Pumpkin Faces

Owen asked me if next year for Halloween he could...

carve his pumkin with a face that looks like this...

Then he told me Ava's could look like this...

Ezra's would look like this....

Mommy's could be like this....
Daddy's would be like this...

and "Tobs" would look like this!

(Owen likes to call our dog Tobs instead of Toby)

Wordless Wednesday

My Bug

Owen came to ask me for a "drink of cold water" his favorite beverage just a few minutes ago. So I got up scooped him into my arms and headed to the kitchen. On our way I said "you are my little monkey". His response was "No I'm your Bug Mama". So I said back "you sure are aren't you". It was so cute to hear him say that to me because I have called him "Bug" since he was a new born baby. It has been a nick name that has stuck with him for over four years now. In fact I think I might call him "Bug, Buggy, or Bugger" more than I call him Owen. I wonder if it will be a nick name for him from me that will stick with him forever.

Our Tree

My favorite tree is starting to show its beauty. It will look its best either tomorrow or Thursday! SPRING! I love this time of year when everything comes back to life and starts to grow and blossom.

Sick

I haven't taken many pictures lately so I apologise about the lack of posts lately. Owen has been sick for several days so we haven't been doing any thing fun to take pictures of. After I picked Owen up from school on Thursday morning he told me he wasn't feeling well. He said that his throat and tummy were hurting. He had a temp. of 99.5 too. He just wanted to hang out on the couch when we got home and even skipped lunch. I was shocked when I found him sleeping on the couch. He went to bed early Thursday night and then slept until 9:30 Friday morning. So Friday I took him to the clinic for a strep test but it came back negative. Owen never got off the couch all day on Friday. He took a two hour nap and went to bed early that night then at 10:30 Friday night he woke up vomiting. Luke and I worked as a team to clean the mess and him up and put him back to bed. He was fine for the rest of the night then. Saturday he seemed to be feeling a little better but wasn't back to normal. Saturday night after eating dinner he ended up with the diarrhea, but still seemed OK other than that. He went to bed early Saturday night and woke up again at 10:30 vomiting. This time we made it to the toilet first! I sent him back up to bed after that thinking he would be fine. Boy was I wrong, five minutes later he was back down again. He ended up sleeping on the floor in our room with lots, and lots of trips to the bathroom from 10:30-2:00. Then after his stomach was completely empty and he stopped dry heaving he slept peacefully for the rest of the night. Sunday when he woke up he seemed much better. We tried to keep him low key but he did end up outside for a while to play. We only let him eat plain food against his better judgement! So, today he has been eating and eating and eating some more. Gotta go Owen wants a snack!

I was folding laundry when Ava came to ask me to put "three pretties in"!

SO WE DID!

This is how Ava's hair looks with three pretties in. She really needs to grow some more hair.
Then Ava went and got one of my pony tail holders for my hair!

Checking to see if they are still in!
I tried to make pig tails but she doesn't have enough hair in the right spots to do so!

So she got these three crazy ponies instead!

