Funny kids

Grant just loves Mhari. He loves to play with her and especially just laugh with her. He thinks him laughing is enough to play with her. It's not the greatest when he's trying to do it in the middle of church though.

Here he is just enjoying playing (laughing at) with her. Yes, he is in a costume. I would say he's a Leopard, but if you ask him he's a jaguar-cheetah. We had to be sure it was going to fit :).


I just love happy babies. Mhari and Grant are very cute together. She is especially happy if she can poke and touch your face. Grant is really good at letting her touch him so it works out well for both kids :).


Comfy?

The other night Jeff went to check on the kids before bed. He told me Sandra was in her bucket. She often is the child up late playing in her bed because she still naps most days. I guess she decided the bucket was a good place to sleep that night. I had to go see and then couldn't pass up the chance for a photo :). It's a good thing it's a big bucket or I don't think she could've fallen asleep like that. She did wake up later trying to switch to her bed though. Funny girl :).

8 Carrot Gold

We have been growing carrots since May and every time I get one out to check it I am sorely disappointed. They have been just barely starting to grow into a carrot or even still look like a small root. We finally decided to just harvest the crop and see what we had. I must say that the tops sure were huge so I was assuming that I had some wonderfully huge carrots (that's why I kept checking them anyway).

I have decided they need awards for their achievements....

First up, Big Heart, small root award. This is somewhat like what the carrots I had been checking looked like. So sad, but trying so hard :).

Next, our medium carrots. There is a special award for the Most Unique Carrot. I guess sometimes even carrots don't want to follow the crowd.

Last, but certainly not least, Best in Show!

That's right, we ended up with two carrots that actually looked and tasted like real carrots. It was a wonderful moment, pulling them out of the ground.

I can definitely say I've learned some things about growing carrots (like, plant them farther apart, for starters). Next time I think our ratio will favor the edible ones :). It was great to actually succeed at getting a real carrot though!

Oh, another garden surprise.... while I was checking the garden the other day I found a cantaloupe growing. It's about the size of a large grapefruit. Maybe it will hang in there long enough to be edible! (no luck with the watermelons yet though). I feel like I'm getting a little bit of green on my thumb :)

6 already!?

Talmage is now officially 6! He has been so looking forward to his birthday. We made plans to go to the zoo. He wanted to take a picture of every animal at the zoo. If you ask him which is his favorite he will tell you that they all are. How could he possibly pick a favorite!? He also has decided that he wants to be a zoo keeper when he grows up. It was a great morning and besides losing Grant for a little while (5 min?). Good exercise too :)

That afternoon we made the cake. The kids get to choose what kind of cake they want and help make it. He had chosen chocolate, but then changed his mind to strawberry. We also leave a section unfrosted for Daddy and Grandpa.



When I got down my candles I didn't realize I was that low. Sorry Talmage, we know you are really 6 even though there are only 5 candles!
Oh and how can you forget the presents. That was probably his favorite thing we did. Later that night he told me "Mommy thanks for giving me such a great birthday! Wow, what a great kid :). We love you Talmage! Thanks for being our awesome 6 year old!
There was also one other special surprise that arrived the day before. Talmage had invited Grandma and Grandpa, but because of distance and vacation and other reasons they couldn't come. Well, they made arrangements to surprise Talmage and come for a few days. Talmage and Grant opened the door and they were so overcome with shock that they just stood there. It was pretty funny. We weren't sure if they were going to let them in or not. It was great to have family in town to share the special day! See you at Christmas Grandma and Grandpa :)

Zoo-Z-Zoo

Here are the photos to enjoy of the zoo!

 

Talmage having to learn all he could about the animals!

 

 
Grandma helping push the stroller and little Punkin :)

 
Grandpa helping Sandra see the animals!

 
So cute!

 

 

 

 

 
Grandpa with Grant and Sandra!

I'm no Hunny!

The other day I was outside with Sandra checking on the garden. I was enjoying looking at our bell peppers when suddenly I heard Sandra talking and then start crying. I saw something fall to the ground by her, but wasn't sure what had happened, until I remembered what I had heard her say....
"Shoo bee, go away." Then I heard "Owe!"
Uh oh. Yes, the bee got her on her tummy (it must have snuck just under her shirt). She was really upset, but the sting wasn't too bad. I guess she held up her hand to try and block the bee. I told her that we don't block bees. We have to leave them alone otherwise they'll try to hurt us. I was shocked to see what a huge stink'n bee it was too. It was bigger than normal looking bees to me anyway. After the bee had been on the ground for a while the boys decided to step on it and put it out of it's misery. I know bees make yummy hunny, but man they sure aren't sweet!

