What We've Been Up To

We're in between visitors. My family left last week, and our bestest friends from Virginia are going to visit this weekend. We are so excited to have them. Meanwhile, here are some pictures of what we've been up to.

Daniel's Halloween costume is "under construction"
Daniel is going to be a backhoe loader driver.

Spray Painting the Backhoe Loader

We visited the aquarium

The turtle is getting a "bath" from the scuba diver.
Daniel was fascinated by the scuba divers.
Bedtime stories now include scuba divers.

We started to rake leaves.
Our "piles" aren't so much piles anymore.
We had a fun afternoon running and jumping in the piles.

It rains leaves under this tree!

Family Visit

I had such a hard time deciding which pictures to post of my family's visit. We took tons of pictures! Hopefully this small sampling will help us remember all the good times. We saw so many neat things while they were here, but my favorite part was just hanging out with the whole gang.

Old North Church

Head of the Charles Regatta

Mrs. Mallard with J,K,L,M,N,O,P,Q...ack

All of us inside one of the Holocaust memorials

Lunch at the oldest restaurant in the United States...The Union Oyster House.
We had clam chowder and baked beans...very Bostonish

Old North Church...imagine what sorts of things you could get away with at church nowadays if the pews were really that closed in!

When Grandpa Pickett comes to visit, Daniel gets to eat Lucky Charms for breakfast and hot dogs for lunch. When Grandpa Hahn comes, we have super nutri-packed smoothies for breakfast and fresh tomatoes on rye bread for lunch. Normally, Daniel has oatmeal for breakfast and peanut butter and jelly for lunch.

James is thinking "Ah....Mom..."

That is it...Plymouth rock...the real McCoy...kind of small.

On the "Mayflower"
Daniel was convinced it was a real pirate ship.


Captain Jack

This little guy was by far the cutest thing we saw on the Boston Duck tour.

Old North Bridge. Joan is totally modelish and Daniel is wondering where he can get some rocks to throw into the river.

This picture was just too cute to not put up.
Although our boys are sitting on what is the representative animal for the Democratic party, we are not voting that way.
I can't say much for people who pick a donkey to represent them.
And we all know a synonym for donkey!

Climbing up the Bunker Hill Monument.
Joan took this picture.
That is half of my husbands patootie.
Hmmmmmm.

Mmmmmmm, pastries in the Public Garden


"Mom, are we done yet?!?!?!"

The End

Gone Green

Our house was built in the 1950's. Our furnace/boiler appear to be from the 1950's as well. Being native Texans and knowing we were going to have to survive a Boston winter, we decided to replace our old oil furnace with a new natural gas furnace. We made our decision and paid the down payment for everything 2 months ago. At the time we calculated out how much fuel we would need until the new furnace was put in. We have been extremely careful in the amount of hot water we have used and haven't turned the heat on at all

Well, last Friday, "the beast" ran out of oil. So, we sponge bathed while my family was here (just like times on my mission to Brazil...a third world country...we live in MA!). Christian fed "the beast" some diesel fuel and that seemed to satisfy its hunger, but I'm afraid the diesel fuel was a mere appetizer. We are having a difficult time finding an oil supplier who will put less than 100 gallons of oil in "the beast" as we wait out the time it takes for the Massachusetts' bureaucracy to sign all the papers and give the ok to get working on things.

The Beast I

The Beast II

So, we've gone green. It is only -9887263487659830987 degrees in our house. There is no end in sight. The full fledged New England winter is approaching. I'm sure Al Gore's house is nice and toasty warm.

I guess my point in this whole post is...lets not elect a president who is going to turn the whole United States into a bureaucratic mess as things are here. You can't get anything done in this state without having papers pushed around a billion times and having fees added on to everything.

Vote Ron Paul! I know he is technically out of the race, but I'm going to write him in! There, I did my civil duty for the day. Your children will thank me.

Our First Visitors!

My Dad and sister came to visit us over the weekend! I had such a great time with them and my family. I was seriously bummed when they left this morning. The fall days felt so warm with everyone around. Only 61 more days until Park City! I think we are going to make a paper chain.

Stay tuned for photos from the trip.

Catching Up...With Photos...Few Words

We went apple picking with some friends.

The adventure included a hayride pulled by a tractor.


Daniel waved to everyone beauty pageant style.

I ran an all woman's 10k this morning with some friends. It was so fun. I actually pushed the boys. Christian doesn't get Columbus Day off from work, so I brought my cheering squad with me. They both enjoyed being in the race and not watching the race.

We went to Topsfield Fair last week. They had an elephant you could ride. Daniel was not interested in riding the elephant, but he was interested in riding on...

the tractor and backhoe displays.

Sunday morning shoulder rides

General Conference Weekend

General Conference weekend started Friday night with....

Split Pea Soup (warms the body and soul)

After the warm soup, we set up the tent (in our living room because we are afraid of sleeping out in the cold), and made tea light candle smores.


Saturday and Sunday morning, we had some delicious brunches (crepes on Saturday, quiche on Sunday)

Then we all snuggled with blankets on the couch and listened to conference. Even the farm animals and tractor gathered to hear the prophet speak (pictured below). In between sessions on Saturday we played a family kick ball game with some friends and on Sunday went for a walk.

General Conference was such a refreshing break from the routine of life and I found such hope listening to the messages.

In All Our Glory

Monkey See

Monkey Do

David vs. Goliath

1. Draw Goliath


2. Throw rocks at Goliath

3. I don't know where the sword comes in to play, but we had to bring it out. We really "likened the scriptures" on Monday.

One Day....

...all these leaves are going to change colors and fall down (hopefully on my neighbors side)!