Balance

I love this art by James Christensen-- it's called "The Responsible Woman."  My mom had a print of this piece when I was growing up, and I remember thinking that I wanted to be the woman in the painting.  I love the way she is carrying so much, yet she doesn't look tired or frustrated, but just carries on with her head held high.  And I love that, even with all of her heavy load, she still thought to wear red shoes.

I'm imagining what The Responsible Woman would look like if she were me-- cut off all of that hair, subtract the dog, add a computer, some balls and Legos, and two more boys (I imagine Gordon would be trying to swan dive off of my backside)-- I don't know if I keep up the steadfast look as well as this woman does, though.  My picture would probably have me gritting my teeth, just trying to get through the day. 

I've decided that I'm tired of whining about how busy I am-- it's nothing new to most of my readers, who are also extremely busy!  If you're like me, there are so many things you want to do in a day, and you tend to get discouraged if you don't get to everything.  I'm trying to rid myself of that discouragement, though, and just try to be happy with what I did do-- and look forward to tomorrow.   

I'm working on delegating some of those extra things-- I "hired" two fabulous people from my Creative Team, Heidi and Debbie, who will help me with some of the promotional and administrative work in my digital design business.  You might have noticed Heidi's Sneak Peek earlier today-- she's doing a great job already! 

I'm also delegating some housekeeping duties to Tom and Gordon with a job chart.  Their rooms get ridiculously messy in such a short time-- and it's time to crack down on that little problem! 

And finally, I'm delegating my guilt, harried-ness, and general whininess to anyone who wants to take them.  :)  Wish me luck!

Party, party, party

We had a wonderful Halloween week filled with costumes, parties, and way too much candy!  I'm still recovering!

Countdown to Halloween

This time of year is so much fun!  Halloween festivities are everywhere, so we're taking advantage with a week-long celebration.  We kicked off our fun plans with a trip to the pumpkin patch on Saturday morning.  It was kind of chilly and windy, but this is Idaho and we're used to a cold end to October.  In fact, I'm pretty sure it's going to snow by Halloween.  Psh.

Pumpkin patches are so much more fun than just picking up a gourd at the grocery store.  The boys loved tromping through the rows of pumpkins, while Neil had a great time being pulled in the wagon.  Everyone had a stipulation for the type of pumpkin he wanted:  Chris likes a huge one for his annual large-mouthed jack-o-lantern (see below) and he likes to have a handle; I like short, fat, round ones; Thomas wanted the first pumpkin he saw; Gordon required a pumpkin that was "all orange, no green"; and Neil wanted a "baby".  Lucky for us, we hit the jack-o- jackpot!

You can see how windy it was by my Trump-inspired comb over!

 

 A pumpkin is no good for Halloween until it's carved, so our next festivity meant a lot of work for Chris, and a lot of fun for everyone else.  Chris loves carving pumpkins and readily volunteers to do all of the dirty work-- including carving the boys' hand-drawn faces.  Gordon drew three faces, while Thomas drew one face, then a bunch of other stuff.  My pumpkin isn't pictured, but Chris punched out a bunch of little holes in the pumpkin and I put white Christmas lights in them to make something that looks a bit like Cinderella's coach.  So fun!

 

 We started the week off just right today by making caramel apples-- yum, yum, yum.  I'm a purist when it comes to caramel, so I made my own (no Kraft here!).  The boys dipped their apples in assorted sprinkles and toffee bits and they turned out so tasty.  I think a new Halloween tradition was born.  

Mmmm... Baking!

The older boys are at school and the youngest is fast asleep (ah! I love it when they still take naps!), so what's a girl to do?  Bake, of course!

We got Boo'd last night-- a fabulous tradition that makes me just love our neighborhood all the more.  Today, of course, it's my turn to make some treats and pass them to three unsuspecting families.  That part will wait until tonight, when I have pint-sized accomplices, but today, during my quiet time, I'm doing the baking.

