Baking with Nana

What a fun day we had making pumpkin bread with Nana! At first it was just me and Janey baking away but soon enough the boys wanted to get involved with all the excitement. They are actually great helpers in the kitchen and Josh especially seems to love to cook. Maybe he can get good enough that I could leave all the cooking to him. I'm sure he might do a better job than his Mom. I, as usual, had my handy dandy camera so I had to document the whole process. I think by the end of our baking even the pumpkin bread was tired of me taking pictures.

Here's some of the fun we had getting from this:

To this:



The boys love to use Nana's sifter!

Loving Photoshop

Playing with Photoshop can consume a lot of time but when you learn something really cool ya just have to play some more. After finally writing my most recent blog I got on MckMama's site and got a great tip on making a collage in Photoshop. Well here it is. That MCKMama is a wealth of information.

Things I am not good at

Okay- so here it is folks. I have found just one more thing in life that I am not very good at----BLOGGING. I may place my blogging abilities down in the basement with my other tried and quickly left behind hobbies such as scuba diving, guitar playing, scrapbooking and sewing. I'm not sure why it's so easy for me to find so many things I am terrible at but not so many that I am excellent at. In any case, I'll just keep trying. For now I'm onto something new and exciting. PHOTOGRAPHY!!! Yes I do love it. It seems to satisfy all the facets of the perfect hobby for me. I can do it right here at home, quickly download pics, edit and print them all in the span of the same day. AHHHH----immediate satisfaction-now that's my kind of hobby. Who needs years of guitar lessons only to be able to strum out Mary Had a Little Lamb. Not me , no sir, I got me a camera and clicka, click, click --- immediate gratification in the form of 500 pictures of my kids. Well, and my neighbors kids and any other person or animal that may come around the cul-de-sac. Anyway, here are a few of my latest snapshots. Hopefully my blogging, along with my photography will get better.

All the boys playing
Luke in the leavesThis is my cute neighbor Lydia

Harvest Time!

Today we made our 2nd annual visit to the "Simply A-maize-ing" corn maze with our friends the Junks. The kids had a blast! There was so much to do they just ran from one end of the farm to the other. Sarah and I could barely keep up. Of course how could two adults possibly keep up with 5 children all under the age of 5. Not easy in any case but especially since Sarah is due with her 3rd little one in just a few weeks and we had to take turns holding Luke so we could each get some pictures. It was all worth it though! The kiddos got to feed chickens, collect eggs, see pigs, cows, geese and all kinds of random yard animals- namely cats and dogs. I think they all want to move to the farm now. The greatest thing is it's only five minutes from our house. What a fantastic way to start off the fall season. I love this time of year!

Our sweet Tim- We will miss you so much!

Today we sadly learned that Paul's brother Tim passed away. It has been one of those awful, this must be a dream type days. Tim was only 39. I have to say he was the absolute funnest, most easy going guy ever. The boys loved him dearly and would constantly ask when Uncle Tim was coming for a visit. I called him the human jungle gym since as soon as he walked in the door the boys just hung on him. I'll never forget that on our wedding day, it was Tim who drove me to the church before the wedding, where I would make the final "wedding day" prep. I've never seen a man so gingerly carry a dress as he did my wedding dress that day. He was my brother too and I am so saddened by the loss. I know that Tim is with the Lord and in that we can rejoice. Telling the kiddos has been very difficult. They don't quite understand the finality of death. They wanted to know when Tim was coming back from heaven so they could play with him. I wish I could say he was coming back tomorrow. We will miss him terribly! His bright smile, infectious laugh and that always a kid at heart personality. We love you Tim! May God hold you tight until we meet again in heaven.

Joshua

Joshua is the lead off hitter for Team Bowman. He'll be 5 in January and I can hardly believe how the time has flown since he was born. Josh is incredibly bright and loves to fix and build things. He is sweet natured and loving-well most of the time except when he and Connor get into a wrestling match over a toy. He is the epitomy of "big brother" and enjoys his role in keeping Connor and Luke straight.

Connor

Connor turned 3 on August 10th. We went to the boys pre-school open house that evening and discovered he needed to be potty trained when he started. My first reaction was WHAT?? School starts in 2 weeks. We got home that evening and thus started the potty training "boot camp." This is how it went. Happy Birthday Connor-You're 3! Let me introduce you to underwear. He didn't have any objections and sat right down on his potty chair. After about 20 minutes of sitting there I told him he'd get the hang of it in no time and he'd "feel" it when he had to go. I asked him "Connor- do you feel anything yet?" He said-"Yes Mommy- I feel like I need to get up now." After much sitting, reading and waiting we had success. He has done great after that and I am AMAZED at how quickly he has gotten the whole pottying thing down. Thank you Lord!

Luke

Our youngest little guy is Luke. He's almost 10 months old and is all over the place. He loves trying to keep up with his big brothers. He has been the happiest, most easy going baby ever!! Since we are thinking Lukie will be our last, I have really savored each and every milestone of his babyhood. They grow up so fast. My little boys won't be little boys forever so I am going to do my best to record these precious memories. Days spent playing with trucks, riding bikes and being pirates, firemen, lion tamers or whatever else they think up. I pray I always have time to play. The laundry can wait & all the dust in the den, for in the blink of an eye my boys will be men.