Avalee and Maxine.
Lincoln giving a ride to Natalie.
Riding a train around the park.
Cousin fun.
The Merry-go-round.
Racing down the slides.
This last pictures represents what Lincoln did every two minutes in AZ. Dump the sand out of his shoes. He hated the sand in his shoes. Towards the end of the vacation he had figured out ways to avoid the sand and he would go to any measure to run around the sand instead of through it.
Avalee got sick at the first of the trip so this is a day were we just fed the ducks. The kids had a great time.
Yesterday I was in my house and heard this horrible scream so I looked out the window and saw my neighbor chasing her car that was going BACKWARDS. So I put Nathan's shoes on and hurried down the street as fast as I could because I had no idea what was going on.
This is what happened. My neighbor has an old car and had turned it on to defrost the windows. Her three year old put the car in reverse and locked the driver's door. The car went backwards across the street and hit a garbage can. At this point the five year old, grabbed the steering wheel and tried to put it back in gear but he ended up turning the steering wheel. So then the car hit a mail box and came back across the street. She finally got in through the back door and jumped over the seat to stop by car before it hit the house. If the five year would have not turned the steering wheel, the car would have hit a car but since he turned it the only damage was to the mailbox.
So my warning.....Never leave your car on while you are not in it and your kids are. I am thankful that newer cars have safety features so this can't happen as easy.
On Saturday Lincoln dropped a can of kidney beans on his toe. It immediately turned blue. He cried and cried. Avalee and I were not home but came home to him still crying. We sent her to make him happy. In a matter of minutes, she was able to calm him down and he stopped crying.
On Sunday, we had a friend that is a nurse look at his toe. She told us that if it got worse we were going to have to pop it and get the pressure out. Well it got worse and today Lincoln could barely walk. So tonite, she brought over a local to numb the toe before we drilled. There was so much pressure in his toe that one poke of a needle caused it to blow. It immediately went down. We could then see that his toenail is going to fall off in the next couple of days. He really did it good. The picture below is after all the blood came out. This picture doesn't do the blood justice.
In three weeks, Avalee lost her front teeth and now doesn't has a big hole. One of her teeth came out when she was sitting in Primary. She used the string on her dress and it popped right out. I asked her what she did. She told me that Mason climbed under the chair and picked it up and then she just held it until Primary was over.
The Special Olympics came to Idaho this year. This is a floor hockey game and India had just won. We should have gone to more events but the kids were sick.
A couple of weeks ago we went to Engineering Day at Boise State. They had an hour long class on block play. The kids had a great time building with all types of blocks.
Lincoln saw a toy the other day online that he wanted. So he got all of his quarters and stuck them in the cd drive of our Mac. To his dismay the website would not let him buy the toy.
Now he didn't tell us this for days. I was helping him clean his room and asked him where his money went and he told me he had put it in the computer to buy a toy. I had to snicker. I told him it was his responsibility to talk to dad and tell him what he had done. He then started to cry and said "Dad is going to be mad." Nathan got a good laugh out of this but I know is dreading taking the computer apart to get the money out.
This truly makes me laugh because Lincoln is very careful to save his money. I don't know what toy he wanted but it must have been something good.
I posted some post on the family blog but thought I would add pictures to my blog.
For Avalee's birthday we went to Chuckee Cheese. She had a great day and keeps asking if we can go back again someday.
Avalee's favorite game. She had to stomp on the light that lit up.
Avalee's cake and birthday hats.
Her Uncle Roland was thrilled he got pink.
And Daddy was so excited to be a kids again.
Lincoln has a great imagination. I could hear him imagining with a paper airplane and then I heard him screaming. I found him on the floor with blood all over his face. After cleaning him off, I found a nice gash in his forehead. He explained that he swooshed his airplane around and hit the bottom of the kitchen chair. So of we went to get stitches.
He was really good until they started putting the stitches in. At that point, we had to hold him down but they were smart so they put his arms in a pillow case and then wrapped him like a burrito in a blanket. My job was his body, the nurse took his head, and the doctor put in four stitches. Lincoln screamed and screamed. About a minute into it, Avalee said I have to leave. I told her to go out in the hall. I thought for sure she had left for the blood but she told me later that she had to leave because she couldn't handle Lincoln being so sad.
