The Buehner's

We met the Buehner's at a book signing today! Darin and Miriam have already met them, they had a book signed last Christmas but this was my first time (& Bub's too). I had to go to this signing because Stephanie had this brilliant idea to take pictures of her son with authors to put in the books she has signed. Not only did Stephanie give me the great idea, I met her at the signing and we went out to lunch afterward.

Unfortunately, Bub wouldn't be in a picture with the Beuhner's and I didn't think to have someone else take the picture while I held him. I am not too distressed because I am fairly sure the Buehner's will come again next year and I will be poised and ready to impose on the kindness of a stranger at that time.

Don't know them? I bet you do.
Snowmen at Night
Snowmen at Christmas
Fanny's Dream
It's a Spoon Not a Shovel
Dex the Heart of a Hero
and many many more fun books!

Food Appreciation

I have a friend who is implementing a "food appreciation" day to instill some good manners in her 4 year old son. Since he has been complaining about the meals she has made she is going to feed him nothing but oatmeal for 2 whole days. Breakfast, lunch, dinner and snacks.......nothing but oatmeal. I am not sure if she will let him choose different flavors, but really, that is besides the point. She says she is determined to stick to it, and then, when her son complains in the future she will say "Is is time for another food appreciation day?"

I thought this was a bit extreme. Kind of harsh.

BUT tonight Miriam said to me "Mom, you did a really bad job with dinner. This is DIS-GUST-ING."

Hummmm maybe we need an extreme, harsh, food appreciation day. For now, I just reminded Miriam of The Long Winter by Laura Ingles Wilder. They had to eat nothing but wheat bread and tea for a whole month, and then Alonzo and Cap made that amazing trip to find more wheat for the starving town....Oh Man, I am loving those books.

and just for fun, heres a picture of our ski pirate....so dang cute!

Trick or Treat!

Oh the benefit of having young ones. It's 8:43 pm, we're done trick or treating and the kids are snug in bed, despite the sugar rush.

Both kids loved being out gathering candy. Bub was surprisingly happy, despite the ear infection, perhaps the mounds of candy had something to do with that. Miriam was so excited to sell her candy to a local dentist for $2.00 per lb but Darin offered to pay her $2.50 per lb, how could she pass that up? Especially when she knows Dad will give her a piece of candy every once and awhile.

We had a rough beginning to our Halloween day. A trip to the Dr's office for Mr.B interrupted M's plans to attend a very fun Halloween party. It couldn't be helped, B-Man cried pretty much non-stop from 6:00 am till we were squeezed into an appointment at 9:20 am. He has an ear infection, so that explains the sadness. That was the worst Dr. appointment I have ever been to.....EVER.

Never fear, Miriam is too busy to be sad, she is working hard to have our pumpkins glowing for tonight's festivities. She is carving herself....I am pretty impressed.

and little B is now resting peacefully. Thank heavens.

Happy Halloween!!

Halloween Eve at the Zoo

It was a BEAU-tiful Fall day at the zoo.

We have been visiting Acara the baby orangutan since she was born in 2005. Its funny how attached to her I feel, I remember when the keepers use to wear big red hairy coats for her to hang on to until they could train her mother how to be a mother. That makes me really ponder instincts. For me, having children and then feeding them, was pretty instinctual. My body just seemed to know what to do, and my babies have responded (so far) but I wonder if I didn't have the role models for mothering that I have, if my body would get confused too. Raising my children isn't so instinctual, and I wouldn't mind having a staff of highly trained people to help me out.

This photo was a wonderful fluke. I don't know how it happened.

And now the kids are doing this....

because Dad is working late and I am out of entertaining steam. Sure Bub, paint your head, whatever makes you happy.

Feeling Pioneerish

I roasted pumpkin seeds from 8 pumpkins yesterday. Miriam and I have been reading the Little House on the Prairie series and I just can't help feeling inspired by the "waste not want not" motto the homesteaders lived by. Not that I am anywhere near Caroline Ingalls but every little bit helps.....right?
I have even taken to wearing my wedding band only instead of the diamond. It makes me feel sweet and sentimental to see the small gold band around my industrius fingers (ha ha). I go through jewelry phases, and I guess right now I am in my simplify stage.

