Jackson and Grant have a cottage complete with people and trees in the front yard (no chimney though, that bit the dust...)
Luke's wasn't quite as successful
Jackson is six! He requested a strawberry angel food cake just like Aubrey's (Aubrey wanted a regular angel food cake, but it flopped so I had to be creative). We had no electricity, so Aunt Stacia made it for him.
He has been asking for a "pirate set" for a long time. He was thrilled with this one, and I think all the boys enjoyed assembling it. I had to drag him away from it this morning to make him get ready for school.
This has been our scene for the past three days - it is supposed to get warm enough to melt today. We are praying for a slow melt so the power lines don't go down again. I think we are lucky in that we were only out of power for two days. It sounds like a lot of people will be out for weeks! We don't have any big trees, so we didn't have any damage. Most of the city looks like the aftermath of a tornado with branches down everywhere. More snow is forecast for Friday!
Jerry shot this deer today on some of Dad's land north of Leoti. It sounds like a pretty exciting hunt.
Aubrey's twelfth birthday was yesterday. Can you believe it? It seems like just yesterday we had a beautiful baby girl. Now we have a lovely young lady! I thought I'd share a few pictures:
A look of stunned disbelief - she can't quite believe what's in the box....
already talking to a friend on her new cell phone. She was thrilled and shocked!
Uncle Mick and Aunt Stacia came over to help us celebrate. Uncle Mick was the photographer. We are looking forward to traveling to Leoti in a few days for time with our families this Thanksgiving. We can't wait to see everyone, relax with full tummies, and most of all, give thanks to the One who loves us and blesses us beyond compare. We've compiled a short list of some things we're especially thankful for this Thanksgiving.
I won't tell you who said which item; see if you can figure it out! Okay, on second thought I've edited the post to include the kids' names on their thankful items.
1) Dillon's only thirteen blocks awayShelley has some fun pictures of Aubrey and Bethany on her blog. We celebrated the girls' November birthdays this weekend with a manicure at the mall and a sleepover. They had a lot of fun and even tolerated their brothers very well!
By the way, if you are seeing a pattern here, you're right. It's the lazy way to blog! I'll let Gwen and Shelley do all the work.
http://www.tedshelberning.blogspot.com/
Okay, Gwen succumbed to the guilt and posted pictures from the kids' fun last weekend. Check out her blog at http://www.thewellsfamilyinkansas.blogspot.com/
The kids and I spent last weekend in Leoti. I keep waiting for Gwen to post some pictures from last Saturday on her blog, but she hasn't yet (hint, hint). She has been busy this week, I know. SOOOO.... I'll just say that the kids had a terrific time playing on the farm and seeing who could get the dirtiest and the smelliest. Dad feeds the cattle distiller's grain, which is basically what is left over after the process of making ethanol. (Correct me if I'm wrong, Dad.) For some reason, my children have decided that it is great fun to jump into and roll around in. It's nice and mushy and warm, I guess. Anyway, they sure enjoy it. Dad recently built a new shed to house the feed, and he conveniently made a ledge about half-way up the walls so the kids could stand on it to jump into the grain. How nice of him! After a few hours of that, they come into the house and smell like they've been drenched in yeast or alcohol or something. Gwen, Mom, and I were in her bedroom looking through clothes. Aubrey and Paige wanted to help but we had to kick them out. Way too smelly!
The boys also discovered that clods of gyp will break easily if thrown, so they spent some time smashing them. They then moved on to the scrap iron pile to find some weapons. Luke enjoyed hunting pheasants with Grandpa Bob. He told me on the way to Leoti that he was "eager" to get back to Western Kansas and be around some cattle. On the other hand, he said he'd forgotten that there weren't any trees out there. Guess it doesn't take long!
Aubrey and Paige went to the Majestic in Scott City with Grandpa Bob for a concert put on by Rivers Rutherford and his friends. Rutherford is a country songwriter who has written several songs you've heard a lot on the radio. I think they enjoyed it, but possibly enjoyed the food more. They are growing girls!
We had a nice weekend visiting family - we stopped in at Grandpa Earl and Grandma Lois's briefly, and got to eat breakfast at High Plains with Grandpa Ed & Grandma Kathy. Always a highlight for my kids. They love the food there.
By the way, Luke was very proud of his math grades this week. He's doing well.
Barney loves the kids - he goes to the front door about 2:30 each day and waits until the kids get off the bus (it arrives around 3:25, he doesn't want to be late.) He can hear the bus coming and starts jumping and prancing until they get in the door. What a welcome home! He is officially recovered from his broken leg. The vet removed the pin Tuesday and he is walking much better. As you can see, his favorite activity of all time is sleeping with one of the kids. He has to sleep in his kennel at night, but when I let him out in the morning he immediately runs upstairs to see who's still in bed (usually Aubrey!) He'll jump on the side of the bed until whoever it is wakes up and pulls him up under the covers. What a life!
