Before I Forget...

Some stories from the past couple weeks...

One day Micah and I were talking. He was telling me about something he did or liked. I said, "I love that about you, Micah...Actually, I love everything about you."

With a bob of his head he said, "Even that I'm CA-RAZY?!?"

Yup. Especially that you're ca-razy. :)

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At grandma day one week my sister's kids had their MP3 players. My kids were listening to them. It was after lunch and I was trying to find out if they wanted M&Ms. (She was out of brownies...*GASP!*)

I went up to Josiah and said in a loud voice, "Grandma doesn't have brownies. Do you want M&Ms?"

He shouts back at me, "WHAT?"

I repeat, even louder, "DO YOU WANT M&MS?"

"WHAT??"

I motion for him to take the headphones off. He does. To be silly, I mouth "M&Ms?"

HE RESPONDS AND SAYS, "Sure."

My mom, sister, cousin and I died laughing!!

So, Micah comes in, also listening to music and he is also talking to McCain. I'm standing right behind him and when he's done talking to McCain I say, "Micah, do you want M&Ms?"

Nothing. No response.

I'm following him around the room and try again, only louder this time,

"MICAH, DO YOU WANT M&MS?"

Nada.

I'm frustrated, so I sit down. Someone suggests I just try mouthing it to him. We all laugh. I decide to humor myself and try it. I walk over to Micah and tap him on the shoulder. I mouth, "M&MS?"

HE NODS HIS HEAD YES!!!

So, I've decided speaking is overrated. From now on I'm just going to mouth the words. Apparently it's more effective, anyway. Plus, if I can get everyone in the house to follow the same philosophy, my house will be a much quieter, hopefully more peaceful place. Besides, just think how much easier it is to ignore someone who is only mouthing something in your direction.

Oh wait. On second thought, maybe I need to reconsider this... :)

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This is Emilia's lullabye that she sings to her babies:

"Rock a baby
Into my (really high note) heart,
Little star"

Repeat indefinitely.

{this moment}

A Friday ritual. A (not-so) single photo - no words - capturing a moment from the week. A simple, special, extraordinary moment. A moment I want to pause, savor and remember. Happy Friday!

My Girls Are Talented

I mean, really. Can any of you do this? (would you want to?)


(that picture could also be called "What 8 hours in the car will lead to...)

Or this? Could you do it when you were 4 months old??


Talent shows, here we come!

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We spent the afternoon at the park/creek on Wednesday. Emilia has been potty training so she was in her suit sans diaper. I was worried about her pooping while we were there because it was "that time of day," but one trip down the side of the creek on her tush and I didn't have to worry about that anymore--it looked like she had anyway!



(I also have to add, she never did poop in her suit...although I highly doubt she made it the whole afternoon without peeing, as she claims)

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Audra has made an amazing discovery this week. Her hand.



Let me tell you something--that hand is The. Coolest. Thing. Ever.

Have you seen how it moves? Have you noticed how the slobber just drips off it?



DID YOU KNOW IT CAN MAKE SHADOWS, TOO?!?


The awesomeness of the hand knows no bounds.

I'm only being slightly silly about this. Your hands ARE pretty awesome, when you think about it

{this moment}

A Friday ritual. A single photo - no words - capturing a moment from the week. A simple, special, extraordinary moment. A moment I want to pause, savor and remember. Happy Friday!

Five

Reasons Why Banana Pudding is a Good Choice for Breakfast:

1. It has milk in it

2. It has fruit in it

3. It has eggs in it

4. It goes well with coffee

5. Because I'm the mom and I can sneak eat it behind the refrigerator where no one can see me.

A New Pen Pal

Josiah wrote his first letter!

He was so excited and so proud of himself. (and I am a proud momma!) I think he spent an hour deciding what to write and what to draw and what colors to use and how to fold the paper. He used his "spell checker" (me) for almost every word, even though he already knew how to spell them all. He was nervous, too. He kept asking questions like, "Do you think if I put the question mark on the next line she'll know that this was supposed to be a question and I just ran out of room up here?" or "What do you think she'll think about the way I colored us?" (He drew a picture of him and Rylee writing each other letters) I loved watching him do this! And because I'm a photo addict, you can "watch" him take it to the mailbox. :)

Looking both ways before he crosses the street:


Putting the letter in:


Putting up the flag:


Trying to wipe the big ole smile off his face:


BUSTED with the big ole smile!! :)


P.S. His pen pal is my cousin's daughter, Rylee. Jodi (my cousin) and I talked about having the kids write letters last summer, but it just never happened. Josiah remembered us talking about it and asked to do this, this year, all on his own. Because of that, he is much more excited about it than he was at the mention of it last year! :)

P.P.S. Random tidbit...the joy of having a garden is that when your child asks at snack time if he "can just have some vegetables instead," after you decide that he must be part alien, you can tell him there are some sugar snap peas ripe outside and he can go pick some after he's done choking down the 'nilla wafers you gave him.

And he'll be so happy to do it that he'll bring in extras for everyone else!!

All in Good Time

Overheard yesterday in the car:

Micah: I wish my hair was short like yours, Josiah.

Josiah: Well, you can get a haircut.

Micah: I know.

Josiah: So, do you want a haircut?

Micah: Yeah, maybe when I'm...

ten.


Ha-ha-ha! I laughed out loud when he said that! I asked again, just to make sure and he does not want a haircut at this time. Someday, he said.