You know I have a penchant for peanut butter treats, so I stuck with my favorite theme and made the Reese's Chewy Chocolate Cookies from the recipe found on the back of the peanut butter chips bag (and at the Hershey's site).  Oh yum.  It's a good thing that I'm giving most of these away today because otherwise, I'd eat the whole batch myself.  I love how they're almost Halloween-y, too, with the orange and brown.  Delicious!

Soccer Mom

That's Soccer Mom with a capitol "S".  Somehow, last Spring, when I signed Thomas and Gordon up for Fall soccer, I managed to check the wrong box in the "are you willing to be the coach?" section.  Actually, I don't think I checked the wrong box at all-- I think no one else volunteered either, so they just picked the first person to respond to their e-mail!  Whatever happened, I'm coaching a U6 team, the "Rockets", and I *mostly* enjoy it.  I'm pretty sure I would enjoy it even more if Gord could have played more than 1/4 of the very short season!

Since I have never played soccer, and don't know much beyond the rule that you can't use your hands, this has been a real learning experience for me.  Here are a few tips I've learned for the soccer mom/coach:

1.  Offense, Defense... whatever.  In U6, as long as your kids are all kicking the ball in the same direction, you have a good thing going.  You'll notice in the picture above that this isn't happening at this point in the game!  I've yelled, "The other way!  The other way!" at pretty much every game.  Ha!

 

2.  Don't EVER forget the water.  Despite their seemingly endless amounts of energy, five-year-olds will actually drop like flies if they aren't properly hydrated.  They will also whine the entire time.

 

3.  Even though you have a bag with enough balls for everyone, after a couple of practices each player will have picked "their" ball.  Trying to give the wrong ball to the wrong person is not a good idea.

 

 4.  Coaching your own kid is both really fun and kind of tricky.  You can't play favorites, and you also can't be harder on your child than anyone else.  The good news is that you can take your own kids out for ice cream after the game, and that pretty much ensures that you'll be their favorite coach ever.

5.  Two-year-olds are especially cute cheering on the sidelines.  This one loves to say, "GOOOOO!"

6.  No matter how hot, tired and thirsty they are after a grueling 32 minutes, a cheer for the other team, high fives and "good game", and, most importantly, treats from one of the parents will restore all of their energy and team spirit in no time!

One more game this Saturday-- and I'm going to try to get more action shots of my cute Gordon.  

GOOOOOOO ROCKETS!! 

We love the fall!

 

And we love having a couple of trees in the yard that give us enough leaves to jump into!

Happy Birthday to two cute boys!

 

Happy Birthday to two of my favorite people on the planet:  my wonderful hubster, Chris, and my little stinker, Neil.  Before I forget, if you want to see a truly awesome montage of these two, be sure to check out my mother-in-law's blog here!  Such great pictures-- aren't they handsome?

Two years ago, I secretly wished that our third little boy would be born on October 4th, Chris's birthday.  I thought it would be fun to have a double celebration every year.  Instead, Neil was 90 minutes late and now has his own day, which is really even better.  Now we get back-to-back parties!  

Last night, we celebrated Chris's 34th (man, he's getting old!) with a delicious dinner followed by three kinds of pie.  And today, we had a fun birthday cake with yummy fudge frosting for 2-year-old Neil.  Such fun, and Neil has almost figured out how to sing "Happy Birthday to you!"

For the past week or so, we've been teaching Neil to answer, "I'm TWO!" when you ask, "How old are you?"  In his baby babble, he also says something that sounds like capisce (ka-peesh), so we've taught him how to say it like an Italian gangster.  "I'm two, capisce?!"  It's pretty funny.

I love these two and I love celebrating them two days in a row!  Happy Birthday boys!

September Recap!

