not my precious monchhichi!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

don't know what little miss monchhichi did to deserve this... but jack scalped her. gasp! i was horrified. this sort of thing just should not be done to vintage toys from 1974. it's just so wrong.

tractor project, continued. STICKERS!

dan put the finishing touches on the front-end loader... the stickers. wow! what a difference they made! the tractor went from looking GOOD to looking PROFESSIONAL. it is a real beauty.

apples and feet

jack LOVES apples. earlier this year we were able to pick a bunch of apples from the 4 apple trees that came with the Church's new parsonage house. (we have since gobbled them up and i miss those sweet little apples.) jack has been a great influence on me to EAT MORE APPLES!!! i have been letting jack go to the fridge and help himself whenever he wants. most of the time i ask him to get me one, too!

autumn

somehow the blaze of autumn never really happened... it's that weird freeze and snow that i blame. fall does have a nice gloomy wet quality this year that i kind of dig. as long as i don't have to be out there in the misery.:)

oktoberfest, cont.

OKTOBERFEST!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! and i don't even drink.:) i love oktoberfest at ruttger's bay lake lodge in bay lake, mn. it is soooooo fun. craft show, jo jo the balloon guy, juggler, face painter, teddy bear band, and lots of german bands and dancers. oh, and food.:) that's all i bought this year! is that lame?:) don't care. i almost immediately bought this huge caramel apple. then, my mom-in-law bought me a hamburger. then later i bought a double mocha and a huge rice crispy bar. no beer. :) and yet... weeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee ping! i am so buzzed right now you wouldn't want to come near me.:) i promise to post more photos of super awesome people in leiderhosen and troll-like costumes soon. maybe after i knit off this caffeine high. :) and :)!!

stripey hat litho

i lithoed this photo of jack in his new hat and i really liked the outcome. probably the last of the lithos for a while.:) you're probably sick of them already. come on, admit it!

front-end loader

here's a photo of dan washing the front-end loader. it was a lot of hard work in freezing cold weather. i am so proud of my husband. he is amazing! HE IS SO TALENTED. not just because he can wash stuff, because he can fix stuff and other amazing stuff.:)

raspberry blueberry lemon buttermilk scones

yum. yum. yum. the really special ingredients in these scones are the lemon zest in them, and the "sugar in the raw" on top of them. jack and i adore them and are really glad that andy and dan won't have anything to do with them!:) crazy guys! more for us! weeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee! oh, and more for sharing.

goldie rider

i was taking photos of jack's nursery the other day. i got the idea from a "home/family/craft" book i have. the idea is to capture the spaces of your child's childhood. jack kept getting "in the way".:) well, with a son this adorable, i am sure you would get distracted from taking photos of the nursery, too.

baby sleeper

jack is beautiful all the time... but he is REALLY PRECIOUS when he is sleeping.

big tractor

jack's favorite adjective is "big". big cup, big truck, and big tractor. this is a big tractor that my husband painted for someone and did some minor repair work. ALLLL the boys loved playing with this BIG TRACTOR!:)

a litho from a galaxy far, far away...

jack in the star wars tee that was one of his souvenirs from the science museum. this looked really cool when i turned it into a litho. it's like he's using the force.:)

my tomatoes

no more tomatoes in my garden. getting down to the last of the tomatoes ripening in the window sill. i cooked up all the red ones yesterday and put green ones in their place. dan sez, "...weren't these tomatoes red?...". ha ha! like the green ones turned red and then back to green.:) i was amused. he was confused!

loving his brother in his sleep

yesterday jack and i were down in the basement. i was on the internet and jack was playing in andy's room. i looked in on him at one point and he had given up trying to play andy's video games. he was snuggled under andy's covers. when i looked again he was asleep. at 11 in the morn. :) he slept his whole 2 hour nap there. content. loving his brother. probably wishing he was home. so sweet.