Miriam has been inspired by the Ingalls as well. Today she said "I want to be a good girl like blind Mary". She made up this pretend game called "poor wood" where she and her stuffed animals are poor cold and hungry (from the book The Long Winter) they have to find wood to burn and food to eat. It's a pitiful game, but so sweet how she looks after that crazy stuffed unicorn (Thanks Madison).

And Bub? He is getting another stinkin' molar. So clingy, so whiney, not the independent little scraper I am use to. I have to keep reminding myself to be patient, his mouth hurts, he doesn't know what to do with himeself. He is darling, even with a stream of snot constantly running down his nose and with a home hair cut.

I hope the library has the next book, I can't wait to see what happens with Alanzo!

Gettin' Things Done

After two weekends in a row of snow and rain, we had perfect fence building weather.

One warm Saturday and SHAZAM look at that beauty.
You know where Darin learned to build fences? No where, he just checked out a book from the library and looked around at our neighbors.
Amazing.

He can make fence guitars too.

I didn't realize that TODAY was Unicorn Eunice's birthday. Miriam informed me this morning that she had a party planned.

Luckily, Miriam took care of it. Invitations ( she hand delivered), a gift, and those pieces of paper with string? those are lacing cards for the guests. All I had to do was read stories and pass out the treats.

Pretty Darn Proud

Miriam did a wonderful job singing a solo in our Primary Program today. Her cute four year old voice was sweet and clear and she gave no hint that she was nervous. Not only that, she recited her talk (which she had written, and I had condensed to a reasonable length) in a strong voice, while looking directly at the audience. I realize that this is just the Primary Program...not a big deal, but if felt like a big deal. Maybe because I was so shocked when they asked if she could sing.......I don't know, can she?! Or, maybe it was because when Darin and I had her sing the solo to us for the first time she was off tune and off tempo. Mom talked me through that one, "practice" she said, which was always her motto, and "make it a good experience whatever you do".

So we practiced. And it was a good experience, a beautiful experience. A big part of that was because you were here with us. You witnessed the moment, you helped make the day special. Thanks Mom and Dad!

Miriam's talk
"Jesus created the world for us. I love the beautiful butterflies, the tall tall trees, the clearings with grass, playgrounds and bushes, and the beautiful flowers."

The Haunted Barn

We missed actually going through the haunted barn this year because we were late. I seemed to be the only one disappointed by that, Miriam was more than happy to miss it. So, we sat around the fire, ate and talked....just enjoyed the evening. And every once and awhile someone scary would come join us at the fire.

Bub didn't dress up that night, but after sampling the treats became "The flesh eating toddler".

How cute are these. It's hard to tell, but the ones on the right are owl eyes. Just had to document for future reference.

Thanks B L & family for the fun evening.

Dressing Up: Take 1

We usually end up being a few different characters by the time all the Halloween celebrations are over. We have hand-me-down costumes, and oodles of dress ups thanks to my mom and sisters. To this story time, Miriam decided to be Rapunzel, and then Bub became SUPER BUB!

Our favorite children's bookstore All Tucked In

Poor bub is SUPER snotty too. He has a cold, at least it's a week before Halloween and not Halloween night. That reminds me, we once took an ambulance ride to Primary Children's medical center on Halloween night. That was by far, the scariest Halloween I have ever experienced.

I love this picture. Pretty darn magical.

Wee Witches Weekend

I'm a mean old witch with a hat!

I fly on my broom with my bat!

My hat is pointy and my nose is too.

You better watch out cuz....

I might get YOU!

These two are going to be best of friends.


crowded fun Wee Witches weekend.

Getting Ready for the Spooky Day!

A neighbor invited us to pick some of their pumpkins!

These particular neighbors live in one of the older homes near us so, their yard is HUGE. How times have changed, back in the day people built small houses and had lots of land, today we big large houses on tiny plots of land. This family has created a family adventure yard with a fire pit, old playground toys (from parks the city has torn down), a big red barn and a HUMONGOUS garden which mostly consists of PUMPKINS!

We have also been working hard on spookifing our house. When we carve the pumpkins we will post pictures of all the decorations Miriam has made.

Hello there yogurt face.