I miss blogging.  Sure, I enjoy sharing little bits of my life with all of you (ie: Nonny), but even more than that, I miss having a regular journal to look back on.  The other day, the boys were looking at old pictures and videos on the computer.  It was so fun to hear them laugh at themselves and remember all of the fun they had on this occasion or that.  The moment reminded me why I enjoy pictures, scrapbooks, and yes, blogs, so much in the first place-- it's all about creating memories.

So, in that spirit, I'm going to try harder to keep this online journal updated more regularly.  And you, my bloggy friends, are welcome to read along.

It's October 1st-- I can't believe it!  This year is flying by way too fast!  We did have a very fun September, so I thought I'd document a few of our memorable moments tonight.

First off, the boys went back to school.  Well, Thomas went back and Gordon started for the first time.  Things are going really well in the school department.  I feel very fortunate that both Tom and Gord love to learn and that they both enjoy participating in their classes.  And look how cute they are on their first day!

 

Gordon was quite the celebrity on his first day of school, due in part to his charming personality, but mostly because of this...

Yep, that's right-- he broke his leg.  It actually happened a couple of weeks before school, but he wore his cast until a couple of weeks ago.  Despite the stress and anxiety, mostly felt by me, I think the whole broken leg mess may have actually taught us both a little bit of patience.   Funny how that works sometimes.

Having a broken leg was a bit of a problem for Gordon's soccer team.  I'm the coach (don't ask me how that happened, I'm still not sure!) and it has been kind of sad to have my own kid sitting on the sidelines.  Luckily, he's back in motion and has been okayed to play in his last two games.  Hopefully we'll get some good pictures to share!

Tom is playing soccer, too, and is on the "Meteors" team with one of his best friends, Nathaniel.  These two are a couple of peas in a pod and they have a great time together.  Neither is very aggressive when it comes to soccer, however, so we've resorted to bribing them for just kicking the ball.  No goals have been scored yet (that would equal a giant king-sized candy bar!), but at least they're both trying.  And most importantly, they're both having fun and being great sports!

 

As for me, I've been keeping busy with a few active outings of my own.  A couple of weeks ago, some friends and I hiked Table Mountain, a pretty grueling, not-recommended-for-children hike on the West side of the Tetons.  It was tough, and long (more than 12 miles total), but man, it was gorgeous.  I'm talking about take-your-breath-away beautiful!  

 

I did this hike once before-- I think I was 17-- so I  *kind of* remembered how difficult it is.  Even though I had seen it before, though, the view from the top of Table Rock was just as glorious and awe-inspiring as ever.  I am sure that I don't want to wait another 13 years to do it again-- in fact, these ladies are already talking about next year.  

Some of the same group also teamed up for Idaho Falls' 4th Annual Run for the Cure.  It was a 5K and my goal was to run (er... jog....) the whole time.  And yay-- I met my goal!  I felt pretty good, too, and I think I may have gotten a decent time.  I would post it, but the race organizers still haven't posted the results.  LAME.  It doesn't really matter, since my goal had nothing to do with time, but still.

 

That's about all I had time for this time-- it feels good to get a little bit caught up! 

Last year's first day (scrapped!)

Now that I have two kids in school in the afternoons and one kid who takes afternoon naps, I *think* I have enough time to start scrapping regularly again.  Yay!  It's really therapeutic and fun for me, plus I really think it helps me keep things in perspective.

I love designing at The Digichick for a lot of reasons, and one of my favorite perks is that I get to try out others' designs.  I'm especially loving templates lately-- they make it so quick and easy to put together a really classy page.  Today I used a template from the "Scraps to Go" collection by the amazing Jennifer Fox.  Love it!

Here's my page from Gordon's first day of pre-school last year:

All paper and elements from School Days by Jennifer Fox. Template from Scraps to Go 6 also by Jennifer Fox. All at The Digichick! Font is Pea Christen from Kevin and Amanda.com

While browsing for pictures for this page, I came across this little gem from September of last year...

Where has my long-haired emo baby gone?  Don't you just want to run your fingers through that luscious hair???  Ugh, me too!

