HAPPY HALLOWEEN!!!

I'm back online and very happy to be able to post Halloween pictures.  Here are my cuties:

Special thanks to Aunt Sherri, who always makes whatever the boys want even if it's a snowy owl (Elijah, this year) or a bat with red wings (Malachi, last year).  And I decided that our baby chickie needed to be a baby chickie for Halloween, so I made the hat to go with the body Sherri had made several years ago when Malachi was a duck.  I'm very happy with how that turned out.  Unfortuantely, the baby chickie is sick and will not be trick-or-treating.  In fact, she is sleeping right now at home with me, while Nathaniel and the boys are at the church's fall fest.  Later, they plan to trick-or-treat.  Poor chickie.  At least she's too young to realize that she's missing anything.

Techincal Difficulties

So sorry, but I haven't been able to blog lately.  Our computer is messed up, and so I'm writing this on my husband's work computer.  He is working on ours, and hopefully, he will figure out what is wrong, but it doesn't look good right now! 
We had a great weekend camping with Nathaniel's family and friends.  The kids had a blast.  They had a taste of freedom: the boys were allowed to go around the circle we were on at camp by themselves.  Malachi nearly wore out the tires on his new bike, and Elijah can really fly on his scooter.  (He didn't have his bike there; maybe next year.) 
Halloween is fast approaching.  I hope I can have my computer working by then so I can post pictures of the kids in their awesome costumes!  (Aunt Sherri always comes through!)  And I must say, I am proud of how the baby chickie hat I made turned out. 
I hope to be back soon!

Pigtails

As promised, here are a couple of pictures of my little darlin' in her new pigtails.  My sister visited last weekend, and she put up Lydia's hair.  I had no idea that she had enough hair for pigtails!  Lydia loves them.  She walks around patting her head and saying, "pretty, pretty."  (Modesty is not a virtue my children seem to have!)

I just love the smile on this one! 

Failed Muffins and Pumpkin Love

Well, they looked good.  I decided to make a new muffin, and I made up the recipe myself.  I was going for a strawberry chocolate muffin, but the strawberry taste didn't come through at all.  The cocoa sure did, but the muffin wasn't very sweet at all (I was counting on more sweetness from the strawberries and drastically reduced the honey I put in).  Elijah seemed to think they're ok.  They are edible, but not good.  Oh, well.  I'm debating about trying again, maybe this time just a strawberry muffin, since the taste was really lost with the cocoa, or maybe I just put in too much cocoa.  And yes, I do make an awful lot of muffins around here.   Lately, I've found myself humming "Oh do you know the Muffin Man, the Muffin Man, the Muffin Man...."

In other news, Malachi had his first field trip today.  He got to pick a pumpkin at a local farm, and he had a great time.

Long Absence

Sorry I've been strangely silent lately.  I'm keeping busy but not much seems to be going on to write about.  I have a happy fire going in the fireplace right now.  It's been pretty cool in the house, so we've started using the fireplace, and it does make the living room feel nice!
I'm thinking of taking the kids back to the apple orchard tomorrow after school.  I could use some more apples!  They've eaten most of the applesauce I made, and I still haven't made the apple-cinnamon jam.  Plus, the orchard was a lot of fun and is fairly close to us.  And I'm thinking of toying with an apple-cinnamon muffin.  Maybe an oatmeal muffin.  I'm not sure.  With this cooler weather, I do feel like baking!
I'll be back sooner this time!