Christmas in October?

For the past few weeks we've been putting together a care package for Sam's brother, Rod. Rod is in the Army and he's been in Afghanistan since the beginning of this year. We all wrote letters, we bought all sorts of candy. Fern wrote a letter and included some of Rod's favorite treats and some Halloween decorations. After filling up the box, there was a little bit of room left at the top. I stewed and fretted about what to put in the open space. Then it hit me: nougat! I usually only make nougat at Christmas time, but for Rod, I'd go crazy and make it in October. If you haven't tried homemade nougat, it tastes just like a Big Hunk candy bar. Simple, but totally addictive!

We made it a family affair on Monday night to cut and wrap the nougat. Here is Sam teaching Carson how to cut the strips of nougat into squares.


Carson loved helping, he was totally focused!


Cameron participated by sitting at the counter.


Parker ate nerds, talked on his phone, and looked at everything with a magnifying glass. OH! Guess what Parker thought a magnifying glass was called? A "mine-to-find" glass! I'm not even kidding! He said it really fast and finally Sam and I asked him to say it slowly and that's what he said! We have since corrected the nut.


Sam cut the nougat into strips. I hate this part of the process. It hurts my delicate (whimpy) hands.


And I wrapped the nougat. Yes, I kept this ridiculous face the whole time. Nougat will do that to ya!


I don't know if Rod ever checks the blog from Afghanistan, but if he does....Expect the package in about 1 1/2 weeks Rod! We love you!!!

On to other items in the news...
Because I still feel like I'm 21, and probably act it, I am having a hard time believing that I'm the mother of a cub scout. Seriously. For years I have known this day was coming, and coming, and coming (3 boys), but I'm tripping out.


He loves belonging to scouts! He thinks he's pretty hot stuff because he gets to go to church meetings now instead of mom or dad. Let's hope we can keep his enthusiasm!

I found a great spot for Cameron today. He sat in front of my mirror for a good 30 minutes. It was sweet because in order to look at me he had to turn left, which is one of his exercises. He didn't even fall over when he suddenly looked at me so I think we're making progress.


I was dying because I was taking a video of him while he was sitting by the mirror. Across the hall from my room is the bathroom. While I'm taking a video, Parker runs into the bathroom, yells at me that he's tall enough to go potty without using a stool, and then let's rip a big ol' fart. Then he laughs hysterically and yells at me that he farted. Well, there goes my tender video of Cameron. I'd post it, but Parker would kill me when he got older. Besides, I panned the camera over to him and he was still going potty so it shows skin. Oops. My kids definitely keep me laughing.

Check out this picture. I was working and I turned around to look at Cameron in his jumper and this is how he looked:


He wasn't jumping, he was just standing there. He looked like a puppet!

Sam story:
Have you ever had someone ring your doorbell and you answered the door to find Halloween treats on your porch but nobody is there? Underneath the treats is a Halloween poem about being "spooked" and you have to return the favor by spooking someone else? Yeah me either.

No, just kidding, that happened to us the other night. So tonight Sam was on his way to deliver some treats to some neighbors. One house he was going to go to wasn't going to work out because they were outside. So Sam called me from his cell phone and asked for another suggestion. I told him to go to our friends, Karadie and Paul. He readily agreed.

I then formulated a wonderful plan. I called Karadie's cell phone and told her Sam was on his way and I told her to go outside and hide so she could scare the (ya know) out of Sam. She was all over this plan like a kid in a candy store.

It's important to note that Karadie has a very large dog named Bruce. Sam left the treats and was quickly leaving the scene when Karadie let Bruce chase down Sam. Well, "chase" is probably dramatic, but even if a big Boxer like Bruce was WALKING behind me in the dark I'd probably have a quickened heartbeat! After a few moments Sam stopped and turned around, which stopped Bruce from his hunt. Karadie emerged from the dark, laughing really hard. Sam put two and two together, because he's smart like that, and then they all decided to get ME back!

They soaked a rag in ketchup and whatever else they could find that was red. Sam came walking in my front door holding this 'bloody' rag over his hand. He had a horrified, and TOTALLY realistic look on his face and he said "Bruce just about took my finger off!!!" and he walked into the bathroom. I fell, hook...line....sinker. Carson and Parker were right next to Sam's side and asking a thousand questions and Sam was all frustrated to the point where Parker almost started crying. Sam pushed everyone out of the bathroom and locked the door!

My parents happened to be at my house, good thing because they were going to have to watch the boys while we went to the hospital!

Sam wouldn't unlock the door, I finally had to get a key and unlock it myself. I opened the door and Sam threw the rag into the sink and said "just kidding!"

Ooooohhhhh! ha ha ha ha ha! I laughed so dang hard, it was HYSTERICAL! He deserves an Oscar for his acting....or maybe I'm just really naive, but it was FUNNY! Way to go Sam-I-Am, you got the best of me for sure!