Luke was able to compete in the Kansas Robotic League's meet at the Cosmosphere on Saturday. I knew nothing about robotic competitions until yesterday - it was a lot of fun to watch! Apparently the robot engines come as a kit from Lego, then you modify it and add features to accomplish specific tasks. The boys create a computer program which tells the robot what to do if it runs into a wall, etc. and then download it to the robot. The picture above is a maze which was timed. Luke's robot was pretty slow, but it did navigate the maze sucessfully! He and his teammate took fourth place in the Capture the Flag event. His slow robot was able to knock down the flags when other robots got stuck in corners. He loved everything about the event, and has plans to modify his robot to climb - one thing it cannot do now!
We spent Friday and Saturday working on the clinic - I painted the adjusting room, Jerry built some storage shelves and cut down a tree. We also got rid of some unsightly furniture and purchased a new cabinet for the adjusting room. Thank goodness for brothers - I KNOW I couldn't have helped Jerry get that cabinet out of the pickup and into the clinic. Mick and Stacia came by to lend some muscle. Jerry and the boys also are trying to kill moles on the property; we have to go back today to see if they bit the dust or not. I had the best of intentions to take pictures of the clinic to post here, but it didn't get done. Look for them soon!
I'm really enjoying the time change today. Moving from the Mountain time zone to the Central time zone was a plus for us since we are now in the same time zone as almost all of our friends and family (although I still catch myself adding or subtracting an hour when I start to make a phone call.... 13 year old habits die hard!) One thing we don't like about Central time is how dark it is in the morning. The kids walk to the bus stop at 7:35 a.m. and it's been dark the past week or so. Yuck! On the other hand, it won't be dark at 4:30 p.m. in December - woohoo!
It's time for me to get ready for church. I've messed around long enough this morning since I had an extra hour that now I'll have to hurry!
The Caped Crusader and Boy Wonder!
Cleopatra, complete with dyed black hair and fake eyelashes!
I accompanied Jackson and his kindergarten class to a Pumpkin Patch in Turon, KS. It was nicely done - there were lots of activities for the kids. the above picture is Sammie, Cody, Jackson, Caleb, and Gavin. Gavin is a handful!! Cody is the boy Jackson plays with the most.
Mrs. Whistler is the aide in his class. The girl on the far right is Taylor, our neighbor. She's a sweet girl.
Most of the class. I think there were two missing from this picture.
There was a race track for tricycles, a big slide, a petting zoo, a maze made out of feed (not nearly as impressive as the corn maze we went to at Buhler), and a scarecrow stuffing station. Jackson was disappointed we didn't get to try the pumpkin cannon - mounted on a fire engine. It was guaranteed to shoot the pumpkins at least 1/4 of a mile (probably not the best idea with 118 kindergartners running around!) These farmers sure had some creative ways to make money from their farm! We did take a hayride out to the pumpkin patch also.
Jackson loves his kindergarten teacher and really enjoys his class. I volunteer every Tuesday morning and try to go along on field trips. I think his teacher is a bit overwhelmed at this point - there are 24 kids in the class - one in a wheelchair, one autistic boy, and one girl who still wears diapers, plus lots of other BUSY little people. It's been fun for me to spend time at the kids' schools and get to know the teachers and other parents.
Aubrey just told me she had a terrific day. What an answer to prayer! I think it's the first "terrific" day since the move. I know there are LOTS of bumps left in the road, but maybe we're finally approaching something like a normal life again. Moving stinks, in case you didn't realize that. Luke asked me the other day how many days you have to live in a house before it feels like home. Of course there are lot of positive things that have happened over the past two months. Maybe the best thing I've noticed is how much better my kids are at playing with each other. It has definitely made us draw closer as a family. We all depended on friends a lot in Syracuse, and suddenly we realize our best friends are family! Anyway, a terrific day for my preteen girl is something to celebrate.
And the dining room is finished as well. The pictures are a little hard to tell color on, but it looks great! The first picture is before (white walls) and the others are after pictures. Hopefully you could tell anyway....
Jackson in his classroom. Note the slumped shoulders - I think he was a little nervous at this point!
First day of KINDERGARTEN!!!
Aubrey getting a comforting hug from Dad. She is pretty apprehensive.
Luke's "cool" pose
Kitchen
Family room
Aubrey's room - the Coke wallpaper will be the first to go!
Backyard
Don't you wish you were here to help?? I'm starting to wonder if it's going to fit in the semi.
The bathroom Jerry just finished remodeling. It's beautiful. Sniff.
Our Syracuse house.
Playing in the very cold Arkansas River. It's a lot warmer (and a lot muddier) here at Syracuse!
Jerry flyfishing on the Arkansas River near Buena Vista.
Inside of the cabin as we get ready to leave :(
Our cabin - "Top of the Stairs". It had a beautiful view of the lake. 
The hikers after a hike around the lake. It took longer than they thought!
Jerry and the boys making peanutbutter balls.
Aubrey takes a break during a basketball game this spring. 
Luke and Taylyr getting ready to perform at the Spring Program. They were a swing-dancing pair.
My kids say this is how I spend all my time. That is so not true! 
Jackson is a tree climbing fool. Of course, he gets stuck occasionally :) 
My friends Cindy and Karin at Cindy's going-away party. I hope to go to visit her in KC this month! 
Jackson and his preschool teacher. He LOVED preschool and really excelled at memorizing Bible verses.
