Flowers

My thoughtful sister Cassie sent me flowers all the way from Utah. They were beautiful red tulips. I think she's pretty swell. It made my day.

Then a few days later I came walking into the front room to find my thoughtful Theron with a pile of tulip pedals next to my beautiful tulips.

He said, "Look, mom!! with a proud smile on his face.

All I could say was, "Oh." Aren't they beautiful now?

I'm thankful for...

...cute boys...

...with spunk...

...and bedtime.

HAPPY THANKSGIVING

Grandma Saves the Day

She might be dead tired when she leaves but at least she'll be remembered as a hero. I feel like I have been a commanding officer in the military this week. I can't lift much of anything and she and Travis have been pulling quite a bit of extra weight. Any thoughts I ever had that it would be nice to have someone wait on me hand and foot have disappeared. While I appreciate it, I look forward to the day when I'll be able to take out the garbage, lift my own baby, and vacuum my own floor.

Burke

Mr. Chubba

Suga'

We returned home from the hospital late in the afternoon. We still had a couple of hours before Grandma arrived to save us.
While Travis was trying his hardest to make sure I was comfortable (ha ha) and had everything I needed Charlie was very busy growing a beard...I mean dumping sugar on every inch of floor he could find downstairs.

It was not cool...but it was so yummy.

Excused Absense

I just had surgery a few days ago and I think I should be excused from posting for another day or two. If you want to know how it went, I think this picture speaks for itself.

The Hunter Returns

Travis got his first deer with his bow and arrow today. I think he's pretty stoked.

It's hanging in our garage. Something about the "meat tastes better after it's been hanging out [with the bikes and strollers] in the cold winter air".

Today must be his lucky day. He shot a deer, sold our refrigerator, and won some luggage at a work outing by bowling five strikes in a row. Maybe it's talent and skill but whatever it is...he's on a roll. I think I better keep him close by. Who knows what else might happen?

Seven Year Sentence

While I was taking a shower, Travis was upstairs, and the older two boys were glued to the TV Charlie broke a glass candler holder and spread it nicely over the main floor of our house. Travis discovered the situation when Charlie came to him with blood all over his hands.
The next day I came downstairs to find my mirror had been broken by "You-know-who". Does that mean the bad luck is on his shoulders or mine?

Days Like This Are Numbered and Few

I'm confident that we can't expect to enjoy 70 degree weather for too many more days in November but we'll take advantage of it while we can.

The boys have been building "fires" on the deck and collecting acorns and seeds. I just hope that seven acorns will be enough for our long cold winter.

I think boys are born with some sort of connection to rocks that stays with them even until they are grown men. Have you ever been to the mountains with a man who didn't stop to throw a rock down into the valley? Have you ever been to a lake with a man who didn't stop to check his rock throwing ability but lugging a large rock toward the middle or a tiny rock as far as he could?

Cutest Vampires on the Block

Isaac and Theron have been talking about being Vampires since last Halloween. I was resisting it until the other day when I over heard Travis say, "Only eight days until Halloween."
"WHAT?!?!" I thought. How could that be?!? I decided the time for resisting this idea was over as I could not think of an easier costume to make. Besides the boys have been collecting Vampire teeth for quite some time.

Thanks to a friend Charlie got to join in the Vampire fun too.

Travis got a quick out of reminding me that Isaac was going to be a Vampire while Theron was going to be "Bampire".

They tried to be as scary as possible but I thought they were pretty cute. My friend accused me of being obsessed with Stephanie Meyer. I haven't read the Twilight series but I wondered if there were more Vampires for Halloween because of it.

No Time to Blog

I have a personal rule but I'm breaking it in order to explain my more than week long absence from the blogging world. RULE: When my house looks like this I am not aloud to blog.

Out of courtesy to those who are at risk of having a heart attack, I am withholding all pictures of the upstairs.

My boys are so well behaved that I can leave piles of folded laundry on the floor for days and they don't even knock the piles over. They must really love me.

A while ago I was complaining to Travis about the rate at which our house goes from order to chaos. He reminded me of one of the ideas involved in the concept of entropy, that nature tends from order to disorder. Next week we are moving a team of scientists in to study the extraordinary rate at which this is occurring in our house.