Lately...

                       Here is Ian painting some masterpieces. He just kept asking for more and more paper.
                       this is him about half way through his painting session.

                     Here is miss nora taking photos of herself with my phone. She thought this was
                     pretty awesome....seeing herself live. It helped keep her little wiggle bottom still
                     on my lap during a weekday meeting at church.

                             

               Playing with some bb guns at my dads house. Lincoln really found his country
               roots thanksgiving weekend. Romping around in the back of old trucks, shooting guns
               and digging up sassafras roots for root beer making.

november please stop being cold.

I have been busy around here getting ready for our next relief society activity. craft night.
I'll be so glad when its over. Here I am sanding a million blocks to make little nativity scene.
I have really grown to love the belt sander. Great invention.

Here is my dad with some kids on his lap. cute crazy kids.
Nora has been so cute, she has started to set the table any time she sees Jonny or I
cooking. She opens the silverware drawer and takes it to the table & places it around the table.
Last night Ian was in the bath and she went to the linen closet got a towel and brought it
to the bath. No one asked her to, she just loves to be helpful. And boy is she observant!

 Ahh. remember summer. I miss you summer time.
come back soon. The kids playing in jonnys truck.

 I made some caramels last week. They were so wonderful. I used this recipe for the caramels
& added coarse sea salt to the top. I think Im giving this to all the teachers for christmas this year.

october

wow, i have really been slacking on my posts lately.
so....update.
This October we went camping. Beautiful place called
shades state park. Lots of rain, but we still had fun.

We went to this giant festival in St. charles called the scarecrow festival.
Some friends from L.A.who are temporarily living here invited us, and it
was fun to soak up all that fall goodness. Until we lost Ian.
It happened so fast, but luckily they had bicycle police on every corner and
we found him pretty quick. so. terrifying.

We did some trick or treating last weekend at our little downtown. The kids
were excited to get on a costume early and had a chance to wear something
different than they were planning for halloween. They raided the costume bins
and got themselves ready. Ian has been wearing that dinosaur for weeks.

We went to a pumpkin patch this weekend, went on a hayride, pet some baby animals, went through a corn maze. Ate some MORE candy. Im pretty sick of all this candy by now :)

I didn't get any of the good animals in the photos (sorry goat) but there was this giant llama...so scary walking around growling at everyone. And a baby cow...aww.
Here are some cuties on a hay ride.

museum of science & industry

                                                   olivia helping nora at a water table

                                                                  lincoln in a tornado

                                                                        the boys

                                            Olivia, (and a little bit of Ron) in front of a german submarine

                                                                 Ian in an old trolley car



One of the things we did while Jonny's parents were visiting was go to the Museum. I really like this museum it's got a nice balance of things for kids and adults both. The kids had lots of fun. Lincoln was
especially impressed with the ww2 submarine we toured. The next time he had library day at school, he checked out a book on submarines.

back to school. 2013.

                                                First day of school. 5th grade & 1st grade.
                                      The weather was beautiful. Here they are at the bus stop.

              Lincoln pulling the wagon of school supplies to school, the day before school started.

10

Oliva is 10. Wow, so crazy. We opened gifts and had cake on her actual birthday. She really wanted

to go to the Golden Corral for her birthday dinner....so we did. For some reason she loves that place!

Then a few days later she had a friends party. I managed to take no photos. They played games, jumped on the trampoline, did some cute bottle cap necklace crafts, had a big ice cream bar to make their own ice cream sundaes. Roasted marshmallows, star gazed, danced, and were loud and silly.

abc

scoot

Here is Ian getting ready for a scooter ride. "I need to go really FAST. On the gooter" He was smiles the whole way, even though jonny never got out of first gear. He is the cutest little guy, so aware of
EVERYTHING and curious as the day is long. sweet Ian.

pioneer day

saturday

Playing hard.
Today is our primary activity for pioneer day.
Cleaning the house day.
Grocery shopping day.
Laundry day.
better get started....

summer

So...sorry. I realize my blogging has been MIA. Its been summer and I have had lots on my plate, and mind. I am going to do better, I dont want this summer to be forgotten! Here are a couple pics from our
camping trip. Our campsite was so lovely, and we had a really fun time. No the campground didn't have rides...we spent one day at a local amusement park. The campground did have a cute little lake with beach....so it was also a great chance to get the family out on the canoe.

We canoed out to the middle of the lake and jumped in for some swimming. Nora loved it most of all and screamed like crazy when we got her back in the boat.  Life jackets on of course. And Ian had a wonderful time riding in the little kiddie section of the amusement park. Several of the rides they wouldn't even make him get off, and just let him go again and again.

the first day

 Today was the first official day of summer vacation. Oh man, I need a game plan.
Ian had a major meltdown at the grocery store. Im used to major meltdowns with him,
but when we are in public places its especially hard. Its hard to carry him and nora out of a
grocery store ...especially when hes throwing punches.
 We overcame it, and spent some fun time at one of the millions of parks around here. It was a picture perfect day weather wise, 73 and sunny.
 Ian is also getting pretty good at his balance bike. We ride it a lot, and nora generally loves to go stroller-ing  next to him. He will ride down the hill in the back yard balancing wonderfully with no
feet. He may be our earliest bike rider yet.
 A new little boy moved in across the street. A family with just one little boy. They said they moved so they could be around other kids.  Turns out he was in lincoln's class at school, so they were instant friends and now I have another kid running around in my back yard....ah, whats one more :) If only they had a girl in 5th grade.

(notice nora in the far background, she sadly has no fear of being in the middle of nowhere, with no one.)

days in may

Ian's birthday was yesterday (pictures coming soon)
He loves chocolate cake, with all of his little heart.
He is 3!
Now I won't get as many "wow, really he's only 2?" comments.

The weather here has been crazy 30's (low) and 90 (high) in the same week.
I really dont mind, the longer we hold off of blaring hot humid days the better.
as long as there is sunshine, I'm a happy camper.

Today we drove over to see the baby Bison (that were born last week) here in town.
Aw, so sweet.

My friend and I escaped for a little bit and went to this awesome church rummage sale.
I found some cute vintage wool skirts for winter, and lots of fabric and some cute kids clothes.
Anyway a whole big box, for 7 dollars!  It's the little things.

its summer.

We have skipped spring altogether, and summer is here. We have had some hot days and the kids can't get enough of the tiny inflatable pool.
whats going on ?

-went to Cincinnati to clean, clean, clean the rental house. I think we may have found some good people to rent it. And by good I mean will pay the rent and not be filthy beyond belief.

-was good and sick with some lovely throat issues. so fun.

-liv and ian got haircuts. Liv wanted to donate her hair. I even tried to halfway talk her out of it... but she was ready for a fresh look:) She looks older now, and that makes me sad.

-lincoln turned 6, got a sweet vintage pea picker bike. He is doing pretty good at riding it. We went on a family bike ride tonight for the first time.

-our ward was designated the hearing impaired ward for the area today...couldn't help but think of you maryirene.

-We got a canoe! Jonny has been looking and planning on this for a while, we got it out and oiled up the wood and the kids pretended to row. They are super excited to take it out, just waiting on the kids sized life jackets. It's light and we plan on walking across the street to the river for some fun!

and now for a ton of photos .....

                                                   a quick after church dip in the pool.

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