I Made it For YOU!

This week as Brian was busy getting cleaned up for the day, Anna went into the kitchen and made him breakfast. She came into the bedroom with the announcement,"Daddy, I made you a bowl of Mini Wheats. But I didn't cut banana to put on top."

Brian asked, "Thank you, Anna."

Anna reponded,"Daddy, you have to come eat it because it even has milk in it."

As Brian journeyed into the kitchen, Anna seemed a little disappointed that she didn't have the banana on top like she knows her Daddy likes.... I was glad she wasn't using a knife without me close by.

Brian and I poured praise on her for wanting to help!!

As Brian ate his cereal, we noticed that Anna hadn't moved the stool to get the glass bowl from one of the cabinets over the counter. So Brian asked,"Anna, where did you get the bowl?"

Anna shrugged and responded,"I just got the bowl from the dishwasher."

I looked at Brian and he looked at me. Then we went over to the dishwasher and realized that the dishes in there were dirty!!!!!! LOL!!!!

What a sweet and funny start to a day:) And yes, Daddy did finish the bowl of cereal that was made JUST for HIM... much to Anna's delight!

Tiny Talk Tuesday

You can join in Tiny Talk Tuesday, too!! It's fun to record the silly conversations throughout the week and share them. Visit Not Before 7 to join in:)
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Anna (age 5) has been helping in the kitchen lately!! I think it's great that she's wanting to learn how to cook:) She was watching Brian cook eggs the other day. She called over to me," hey Mom, are you eating eggs with us."

And I responded,"yes, sure!"

Her little brain starting clicking,"Well, I wasn't sure if you could eat eggs. Nathaniel might not grow up to be an egg eater."

hhaaaaa haaaa... that's reality in our food allergy house, some of us are "egg-eaters" and some are not!! I love the term though, I'm thinking it's from all the Dinosaur Train (on PBSKids) they have been watching....

BTW.... I really like that show. They have an "old earth view" but my kids are totally loving the dinosaurs and all the GREAT information!!!

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Lydia (my new 3 yr old...hehee hee) was shopping with me the other night. We pushed by a gentlemen who casually greeted us. After he passed by, Lydia looked at me and said, "he jacket is too long."

I looked behind us," It's fine."

Lydia: "He jacket not fine with me."

Watch out Walmart shoppers!! The newest member of the Fashion Police is now on duty!!!! She is such an opinionated little girl! **************************************************************
Each kid has called the computer a "puter"... so funny to hear them say that! While I was helping Lydia get on her shoes this week I heard a strange music noise coming from another room. I usually know what all the toys in our house sound like....LOL!! SO I said aloud, "what can that strange sound be?"

And my sweet little girl looks into my face and confidently says,"Mommy, dat noise is my puter. The puter that Miss Sue-sue gave me!! " LOL!! So innocently funny!

And she was right, Anna was playing with a little toy computer that was given to her;)
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And I thought I'd share some sweet moments from Chris this week.... he's been a tough little cookie to handle lately, so these sweet moments have been nice "gifts"!!

**On the way home from Grandma and Grandaddy's Chris told Brian, "I love going to Grandma's house."

**Putting Chris to bed this week he asked," Can I give Nathaniel a good night kiss?" And he jumped out of bed, ran across his room and kissed my belly!! too sweet!!

Conversation with Anna

Anna was having a "serious" conversation with me this morning while she we were reading together...

(I just grabbed a library book that was labeled with a level and had her go at it and she DID. Last night she read 2 chapters and this morning she was eager to read another!!! She stumbled over a few words... basically guessing, but as soon as I encouraged her to sound the word out, she knew the words and went right on her way!! )

Anyway, I was looking down at this 5 yr old turned "teenager" and I just started to giggle at her (our) conversation! The concept was soo grown but some of the thoughts and expressions were still from a child.

She looked up at me and asked,"What are you laughing at?"

I just shrugged.... I didn't want her to think I was laughing at her! But it was such a funny, sweet and reflective moment.

I'm kicking myself that I didn't run to a piece of paper and write it down right away.... I knew I would forget it in the midst of our busy schooling morning.

It's funny with Anna.... she's getting soo much more mature now, but in soo many ways she's still a younger girl (only 5). We look at her and know that her antics and conversations aren't "baby cute" anymore... but it's nice to have a "more grown" child to talk to during the day. And that's part of my kids growing up and maturing... the "baby" phases and chubby cheeks pass and the questions and conversations of a maturing child now also are a part of our home.

*The picture is from earlier this week when the kids helped me take down the Christmas tree... they all were eager to help! Then they started to play with the branches.... it was funny all the different things they pretended the branches were.... this was Anna and her branch umbrella:)

Why Homemade is Better :)

Anna will tell you that I made some GROSS muffins this week!! And she'll stress GROSS! In fact she was complaining about her stomach hurting last night and blamed it on the ONE bite of the muffin she ate days ago:) She also decided they were gross enough to tell the other mothers at Library Reading Time Tuesday morning.... LOL!!!

