Sunday Naps Just Aren't What They Used to Be...

Nothing like a little family nap. On a Sunday afternoon. Yep.

upstaged.

This is nothin' compared to Jared's sparkly news, but.... some of you have asked to see our house, as we've been getting it ready to put on the market. These aren't the final pictures, but it gives you a good idea--especially for those who have been to our house and can picture it better. Befores and afters....

Happy Halloween!

Evil Cackle.

"Gustav, save some room for later."

Oh, okay. I'll stop taking pictures of my kids in their regular get-up and take one of them in their Halloween costumes on Friday....

Autumn: the year's last, loveliest smile.

Ainsley in her native habitat. And it's pronounced App-a-LA-chia, not App-a-LAY-chia. Just for you poor souls who aren't here. Love you!!!

To go with our new background...

Next time I'll tell her to do her impression of what she does when Little Old Ladies come up and say "Oooooh, what a beautiful little girl." Which is when she extends her arm at them, in a fist--sometimes in a gun--and starts growling "NO! NNNNNNNO!!! NO!" with her teeth bared. It's so Gremlin like (so cute and suddenly so NOT cute) that Little Old Ladies can't hobble away quick enough.

This week....

We hiked a (big to us) mountain.

Caleb started preschool.

Ainsley turned 2.

:)

I heart Hurricane Earl...

I've been sitting here trying and trying to think of something to post about our family. I thought about telling you about me and Jen's trip to Washington DC for the Glenn Beck rally...then I thought maybe I could post about Emily's back to school and Caleb's beginning preschool this week--and I probably should, but in honor of our favorite Danzel record, let's just "suppose I don't." No. Instead, I should like to talk about Hurricane Earl and why he was my favorite hurricane, so far.

Most people think of hurricanes and only think of the horror and destruction that they leave in their wake. Especially when you hear that a hurricane is going to make a direct hit on your own state.

But Earl?

He was a true gentleman.

After creating awesome surfing conditions, he hit the Outer Banks (who needs 'em?) this week, he swept up the East Coast, and he took with him...

the humidity.

It's gone.

*breathe a huge sigh of relief*

The morning air is cool, the afternoons are perfectly warm, you can actually lay on a blanket on the grass and NOT feel like the Wicked Witch of the West: "I'm melting, meltiiiiiing..."

Last night, I took Emily and Caleb with me out on the back lawn. We crawled down into sleeping bags and watched the stars come out, one at a time. When the humidity is really high, you can't really see the stars. We counted 71 before we came in for bed.

When I stepped out to look again at midnight, I could actually see the milky way.

Truly.

Thank you, Earl.

Ok. Maybe one back to school picture... Emily on her first day of first grade:

Brattonsville...

So the big news this weekend was Dave jumping out of a plane, but we also took the chance, while we were down near Chester, South Carolina to see Brattonsville--just another one of those Revolutionary/Civil War places we'd been meaning to go to for years and just...hadn't. (For those of you familiar with the movie "The Patriot", this is the home and battlefield where significant portions were filmed, I guess.)

Here are some of my favorite pictures from that part of the day...

Our whole family and a pig sty.

(This would make a very appropriate Christmas card picture.)

There's something about getting a picture of all three kids together,
especially when they don't know you're watching them.

Ainsley is cute.

I think Dave has a fan.

This one was when Ainsley just plunked herself down on the ground and waited for one of us to come back and pick her up. She seems to be reconsidering her decision to learn to walk in the first place... but then deciding that it might be worth it for the shoes.

And who cares about an old apple tree? I do.
I would rather take pictures of this then jump out of an airplane any time. I'm just sayin'.

You can go watch the skydiving video now.

E.R.

Right.

Where were we?

Oh, yes.

So, Friday afternoon, Ainsley was sitting at the table and grabbed hold of this:

And sprayed herself in the face with it. *sigh*

We made a half-hearted attempt to rinse her eyes out. We put her in the bath and dumped water over her head.

But, as her eyes took on a shade that closely resembled that of the cleaner, we decided to run to the urgent care. At 7:52. 8 minutes before they close. (Yep, we're those people. The annoying ones that show up right before you lock the door.)

The doctor at the urgent care took a glimpse at her red, puffy, and weepy eyes and referred us here:

Lovely. (It is here that I am going to tell you that not two days before, Dave said "You kids better start getting sick! We have flex-plan dollars to use!" Thanks, Dave.)

So, at around 10:00 pm Ainsley and I troop into the Emergency Room and look for a section that looks the least germy. We settle in for a good.long.wait. But it was not without it's benefits. While Ainsley was turning intently through the only children's book in the lobby, Children During the Great Depression, I had time to people watch. My favorite? A very pregnant woman in labor came in with her husband, her parents, her in-laws, her grandparents, and SIX suitcases. They didn't just need a wheelchair, they needed a bellhop.

I snorted as I remembered the last time I came through these emergency room doors with Ainsley; I was on a gurney holding my newborn wearing nothin' but a sheet. Ainsley seemed to flash me a knowing look. It's a great shared memory we have.