Oh summer, leaving so soon?

I just returned from back-to-school night, where I met the two fabulous women who will be spending a lot of time with my two fabulous boys for the next nine months.  We've been lucky thus far with our great schools and great teachers, and I'm feeling very grateful that my children are being taught and cared for so well.  I'm excited for their new adventures in learning!

I'm pretty sure that I say this every time I post, but life is just so busy!  I find myself worrying frequently about overdoing it with the lessons, sports, scouts, activities and whatever else it is that finds its way onto my packed-to-the-gills calendar.  Then, of course, I worry that I'm not giving my kids enough opportunity to discover talents, meet friends, and have fun.  I'm sure it's a classic double-edged sword of worry that most parents deal with.  For now, I'm letting them do the things they want to do, pushing them a little bit, and trying hard to relax as much as possible.

Life is good.  Busy, of course, but good.

Summer 2010 (part 1)

I got that "memory card full" warning when I was trying to take some pictures the other day, and it made me realize how terrible I've been at updating this blog with our summer adventures!  I don't feel too badly-- hopefully you're so involved in your own summer fun that you haven't noticed my little hiatus.

We're always busy, of course, but we've been having such a great time this summer.  I have been doing my very best to battle the B-word ("bored") and with the help of our fun neighbors, friends and a visit from cousins, we're not doing too bad.  And rather than give you a big long travel log (even though I know some of you like that kind of thing...), I'm just going to post some postcard shots of our Summer 2010 over the next few days and catch up.

Today:  Part 1-- from top left corner:  Sprinklers! (and slip & slides, and little pools); (top middle) relaxing in the hammock at Chris's parents' house; (bottom middle) Thomas LOVED watching all of Gordon's tee ball games;  Gordon and his cousin David are two little peas in a pod-- it's so fun to watch them together (and only a little bit rowdy)
Bottom left:  Thomas and his cute cousin Audrey; Gordon and Mom spelunking at Craters of the Moon; two little buzz-heads and their buddy Nicolas at the sand dunes

Happy Summer!

Last day of school recap!

Blogging is a lot like laundry-- the longer you let it go without doing it, the harder it is to do!  So, here I am, catching up again!  Grr!

Summer has been in full swing here and we've been having such a great time.  Before the great time, however, we were getting rained out of pretty much everything.  Let's start with Tom's last day of school, when I had volunteered to help with their field day:  rain, rain, rain.

First off, I should say how much Thomas has loved Westside.  We were a little bit (okay, a lot!) nervous about switching schools-- our school in Logan was so wonderful and I had a hard time imagining that we could like another school even half as well.  While there are still a lot of things that I miss about EBLS, Westside has exceeded my expectations.  Tom had a darling, energetic teacher, made lots of new friends, and most importantly, really loved going to school every day.  And, I must brag for a minute, he did end the year with straight A's!  ;)

On the last day of school, the field day was rained out and moved inside.  We still managed to have a great time, though.  My favorite parts of the day included playing a game with the kids that involved holding hands and getting a hula-hoop around the circle of kids, the absolute hilarity of "Extreme Simon Says", and hearing the whole elementary school sing along to "Fireflies" during the end-of-year slideshow.  

Thomas was a little bit emotional, but I promised that we'll meet up with some of his friends this summer and we'll see them all next school year.  He'll definitely miss his cute teacher, Mrs. Cassidy, but I'm sure they'll say "hi" in the halls.  He had a great 3rd grade year!

For the last day of school, Chris had promised the boys that they could sleep out in the tent in the back yard.  The rain was too heavy, but the boys were sad not to sleep in a tent, so Chris compromised and set the tent up in my parents' large shop.  We had an indoor BBQ with hot dogs and hamburgers cooked on the George Foreman grill, and s'mores made with marshmallows roasted on the stove top.  

The kids and Chris were really comfortable in their indoor tent-- they actually slept in pretty late!  What a great way to kick off the summer!

