To my brothers...

I LOVE YOU!

JUST THOUGHT YOU NEEDED TO KNOW! :0)

Happy 9th Birthday, Brice!!

I am a bit in awe that you are 9, Brice! We love your sense of humor and your laid back approach to life!

I think we will be remembering this birthday in years to come because it snowed 10-15 inches, he had to cancel his birthday sleepover, and his dad wasn't here to celebrate. (Did I mention that I can't find his birthday card from his dad . . . .). I hope this isn't an indication of the year to come!

We will have a happy day anyway!

Imagination

I laid down with Owen for his nap today. It takes him a few minutes to calm down, but his instructions are to lay still and close his eyes. Knowing he needed to obey and to not play, he closed his eyes - but his imagination was still going strong.

As he lay there, he created a little dialog "with himself." Can you picture a three year old holding both sides of the conversation?

"bang bang" (Okay, his shooting noise was a bit more creative - but I can't spell it . . . )

"Hey! Why did you just shoot me?"

"I didn't shoot you."

"Yes, you did, why did you do it?"

"It wasn't me. It was the bad guy."

"bang bang"

"Hey! You just shot me again!"

"No, I didn't just shoot you. Those were nails."

"No, that wasn't nails. That was bullets."

"bang bang"

"You shot me in the leg."

"bang bang"

"Hey! Quit shooting me!"

"I not shooting you. That is my car!"

"Oh, can I come with you?"

"Sure, hop in."

"Where are we going?"

The dialog continued beyond this, but he started to whisper more and I couldn't hear all he was saying. I eventually had to cut the conversation off because he needed to sleep.

I would love to "see" into that little brain of his and see what he sees. His imagination is always making us laugh. Now we just have to help him tell difference between what REALLY happens and what is just a BIG story!

Snow

There is a lot to this story that really is very funny, except I think it ends up being one of those "you really had to be there" moments.

After one of our major snowstorms recently, Brice was standing in the open doorway leading to the deck looking at the huge snowdrift that had piled up by the door. Mikayla, being the loving sister she is, walked up behind him and gave him a huge shove, sending him flying head first into snowdrift.

Well, Mikayla was pretty proud of her achievement and proceeded to brag about it to her father. Buff, being the loving father that he is (now you know where Mikayla gets it), asked her to show him exactly what she had done. She fell for it. She went and opened the door to illustrate her genius - Buff grabbed her, picked her up and threw her into the snowdrift.

So, now Brice decides to go out into the snowdrift voluntarily because it seems to draw laughs. He puts on a few more layers and goes out and just lays there basking in the whiteness.

Once again, it was an opportunity that had to be taken. I grabbed the camera and Buff grabbed the snow shovel and headed to the bedroom window above where he could push the snow off of the roof onto the target below.

It worked beautifully. Brice never saw it coming.







This kind of stuff is funny when they are young. I am sure we'll be in trouble in a few years when they can actually outsmart us - and get us back.

Oh, well, we'll enjoy what we can in the meantime!

The face

Carra comes out of the bathroom and declares to me,

"Hey, Mom, the toilet was making a face at me. He was going like this:

Suddenly the bathroom has taken on a whole new perspective. Kind of freaky, if you ask me.

(P.S. Yes, we are trying to grow out bangs. It may be a while until we see her eyes again.)

What a ham!

I forgot to add this picture of Byren the other day. This picture cracks me up... look at where his eyes are! He went around the house looking like for awhile, we all got a good chuckle out of him!

Byren's new ride!

I have never seen a little boy get more excited over his new ride, than Byren did when papa bought this for him! He wanted to ride in the back of the pickup with it, but he is too little and it was too cold! So, we loaded him in his car seat and he had to look out the back window to make sure it was still there. When we got it home he ran to the back of the pickup to make sure it didn't blow away! All he could say was 'mine! mine! mine!' He was one happy boy! :o)

Too cute!