The problem was that during dinner preparation, I decided to use some muffin mix I bought for a great deal. It wasn't until I got home that I realized the free Martha White muffin mix had eggs in it... GRRR!!

You see because of the food allergies we pretty much make all of our bready treats from stratch.... muffins, pancakes, cookies, brownies (etc)!! It was hassle at first, but now we're soo used to eating homemade!!!! In fact, I "cheated" a couple of months ago and made some brownie mix with egg (Lydia and Chris had NO reactions... YAY!!) but the taste wasn't as rich... there was an obvious difference to me, the girl who can't tell namebrand from generic:) And then this week with Anna and the muffins!

Why is Homemade better??? Well one of the reasons, I think, is that we use regular ingredients and not extra stuff that acts like a preservative or cost-cutters!! But there is another reason:)

Today while the boys were out:) The girls made some cookies to surprise them:) We got the warmest and yummiest part of the deal:) But while I took pictures of the girls enjoying some of the batter I found out WHY??? (LOL)



Here it is!! (with me still practicing in the manual setting and somehow focused on the wrong part of the viewing screen)

Did you catch the drool bomb from Lydia heading RIGHT for the BOWL????

Good thing these were meant to stay at our house and not be shared with neighbors:) I'm not sure anyone would want these... LOL!!

TIny Talk - Names and Pronouns

I'm hoping to get out of the blogging "funk" soon....


But I have wanted to share this with you for a week now:) Right after we found out we were having a boy, the technician asked us if we had any names picked out. We told her that we have a LONG list we are considering, so she asked the kids.... LOL

Lydia pipes up : We could name him Sweetie Pie?

Everyone giggles and the technician says: I'm not sure he'll like that name.

Chris jumps into the conversation: What about just calling him Pie!!


LOL!!! I WAS a Math major in college.... so I'm thinking naming my kid with just a pi symbol might actually be cool!! I mean if "The Artist Formerly Known as Prince" can do it why can't "Pi".... LOL

* Lydia's other favorite name for Baby is Christmas Tree!!

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Brian has had a couple of name suggestions:) He'll ask us as we are all around the table. I just LOVE how Anna responds to some of the suggestions. She'll say the name slowly a couple of times then say the name with a middle and our last name.... really seriously like she's pondering whether it's a good name:)


Then she makes up her mind and scrunches up her face and says, "Nah, no, I don't like it" sometimes adding "I think it doesn't sound right". LOL!!

When will this poor Baby be named??? How long will he be the "Nameless Baby"??

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Lydia has been using pronouns in her sentences... it's super cute because they aren't always right. We can understand what she's saying, but it's hard not to just scoop her up mid-sentence to have her repeat it and hug her tight:)


Some of my favorites have been:

"Is it time for we to go now?" or "We go in we van?"

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I've enjoyed participating in Tiny Talk Tuesday... check out more by clicking on the button below:)

Family B-day Celebration

We had Grandma and Grandaddy this weekend and then some friends coming over for a party/playdate on Friday morning... but today her actual birthday, we celebrated with a "quiet" lunch together:)

Have Birthdays at www.OneTrueMedia.com

During the brownie eating, everyone shared what they liked the most about Anna. I got this idea from the Mouro family! I wanted to share what Chris and Lydia said because it was soo cute:)

Chris said, "I really like Anna." And I asked Why... and he said, "because I love her."

Lydia immediately answered, "She doesn't hit me." LOL... Chris has been hitting Lydia (with her usually responding back with a hit). Anna immediately understood:)

Saturday Sentences - They don't even know what they like:)

During a meal this week, Anna only had plain pasta on her plate. I asked her, "You didn't put any sauce on your pasta? You ate it all up the first time, I thought you liked the sauce."

Anna responded, "Well I did like it. But I didn't like it."

I must have given her a strange look because them she continued to explain herself," I'm a tricky girl. I don't like stuff I do like."

Marrying

Anna says, "Come on, Chris, lets' get married!"

You can see his response by the look on his face....LOL

It's always soo funny when they talk about marrying each other. I'm glad they like each other company enough to think about "marrying" them... even though they really don't know much about marrying except Mommy and Daddy are married.

I'll have some more Easter pics to show soon!!!

Just wrestling with Picasa again... it's a love/hate relationship most days with Picasa:)

Saturday Sentences - Old

We are reading through a Bible Story book each afternoon as the kids lay down for their naps. I would love for the kids to see God's love and provisions for people throughout history while they are young!So this week we were reading through the story of Abraham sending his servant to find Issac a wife.

I asked Anna was she thought if Mommy and Daddy choose a husband for her.

