Jacob's 2!!!!

Jacob turned 2 yesterday. I gave him a few options for cake and every time he chose Boston Creme Pie (which was really yummy, even if I do say so myself!)

I couldn't find the birthday candles. I tried toothpicks, but they didn't burn well. Finally Aaron thought of the tea lights.

I love that he has a whole cake in front of him, but he is still munching on a carrot which you can see in his hand in both photos.

Today (the day after,) I was on the phone and I could hear Jacob in the kitchen. I knew he was getting into the cake because that is what his has been doing for the past 18 hours. I had moved it out of the fridge because he kept getting into it. But he pulled a chair or something up to the knife drawer, got a knife and hacked away at the chocolate topping.


Is someone going to call the department of children and families to report that I took the time to photograph my two year old with a sharp knife? I really hope not.

Oh and there is no gift yet. I have been looking for this one specific thing and couldn't find it so we didn't have a gift on time for him. More photos when what ever it is arrives!

Carrot 3

Carrot 2

Delight

Yesterday we harvested some carrots. I was inside making dinner and I could hear Jacob screaming a lot. Aaron called to me and said that Jacob was screaming each time he saw a carrot in the ground. I brought out the camera knowing that it would ruin the effect, and it did. You can still hear him do it a couple of times and you can see that he is excited by the process. It has to be in several different post though.

Fall 08

This years foliage is among the best I have seen, at least in the past seven years. Here is one photo...it isn't gorgeous enough. It looks way better in person and when it isn't rainy.

Lotion

I was doing dishes today when Ben yelled that Jacob had LOTS of lotion and he stunk. I ran up and sure enough he stunk...he stunk good, like lotion! It was all over him, and all over the bed. Actually it still is, I better go take care of that before I continue.

Bees

Today is a cold, gray day and I guess the bees that slept on the seedum last night had a hard time getting up and going this morning, because they were all sluggish on the flowers, not even moving.

I kept checking on them throughout the day and they were still there. When it started to rain I figured they would fly away, but I guess it was still too cold. I was surprised to find that they had all crawled to the underside of the flower to stay dry.

So now I wonder...what happens to bees when all of the sudden it becomes to cold for them to fly back to the hive at the end of the season? Do they just freeze to death on the flowers? Or do they somehow instinctively know when the very last day for them to get back to the hive is? Anyway...

A singular bee because bees are just cool...

One section of the seedum. There are at least 8 bees here, and this is only about 2/3 of the plant. I am not sure how many bees there were total, but an impressive amount!

The underside of the seedum. There are seven bees here I think.

Camera Heist

I made the mistake of leaving the camera on the table today. When I downloaded the pictures off of it, I found these surprises. I love the progression of Jacob's photography as each photo become progressively grimier with the tomato sauce he had on his hands...and then he is discovered by Ben who cleverly captured the loss Jacob felt.

Pants Carrot

Every year when we harvest carrots, we get excited to find a pants carrot. Sophie was the lucky one this year!

Early Moning Shots

Flower Shots

Maybe when I am in the dead of winter, I can look back on these flowers from my garden with fond memories and hope for spring. Have I mentioned that I am not looking forward to winter?

Picture Day

Today is school picture day and we had two momentous occasions. First I french braided Sophie's hair all by myself for the first time, and second...she let me do it! I learned how to french braid, but I needed to practice, but Sophie is not very patient with braids. Anyway, I still need practice, but we are over the hump at least.

Family Home Evening

We had a really nice time with Family Home Evening last night. As we were sitting on the floor doing the activity...Jacob decided that we were playing Duck, Duck, Goose. He doesn't totally understand the concept, but he had a lot of fun anyway!

Things I Did with Joyce

Ok so here is a partial photo journey of my visit with Joyce. It seems like one or both of us forgot our cameras a lot. Once I get the pictures from Joyce, I may have more to share.

One of the mornings Joyce was here, Sophie's school had raspberry cream cheese danishes and I really wanted one! I decided it was something that I could figure out at home. After discovering how pastry dough is made, I decided I was not up to the challenge. We found a recipe online for braided blueberry cream cheese sweet bread. Here is the finished product. It was REALLY, REALLY yummy! Sorry I can't get the first photo to rotate.



