Happy 9th Bday Jake

Wow, it's hard to believe he's 9!  9!!  To sit and talk to him right now you'd find out pretty quick his favorite thing to do and talk about is hunting.  He'll tell you in great detail about the deer him and Joe saw bow hunting or the squirrels they shot or turkeys he scared walking down to Grandpa and Grandma's house.  And, I mean, in great detail, he remembers it all ;-)  He loves to be outside, preferrably hunting with daddy, also target practicing with his gun or bow.  He's getting pretty good.  When he "has" to be inside thank goodness for Joe's hunting magazines, they're getting their use!
Happy 9th Birthday Big Jake!

One Fine Fall Day Up North

 One of the gigantic piles of leaves we raked that day.  I think we had 5 rakers going and the wind to help us ;-)

 A little boy loving the pile of leaves

 Girls in the pile

 The 3 boys---buried

 Then, come eve we had 3 big leaf piles burning.  It took a little over 2 hours to burn all the leaves, so it was quite a bit of fun =)

 Getting it burning

Jael stirring the fire, Luke getting a head start on marshmallows!

Maria roasting marshmallows 

 Yep, I was there, mostly taking pictures and keeping baby out of the fires

 Erika and the s'more station!

"I just need 1 more" and so on

 This was just ONE big leaf pile.  We dragged tarp after tarp of these to the fires to burn

Luke & Seth roasting some mallows.

All in all it was a great time together!

Meredith Jane

Happy Birthday to our sunshine, silly girl Meri.  There is always a sparkle in her eye, and mischief and fun where she is involved!
She is 5!!!  It's hard to believe.
Happy Birthday RillaRae ;-)

CAT work

Joe did some work on the Cat for a few days.  The kids loved it.  I was slightly surprised James wasn't a bit scared.  He stayed on there for QUITE a while (30ish minutes) and would have stayed on longer if he could have!

Bye bye Curlie-Q

 Before!

After...aww...

I realized it was past time to cut James curls when the older kids & I were sitting at the table doing school the other day and in walked James followed by a proud Meri.  He had his hair nice and slicked back with a ponytail in a clip.  hahaha =)  He thought he was something!  So when I do the girl's hair in the a.m. they sit on the edge of the couch and he had taken to climbing up to take his turn on getting his hair combed.  So, he was all too glad to sit up there when I cut his hair.  Well, that and the mini marshmallows may have helped a bit ;-) 
So, I miss his curls but he's still a cutie I think!