When we were finally put in a room, our doctor walked in. Huge. At least 8 months pregnant, and exhausted. She told me she had a two year old, too. She asked what happened. I explained. Then she said off hand, "You know, I think having kids makes me a better E.R. doctor. Before I had kids, people would tell me what their kids had done and I'd think 'Nice parenting!' Now? I just nod and say 'Don't worry about it. Totally been there.'"

It was nice to know that I wasn't being judged.

I'd rather be the one doing the judging, thank you very much.

In the end, all is well. Ainsley is none the worse for wear. Her eyes have resumed their usual hue. But the pretty pink cleaner now has a new home. On top of the fridge.

Our Charleston Trip...

True Love at 7 years.

Hey, Good Lookin'.

This picture captures not only Emily,
but exactly how good those smores were.

They were so good.

(My sister-in-law made me a gluten-free one by broiling a marshmallow and putting it in between huge squares of chocolate. YUM. Who needs the cracker anyway??)

Two of my favorite things:
Caleb in his chomper pajamas
and 300 year old Charleston cobblestone.
Not that I'd really ever expected to put the two together,

but there you have it.

Ainsley + books = happy girl.

Ainsley + sunscreen = devil child. *wink*

Happy Birthday Jen....

It's not the star spangled banner, but it's just for you...

Happy is...

Catching

Fireflies.

Happy Father's Day Daddy. Bryan. Adam. Dave. Ben. Levi.
I love you.

Busy Bee.

Some of you have asked about my beekeeping, so I thought I'd give you a virtual tour of sorts:

My bees are about 15 minutes away from here, out in the country. It's a really beautiful drive, especially right now with everything waiting for first harvesting. (It seems like we get at least 2 or 3 harvest seasons a year.) I took this picture on the way out of the wheat fields and an American flag. Beautiful.

People sometimes ask me if I'm not afraid when I work with my bees. And the answer is "Yes" but it isn't the bees I'm afraid of. It's lighting the smoker. I have a fear of fire, and the first thing I have to do, before I can open my hive, is to get a bunch of pine needles really burning and smoking. I tend to be too timid with my fire, and so it usually goes out and I have to do it again. I'm trying to be more brave about it. (In this picture, I need to use the bellows and get the flames jumping out the top.)

My hive is on a beautiful blueberry and blackberry farm. When I approached it last Saturday (when I took this picture) I could tell that something or someone had gotten into my hive--see how the lid is kind of tilted and not put on quite right? My hive is a very light Carolina blue. (Go Tarheels.) When I get into my beehive, I have to make sure to move very slowly and carefully. Bees can't hear, but they sense vibrations with their antennae. You don't want to frighten them.

This is my hive, open, with the top super (those are what the hive boxes are called) already removed. The big super is where I spend most of my time. I look at each frame of honeycomb to see how much honey and pollen the bees have to eat, to check for other bugs, and to make sure that there are lots of baby bees. I always try to find my queen, but she is pretty elusive these days.

This is a picture looking down into the super, and those are my bees. Can you see how they're making bridges with each other?? It cracks me up when they do that. Bees hate too much open space--they like 5/8 inch. Any more than that, and they'll try to fill it up as fast as they can. Any less, and they feel too crowded and they'll swarm. There are 10 frames in each super, and a healthy hive has between 20,000 and 40,000 bees at it's summer peak.

Last one, this is just a good shot of a frame already filled out with beeswax. The wax is filled with honey and it is VERY heavy. The bees are putting wax caps on the honey, to store it for the winter.

So those are my bees--you're welcome to come with me and meet them, any time you like! :)

Love, Becca

Live Action...

The Itsy-Bitsy spider, went up the water spout.

Down came the rain,
and washed the spider out.
Up came the sun,and dried up all the rain,

and the Itsy-Bitsy spiders went up the spout again.

And because Emily was at school while we were playing Itsy-Bitsy, here is a picture of her, dressed up for her recital yesterday. She did great. :)

Rain...

On Friday night, we were having a faux date, which means that we weren't going on a date at all. We had dinner at home, with Emily kinda-sorta pretending to be our waitress and Caleb helping out every so often, and then we had to figure out something else to do.

Because Dave said I couldn't put the kids in their pajamas at 5:30.

Whatever.

So we decided to take the kids for a bike ride. We got our shoes on and opened the door to... rain. But I didn't think it looked like it really meant business, so we went anyway. We started off with Emily on her bike, but made it only 20 feet or so in 20 minutes, so we switched to Caleb on his tricycle and went a bit quicker. Not much. A bit.

But on we rode. All the way to a little pond about a half mile from our house. Where it REALLY started to pour. It ended up being one of those weird, fun family moments you couldn't have planned if you'd tried. Now the kids want it to rain so we can go to the pond again.

Then yesterday when we went to the temple there was this awesome rabbit and guinea pig show going on at the little recreation center by the park where we wait for each other to finish our temple sessions. It was totally fun. I loved the HUGE rabbits. Dave loved the rabbits that were so fuzzy and poofy that you couldn't tell where their head was. Seriously. But the real highlight was a book by this lady:

Yes, that's a real rabbit. I heart South Carolina.