Reading

We do a lot of reading at our house. Owen and I are book lovers! So Luke and I are always reading to Owen, and whatever Owen is doing you can be sure to know that Ava is right there next to him. And, well where ever we are Ezra is there too. So whether Ava and Ezra really want to listen or not they are listening to stories all the time! Ava loves to do, say, and copy any thing that her big brother does.
Since Luke and I have moved downstairs Luke has even started reading some of his own interesting books. Here are the books we are currently reading! Luke likes to read factual things like historical stuff which in my opinion is extremely boring. He just finished a book about prisons and is currently reading Jeep Color History. I'm sure it is very interesting because he is actually reading it from cover to cover and not just skimming through it.
I myself never read factual things. I guess I lied I do when I am reading the Bible or doing a Bible study through church. I Love Fiction books. You know the kind of stories that are made up but seem so real and that you could be part of them and that you know the characters in the story. Yep, that is what I can be found reading. My favorite author is Karen Kingsbury and I have read all of her books and I am always waiting for one of her new books to be published. Like right now I am eagerly waiting for her next book that will be out in June. As I wait I read other books by other authors and right now I just started reading "A Sister's Secret" last night. So far so good. This particular book is about Amish people. I must admit I am intrigued with the Amish culture. I find it very interesting. Luke's Grandpa and Grandma live in an area that has a lot of Amish families. So when we go to visit them I make him go on certain roads very slowly so I can see what they are up too. Also if they happen to be selling goodies I stop and buy at least one tasty treat! I know, I know I am strange but what can I say! Any way back to books that we are reading.
Owen is currently a "Jigsaw Jones Mystery" fan! They are Mystery chapter books and so far we have read 9 of them. They are very cute and Owen too really gets into his books. He has renamed himself "Jigsaw" who is the main character in all the books. Jigsaw's real name is Theodore Andrew Jones. He is a second grader and is a detective. For a dollar a day he makes problem's go away.
When Ava isn't listening to what Owen wants to read and is able to pick her own book one of her favorites is "Who Stole the Cookies From the Cookie Jar?" She has been caring this book around with her all morning occasionally stopping to flip through the pages.
As for Ezra, like I said so far he is stuck listening to whatever his older siblings pick out. He does seem interested in books though. While I am reading he loves to reach out his chubby little fingers and grab at the book!
Well gotta go all my kids are napping so I am going to go sit in my rocking chair for a while and read!

Wordless Wednesday

Saturday

We spent all day outside on Saturday. Luke left our house at 8:45 with Owen and Ava to go work on his Jeep. Ezra went with me to the community center from 9-10 to work out. Well, I should say Ezra went to daycare at the community center while I worked out! Then after showering and packing a lunch we headed over to Papa and Grandma's house to see how Luke, Owen, and Ava were doing. As I pulled into the drive way I noticed that Owen and Ava were in Grandma Ruth's truck. Not sure what they all destroyed on there but I went and kicked them out and locked her truck. Then we all sat down to eat a picnic lunch.

After lunch I took the kids for a walk to give Luke a chance to work on his Jeep without little people help! So off we went to do some exploring.

Ezra was in his stroller and got a bumpy ride. He didn't seem to mind it in fact he fell asleep while I walked on the trails. Owen and Ava found this hole in the ground and we laked for quite a while about what could have made that deep hole!

Then we found the dirt piles and Owen and Ava did some climbing! I like the first picture of Owen on top of the dirt pile and Ava off in the distance in the background.

Then we found some huge rocks to climb on!

This is Ava throwing a fit. Isn't she cute! She sat in this tall grass for about ten minutes pouting and throwing a fit. I am not exactly sure what it was about it just happened.

Owen sat patiently in the jeep for Luke to give him some driving lessons. Luke never did do it and that night when we put him to bed he brought it up and was a little disappointed. Luke got quite a bit of work accomplished on the jeep.

He took off the rusty bed of the truck.

He actually got it started! Luke and Owen took it for a drive to the end of the drive way and back. Would you believe that the blinkers still work and so do the headlights. I was shocked, Luke was not. I guess I underestimate the potential of this beast!

We headed for home at about 3:00 and did a few things around the yard. Luke lit a fire in our fire pit and we invited Uncle Jesse, Auntie Anna and Olivia over for dinner. We had brats that were cooked over the fire. They were tasty! At 7:00 I headed in with the kids and got them washed up and ready for bed. It was a early bedtime after a long busy day!

Aahhhh

Life is good! Luke is home, our kids are happy, and we are all excited to be together.

Luke was gone for work meetings from 4:30am on Wednesday came home around 9pm Thursday night and was back at work today for his normal hours 4:30am-4pmish. So I was able to see him for a little bit last night but the kids were already sleeping when he came home. So they were excited to see him walk in the door tonight! Owen woke up crying this morning because he wanted his Daddy, and Ava cried herself to sleep at nap time saying she wanted her Daddy.

