A Little Imagination Goes a Long Way

When Joel went out in the back yard today to see what Joanna, Caleb, and Eliana were up to, they invited him to join in playing house with them. Joanna was cooking in the "kitchen" and Caleb announced with a water pistol in hand, "I'm gonna hunt for chicken!" That was too good of an invitation, so Joel grabbed a super soaker "gun" and joined Caleb for the hunt. Caleb said that the best way to hunt chickens and turkeys is to hide behind something (like the electricity box) and wait for them to come out. Then you run out and shoot them. So that's exactly what they did and brought home several plump turkeys and chickens for Joanna to cook up.

Since this was an old-fashioned frontier house, they would have to cook the chickens over the fire. First Caleb plucked the chickens with his super vacuum plucker machine (an admitted anachronism for the frontier days) , and then began turning them over the fire (sandbox) on a "spit."


Then Joanna came up with a better plan of having the birds cook on a rack (basketball net) over the fire. Eliana helped collect the green leafy vegetables (weeds from the yard) for the salad.


However, when Mom arrived home from the store with a (real) pizza, all plans of eating the sumptious poultry and salad dinner were scrapped in favor of the pizza.

2 months old

Karis is getting so big. We all love her talking to us and her little squeaks.

The kids just love this shirt. - "Daddy does my hair."

They laugh every time she wears it.

"So big!"

An evening at the park

Evenings are a nice time to go to the park now that the warmer weather is here. There was some new equipment that the kids got to enjoy and of course the good ol' swings.

Tootles can't go in the swings yet, but it won't be long.

Sleep!!

Karis slept for a little over 8 hours last night!! I woke up around 5am and thought she was waking up, but it was just the birds outside. She was still sleeping. It's always nice to get a little more uninterrupted sleep. Now I just need to get to bed when she goes to sleep.

The Grumble Box

Tonight we read a story about a family who grumbled about everything. To help solve all the grumbling, the mom decided to start a grumble box. Whenever anyone grumbled they had to put a nickel in the box. While we were talking, we decided, "Hey, maybe we should have a grumble box too." After a while, Caleb said, "I wish we didn't read this story tonight because now we have a grumble box."

Karis is talking

Well, according to Caleb she is. He came running in the room the other day yelling, "Karis said her first word! Karis said her first word!!! She said blehhhhh." He then came back a second time (yelling, of course) "Karis said her second word!" (Sorry, I don't remember what the second "word" was!)

Karis' new bouncer

We borrowed Scott & Rebekah's baby bouncer and Karis just loves the little birdie on it.

Happy Birthday Joel

Instead of cake, we went out for ice cream to celebrate Joel's birthday. The kids had a good time licking and chatting. Joel asked the kids if we could fit all his candles in his cone - they didn't think it was possible. A little later, we were talking about our trip to Texas in a couple of weeks and Caleb said, "There's one I don't like about Texas...There's a lot of bandits there." (We're still wondering where he picked up that idea.) Joanna also made up an original joke:

Q - "What do you call a cow who is afraid of you?"

A - "A COWard!"

Chocolate chip fun

The kids were getting silly after supper last night.

The crazy things you can do with chocolate chips.

Crazy day

It has been one of those days. We had a doctor's appointment today and on the way realized that there was no pacifier to be found. Needless to say it was a little crazy, but not too bad. Until.....Eliana decided she had to go to the bathroom really bad while I was in the middle of changing a very dirty diaper. I let her go since it was right next to our room. The next thing I know she's in there crying because she can't get a paper towel to dry her hands. I tried to go in, but she LOCKED the door. I asked her to unlock the door so I could help her and of course she can't get it unlocked. I had lots of help trying to get it unlocked, but nothing. It's not easy explaining to a 3-year old that we would get it open eventually. When we finally got the door open, we saw a very teary little girl and a huge pile of paper towels on the floor. ( I guess she couldn't get them to rip apart??) Now I'm on to the next crisis--a missing Lego Storm Trooper. Maybe I'll get to take a shower soon before the spit up in my hair gets too sour smelling....

Exploration Place

These were some of the favorite exhibits of the day. They all enjoyed trying to "Be in a Bubble", watching the pendulum, water art and of course the big castle room. They had a good time showing everything to Uncle Dave, while Karis just enjoyed the ride.

Uncle David's here

By Joanna:

My uncle's here and we've had some fun with him. Yesterday we played baseball with him and we went to the River Festival. Today we are going to the Exploration Place and it lasts from 12:00-8:00.

We love the dentist

Can you tell why???

They love the arcade games! We even go a little early because we usually don't have to wait that long.

This is Joanna through the bird sanctuary.

Here Eliana is getting her teeth counted.

Caleb gets a good report! He always does a good job brushing his teeth.

Waiting fun

Here we are waiting during Joanna's piano lesson. Sometimes a 1/2 hour can seem like forever, but today went fast since it was so nice. Eliana and Caleb run laps around the trees for exercise, and Caleb tries to see how fast he can go around them all.

Happy Mother's Day!

Happy Mother's Day to all, especially our great moms and grandmas!

Big Eyes

Just loved this picture of Eliana's eyes!

Awana Awards Night

The kids had their awards night for Awana last night. They all finished their books and then some. Joanna was recognized for finishing an extra set of verses beyond her books. We celebrated afterwards with some friends at Baskin Robbins!

I took some of these other pictures from the very back of the church so they're not too clear. Eliana was pretty cute on the stage. She got a very big smile and started waving once she saw Joel.

Eliana is 3rd from the left - waving to dad!

Babies Don't Keep

Babies Don't Keep

Cleaning and scrubbing

Can wait till tomorrow,

For babies grow up

We've learned to our sorrow.

So quiet down cobwebs,

Dust go to sleep,

I'm rocking my baby,

And babies don't keep.

I got this in an email recently. Time does go by so fast with a little one.

Eliana's Tree

We received this tree as a gift when Eliana was born. They've both grown a lot in 3 years, but I think Eliana is growing faster than the tree.

1 month old

Karis is 1 month old already! Here are some pictures from the past couple days.

(Just a note: Karis does have chubby cheeks, but not as chubby as a some of these pictures seem!!)

Our book worm

Early this evening I asked Joanna to do something and a little while later I realized she hadn't done what she'd been asked to do. When asked why she wasn't done, her sheepish response was, "I got caught in my book."