The Talens' Tales

As you know, Joash loves to read. What always amazes me is how much and quickly he memorizes things we read. Here is a little video of him reading with Grandma and Grandpa. They are reading a book that Grandpa and Grandma got for Joash while they were in Alaska. The text of the book is below. 1 brown moose munching on a lily 2 black ravens looking pretty silly 3 gray wolves howling in the night 4 purple caribou under the northern lights 5 pink salmon splashing in a creek 6 green minnows in a puffin's beak 7 yellow warblers in the evening sky 8 white bears waving goodbye 9 golden grizzlies having lots of fun 10 red walrus sleeping in the sun 11 orange octopi on the ocean floor 12 ripe blueberries, are there anymore? My favorite part is when Joash assures Grandma that she pronounced "Octopi" right. Too cute!

Joash turned 2 last week and it was quite an event. It was full of grandparents, cake and tractors. Joash was pretty excited about the presents, especially since he spotted some in Grandma and Grandpa's room a bit earlier and he really wanted to hold it. By the end of it, his paper tearing skills were quite good.  He got lots of tractors, implements and other things with four wheels. He is enjoying all of them so much! He even liked getting socks because they had a small hook on the top for when they were hung on a rack and he wanted to "hook it up" to his tractor right away.  And the cake, a joint effort between my mom and me. If you ask Joash about his birthday, he might tell you he is two, but he will definitely tell you he had cake! It was his favourite part! Joash was a bit unsure about why there was fire on his cake. I think he was worried about the tractor. But, no problems eating it this time. He thought it was very good!

Searching for a killer. Searching for love. Can the characters in Full Disclosure find both? Full Disclosure by Dee Henderson follows FBI top murder cop, Paul Falcon on the hunt for hired shooter who killed 30 people. When Midwest Homicide Investigator Ann Silver passes a case off to Paul, it offers the first break in Paul’s case for several years. While working on the case, Paul and Ann get to know each other quite well. Yet the more Paul learns about Ann, the more he understands he has hardly begun to comprehend her. As the hired shooter case comes to light, more and more top ranking officials are pulled into the case and the more complicated it becomes. All the while, Paul is struggling to understand and Ann and see if she could be the love of his life. Dee Henderson has done it again. Creating a fantastic story that I could not put down once I began. I enjoy all of her plot twists. The minute you think you have the story figured out, something new comes out of the word...

The movie is famous. And now the main character is telling the “real” story. The story of Rudy. Most people are familiar with the movie Rudy based on Daniel “Rudy” Ruettiger’s life. And in Rudy, My Story , Ruettiger tells the true story. Ruettiger grew up in a large Catholic family in Joliet, Illinois. From an early age, he was labeled as “not smart” and struggled through school. Sport and especially football were his saving grace. After a stint in the Navy, Ruettiger worked hard to fulfill his dream of playing football for Notre Dame. He has to overcome many obstacles, the least of which being actually accepted into Notre Dame. Through hard work and faith, he does and he fulfills every dream he has from playing football to having a movie made of his life story. Ruettiger certainly is an inspiration to what hard work can do. This was an interesting book to read and it was clear to see how God was working in Ruettiger’s life. God placed so many people in the right place at t...

We have been very busy here the last week. I have been busy with Usborne book stuff and getting ready for our visitors next week.  And Joash has been working on getting ready to turn two. He is learning a few new skills like... playing the guitar  and becoming a bit more daring and silly. He likes to climb into this doll cradle and say things like, "sleep with baby" (or cow, or monkey, or whatever happens to be on top of the pile in the cradle at that time). As you can see, he is also working quite hard at perfecting the cheesy two year-old smile.

On Saturday, we thought we would check out the PEI Giant Pumpkin Weigh-off. It was a nice day and it takes place pretty close to our house. It was quite nice and I think it will be something we will enjoy as Joash gets older. They had food, some little games for the kids, a place to decorate a pumpkin, guessing games, a scavenger hunt, and a hay ride.  Joash was quite fond of the large squash.   There are three categories: field pumpkins, squash and giant pumpkins. Here is the weigh-off in action.  Joash's favourite part was watching the forklift drive around moving the pallets with the giant pumpkins on them. The winning pumpkin weighted 1082 lbs! Joash also really liked sitting on all of the lawn mowers that were out and about. The weigh-off takes place at a seed and garden equipment company and Joash made sure we checked out all of the lawn mowers. This particular mower had a lot of "hydraulics!"  Joash also got this pumpki...

What can I say? I just love how he says "potatoes" and I just had to share. It is an important word to know when you live on PEI!