X is 5!

X is 5!  My oh my!  He is my sweet boy, even if he's not my little guy anymore.  He has a tender heart and is always the peace maker.  If birth orders are correct, he is my middle child in every single way. He's my reliable, dependable child that is will always help when asked...even when he really doesn't want to.

He still LOVES Star*Wars.  His new love is Lego*s.  If you combine the two, he's in heaven.  He doesn't understand why Santa won't bring him sets that are for 7+ (or older).

He's started loving the tractor this fall.  He would ride with G'pa in the combine all by himself...or just go out and check on him working.  He talks about when he gets his license how much he's going to help G'pa by driving tractors.

C's First Haircut

At three years old and four days, C finally got his first haircut.  I've been dreading cutting off his adorable curls, but with the air less humid, it wasn't curling as much.  Additionally, the back of his hair was constantly matted and a pain to comb.  It was time for it to go.  One of the guys at church asked which boy was C.  He asked, "Is he the one that always looks like he's running?  Not because he is running but because his hair is sticking out?"  It was definitely time for a haircut.

On Saturday evening, everyone got bathed and then Mom's Hair Salon opened.  E got a few inches trimmed off hers first with a few bangs added.  She wasn't impressed as I was cutting and with each snip, she said in a anguished voice, "She cut it!"  But today, she likes it.  X was next.  I just hacked a bit off here and there.  His hair is thick and has wave to it and it is hard for me to trim, but I trimmed up around his ears and neck and it will suffice for another month.  C was next and his was so fine and so long that it was an easy cut.  He sat fairly still and entertained me while I chopped off those adorable curls.  Jut came last and I used the trimmers and he got the quickest haircut...probably a bit too short, but oh well.  He was a good sport about it.  I was tired of cutting hair by the time it was all finished.

Everyone's new haircut

Other Halloween Antics

I'm by no means a P*trest type of person...but a strike of ambition hit me on Halloween.  Mom gave me a recipe for ghost pancakes from a magazine and I found a pumpkin latte recipe online and...the pumpkin latte was divine.  Made me want to leap over tall buildings in a single bound.  Coffee hasn't had that effect on me in a long time.  E and I even tackled cleaning her whole room...under the bed and all.  Oh, the joys of caffeine.  The pumpkin pancakes on the other hand...the recipe didn't get saved, but the kids all enjoyed the whipped topping and chocolate chips.  Guess they needed to get their sugar rush started early as well.

After school was finished, we finally got around to painting our pumpkins that have been waiting for over a month.  They are pie pumpkins and so they wouldn't make great jack o' lanterns...but painting is more fun (and less work for me) anyway!

C's was multi-colored in the beginning...by the end it was just kind of a blah yellowish tint

X wanted a red pumpkin...so he painted the entire thing red.

E designed a face.  The green are the pumpkin's glasses.

Happy Halloween

What a cold Halloween!!  E decided to go as a pioneer since it was so cold, but one lady called her Dorothy from the Wizard of Oz because of her sparkly shoes.  E thought that was pretty fun...so she went as "Dorothy" for the remainder of the evening.

X was Obi Wan Kenobi.  He even met Darth Vadar at one location but they decided not to duel.

C was going to be Batman.  Since August, he's wanted to be Batman.  I finally decided to buy him a shirt on Tuesday so that he could be Batman.  As they were getting changed at 5:00, he decided he wanted to be Milky the Cow with Super Kitty instead of Batman.  Go figure. However, he was an adorable cow.

The Fort...or Imagination Station...or Island

 Dad decided that the kids needed a fort on the 'island' out in the field.  So, instead of helping mom pick raspberries one day, he spent the morning creating the fort...or imagination station, as E calls it.  The kids love it.  Although, X thinks that it needs a roof...so we'll see if G'pa gets even more creative or not in the future, but for now, they love it, even without the roof.

Double Rainbow

On 10-6, we had the privilege of seeing our first rainbow at our house...and it was a double one!  I might have been a bit too excited, but I love seeing rainbows and double ones are just cool.  We also thought that it was fun that it 'ended' at the neighbor's silos.  The pot of gold is in the silos...maybe not this fall, but a fun thought nonetheless.

