Fall Ball

Here is a picture of Anthony tonight getting ready for Fall Ball.

Here are the flowers. He picked them out himself and he was never so stressed out about making a decision.

Happy Birthday Jessica

Hard to believe that you are already 18.
Have a great birthday and we will see you soon.

The Holiday Season

I have officially skipped Thanksgiving and moved on to Christmas. I have some Christmas decorations up, Christmas letter is done and presents for out of town relatives completed. I think some of it has to do with our early snow fall this year. Something about the snow just feels like Christmas. In fact, we are supposed to get a couple of inches tonight.

Steve went back to work full time today. It is an adjustment for both him and us. We have gotten used to having him around. Here is a picture from the fund raiser that Steve took part in at our church. It was a murder mystery dinner, where we the guest had to solve the crime. It was a huge success and sold out. Steve played the part of Cole Conway, big time bookie. Here is some of the cast below.


A quick homeschooling update: Jason has doubled his reading level in just 2 months. This news came today from the teacher who is working with him an hour a day. She has a new program that really drills home the sight words and I have been working on the phonics part of it. In a few weeks we will both be working on phonics. She and I have been working very close together to see if we can figure out what is going on. I am so excited for him that things seem to be working.

Veterans Day Parade:
It was so cold that day. We hung out in front of a car dealer to watch the parade go by. Anthony is checking out the new trucks and dreaming a little bit.




Here comes the parade.

Jason and the cub scouts are first.

Next the Girlscouts


And for my all time favorite entry in the parade:

Halloween and other stuff

Happy Veterans Day. I want to thank those solders who fight for our freedom. Today as we head off to the annual Veterans Day parade that our little town has I will do as Megan suggested. We will personally thank the veterans that we see there today.

Since I have mentioned the parade, it is cold and looks like it's going to snow. The perfect day for a parade. Both Jason, with Cub Scouts and Megan with Girl Scouts will be in it. So that leaves Anthony and I to cheer from the sides and take pictures, of course.

It has been crazy here with so much going on that I have not posted any Halloween pictures. So here they are.

First off, the Pumpkin patch.

Megan trying to pick the perfect pumpkin.

Here it is


Jason and his. Can you believe he won't stop and smile for the camera.
He is actually yelling to Anthony, "HELP!!"

Anthony and his pumpkin, of course he never needs any help.

Well, except when he is carrying candy around fellow football/wrestlers.

To be fair, the kid who took him down has 50lbs on Anthony. The other kid standing is stealing Anthonys candy. The kid in the blue hat is on Anthonys baseball team. Because I am me and the kid taking Anthonys candy runs the high school tv system. This picture will be making it to Tiger TV. Poor Anthony.

Halloween night.
It started with trick or treating downtown. The downtown area shuts down and hands out candy to the kids. Then Megan headed off with her friends and Anthony spent the evening with his girl friend and family. Steve and Jason decided to trick or treat till they dropped. First off to the college dorms, then the high school for the carnival and finally around town for the old fashion knocking on doors. I think the kid came home with 40lbs of candy.

Jason was a vampire and Megan the grim reaper. You can't see it in the picture but under her mask the eyes light up red. Very creepy.


I have lots going on in the next week. We just finalized plans to spend Thanksgiving with our families this year. We are very excited. Of course there will be lots of pictures to share.

Home School Update

Yesterday, for a science project Jason took mine and his finger prints. To see how each finger print is different he used a magnifying glass. He studied the differences then set the paper on fire. On purpose, of course.

All in the name of Science.

Homecoming Week

It is Homecoming week here. For those of you who do not live in a small town let me set the stage for you. First we have the parade. Nothing fancy, just the football players and other fall sports teams walking down our main street. In the football players case, they will load the back of trucks up as full as possible and drive. I am amazed each year that someone doesn't get seriously hurt. The band will be there, cheerleaders and other clubs from the high school. Followed by the big bon fire in the parking lot of the school and then of course the game on Friday night.

Our high school has a dance right after the game but it's not the traditional Homecoming dance that most schools have. They have a big formal dance in November instead. So tonight we will bundle up as warm as possible and go cheer for the high school. Keeping our fingers crossed that we will have a win on Friday night.

Here are some pictures from last nights game. They lost but it was a great game. Typical fall weather for Eastern Oregon. Snowing and very very cold.

Rocket Launch

Jason got to launch rockets with his cub scout pack today. So very cool.

Here they are getting the rocket ready. The pack has spent the last couple of meetings building a painting their rockets.




The first launch


Getting it ready for the next launch

Jason was able to launch 4 times. Here he is getting ready for the last launch.

This is the last time we saw this rocket.

edited to add: the rocket was found about half a mile away.