I love this picture, it is too cute not share... I love his smile!

Alive and well

I know we haven't checked in a while. Wow, has life been busy. We have been entertaining, going on field trips, doing school, watching it snow and snow and snow and snow . . . . fixing, cleaning and moving a lot of houses, babysitting, and everything else in between. To be perfectly honest, this week isn't looking much calmer, but I thought I would steal a few seconds and let you know we are still alive!

As far as new news - we don't have any. A lot happens around here, but not much in the way of stories and excitement. So rather than bore you with silly details of snow shoveling, laundry folding and math drills, I'll just share a few more photos of my kiddos that will explain why we stay home, lock the doors and pad the walls . . .


Yes, that is one of "those" on her forehead. They were playing doctor. Now really, if my doctor showed up wearing one of those hats and put one of those on my head I think I would be looking for a new clinic.

Owen is a "Tooking Man." (Interpreted: Cooking Man) What he really means to say is that it is a chef hat. Hey, he's three years old. He can officially play with plastic bags now.

Do you really want to know where that water came from? Yep, it's toilet water (and no, I don't mean perfume . . .) Potty training is progressing, but if we could get him to keep his other end on the toilet, I think we will be a bit more successful.

Ahhhhh, Carra Grace. She loves tattoos and so I shared with her that if she dips her watercolor colored pencils in water, she can draw on her skin too. We are still working on technique and style - but she is having fun in the meantime. The good news: It washes off much easier than tattoos!

I think he is a police man here. Doesn't he just demand respect and obedience?

This is the watercolor pencils at work again. She wants to know when I will buy her real lipstick so she doesn't have to keep using the pencils. Maybe when her hand is a bit more steady.

Well, I have a few more posts coming with more fun stuff to share . . . coming soon!

Baby pics

I had been hankering to get out and shoot my camera, so I asked another mom in our church if I could shoot some pictures of her little one.

It was a lazy day for litte O. She slept nearly the entire time. We had scheduled it so that I could get some sleepy pictures of her and then she would eat and be awake for a while so I could get some wide eyed photos. She slept. She ate. She slept again. You will notice in the two photos with her eyes open she is drifting back into dreamland. You can tell by the look in her eyes . . . .

I had a hard time narrowing down which ones I would share. . . .

Second star to the right . . . .

Carra Grace has always loved to color, but just recently her love has taken on a new form - drawing. She is getting as bad as Brice in the fact that I find paper all over the house with drawings all over them. I may be prejudice, but I think she does a great job. Of course, I have absolutely NO drawing ability (even my stick people are a joke!), so I admire a 5 year old who can draw better than her mother (even though it isn't asking a whole lot). Color and detail are very important to her. Sometimes too important.

Last night I found this picture laying on the table and it made me smile. I'm sure you can tell the theme . . .



I would love to know what else she sees and can draw!

Milestones

This has been a week of milestones for the kids. It is weeks like this where I keep thinking, "When did they grow up?" and then I feel this desperateness that time is slipping through my fingers and I have so much still to teach them! Those of you with grown children - does that ever go away?

Mikayla and I did some "girl" shopping this week. Of course, shopping like that leads to related conversations. I am trying to recall when I had these conversations and I am fairly confident that it wasn't when I was 11 years old! The conversations are good and her response is encouraging. She still doesn't believe me when I tell her she WILL care someday what a boy thinks about her. Today I will treasure her innocence and naivete.


Carra Grace read her first "book" today. It didn't seem strange to me when she turned 5, but the thought that she turns 6 next makes my head spin. She pulled out the book "Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry" and declared that this was the book she was going to read first. I admired her positive attitude, but thought maybe we should start a bit smaller. Since we have been doing some phonics together, I gave her a BOB book that had a whopping 4 words in it and told her I would give her a dollar if she conquered that one first. She sat right down and suffered her way through that book. I gave her the dollar, but we will be reviewing the book again. I was so proud of her endurance - not that it should have surprised me. If she puts her mind to it, she will do it! Of course, money helps.

