Finally!

Jon went out and bought us a new dishwasher yesterday!! Our water is sooo hard here and really does a number on things. This house was without soft water for while and I think the dishwasher was about as old as the house is--16 years. It was rusted out inside, the seal was dead, and we haven't been able to use it since mid-April! The only bad thing about it is, it really shows how shabby our cabinets and floor are. The plan is to re-do the kitchen in the spring, so we'll make do until then. I'm just so excited not to have to wash dishes by hand several times a day.


The tadpoles really aren't changing too terribly much. In the picture, you can see something kind of red--it's the arm bud. I guess soon they'll grow the front legs and then the tail will absorb into the body and they'll get the back legs. They sometimes get really hyper and I think they'll jump right out of the pool, but they haven't yet. They are a lot of fun to watch.

Thanksgiving

I took another picture of the tadpoles on Wednesday morning, but then in the whirlwind of trying to get packed and out of here, I never got around to putting the picture on here. I'll take another one tomorrow and put them both up. When we got back today, we thought Skipper was dead, but luckily, he wasn't.

We had such a nice Thanksgiving! We ate dinner with my family and everyone was there but my sister, grandma, and uncle. We missed you!! We headed over to Jon's parent's house later that day and the kids got to see all of their cousins--only one of his sisters was missing. It was a really busy, but fun couple of days.

I really do have a lot that I'm thankful for. A few of them are: a great husband and wonderful kids; awesome siblings, parents, grandparents, in-laws, and extended family; Jon's job; and terrific friends. There are just too many things to list right now. And now with Thanksgiving over with, we can really start to enjoy the Christmas season. YAY!!

They're Named...

I probably should have made my blog more fun by letting everyone name our new tadpoles, but the kids took care of the names already.

Our new tadpoles are named......Skipper and Popeye. I'll post some more pictures in the next day or two. I have NO idea how we'll tell them apart, but we'll try. For now, they're in separate pools so it's easy. I think Skipper is more hyper, but when they're together, that may be hard to tell. Maybe we'll have to put fingernail polish on one of their feet or something like that.

Surprise!

A while ago, Jon found a frog house somewhere--a garage sale or something. We just stuck it in the garage and Kristen dug it up back in June. You send some money to some company and they send you two tadpoles to raise into frogs. I forgot all about it until we got a postcard in the mail a couple of months ago saying it was too hot and they'd ship them out when the weather got cooler. Again, I forgot about it.

Yesterday, I went to the mailbox and there was a square package in there. I went to grab it and it said to open immediately. Then I noticed it said something about tadpoles. I started screaming for the kids to come. Surprise! We are the new owners of two tadpoles! We had to run and buy some spring water for them and then had to get them adjusted to the temperature. They are still alive this morning! YAY!
It said they are about 7-10 weeks into their growth. When they start getting back legs, we get to move them to the frog house. But in the meantime, they stay in these little pools. I will update every 2-3 days on their growth. This will be a fun thing for the kids to observe.

Grape Jelly

Wow! I can't believe how I'm slacking on the picture-taking lately. We have this grape vine along our back fence. About 2 years ago, we finally got around to picking the grapes to do something with them. It sounded like too much work to make jelly, so I decided to make grape jam. The kids HATED it!!! And it was a pain to make. You have to wash the grapes and then squeeze the insides out of the skin. You have to boil it and then strain it to get the seeds out. Then you put finely chopped skins in it, which make a texture that the kids didn't like. I made one batch without skins and it was a weird color without the purple in it.

You can imagine how my heart sank when last week Kendall and his friends went out and picked all of the grapes (without being asked) and asked for me to help them make jam. I decided to try jelly this time around, thinking it would probably be gross. They rounded up some Pectin and we went to work. It was still a lot of work, but MUCH easier than the jam was. And it tastes soooooooo good!!! We ate almost a whole jar in one day and I only made about 8 jars for us. Next year, we're going to make tons more for sure. The kids want to sell it--give people a sample and then sell the jars for a little bit of money, although most of the money will go towards sugar, jars, and Pectin. So....be on the lookout for our little jelly stand next year and you'll definitely be in for a yummy treat.

