This is my life

This winter season we have been rather healthy. Sure we had the runny noses and we did get some weird form of the flu that knocked us out for three weeks but other than that we have been fine.  So imagine my surprise when not one of the oh so many kids in my household -  but the DOG - gets Pink Eye.  I didn't even know that dogs could get pink eye and what's worse is that the vet told me that it is contagious to humans.  If you have ever had to put pink eye drops in an angry toddler's eyes imagine trying to drop them into the swollen and shut eyes of a stubborn, overweight and very privileged  dachshund.  It is nearly impossible - let me tell you.  So Oscar has been relegated to the mud room until said pink eye clears up to room with the sick CHICKEN.  - Don't ask...

So my mom has requested that I send her a recent photo of me and the babies

I swear this was the best I could do:

Christmas morning chaos

What's on my needles...

I am finally making some progress on the mittens that were supposed to be a Christmas gift - oh well - They will be ready for the NEXT snow storm...

I have been having a lot of fun with felted bags - this "elephant foot" bag came out beautiful - it is also a late Christmas gift.  It is a Noni pattern and I want to make the "Dr Seuss" bag next.  It would have red and white stripes with black feathers on top.  

My next project - SOCKS! - I really want to learn to make socks.  I cannot think of anything more luxurious and homey than a hand knit pair of socks made to fit your specific foot measurements.   I am a bit intimidated by the patterns but have been told that they are actually easy once you get the hang of them. 

I love my backyard

This is a photo taken from my kitchen window

Snow Day Today

We woke up to 3-4 inches on the ground. It was beautiful, cold and sunny. The perfect day to stay home and play. It was fantastic.

Hmmmm

Okay - so I was having one of those crappy mommy days - until I saw this:





I don't know what to say except that now this song (and Mr. T's shorts) are burned into my memory forever...

A wild last few weeks

Ever since the Thanksgiving from HELL in 2005 I have refused to make a Turkey. For those of you who may not know - that was the year we had internet strangers over for dinner and I got the stomach flu. Bad combination...
Anywho - Rich, not wanting to sacrifice the tradition of turkey - really, a spiral ham would do just fine - has since then been the one to cook the turkey. Each year his turkey has gotten better and better - and I think he likes the bragging rights.



Thanksgiving morning - Rich and the kids did a 5k with Gannon's time only 26.42 - wow



Micah didn't get to run because she has a broken foot - yet again... She is quick to point out however that her boot looks exactly like Bella's in the Twilight movie.


It irritates me that she never wears socks with her boot - see - you can see her orange toenails if you look closely.

Our Fiber Adventures Continue

So the knitting thing has been going great. Most of us have moved on from garter stitch... Gannon just finished the body of a fabulous Hogwarts scarf from the first Harry Potter movie- he just has to block it. Eli is working on a U of O scarf for his grandpa Jones - Krya on a ribbed one for Grandma Pike. Micah has made a hat and scarf set, a set of squares for a group afghan and recently got a beautiful skein of kid mohair haze with which she is making a very sophisticated wrap. Maybe she'll let me borrow it sometime... I made a beautiful cashmere vest for the baby which just just may fit him NEXT Christmas and have been having a lot of fun making felted bags - watch out one may be heading your way this Christmas season...

This all brings us to our next adventure... spinning!

A friend has graciously lent us her spinning wheel and we are learning the ancient art of spinning wool. I found a local artist who hand paints roving - the stuff is so absolutely beautiful that it feels almost sacrilegious for me to mangle it in my lame attempts to spin it into usable yarn.



But I'll keep on trying and see what happens - thank goodness for youtube and the library!

Pumpkin Carving

Micah's Piano Students

Micah held her first piano recital for her students. She only has two. That is all I let her take on as she is so busy. She is turning out to be such a good little teacher and her students are doing really well

Pics from the Washington IronMan

On our way to Washington we took just the baby - talk about traveling light... It was amazing how "free" we felt with just 1 little kiddo. I think that the baby really enjoyed the one on one time too.




The race started early and the water - according to those foolish enough to jump in was COLD! Rich had a great swim time - just over an hour for 2.4 miles

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The bike portion was full of hills but beautiful. Rich biked 112 miles and climbed over 4,400 miles in hills.


