What's Going On . . .

December has been a busy month for us . . .

Peter fit into Daddy's shoes

And worked hard at school. 

We accepted a delivery from Lowe's

Waiting for Grampa. 

We bought our first ever siding nailer - and the compressor to go with it. 

Cutting the treated plywood.  

Tearing off the old, rotten siding. 

James

Jon and Daddy tearing off siding.  

Alyssa and Matthew came to inspect the work.  

We did some grocery shopping. 

And remembered to pick up Grampa at the airport.

Alyssa and Daddy went out for their annual birthday breakfast. 

They finished the OSB sheathing - and that's all I'm gonna say about that!   ;)

We had pie and ice cream for Daddy and the new teenager. 

Matthew made me take this picture of him.  

And this one - it's his "Two Face" face. 

Got one wall of siding done. 

Jon on our new ladder

Now they're working on the back wall.  

Stay tuned for more updates on the construction.  Hopefully they'll be moving inside soon.  

Thanksgiving 2013

This year we got our tree a few days before Thanksgiving.  Some of the kids went with Daddy to pick it out.  

We decorated it the same day.  

We had lots of Thanksgiving prep work to do. 

James and Andrew making pies.  

Every year we have a Thanksgiving Sequence tournament.  

This year it was down to Andrew and Daddy.  

It was a pretty serious game. 

Soon the board looked like this - Andrew was blue. 

He looks surprised. 

Daddy got his game face on . . .

And stopped Andrew in his tracks. 

Matthew was bored so he played with the extra pieces. 

Concentrating.

Andrew started to get a little goofy too. 

It was down to the wire . . .

And Daddy pulled off the victory.  

Even though my winning streak was over, 

I still celebrated with him :)

Alyssa made a custom certificate. 

And Andrew made one too!  

Happy Thanksgiving!!  

Friday Fun

I took some pictures of Peter at school a little while ago.  

He really likes his math homework!

The end of October is Satsuma season around here.  We have three trees in the backyard and they're fabulous!

The first bowl-full.

They're the perfect size, easy to peel (even Matthew can do it if you start it for him) and super juicy.  

Matthew likes to section his all out sometimes. 

Wish we had three more trees!  

The neighbor's cat, Kitty (that's what we call her anyway) likes to hang out in our yard trying to sneak into the house and generally begging for attention and petting.  

Hey Kitty, what's that you got there? 

A baby snake!!  Can you see it?

We're 24 weeks with the new baby - so just over half way.  16 more weeks to go.  Sounds like a lot and not very much all at the same time.  

The girls are taking an informal photography class with some of the kids in our home school group.  

It's been fun seeing the assignments that they have - and using their brothers as subjects. 

Look at these three characters.

Jon

Jumping! 

Andrew

And a couple of my favorite flower ones.