Here are

Some pictures that Joanne took when we were in San Diego a couple of weeks ago. Her camera is much better than mine so I was waiting to get pictures from her before I posted this. Thanks Joanne!

The kids had a great time (as you can see!) and so did we. Sometimes it's hard to return to the desert... :)

Popsicle sticks

Make good bird houses... who knew?! It was the latest in projects for the boys (all 3 of them!).

Snackin

Just a little snack before bed. The tally - 3 pieces of pizza for Jake and 4 pieces for Noah!! And yes, I did feed them dinner tonight!

I don't like making sugar cookies

However, when enough time passes I start to convince myself that I do. Last spring Sarah and Charlie came for a visit and brought some dinosaur cookie cutters - they have been sitting in my drawer (the cookie cutters, not Sarah and Charlie!) slowly convincing me that I want to make some cookies. Jacob has also noticed them and was slowly convincing me of the same thing. So, last night we took on the task. I have to say, the boys really enjoyed it and that alone made it worth it. However, after rolling out, cutting, rolling out, cutting, rolling out, cutting I was getting tired and we hadn't even started frosting them yet ( a sugar cookie isn't really a sugar cookie without frosting!). Fortunately for me I had eager boys to help with the frosting - unfortunately for me the reason Noah wanted to help was so that he could rotate between spreading the frosting and licking the frosting. I was too tired to point out to him that it was unsanitary to do that - I couldn't risk losing one of my frosters! So, at the end of it all my feet and my back hurt and half the cookies have Noah's saliva on them. Some would say it wasn't a successful venture, but just look at the smiles on their faces at the end - I would say "mission accomplished"!!! Now, no more sugar cookies for a long time!!!

Construction

We have recently been doing some construction on the house - the dog house that is! Jacob has been asking for quite some time if he could build a dog house for Hansel. I guess it was finally time. After a few trips to the hardware store and a couple hours of sawing, hammering, nailing and painting, he and Brian (and Noah!) came up with a nice place for Hansel to rest his head. Now, if only Hansel felt that way about it....

Jake's turn!

As promised, here are some pictures of Jacob at swim lessons. He is our little fish and has become quite a good swimmer this summer. You won't find him in the pool without his goggles - they are an essential part of his success!!!