Oh Boy!

Jacob rolled over this week on three different occasions. He has long legs with a surprising amount of strength, that he uses to push his head against the side of his bassinet for leverage then flips over. He also did it with the boppy...which was against the couch. It is kind of funny to see, but haven't been able to catch it on the camera. He is sleeping much better these days and I am so happy to have two hands again to perform household chores for at least a few hours in the afternoon.

Speaking of my camera, Spencer hid my battery, which was charging on a table in the kitchen. I finally found it yesterday, thus no pictures.... His other antics this week include figuring out how to ride a two wheeled scooter (seriously he's only 2!) washing his hands in the toilet (pulling a "Kate")and belting the hymns in sacrament meeting from the top of his lungs. Oh my little man, he keeps me hoppin!

Maren is set to get her cast off this Tuesday, and is more than ready. Yesterday I watched her hanging from the fence with her arms..obviously she is also ready to start gymnastics this Wednesday as well. She is so excited! She also lost her second tooth at school this week. And has decided that I need to pick her up from the school bus. Of course she decided this without telling me, so Amanda was left running home to get me the day she made this decision, because "Maren would not budge" without me there.

Amanda has chosen to participate in Girl Scouts this year, they are doing projects to learn about and protect water. She loves this, and has eagerly been doing things around our neighborhood to protect water and beautify our stream. She continues to be a good help at the house and I love that she is getting old enough to do a good job with chores. Last week I told the kids that if they got their chores done quickly and without my help I would be able to get out the Halloween decorations and they could help set them out. Amanda totally ate this up, and convinced Maren that if they helped each other it would be easier. They were done within an hour and loved decorating. If only I had such great motivators every week! Any ideas?

Ever since we moved here I have not been fond of our kitchen...it is small by my standards (yes I was spoiled in NC, but the kitchen is where most of my day), and it is sooo old. The cupboards shed sawdust on all my pots, pans, and appliances, there are only two outlets for the whole kitchen, and the floor is this terribly cheap linoleum that when it even gets the slightest bit wet is like a sheet of ice. But the worst part has been my oven. It never has worked well, and therefore I just haven't cooked much. But things started looking up this week. I was finally able to convince the housing people that I needed I new oven, a few days later my microwave broke, so I bought a new bigger one, plus I had ordered some new shelving for my canned goods, which helped my pantry allot. It is not my dream kitchen, but I'll take the improvement. We celebrated with pumpkin bars and fresh bread.