This weekend my brother was married to a wonderful woman. Viki is a much anticipated addition to my family. Beka and Jared are so excited to have an Aunt. Beka couldn’t wait to call her Aunt Viki.

The ceremony was beautiful. It took place at St. Francis and Father James did an amazing job officiating. Viki was, I think, the most beautiful bride and Joe was, well, he was tall.

Beka had the honor to be their flower girl. A job which she took most seriously. I am very proud of how she handled herself over the whole weekend.

Jared was amazingly patient all weekend. He was on his best behavior and I am so proud of his attitude and helpfulness. Jared also caught the garter

I am very honored to welcome Viki to the family and I wish them many years of happiness.

I am sneaking this picture in at the end in the hopes that mom will not shoot me.

The second part of the week focused on sunflowers. Each child drew a closeup of two sunflowers and colored them with oil pastels. I wish I could have gotten pictures of all of the sunflowers. They were so beautiful. The kids in class really took their time.

(Beka’s picture is on top and Jared’s is on bottom)

We had an exciting week this week. On Monday afternoon, Beka was trying to walk the dog. Well, Kahla went one way and Beka went the other. Beka bruised her foot pretty badly but it wasn’t broken. She is still limping a little, but she is much better. The unintended effect of the injury was a lot of down time on Tuesday and Wednesday. By Wednesday night, Jared was getting a feral look in his eyes. I knew if I did not get him some exercise and outside time I was going to regret it. So Thursday and Friday afternoons were spent at playgrounds around town giving Jared plenty of time to run and play. I played frisbee, soccer, and sharks and minnows. I think I was more tired than Jared, but at least the feral look was gone.

Now, you might wonder what Beka was doing while Jared and I were playing. Beka has been wanting to cross-stitch for awhile now. So I bought her a little stamped cross-stitch kit where you make a whale. It was very travel friendly and kept Beka occupied for hours.

The finished product doesn’t look too bad either.

Sidenote: Jared also lost one of his front teeth on Friday. So hearing him say oil pastels all weekend was hilarious

A few months ago, our church asked for donations of books. That donation process got me thinking about what our bookshelf and books say about us and what we enjoy reading. Our bookshelf is eclectic to say the least. The top picture is of our bookshelf and if you really look at it you see anything from Dr. Seuss to Harry Potter to Radioisotopes to Chronicles of Narnia. I have a whole shelf full of my comfort reads (the books I go to when I just need a break from real life.) Those comfort read include romance, urban fantasy, and historical. We donated 60 children’s books to the church and I still have three shelves full of books for the kids and that doesn’t include the box of books from my childhood that is hiding in the closet.

You might say my bookshelf shows that I have a tiny addiction to books. I read almost anything I can get my hands on. And gradually, I am passing this addiction onto my children. Beka has discovered Bunnicula by James Howe and Jared loves Captain Underpants. For the most part, I don’t care what the kids are reading as long as it is kid-appropriate. I don’t really care for some of the humor in Captain Underpants, but that is the main reason why Jared likes it. And he is reading and enjoying it! I never want Beka and Jared to feel like reading is something to be suffered through. I want them to anticipate getting to read something.

Because I don’t keep a lot of things, I am sometimes mystified by my children. Beka has a collection of feathers, coins, rocks, and miscellaneous other things. Jared collects rocks, pokemon cards, bakugan cards, and I am sure some other things. The point is the kids like to keep things around them all the time. They are neat about it so it doesn’t really bother me, but I also don’t understand it. I just don’t get.

Recently, though I had to draw a line at the collections. We were eating fried chicken at supper and at the exact same time both children asked if they could keep their chicken bones. No reason, they didn’t want to DO anything with them. They just wanted to keep them. My answer was "EWWWWW and NO".

Our Alien pumpkin

We had a great Halloween. Andrew’s parents came over and ate supper with us so they could see the kids in costume. Beka and Jared had been excited about trick or treating all day. They were determined to walk the whole neighborhood this year. They ended up walking about half of it, but I think they came home with more candy than what I gave out and they had an amazing time.

Beka was a clown and she painted her shirt herself. She could not find a costume she liked, so we invented one.

Jared wanted to be something scary this year. He picked Frankenstein mostly because whenever he talked or walked the chest lit up and his heart glowed. He thought it was the best thing ever.