Well, this isn't working.

Health issues equal blogging issues. Instead of being excited to post every day, I can go days before I realize that I haven't even *thought* of posting.

So many pictures, waiting to be posted. Most of them never will be - catch-up isn't really my style.

I will leave you with these pictures of Halloween - pictures snapped quickly of our little fairies (and a ghost cousin) and a little Peter Pan. Wish I had better pictures of the costumes, but my camera appears to be off-kilter and most pictures come out fuzzy, so we take what we can get.



And these pictures of our favorite Halloween crafts.

Stiff Fabric Ghosts

Crow puppets.

And this - the most important thing. Do you remember my sister? She used to look like this.

Now she looks like this.

And there was much rejoicing. (And no small amount of baby lust.)

About that piano ...

My grandma was looking for someone in the family to take her piano and promise to keep it in the family. I've been looking for a piano for around eight years. It was a good match.

My grandma is 92 years old and her mother got this piano, used, right before my grandma was born.

The problem, once the 'who' had been solved, became 'how'. My grandma and grandpa had moved this piano from Wyoming to their house in Idaho while the house was being built. The room it was in had literally been built around the piano and they'd never planned to move the piano.

Matt took the door frame off of the piano room and it barely squeaked through that door, but then this happened.

Yeah. That.

Turns out that he had to take the door frame off of the closet across the hall. That gave us enough room to get it out of the room with 1/8 of an inch of clearance. Once it was in the hall, it was nearly smooth sailing.

To get it out to the truch, the garage door had to be held open by someone standing in the bathroom - which was me.

"Don't worry," my dad said. "You have running water and a toilet." Har de har har.

Some of my dad's neighbors came over to lift the very solidly made piano.

My dad supervised.

That was a heavy piano.



So now it's home, along with some sheet music that my grandmother insisted came with the piano and is nearly as old as it.

I'm so happy to finally have a piano in my home.

I'll never play Flight of the Bumblebee as well as my mom, but I hope my kids will associate music with their childhood nonetheless.

Soaking in our visitors.

My cousin came to visit us last week and when she left a few days later, she let us keep a few of her kids for a few more days. We'll be taking them home tomorrow, but the kids and I are loving having the company.

Yesterday was snowy still. I thought it would melt quickly as most early snowstorms do, but it's stuck around for two days. It should be all gone by tomorrow.

But yesterday there were snow angels to make.

In the first week of October, in case you needed to be reminded.

There were snow pies to be made and cut up.

And pony rides, of course.

Today there was an art project (I'll post about it later), and sewing, and lots of checking on eggs.

There was homemade ice-cream which was a hit. Even with the cool kid.

Who has declared that he shall go by 'Andrew' on this blog. So meet Andrew.

There was lots of dress-up.









Then a four-wheeler ride and lots more cousin play. Long, full days.

Keeping busy.

We have two of my cousin's kids staying with us for a few days, happy to be here and be able to get in lots of horse riding and country play in our beautiful fall weather. About that .... We've had to find ways to entertain ourselves indoors today, what with our freak winter storm and all.

First order of business was Gardenopoly.



After that game was finished, we made some monsters.



I set them up with the tools, told them the basic steps, and turned them loose.

Then they turned on me and I had to stitch some of them together. Not Jay's - she did most of that herself - but Hannah and Jay's brother needed some stitching help.

This batch turned out cute also. I'm wondering if these little monsters ever *don't* turn out.

(Hannah's)

(Jay's brother's - he has yet to pick a moniker for this blog)

(And Jay's. This one may be my favorite out of all of the monsters we've made.)

After monsters, there were board games. Guess Who, Dragon's Journey, Memory. Computer games. Reading.

Feeding baby calves.

Another game of Gardenopoly. Such a cute take on Monopoly. They hit a lot of gardening stuff just right - for example, to get the money gathering in the middle of the board, you have to land on the 'Free Compost' space. Every gardener knows how much compost is worth ...

Also, the pieces that you move are too cute for words - a gnome, a worm, a ladybug.

One thing I've learned since they've been here - a nine-year-old boy cannot sit still.

Then a dancing show that both Matt and I had to participate in.

Gray was my partner and after our dance he wouldn't stay off the dance floor, much to the frustration of the next dancers.

Jay was Ains' favorite partner.

Then a movie (The Last Unicorn) and to bed. For me, too.

We're on our way.

Heading to my Grandma's house to bring home a family heirloom. Very excited about this.

It's a four and a half hour trip, so we've got to stay busy.

We'll see if we make it there in one piece. Psychologically speaking.

We have a deal,

my sister and I.

One week I go over to her house and we do a project.

The next week, she comes over to my house and we do a project.

Sometimes we deep clean a room,

sometimes we work on a craft that needs to be finished,

sometimes it's just housework that one of us is drowning in.

This week it was canning pears at her house.

But it's while the two of us are working

(and taking tiny breaks every now and then to care for children),

it's then that the best stuff happens.

Our kids are becoming the best of friends.

Yesterday ... Today.

Was too tired last night to post much, so here's our day yesterday.

The girls woke up and immediately started playing with their cats and rats.

Cats can be a bother at breakfast, though.

It was 35 degrees Fahrenheit early in the morning. It was 47 degrees when the girls were ready to go outside. They chose to stay inside, so we read for two hours.

Hannah even took a turn reading to Gray.

I've had these tactile type of books for both my girls, and they've liked them ok, but they are essential for Gray. I've doubled the number of books with interesting textures since he's started showing interest - he loves them.

Sometimes they even require getting up close.

When it was warm enough, the girls went out to the trampoline to play - with the cats and rats of course.
It was a game with rules to complicated for me to understand. Two rules I did get were 'If you jump on a rat, you have to sit down for an hour.' and 'If you jump on a cat it becomes rat protection for the next rat you jump on.'

Then cousins (different cousins than the day before) came over to play. All of the kids got two pony rides. One in the afternoon without saddles and a much, much longer one later in the evening with saddles. Very exciting stuff.

Lots of cousin play. My kids see these cousins every time they come to Grandma's house and think of them as an essential part of the visit.

Popsicles are essential.

That's as close to 'sit down to eat your popsicles' as you're going to get four kids.

Then, as a bonus, the cousins spent the night! So this morning they've watched some PBS (Sesame Street is not as good as I remember, but the song still makes me happy.) Now they're playing Bambino Dino, Harvest Time, and Granny's House. It's cold outside.