Termination dust

One of the really neat things about fall up here is the opportunity to witness the physical descent of winter.

This is the mountain we see out our kitchen windows, and we love to watch the levels of "termination dust" get lower and lower.

It's unknown as to whether the original use of the term "termination dust" came from the fact that the snow terminates in the peaks, or if it originally was used the way it's used now:
it's terminating our summer!

These pics were taken over the course of the last two weeks or so. I can't wait to see what the mountains look like tomorrow, as today was cold and rainy, and the mountains were socked in all day by the clouds!
 

Car Talk

It wasn't any car trouble that had Mark looking under the hood the other day...he was just checking out adding fog lights for the winter.

Andrew, however, seemed to think that there was some grave concern. He did some checking around, and announced to Mark:

Daddy, I know why your car isn't working. It's out of gas!

So if you need a mechanic, give us a call...he offers a cheap and easy fix! :) 

Bike riding!

We spent Sunday afternoon at my parents' house, and the weather was so beautiful, we spent most of it outside riding bikes and playing! In these pics, Andrew is on his bigger bike with training wheels, but he spent a lot of time practicing with his "little" two-wheeler with no training wheels, and did really well! He'll be two-wheeling all the way very soon!

 

Saint Abby, take 2

Rather than being subjected to a bottle-feeding this morning, Jacob decided that one of the "Flip Flop Faces" (bowl-shaped faces for tossing bean bags into) should instead become a hat for Abby! "Hat" being one of the many words he's quite proficient with, he was quite pleased with himself! 

Andrew had it in mind from the moment he woke up that yesterday was supposed to be a train day!
He chose his Thomas vest, bandana, and engineer's cap to wear, (the shirt and pants were just randomly chosen to go underneath...could have gone under the "Independence" post)!

The train whistle was in frequent use throughout the day to accompany the ride-on train and the Thomas tracks set!
 

Another new one...

I have been trying to get the boys, particularly Andrew, to always chew with his mouth closed. This morning they were both happily smacking down their cereal, and I asked them to chew quietly. To which Andrew replied:

We can't mom. Our teeth are too big. They're not small
anymore.

Okay, then.

Tot time teamwork

Every Wednesday, the moms with kids not in school yet get the kids together to play for a few hours in the morning. During the summer, we go hiking , and during the school year we meet in the school gym, where they let us store all kinds of riding toys, etc.

Yesterday, there were eight little boys (ranging from baby Jack at 13 days old to a 5 year old) and not a single girl there!

Anyway, we were most impressed with the older boys, working together to pull all of the gym mats over to surround the slide. They used the teamwork you see in the top picture to pull over at least five mats, if not more!

Jacob, for his part, was just having his usual fun!  

A great day...

I had a fabulous birthday today!
It started with my good friends Kindra and Li bringing a gourmet breakfast over, complete with flowers, lace tablecloth, and fine china! Li's daughter Caitlyn, who is wonderful with the boys, watched them over at church while we had a leisurely start to the day! (Leisurely for me, anyway...great friends are such a blessing)!
Then we had our first ladies Bible study of the season, which is always fun, and then a dinner out tonight with Mark and the boys, and an ice cream cake waiting for us at home!
Thanks so much to all of you who called today...loved hearing from all of you!  

Independence...

Don't you just love some of the outfits that emerge when you start letting your kids choose their own clothes?
I will have to add to this post over time...there have been several fascinating combinations in the past week or so, and if the past is a prediction of the future, then there will be more eye-catching ensembles coming from Andrew! 

Sunrise treat

We had a rare treat the other morning...a gorgeous sunrise!
One of the very few disadvantages to living in a mountain valley is that usually we miss the sunrises and sunsets because they're behind the mountains that surround us (never mind the fact that the sun doesn't really rise or set for four months out of the year, either). :)
I was grateful to see this one!  

Beautiful...

Thank you, mom and dad, for the beautiful roses! 

Andrew's new desk!

Andrew got a new desk, and it's making "schoolwork" even more enjoyable for him than it was before!
I mentally had to "formally" start preschool with him in order to be consistent and get both of used to a routine, as minimal as it is! For weeks now we've done preschool while Jacob naps in the afternoons...consisting of a few workbook pages, and an educational game. We both love it, but didn't have a good space to keep all of his school stuff.
He's already excited about kindergarten next year (can you believe how time flies?), and the desk from a rummage sale was the perfect fit to get us organized and into the groove!  

Bath time!

I just wish that he would be as happy as this
as when I'm the one that dumps water over his head! 

Too cute!

Jacob is quite the charmer around here...these pics were taken after church last week. After all of the attention and hugs he gets on Sundays, it's no wonder he looks happy!
(Sorry, I may be completely biased, too)! 

Saint Abby

Have I mentioned before that our dog is a saint? This is what she was enduring first thing this morning... 

Commercial spot, please

This picture is the perfect representation of Jacob's relationship with Ranch dressing. He loves it on everything, and never really eats what he's dipping into it...it just gets licked off and re-dipped until it's a soggy mess.

The funny thing is that we didn't pose this picture! It was his doing, and I just happened to have the camera nearby! 

Baby Jack!

My friend Heather (whose son Jonah is Andrew's best buddy and they have a play date every week), had her baby last week!

Jack is absolutely adorable, and adored by all! We had fun hanging out with them this afternoon. Both boys did great with him...Jacob was surprisingly gentle. And I was really impressed with Andrew, because on our way there he asked if he could hold the baby. I told him that he could, but he would have to wash his hands first. Well, we walked in the door, said hello, and he headed straight for the bathroom to wash his hands before we even knew what he was doing!

So glad you're finally here, Jack!
 

Man in training

These are two of the flowers that Andrew has brought me in the last week...a little daisy in the miniature tea pot, and an unidentified weed he found in the yard. Weed or not, it goes in the same crystal vase that flowers from Mark go in!
The many times that Mark brings home flowers for me have not gone unnoticed by Andrew (or myself, for that matter)! Many, many blessings... 

Generally it's not safe...

...to let your kids play in the dryer. But they happened to find the dryer open while playing hide and seek with Mark, and got situated in there together all by themselves. (Don't worry, they've been duly warned not to get in there without us knowing about it)! :) 

Try this one...

We heard a brand-new excuse from Andrew tonight, that might come in handy for you sometime if you just don't have the energy to do what you're supposed to be doing.

He was supposed to be climbing up into his bunkbed, and was majorly procrastinating on bedtime. Finally Mark just asked him why he wouldn't climb up.

Andrew: Because I have too much food in my feet.

So if you're too tired to do something sometime, see if this one let's you off the hook...

A beautiful wedding...

On July 23rd, my parents were re-married! After 17 years of marriage followed by 22 years of being divorced, God brought them back together!

Mark performed the ceremony, and spoke of God's grace and redemption, and their verse Joel 2:25, "I will repay you for the years the locusts have eaten."

It was a day filled with much laughter and joy, no pun intended!