak, and a pregnant lady should not carry a naked, cold wet toddler through the muddy pumpkin patch because she will assuredly fall into the muck, leaving both mother and baby filthy and cold. 

 The kids came home with giant pumpkins and I think Edwin had fun with the older kids out in the pumpkin patch!  We'll be back next year!

Our best buddies, Tally and Seamus came over for an evening and made traditional Halloween cupcakes with us!

It's a Roman Feast!  Grace has been studying Ancient Rome.  We decided to host a toga party and even dad joined the group for barley stew, olives, home made pitas, and grapes.

History has never been so fun!

We took a trip out to NH to see my grandfather.  Mostly I think we went so Grandpa could play cribbage with Edwin and the girls!  We enjoyed two full days at the table playing cards and chatting.

Here we are together before we bid our farewells.

James 4, Jen holding John 19 mo, Grace 7, Anne 6, Grandpa Ray, Grandma Evie

My Uncle Steve and his wife Vikki met up with us for dinner one night. 

Life at Aunt Shanna's while the ladies were out shopping, Uncle Ben was resting and Edwin and Kevin had to man the house for an hour!

Happy Halloween!  James is a green snake, Seamus is our local ninja, Tally is a Monarch Butterfly, Anne is a black cat, and Grace is the Mad Hatter from Alice in Wonderland. The local  businesses on Main St give out candy after school for trick or treaters.  The whole community shows up in their costumes and have their pictures taken by the news crews.  Since many people make it out for the community trick-or treat festivity it makes for a quieter evening in the neighborhood. I purchased way too much candy for this year!  Anyone want to come eat M&Ms with us?

Edwin spent the afternoon with the kids carving pumpkins.  I think they all turned out splendidly!

The large pumpkins are from our pumpkin patch adventure.  The small pumpkin Grace is holding was grown in the garden.

  I think we are done traveling since the weather is sketchy at best, and I'm getting to the stage in the pregnancy when I just want to be home. This winter will be full of snowy days, lots of hot chocolate, and school festivities.  I bet there is a fair bit of baking involved too.

Weather

 Anne hooked and caught her first fish on the Popo Agie river on a daddy daughter date

 We had a good visit from Aunt Rachel, Grandma Butler, Devin, Tyanna, Anton, Zachary, and Isabel

 James wanted a snake cake for his birthday.

 We got 3 inches of snow the last week of September. It flattened the trees in the front yard and quickly melted.

 The next week we got 12 inches of snow. It has now melted again.

 We took a trip to Vernal to visit Aunt Karen, Uncle Porter, Gabe, and Lorin. We took a hike to gather rocks and look at the petroglyphs and played a lot with cousins.

After the snow melted we decided we better harvest the potatoes in the garden before more snow came. Even Johnny wanted to do some digging.