The arch was so large that I couldn't fit it in the camera lens.  I was disappointed how faint it appears in the picture, but it was a huge rainbow and I thought the scenery was pretty anyway.  I love the fall colors.

C is 3!

Today my whirling dervish turned 3.  I'm always sad to see my two year olds turn into three year olds because life is just different at age 3.  It is still fun, but there is more challenge to age three.

C at three remains 110% boy.  He loves his trains, his digger construction vehicles, light sabers, tractors, super heroes and Star Wars.  He loves shovels and digging.  Dad had to bolt down the hole to the diesel tank because he found it open one day with rocks surrounding it.  C loves to be out in the barn with G'pa, exploring and helping him.  He plays with Dad's tools.  He has the tractors named and can tell them apart.  He can find more things out there than I can.  Dad needed a flag one day and both boys ran to the barn to get one...and both boys knew where to look.  I wouldn't have had a clue.

My two oldest have been contemplating Halloween costumes for months.  C has only wanted to be Batman.  That is it...no wavering...just Batman.  He decided he liked Batman from the Lego Movie and that was it.  That was going to be his costume whether I agreed or not.  He doesn't play with super heros very often but he loves the idea of them.  He wants to conquer the world.  Once he makes his mind up about something, that is that.  Right now he hates driving southbound on the highway.  He complains about it (and sometimes screams about it) the entire way home.  Northbound is fine but he's decided he doesn't like southbound and he lets us know anytime we dare to drive it.  He can be a bit opinionated (and stubborn).

We laugh at him all the time.  He is one crazy little man.  If I don't catch him headed out the door in the morning, he will go play outside without a coat, shoes or socks.  I've brought socks, shoes and a coat countless times to the barn when it was too cold to be without them, but that didn't bother C.  He just kept on playing.  Once I tried waiting for him to get cold, my mommy-guilt caved before his common sense took over and I once again hunted him down to appropriately dress him.  Crazy guy.

His hands are covering his ears in anticipation of the "Happy Birthday" song

He's in a cuddly stage.  He loves to cuddle at bedtime.  He did great at going to bed by himself before it was dark out at bedtime.  Now that it is dark, he needs cuddles.  X has decided that he does too.  So, both boys and myself squeeze into C's bed and cuddle until they fall asleep.  The problem is that C won't go to sleep without a cuddle (by me if I'm home) right now.  We'll need to work on that before the baby shows up.

It took a LONG time for potty-training to be completed and he's still wearing pull ups to bed.  Washing his entire bed a couple times a week was worth the cost of another package.  In August, he couldn't go swimming at the hotel pool until he went #2 in the potty...and bam...just like that he decided that it was okay to use the potty all the time.  We had a handful of accidents afterwards but that was his major turning point in getting that #2 in the potty...now we did have the #2 tree outside for a bit because it took him awhile to figure out that it was really easier to come inside to do #2 but he got it figured out eventually...and it was easier to clean up the grass than it was the underwear.  Just a reminder to myself that all stages do pass...despite how frustrating (and tedious) they may be at the time.

His crazy hair needs cut.  The baby-fine hair in the back gets so tangled, but it just fits his personality so well...and I love his little curls that show up with it is humid.  But, it is time.  Soon he'll get his first hair cut (and I thought that E's hair grew slowly!).

Age 2 was fun.  We look forward with excitement to see what age 3 will bring.  We'll get to see him blossom into an big brother.  He'll just continue to grow and develop and gain new skills.  He'll probably learn other songs than the "B I B L E" and I'll miss hearing his cute rendition and sweet voice.  I'll hear, "I do it myself!" more than I will want...and maybe the question, "Mom, will you wipe my butt?" will evaporate into the past.

Today's Fun

Yesterday afternoon we noticed that we had little water pressure inside the house.  As it was Sunday, we didn't really have much time to investigate the quandary and so we checked the basement for water problems (there were none) and headed back to church.  While we were gone, the problem didn't get better, surprise, surprise.  By bedtime, we had even less water pressure.  I was having visions of new pumps and big bills.

