Solar Ovenry

Last week Eli decided to break out his deluxe solar oven and, you know, bake something.

He went with baked potatoes because he likes them and they're easy.

Here they are, before they sat in the backyard soaking up the sun all day.

I don't have an after picture, but let's just say, our blazing Arizona sun didn't really come through for us. By afternoon the potatoes weren't raw anymore,but they weren't exactly cooked either. He left them a few more hours but by that time I didn't feel like a "good mother" would let her boy eat something that had spent so much time in the backyard. We decided to try again the next day.

This time we started with cookie dough. The kind you make from scratch buy on sale at Target.

Looks promising doesn't it?

When I came outside Eli was wearing these gloves and getting his oven set up. He told me it would be best if I didn't ask him where the gloves came from. I don't know about you but when someone tells me not to ask, I don't. If you want to know you'll have to call him.

Here are the cookies they only took 3 hours (in our backyard, where much construction is going on) to bake. I hear they were pretty good, but between the saw dust and the whole not knowing where the gloves came from business I decided to let Sylvan be the cookie tester. It's the least I could do.

No nausea was reported, so we're calling this solar experience a success.

Happy Birthday Laura!!

As a birthday gift we offer you "Sunday Morning at Our House". The most delightful time of the week.

Here we have Ivy.

Sylvan, getting just the right knot, and Eli who almost always brushes his teeth before church, except when he forgets.

Nate, from his sickbed, where he is recovering from an unpork related flu.

And finally, these two jokers.

Sorry, there's no video of me. I'm sure you know the rule "She who is behind the camera shall never be in FRONT of the camera." Or something like that.

Hope you have a GREAT birthday! We love you!!

Update

I can't believe I haven't posted at all this month. It's not for lack to things to post, just the opposite actually, we've been so busy and I haven't taken the time to update. So here we go.

~

As most of you know, we moved in August. The house we moved into needed a lot of work. Some of which we have done and some we are in the process of doing. There were lots of things we all worked at to get it ready for us to move into, and I can't say Thank You enough to all of the friends and family that helped us with all that needed to be done. I don't even like to imagine the size of breakdown I might have had without all of your help. So, Thanks!!

We are now at the stage where most of the work requires power tools, and well, it just probably wouldn't be safe for me to wield a nail gun, so Sylvan is handling most of the details these days.

This is the house the first time we looked at it.

This is the front of the house the week we moved in.

Here is the foundation for the addition which will just about double the size of the house. We are all anxious for that to happen.

We are adding a family room area that will open up from the kitchen, and a master bedroom and bath.

This will be a covered patio. We have more pictures of the inside and the garage enclosure that I will try to post soon.

We're about as settled as we can be until the addition is finished, and Sylvan has been working hard to make that happen. As for life in general, the kids are all back in school and things seem to be going fine on that front. Our new ward has been very welcoming, and while it's no Enrose, we are glad to be there and anxious to get to know everyone. We're all excited for fall and cooler temperatures, however short lived.

Once again, I am committing to posting more often. We'll see how that goes.