{Almost} Summer!

It's the final countdown-- the last day of school is tomorrow, then summer will be officially underway! I've been pouring over our calendar, confirming dates, looking up destination information, and getting excited for a fun three months! And did I mention the added summer benefits of not having to drag Tom out of bed at 7:30 every morning? That's something to look forward to, too!

Before summer kicks off, though, a lovely Memorial Day weekend, a couple of graduations, and a visit from Nonny and Bob. I didn't take any pictures over the Memorial Day holiday-- we went to Salt Lake City to visit Gramm & Gramp, and Marilyn has a fabulous new camera that was much more fun to play with than my own. I'm sure she'll post some pictures of our adventures soon. We had a great time!

Gordon is all ready for kindergarten in the fall. He had his immunizations (a fun-filled experience that included two screaming kids, and embarrassed mother and a very calm, very strong nurse), he is registered at the school, and he passed all of his numbers, letters, and other pre-requisites with flying colors. Now all he had to do was graduate from pre-school! The graduation/singing performance was last week and, in true pre-school form, it was adorable. The kids sang several songs and I loved watching Gordon on the top row, singing his little heart out and following along with the actions in his bold, energetic style.

Gordon has had a great year at Smart Start. His teacher, Mrs. Taft, has been wonderful and he really looked forward to every day at school. We'll miss his cute teacher and all of her creative energy!

My mom gave Gordon $1.00 as a graduation present. I love that when you're in pre-school, getting a dollar is not only satisfactory, it's thrilling!

My youngest sister, Allison, also graduated this last week-- but her graduation was from high school. I'll admit it: the best part of her graduation was the fact that my grandparents, Nonny and Bob, came to visit for the occasion! They've been out of the country since the end of last summer, so it was very sweet to see them and catch up. Gordon, Neil and I had the pleasure of spending Tuesday afternoon with Nonny and Bob, eating lunch at the Olive Garden (have you tried the roasted chicken flatbread? Yum!), then visiting the Museum of Idaho. The museum has a fun dog-themed exhibit-- "Wolf to Woof"-- and our animal-lover Gordon was in heaven. (Neil stayed contentedly in his stroller.)

Nonny and Bob are such good sports and crawled around with the kids in the children's area. Gordon is still carrying the tickets, illustrated with different dog pictures, in his special tote!

Graduations are always a cause to celebrate and I think Allison was especially thrilled to be finished with high school. We enjoyed a family dinner at Allison's choice, Red Robin, then I went with my parents and grandparents to the graduation ceremony. It was long-ish, the benches were uncomfortable, and the seniors were a little on the unruly side, but finally, diplomas were awarded and the class of 2010 was on their way into the real world-- after a stop at an all-night party, of course.

My sister, Ann-Michelle, me, and Allison (yes, she has blue streaks in her hair) at Red Robin

The graduation attendees-- me, Nonny, Mom, Allison, Dad, Bob

Allison, the happy grad! She'll be going off to college at the end of August and my parents are going to have a very empty house.

Happy Birthday Gordon!

On Saturday, my little Gordon turned five! It's hard to believe my funny little boy is growing up so quickly. Gordon is a darling little devil and he really does add so much joy and energy to our everyday lives. Here are five favorite things about Gord:

1. Everything Gordon does is done with gusto and enthusiasm! Even his fits are full-blown, which is super fun for his parents. It's fun to be around Gordon because his energy is so contagious.
2. Gordon gives the best, most heartwarming hugs. He is completely in the hugging moment, so you really feel like he means to give you all of his love.
3. Gordon is a clever little thing. He has an uncanny memory, especially when it comes to promises about treats!
4. Gordon loves holidays-- especially Halloween. We probably have a conversation about which holiday is coming up next and what we'll be doing on that day at least once a week.
5. We're starting to see some musical talent emerge from Gord. He loves to play the piano and sing-- my very favorite is to catch him singing when he doesn't realize that I'm listening!

