Daddy Rules!

Sunday evening is the kids favorite time of the week. We pop popcorn, make orange julius and dress up in daddies Isreal garb to act out scripture stories. The kids are acting out Jericho and the walls falling down in the picture. The kids pay such good attention to Nathan when he is telling stories. He has a way with his Old Testament stories. Nathan is a primary teacher in church and he forgets he has sharing time until they remind him 5 min prior to doing it! Everytime I ask the teachers how he did and they say he does a great job! Amazing I think!
This motorcycle is one of the favorite toys of my kids. The sun rises and sets on Nathan for Wells and he cannot get enough of his daddy and the pickups, motorcycles and tractors.

We have some real monkeys in our fam!

This was another of our fun stops when we were in Utah. Nathans climbing gym partner built his own climbing gym in SLC. It was so amazing. The kids had a blast climbing on the numerous walls and kids routes there were. They also loved the blocks in the kids corner. Nate's brother and family came too and had a blast climbing. Nathan loved getting back into climbing and maxed out his muscles. Ellie and Wells did so well being so small on these amazing 42 foot routes. Wells never made it up to the top of the tall ones but loved challenging himself on the kids routes. Ellie was the star of the show. Jeff, Nate's friend who is climbing professional(with an amazing climbing portfolio) said to Nate "Sorry to tell you but Ellie is a better climber than you are." He said she was a natural climber and he would love to see her climb more. She went on three of the tall routes and with no apparent fear of heights. Harrison and I had fun watching. I did go water skiing, a 2 mile family race, and a few other hikes this summer in case you wonder about my sense of adventure. I have lost a little of my fun factor with pregnancy but not all!

Quiet Time!

The kids are down sleeping for a few moments and it is a good time to get a bijillion things done but I would rather catch up with blogs and emails. We have started a Maughan-tesory school here in our home, because it seems to be the best option at present. Nathan is pretty dead set against Ellie going to the school in our little town.(I am of the same opinion but it does seem like a great idea at times.) The only other option was driving four hours a day to get Ellie to a private school... so I thought I would give kindergarten a try! I think it is one of the better places to start because there isn't too much material I can't help her understand. She and Wells are doing really great and I am hanging in there! Ellie,I have to say, is a great joy (more than not) to have around. She is a great go fetch girl. She also helps me trail Harrison cleaning up the constant stream of messes he makes. She feels indispensable to me...and she is right! We were with a group of women picking grapes to juice the other day and she was next to me picking when she said "Mom, I want to go help Elaine do you think you can do with out me." I assured her it was ok for her to go and in her little helpful voice she said again, "Are you REALLY sure you can do without me!" What fun these little ones are. And yes I did get some grape juice bottled and it is good. My family loves it. I did around 72 quarts minus a few broken! You may think that I am quite the little molly homemaker but if you lived where I live I am guessing you would do the same. If only to have something to do and feel accomplished about.
PS I wish I were better about remembering my camera and I could have showed you the gorgeous fields of grapes we were picking in. One of these days I will post pics of our area.