Great Wolf Lodge water

I don't clean with bleach very often, but a few days ago I was using it.

Holly sniffed, and said, "Mommy, you are using Great Wolf Lodge water!"

Nice that she can associate such an unpleasant smell with such fun memories :)

Joel's toothless grin

One of the many ways Marie exhibits her wacky and weird personality... This is not an unusual sight.

We are sooo thankful to report that Steve's dad's foot is again responding to treatment and it looks like it will not have to be amputated, as we had previously feared. But it's still a concern and we continue to pray that it will heal.

Jenna must have been pretty tired... It was so cute to see her rest her head on the table! (But FYI, I do try to get them to bed on time... it wasn't ridiculously late)

Holly's first visit to the dentist -- little bags of dental stuff and a toy work wonders for my kids' outlooks on dental appointments. I am relieved to see that they must not be completely spoiled if they can get such delight out of a new toothbrush, floss and toothpaste :)

Not a very good picture, but it's a milestone! Jenna's finally walking for real. She is much bolder and you can see her excitement when she walks around, like she's pretty proud of herself and realizing her new independence.

Emily's 3rd cake. Any ideas? I'm running out of them and don't feel like spending any more time looking. And, *ahem*, these cakes are not helping my dieting or our families eating habits! :)

More Fall Fun!

Gardens are a great part of homeschooling fun for kids, as we're finding out (although I have to confess they enjoy growing the ornamentals more than the vegetables :). They will be carving the pumpkins soon (it worked out great -- one per kid!), but we'll still get a bit of nutritional value by roasting the pumpkin and sunflower seeds.

Our first watermelon! (It may not seem like a big deal to you Ontarians but it's hard to grow watermelons in rainy Washington :) If you look closely you can see 3 other ones in the background. Holly is not very cooperative for pictures; she can't stand holding still for my slow camera.

We had lots of fun at the annual Pumpkin Pitch, where teams build trebuchets (medieval catapults) and compete for the most accurate hurls (it used to be a distance competition, but when Burlington made a world record for that with a hurl of 1866.8 feet, the distance part of the contest was put to a stop because a pumpkin shot through a building at the far end of the field :) )

Emily's taking a cake-decorating class at Friday school. These are her first two so far (the second one is already partially eaten; it was a sunflower).

We were sooo hoping to get Glenn Beck tickets last week (he was presented with a key to Mount Vernon at a dinner event, since he was born & raised here), but they sold out almost immediately. My in-laws went and thoroughly enjoyed it. Protesters came up all the way from Seattle! Steve read his latest book instead, "Arguing with Idiots"... useful material for talking to some people at his work ;)

Today we participated in the annual Life Chain. I think it's getting better attended every year and we were so thankful for the sunshine and beautiful weather this year. It's encouraging to meet other Christians who also share similar values, and it's also really good for our kids to grow up aware of and involved in pro-life values.

One last fling!

With summer, that is :) We're enjoying these last bits of sun & warmth here and there, because the nights are telling us it's already fall. We went to Clear Lake Beach a few days ago with Shalom and family, and it was hot and we had the whole place to ourselves.

The kids went canoeing all day with some of Shalom's kids and Esther, and had so much fun! They're still talking about it and badgering Steve to buy a canoe. Sounds like a great idea to me but Steve would rather get a 2-person kayak (not sure our kids are ready for that yet).

Tired out after a long day of swimming... Holly didn't even make it all the way up the stairs!

Enjoying our sunflowers!

Our baby turns one

Time sure flies. I can't believe Jenna is one year old already! I think she's our most affectionate baby... I love it when she hugs me, pats me on the back, and says, "Aaaaw." She doesn't love being picked up constantly by Joel, Holly & Marie though.

I guess she figured now that she's growing up, it's time to start walking. She stands quite well, and has taken a few steps.

We had some concrete done recently (YAY!!! I'm loving it)

Enjoying the finished product! Now we have to start landscaping.

Jenn, Bobby & I took off for two days for a kid-free weekend, a much-needed and enjoyed break from regular life! We did tons of back-to-school shopping for the kids (3 Value Villages, 1 Goodwill, Ross & TJ Max), walking around the mall, a movie, a wonderful night at the hotel, and Kubota Gardens in Seattle.

This panorama is actually 3 shots combined (click link to see big version).

A guy from church cut down two big cedars for us, right behind the house. It was quite impressive (and a little scary) to see how he did it, trimming off the limbs as he went up and then cutting off approx. 15-ft. sections at a time, all in just 2½ hours. Now we have our work cut out for us, with lots of cleaning up and log-splitting, and a massive group of 3 stumps to work out of the ground and burn. Eventually we'll have a better view and less of a hill behind our house, especially if Steve borrow's John's equipment to trim some more trees himself.