2 down 2 to go

Today was Grant's first day of preschool. There was an opening in the preschool and so we signed Grant up. He had a great time. He took a little while to warm up and is still getting used to school rules, but what else could you expect when everyone else has been in school for almost 2 months. His favorite part was getting to play in the gym (it was a rainy day) and ride scooters and play with the beach balls. They also learned about rattle snakes. He told me he wants to go back tomorrow... good thing :).

This will be a good experience for him! It is so weird to have my 2 boys gone. I did have some nice alone time with Sandra today and played with Mhari too. What a great opportunity to enjoy my girls and love seeing my boys progressing! Time really does fly.

When Life GivesYou Lemons...

Make lemonade or hair bands. I have not been able to bring myself to cut off Sandra's hair like a boy. I may need to, but until that time I have resorted to head bands.
It is still sad to see her with no hair, but at least she sort of looks like a girl. I did trim up the back and give her more layers so it looks like maybe she was supposed to have short bangs. Here are a few of our attempts at head bands.

This one is Mhari's, but Sandra may be wearing it now.


I like the way this one turned out. It covers pretty well while still leaving enough hair in the back uncovered.


This one is alright and it covers up the worst part.


I made another pink one with the tie and made the tie longer. I think it turned out well, but may cover up too much of her longer hair.


Yes, I'm still a sucker. Hard to not include the baby :). She liked wearing the head band for a minute. Then it became a game of how to take it off.
Well, that's my sum up of how my daughter is going to look for the next year or so while her hair grows out. I still may shave her hair if I can't take it, but this will have to do for now. 

Hair... HELP

I'm not really sure how to start this post... Saturday night I cut the kids hair. It had been too long for the boys and Sandra could really use a trim. During the cutting I told Sandra again, that only Mommy cuts your hair. She has had several hair cutting incidents where she ends up with less hair and no more scissors. So I finally gave in today and let Grant and Sandra cutout some papers. They were doing really well and I was right there observing their fun. Then I went to work on a project in the next room.

I guess the time had come to officially disfigure my daughters hair beyond recognition.
This is the result of her cutting.


I seriously had only left the room for a few minutes only to hear "My hair so beutiful" in cute little 2 year old voice. I knew that was not good and I jumped up to stop the madness!

Only to find myself too late... I had to cry a bit first and hug her so I wouldn't scream.
Then I made her go look in a mirror to see how NOT beautiful it was. She was not happy about it either.


Here she is in timeout. Now you can see the full extent of the damage. What do I do? It has taken 2 years to get her hair this long and now she looks like she has a mullet! Do I cut it all off and do a boy cut or just pray for the front to grow quickly? I'm glad she's still 2 and she has several years to recover from this, but man why do they have to cut their hair?!?!


And here is my cute little one. I think this picture is helping calm me down after looking at the other ones. Mhari is growing up so fast and I really need to take more photos of her. This is the attempt of Jeff and I to get a cute picture to update her for her 10 months shot. She is too wiggly and likes me too much so she won't sit for a picture anymore. That is why all of the recent photos of Mhari she's crawling toward me. This is as good as it gets for now :).
Maybe I should do matching baby girl hair... short and fuzzy. Something to think about.

Batteries

I'm sure all parents have those toys that you all just love.... for the batteries to finally die. I have read of some taking extra measures to ensure the death of toys (baths, CJ), but we just let our toys eventually stop working. Some toys seem to have never ending life. That is annoying, yet they are fun for little babies so that is good. Then there are ones you just can't stand listening to and are tempted to throw a party when they finally do die.

There have been a few toys that have died that have since been resurrected. Not of my own will, but because of the kind pleadings of my children. There is a school bus (little people) that has recently gotten new batteries. It is so much more fun to play with school buses again (since watching the Magic School Bus). Now Grant has discovered his old fire truck again.

This was one of those toys I never wanted to hear again (ya thanks again, Grandma). However, it did make him happy. Can't you tell by the look on his face :).


Once one was fixed then Sandra had to find the second one (Talmage's) and get batteries for that one too. She is also very pleased. I guess it's cheaper than buying new toys and they feel like they got a new toy... what a great thing batteries are.


Well, now we have a lot of 2 alarm fires going on in our house. The one rule of the fire trucks is that if the babies are sleeping (which seems more often then not) then the fire trucks must play outside. I wonder if our neighbors think that suddenly there seem to be a lot more fires in our neighborhood... the sirens are pretty loud.

The things we are willing to suffer through to enjoy our children's happiness :).