I have been struggling with Owen for about a week now. We just have not been getting along very well. Last night I went to bed really upset with the way things have been going with the two of us. So I decided today was going to be a good day for us. Owen is our child who loves to have lots and lots of attention. It can be positive or negative to him it doesn't matter as long as he gets it. Lately he has been getting a lot of negative attention from me. But, like I said I was going to make sure today would be a good day. I kept him overly busy, included him in everything, and ignored most of my household chores. We had a GREAT day! The two of us even had a peanut picnic out on the deck while Ava and Ezra were napping. FYI - A peanut picnic is having a snack of peanuts in the shell. This is something Owen loves to do. He likes to crack open the shells and eat the peanuts. And, when there is a hard one to get open he hands it over for someone else to open it fir him. Well any way during our peanut picnic we had a really nice talk. I love spending one on one time with him because he brings up some really great topics to talk about. For example during our peanut picnic we touched on these topics which might I add were all brought up by him...needing 2 more brothers, fishing in our boat at Little Boy Resort, Jesus dying for our sins, ants, peanuts, cleaning spaghetti noodles off the floor, Daddy coming home, and Lego's. I have come to the conclusion that I need to spend more of my time focusing on Owen and less time doing MY stuff. No I will not go over board and only focus on Owen but I obviously have found out in the last week that my Mommy/Owen Balance is off. But, giving him more attention sure makes every ones day go better.

Like I said we are all happy!

2 Accidents

1. After Ava woke up from her nap we went for a walk. Ava and Ezra were in the stroller and Owen rode his bike. When we first start out on our walks Owen tends to ride his bike fast (well fast for Owen) then he slows down as our walk progresses. Sometimes I have to push him while he sits on his bike towards the end of our walks, because he is just too tired to go any further! Well, any way today as he was going fast he wasn't paying attention (like normal) and lost control and took a spill. It looked pretty painful so I ran (the 10 steps) to get to him quickly to make sure he was OK because he wasn't moving from where he fell. As soon as I was next to him I untangled him from his bike and asked him if he was OK. His response was "yeah I think so", so I asked "do you have any owies?" He looked at me with a smile on his face and said "yeah I'm squirting blood every where." I had to laugh at him first then I said "well then we better get you to the hospital." Then he got back up onto his bike and started peddling again. I reminded him to pay attention where he was going as he peddled past me. I did notice that his elbow was a little scraped up but no blood! Oh, that boy is always falling or tripping or bumping into something because he is always to busy do something other than what he is supposed to be doing!

2. Auntie Rita came over tonight for a visit just as we were finishing up dinner. She played with the kids as I cleaned up the dinner mess, and then we all talked for a while. Then Rita said well I better get going otherwise Uncle Terry is going to get worried about me. So after hearing this Ava ran to the entry way and put Rita's shoes on and then came tromping through the Kitchen with them. We all laughed at her of course looking so silly with big shoes on. She of course ate that right up and keeps walking around in them. Rita and I headed into the Kitchen and Rita noticed that our floor was all wet. At first I thought Owen or Ava spilt some water on the floor, but no that is not what made the puddle. It was the adorable princess wearing the big shoes! Sure enough she did it while wearing the shoes so guess what? Yep Auntie Rita's shoes were all yet on the inside too from Ava's potty accident! I felt horrible and apologised several, several times. Ava has been potty trained for 4 months now and doesn't have many accidents. She always tells me when she needs to go potty especially when we are in the house. Oops, accidents happen I just felt really bad about this one.

Wordless Wednesday

Being a Mommy

Our little AvaCakes loves to play with her baby dolls! She CAN be such a loving Mommy at times. But, then all that love can be followed with one of her babies flying across the room! Hope that is just a phase. Here are some pictures of our Princess taking care of her babies!

Nap time

One baby is already asleep.

Ava getting her second baby ready for her nap!

Shh the baby is finally sleeping!
(The stairs are a safe place to sleep right?)

Out for a walk

Ava and her baby were out for a walk, but had to stop because her baby got hungry!
Ava made sure to wipe the milk off of the baby's face....

then she moved onto burping her baby!

Walk

Earlier in the week we packed up the van after eating dinner and met up with Grandma Ruth to go for a walk. We walked through the trails at the city park, and stopped at the playground for a while too. Owen and Ava also found a huge dirt pile to play on! It was definitely a bath night at our house after playing in all that dirt!