Dawson's 11

Happy Birthday Dawson! This is one child who loves his big day. He loves being "KING" for the day and not having to do any of his chores. He said it was one of his best birthdays ever. We are so glad to have Dawson in our family. He is a happy kid, with a great imagination. All the younger kids at church and in the neighborhood love to come and play with Dawson because he will still dress up and run around with them. Dawson is a great kid!



This is my first time making a video and I shot it sideways, but Dawson was so funny I had to still put it on. Do you think by the end of blowing out the trick candles there was enough spit on the cake, Yuck, luckily the candles were only on Dawson's piece of Strawberry Shortcake or he would have had the whole cake to himself.

Camping Out

Dawson needed to camp out one more time to get his Arrow of Light for Cub Scouts. He was insistent that it had to be done before his 11th birthday the next day. I was trying to get him to wait until Craig got home from his trip to Utah, but with no luck. So we set up the three man tent, and the 4 boys and I had a camp out. We spent the night laughing and telling ghost stories. It is funny that my boys have the same stories from when I was a kid. Some things never change. I thought we would be very warm because of so many bodies in such a small place, but I was wrong. The weather has turned cold and we found frost on the ground in the morning. The boys said they didn't get to cold and they had a great time sleeping in a tent. Now Dawson can get his Arrow of Light, Yeah!

Columbus Day Hike

The Fitness Fun Enrichment Group did a Family Hike on Columbus Day! My boys were the oldest and were done with the trail and in the car before the rest of the group was half way through. They wanted to get home for the neighborhood football game.(The football game was cancelled when we got home, guess we could have hiked longer.)

Glasses

It looks like Duncan inherited the near sighted gene from Craig. Duncan got his first pair of eye glasses today. I think he looks pretty cute.


BEFORE

AFTER

Raspberry Picking

Tuesday the boys had the day off of school for Rosh Hashana(a Jewish Holiday). The boys decided that they wanted to go berry picking. The first year we ever went the boys picked maybe 3 pounds. This year they picked over 12 pounds of berries. They love to have a bowl of raspberries, milk, and powdered sugar. I also made 4 batches of raspberry freezer jam (YUM YUM), and last night we had fresh raspberry ribbon pie. We just love the fall and fresh produce.

New Kitchen Sink

You don't realize how much you rely on something until it is gone for a few days. A couple of weeks ago we found out our kitchen sink had been leaking. We don't know for how long or how much, we just know that the bottom of the cupboard under the sink had about a 1/2 inch of water. We found the culprit was the sink faucet. I know we have only been in our house a little over 6 years and it's falling apart. We went to Lowe's looking for a new faucet, and Craig decided that if we were going to do a new faucet lets do a new sink because he has never liked our sink. We purchased a 9 inch deep sink with no divider, it can wash big cookie trays, more than one pot can soak at a time, it is much better than the 6 inch deep sink that came with the house. We also found the faucet we liked, but it was expensive and Craig wanted to see if we could find the same faucet on eBay, which we did. For two weeks we just had a bucket we would empty under the leaking faucet while we waited the arrival of the new faucet. Saturday was the day of the big install. Between soccer, driving to get boys from the overnight scout camp, and other duties Craig worked a little here and there, but did most of it Saturday night. He put new plumbing in and made sure every thing was great as he went to fit it all together Saturday night at 11pm, he discovered that the new 1/2 inch connection didn't fit the 3/4 inch connection. At 11pm at night there is not much you can do. When I woke up Sunday I found my new sink sitting on my kitchen table, not the place I was expecting it. When I got to church Craig explained what happened. I decided since it was fast Sunday I still was going to make a nice dinner. I had the table set thinking we would have a mess to clean up when the kitchen finally got fixed tomorrow. When Craig came home he laughed and asked if I had heard of paper goods that don't need to be washed. I quickly changed out the real for paper. Monday morning Craig made his trip to Lowe's to find the parts he needed and then finished the sink. The only down fall is that the glue had to cure for 24 hours, so I had to go another 24 hours without a sink. Now let me remind you that I have now been without a sink and water since Saturday morning. Tuesday morning finally came, I spent it washing my dishes in my new wonderful sink. I am so grateful for running water and a kitchen sink. I didn't realize just how much my family uses our kitchen sink. I have decided I wouldn't have made a great pioneer.



The new sink and faucet



4 days worth of dishes




This is what I woke up to Sunday Morning