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. 

First snow of the year at Grandma and Grandpa's

Smoke Shack Birthday Date

Progress

My mom bought me this shirt earlier this year (my favorite color!). But, as soon as I put it on I discovered that I couldn't come close to buttoning it. Bummer!

However, after 2 months of hardcore workouts and other lifestyle changes, I was not only able to button it, but it's loose (and yes. that's a belt on my jeans) Proof that my hard work is slowly paying off!

Don't mind the kid prints and snot on my mirror 

Creative Fire Pottery Studio

A little over a year ago is when Mark gave me my pottery wheel. I finally made an effort to find a studio for firing and guidance. I stopped into Creative Fire to buy some clay and knew right away that it was the setting I'd been looking for. The owner is very friendly and down-to-earth. I went in twice, to have her watch me throw and  me what I was doing wrong/right, and to glean knowledge about how to make more challenging pieces. 

This is one of the workspaces 

These are a few of the pieces that I'm firing this week. 

And these are some of my glazing options (I more took this for my reference). 

A friend of my grandma's is actually giving me a really nice electric kiln but until I can get up to Spooner to get it, this is a great setup. 

A new Christmas Tradition

Every year Mark and I struggle (as I'm sure many parents do) with a good gifting method for our children. A sustainable tradition that

1)will not put us in the poor house

2)not put so much emphasis on gifts

3)will help them to focus on needs/wants as two separate categories 

I grew up in a family where there was an absolute MOUNTAIN of gifts every year. As far I as I know, my parents didn't set a specific gift limit or dollar amount per child. 

Mark grew up getting one or two gifts per child. 

We both have magical, fond memories of Christmas, but we really want to find something middle ground. 

After discussing this with my brilliant friend, Keegan, she told me about this wonderful tradition, that I had never heard of. 

Below is the actual list our kids filled out. They gave us several ideas for each category and then we pick 1 from each section, and one "bonus" gift (something that they didn't ask for) from us. 

I'll let you know how it goes. 

They quickly filled out the "wants" portion, but had more trouble coming up with actual needs. What a great way to demonstrate how many things we want that we don't need at all!

Future Chiropractors?

Weston's Art: "Sailboat on the water"