Benjamin is 13!

10-17-06

Sarah is making chocolate chip cookies for Dad. (We all had some too!)

Here is Sarah having tea under the apple tree. We took this in September. If you want to read about our Tea Times click here.

David's "neutral" colors picture. A monkey hanging upside down from a tree branch.

Sarah is very proud of this hat she is wearing. We started knitting it last winter and finished at the beginning of summer. She did much of the knitting herself.

taken August 25, 2006
Artists at work: working with neutral colors only

Isaac taken 9-4-06 at 42wks

Is he Mr. Personality or what?

Another David trick! Fun with digital cameras.

David's pretty tricky, eh?

The bookcases installed even to the knobs on the cabinet doors. Still a bit more work to do to the floor and around the schoolroom door. But it looks great, and after a few weeks for the paint to cure I can put books in!

Michael and Jon M. work together to move one of five units from the garage to the living room. I should tell you that the reason we have these photos from today on the blog so soon is that both David and Benjamin got digital cameras this past week and have been having a lot of fun with them. So now we can update a whole lot quicker!

Benjamin poses, holding up the wall, along with Michael holding Isaac this morning-Sat. Sept. 16, 2006-.as they wait for Uncle Jon McAuley to arrive. You can see the new door Michael just put in this past week. It is a pocket door and leads to the schoolroom. There is still plastic on each window pane, covered with paint. They will come off soon. Michael has been on vacation starting the 11th and has next week off also.
This approxiamately the same view as the other two photos, looking at the same wall.

Here is the living room before we did anything to it. The previous owners had torn out some smelly fake rock from around the fireplace insert. They put up some sheets on the studs for a temporary fix. We put up panelling (see previous picture) for a temporary fix so we could get a loan on the house.

Panelling was one of the first things Michael did for this room soon after we started work in June of 2005. Sarah enjoyed hamming in many of these pictures. The woodstove on the right was in a different location and Michael moved it out of the way so he could work on the wall behind where it was and on the floor also.

This was the view from the front door last May. The driveway is on the right and a grassy area with apple trees and one plum tree are on the left (out of the picture). Rhododendron, lavender, roses, mint and some kind of mallow (not marshmallow!), lambs ear, are some of the plants in front there.

Finally here are the beginning of the pictures of the house. This was taken last May. The window with the light on is the boys' room. The one right next to it is Mom and Dad's room. Sarah's is directly behind the boys' across the hall. The living room is on the left hand side of the front door in the front and the kitchen behind that. The garage doesn't show in this pictures but is still further left. In between the living room and the garage is the schoolroom.

I hope to enter pictures room by room with before, during and after pix. Some of the rooms haven't changed much and the garage is now quite full where it was quite empty when we moved in!

I finally captured that mischievious look Isaac gets now and then. He is 7 1/2 mo in this picture, under the apple tree in the front yard. At the time of this picture he can stand with legs spread apart and shakily stays a minute or so before he falls kerplop! on his bottom. Now he has taken a few steps. Usually 2 or 3 at a time but I saw him take 6 (tiny ones) and Benjamin saw him take 8!

I'm still working on getting pictures of our house in order and labled and then scannned onto our computer. Then I hope to get some new pix for this blog. Meanwhile if you want to read about some happenings around our place, Mountainstream Acres, see my other blog www.homeschoolblogger.com/imlne/

Dad is giving Isaac a bath, a very fun time for Isaac and a very wet time for Dad and the bathroom floor. Isaac is 6 months.

Here is Sarah at the zoo also. She really enjoyed the pygmy goat. There were flamingos and monkeys and bears pacing back and forth.

Here is David at the zoo near Nana's house. It's only about 5 minutes away and rather small but very fun and doesn't take all day to see. This is the petting part of the zoo;some goats and sheep. We were here in June.

OK, here is Benjamin. 12 yrs old. Out by the pasture. Two pictures. We're on a roll.

Here's David. 8 yrs old last November. Shall we try for Benjamin?