Priorities

I asked Jacob this evening if he missed his old school.  He told me he did, and he had five reasons why:

1.  He misses his old friends and is pretty sure it won't be long before he forgets all about them.
2.  He misses getting rewarded with Dependable Dolphins
3.  He says the school lunch is just not as good at the new school.
4.  The new school doesn't have ketchup (he swears)
5.  He says for some reason he toots a lot more at the new school.

At least the kids has priorities.

Scripture Study

We recently started studying the scriptures as a family.  

It may be slow going, and not all of us "get it" all the time, 

but this picture

makes it all worth it.

Halloween

Such a cute little witch! 

Venom and Iron Man 

Handsomest Villain I've ever seen

Cousins and Best Friends

Wait a second........

Much better!

  Don't touch my candy.......

Belated Birthday

For Austin's birthday, we gave him a gift certificate for a date with Mom at Create A Memory.  So last weekend, I finally got around to taking him down.  What a great place!  He had such a super time.  For $15 he got to pick a piece of pottery, paint it, and then they kilned it for us.  (You can pay up to $75 for some of the pieces, but the price is all inclusive for "sitting time", paint and the firing process).  Austin painted the whole thing himself, with only a little help from me on the dots.  The people there were totally kid friendly and I plan on taking Jake there as well.

So proud of himself

Picasso 

love the way he holds his brush

the finished product

Probably the best part of the whole thing was spending one on one time with Austin.  Sometimes he gets lost in the shuffle as the middle child, and I loved having the chance to just sit and talk to him, and actually be able to listen to everything he had to say without interruption.  He is so smart and sweet, and I promised myself I will do this more often, for both our sakes.

Un-canny....

I have a new found respect for my mother and her food storage.  My little sister and I attempted canning today, for the first time, for both of us.  First of all, let me say, don't ever attempt to can with another novice.  After 4 hours, two exploded jars, one emergency trip to Safeway and some creative input from my hubby,  we have 33 jars of pears, to split between the two of us.  My mother canned every kind of fruit and vegetable imaginable, by herself, for years (still does) and has shelves of fruit and veges for food storage.  Val and I are quite certain that we may leave all future canning attempts to the good people at Dole.