Sky Patterns

Yesterday morning, I went to let Toby (the dog) outside to go to the bathroom and saw this beautiful pattern in the sky. Of course I had to take a photo of it. We live underneath a flight route going to the airport, but these contrails look like the super high flying planes, and possibly just some clouds. Sooo pretty....

We had a fun adventure last night and I forgot the camera, but I did grab the video camera. Now...if I can figure out how to get video from my camera to the computer, I'll post some footage. Teresa (or anyone else), if you have any tips, I'd GREATLY appreciate them. :) Thanks!

12 Years

Jon and I have been married for 12 years today. The concept of time has really hit me the last little while. It seems like just yesterday was our wedding day, yet it seems like we've been married forever. I can't imagine NOT being married to my best friend.

Here are some of our engagement and wedding photos (and don't we look YOUNG?!):
And here's the two of us now:
It's been a great 12 years. I hope the next 12 are just as good.

Candy Cane and Snow Bear

Kristen just got her Christmas dance costume and it's one of my favorites of hers. I think she looks like a big candy cane--sweet and cute. Of course, she had to come home and try it on immediately. When Jenna saw the skirt, she about died--she wanted to try it on too. Kristen went and got Jenna a costume from a couple of years ago--Kristen had danced to a song about a polar bear, which fits Jenna, since she LOVES bears. They both looked sooo cute! I just wish Jenna would let me do her hair. It's at an awkward stage where it hangs in her eyes a lot, but it's still curly. :) Now we can call our girls....Candy Cane and Snow Bear.

Better Late Than Never....

We had a nice little 5 inch snow storm last week. The kids loved it--especially Jenna. She had me help her get all her snow gear on--hat, boots, gloves, and coat--and walked around and around. She came in and a little while later, I heard the door open--she was outside again. She'd put on one of Jarren's boots and one of Kristen's boots, her gloves, and a hat (no coat). She gathered up a big chunk of snow and brought it inside. She put it in a bowl and ate a few bites. She kept doing that off and on all day long. Cutie! The last time she went out, one of those too big boots fell off and she stepped in the snow. Brrr...that ended that---for the day.

It's Autumn Time

I'm mad at myself! The other day, I turned onto my street and was struck by how beautiful my street looked. You could see the snow-capped mountains in the background. And the street was lined with beautiful trees, in shades of green, yellow, orange, and red. I wanted to take a picture and forgot to. Two days ago, we were hit with a storm and yesterday we had a hard freeze. When that happens, half the trees on the street (fruitless mulberries) drop their leaves in a snap. We have 13 trees on our 1/4 acre property. Anyway...now the street isn't nearly as pretty and I never got my picture.

The kids are still enjoying the leaf raking. Grandma Watkins taught them how to build leaf forts and Jarren has made obstacle courses out of them for his Indiana Jones role playing. Yes, he's back into Indiana Jones again. That storm (as previously mentioned) dumped a lot of the leaves off the trees, but we were having trouble figuring out how to rake leaves off of the snow, so we saved it for today, when most of the snow is melted. Too bad the leaves didn't melt along with the snow--there are STILL lots of trees with leaves and I'm getting tired of the raking.

Cat Face Spider

I believe it was around the end of August sometime, we noticed a small cat face spider that had built a web just outside of the family room window. It got to be quite big! We saw it a few days ago, but on Saturday, it was gone. It was the neatest thing because #1 they aren't dangerous to humans and #2 we were able to observe it through the window. The kids would catch bugs and throw them into the web and we'd watch the spider wrap them up. It was just fascinating and as much as I hate spiders, I'm going to miss this one. We even named it Charlotte, in honor of the spider from the book "Charlotte's Web." Maybe it will come back next year....

Halloween Part II

The kids all made it out trick-or-treating. Kristen went with her friend Hannah and her cousin, Kendall went with a friend, and I took Jarren and Jenna around. They all got TONS of candy and had a lot of fun organizing it when we got back. It kept sprinkling on us, but it was one of the warmer Halloweens.

Charisse...I don't sew well at all, but thank you for thinking that.