I love my little Snuggle Puppy and I'm so glad he's mine! Happy Birthday, Gordon!

One, two, three, four... FIVE!

Oh, five. Such a glorious, adventure-filled age. Especially if you're Gordon, for whom everything is just plain awesome. He really is an excited little guy-- always! I barely have enough energy to keep up with him, which is why I'm SUPER excited for kindergarten. I'm also excited to leave the glue supervision to someone else for a little while!


Gordon's actual birthday isn't until tomorrow, but we had his birthday party today. First off, I should note that a long time ago, I vowed not to have anything other than a family party for my children until they reached a certain age (not 5), but when I asked Gordon what he wanted for his birthday, all he could talk about was a party. So, I gave in and got him a teeny little present and a big ol' party. Now that it's over and it appears that everyone had a blast, I'm thinking birthday parties are not such a bad idea. I'm not sure what my problem was to begin with, but I'm pretty sure it had something to do with the mess.

So, here's a rundown of our fabulous 90 minutes: Pizza! Dinosaur Pinata! (and thank goodness for ages 5 and under who don't hoard the candy but make sure even the little guys get some) Presents! Presents! Presents! Cupcakes with trick candles! Trick candles?! I know, I had no idea! Help us blow the candles out!! Okay, stomp the candles out! Cupcakes! Party horns! Party horns on the trampoline! Sticky, squealing, happy children all over the yard! Hooray!

And that's about it. An hour and a half is just about right-- and I'm feeling pretty safe in betting that most of those kiddos (especially the ones in the younger age group) fell asleep on the way home.

Right now we're dealing with a bit of birthday-boy-bossiness and older-brother-jealousy, but aside from that, I'd say it's been a really fantastic day. Certainly a "best day ever" in Gordon's book-- and it's not even his birthday yet!

Mesa Falls

Spring is fighting back here in Idaho (although it did snow last week-- boo!) so we took advantage of the balmy weather and spent Saturday out in nature! We followed my parents, sister, and my brother and his cute girlfriend to Mesa Falls in the Targhee National Forest. It was a perfect little outing-- a short hike with stairs, a couple of lovely waterfalls to ooh and ahh over, and of course, a fabulous bunch of people to share the day with!

The boys were thrilled with the water, and with Chris, who threw giant snowballs over the edge of the path into the water below.

M&M cookies at Mesa Falls, then a stop at the "Frostop" for hamburgers and fries made for a perfect little outing! I'm excited to return to Mesa Falls this summer for an overnight campout!

Mother's Day weekend was glorious, if a bit gluttonous, too! We enjoyed family, no extra church meetings, and food, food, food. Food highlights: pizza and treats at Freed's on Friday, the aforementioned Frostop and my dad's famous teriyaki chicken on Saturday, enchiladas and fried ice cream on Sunday with the whole family. Uh. Yeah.

The good news: I've been super disciplined with my eating and exercise this week! Ha!

This week, I'm working on planning our summer adventures. I did this about 5 years ago, when we were in Logan, and we really had such a fun time that year! Since then, I've been a bit of a slacker and with moving, etc, last year, I felt like our days off have been wasted in doing nothing. So, last night I made a list of everything we'd like to do, then poured over maps and the calendar to see what we can squeeze in. I'm excited about the possibilities we have to look forward to!

Finally...

Okay. Okay! Blogging at last!

I've debated about this for the past while and decided that I'm going to go ahead and combine all of my stuff-- life, digital scrapping, cooking, reading-- onto this one blog. I figure that it's pretty reasonable to be able to keep up with one blog, so hopefully consolidation is a good thing in this case. Life has been good. Busy, of course, and crazy, but good.

