According to the Boys

Holy Cow... I wish I was truly surprised that these photos date back to November and it is now January... but I'm not. I am not a good juggler, and I can't even pretend to be...all I can ask is forgiveness :) Luckily, the shed has improved quite a bit from this picture here. It still isn't close to being finished, but we have done a lot of work still.

I can say the same for my veggies here too :) They were just little bitty seedlings here, and I have actually eaten some green beans already.

I've had a lot of fun growing things... have a lot to learn, but I do like it already. 

My lizard tamers here love chasing these little critters around. I'm surprised word hasn't gotten around by all the tail-less lizards to stay away, but they are still everywhere. Joss loves to catch them and my boys and the boys next door 'train them'.

They put them on their shirts and arms and bellies and 'teach them' tricks :) I'm not really sure what happens to the lizards, but they go into almost a coma-like state and just freeze on the spot. Which works well for all the boys because then you get a friendly little lizard like this one here with Joss. He's so handsome! And I'm not talking about the lizard ;)

These lizards are like our very own little pets! And we don't even have to feed them :)

Here's another shot of my garden "before"... you'll see some 'after' soon.

I can't help but want to grab my paper bag and take some deep breaths when I see sights like this. Which is all the time this time of year. It's great because it means we are busy, but it so stresses me out to see all the clutter and gear and STUFF everywhere!

I asked daddy to snap a few shots of us making play-doh in school one morning. I really need to set up my camera one morning while we're doing school work to just get some shots of us because it really is a sweet time (most of the time).

Of course, I wish I was all dolled up and looking cute like most little school teachers are, but what can I do?? :)

Happy Boys=Happy Mommy!

Hands-on schooling...this is what it is all about and I love moments like these!

Emit found it so funny this day that he had on three pairs of sunglasses.

My cool little dude :)

Somehow this is the only photo I took on Thanksgiving Day. It always gets crazy, but I have to get a good shot at some point on turkey day. We had a great evening with a few of our friends instead of doing the whole big group this year. The food was yummy and the boys loved having everyone over to play outside at night. They refer to Thanksgiving all year long as the 'Party in the driveway when we get to play when it gets dark.'

Since the day we went on our Home Hunt and the boys took lots of pictures, they have been fascinated with taking pictures...of everything :) Joss got a camera for his b-day...but I'm getting ahead of the blog here. This was just an afternoon stroll to Darville's and they wanted to take some pics.

Photo by Joss

On this particular walk, I had to tell Joss that my mom and dad's dog, Buddy had died. It was so sad, and I hated to have to tell him because he truly loved that dog. We talked, we cried, we prayed, we talked some more and then we kept on walking. He took more pictures and just needed some time to process.

Photo by Joss

Daddy was on his way back to the house when we reached the end of our road.

Photo by Joss

It is entertaining to me to see their perspectives on things :) They get so excited when they get us in a shot.

Photo by Joss

The deal was that when we got to Darville's (our lumber store), Emit would get a turn with the camera. It kept them entertained very well in the store in the stroller.

Photo by Emit

I always worry about stores and places around here getting the wrong idea if I go in taking pictures to post, but I also would love to share it, so this was great :) They boys snapped some pics while I was getting quotes and ideas for some projects. So this is our hardware store (in a nutshell).

Photo by Emit

The rest of this day was pretty sad for Joss and he was very sad about Buddy. We talked a lot about Buddy and Heaven. He kept telling me he was ready to go to Heaven to see Buddy and that we all needed to go right now. I told him he couldn't go without me. It is sort of convicting to me because God wants us to have child-like faith. We should all be that excited to go to Heaven and join our Creator and wake up each morning asking if its time to go yet.

Emit has a hard time putting on his helmet by himself, so often he'll get us to put it on and the he just keeps it on for a long time while he's playing. Honestly, it is actually good for him to have it on because he tends to be a little on the clumsy side. I say that with all the love a momma can give. Poor baby can trip on his own shadow.

Even Super Heroes could use a little extra safety when 'saving the world'! :) And trust me.. the helmet has saved his little head so many times.

FINALLY, I'm getting to our visitors that came in November. Just after Thanksgiving, Elliott and Erin came to visit. They came bearing gifts of course! Here they are giving the boys their new Angry Birds t-shirts, and you can see from their expressions that they were a big hit :)

These pictures aren't the best quality, but they capture a really important moment for these boys. This is when Elliott & Erin gave the boys their X-Box game "Lego Indian Jones". Oh.My.Goodness....they are obsessed with this game. We really have to limit the time they get to play it because they would play it all day long if I let them.

The water was pretty cloudy for a while around this time, but we still wanted to visit our turtle friends :)

On this particular day, this little shark was hanging around. I'm pretty sure there may have been two actually, but this was the clearest photo I could get. I haven't seen them since.

It's crazy how this beach is only 2 minutes from our house, but we don't get down here everyday. Work, school, sheds, LIFE just gets going and the next thing we know it has been a while.

Joss & Emit always get excited when folks come to visit...Fresh Meat :)

Notice the sand spit back here behind Erin and the boys? They have filled in the sand and given that little beach shack more foundation. The last couple of storms have eroded the beach to the edge of the shack. PS-- I love the posture Joss has here :) He's used to having a camera around, don't you think?

Elliott showing the boys how to make sand balls.

And the boys were showing how they draw hearts and letters in the sand. :)

More coming soon if all goes well...