HaHaHa

Mud Pit x2

Chloe is learning the art of the caravan
using her "movie cars" and her own blanket.

Lounging in dirt. Daily.

Just chilling on the back of the couch after a rousing chase
with Evan where she was the one screaming,
"I'll cut off your head!!"
(with her very dangerous sword).

Favorite outfits.
See any kind of pattern here??
(way overexposed picture... sorry)

Twirling in his "flying shirt."
(part of our dress-up collection)

Scrambler's blanket.

Swimming in a toybox
in the front yard.

Posted by Bree

Big Kid Bed

Goodbye baby crib (forever!!!!!!!!!!!!!)

Hello new bed :-)

Evan was pumped.
Maybe more so than Chloe.

As soon as the bed was up, Evan said he wanted his to be right up next to Chloe's so they could sleep beside each other. I asked him to show me how close he wanted to be and he touched the edge of her bed, "Here. I want to be next to her."

Hmmm....

How 'bout a compromise?

Posted by Bree

Strike a Pose

Although the kiddos usually dodge the camera or make weird faces at it, sometimes if the mood strikes, Chloe is up for a bit of posing. Her idea, of course. "Mom, take a picture of me doing this... (*click*) and this... (*click*) and this....(*click*)..." and on it goes till she is done and runs away. Generally these "modeling" sessions don't turn out any show-stopping results (and end up deleted from the camera) but this time I kinda liked them :-) What do you think?

Posted by Bree

In Their Element

With temperatures in the 80's here this weekend, we had to take a drive to the beach. The water temp was about 45 so there was no swimming in the plan. The kids, of course, had other ideas. Evan started out saying, "The water is so cold on my feet it even hurts my legs." We all agreed, but they just couldn't stop themselves.

Evan was telling Chloe, "It's sssso freezing Chloe, but I'm really brave...vvv...vvv..."He was a madman. Seriously insane. He knew it too! Everytime he'd come thrashing and splashing back to the shore, he was shouting, "I'm being CRAZY!!! I'm being sooooo crazy!!" I don't think he even knew the half of it. Nobody was in the water. Not even crazy teenage boys.

He was in and out of the water the whole time we were there. Chloe did her best to keep up, but she was just so chilly. She hung out by the shore with her toys and splashed instead.
Smart girl. (smart potty-trained girl I might add :-)

And no weekend is complete without some mud.
He has taught her so well.

Posted by Bree

About Evan

I've noticed my posts are sort of Chloe-heavy lately so here's a bit about Evan.


We did a 30 day thing with him to help him stop biting his nails. If he could make it to the end with new nail growth on all his nails he could earn a new top to put on his RC rock crawler. The red top he has for it is removable and since they make a Jeep one... well, it was pretty motivating and it worked :-) As a follow-up he has until Wednesday of next week to keep them healthy and I'm taking him to Chuck E. Cheese. He never bites them anymore. Ever. :-)


He is still working on the ins and outs of chess. Such a difficult game to really master. He plays well but doesn't understand how to win yet... strategy stuff... but he plays almost every day with me (maybe I'm not the best teacher since I'm not great at it myself).


He saw his first rainbow last week (thanks to a phone call from Granny telling us to get out and see it!!). Photos never do these things justice, but Evan sure was thrilled!

He's been teaching Chloe how to wrestle quite often. He tells her push me down and then lay on me.... no, push harder.... oh that was a good one Chloe! You're really getting strong... now it's my turn....

Surprisingly neither one of them has gotten hurt :-)


He is always willing to help her when she needs something: turning the lights on, getting a toy from up high, climbing in to get her pillows out of her crib, carrying her bike home when she is tired on one of our walks...

What, a whole post about my son and no mud pictures?? Well, I figure you already know he does that all the time... it's this other stuff I never seem to get in writing, especially with a very attention-demanding little sister around who gets most of my mind's energy.

Love this kid :-)

Posted by Bree

Little Sister

Posted by Bree

Finally!!!

Todd finally posted a new blog!!!

posted by Todd

Are We Ready For This??

Those are underwear on that little bum. She is actually potty training. I cannot believe it. Especially since Sunday morning at church she was practically in tears asking me to go "to the nursing store." I figured we might be back-pedaling for a while. We did NOT go to the nursing store (which I guess is her word for the nursing moms room), and she didn't ask anymore that day. Monday she wanted underwear. Now, she calls herself a big girl all day long . Running to the bathroom, tugging on her pant-sides we hear: "I'm going potty mama!!!!" She is doing amazing. Better than I imagined. So, if I'm not on here much this week, at least there is a very good (time-consuming) reason!

Posted by Bree

Simple Fun

I made this cornmeal tray as a way of teaching Evan to write letters. He can write them pretty well on paper but gets so frustrated when he makes a mistake. I found this cornmeal idea online to help build confidence in kids as they learn the mechanics of writing.

He started with just burying his hands over and over again:
then making piles:

Then he moved on to some animal drawings (which he would rarely, if ever, attempt on paper).

This is a drawing of himself and Ruby:
This is a lion sitting on Ruby's head:

I told him this would be a nice place for him to practice letters if he ever wanted to and left it at that. I don't push him to learn formally yet, just as he is interested.


Then a few days later, I found this on the table:

Posted by Bree

In a Word

It started at 9:30am and

wrapped up just before dinner.
From head to toe.
Coats and boots
jeans and hands
caked and stained.

Today was all about:
MUDThe word for tomorrow:
LAUNDRY

Posted by Bree

In Our Backyard

The garage was getting a bit crowded with all our stuff and Todd had the idea to put a shed out back. Instead of a separate shed we decided to build right on to the back of the garage.
Evan helped nail on the siding. Zoom in on this picture to see his serious concentration!And here's the finished product -- there are latches on both doors to hold them open, an outlet inside to plug in Evan's rock-crawler battery and a light switch. Todd really thought of everything to make this work for all of us!

And it is complete with a new mud patch right behind it, where Todd wore out all the grass while working. Perfect :-)

Posted by Bree