We were fixing lunch today when we heard the toilet flush and the lid drop in the bathroom. I looked up to find Owen tearing out of the bathroom declaring that he had done stinky all by himself in the bathroom! Success has never smelled so sweet . . . okay, it actually stunk - but we did celebrate! If nothing else exciting happens this year, I think I will still consider the year a success! To be diaper free in 2008 . . . what a dream! Now if I could just make it rhyme . . .

Brice hasn't hit any major milestones this week. Right now we will just be glad when he actually learns his colors. Of course, it is only Wednesday.

The color . . . indigo???

We were reviewing the 7 colors of the light spectrum (i.e. the colors of a rainbow) in science class today. I asked the kids to tell me what the seven colors are in the order they appear in the spectrum. We use the acrostic Roy G. Biv to help us remember the order.

R - Red
O - Orange
Y - Yellow
G - Green
B - Blue
I - Indigo
V - Violet

I would give them the letter and they would yell out the color.

When we got to the letter "I", Brice got a little stumped - after all indigo is not a common color. He thought for a second then got very excited as the answer came to him.

"Oh, I know, "I" is for . . . ignorant!

He has no idea how right he was!

The real kids

I was uploading my pictures off my camera and found some real treasures.

Here is a peek into what our children REALLY look like on a normal day. The children you see on Sundays and out in public are not reality. There are many more pictures I should have taken but for some reason never did. You'll, of course, notice who seems to have the biggest imagination in the house.

I'm not quite sure what she is intending with this get-up but the face kind of freaks me out.

A beaver, of course, with a little left over lunch.

It's official.
Owen has crossed over to the dark side (which explains a lot).
He calls himself Dark Mater.

Here's what you get when you cross a swimming suit, a snow hat, and Sunday dress.

Just for fun!

I came across a fact or fiction quiz recently but I can't find it online to share it with you. Instead I found this one from the show MythBusters (which I have never watched due to the lack of cable or satellite tv - but I have heard about it.) I have no idea how reliable the information is, but it makes me curious if nothing else.

I took the Bug quiz - and failed miserably. Apparently I am rather gullible and believe most of what I hear.

You have lots of quizzes to pick from - have fun!

Kid quips

The kids amused us with some interesting insights these past few weeks:

1. Owen was introduced to his Great Grandma over Christmas.

When his cousin walked into the room, Owen felt it was his responsibility to introduce him to her.

"Hudson, do you know who that is? That is Big Grandma."



2. Carra and Brice don't always see eye to eye and can waste a large amount of energy squabbling.

After one such frustrating banter with her brother, I was helping her put on her boots and she seemed lost in thought. After a few moments she asked, "Mom, where did we get Brice? Did he lose his family or something and we took him in?"

Somehow it must explain things and bring her comfort to hope that maybe he is from somewhere else . . .




3. In light of our whole potty training ordeal, I passed through the room and smelled a foul odor.

Assuming the worst, I asked Owen, "Are you stinky, Owen?"

He stopped playing and seemed a bit frustrated at my accusation when he replied, "No, I not stinky, Mom. Everybody has butts, you know. It's not me!"

He was right. It wasn't him. It was the donkey. (I'll explain later . . . )

4. I was sharing the exciting news with our kids that good friends of ours were pregnant with their ninth child. The kids were excited and without missing a beat Mikayla turns to me (Tina) and says, "Mom, you could never do that. You couldn't handle nine kids could you?"

Hmmmm. Apparently, it shows a bit too much some days . . . .

Winter on the farm

We had a snowfall on Friday that left 8 inches of the most beautiful snow.

I'm beginning to see why my mom and dad moved into the country . . . .

















Ryan actually took most of the barn structure pictures - he seems to have a better eye for architecture! I can't always see it. Well done, Ryan!

Oh, I did see family members too - I'll have pictures of them soon.