Happy 13th Birthday, Valerie!

It was Valerie's special day yesterday, and to kick off the festivities,

she chose "Dutch Babies",

with all sorts of fruit toppings! Yum!

For her favorite activity, she decided to play games

and watch "Little House on the Prairie" videos:)

Here, we're playing "Mad Gab"... White chili for dinner!

A round of "Guesstures" in the evening . . .

And then a yummy carrot cake!

Joseph Turns 3!!!!!

It seems so appropriate that the little birthday boy

should wake up to a frog for a present from his big brother!

Then, a hearty breakfast!
So, he can play geo trax all day . . . .
(thanks to big brother, once again!!!!)

And blue cupcakes to finish the day!

Rescue Mission

Here is a proof of our rescue mission on Saturday . . .

Can you spot the one hitchhiking on the back of the stroller?

It's Easy Being Green When You're Caroline!

This birthday girl wanted strawberry crepes for breakfast:)!

For her favorite family activity, she chose walking to town. ..

and this time her Daddy, Mommy and little brothers actually followed along!!!

The older kids made it to town in excactly one hour!

Daddy, Mommy, Valerie and the little ones (sailing in strollers)

made it in about one hour and 15 minutes!

Of course, the latter bunch took the more direct,

main road (life-threating:) route.

We had the others take the much safer,

back road (long way around) route.

Oh, and the latter bunch were also slowed down

by a very important rescue mission on the way. . .

Joseph had to save every "wooly worm" (and believe us they are out in droves)

from certain death as they attempted to cross the roads.
Then, we all met up at the new little diner and had pizza for lunch!

While waiting for our pizza, the kids had fun coloring:)

I guess you're never too old to color, right?

Here is the birthday girl's beautiful creation. . .

For dinner, Caroline wanted Meemom's goulash:)
Followed by a white cake with homemade frosting!

" He tends His flock like a shepherd:

He gathers the lambs in His arms

and carries them close to His heart..."

Isaiah 40:11

Puppies are here!

Allie had her puppies last Wednesday, the 14th.

The first one was born just after 9am, and the last one born right around 4pm . . . poor girl!

The funny thing is the stats are exactly the same as her last litter;

ten black pups . . . six girls, four boys!

Puppy pile!!!!

Sweet little yellow boy (no name yet:)

Timmy with Dark Blue . . . known as "Tank"

Joe Joe . . . also with "Tank"

Victoria's Turning 13!!!!

Our "Nine Lives" girl has almost made it to 13!!!!!!

The sign she is standing by says,

"Wow!!!! 13 and still alive!!!! Thank you, Lord!!!"

For breakfast, she chose a yummy cherry coffee cake!

(To make the breakfast a little healthy, we added a half of egg mc muffin:)

For dinner, she chose . . . get this . . . a BROCCOLI, rice and chicken casserole:)

That's my girl!!!!!

The cake she chose is a Costco taste-a-like with a pudding-like vanilla filling and chocolate buttercream frosting.

The activity she chose was the family walking from our house to town.

We all set out together, but the older kids wanted to run part of the way. So while they took off running, Ted and I turned around and hopped into our truck with Timothy and Joseph. We spied on the kids most of the way, then we parked on a side street that was just on the edge of town. We put Timothy and Joseph back in the stroller and pretended to have just come out of the side street ahead of them. We really had them going when we told them we had found a short-cut!!!! The other activity she really wanted to do was to go to the livestock auction in Chehalis! This is where they mostly auction off cattle (three hours worth) but also small farm animals.

Harvest

We have had so much fun this year with our first garden ever!

We are especially proud of Lydia, who planned it all and did much of the work of it:)

She worked really hard digging up a large section of grass, making furrows, researching when and how to plant seeds, and then weeding, watering, etc.

These are all pumpkins from our garden. The green ones will still turn orange in a little while.

Timothy and Joseph got into picking the last bit of corn!

And these are the last of the tomatoes we brought in the garage before the first frost.

Lydia heard that you can hang them upside down, and they will still ripen even after being pulled out of the ground. It does work!

We had way more tomatoes than we knew what to do with!

Before we started our garden, people told us that tomatoes are fairly hard to grow around here . . . maybe because of a fairly short growing season????

Anyway, Lydia got online and read an article from a tomato expert, and he suggested cutting most of the stems/leaves off of each plant before it flowers (leaving only the top stems and leaves). This must allow the plant to put more energy into producing the flowers that end up being the tomatoes!

We don't know for sure, but we think this was the secret to our success!
Next year, Lydia wants to do some canning!!!
No pictured . . . green beans, broccoli, a few herbs and tons of zucchini!!!

Timothy Turns Five!

Monkey bread for breakfast . . .

before the tarantula gets it!

Plaza Jalisco for dinner . . .

A huge play land near Seattle . . .

And a yummy birthday cake!

(Doesn't that cute little face to his right look familiar?:)

Happy 13th Birthday, Kyle!

Gotta love the two little eyes peeking over the counter:)

Kyle wanted a steak dinner. (The rest of us had hamburgers:)

And for breakfast, he wanted chocolate chip pancakes . . . none of that healthy stuff with blueberries in it.

The lower sign he is standing by says "Seriously, You Rock, Dude!"

(Some sort of teenage language and pose:)

Well, It's Official . . . .

The marks have been made, the measuring has been done, the proof is on the wall . . . . . . Kyle is officially taller than his mother:) As official as a wooden ruler on top of a thick head of hair can be, Kyle is now 5' 8". (His mother being 5' 7 3/4")