Does this mean...???

Today after CoOp I took the kids shopping at Target.  I was feeling the need to purchase a few baby necessities to have on hand just in case- that way, he surely won't come before his time, since I'm ready... right?

In the car I explained what we were shopping for to avoid the extra "Can we buy this?" questions.

Melia excitedly asked, "Does this mean we're nesting?"

:-)  Yes, I guess she could say that.  19 days and counting down... It's about time to get ready for this baby!

Love My Melia

This is a pattern for little knitted horsey blankets that Melia wrote up.  As in, made up, on her own.  And then wrote down so she wouldn't forget, and so that Kiera could use it later.  She also laminated it with packing tape :-) 

Love it... Adore her :-)

Another Melia Tidbit

Last night, as we were discussing the Torah and the law,  Melia asked what we do for the Sabbath....

Looong story short, we shared with Melia that we aren't Jewish, and with a VERY confused look on her face, she says...

"But I thought we were Jesus people?"

*Love...* 

Christmas Gifts and Pretty Sure He never saw this coming...

 Melia looked all through her new molding book before she decided to do something else :-)  Without any instructions, I think it turned out all right! 

 Our first completed batch of cake pops!

And I really don't think in all of Gabe's wildest imaginings that his deer would ever become the girls' dress-up "toy."  Ever. 

Big Resolutions, and a funny quote

Our (my, but I can't do it alone) main resolution is to simplify our lives by decluttering.  I know I've said that before... but we are both unorganized and scatterbrained, so I feel like if I could choose one area of our lives that would effect all the others, this would be it.  We would save money and time and energy by not having so much stuff!  And being able to find the important stuff we have!  I'm hoping to fit in a date night soon so we can really make some goals and hard plans... cause baby is only 18 weeks away! 

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Yesterday the toothpaste moved from the kids' bathroom to a kitchen cupboard (thanks to a post by Tammy a while back) because I caught Melia with a mouthful of it... just because she liked it.  (Another reason they really shouldn't make it taste so good...)  Thankfully, she hadn't swallowed any of it, but she really had a lot in there.  After reiterating to Gabe this particular event, he said "She needs a swat every time she forgets to think."  I thought that was awesome... Although if you have any suggestions about lack of "thinking" punishments/consequences, I'd love to hear them.  I was completely lost as to how to respond to this incident, since she knows not to swallow the toothpaste...  and while Gabe's thought was accurate, we totally recognize that sometimes swatting is not the answer.  (Emphasis on sometimes :-)

A little mixin' in the kitchen...Edited...

I finally got around to remembering to buy the ingredients for Russian Tea, which Mom and Dad introduced the kids to while they were camping and we were in Utah!  I happened to have a little jar at home, but that was QUICKLY emptied by my two little addicts!

We seriously laughed at Melia's goofy head tilt in this shot!

And Kiera was adamant that I show her Wenatchee Wild tattoo in this one... SO attractive, I know!  ;-)

Added Note:  For the record, Isaac loves it too.  This morning I found him dipping a spoon into the jar and licking off the powder.  He's pretty hardcore.  :-)

Amazing details

During school today:

I am reading the instructions to Kiera for her b/d page.  It says something like "b and d are best buddies.  they look alike and sound alike, but they like different things...." 

Melia, to herself: "Wow!  I never knew that b and d are best friends - that's SO amazing!..."

Me:  giggling... :-)

Thoughtful things to remember

This morning we were discussing dreams.  Mine were nightmares about purple praying mantis' and Melia trying to eat one and having it bite her tongue- you can see why I needed to talk that out...  But Melia began to tell me about hers:

Melia: "Mommy, remember that girl... oh wait.  I'll need my photo book for this one."  (runs and gets photo album and shows me a picture from preschool)  "Remember this girl?  I just don't understand why she liked all the other kids but not me.  Everyday I'd ask her to play with me, and everyone else would, but she always said no." 

I found this fascinating that she was putting into words what she wouldn't talk about three years ago.  We knew this was a problem because the teacher told us about it, but Melia never would really articulate that her feelings were being hurt by this snubbing and bossing (she was also bossy about who could play with who).  Interesting.  So just because they don't mention it at the time doesn't mean they don't feel it inside.

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Saturday, the girls were instructed to clean up their room because it had been a disaster for days.  And I really mean it by disaster.  Long story short, things did not go well because of arguing, tattling, etc... So finding myself nearly in tears, Gabe and I entered the room with two garbage bags and a storage bin, and cleaned up for them.  Half a bag of trash, one bag of "donate" items, and one bin later, we'd removed all but the very minimum of their toys. 

What was astounding was the lack of tears!  They even continued to bring us toys that they found hiding!  At one point I just said to Melia, "Why don't you just keep that one?" because I was tired of digging out the bin over and over.  But she says, "But I can't have it until I show you that I can keep my clothes picked up.  Then I can play with it again."  Well, ok then.  I'll just drag that bin out again.  How can I argue with my own logic?  :-)

Hunting Pics

Daddy's deer :-)

 When we arrived, the kids were thrilled to have the freedom to run and play!  Kiera quickly returned yelling, "Look what I found!!!"  She was THRILLED.  As the story goes, Gabe and Shaun had been shooting at squirrels/chipmunks a few hours before we arrived, and Gabe had pegged this one... and forgot about it.  We all couldn't believe how Kiera fell in LOVE with her dead little chipmunk!

Melia, examining the specimen..

But, as you would probably guess, we could NOT keep a dead chipmunk!  This absolutely broke her heart- I cannot even begin to explain how she SOBBED for a good 20-30 minutes, and then again every time she looked at it's little tail (which was cut off thinking it would ease her pain...)  SOBBED, people.  No exaggeration needed.

