Death by Breakfast

Our friends made this for breakfast on our camp out last week: That would be French bread spread with butter, a layer of sausage, a layer of cheese, a layer of bacon, another layer of sausage, another layer of cheese, then the top of the french bread, spread with more butter. You could hear your arteries clogging up with this breakfast. But it was very tasty. And breakfast is the most important meal of the day! Right?

Starting off right

We started 2009 off right by going camping out at Enchanted Rock (one of our favorite spots). It was beautiful and warm, until the sun went down, after which the temperature went down about 30 or 40 degrees. And with the burn ban, there was only the lantern to warm our hands by. Anyway, the next day dawned even warmer, so it was spent hiking and hanging out. Here's a couple of shots from our outing.

Some more fooling around with the camera.

The sky was so clear. These are the brighter stars in the sky. I'm surprised at how well they showed up, especially since it wasn't a really long exposure. We could even see the milky way.

Nate took the bigger kids hiking (we went with some friends - those are the unfamiliar children). They hiked to the top of the Rock and then around to a cave on the back side.

It's either a little windy, or really steep, or both!

I took the two littler girls on a small hike. They were troopers.

How Betsy's iPod tried to kill me, or, "How to run yourself over with your own car, in 5 easy steps"

Step 1

Read article about how some cars have input jacks on the back of the stereo, which makes is really easy to wire in an iPod, which would be great, because, as we all know, the FM and cassette adapters are horrible, and so is buying a new car.  Think "I wonder what kind of adapter is on the back of the stereo in the Durango?  Boy, it would be nice to just have the iPod wired in."

Step 2

Having worked on cars previously, (correctly) assume that the dash must be taken apart in a specific order.  Do a quick search online, and find the article titled "How do I remove the factory stereo from a 2002 Dodge Durango?"

Step 3

Follow the instructions: disconnect battery (this will kill all the presets on the radio, so, no--next);  turn ignition to unlock, set parking brake, put car in low gear (put on emergency brake, skip other stuff); remove steering column opening cover (yes, I have a star-patterned hex key set, disconnect parking brake lever, which is attached to panel, and set panel aside); remove two screws above steering wheel, pop off instrument panel, and disconnect wiring hubs (go back to step two, turn ignition to unlock and put car in low gear, so the instrument panel can clear the steering wheel); remove four screws and pull out stereo (done)

Step 4

Look at back of stereo.  See 10-pin connector.  Realize that this will require more internet research, and that Betsy will probably want her dash re-assembled prior to church tomorrow.

Step 5

Replace stereo and dash, reconnecting wiring harnesses and replacing screws.

Reattach lower dash panel (the screws are on the bottom of the dash, which requires laying down on the floor of the car, and reaching up to screw them in).  Reattach the parking brake release lever.  Accidentally release the parking brake while trying to reattach the parking brake release lever. Think, "uh oh!" as the car starts picking up speed rolling backwards down the driveway.  Hang on to anything possible with left hand, try to keep legs away from front tire, while pushing brake (doesn't work) and then parking brake with other hand.  Think to self, "Whew--how lame would it have been to have to explain to doctors, friends, co-workers, people in the check-out line at Walmart, that you sustained the injuries by running yourself over, in your own driveway, with the engine off, while working on the RADIO."

Victim #2

Dear Jake,
I'm conspiring to get you hooked on checking my blog for updates. If I spread out the posting, you'll keep checking back for more. I know, it's not a great plan. But my life is a bit mundane right now and this beats posting about laundry. Besides, there's a lot of photos to proof:) and I do have a few other things that keep me busy. So here's a bit more...

Hester:

New victims

While my sibs were here, I subjected them all to a couple of photo shoots. Partly because I need new victims/subjects. Partly because my mom wanted some pictures of these 3 (apparently their frames are empty at my mom's house). Anyway, they put up with me getting in their faces. (Thank you Hester, Hannah, and Karl.) So I thought I'd show you some of my faves. Here's Hannah's:
p.s. copper really wanted to be in on all the action!

It was good while it lasted

We had a great week with Hester, Hannah, and Karl staying for the week. They were a ton of help (my dishes were done 4 or 5 times a day) and played with my kids (I wish I'd gotten a picture of Karl playing Polly Pockets - all by himself). We went out to eat, went shopping, to the movies, played lots of Rock Band and Wii sports and board games. We will all miss Hannah, Hester and Karl. We begged and pleaded for them to stay. But I guess they had to go home sometime. We can't wait to see them again.

Here's some of the other things we did all week:

The kids shot the BB gun in the garage at

This target made from all the boxes we received for the last month of Christmas packages. Those are little army men on the box.

We had a second Thanksgiving dinner last Sunday. For the real turkey day we had enchilladas. Nate wanted the whole shebang. So he cooked it all up himself! It was delicious.


Isaac carved it.
There was no shortage of food all week. We had lots of brownies, pumpkin squares, cookies, candy, etc. I think I gained a few more pounds.

Hannah brought her flute and played with Aspen. She is a great teacher! I wish she lived closer to give Aspen lessons.

We played lots of games.

Karl is helping Hazel read the 12 days of christmas pop up book.


We took lots of pictures, especially goofy ones like these:


There was lots of between activity sleeping.

As well as mid activity sleeping.



And lots of reading. (I think Karl read 10 books while he was here!)

Christmas morning was glorious! The kids woke up at a semi decent hour: 7:30 am. We held them at bay until 8am and had them wake up the "big" kids (Hester, Hannah, and Karl), then they could open presents.

Isaac loved his metal detector from Grandma. Nate got a binary clock, among other things.

Aspen loved her scooter and is showing off some cozy slipper socks.

The ponies from Hannah and Hester were a BIG hit. And she got her requested candy necklaces from Santa!

Toby is very excited about his new computer game (everyone has been enjoying this gift!) And his t-shirt is self-explanatory.

Hannah and Hester

Karl got (and gave) a bunch of books - which he read (both the ones he got and gave to others) during the day.


It was a great day. When I asked the kids if the got everything they wanted, they all said, "YES!" So I guess this year was a success.