She responded confidently like it was already settles, "When I get older I am going to marry my Grandaddy." [ohhh.. how sweet!]

"Grandaddy?" I respond.

"Yep," she said back,"... except that he is old. Maybe I should marry Christopher. Except he doesn't like to dance."

Christopher then pipes up,"Yes I do..." [he jumps out of the bed and we havea break dance performance].

Nothing like interacting with the story....LOL

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Anna is convinced that her birthday is in a couple of days, not months ...like it really is:) So we've been having a LOT of conversations about birthdays:)

"MOmmy, how old are you?" Anna asks. "29" I answer.

"29?"

"yep" I respond back.

Anna thinks and then replies, "Oh, that is old! The next number you are going to be is 30!"

LOL... nothing like your daughter telling you that you're old!

Starting Our MOnday:)

Monday mornings are rough when MOmmy and Daddy are under-the-weather and the kids are rolling FULL STEAM AHEAD:)

Anyway, we're just starting our structured time @ 9:30am... at least we're starting, right???

So the kids all get out some paper to start some letter practice and this was the conversation around the table....

Anna: Ok, Chris. We need our paper to work on our letters.

Chris: I need to make some Rs..... R, R, R (as he writes them)

Anna pipes up: Well I need to work on my PhD!!

Good grief!! These kids pick up everything:)

And we're hoping Daddy has a good week working on his PhD, too:) MAY graduation here we come!!!

Saturday Sentences - Apple Skin

I'm not sure I'll do Saturday Sentences every week, but we had dinner with Andrea and her family this evening and she made a good point... why not "capture" even the kids' silly (or enlightening) conversations so they can be remembered and shared:)

At lunch we had apple slices on the table. We try to encourage the kids to eat lots of fruits and veggies.... and we noticed that Christopher hadn't eaten any....

Christopher: I don't want any because it has skin on it.

Mommy or Daddy: Christopher, just try it, you've eaten the skin before:)

Christopher: No I don't like skin.

Anna: Christopher, to take the skin off all you have to do is turn the apple around and bite the skin off... like this. (She then shows him how; biting pieces of skin off and eating them.)

Christopher : Oh, OK...... (then he starts biting off chunks of skin and apple and eating the side with skin)

Hah ha haaa.... Guess he's grateful for a big sister that can "solve" any problem:)

Daddy's Helper

Anna is always soo read to jump in the car and do errands with Brian. She loves to visit with him, just pick up stuff at the store or even play next to him while he photocopies our church bullentins:)

After lunch she heard Brian planning to leave and she immediately told him she was going to help him. She ran back to her room and dressed in warm clothes and was back out fully dressed and ready in just seconds:)

As he was collecting what he needed before he left, Anna stayed by his side!! (Maybe making sure I wouldn't change my mind about her needing a nap.... hehehe) He came back into the house and he looked soo flustered.... he was opening cupboards, pacing, checking pockets.... then he came into the wash room (as I'm doing laundry) and checks under some jackets that had collected under the hooks....

In frustration, he looks up at me and says gruffly,"I lost my keys. I just had them in here a second ago. Where could I have put them??" GRRRR

Then little Anna by his side pipes up," Daddy, Mr Jim needed to check something at the church and you just gave him your keys."

Daddy's frustrated look vanished and he smiled at Anna and said,"Thank you Anna for reminding me."

It's a good thing Daddy has his little helper this afternoon running errands with him.... even if she is trying to skip out on a nap and her reading lesson:)

Wordless Wednesday - Earrings

Christopher told Anna (when he saw her earrings), "You look like a mom."

humor in the classroom:)

Part of morning homeschooling routine (when it is routine) is to do Five In A Row. This is a cirriculum that takes children's classics and creates days worth of lessons from the book... everything from language arts, social studies, and BIble to math an art!! Anyway, we read the FIAR book and then do one or two of the activties for that story each day.

This morning we started The Tale of Peter Rabbit by Beatrix Potter. I was instantly amazed at how well my kids listened to the story today... they were captivated:) Maybe because the story is a little suspenseful escpecially for little ones:)

We talked about trusting (parents and God), explained some of the new terms (like fortnight), Anna cut out magazine pictures of gardens to "make" her own garden like Mr McGregors' garden and then we reviewed the main points of the story.

Although the story didn't say exactly why Peter ventured into the garden against his mother's wishes, it did say that he immediately started eating a lot of vegetables. Anyway, one of the last questions I asked the kids was, "Why did Peter go into the garden against his mother's directions?" I honestly was expecting blank stares, or because he was hungry, or he was bad.

Instead my little budding scholar said, "Peter wanted a salad" with a smirk.

I about fell out of my seat laughing! Where does she get this humor from???

Texture Issues

I have a good friend who has "texture issues".... ahahaa... we've had a lot of conversations about different foods that end like, "I don't like the texture."

