I think life is a never ending battle to stay “caught up”—whatever that means.
The Reflections theme this year is “Beauty is…” My kids always have fun planning out what they want to do for Reflections, but it seems that we never get around to doing until the few days before.
Mark’s first idea was “Beauty is my neighborhood.” I thought that was clever and so he constructed some Lincoln Log representations. Later we found out his creation had to be portable so he went to Plan B. 
Instead he entered this college of pictures that he took. He came up with the idea to focus on the flag for his statement “Beauty is America." At dinner we asked him to explain his thoughts a little and it was so cool to hear his little patriotic heart.
Here’s Jessie finishing up her stitching project to enter. “Beauty is a flower garden.”
Ken took a day off work and together we canned 54 quarts of pears. Do you know how many pounds of pear that is? 108 pounds!! Spencer helped stir the sugar in the jars until is was his nap time. We did about this many last year and we only have 9 bottles left. I think that’s pretty stinkin’ good estimating.
For Christmas last year Jessie got a game called “In a Pickle.” The kids really think this game is funny. She and I played together while everyone else was down watching a baseball game. These were a few of the rounds…. So the way this works is you lay cards on top or underneath of each other so that it works out reading down from the top that the card underneath could be “in” the next card. So our longest one is: There is a spider web in a tear…a tear in the money, money in the doorway, in the quicksand, in the hole, in the shoe, in the suitcase, in the dream, in the bug, in the chocolate.
Mark has found a new friend and they take turns playing at each other houses. Here are a few of the many creations we now have lying around the house. I just have to remind the boys that legos are meant to be taken apart and after I’ve taken a picture of their creation it is free game to whoever else wants to create something.
Abbie was treats for FHE and so she and I made cheese ball! YUMMY! This cheese ball is really soft, more like a cheese mound (but that means it won’t break your cracker!), and it’s my very favorite recipe.
Simply Cheese Ball
3 pkg. cream cheese
1/4 cup cheese whiz
1/4 tsp. garlic powder
1/2 tsp. salt
1/2 cup finely chopped onion (red onion adds great color)
1/2 cup finely shredded carrot (makes it nutritious)
1/4 cup parmesan cheese
Mix together well with an electric hand mixer. Spoon onto a plate and enjoy. (Ken is the only person I’ve ever meet that doesn’t like cheese whiz, but he still likes the cheese ball. So if you fit into that category too, just try it you may be surprised.)
Last Sunday night as I was just finishing up talking with my family I hear this loud crash. Spencer had fallen out of the end of his bed being silly while Ken was reading to the kids and knocked his cheek on something, but we can’t figure out what. It swelled up huge quick and I held ice on it for 2 hours that night. By the next morning some of the blood from his bruise had settled in around his eye and he had a black eye to be proud of. Ken reminded me to take a picture…it doesn’t so bad here, but in real life it looked like someone had knocked him clean across the room. So many people have asked him what happened that he has his story down really well.
Here are a few more kid creations. These are our rainbow ones. Growing up my brother and I always thought it would be cool to have a rainbow house, didn’t you?
For fall break we spent some time up in SLC with my grandparents. The kids had a blast swinging on the swing in the back yard and decided that a nice pile of leaves would be just the thing to play in. Unfortunately, Barley, my cousins big German Shepherd that lives at my grandparents house, couldn’t wait until the piles were big enough for the kids to play in and he kept running though them and messing them up.
The dogs there get many walks when my kids come to visit.
Jessie was so excited with Grandma’s costumes and came up to show us her as a pioneer. Grandma even let her keep the white wrap and it is her new favorite thing. 
Mark is such a awesome helper. Grandma was drying apples and he jumped right in to help. His job was to core the slices, dip them in the lemon juice/salt/water mixture and put them on the racks.
On Friday we went to the Tracey Aviary and took Grandma with us. We saw pelicans.
Some bird with a REALLY long tail (that hiding it behind the bush).
Other various exotic creatures.
And Spencer was the first to spot the mama peahen with her babies.
There were flamingos…
And have you ever noticed that their feet are pink too! Although, it takes a flamingo two years of eating shrimp to turn pink and this one isn’t quite there yet.
Since we weren’t able to catch a bird show while we were there the kids were a little bored at just looking in cages. That is until we found this huge grass covered hill to climb on. The grass was so tall that it was like a jungle to them. And they kept playing until they found a nest of eggs. Although, I not sure how old the eggs were because what kind of bird lays eggs in the fall??
The peacocks were all hanging out on the roof tops.
Spencer’s favorite part was running through that chains into one of the displays. I think he played in them for almost 10 minutes.
Here we are a little happy family…well I think Jessie poked Mark right before the picture and he was trying to get her back and that’s why she’s hanging out to the side.
So now my blog is mostly “caught up,” but please don’t come to my house or I’ll blindfold you and take you downstairs to the only clean room and we’ll chat there.
