Homebodies

The boys have been sick the last couple of weeks, so we've mostly been hanging out home. That doesn't mean we don't have fun, though. We've enjoyed some swing time...

When we moved into the house there was a little weed growing in the egress window in our basement. It started growing really fast and got quite big. Dave has insisted we keep his "tree" and let it grow. I have always found it gross and it started growing out of the grate over the window. The kids became scared of it and so I told Dave it was time for it to go. As he is strangely proud of it, he wanted a picture of how tall it got....

The big kids got to enjoy some water time one day when it was warmer. They love stripping down and playing in the hose. They were so cute cuddling under a towel after they came in.

And then like so often happens, Anna fell and got hurt. The poor thing, this time she really got herself good. She cried and cried. :(

Anna is in love with Jessie from Toy Story. I found her this bow and she is very much in love with it. :)

All our kids have such different likes when it comes to food. It can get quite frustrating coming up with meals when they don't all usually like any given food. One thing they do all love though, is spaghetti (or sgetti). Even Collin....

Dave put together a picnic for the MDPs (the program he did when he first started his job). After I took a group picture, one of the guys was playing with my camera and had fun with how fast it took pictures. So he had us group up to take a family picture. Of course the kids didn't look at the camera and smile, but I thought these were a good representation of our family.

Dave then took the kids over to play in the leaves and he managed to capture another picture of poor Anna getting hurt....

The poor thing. She got a little twig and some leaves in her eye. I had never seen something so big in some one's eye and while it hurt and she cried, she did sooooo good holding still and letting me get it all out.

As I was carrying Collin up for his nap, Dave grabbed the camera b/c he thought Collin was making a cute expression.

Me and my monkey!

He's pointing at Dave and saying, "Dada".

He really misses Dave when he's at work. I've put some new pictures up on our mantel and he fusses and reaches for Dave's picture like he wants his Daddy to hold him. It's pretty sweet and sad all at the same time. Collin has been talking more and more. He has been saying, "nahnah" (no) when he knows he's doing something wrong. We got him to say "Anna" and "than ooh" (thank you) once. He's been doing these high pitched screams that surprise us all. My favorite though is I've been trying to teach him to say ah, oh. So now when he drops something he goes, "Uhh uhh!". Benjamin and I think it's so funny!

The next day, Benjamin and Dave spent some special time together outside. He taught him some soccer skills and they had a lot of fun playing together.

Stopping the ball with the side of his foot, just like Daddy taught him to.

This boy is fierce! :)

Fun Around Town

*Warning: Long Post/Lots of Pictures*

While I was making dinner, Dave was putting videos on the computer for the kids. For some reason, Benjamin and Anna LOVE to watch things on the computer. Dave called me over b/c he thought it was so cute that Collin was watching too.

I have been going through the blog and finding pictures of the kids at bath time that I plan on decorating our bathroom with. When I was doing it I found several cute ones of 2 year old Benjamin and infant Anna bathing together and realized that Collin doesn't really ever bath with Anna. Dave and Benjamin went to wash cars after supper one evening and I thought it was the perfect opportunity to put the current 2 year old/infant kid combo in the bath. They both loved bathing together!

We got finished in time to check out Benjamin and Dave's hard work. It was Benjamin's first time and he loved every minute of it. They washed both cars and were at it past dark. Dave said that he was alternating rinsing the car off and watering the grass and that when he turned back to the car, Benjamin would be right there scrubbing the part Dave had just rinsed off. :)

Their hard work gained an audience....

We had a fun morning outside on Friday. It was nice to have Benjamin with us to play that morning. The weather was a little cool, but it was refreshing from all the hot temps we've had recently. The kids were very happy....

How crazy is this? I was taking pictures of Anna and Benjamin playing ball together and caught a picture of Anna catching a ball for the first time!

The sky has been so pretty and blue lately!

She's still a stinker!

I love the kisses. Benjamin on the way to school one morning, "I like it when Anna goes to school with me. (Me: Why?) Because. I like her and I like it when she's at my school with me." (even though they don't see each other until I pick them up)

These two are sooooooo much fun!!!

On Saturday we went to the Scottish Festival in our town (yes, we are that cool). It rained that morning and the kids were overjoyed to put on their rain gear and splash in the puddles!

This was Dave's idea......

My favorite part (other than hearing Anna say "festival") was watching the sheep dogs herding the sheep. It was such a neat thing to see.

Dave wanted a picture of Collin with his shoes on, but he didn't feel like posing for us. So this was the best I got....

Collin has taken to staying awake a lot when the big kids nap. He tries to climb in the kids' car all the time, so while they napped on Saturday, Daddy put him in it for the first time. We took turns pushing him around in it and playing with it and Collin was pretty pleased with himself!

At the Scottish festival, the kids got to paint shields. Benjamin was excited when he woke up that the paint was finally dry. So the boys (Dave and Benjamin) had a grand time "swording" together now that they both have swords and shields!

When we moved into our new house, we moved to the other side of the town we live in. Where we live now makes it so that we drive across a cool bridge for most of our trips. When we first moved in, the kids would happily declare, "Weeeeee!!!!" every time we drove across and Anna would find the bridge out of her window before we got there and ask if we were going to go across it. This weekend we thought it would be fun for them to get to walk across it and we were right!