The run was a full 26.2 mile marathon and it was the only part that I was worried about but Rich did great. He was chipper and joking the whole way.

He did it!

Congratulations to my wonderful man - He just finished a full iron distance triathlon - 2 mile swim, 112 mile bike and a 26.2 mile marathon. Way to go baby!

So...

So we are entering a new chapter in our lives - Rich and I left all the kids except the baby home so that we could go on a road trip. How cool is that. We drove up to Washington and the views were amazing. So different from the lush green of Oregon. It is also just so cool that after 15 and a half years of marriage we didn't run out of things to talk about our entire trip. We didn't even turn on the raidio
I'll post pics later.

Ugggh!

So I bravely took 7 kids to the pool yesterday where I sat for two hours in the kiddie pool - aka the "pee pool" - with about 20 toddlers.
This morning 4 kids are sick.
I really need a maid and a nanny.
Oh and I could use my own personal trainer...

Saying good-bye to Summer

I can't believe that Summer is almost over. Technically Fall doesn't begin until Sept. 22 but once September is here and school starts Summer is over. We have one last trip planned and maybe this week we will sneak back to the beach before the rainy season starts in earnest.

See - I've been posting more

So I have had a few days of playing with the blog and keeping it up to date. I often resolve to post more regularly on the blog - we shall see...
I added a link to many of the blogs of friends and family. I think that it is a very cool gadget. I really like it when I stumble upon a blog of a long lost acquaintance and get to read all about what they have been up to for the last decade or so. I recently did just that - I clicked on a random link on the Texas Andersons blog and up popped a woman from my single's ward from 20 years ago - how fun is that!

It's good to have friends...

My friend Sylvia from Grammar school is here visiting for a couple of days. We haven't seen each other in more than eight years but it is great how we are still the same. Still laughing and rolling our eyes about the same things - it is good to have friends who knew you back when...

Summer Project - Knitting

The kids have been after me to teach them how to knit for over a year now. Having no knitting experience myself - we have been struggling with hand me down needles and scraps of yarn, Finally my friend Sue suggested that I just bite the bullet and buy the good stuff at the local (rather expensive) knit shop. Let me tell you there is a difference - Having the right yarn with the right needles made the experience so much more fun. The kids have all made scarves for winter and are working on hats and mittens. Gannon and Kyra are knitting stuffed animals for Hannah's birthday.
This weekend the kids even made their own knitting needles by sanding and sharpening dowels and making funky end caps out of sculpy. I really want to find some skeins of raw wool so that we can dye it ourselves. I have read that kool-aid makes fabulous colors of yarn. If we keep this up we will be spinning and shearing our own sheep - hmmm how is that for a homeschool project...

My knitting research led me to this interesting pattern:



http://www.knitty.com/ISSUEwinter04/PATTwomb.html

Yup - that's right a womb.
You know - the homeschool mom in me thought hmmmm.... might be a great way to weave in a lesson on human anatomy...

Okay - okay...

So in the last 2 weeks I have had 5 different people come up to me and out of the blue complain that I have not updated my blog in the last few months. I didn't even know that 5 people read our blog. Who knew! So okay - okay - I'll work on it - but no promises - Do you realize how many kids I have?

Hey - she's kid #5

Kyra

I just love this photo of Kyra. This is so much her personality.

This is how I feel most mornings...

This is how I feel most mornings ... slightly off kilter, babies screaming, kids practicing pianos - flutes - trombones - guitars- DRUMS... (what were we thinking?) The chaos is amazing with 7 kids in the house but there is always something fun to do and truth be told... I like the chaos.

Weekend with the cousins

This past Mother's day weekend the kids got to spend time with the "other" Joneses.

This baby is getting way too big

So the baby is now 4 1/2 months old and sorta sleeping through the night... He is almost 20 lbs! and is wearing 12 month size everything. He has blown through all of the clothes that I bought him. He is a cutie.


Have you ever seen such a beautiful baby?

Jesi's Birthday

We celebrated Jesi's 19th birthday with cake, balloons and ice cream - yummy!