This morning I called our local well guy who happens to live a quarter mile south of our house.  So, he made us his first stop of the day.  He popped open the well pit and looked at the pressure switch and said, "Well, I think we found the problem!"  The switch was very rusty and corroded.  But, as he checked it, it was still functioning.  So, he checked the pump...it was still running.  He asked me, "Do you have any water running inside the house?"  I replied that nothing major unless one of the kids had flushed the toilet or something.  We checked the basement...nothing.  He then asked if we had other hydrants.  Well, there are three.  We walked out to the first one on the north side of the property and we were 50 feet away and we were walking in water.  I said to Garrett, "I think we found our problem."  Sure enough, several feet from the hydrant, we had a cute little spring bubbling up from the ground.

Garrett looked at my dad and said, "Well, I see you have a backhoe here.  I've got two other people without water.  If you dig up the line and run into trouble, call me and I'll come back and give you a hand this afternoon.  You should probably replace the pressure switch while it is unburied too."  Then the guys then checked out the possibility of eventually updating the well and moving some things into the house and then the well guys took off.

So, Dad called the owner of the backhoe and Dave came right over and dug up the line, and they capped it off.  They changed the pressure switch and water was restored to the house before 1.  The repair cost me nothing initially...G'pa had an extra pressure switch in the garage and Dad and Dave did all the work.  I may have to pay a service call for Garrett's time, but that will be nothing as bad as I was envisioning last night.

Then, Dad and Dave set to burning the pile of brush they have been accumulating for the past month or three.  They moved quite a bit of the construction stuff left in the barn foundation to the pile and found all sorts of other things to burn also.  We had a huge fire that intrigued the kids.  They could hear it from the house.  It was pretty impressive.  At 11 pm, it is still burning nicely.

So, that was our day...water spring, well pits, backhoes, mud, and big fires...excitement, excitment.

Telling the Kids...

We have some exciting news to share.  Lord willing, baby #4, will be making his/her appearance late March or early April.  As, I am nearing the end of the first tri, we decided that we had better tell the kids.

So, at lunch in mid-September, I mentioned that we were going to have another baby.  E's immediate response, "Are you for real?!" She was very excited.  X was too.  C immediately climbed up in my lap.  Pulled my face to look at his and said, "I'm YOUR baby!" He was not really impressed by the news.  A few minutes later, we were still discussing the coming baby and he climbed back up in my lap, looked up to the ceiling and exclaimed, "Nothing is happening.  Nothing is happening."

Somehow, I am guessing someone isn't going to give up their title as 'baby' very willing.  Luckily he's got 6 months to get use to the idea.

E desperately wants another girl (surprise...she wanted one the other 2 times also).  X thinks another boy would be better.  C thinks he's the only baby.  Might be an interesting transition to a family of 6.  The boys think that we should name the baby after their favorite movie, Busytown, and the baby should be Huckle or Sally.  Again, I think it is a good thing that we have 6 months to work on them.  :)

Random Tidbits…Mainly about the Kitten

I may be having too much fun taking pictures right now.  But, we went for another walk last night and I took the camera along.  We need some new pictures to hang up, so I'm trying for a few good ones.

I'm not sure what is up with E's hand on the hip…age 7 is too young for such attitude, isn't it?!  The girl is growing entirely too quickly.

Tonight we went for a walk through the beans out back to the woods.  It is quite the hike back there but the kids had a great time exploring.

Our kitten, affectionately named, "Blue Kitty" or "Rocket", followed us on our adventure.  She wasn't about to be left behind the exploring.  She is a much loved addition to the family…one that I didn't particularly want but that adopted us anyway and doesn't show any sign of leaving.  She showed up out of the cornfield back in mid-August and now lives on the porch, which drives our house cat crazy, but she's learning to live with it too.

