Will: Mom, what's Adamandeve? Who is he?

Sent from my iPhone

Addie: your auntie Kate calls everyone "love"

Liza: my great grandma calls everyone "angels" and every time she says that I'm thinking "I'm just living here...right on earth..."

Sent from my iPhone

Addie: Liza, I am tempted to squirt you with water!

Liza: I am strongly resisting the urge to whack you with this stick!

Sent from my iPhone

Mom: Liza, if someone offered me a trillion dollars to buy you, I would tell him to STICK IT.

Liza: Mom, if someone offered me a trillion dollars for you, I would take it. Then I would buy you back and still have a billion left!

Sent from my iPhone

Will and I shared a few mean games of tic tac toe during our alone time the other day. Love that kid.

Liza and friends snowball fighting!

The first snow of the year flew today! Dane worked on this snowman for over 3 hours, to the exclusion of everything...even meals. His abundant creativity astounds me constantly...he finished off this snowman's face with a red pipe cleaner smile, rocks for eyes and a carrot for the nose. Sooo cute!

Our songbird constantly singing...

One of my favorite times of each day is bedtime reading with the kids. I read with the boys (right now we are into the Goosebumps series) and then with Liza, who is on page 268 of a 516 page Rick Riordian book, The Red Pyramid.

The time together is priceless...books provide such a great excuse to snuggle so I will be hanging on to this routine for as long as possible.

Liza's classroom-she is in red.

Will has emerged as the goal-scorer of his team. Soccer comes totally naturally to him and he loves it! This game, he scored 3 of our 4 goals!

These two amazed me with their playful imaginations the other day when, while waiting for me to get them a snack at the bar, they turned these squashes, handsoaps and medicine bottles into characters of a play! The only downside was that I was so intrigued by them, it took me a lot longer to whip out a snack. I could have watched for hours!

Beautiful Sixth Grader

Drea and Lizafish have enjoyed getting their workouts in Papa's and Abba's pool together. It is always a treat to watch Liza swim laps as fast as a dolphin!

Will and I have played this letter sounds game several times this week. We love it! He read his first book by himself this week, "Will Can Bat "! So proud of him!

I asked Liza to see what Will wanted for a bedtime snack tonight and she did it Liza-style....by calling him on the squash to inquire! Funny girl!

Gun safety training has begun!

An afternoon at Liberty Park with Grammy, Auntie Alex, Auntie Kate, Justice, Elsie, Megan and a flock of geese that got a little bit toooooo close!

The boys loved the shoot location-we were on 100 acres of privately owned land in Layton where there were plenty of sticks to play with when they weren't in front of the camera. Sticks=happy boys.

A preview of our 2012 family pictures...

Happy Halloween from the pumpkin patch! The boys spent a long time playing tag with me in the haymaze, then mused over the different varieties of baby squashes for sale there. We could t believe the colors, shapes and patterns of the vegetables, and bought quite a stash to marvel over at home.

Liza and I staged this pic based on the actual hilarious even that actually occurred about 1 minute before this shot. She and I were having bean burritos in the car when somehow she accidentally dipped her fingers into a gob of beans and started freaking out saying, "I've got hot beans on my hands. I've got hot beans on my hands!" It was such a random and hilarious statement that we laughed and laughed and had to reenact it for this pic! She is a hoot!

Artist at work!

The boys' art room just before bedtime!

Will and I took Kev lunch at work. Being on his feet all day after his recent knee surgery meant a big push for Kev so we brought a little chow and a lot of love to him.

The boys got these gangster stashes from the great box at the dermatologists office after Dane bravely got his warts frozen (for about the tenth time).

Will learning to bow at his violin lesson!

Will LOVES Sophie puppy.

Larry, Curly and Moe in bubble bath heaven!

Dane is #3
Jonah is #2

Go Jonah and Gold Kings!

Katie, Liza and Anna!

This being the CrazyLegs race, the runners wore funky leg decor; such a riot!

Liza and I have trained for her first 5k all summer with our friends, the Stratfords and the Petersens. Race day couldn't have been more fun from the bands along the course (one was pure drummers) to the people cheering us on lining the route (some wore fluorescent wigs!)! Liza stuck with it even when she was tired and finished in 41 minutes! We are looking for our next race already!

Dane to mom after bee sting: I didn't cry when I got stung by that bee, but Jonah cried when he got stung.

Jonah, overhearing from the next room: That's because YOU got sting in the arm. I got stung in the nerves!


Sent from my iPhone

Dane after a bee sting "I don't think it meant to sting me. I think it's butt just fell on my arm."

Sent from my iPhone

Pumpkin carving!

Conference bingo was a hit (anything involving sugar cubes would be with this crowd)!

I thought this was especially sweet of Liza and Karli....the bunny trend starters!

We THINK that, based on some very recent male behavior (ah-hem), Cloudy (Will's bunny) might indeed be a male. This would definitely be an upset to what we thought was a college dormitory of sorority sisters. Yikes.

Dane: Mom, where does oil come from? Like canola oil...?

Me: oil is pressed out of various vegetables and nuts.

Liza: Ya ... Canola oil is pressed out of cannolis!

Hahahaha!

Sent from my iPhone

Will, the violinist, discovers piano!

Jonah hard at work on his first book report. He drew the BFG on this poster board with amazing accuracy and detail.

Dane part-drew and part-traced his first self-portrait tonight using his own invention of a tracing table. I don't know which deserves more adoration-the portrait or the ingenuity but wow on both accounts!