Pretty bridge, even prettier girl. ;)

If you've been wondering what love looks like, this is it:

They will probably hate me for these pictures/stories someday.

Last week was A week at school. I told Benjamin we needed to be thinking of something to take in for sharing time that starts with A. He immediately responded with, "Well, how 'bout I bring Anna in. She starts with A and everyone would love her." Thankfully he settled for a picture of her and when I asked him if his friends liked the picture of his sister, he replied, "Yes they did. They thought she was very pretty."

"Anna do you want your ring?" "Yep!" "Well the only way I'm going to give it to you is if you marry me." "Okay." "So will you dance with me so we can get married or not?" "Okay." (they dance and then she tries to take the ring) "No, Anna. I have to put it on. When Momma and Daddy got married, she put the ring on Daddy and he put the ring on her. (whispers to me) Momma, which finger is the ring finger again?"

One day in the car, Benjamin started singing Anna The Married Song. It goes a little something like this: "I'm gonna find a special girl and we will get married and she'll be my wife. And you're gonna get married someday and then you'll be a wife." We had to have a conversation about why they aren't going to marry each other recently. Despite their understanding of this fact, they still pretend to get married almost everyday. The funny thing is that they think when you dance is when you become married. :)

Collin decided to join in on the love fest.

It hasn't rained much here and the river is really low. We thought this proof of how high the river has been before was pretty cool....

It's a neat bridge for our little town.

I really love these pictures (and people ;) ).

My little Spider Man. This morning he was watching a show and they were supposed to whisper a wish at the end. He whispered, "I wish to be Spider Man and get as big as my Daddy."

The girls!

A few days ago I overheard Anna tell her doll, "Oh, this is not my prince. We have to get him from school. I love my prince and I want to dance with him." Then on the way to school she started singing the Dora song, "Come on, vamonos. Everybody lets go. Come on lets get to it, I know that we can do it. Where are we going? To rescue Benjamin! Where are going? TO RESCUE BENJAMIN!!!!"

I miss Benjamin with him being at preschool four days a week. So I thought it would be special if he stayed up during nap time on Sunday and for he and I to have "date". It's really special to me when I can spend some time alone with one child. We went to a store and got him a jacket for the fall and then headed to the river. When we were on the bridge the day before, I showed him where we were going the next day and he decided that we were going "to the beach to look for treasure." Where we were standing is usually under water, so Benjamin was able to find lots of shells and special stones (his treasure).

Then we went for a walk in the park and found this cool tree to climb.

I tried to get a picture of the two of us.....

He is getting so much older/more mature and it is so fun to have some alone time with him: exploring, talking, and not having to settle sibling arguements.

He's really nice about posing for pictures for me. :)

As we continued the walk along the river, we came up to a big tower they have in the park and Benjamin surprised me by wanting to go up it. We had never done it before, but Benjamin did great. I told him to tell me if he needed to stop for a break and he said, "Momma, I'm not going to need a break because I'm never going to get tired until I climb this whole tower!"

There were pretty views awaiting us once we reached the top.....

He was excited to see one of the bridges we drive across over the river....

Here he is posing in front of "the beach" where he collected his treasures.

The tower after we climbed back down.

Benjamin wanted to take a picture of the top of the tower to show Daddy and this was his result. (Pretty good job, in my opinion!)

Collin turned 11 months on Sunday. That means only one more month of infant days. :( This year has gone so fast! Since it was Sunday, Dave was home and got to participate in Collin's 11 month picture with his bear. Which meant that Collin smiled at Daddy instead of the camera.....

Collin was happy to see his bear...

Collin has been developing his personality a lot lately. He is very good at letting you know (especially his siblings) when he doesn't like something. He is pulling up on everything, but doesn't cruise (walk along the furniture). His favorite past time remains looking out his window. He is starting to use a lot of words which is so fun to watch him learn. This is the order he has learned them: 1) bye bye 2) momma 3) dada 4) baa (ball) 5) daw daw (dog) and cah (cat) - he usually squeals these last two whenever he sees Zoe or Pepper. I've been trying to teach Collin "Night, night" when I put him down b/c he still has a hard time falling asleep sometimes. So, I thought maybe if he understood the words he would be more prepared and not cry as much when we put him in his bed. Dave was taking him to bed after he had woken up and then not gone back to sleep. So it was after 11:00 and I hadn't said the words to him recently and just said, "Collin can you say night, night?" And he just sweetly replied clear as can be, "Night, night." Dave and I got really excited and praised him (to which he always smiles and then burrows his head into our chest like he's embarrassed). He then did it over and over again for us!

I know this has been a long post with lots of pictures and stories, but here's one more quote that Dave wanted me to record so he could remember. "I have two things to ask you Momma. The first is: Is Daddy gonna be here when I wake up in the morning?" (Dave left for work early that day....they usually spend the morning just the two of them together). I tell him that I don't know (Dave is at a church meeting at the time), but I'll ask him. Then Benjamin sadly says, "Okay. And the other question is.............I don't remember what it is."