Pictures without many words because I can hardly put two together.

You deserve at least a post filled with pictures, even if the words aren't abundant.  

I finally got to changing the blog banner.  Now Nutmeg is three months old.  This was taken at two weeks.  I thought you'd enjoy the "fun" shot we took too.

Little, precious, adorable feet.

With a binkie in bed.

We often go up to the college football field to horse around (and watch football games on the 4 big screen TVs that Jon uses for the concessions tent--because we don't have programming at home).

Turf is lovely.  Beautiful all year round.

Mark and Lori, Claire and John Mark braved the cold with us at the field too.

Love this pict. of Meg in Gem's arms.

And here is Sugar before church one Sunday.

Chubby, toddler arms make me happy.

Reach, Cutie-Pie!

Halloween 2011

All my cuties but Miss Oldest (who was too cool to dress up).  L-R: The young Jedi who wanted to wear shorts, a mad scientist we picked up off the side of the road, the cutest Batman in the world--who brought in the largest haul of the entire crew (cuteness matters), a 2 month old lion, a fairy princess with her wings on upside down. 

Sugar caught on very quickly and loved it.  She would run to the door and say, "Give me trick or treat!"  Then after  getting the loot, would add a truly sweet, "Thank you!"  We tried to coach her to say just plain Trick or treat, or even Trick or Treat, please, but to no avail.

Rub-a-dub-dub, A Friend and a Scrub!

Here's the friend.



And here's the scrub.



What a great crew. They actually wanted to wash the truck. I knew that it would turn into a water free-for-all (and I was right), but figured that the truck probably wouldn't turn out worse in the end. They got off the break dust and dirt and only left water spots behind. Not bad!

Rub-a-dub-dub, Three Kids in a Tub

Monopoly Kids

I loved Monopoly as a kid. I had three other friends who did too. We played a lot. We cheated a lot. Cheating was an understood part of the game. If you forgot to ask for your money before the dice were rolled, tough luck. We would stash money under our legs or rear ends to hide our wealth, then spring the trap on an unsuspecting victim. Alliances made and broken was not something coined by Survivor. And finding someone who would be banker was never hard. We were a bunch of embezzling, Fortune 500 nightmares. Ah, such fun.



Now I'm a sobered-up adult and I'm delighted to be playing with kids again--mine. So far, I've found them to be upright players of the potentially shiester-ridden game. I taught them from the rules, crazy me. In doing so, I learned a lot about how far I had wandered from the truth, then repenting, have enjoyed the clean life. Did you know that you have to add 10% to the mortgage price to reclaim a property?

On top of all the good that it has been for me, it has been a great opportunity to apply or learn lots of math, reasoning and strategy for my kids. They're hooked. I love having two kids who can sit down to play a game with a bit of strategy.

And I swear that I've mended my ways. I was even so generous to Shakespeare when he wanted to buy Boardwalk from me for $4000. I let him. I don't understand how he went bankrupt so quickly after that.

Water Fun

Water!



Water + swings!



Water + swings + kids!



Water + swings + kids = great fun!

A Beautiful Day Outside

All-A-Flutter

Last Thursday we went on a homeschool field trip to a butterfly farm! They did a great presentation and then turned us loose in the butterfly house. I think we fluttered around as much as the butterflies! They gave us sugar pads to attract the monarchs. We rubbed the pads next to their antenna (where they taste) and they crawled right on. It was a treat to watch them in the kids' hands.

Boxing?

You know that kids actually play with the box instead of the present that was inside? Case in point:

Labor Day

Labor Day was a while ago, but I just didn't post until now. We did school that morning and went swimming with friends in the afternoon. Here are some shots from our last trip to the pool for the summer.

Sinatra ate popcorn most of the time, but did manage to get his hair wet even though he never went further than the stairs. This shot looks like it's sideways, but the boy actually leaned that far back for the photo op.



A year ago this kid wouldn't even put a swimsuit on let alone jump into the water.

Up for Fall

The kids helped clean out the garden last week. They pulled up the now scrawny tomato plants,



and the sunflowers.



The boys hunted sunflower seeds in the large heads...



And then dismantled the stalks and did what any BOYs would do with them.







After the duel was over they followed their dad, who ripped up the soil with his little rototiller, picking up weeds and throwing them over the fence.

We're ready for fall!

Siblings

We love Sugar!



This is what happens to babies who have siblings with a sense of humor.