Another day in our life

Abbey and Naomi having a tea party.

The above are pictures of Luke playing in the sink.   I guess he wanted to wash the plastic chair??

  That smile!

Abbey reading in her new reading corner she made in her room.

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More tea part pictures.

A look at our current life

The kids are working on putting the US Presidents in chronological order. You can only see Ethan's arm  sticking up.

Abigail talked me into making crepes with her the other morning.  They were really good with cinnamon and sugar sprinkled on them!

Luke adjusting the ball run.

Watching the ball go through the ball run.

I took the kids to a huge indoor play place the other day.  It was great fun and exercise for them.

I  do not have any pictures of our 2 week sick period!  We are all feeling fine now!

Birthday Party with Friends

We did a combined birthday party for Ethan (9) and Isaac (6).

Christmas Eve 2017

This is my favorite time of Christmas: everyone else is asleep, the house is quiet, all the presents are wrapped (and assembled, if necessary) and under the tree, and all that is left is to take pictures.

Reading The Night Before Christmas.  Luke and Naomi had zero interest.  Maybe next year for them (we seem to say that a lot, about a lot of things!).

I didn't hear a clatter, but Santa seems to have been and gone.  Looks like he (and his reindeer) were in a hurry and only took nibbles.  Or maybe they're already full of cookies and carrots.

We started setting presents out last night.  Luke and Naomi ignored them until left unsupervised for about 5 minutes (amazing how much paper two 2-year olds can rip in 5 minutes!).  Another thing that might be better next year...

No fireplace in this house, either, but it does have a nice bannister that makes a good place to hang stockings.

Merry Christmas 2017!

The family came and had lunch with me a few days ago, and we wrapped up with a trip to the student union to see the giant Christmas tree and the kid-size gingerbread house.

The house is made by one of the Purdue chefs every year, and it is all real gingerbread and frosting (except for the plywood frame).

Thanksgiving 2017

This was the first year we had our own family Thanksgiving at home (except for the first year we were married, after which I concluded it was much less work to share in a large family Thanksgiving!).

Abbey made placemats for everyone, with a verse...

...or some other saying

Almost ready!

Happy Thanksgiving!

Abbey was very excited to help with the cooking and baking!

Post-Thansgiving

Jericho got some too!

Mommy and Abbey didn't have to do it all.

Mommy and Abbey worked hard.

Idaho, 1st (and last) Day

Last Monday (November 13) we left Oregon and headed for Idaho, which entailed a lot of driving across central/easetern Oregon and Washington.  There is a lot of nothing out there!  In some places, if your farm was out of sight of the highway, you could plow hundreds of acres in a day and never seen another soul.

The day after we arrived in Couer d'Alene we took time to look around.  This is Lake Couer d'Alene, which is clearly a major tourist attraction in the summer but when we were there it was cold and windy.  Still pretty, but we walked fast!

Off the docks was a walk-through shopping area, of the sort where I warned the kids not to touch because anything they accidentally broke would be too expensive for us to buy!

The toy store reminded me very much of Mr. Magorium's Wonder Emporium.  But we just bought a carousel ride.

They were beginning to do the Christmas decoration, so of course we needed a photo with Santa.

At Grandma's house, the kids thought the stair-climbing chair was perfectly awesome!

My mom made this walking stick for my grandmother, almost 30 years ago.  

Grandma and Burt have visited many exotic places, including the Ukraine, where they bought some stackable dolls.

Grandma, Burt, and my whole crew.

Me and my grandma.

That concludes this year's big trip; the day after this we spent all day long driving, flying, waiting, and driving home.  Long trip, but it was fun.