Oliver's Half Birthday 7.5!

Oliver turned 7.5 in December. He got all his favorite food goodies, activity choices, and a couple gifts. 

Oliver loves celebrating others so he's always especially excited when it's his turn to receive the adulation. 

Dinner was pizza ( no surprise there:))

And a yummy half-cake

Not two minutes after u took this photo...

the whole top slid off!

No problem! Daddy got creative and made...

a birthday monster! Side note: the cherries were color-free maraschino cherries. (If you're interested message and I can tell you where we found them)

He got a Passports subscription. So far we really like it, especially as an extra curricular activity. 

And some new magic props!

Finnerism

Dinner with the Taylor boys

My friend Keegan and I each had a late-working-husband so we decided to get together and squeeze I dinner. Just barely. We always enjoy ourselves with this crew!

Great lengths

Oliver enjoys being carried in from the car so much that he'll go to great lengths to pretend he's sleeping. 

Yes. He was actually awake. 

We did it!

These boys sure are proud of their artistic accomplishments :-)

Growing up...In Christ -Becky Melby

Head on over to my mother-in-law's blog to check out her great post on "growing up" in Christ. 

Our twins may or may not be pictured in said post :)

http://m.beckymelby.com/Blog.html

Of Monsters And Men with the Keddingtons

It's not too often that we find others who know of bands that we like, let alone like their music. When I mentioned to Holly that Mark had gotten us tickets, she asked if we could go together. We're so glad they decided to join us.

The opening acts were someone named Meg ?(something or other) and Cold War Kids. I only knew a couple Cold War Kids' sons and they really were just mediocre live. However, Monsters were fantastic live! And they had a huge band with really unique instruments. Very fun!

The twins would rather that I didn't workout while they're awake

And this is why exercising at 4:30 am is a necessity:)

Swing Dancing!

Likeness?

Laiken Bellies up

If Laiken heard someone utter the words "Time to eat". 

He's the first one to the table. Ready and waiting for his feast:)

Marks Odd Job

I've always thought that Mark's job was fascinating, exciting and at times, a little dangerous. He fixes, rebuilds, maintains and even drives (not flies) airplanes. Yeah. I'm a little proud of him. I love hearing stories about his day and make a point to remember terms and names of tools and processes so that he and I can have a-somewhat-intelligent conversation after work. But, in the last year or two he's let me in on a few of his projects by taking videos or snapping pictures while he works. 

It's crazy the things they have to do to get to small, awkward places. 

This is a still from a video Mark made for me. It's him working under the rudder pedals. Yes. He's upside down. His head sort of has to slide in and under the pedals. There's just barely enough room. Not the ideal job for someone claustrophobic. Oh, and this particular job can take an hour or two. 

This incident happened while a newbie was supposed to be manning the brakes while Mark gave the plane nearly full throttle (that's a LOT of power). 

Apparently the brakes were not properly depressed, because the plane lunged forward. The greenhorn quickly corrected the mistake by standing on the brakes. 

Mark then noticed that people were starting to come out of a nearby hanger 

to take pictures of the plane. This is what they captured. 

Wild huh! They couldn't have done that for a million dollars. 

All of the craziness makes me even more thankful that he works so hard to provide for our family, day after day. 

Finn's Reading Nook

Thanksgiving - Staggs

Science - Tadpoles Update

These little guys are growing growing growing!

Getting ready for the season

When you have children, something amazing happens. They give you new reasons to love EVERYTHING and holidays are no exception. 

This year, we're decorating earlier than ever before, so as to soak up more holiday than before. 

The boys made this lovely wreath for our backdoor. 

I cut up an unused pallet from the basement. 

And we decked the...well, deck:)

Weston's first professional haircut

This chatty man loved his stylist! He jabberd on and on and she thought he was sweeter than sugar. 

At the end she asked him if he wanted some styling gel in his hair. He said "Yeah. I wanna look like a rockstar."

Our littlest Wisconsinites preparing for the cold

Puppy Love

Since my parents have animals (cats, dogs, horses) our boys get to experience loving those animals without us having to feed or take car of them:)

Weston thought Sampson might be cold so he bundled him up. Look at the size of that dog next to our almost-4-year-old!

Ella is the most tolerant and loving dog that we know.