C loves 'Blue Kitty' the most and tries to catch her and carry her everywhere.  It only took her a couple of days to figure out that she needed to run like the wind whenever she saw him approaching, but he still manages to catch her frequently and haul her around.  She tends to spend most of the day hanging out in the shed.  The other barn cat hangs out there too and they seem to co-exist quite well.

Caleb and kitty…once again kitty didn't run fast enough to escape C's grasp.  The cute thing last night was that they walked together almost the whole walk.  They keep pace well.  C followed her through the forest to make sure that she didn't get lost. I think the kitten really likes C, as long as he's not holding her!

Last time we took a walk down to the creek and kitty was having a great time bounding along until she fell into the creek.  She got out just fine but when we turned around and came back she was too traumatize from her splash to follow.  She was gone for 24+ hours and when she managed to come back, she was still soaking wet and hungry.  She didn't let us out of her sight on our walk last night.

Dad has some big chunks of cement that are great play structures at the house.  The kids spend hours climbing and playing on them.  I see them and see stitches in foreheads…the kids see them and see great hours of entertainment.   Hopefully, the kids' vision is correct and mine is not.

Overall, it was a most enjoyable evening following deer trails through the woods.  It is nice to have time to enjoy our new home.

Fall Photo Shoot…or at least the first one

G'pa mowed some paths down the pasture last week.  We've had fun exploring them and following 'deer trails' down to the creek.  We have grand adventures!

Washing the Tractor

E came in very excited after lunch.  "Mom, G'pa said we can wash the tractor if it is all right with you.  Can we?"  How can one say no to that request?!  In my head I jumped to the number of tasks that I could do if everyone was busy 'washing' the tractor.  So, of course, I said, "Well, you still have a book report to do today and science.  So, if you wash the tractor, you have to do everything else later this afternoon."  And she was off like a shot…with some mumbled affirmative answer blown to the wind and slamming door.

So, after I had supper started, lunch dishes washed, laundry switched and bread started, I went out to see how the job was going.  I found three very happy, very busy, and very wet children with a dry G'pa  keeping an eye on the proceedings from a safe distance. After an hour + of entertainment, I told everyone it was time to come inside and have some 'rest time' and to finish school.  No one complained.  Everyone was all smiles and did exactly what was asked.  A wonderful activity for a wonderful day…and G'pa washed the rest of the tractor when all his helpers were inside.

It counts as vocational training, right?!  I love the flexibility of homeschooling and being able to enjoy beautiful fall days!!!

Today's Antics…

G'pa is at the house every day except Sundays working on the farm machinery.  On most days, he has at least one, if not two, little helpers.  Notice the wheelbarrow in front of the combine.  It was helping G'pa hold his tools.  G'pa gets lots of assistance whether he wants it or not.  I'm glad he's retired so that he has time for all his 'help'.  I'm not sure what my kiddos are going to do this winter when G'pa isn't around every day.  I'm sure that there will be much sadness.  But, that is a future problem…today, G'pa was here.  Today, G'pa moved the combine and put the header on it.  Now, we missed that excitement (silly errands) and the boys were very disappointed about that, but they caught a little ride after lunch.  However, that was not the 'big' fun of the day.  G'pa got out some new play equipment…now, it may not look like play equipment to an adult, but the kids spent hours playing on it this afternoon and evening.

 It started out as a balance beam.  My little acrobats spent a lot of time balancing on the beam…hanging on…working on walking the beam without hanging on.  Good fun.

After awhile, walking on the bottom beam wasn't enough excitement and it was time to move on to bigger and better tricks…it was time for the high beam.  X lucked out that he is the person with the most balance that has the smallest feet.  His feet could fit on the railing next to the metal beam…E's feet were too big…and C just doesn't have the balance yet.


When balancing wasn't enough of a thrill, the dismounting started.  E didn't have enough balance to do it eloquently…however, that didn't stop her.  X got some great height and distance though.  C had to get in on the fun too, although, I helped with his dismount because his abilities aren't quite up to par with his siblings despite the fact he thinks that they are.

All the playing made everyone thirst.  The outside pump quenched it fairly well.