Sixteen

Happy birthday, Jordan! May the Lord bless you and keep you as you continue your journey of manhood.

More Pictures by Shauna

Shauna

Stair Sliding

A few weeks ago the younger ones rediscovered a past-time that we older ones loved when we first moved into this house. Shauna was only a year old when we moved in, so instead of walking down the stairs, she slid. Kayla, Jordan, Nicole and I quickly joined in, and it was an activity that we showed to all of our friends when they came over. It was the number one attraction of our house for several years. Shauna and Kendra showed the four little ones, and they have enjoyed trying out different variations of slides.
Sitting up, laying down, on their stomach and on their back.

Nobody has tried face-first yet, and we are hoping that they don't.

Happy Fortieth!

Daddy turns forty today! Whatever he says, don't let him fool you into thinking that he is getting old. He acts much younger than most of the people his age (maybe it is the ten children:), and he's only about five years older than the couples Nicole and I babysit for. We love you, Daddy!

Shauna's Experiments With Portraits

Civil War Re-enactment

In October we had the opportunity to go to the largest Civil War Re-enactment west of the Mississippi, right in our home-town. We had been several times before, but this time was better for several reasons. Jordan was one of the blacksmiths, showing the visitors old-fashioned skills. While he made fire-pokers and nails, we wandered around visiting the other stations. We talked to the ladies that took care of the soldiers by doing the washing and mending, and Sarah, Erin and Audra got to wash socks with washboards and home-made soap. We also talked to the Navy men, and discovered that not much has changed since the days of the first iron-clad. Then the Navy had good food, no marching, and it deafened the sailors by degrees. Daddy having been in the Navy, he can attest that all that still happens.One of the other high-lights for our musical family was a concert by the 97th Regimental String Band. The violin above is an actual, playable violin made by one of the members of the band. He told us that soldiers often took their instruments with them into the army, and since violins are fragile, it was not uncommon for them to be broken. If just the body of the violin was crushed, a cigar box made a convenient replacement. Kendra playing the violin.

Shauna played "Twinkle, Twinkle," and one of the band members accompanied her on the mandolin.

Apples to Apples (and Applesauce, and Pie Filling...)

Thanks to some friends, we recently were blessed with fresh apples at 17 cents a pound! We ended up getting ninety gallons of apples, entirely filling the trunk of our car, plus some in the back seat. When we brought them home, they covered the couch, the dining table, and the floor of the back entry. Since we brought them home two days before Thanksgiving, we had work to do to have enough room to make and eat the feast on Thursday. Wednesday, thanks to the help of some other friends, we got sixty quarts done up into pie filling and applesauce. There are still many to do, but since apples don't get soft like other fruit they are keeping long enough for us to get to them.

These are the jars for the first day.

All finished (with the first batch)!