Story Time

Everything is quiet now because all my kids are asleep...at the SAME TIME!  Woohoo!  So, since I have no children to tell stories to, I will tell them to you.

Story #1

Building a Tower

Once upon a time in a land far away, two children decided to build a tower...

The first child climbed on her tower, and declared at the top of her voice, "lkueoichksnliojfkldj!"  (Actually that's not what she said, but it certainly wasn't in a language I've ever heard.  This might be the tower of Babel.  Their language was confounded right?)

The second child climbed on his tower and proclaimed at the top of his voice, "Cars and airplanes and ice cream and hiking!"  (Among other things...apparantly you make your declarations on top of these towers and only one person is allowed on at a time.  This one just might be the Rameumptom.)

The End

Story #2

Big Brother, Little Brother
A Picture Story

The End

Story #3

Smile Chart Swimming

A short time ago, where the water was blue...

Was a happy father fish and his little fishes two.

"Swim!" said the father.

"We swim!" said the two.

So they swam and they splashed where the water was blue.

The End

Siamese Twins?

I have no idea what is going on in these pictures because I wasn't there and haven't even been told about it...but my mom sent these to me and I thought they were hilarious.  Does anyone have any fun ideas for captions for each of these photos?

Alex's Blessing

Last Sunday, May 2nd, we had Alex's baby blessing. 

Here he is all dressed up.

You know how you worry about a baby this age leaking out of his diaper when he's all dressed up, especially in white?  We finally had a baby who exploded while in his blessing outfit!  He did it right before church started and it was a real mess.  THANKFULLY, I'd had some foresight and put a white onesie on underneath his outfit.  The onesie caught ALL of the mess somehow!  Phew!

I finally took a picture of all three kids.

Alex was getting less and less happy about it, so by the fourth picture he was done!

A lot of our family came for the blessing.  Here we are! 

Dave and Sarah; cute picture!

Momma and the sweet boy

Ben, Daddy, and Annie (I don't know why she looks unhappy here; I think she was doing okay?)

Josh and Annie

Grandma and Grandpa with Alex

I actually took this picture before church that day.  Annie thought she'd gotten herself ready for church, and I really liked her outfit. :)  When I took the picture I told her to keep her eyes open because she usually blinks...so she did!

Some of my pictures wouldn't upload, so there may be a few more to come...

Visiting Papa at Work

The kids successfully filled their smile chart last week, so we visited my dad at work on Monday.

First, we ate our popsicles in the break room...

A lucky girl managed to get two popsicles.

Then we they climbed up to the top of a lot of stairs on the water treatment plant.  My dad thought they'd be scared because you can see through the steps ALL THE WAY DOWN and it gets fairly high, but they loved it.  (I was terrified of those same stairs when I was a little girl.)  I have such brave children!  It's too bad I forgot I had a camera just then.

Then on to the farm! 

Logan wanted to see everything all at once, and was talking non-stop.  He loved looking at the horses.  Annie was terrified of EVERYTHING....especially those horses.

Logan was very excited to get on the big tractor.

Annie was less than thrilled to be on a little tractor.

We climbed up to the loft in the barn.

Then we looked at the horses again.

The funniest thing happened here.  The horses kept sticking their noses through the rails when Logan came near, and my dad told Logan that they wanted a kiss.  So Logan kissed one RIGHT ON THE LIPS!  I even had my camera on him at the time, but didn't manage to push the button fast enough.

Thanks for letting us come visit Papa!

Pink Eggs and Ham

Annie was looking pretty cute the other day, so I had to take a picture...

...but that's not really what this post is about.

After our exciting lunch with green eggs and ham, Logan requested red eggs and ham one day this week.  So we put the red food coloring in, and ended up with pink eggs and bacon (because we were out of ham).  Close enough right?

Jim just so happened to be home during lunch time, so he joined us.  Apparantly, pink eggs aren't as daunting as green eggs.

"Say!  I like 'pink' eggs and ham!  I do!  I like them, Sam-I-am!"

Feel the Burn!

Today I did something that I haven't done in a long time...I ran 2.2 miles!  It's been about 10 months since I last did any running, and I have to say, it's a lot more difficult than swimming (for me anyway)!  So I'm feeling pretty pleased with the short distance that I achieved today (and I suspect I'll be feeling it still tomorrow!)  Hooray for exercise!  

Trapped! (Again!)

You know how sometimes you get that feeling that you shouldn't do something, and then you do it anyway?  I had that experience last night.  Jim and Logan were at the store and I was expecting them home anytime.  Alex was already in bed, and Annie was helping me finish my housework.  We washed the inside windows of our patio door, and then I had the idea that I would wash the outside of those same windows.  I hesitated for a moment, though.  It was pretty cold outside, and I was barefoot and wearing summer weather pajamas.  I did it anyway; I'd only be cold for a minute and I wouldn't let Annie come outside.  While I was washing and she was trying to open the door I had this thought, "What if she locked me out here?"  I finished washing, and turned the handle...but that's all that happened!  She'd locked the deadbolt!  That particular deadbolt is difficult for the children to unlock but easy to lock, and many times I have been grateful for that because it has kept them in the house.  Well, she certainly wasn't coming outside!  Did I mention that I could see my breath?  Did I also mention that we live on the third floor?  Sliding down a drain pipe was definitely out of the question.

So...for the next twenty minutes (I could have sworn Jim was due home!) I tried to get Annie to unlock the door.  She tried...occasionally...and was unsuccessful.  At one point, I heard her say, "Baby Alex!" and disappear down the hall.  I was a little bit nervous about that; the not so gentle big sister had access to the baby and I didn't.  Thankfully, she reappeared quickly.  A few minutes later she started crying because she couldn't get to me.  Thankfully again, she cheered up when I started making silly faces at her.  Finally, I had a brilliant idea!  I told her to climb on the couch that was near the door so she could reach the lock more easily.  I asked her to try turning it one more time while I pushed on the door to make it nice and loose.  It worked!  Then in walked Jim two minutes later!

This was my view during the event.

I really need to be more careful about letting my children lock doors on me.  (If you're wondering what I mean, see my post from Feb. 18, 2010.)

Squid Dogs for Dinner

Sounds delicious, right?  My mom showed me this idea in a FamilyFun magazine a while ago, and I decided to try it yesterday. 

The kids loved them!

The kids had fun making them, too, although I didn't take any pictures.  They are really simple; you just push hard spaghetti pieces through your hot dogs in whatever manner you wish, and then boil.

Good Little Helpers

Recently, Annie and Logan have begun sharing more of the housework around here.  They now put away their own laundry.  It's a great help, and they usually even get their clothes in the right drawers.  I am wondering, however, if I should continue folding it before giving it to them...

They even help re-organize Alex's drawers...