Spring is almost here in Idaho (although it did try to snow yesterday, nothing stuck, so ha!) and I'm so very ready to get outside. Tom fished his bike out of the storage shed and has been riding back and forth along the little gravel road beside my parents' yard, the dog racing not too far behind. Gordon likes to play in the front yard with the rocks (and yes, we've gone over the rules: you cannot throw rocks at people, animals, or cars), and the dirt, and the bugs... you know, boy stuff. Neil is obsessed with balls ("bah!") and got so excited over this one at Target that I couldn't resist.

So very cute! So, there's my life update for the moment. Tomorrow I'll post about some of my

Pardon my dust!

I'm making some fun changes to my blog-- including a new address www.elisespieces.com and a pretty new look! So, please don't mind the mess while I'm rearranging!

January Wrap Up!

We're in the last couple of hours of January and I feel like I should say a big "WHEW"-- I made it! I don't know why January is such a hard month for me-- after all, several of my very favorite people were BORN in this very month-- but every year I find myself trudging through it. This year, though, one of my resolutions was to change my attitude about the month of January and I think I did pretty darn well. Not that I'm sad to see it end!

So, the end of the month and a few more pictures to share!

January 23rd-- Date Night!

Since prior to January, Neil needed me to coddle and care for him nearly every second, Chris and I only used my family babysitters on a very emergency basis. For some reason, weening Neil has made him much more friendly to people other than me, so we were able to leave all three boys with my parents and go out with some friends. I love the opportunity to get a little bit dressed up and have some adult conversation! And I love our great friends! I think I may have to make another resolution not to wear out my welcome, so to speak, with the babysitting though!


Earlier that day...

Remember when I mentioned that much of our activity in an Idaho winter centers around playing in the snow? It does. Luckily, snow play can get pretty fun, especially when you include a nice gradual slope, cousins, and some slick sleds. Gordon is not a huge fan of sledding, but he likes to race on foot. I think he was mad at me because I said it was time to go home, but Tom and Dal sure look happy!


Speaking of winter play, I really want to try snowshoeing. In my head, it seems like the perfect winter sport-- kind of like hiking in the snow, right? I want to try it before this winter ends and see if it's something I could get into!

January 27th-- Pinewood Derby

Thomas (with the help of Chris) entered his first Pinewood Derby this year. Here's something I didn't know about the Pinewood Derby: they give you a box wherein lies a block of wood and some wheels. The rest is up to you (and your dad). We're not really tool people, so it was interesting to see Chris get creative on helping with this baby! Thomas drew the design, Chris cut it out and sanded it, Tom pushed the button on the spray paint, Chris finished spray painting and attached the wheels, Tom drew the smiley face, and some guy in the ward added some graphite. Oh, and I taped about $1.50 worth of coins on the bottom when the car weighed in at a mere 2 ounces.

The outcome: Tom's car, named "Tommy", won 4 races and lost 1, ending up somewhere in the middle. Perfect!

On the way home, we figured out that with the spacing of our boys, we'll be attending Pinewood Derbies for the next eleven years without a break! I think we're going to get pretty good at this!



January 28th-- Story Time

Gordon and I have been going to pre-school story time at the library on Thursday mornings faithfully since we moved here. It's a fun-filled half hour of stories, songs, and a craft, then we go to the children's section and pick out our books for the week. This month, my dear friend, Sherrie, who recently moved to IF (yay!) has joined us with her daughters. Now, most of Gordon's friends are boys, so it's been very fun to watch him interact with a very girly girl. He's a much softer version of himself, even though I still have to loudly whisper not to run and to use inside voices in the library. Cute little devil.



January 29th-- Big Judd's

Speaking of friends, a large group of friends from our ward went to Archer to the famous "Big Judd's" last night. It was so fun to hang out with some new families and eat really bad-for-us food. Later, Chris and I both felt a bit sick. I didn't take a lot of pictures, but I capture this moler shot of Gord and one of his new buddies.



Wrapping up, I have to say that this January has been one of my favorites in memory. We're loving Idaho, our friends and family, the crystal clear air, even the snow. I think I could even love January! Who knew?