Adam says...

I can't count how many times a day I find something that doesn't belong in Adam's room.

It is usually something from my kitchen.

Something he is not supposed to touch.

Something he has been told NOT to touch over and over again.

He thinks it is cool.

It is usually the same thing every time.

And each time I find my knife sharpener under his bed, 

I bring it back to the knife block in the kitchen and remind Adam,

"It's Not A Sword!"

And Adam replies in his sweet little voice,

"But it looks like a sword, Mom."

(No more Peter Pan movies for you!)

Joshua's 3rd Birthday

Happy Birthday Joshua!

How did you get to be 3 years old?

My Dad picked out these two hot wheel cars for Joshua.  Joshua hasn't put them down since he opened the package!  He has carried them everywhere all day and night!  :)

I promised myself I would NEVER make another train cake after making one for Emily's third birthday.  I guess I forgot how much time it really takes to assemble.  Joshua's reaction was worth it!

These two boys sat here and stared at the cake for 20 minutes after I finished it.  Later, I discovered at least 2 fingerprints in each train car where they sampled the frosting.

Love that grin!

Stealing Spoons

Mom and Jamie... this post is for you!

I remember you telling me what happened after I left for school as a kid. Jamie would reach over and take my bowl and spoon after breakfast and finish what was left. Somewhere out there is a picture of my sister, Jamie with two spoons in her mouth at the same time!

Olivia does this with Emily's bowl and spoon now!

Annual Hot Dog picnic in the mountains

I'm playing catch up with pictures I forgot were in my camera.

These are from our family's annual hot dog roasting picnic in the mountains. We have been doing it every Fall.

This year, Emily cooked her own hot dog.

Great Family picture! Where's Mom?

The reason we bring lots of baby wipes, water, and hand sanitizer.

Miriam roasted her own marshmallows.

After dinner, the kids love playing by the river.

They love throwing rocks into the water.

It gives a whole new meaning to the word,

"Erosion."

Mom...what kind of rock is this?

"Smile how you want the kids to remember you years from now..."

Chaos

It's a good thing kids are cute.

They wouldn't survive otherwise.

Consider the range from Chaos to Order.

Where do my kids fall on that scale?

(let's not rate me right now.) :)

My two sweet boys have been the cause of a LOT of chaos in our house recently.

(girls too, but not as destructive)

For example:

1. Scissors and bed sheets

This beautiful hole is 8 inches long and 3 inches wide. (see Hot Wheels car for scale.) This hole is ragged and choppy. I think I might be able to save the sheet with some double stick fusible web I got from the craft store. I'll just cut a piece to patch, and iron it on. I hope it works.

This next hole is missing all the pieces from the center. I have no idea where they are. It is smaller than the other hole - only 3" by 2". Who knows when the boys might find the scissors again, and what they might cut next. (I think I have them all hidden) I even found some snips in the backs of their animal quilts I pieced, and their pajama pants.

2. Pens and couch cushions (and walls).

Look closely and you can see a faint scribbling artwork that won't come off. I tried using Purel (as recommended on lots of websites for removing ball point pen from microfiber) and if the fabric wasn't textured, it may have worked. This is 1/4 of a couch cushion. The artwork goes on and on...

3. Baby Powder

What happens when the kids get the lid off of the BIG bottle of baby powder. Lots and lots of dusting. Olivia was covered head to toe, plus most of the downstairs. At least it was deodorized.

4. Electronics

Yes, the T.V. is still covered in baby powder in the picture below, but this example is not about the dust.

How about WATER and ELECTRONICS!

Yes, "Someone" threw water at the TV. No one will give me a strait answer. Now the sound is shorted out. No more T.V.

5. Propane

Yet again, that child named "Someone" (or their sibling) turned the knob on the propane tank to open. It was sitting outside the open kitchen window. The wind was blowing it in the house. We couldn't find the source of the mysterious gas smell for hours. Finally, I walked outside and heard the hissing sound of the gas escaping from under the BBQ grill. (I haven't used the grill for about 2 weeks so it wasn't me.) Good thing we have fans.

6. Sometimes kids just can't help the chaos, for example, when the eat! Olivia has a new habit of hanging on her pigtails. No matter what food item is in her hair, it becomes hair gel during dinner. She likes to slick the hair until it stands out strait.

Like I said, It's a good thing kids are cute!

Chaos reminds me of a conversation I had with Miriam a few weeks ago. She asked me why she had to clean her room. A thought popped into my head about how to explain it to her. I told her God organizes things. He found a mess and organized the world. He cleaned it up and put everything where it was supposed to go. You get to practice on your room so you can learn how to organize things to become like God. Se seemed to accept that answer (or at least, she didn't argue). As I walked out her bedroom door, I felt rather guilty about that one corner of my kitchen that is called "my desk" that I am never able to maintain.

Emily's Birthday

Last week we had another birthday at our house.

Happy 9th birthday Emily!

(when did you get so old?)

This random shot of the boys that was just too cute..

In this picture, Emily just unwrapped a camera and can't believe it. She has been begging for her very own camera.

First thing she did was chase Miriam for a while trying to get some good pictures. Miriam didn't want to cooperate at first and hid - down the street. Later, Miriam was thrilled to pose for Emily.

The Cake. Looks just like Dad's cake did in July, but with more candles.
The layers from bottom up are: Devil's food cake, Hershey's chocolate syrup, Mint Chocolate Chip ice cream, more chocolate syrup, cake, pudding/cool whip frosting. Emily choose the layers, and we had another ice cream cake. SOOOOO YUMMMY! (I liked this one better than Michael's strawberry ice cream cake.)

Here is a sample slideshow of Emily's photography since receiving her camera. Some of them are really good! (I took the first picture of the girls with new haircuts - with Emily's camera. That's how it got on this slideshow and now I'm just going to leave it there.)

My father gave Emily water balloons. It took 1 hour to fill 100 balloons, and 10 minutes for the girls to break them all. Adam squirted the girls with his water gun the whole time. At the very beginning, you can see Joshua run out of the video and then you can hear him complain about getting wet in his very cute 2-year old voice. You can probably guess this is the FIRST time they have had a water fight. They took turns throwing them at each other.

Yes, that's Olivia at my (messy) computer desk. Her main goal in life is to get on the seat and push as many keys as possible, and click the mouse buttons over and over. One day, she opened 41 Internet Explorer windows! It killed my computer. I never use Internet Explorer because it always freezes everything - and Olivia opened 41 times as many windows!