We made the trek down to the Joseph Smith Memorial. We had a very nice tour and a ride on the golf cart down to some of the historical sites. By the time we got to the memorial it was raining, but it made the photo very reminiscent of our mission days under umbrellas.

Another Garden Shot

Here is another garden shot... our romaine lettuce grew in actual little heads like you can buy at the grocery store, but miniature! I was very excited and I still can't eat the darn thing because it is so cute!

Nature Shot

The other day it was kind of misty early in the morning and the mist was clinging to the pine trees. I was getting the kids ready for school, so I couldn't walk down the road to take an up close picture. I had heard that you could take a picture through binoculars and it would magnify the image. I gave it a shot and here is how it came out.


I have some work to do to perfect the process, and I think that it also requires a tripod to really be effective, but it does work!

Here are the tree just normally.

My Birthday!

Ok so I am now officially 31, and here are the photos to prove it. Please pay no attention to the filthy attire. I had been in the garden and mopping floors etc...all day.

Aaron made me dinner and an ice cream cake. I also received an AWESOME pair of binoculars for my bird watching.

This is the sculpture that Sophie and the boys made for my birthday gift. They worked on it a long time and were very secretive the whole time. Thanks Sophie, Ben, and Jacob!

Sophie wanted me to...

Ok, Sophie wanted me to take a picture of her for the blog, so I did. So there is nothing spectacular about this photo, except that it is my daughter and I love her!

Back on the Face of the Earth

Ok...I had a wonderful visit from one of my missionary companions. It was so much fun and as soon as Aaron fixes our USB port I will post photos of some of the things we did together. Until then, here are some photos from the week before that I forgot to post.


We have tried several times to grow corn and finally we have success!!! Here are some of the ears of corn we have enjoyed lately. Not only does it look good, it tastes good too.


The kids found this caterpillar the other day. I have no idea what it is, but it looked cool.


I finally remembered to take a box of clothes out of the car that my sister had passed along. Sophie discovered it and had a lot of fun getting dolled up for school. Anything from Emma and Sierra is an instant fashion hit with Sophie.


I came out on the porch and Ben just about hit the roof. He thought he was going to get in trouble for playing in this box, but who could get upset with these two?

Preschool

Today was Ben's first day of preschool. He got there and had no problem at all settling in. He will go Tuesday, Wednesday,and Thursday from 8:30-12:00. Jacob and I are now home together, bonding...while I blog...hmmm, I think this will be my last post for the day!!!


Ben's neckname in MOnkey, but if you call him that lately he says, "I am not Monkey anymore!!" If you ask him what he is now, he says, "I am a SUPERHERO!!!"

The first place he went was to tool bench!

Ben and his teacher, Mrs. Levine

Discovery (CAUTION...GROSS FACTOR)

When we got home from Worcester I went to check on the chickens and rabbits. We just left them for the weekend with extra food and water, and I wanted to make sure they were alive!! They were fine, but there was one dead animal in the coop.

Sophie's Earrings

When we were kids we used maple leaf seeds (you know, helicopters) as earrings. I showed them to Sophie and she of course thought it was a great idea!!

Grandma and Grampa Kinney

For some reason we didn't get very many picture at Grandma and Grampa Kinney's house, but that is why we went to Worcester!!! I had to add these pictures as a tribute to them for such a wonderful weekend! The food was AMAZING, the company WONDERFUL and we are missing them already! I also have to add how grateful we are to Grandma and Grampa and Leah for watching the kids so that we could go to the temple!!

Freak Accident

On the way home from the temple we got stuck in short traffic jam. Aaron got a few shots of the freak car accident that caused it.


This is the smoke that you could see from a distance.

I added this one because the 2 people you see between the fire truck and the police car are the passengers of the vehicle involved. They are completely unharmed (I didn't want you to think that we would put gory pictures of some random persons car accident on our blog.)

Here is the vehicle, it seems to have randomly (of course I don't have the details, it could have a rational explanation,) caught on fire from the rear of the car.

We will never know what actually happened, but we were there if anyone ever hears about the story and wants to pass the detail along!