Lindsay and I built a snowman today. Isn't he cute?!

Yesterday we went to the New England Aquarium in Boston and had an fabulous time. These fake turtles were among the kids' favorite attractions.

Gotcha!

After church today Uncle Wesley joined us for lunch. Here you see him and Jed playing Narnia--Maugrim being slain by Peter. This evening around the dinner table we were talking about how much we love Uncle Wesley when Chloe piped up, "Him cute guy!"

Elisha and company

Last night for our family Bible skit we did the story of Elisha leading the blind army away from Israel. Here you see Daddy Elisha holding his assistant. Jed is a blind soldier, the same one who tried to arrest Elisha, and Chloe was just along for the ride. Mommy played the king of Israel (well, we pretended she was a queen). Fun times!

The tooth fairy is on her way!

Busted!

Last Tuesday night Evan and I were in bed chatting when all of a sudden we saw blue strobe lights shining through the window right over our bed. We both jumped up to see what was going on, and saw that a state sheriff's car had pulled someone over right by the big field behind our house. The more we looked, the more we realized it was our buddy Bill--he was the sheriff of course, not the bad guy. You all would have laughed if you could have seen me and Evan hovering by the window watching Bill pull four or five young guys out of this car and proceed to frisk them one by one. Evan kept making comments like, "I've got your back, Bill!" "Don't worry, Bill, we've got you covered." I would respond with things like, "With what I don't know. He doesn't even know we're watching!" It was pretty comical. All of this was happening around 10:30. We were both exhausted and Evan's legs got sore from being in an awkward position, but there was no way we were going to bed before Bill was done! We realized we're glad we don't see him in action all the time--and that his wife and mother don't! It was pretty nerve-wracking imagining that one of the guys could turn on him at any time. Though we also know what a skilled, competent cop he is, so we weren't too worried. It's just a little scary when it's a friend putting himself in danger all the time.

The next morning Evan called Bill about it and found out he'd done a drug bust. Several of the kids had been caught with pot in their possession. We also found out the next day that Lindsay had been watching the whole thing from her window too!

Speaking of having your back covered, the other day I was taking Jed to AWANA. The night was excessively foggy, particularly here on the hill. I was having such a hard time seeing where I was going on Chestnut Hill Rd., which has hardly any streetlights, that I was crawling at a snail's pace and saying, "I can hardly see the road!" Well, Jed, being the helpful backseat driver that he is (actually, he is a big helper and can usually recognize when I'm in distress) said, "Okay, I'll help you." He looks out his window. "Yep, you're going the right way...; you're still on the road..." and other helpful remarks like that. Thanks, Buddy. I really don't know how I would have made it without you. :-)

Last Sunday I caught Chloe and Tucker playing in the upstairs bathroom. I hadn't even come to the bathroom door, suspecting foul play, when Chloe starts hollering, "Tucker did it! Tucker did it!" Well, what Tucker had done was open my bottle of spray gel and dump it all over the floor. The thing is, that bottle was on a high shelf that he never could have reached, even if he'd been standing on the toilet. Chloe couldn't have either--unless she'd stood on the counter. So she was really Tucker's accomplice, but she betrayed him and blamed it all on him. I could hardly believe her blatant deception. Echos of Eve in the garden. "The serpent made me do it!" We've almost never had to deal with deception in Jed. He's honest to a fault. But Chloe looks like she'll be another story. God give us wisdom!