September 3: Labor Day Weekend

My dad always told us that Labor Day was for labor...namely, yardwork. I didn't know differently until high school.

But this weekend, Labor Day meant yardwork for our family as well as T mows the weeds that we pretend make up a lawn....

J and B pull weed along the concrete slab....

Keith, J and B take a quick breather....

At least the yard looks acceptable now. ;)

July 15: Midnight Madness

Elizabeth the Gryffindor just before the midnight premiere of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, Part 2. This has been her Halloween costume for the past few years.

July 10: On the Fridge

The photos on our fridge, arranged by Elizabeth. Many "m-workers" represented here, plus close friends and tons o' family. The photos are posted just over our water/ice dispenser, so we can pray for Christian workers, friends, and family members while we fill our water glasses and bottles. :)

July 1: Cousins!!!

L to R: Timothy, Jonathan, Elizabeth, Audrey, Allison, Aileen, and Benjamin

Keith's sister and her family stopped by our place as they traveled from Arizona to spend the 4th of July with Dad Barrett. Such chatter and craziness!!! Just before they left, we snapped a few fun photos of the cousins on our front porch, our four and the triple A's, and this one was the BEST!

June 24: Beach Day

B builds a sand penguin at the beach near my parents' home. When the tide at last flooded the defensive ditch, surrounding his work, he beheaded it, smashed it, then scraped "RIP" into the sand where the penguin had been built.

Rest in Peace, little penguin....

June 15: 26th Anniversary

E snapped this quick photo of Keith and I, leaving for our evening out to celebrate our 26th anniversary.

May 31: Quite a Catch!

T discovered this three-foot long gopher snake in our garden. I hope he is truly keeping the gophers at bay!!! :)

Day 66: Elizabeth's Business

Elizabeth has been making jewelry for quite a while. A while ago she started making jewelry from shrinky-dinks. So here are some of her shrunken treasures: flower charms for bracelets, heart charms, cherry earrings, hooped earrings, etc. She colors the much larger plastic sheets with colored pencils or Sharpie pens, then bakes them in the toaster oven which causes them to shrink to a third of their size but become nine times as thick.

Her Facebook page is here: Elizabeth's Fashion Jewelry

Day 64: Experiments in Art

Keith has been experimenting with glass fusing, sprinkling ground glass powder the consistency of fine sand called "frit" onto clear glass and then baking in a small kiln to create different glass effects for a stained glass project he is working on. The glass piece is one onto which he has already fused a couple of colors of frit.

Day 52: Snow Play

It was cold enough on Sunday that the vast majority of the snow stayed with us through Monday. B couldn't resist making a snowman on Sunday....

...which he promptly destroyed on Monday.

Boys....

Day 48: A Colorful Child

J enjoyed some of his "fun dip" Valentine candy...with rather colorful results.

Day 47: Stained Glass Plan

This is the plan for a 32" by 48" commissioned stained glass window that Keith is working on for some acquaintances of the Ademas, the family for whom Keith has made two windows in the past few years. This couple wanted something very simple and at first didn't even want the flourishes, but we'll see what they think. Keith will e-mailing this plan to them for approval before he starts buying glass and starting work.

Day 46: Repairing the Clock

Keith has spent several hours attempting to clean and repair my mother's Sessions mantel clock that belonged to her grandmother. He even added new leather to the chime hammers to create a richer, deeper tone. We took the clock back to my parents, hoping that it will run better after the special care Keith took with it.

Day 44: Keith's Plan

One of Keith's artsy projects this week is to start filling in this plan for a tile mosaic of Diamond Head in Hawaii for the floor of my parents' home elevator. He found a photo online that he's using as a guide, making changes along the way to create a very cool image that will be reminiscent of the view from my parents' condo in Waikiki.

He'll be installing it while they're in Hawaii this spring as my mom uses the elevator far too much to be without it, even for a day. I'll keep you posted on his progress--I love taking photos of Keith at work. :)

Day 29: "C" is for "Cookie"

We bought my dad this Cookie Monster t-shirt last June for Father's Day as we were continually catching him in the cookie jar. ;) Well, Jonathan wanted one too, so he bought his with his Christmas money. When Mom and Dad stopped by to drop off Elizabeth's stuff on their way to their cabin, we managed to snap a photo of our two Cookie Monsters.

Day 24: J and Dash

Jonathan plays with Dash, our dachshund (instead of doing school).... :)

Day 15: B's Snack

Benjamin made himself a snack this afternoon, a favorite in our household: peanut butter on brown rice cakes....

Day 10: Back to School

Timothy studying world history....

Today marked our first day back to home schooling after a month off; our last school day was December 10. So here we are on January 10, with Timothy hitting the world history book, his school schedule laid out before him, in front of the wood burning stove, the warmest place in the house on a very cold morning....

Day 9: A Girl and Her Pup

This afternoon after church we dropped Elizabeth back on campus at Point Loma Nazarene University as her second semester starts tomorrow. I'm gonna miss my girl something awful, but I think that Dash, who sleeps with her, may miss her as much, if not more, than I will....

Day 5: All in One....

I was daring enough (or foolish enough, take your pick) to take all four kids (three teens and one "tween") clothes shopping. All day.

We stopped for lunch at nearly three at a Pizza Hut where J, our middle son (and newfound fashionista who spent his money on some great wardrobe basics) proceeded to stuff an entire slice of pizza into his mouth at once. I snapped photos and E took video while the Pizza Hut employees laughed their behinds off...they didn't believe he actually could do it.

We did.