Joshua's Collection of Very Gross Things

Well it's not 'Snips and snails, and puppy dog tails', but it's pretty darn close! Joshua's 'collection' includes discarded cat claws (collected by Grandma Jaussi), a tarantula exoskelton, a crab exoskelton, and finally a crawdad exoskelton (all pets we own). He has already decided that when Spring comes he wants to start collecting discarded bird feathers. It was only with great relutance that he allowed Laura to throw away the exoskelton left over from a motling cricket kept in our tarantula's food habitat. We just have to draw the line somewhere, don't we?

"I almost made it to the top of the bunk beds..."

Andrew almost went to the emergency room two nights ago when he fell from while attempting to climb to the top bunk. He has a great shiner today!

Speaking of pets...

***warning*** if you don't like spiders, please navigate away from this page now!
Shelob molted again this week, and Michael really wanted to post a video of her. Enjoy.

The new fishtank

We've been spending our spare time lately obsessing over our new pet project. The aquarium. My brother gave us (yes, gave) a beautiful 60 gallon aquarium with all the goods. We were thinking of doing salt water for a while, but then reality and our budget sense kicked in and we realized it was monitarilly impractical. Long story short, we've set up a beautiful natural fresh water aquarium and we are all loving it. My piano students have alot of fun with it as well; it's hard to keep their attention at the piano!

The fish are still small, so you probably can't see them. But we have a lobster, a crab, three tiger barbs, a rainbow shark, an upside down catfish, and a fire gourami. the plants are all live, and we are in the process of getting some natural driftwood for a centerpiece. It should be pretty nice.

Snow update

This is for all you out there who are concerned that our house has been swallowed by old man winter. Never fear, we can still see our roof! Just a side note, we took this picture today, and it has snowed a few inches since then. So use your imagination to add a little more height to "the wall" (aka mini mt. Everest).

Michael is proud of his artificial mount everest...

but Andrew has things figured out. "Let Dad shovel. I'm staying in the warm house and watching cartoons."

greetings from the arctic....I mean Hyrum

Just a few shots of the snow storm here. Keep in mind, Michael is an avid shoveler, and this is the day after the snow. The wind make the snow drift up on our driveway two feet in some places over night. I swear all our neighbor's snow ended up in our yard! By the way, it's snowing again right now. Ugh. We need a garage.
I hope all of you North Carolinians and Ohioites aren't getting jealous! Maybe we could fedex you some snow; heaven knows we have enough of it.