Happy Halloween!

Tonight was the annual pumpkin carving with Dad. Julia wanted to have a scary face and showed Brent the look she wanted on her pumpkin including the crinkled up nose. After carving her pumpkin, she was so disappointed and sad.....She didn't like that look.... and wanted a scary, smiling pumpkin instead! Jacob found his face he wanted to carve in a newspaper. And Abbie's pumpkin had to have circles, a rectangle, and triangles for the mouth. Happy Halloween!

"Indiana Jacob Jones"

Last Friday, about 20 minutes after we got home from school, Jacob said he had this great idea. He said he wanted to swing from the trees like on tv. I didn't know what he was talking about so had him explain a little more what he was thinking.
"Mom, you know that commercial where that guy Indiana Jones swings through the trees? Well, that's what I want to do." Trying to be a little persuasive and get him to hold off on his idea until Dad got home (thinking maybe he'd forget about his idea).....really didn't make a difference. He had this idea and was going to figure it out. He proceeded to tell Abbie and of course Abbie was hooked into the plan. Not too long after, I looked out and saw them with a big rope, a ladder, and some good teamwork.
So if you drive by our house and see this rope hanging from our tree....just picture "Indiana Jones" himself.... swinging from that tree.

Pre-School or Homeschool

Abbie has become quite the "little teacher" since going to Kindergarten. She plays school all the time - before breakfast, when she walks in the house after school, after supper...... And Julia has become a great student for her class. She has Julia line up to go to "music class" or has Julia sitting in a circle for story time. Whatever happens in Abbie's class at school happens in Julia's class at home. Most of the time we have one ear tuned into what Abbie is teaching Julia which is quite comical at times.

The other day while Abbie was at school, Julia wanted to color. When she was done she said she needed to write her name on her paper. We knew Julia could say the letters for her name but didn't expect to see this written on her paper. I was quite surprised that a 3 year old could write her name like this when never being formally taught. It looks like we may not need to send Julia to Pre-School next year as she's being home-schooled by Abbie this year.

Never a Dull Moment

As you may have been able to tell there is never a dull moment at our house. Have you ever tried to wrestle with your five year old daughter while your 3 year old daughter is using you for a slide while at the same time throwing the football to your son who is practicing 'dive' catches into a pile of cushions?! Well, that was the scene at our house tonight right after dinner. Frankly, there is not much else that is better than to retire to the living room after dinner to be a live 'jungle gym'.

Speaking of another "dull moment".... we usually have a pile of DVDs and CDs resting on the top of the stereo receiver for quick access that the kids watch or listen to. Last week, I went to use the DVD player and the tray would not open. It kept stalling and displayed an error that I had never seen before..."LOCKED" I thought what the world could be locked. About that time I was beginning to notice how clean the top of the stereo receiver was and a helpless fear set in. My first question was to Abbie to see if she knew where all the DVDs/CDs went. She didn't know but Julia piped right in and offered up that she had proudly put them all "inside".

I finally had time this evening to take apart the stereo system and pull out the DVD player at an attempt to retrieve the swallowed DVDs. After choking on the dust from the back of the player, I finally got the cover off and found 14 DVDs/CDs stuffed into a 5 disc changer. There were two discs that were somehow stuffed under the rotating tray and I had to take the tray apart further to rescue them. The kids thought it was funny and I did too, AFTER, I retested the player and realized I wouldn't have to replace it.

Thanks to Julia, I now know a little more about the inner workings of a DVD player AND the area behind the stereo is a little cleaner now.

5 Boys!

Congratulations to my sister Ellie and Kenny on their new addition - Ty. What a special blessing from God. We are so excited to see him and cuddle with the little guy. When that topic comes up in our house it seems like we have a little disagreement as to who gets to hold him first.

The other night Abbie was praying before she went to bed and in the middle of her prayer she said, "And God, please be with Ellie and her new baby and let's see....there's 1-Kenny, 2-Zach, 3-Nick, 4-Ben, and 5-the new baby. That's a lot of boys for Ellie to take care of so she might need some help."

Ellie - we know you'll be able to handle those 5 boys most days, but on days like... well, you know....just remember Matthew 19:26.