Sorry again for the absence.  I know I need to quit apologizing and just get to work.

Do you want to see what I made?  Isn’t that what this blog is all about?  Well, look–

After nearly a year in this house I’m finally getting some favorite photos up on the walls!  The silhouettes were something I’ve wanted to do forever.  After seeing the ones my friend Jodi made and how quick and easy they were to make, I set out to make a set of my own.  In just one afternoon Barry spray painted my wooden ovals white, we snapped a quick side view of each of the kids, I printed them out using Pages (our desktop publishing program) making sure all their heads fit nicely in a 5 x 7 rectangle, set those printouts on some dark grayish-brown-nearly-black cardstock, traced around their sweet heads with an exacto knife, then Mod-Podged those little heads onto the white wooden ovals.  Whew!  Just about as instant gratification as a craft project can get.

I love how they turned out– especially the hair on my boys.  I just can’t get over Hunter’s fluff.  I just want to freeze time.

He certainly doesn’t.  This guy is on the move and in a hurry.  I’m constantly finding him in the corner of the laundry room or wedged under the piano bench.  But I have just one request of that hair that can’t lay flat and those squishy rolls–

Please don’t go away– ever.  Okay?

Sorry, dear readers.  Summer has sucked my brain away and I just have not been able to wrap it around actually writing a post instead of just thinking of one.  We have been busy with vacation recovery, growing teeth and fluffy hair on the baby, swimming lessons, a Primary activity that required a life size drawing of Goliath, the diaper saga, and some sewing and crafting thrown in too.  You know, the normal stuff– the kind of stuff that makes actually sitting in front of the computer a rarity, especially sitting down to do something productive on the computer.  So today, I’m starting with the most recent stuff and will work in some highlights from my absence in the next few days.

Now, look what we found on our family room floor:

It was Friday night after the afore mentioned Primary activity.  We were unloading the car, we were in and out of the house, all the neighborhood kids (and some of our own) were in and out of the house, the dog was in and out of the house, you get the picture.  There was a lot of choas, and then it was time to send other people’s children home to sleep in their own beds and Jonah found something on the floor.  There was a lot of things being said like, “It’s not mine, it’s Holly’s.” “No, it’s Megan’s.” “What is it?”  Barry decided to intervene and help sort things out when he discovered that “it” was a turtle shell sealed up as tight as could be– with a turtle inside.  Ellie (our dog) dug it up in the back yard and dropped in inside amid all the hubbub.  Now, how random and fun is that?  We kept it for a day and learned all sorts of things.  She is on Ornate Box turtle and we know she’s a she because she has brown eyes (males have bright red or orange eyes) and a flat tummy.  We’d get her out of the aquarium to roam around the house,

and then we let her go– in a place Ellie won’t dig her up again.

Now if that isn’t cool enough for one weekend, check this out:

We watched a baby gecko hatch!  My brother sent us some eggs thinking they probably weren’t any good, but we could try to see if they’d hatch.  Monday morning we woke to a trail of little rocks across the kitchen counter and an empty egg.  I hadn’t snapped the lid on the container all the way and the hatchling escaped.  (I’m still feeling totally sick about that and praying that it will turn up tonight.)  Later that night, though, Barry noticed a little head popping out of the other egg,

and then the whole thing!  Oh the wonders of nature.  We are thrilled with our new addition.  Oh, I hope we can somehow find the other one.  I have no idea where or how to look for it with it being so tiny and nocturnal. I just feel so bad that it got away…

So, there you have it.  We like little cold blooded animals at our house and are so excited that some decided to come and hang out with us this week.  How’s that for homeschool science?