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Audra is growing up so fast. In just 2 days my baby will be 4 months old! She can rollover, now--well on her way to being mobile!



She is oh-so very chubby and I L*O*V*E it! She's got rolls on her rolls and I think it is just adorable!



I got a chance to make her a silkie last week while the boys were at VBS. She seems to like it. :)



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This picture is one that Micah drew last week at "BBS" (that's what Emilia called it). The theme for the week was Saddle Ridge Ranch and the boys came home with something cowboy-ish everyday.



This is God being a cowboy. He's holding his hat over his head and the lines coming out of his legs are the many, many spurs on his boots.

Three Things

Three quotes from today:

Emilia was pretending to pack up to go somewhere. She came up to me and said,

"Bye, Mommy! Love you soon!"

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Emilia, talking on the pretend phone:

"Mark? Mark? (Mark is our neighbor)

You got Weston there? (Weston is their little boy. He is 1 month older than Emilia.

Ok. Bye."

She puts the phone down. Picks it back up and says,

"Mark? Mark?

I talk Weston?

Weston? I come over now."

John has ordered bars to put on the windows. :)

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This afternoon was not a pretty sight between our boys. Much fighting. Much yelling. Much disagreeing.

My favorite quote (by Micah),

"STOP LOOKING AT ME SUSPICIOUS!"

A Song from VBS

Micah was singing me a song from VBS. He said, "Mommy, I'm going to sing you a song from VBS, but I'm only going to sing you the beginning of the end of it.

A-J-P-P-Y

He shows me all the time,
He shows me all the (hiccup) time.

Only, mommy, it doesn't really have hiccups in it. I just have hiccups right now.

So, now I'm just going to sing you the end of the end of it.

He shows me all the time,
He shows me all the time,
He shows me all the time,
He shows me all the time."

I told him I think the beginning of the end is supposed to be "H-A-P-P-Y." He thought that made more sense.

I love that boy.

I, Princess

The boys are in VBS this week, so it's just been me and the girls in the mornings. Emilia's been feeling a little left out by not getting to stay and do the crafts and stuff with the boys, so I've been trying to do fun stuff with her while they are gone. Yesterday, we went to the zoo. Or "to the animals," as she says.

We spent a lot of our time at the zoo watching the chips play. When we first got there, all of the chimps except for the little baby were sleeping. But by the time we walked away, the little baby had woken up all of the chimps and they were running around creating chaos (helped along by the roll of toilet paper they had been given and had strewn all over their room).



Also, by the time we left the chimps, a storm was-a-brewing. So, we headed for the car...

but didn't make it out in time.



After getting quite wet, we went to Krispy Kreme to console ourselves since our zoo trip was cut short.



Emilia kept putting on the hat and saying,

"I, princess."



Yup. She's a princess to me!

Humor

My kids make me laugh.

Or make me WANT to laugh, even when I can't because it's not appropriate and I'm the "MOM" and have to be old and humorless and not crack a smile.

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Micah was looking at my legs this afternoon and laughed and said, "Hey mom! Look at your legs! They've got little dots all over them! Josiah, come see!"
(it's been a couple days since I've shaved...)

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Josiah got mad this afternoon and just before storming out of the room he turned around and said, "I'm so mad I could almost say the word STUPID!!"

I tried hard not to laugh. I'm not sure what this did to my face, but it must have looked scary to Josiah because he calmly said,

"But I'm not going to."

And left the room and went outside.

And then I bent over with laughter.

History Lesson

Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it.
--George Santayana

I love living in town with most of my family. True, there are times when it's not all sunshine and rainbows, but that is far outweighed by how much I love sharing my life with my family.

For almost 10 years now, my mom, sister and I (and our kids, as they've arrived) have met at my grandma's once a week for lunch. We call it "grandma day." I love grandma days. I love talking to everyone and hearing about their week, catching up on each others lives and hearing everyone's stories. Love the stories. I love having the women in my family to laugh and vent and help figure out life with.

My grandma has some of the best stories. She grew up in rural Minnesota in a time very different from my life and I just love hearing about her life. This is a story she told me not too long ago, and boy, am I glad she told me!

One of my grandma's sisters was in charge of making bread for their family. One morning, after mixing the bread and setting it aside to rise she had to leave and left my grandma in charge of finshing making the bread.

"All you have to do is wait until the bread rises to the top of the bowl. Then punch it down, shape it into loaves and put it in the oven."

Simple, right?

Well, my grandma was BUSY, you see. She was in the middle of something JUST as important as bread for the family. Her job couldn't be abandoned merely for bread!

She was elbow deep in making MUDPIES! And she forgot all about the bread.

When she remembered and ran inside to finish her sister's loaves, the bread had risen over the top of the bowl, down the side and onto the counter. Ahhh! That wasn't supposed to happen!

Since she wasn't she wasn't the usual breadmaker, my grandma wasn't exactly sure what to do. Her sister said the bread would only rise to the top of the bowl. Now what would she do??

What would YOU do?

My grandma's a smart and creative lady. Apparently, she leaned more toward the "creative" side as a child.

She cut off the extra dough and buried it outside.

The rest of the dough was shaped into loaves...only they were a bit smaller than usual. No one knows why...

75 years later, in my kitchen last week



THANK GOODNESS for my grandma's story or I might have buried all that perfectly good dough out in my backyard.