Random

Things I've heard over the last several days:

Isabella, pointing to her hasbrown casserole "Look, I made Joseph and all his brother's and Mom and Dad bowing down around him"

Sophia (at a different meal), "I made a picture of Jesus dying on the cross, in my Ketchup"

Alexander, over and over and over, "Mama, where are you?" "Mama, what are you doing?", "look at me Mama", "I'm a strong boy."


Sophia and Ari and I went to Hyvee "alone" and we found a horse on a stick for Alexander for Christmas, you know, the kind you ride on. When we were leaving with the horse I started telling Sophia that since it was a Christmas present it was a secret and she couldn't talk about it. Several minutes later, as we were driving, she said, "Mama, can I talk about the horse if I just call it 'the chocolate monkey' and then they won't know what I am talking about?"
I thought that was a fabulous idea, so I told her that would be just fine!



Aunt Lora sent Isabella a poem to read to the other kids a few days ago, so I printed it off and she read it to them. a few words into it she said, "I've heard this before." I asked her where she had heard it and she said, "Grammy and Aunt Lora and Aunt Mimi say it every time we swing".
Mission accomplished.


Here's the Poem and the picture Isabella colored to illustrate it.

Stevenson, Robert Louis (1850–1894). A Child’s Garden of Verses and Underwoods. 1913.

34. The Swing

HOW do you like to go up in a swing,
Up in the air so blue?
Oh, I do think it the pleasantest thing
Ever a child can do!
Up in the air and over the wall,	5
Till I can see so wide,
Rivers and trees and cattle and all
Over the countryside—
Till I look down on the garden green,
Down on the roof so brown—	10
Up in the air I go flying again,
Up in the air and down!

The picture shows Aunt Lora pushing Isabella (wearing a crown) on the swing, and you can see the privacy fence around Aunt Lora's yard in the background. It is also labeled so that you can see who is Isabella and who is Aunt Lora. :)

First lost tooth

Isabella's tooth has been loose for a LONG time, but it finally came out. To make it an even more memorable experience, it came out while we were at a performance of the Nutcracker!

"pretend Thanksgiving"

Since Anna and Levi were heading back to Hawaii the week before Thanksgiving we decided to have "Pretend Thanksgiving" last weekend. In hopes of it being "like the old days" but with a lot more kids, Anna called it "The old days: The Next Generation"
Nothing is quite like the old days when you throw in 7 kids under 6, but we all had fun anyway. The kids had a lot of fun playing outside since it was so nice.
Swinging in Aunt Lora and Uncle Lou's back yard.


What would two little boys to with a dog house except get in it?


Grammy dancing with the kids while we were in the final stages of getting all the food ready to dig into.


I tried several times to get a picture that really captured this, but I was laughing so hard that I never quite did it justice. Nehemiah was completely going psycho on this baby doll. He would shake his little face, then his whole upper body, then toss the baby. It was hilarious, and a little disturbing.


As much of the gang as I could get into one shot.

one of our goals for the day was to get a picture of all the cousins together, no easy task. This is the best one of mine, I haven't seen any from Gabe's camera yet, so I don't know if he fared any better.

One of the other goals was to get all the kids with Grammy and Pop and that whole attempt was nothing short of comical.

Playing in the leaves

The kids and I went for one last visit with Levi at Grammy and Pop's house last week. Levi is a tropical baby and Anna has lived in Florida and Hawaii for the last 4 years, so they don't get much leaf falling around there. We decided to go rake up some leaves and let the kids play. They had a fabulous time jumping, running, throwing leaves, eating leaves (mostly Ari) and whatever else they could do with leaves.
And here is the proof.

Sunset

Psalm 19

1 The heavens declare the glory of God;
And the firmament shows His handiwork.
2 Day unto day utters speech,
And night unto night reveals knowledge.
3 There is no speech nor language
Where their voice is not heard.
4 Their line[a] has gone out through all the earth,
And their words to the end of the world.

In them He has set a tabernacle for the sun,
5 Which is like a bridegroom coming out of his chamber,
And rejoices like a strong man to run its race.
6 Its rising is from one end of heaven,
And its circuit to the other end;
And there is nothing hidden from its heat.


14 Let the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart
Be acceptable in Your sight,
O LORD, my strength and my Redeemer.

Phia's Party

Sophia's birthday party was a lot of fun. She decided on a costume party, so we got to get all decked out. Sophia was the statue of Liberty, which I thought was so funny when we found the costume, cause she use to pretend to be the Statue of Liberty all the time!










Isabella found a beautiful Bell costume




Levi the Puppy

























Cousins! 2 "Bells", Lady Liberty, Superman, and a Fairy.











Superman was in no mood for pictures.










Pining the tail on the donkey, and Faron in his cowboy costume.
















I LOVED her in this fairy costume, it was so cute.







How many cousins can you fit into a play house?












Pinita action.
That thing was tough to break, after about 20 rounds of all the kids taking turns on it we let Isabella go to town as she appeard to have the best swing. Ella and Sophia were very close behind her with their power though.








Sophia's purse cakes.