Melia, later at home, watching as Daddy cuts up his deer.  She received a pretty one-of-a-kind anatomy lesson for a 7 year old, and fully loved every minute of it.  Not sure what God's got up His sleeve for this one, but boy, she's gonna be quite the little "lady!"

I know.  Gross, right?  Totally.  Gabe's.  Idea.  OK?  OK.

Melia Without Training Wheels, Isaac Rides His Bike

Monday night, the girls wanted to ride.  Isaac amazingly also wanted to ride.  I say amazingly because before now, he's ridden a little bit in the yard, but didn't really care about it.  Oh, but now!  Bike riding has become VERY SERIOUS.  He stoicly rides along.  The smiles in these pictures are only because he was being photographed- they are not due to his "having fun."

 Esther and Kerzon getting in on the fun :-)

 What??  Off-roading already?

We decided it was time... Time to take off the training wheels.  Monday night with Daddy was full of lots of frustration, lack of balance, and heavy huffing and puffing. 

But Tuesday and Wednesday, she got the hang of it and was cruising around like she'd been doing it for weeks!  (The hardest part is getting started!)

Even after a crash, she's all smiles!

(Note:  There's no pictures of Kiera because she wasn't on her bike at this time.  She was in time out because she rode on the road before Mommy got outside, even after being reminded by Sissy... Lots of tears, but an important lesson!)

Things are clicking,.. when she's on tune?

Yesterday Melia really started picking up on the reading without getting herself all worked up!  She was reading words out and about, signs on the road, labels in the store... It was VERY exciting for me to see things clicking for her, especially because that's what I've been counting on instead of pushing her too hard. 

So last night, on the way home from Bible study, I asked her if she'd read any words to Gma Nae.  Her response had me scratching my head...

"No momma.  I wasn't in my reading tune.  It was playing tune time.  You know, I have lots of tunes:  shopping tune, reading tune, dancing tune, playing tune, math tune, singing tune.  My singing tune is on right now!..." (and she breaks into song..)  OK babe- as long as you've found the ON button for that reading tune!!!

The Cartoon Model and Hamburger Rocks

I found that my 1 lb of hamburger meat made about 1 1/3 cups of hamburger rocks.

On the schedule for today:  Plum Amaretto Jam and Mango Plum Jam

YUM!

Quotes and Pix

While we were driving...

Melia: "Momma, I want to buy some peanut butter seeds so I can plant them and grow peanuts.  Peanuts grow in the ground you know."

Later... heading to the farmer's market...

Kiera:  "Momma, will you buy me something?"

Melia:  "I have a dollar, I'll buy something for both of us."

Kiera:  "Yea!  Something really super special."

Melia: "Something cheap."

:-)  (I was cracking up in my head!)

Melia normally gets up before anyone else, and she works on random things.  We've been using this spelling book lately, so she started working on a page all by herself!  She was able to do all the words, except this one... So she drew a "I don't know" picture.  I thought it was so cute I had to capture it!

I call this his Top Gun shirt... but he'd have to be a mini IceMan because of his hair instead of a mini Maverick :-)  If anyone sees some mini Aviator sunglasses that are reasonably priced, grab them for me!  :-)

Wisdom Beyond Her Years...

Melia and I were talking about it being the Fourth of July, and what that means, where we came from, etc... She's asking what kind of men they were who signed the Declaration of Independence, and I'm talking about how they were brave men, willing to risk their lives in order to attain a better life for everyone, and she interuppts...

"Mommy, I'm guessing that they were men of God, right?"

choke, tear, choke tear, "Yes, dear. You are right; they were men of God."

:-)

Yay- What a great vacation!

We are home now from our 7 days away! We feel so blessed to have been able to get away and have a great time with our kiddos. We stayed at a 4-person cabin at the Little Diamond KOA/Thousand Trails campground north of Spokane, and took one day to do Silverwood. Hopefully I'll be able to get some pics up and tell some of the FUNNY stories we had.......

For now, here's a quote from Melia this morning:

Melia: "Mom, what does 'be continued' mean?"
Me: "It's like when you are watching a show, and suddenly the show is over, but you haven't heard the end of the story yet. You have to wait until next time to hear the ending!"
Melia: "Hmmm... I don't like 'to be continueds!' "
Me: "Me neither!!!"

Ice Skating after the last day of Co-op!

Kiera: revelling in her "big friend" time!

Yes, I did skate too! Brought back lovely memories... and made me very empathetic to Melia's requests to take lessons... :-) But she needs to learn to swim first!

Baby bugs....seriously disturbing!

Melia found a leaf with lady bug eggs on it. They are now hatching and appear to be squirmy little alien lifeforms. Have a look, just don't plan on eating soon.

Ahhh Life....

We've been having so much fun lately, but that fun also means we've been crazy busy. I just thought I'd drop a little line here and say... Raising ladybugs is SO much fun! They're turning into pupas tonight... so I had Melia start on her "Ladybug Life Cycle" journal before it's too late to draw them as larva.

Oh, and I said "Adios" today... so now the girls are saying "Howdios" :-) Heh heh... I love it too much to correct them!

How to Say K-I-W-I

Melia: Kiweed
Kiera: Bikini

Quotables

Kiera: Look! We found rolly-pollies!
Daddy: Kiera. You may only eat three rolly-pollies.
Kiera: Ok!
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Kiera: I'm making a river.
Melia: I'm walking around talking about stuff. It's good exercise.
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Kiera: I like Isaac. He's so cute and fun and naughty.