The happy pictures first...This is four days after the stitches came out. Looks pretty good!
This is a great friend who took out the stitches so we didn't have to pay for another trip to the doctor.
I have been trying to be the thrifty shopper and grab hold of all the deals. This week I spent $30 at Albertson's and got this and none of it is generic. Everything was on sale or had a coupon except for the two bags of white chocolate chips which are to put in the cookies I am making this week and freezing for all the December events.
On the bottom of the reciept I saw, you have earned $.15 off you next purchase of gas. My tank in the van was empty so I decided to fill up at Albertson's instead of Costco. At the pump, I was told I had accumulated a discount of $.60 off a gallon. So I filled my tank at $1.37 a gallon. I paid $22 for a tank of case for my van! I am not a frequent Albertson's shopper so somehow my bargain shopping is not only paying off on food but also for gas.
This is a pictures of the kids practicing for winter. We saw snow come out of the sky on Saturday but it melted when it touched the ground.
On Friday, we moved out all of the furniture in our downstairs and moved in tables and chairs. The kids and I went to dinner, a movie, and then bed. Fifteen men brought their computers over and gamed from 7 p.m. until 4 a.m.
These are pictures of the aftermath.
Lincoln is 39 pounds and 41 inches tall. He has gotten taller since last year and lost one pound so he is no longer considered overweight. Personally, I don't think he has ever been overweight. Last year his pants at least stayed up. Now they are constantly falling off!
He had the nurses laughing during the exam. Instead of a star it was a smashed bug. Three lines looked like a ladder. A teacup was a boat. The plus sign was an X. The cirle was a moon. Lincoln has a good imagination and today it came out on the eye exam.
The poor kid did have a rude awakening. Our doctor likes to give Kindergarten shots at 4. So Lincoln got five shots. He only cried a little and when it was all over he looked at the nurse and said "Ouchy, that hurt me." But when we left he told them "thank you".
Pretty cool picture. Avalee blowing huge bubbles. The kids loved the wall of bubbles.
Lincoln putting a cardboard creation in a wind tunnel.
Avalee watchin her name be spelled after the computer randomly shuffled all the letters. 
Avalee's name complete.
Lincoln going up in the swing. The second time he did it. He was able to pull himself up.
Avalee and Lincoln playing being vet's. On the walls were all kinds of x-rays.
I decorated this cake with a baby in one arm and four little kids helping me. It doesn't look too bad for the requested Spiderman cake.
Pin the tail on the horse. Requested by Lincoln. Made by Avalee.
The other party came was to keep the balloon from touching the floor.
Thumbs up for Lincoln's birthday.
The Indian Creek Festival is done every year in Caldwell. They shut down part of the streets in old town Caldwell and have food, music, and fun events.
Cardboard Kayak races. The kayak had to be made of cardboard, duct tape, and paint. This kayak tipped over so if you look carefully you can see how they try to put them together.
Lincoln's mask he made at the kid's art tent.
Avalee carefully making her mask with the help of a volunteer.
Avalee and Lincoln after they got their face painted.
Avalee got a butterfly on one cheek and a flower on the other.
Lincoln's rocketship. He would not hold still so the painter struggled but still did a pretty good job.
Avalee's first day riding the bus. Her favorite part of school is riding the bus and PE.
40 quarts of peaches done with the neighbor. Yes, we process them outside so the house doesn't get hot.
Lincoln's first day of preschool. He is doing very well. The teacher said the only thing he needs to work on his using scissors.
Avalee's cute outfit from her grandma.
Lincoln was told he had to take a nap or we would not get to go to family date night. He normally falls asleep in his bed but we found him a sleep in the hall. For family date night, we went to Winger's. The kids had a great time!
The title summarizes what we have done lately.
We have canned...
3 jars of pickles
6 jars of plum jam
6 jars of peach jam
14 jars of spaghetti sauce
22 jars of peachs plus 20 other jars that went home with a friend
9 jars of applesauce
We will still can salsa, pickles, and apple pie filling.
So far all of these items have come free, so we can't pass them up. We are so blessed to live by the church orchard and to be able to gleen. And of course, the kids love the orchard. They beg to go back and play in between the trees. Next time we are apple picking we will post pictures.
