So many faces

Amazing

Let me just start by saying I am not proud of how my couch looked and I wish I wasn't about to post the pictures on the Internet. But I am because this cleaning method is so amazing.

:: Before ::

:: After ::

I was shocked by the results. How did I do it? By using a method I discovered on Pinterest, found here. We missed a few spots but, even now with a strict no eating in the living room rule, the couch will be a mess again soon. For now though, I'm not embarrassed to have people over for awhile.

Forgot one

Seems I forgot a big event in my last post. We had our 1st broken bone. According to the 4 year old witnesses, Joel was jumping off the couch at a friend's house. All I heard from the kitchen was, "Emergency! Emergency!" After examination of the bent arm by the rational husband of the house we were visiting, we headed to the doctor. This tough little guy stopped crying by the time we left the neighborhood. He was a champ.

He wore a soft splint for about a week.

The sling lasted about 20 minutes. And the broken bone didn't slow him down at all. He ran down the hall leaving the doctor.

He was thrilled to get an orange cast and proceeded to tell EVERYONE he had an owie. In fact, 4 weeks after he got it off, he still tells people about it.

Catch up

So, if I wait to do individual posts about everything we've done the last 4-5 months, I'll never get this thing updated again. So, here is a mass update. Then I'll update more. At least in theory. :)

1. Kale turned 4 in September. And the Transformer craze kicked into high gear at our house.
2. Kale went to his 1st MSU football game. He is a big bobcat fan and apparently Joel is a grizzly fan. At least he counters all our bobcat cheers with a grizzly cheer. Stinker.
   
3. We took a trip to San Francisco/Oakland. I went early for a Convention for my business and then my awesome husband followed with the kiddos a couple days later. We visited Pete's family in Oakland and enjoyed the California weather. We packed about 4 activities into every day. There is just so much to do there! Oakland Zoo, 3D movie, apples from the backyard, walks, parks, the beach, San Francisco Giants game, ice cream at Fentons (the kids didn't understand why we kept referring to the movie UP) , a joint birthday party and lots of fun in between.
4. Joel turned 2 in October and thoroughly enjoyed having toys all his own. Kale wasn't a big fan of that.
5. Peter shot 2 deer. Joel now asks if everything he is eating is deer.
   
6. We went to Hingham for Thanksgiving. My brother joined us and the house was filled with requests for "Uncle Jonny Muscles" to play monster downstairs. All.the.time. He definitely got his fill of nephew time.
   
7. We hosted Christmas. My parents and sister joined us, as well as Peter's brothers, John and Alex. We had lots of fun and played lots of Settler's of Catan.
   
8. We moved a week after New Year's. Yes, again. We finally found a place that really works for our family and we appreciate it so much more since we had a 6 month stay in a 2 bedroom basement apartment. Every day I feel like I appreciate something new.
   

So that's what has been happening! I probably forgot something important but if I don't publish this now, it might now happen for another 2 weeks. Here's to more updates in 2012!

Alaska

Apparently, blogging is not my specialty. Instead of trying to catch you up completely, I'll just hit the highlights. And only one highlight at this time.
We were blessed to spend almost 3 weeks in Alaska this August. I am so thankful to be married into a family where we can be around each other that long and still like one another. Well, mostly. :) Here is a slide show of a handful of our nearly 400 pictures. Enjoy! *Now with comments! :)

June

Here is a re-cap of the last month in a few pictures. We tried to spend as much time as possible outside while we packed up our house to move across town. More on that soon!

Curls!