From those conversations, a Sid the Science Kid episode last week and a texture discussion with Christopher..... this is what I get :)

Anna came back from a "trip" with Brian. She stated that she was hungry!! And then reached up onto the counter for the blueberry muffins I had baked for breakfast. After a few bites, she came into the kitchen and put her plate with an almost whole muffin on it. I asked her why she wasn't going to finish her muffin and she said,

"I can't finish my muffin. I like the taste but the texture is weird."


***Here's a pic of her enjoying a "cookie" last Saturday afternoon. NO texture issues there.

Lunchtime Prayer

"Dear God,

Thank you for this beawtiful day.
Thank you that we can know Jesus in our hearts.
Thank you for this beawtiful day.
Thank you that we can eat our meal with a happy heart and no pops.
Thank you for this beawtiful day. Amen."

Then she adds:
"Oh, I forgot to pray for my family?
Oh well, maybe next time."

A Kid's Prayer

I asked the kids at dinner who wanted to pray.

Anna's hand went up and she said, "Whoever prays gets to have more oranges if they only have two." I looked down on her plate and saw....two orange slices left.

She bows her head, folds her hands and prays

"God is good
By His hands
I want my uncle not to go
on the ambulance
And thank you for our food. Amen"

She finishes her prayer and looks at the bowl of oranges saying, "Can I have some? I can get them myself?"

Later I asked what her uncle's name was. She replied, "Just Uncle."

You're cool even with mixed up Idioms

This afternoon we played one of Anna's favorite games outside called, "Silly Animals." All of us , minus one, runs up the church's handicap ramp and looks over the side. The person left at the bottom has to pretend to be an animal and then those on the ramp guess what they are trying to be.

SO it was my turn to be the "silly animal"...so I moved Lydia to my back and jumped around acting like and making monkey sounds! Christopher and Anna just giggled through shouts of "you're a monkey, with a baby on your back".

Anna came running down the ramp and said to me, "Momma, that was cool!!" I little taken back by her "new" word I asked, "Did you say I was cool?"

And she answered, "yep as cool as a carrot." H aha haa.... isn't it supposed to be "as cool as a cucumber"!!

Oh no, she's doomed like her mother to always get idioms wrong. Brian used to have a list of all the mix-up idioms that I've uttered in his presence. I wanted to share one of his favorites....but the list has mysteriously disappeared.......

Our Wednesday chats....

After the kids played a while in the nursery at church this evening, I sat down with them and talked through the Bible stories that they have been working through during Sunday School (and that I use throughout the week to re-enforce what they have learned in Sunday School).

So I quickly went through the story of Josiah and we concentrated on what he did after his servant and priest found the Word of the Lord in the temple. I shared how they read it to all the people, how the king "torn his robe" because he was so upset(saddened) that the people hadn't obeyed God's Word.

After I finished reading, Anna looked up at me and said," Mommy, why did the king 'rip his pants'?" Hah ahaa... what a hoot!!!

I also asked her "Why do we obey God?" I mean this is a good question for anyone.... it monitors our internal motivation and gives us the reason to follow what God has laid out in His Word!! Even when it is hard!!!

Do you know what my darling answered??? "To tell other people about Jesus and because that is what He tells us to do." No bad for an almost 4 yr old!!!

I did guide her through her memory verse from February that said "We love Him because He first loved us." That obeying God is a way we can show Him we love Him. So we obey out of love for God, too!!!

Father, please help me to capture all the moments I can to guide my children to You, Your perfect love and Your wonderful plan for their lives. Let me not be distracted by all the plans of my own heart and chores that always need to be done. Help me to guide them through my own love for You seen in my actions, attitude and words.

From the Mouths of Babes

Last night I took the kids grocery shopping. On the way there they started asking me about some of the signs on the side of the road.....the most noticeable signs being STOP (we literally have ONE traffic light in our town). So we stop, Anna reads the letters and we decide that it was a stop sign. I describe how to look both ways and then I continue driving. Well we'd gotten a mile or two down the road and Christopher yells, " S-T-O-P!!!!" I call back to him , "Why?" He answers, "a stop sign". He must have seen one on the opposite side of the road when I made a right turn :)

I've got to mention this...... as we were pulling into the grocery store parking lot. Anna tells me, " Mommy, I have to watch you drive the car. That way I can learn to drive when I am this many (holding up fingers)." I'm not sure how many fingers she was holding up b/c I was driving (making a turn at the time). But if I were to guess it was probably 5 fingers.... being 5-yrs old is the magical age for Anna right now, it's the same age of one her good friends, Rachel!!

This evening as I was carrying Anna to bed, she totally wrapped her little body around my upper body. I mean her little legs were completely around my waist. She looked into my eyes and said, "You know Mom, you're kind of small." I'm guessing this WON'T be the last time I'll be hearing this line :)