Family Time

Playing catch-up again...

Since George is up in DC doing his away rotation, the boys and I have found it as a good excuse to be up in Ashburn every weekend. We love our families up there and it's been a lot of fun spending some quality time with them.

Lance actually spent two weekends with his dad. Scott's sister Denise came into town with her husband and four kids for a little over a week, so Lance spent as much time as possible between school with that fun family.

Jude and Mason. These kids are so funny!

It's neat to watch the cousins grow up together. They play really well, except of course when Jude tries to beat up Mason (he actually him on the head with a toy frying pan the other day... would have been hilarious if it didn't hurt Mason). They are always happy to see each other, though, and love getting into mischief together.

And what would time at Grandma's house be without some tasty treats?

Jude and Grandma making Nan's famous pound cake.

He loves to watch the mixer. Side note: that mixer is a Bosch, is over 20 years old and still going strong!

Showing the next generation how to do it. I remember making this with my mom all the time growing up.

Watching.

Our favorite part is the dough before you bake the cake. Jude must be related to me because the spoon just wasn't cutting it...

...so we broke out a cup. That's my boy!

Love the dough mustache line.

My family is obsessed with the chocolate cake I made for Lance's Birthday party and find excuses to make it all the time now. It was Conference weekend and we were making treats to take to the Simmons' house where we always watch Sunday's session of conference... and of course Jason and Laura made chocolate cake.

Mixing up the frosting.

Mason and Vera (with a photobomb courtesy of Uncle Jason)

Quality control testing.

I think it passed. :)

We brought our goodies to the Simmons' house and got to enjoy a few hours of wonderful talks by our Church leaders while we ate food and had a good time with our family.

Tyler doing a photo shoot for a friend's website. We all tried to help out.

Lance came back from his dad's house and had a good time at the Simmon's house, too. He found a "guitar" just his size and had fun trying to play his own made-up songs.

Jude thought it was pretty neat, too.

We got to spend a lot of time at the Glass's house, too. George and his mom cooked fabulous dinners, we got to see Jen and Eric, and of course Callie and Bryce.

While I didn't get many pictures of our time there, I did get this one. Der is a favorite with the kids, as you can tell.


Every holiday we try to do some sort of craft, and this year I broke out the supplies so my family could make the pumpkin luminaries from last year. Lance wanted to make his own this year, so we all got together at Grandma and Grandpa's house and made some.

Lance designed his own face for the luminary and George helped make it into a shapes that would fit.

Uncle Jason and Aunt Amy were there which made it even more fun.

Lance being silly.

Laura and Tyler joined the fun, too.

Here is Lance's finished product that he proudly keeps in his room as a nightlight. He wanted the nose to be an "H" because "Halloween" starts with an "H" and he wanted the top to be a pattern. I think it turned out great!

Stay tuned for the pumpkin patch, night kayaking on the Potomac, and the circus!