Joseph's new diaper

I think he likes it!

Happy 6th birthday Elijah

Isaac

Running Away... part 2

I just have to say...I love living in Florida! It was in the low 70s today. I love it. I wasn't built for cold weather...

Elijah, sweet boy, always finds flowers for his Mama!
Molly and Ike had a footrace in the SAND... Yes, they have re-done our favorite park and now it is in SAND. Brandy, Stop Laughing!!!

See how windy it was? Very windy...
Molly, sweet child that she is, fixed everyone's lunch while Caleb... well... looks like he's *reading*.... again...

ooohhh... the zip line... much more fun with your big brother pushes you so hard you so flying off the other end and land in SAND...
The slide... need I say more?

Look Nana! See how high I am. Next time you come you can climb up here with me :) And, Yes, they were both yelling 'as you wiiiiiish' as they rolled down the hill! LOL
And a great time was had by all...

THE END

Our "Running Away" Day in pictures

and, of course, dialog... you know me...

Okay, so we headed down the road toward Ocheessee Landing (there's a park there but when we got there I discovered the park is in SAND... and you know how I feel about SAND so we just kept going down the road).
We drove down to the actual landing (boat landing area) and walked up and down the ... 'shoreline'... river side? What would that be? The children found lots of rocks and shells and assorted unidentifiable metal bits. Great fun, no?
And we talked to two men there and the told the children stories of the Great Floods of 93 and 94 (or was it 92 and 93?) and showed them a catfish and what catfish filets look like. Oh and they pointed out a Live Oak that is reportedly over 400 years old and is the oldest Live Oak in Florida. Of course I had the camera the van and forgot to take any pics of part one of our adventure.

Then we headed the other way down Ocheessee Landing Road and drove over to Ocheessee Pond. I did take pics there... so here ya go!

And I took some photos of the children too. It's a very scenic area... even if it is a boat dock ;)

Then we drove back to our house to check on The Smell. It was almost gone but not quite so Molly and I packed a picnic and we headed to the park in Sneads. I remembered that I had told my new friend Traci (she lives in Sneads) that the next time we went to the park I would call her. She, bless her heart, is always up for spontaneous fun so she gathered up her crew and met us there. She and I had so much fun gabbing that I forgot to take any pics of our children playing together. I did take some pics of our children before she got there and I'll put them in the next post :)

burned eggs STINK

Whew... it stinks in my house this morning...
Sam was baking eggshells last night and when they were done he just left them in the oven to cool. Caleb, of course, didn't know that and preheated the oven to 450 this morning. Everyone was walking around trying to figure out what stinks so bad... BINGO.
Gross. Ugh. Yuck. and Nasty! Burned eggs stink SO Bad! ---
Tried opening the windows but it's 46 here... too chilly and it just blew the stink everywhere. Any ideas how we can un-stink our house? HELP!

Okay...
I'm Running Away.

The stench is just awful.

Awful.

We're running away.

I don't know where we are going.

We are just leaving.

Turned the heat off.

Killed the fire.

Opened the windows.

Turned on the ceiling fans.

Surely...SURELY when we come home it won't stink in here. Surely. Right? Right?!

I think we are going to ride around.

Go get a Coke.

When it warms up we may go to the park.

Yes, that's a good idea. It's 56 already and it's supposed to be 71. Yes, we'll go to the park. I can knit. They can run. Yes. That's my plan.

What's New Here?!

We've started a new little online shop... Wanna see what we are doing? Visit the store http://www.hyenacart.com/lewisfamilymercantile

I'd love to know what you think!

We have a new stocking on Tuesday... lots of new stuff going up!

Shorties Number One

These were gonna be longies but as I was knitting away Tony mentioned that they would make neat looking shorts for summer (and if I want to add to them to make them longies this fall then I can ;-) )

I'm going to make him a cute tee shirt with fireworks for this summer!

Finally! Something that fits well!!!

My first wool longies!! -woohoo- These are made from the longies pattern from Little Turtle Knits. Look at the neat pooling! The legs are the same width, I promise, but the pooling makes them look different in size. Here's the front.

Here's the back. They are kinda catty-wumpus looking because they've been worn already!

I'm so excited to have made something Joseph can actually wear!!

First soaker...felted

Remember the 'marine blue' soaker? It was too big so I decided to felt it... and Boy Did I Felt It! It doesn't even begin to fit Joseph now. Sigh. I'm counting it as learning experience... -rolling eyes-

Soaker Finished

Here's the 'denim' soaker finished!

Second Soaker... on my needles now

Started these Monday 12/17.... Paton's Classic Wool in 'denim'... Same pattern as the other soaker but I'm reducing the ribbing by 10 and adding 10 to the body and adding a few garter stitched stripes... you can't really see them in the pic though... This is also a thinner yarn and I'm using a 4.25 instead of a 5.0 so they will be smaller and tighter. -grin-

Joseph in his new soaker

He's so silly! The Junglebook movie was on and he was dancing around and being silly. Sam says little boys always act silly when they are only wearing their underwear!! (Cathy, ya may wanna take a note of that...)

...hears the movie going...
...playing with his belly button while watching JungleBook...
Silly. SiLlY. SILLY!!!

I love him so much!!!

My First Soaker

I finished my first item in wool! This is the soaker pattern from Ottobre. I haven't made the I cord yet for the waist yet. I'll get that done soon and get a picture of Joseph sportin' his new soaker! I started these Wednesday evening and finished them Monday evening.

Last Week... In Review... Part 2

Molly was a server in the wedding and Sarah asked that everyone wear the 'wedding colors' so Molly picked out fabric for a new skirt and I spent Friday sewing for my girls!

Of course MaryVance needed a new dress too... the boys wore navy plaid so she was our 'tie it all together' person with navy fabric with mauve flowers. She picked out the pattern and I Promise it does not look like a 'costume' on the pattern... but it sure does all made up. Oh well... she Loves it anyway!

I'm gonna have to work on the neck though. It's a tad loose. It doesn't look too low-cut until she bends over. I think it's just because she's so thin...

I really intended to have someone take a family pic for us at the wedding... but it was raining outside... So I intended to have someone take a family pic at church yesterday but it was Incredibly Windy and chilly... so...

I just need Lauren to come for a visit... Oh Laaareeen...

Buggy Grain...

Short story... ya wanna see what you do with buggy grain?

I wish I had thought to get pics when they were playing in the backyard with the buggy grain. They had three totes out there and were playing with cars and trucks and little men. They had a blast! And the chickens are now enjoying the buggy grain.

So... for the long story... we always order our wheat from Wheat Montana. Great wheat. Never any problems. But this time we got a "great deal" ordering from Walton Feed so we decided to give them a try. We bought two 50 pound bags and when we opened them this is what we saw:

Yummy... see the chewed up kernels of grain?Cute little boogers... not.

After many fruitless emails back and forth with Walton Feed (who basically "can't do anything" about this... I think we may be nearing a resolution... just a 'heads-up' if you ever plan to order from them...)