All About Andrew

The other day, we were cleaning up the living room and Andrew said, "Well, lookee here!  This room will be clean as a whistle in no time."

 

Andrew also has informed me that "we call teeth 'food crushers.'"  I wasn't aware.

 

 

He tried soda for the first time, and then after that asked for "spicy bubble drink" for awhile.

 

Andrew informed me the other day that  "Heavenly Father lived in outer space when he was a little boy.  When Jesus was a little boy, he looked up at the twinkling stars and looked and looked and saw the moon.  We all see the moon, right?"  Then tonight when we were looking through some Science books, he said, "I know what marble is.  When you smash up rocks into lots and lots of pieces and it becomes marvelous.  Then you send it up to the moon and when it comes back, it has lots of lines on it."  You learn something new every day.  :)

This is such a creative kid.  Here are just a few of the pictures that he has drawn.  He draws probably 10-15 drawings a day at least.  They are so detailed and special.  I am so proud of our little artist.  And yes, on the stuffed animal picture, he is purchasing a roly poly stuffed animal.  Of course.

 

 He was eating a snack and his little hedgehog stuffed animal was on his lap.  He told me that his name was Hedgehoggie and said, "Mom, do you hear me and hedgehog munchin'?" 

 

Here he is reading a book to the turtle we are turtle sitting this week.  Pretty cute.

 

He is starting to read pretty well, and the other day I saw a schoolbook he was doing on his own where he wrote the words "awac" and "daon."  Awake and down.  He is SO STINKING SMART!!!!!!!!!!!!!!  I've taught him stuff of course, but really he is just taking off so well on his own.  Any time I start doubting my abilities to homeschool him, I need to remember how well he is doing already. 

 

We are so stinking proud of our amazing little guy.  He is growing up so much, and so fast.  Oh, little Andrew.  We love you so!

 

Fun in the Sun

Welcome to Summer!

 

It isn't my favorite season, but we've had a pretty mild one so far, so the kids and I have been taking advantage of it.

 

For Independence Day, we went down to Salem and while there, saw the parade.  It was your typical small town parade, but since it included candy, the kids thought it was amazing.  I asked Andrew if he was having a good time, and he said, "Yeah, because this is AWESOME!"

 

Emmie also loved all the political bracelets, stickers, and necklaces.  :)

 

 We put the kids in their swimsuits the other day and turned on our sprinkler.  We got it a couple years ago in the gardening section for a couple dollars, and it works just as well as expensive ones.  Yippee!  The kids had a really good time.  Emily had trouble remembering the word "sprinklers" so called them "spwinkies" for awhile and then changed to "sprinkles."  I have to say, I didn't correct her because it was just adorable.

Clockwise from top left: Emily crying because her swimsuit got wet (she got over it eventually), Mike helping Charlie get used to the water, the kids finally all having fun in the water, and Andrew being Andrew.  :)

 

We had some crazy high winds and rain last night.  It hurt our garden, but hopefully nothing terrible.  It also broke some pretty big branches off the tree in the backyard.  We ended up playing with the branches for hours this morning.  The kids had an absolutely fantastic time.

Charlie did get stuck in the branches once or twice, but it was fun for everybody. :)

 

  Clockwise from top left: The branches, little cutie on a big branch, Emily and Night-Night, Charlie on a different branch, Andrew climbing, and all three on the same branch

 

I thought he looked so cute and little here.

 

Andrew started climbing around and said, "I'm climbing like a panda!"  He then decided to pretend to be a panda and eat 'bamboo.'  He later informed Mike that pandas like bamboo and yogurt.  You learn something new every day.  :)  He insisted on us calling him Panda and Emily went and collected sticks for him to eat.  Later he told me, "I pretended to be a panda, because that was so cute."  Agreed.

 

 We set up the sprinkler again while we were working in the garden.  The next thing we knew, the kids had abandoned the sprinkler because there was now a mud puddle.  And who wouldn't choose the mud puddle?  (Or pubbles, as Emily calls them.)  They had so much fun, and got SO messy.  It took a lot of work in the tub to get them squeaky clean again, but it was worth it to see them having so much fun.

 

 

I guess summer's not so bad after all.  :)

 

Garden

We love our garden, and it's starting to grow so well!

 

Jalapenos

 

Lots and lots of tomatoes!

 

Emily saying, "Hi, wittle 'omato!"

 

Romas

 

Our cute little "helpers"

 

Watermelons!!!!  I know we planted them, so I shouldn't be so shocked to see them in the garden, but I really was!  So exciting!  Especially since they are so stinking expensive.

 

And teeny tiny little watermelons?  Seriously adorable.

 

Our squash plant is really starting to bloom.

 

Anybody have any idea what this thing is?  It's growing in our garden, and we're letting it just to see what it is.

 

This is a hideous picture of my hand, but I wanted to show the size of the leaves on our zucchini.  It's insane.  I've never seen anything like that before.

 

Here it is!  Peppers, tomatoes, jalapenos, watermelon, cantaloupe, zucchini, yellow squash, eggplant, and lots and lots of grass.

Feelin' Jacobsy

There are a million and one reasons I love my in-laws.

 

 

 

 

And since I can't name them all, I'll just show their cute and funny faces.

 

 A few are missing, but I love them all the same. :)

I lucked out in the in-law department....big time.

I love you guys!

Belated

Our little girl turned three on Sunday, so I'm a little behind in this post, but didn't want to miss it.

Happy Birthday to the sweetest,

happiest,

most beautiful,

most wonderful little girl we could have ever been blessed with.

 

Happy Birthday, little Eggplant.  We sure do love you!

Fruits of our Labor

I LOVE having a garden!!  It's been hard to keep it weeded.  We're growing a lot of grass in our garden....but we're also growing tomatoes, zucchini, squash, eggplant, jalapenos, peppers, cantaloupe, and watermelon.  We also have day lilies growing in the yard.  We're trying to get some purslane as well, which is amazing in spaghetti sauces, etc.

 

We were able to use the jalapenos and some day lily buds and made some green curry. 

 

It was SO good.  And it was way better because some of it came from our garden.  Did I mention I love getting veggies from the garden?

 

Resolution Check-in (May)

1.  Lose 50 pounds  Let's just say that I gained some weight, and move on.  June is hopefully going to be better.  Geesh, Karen.

.  Read 50 books. I read three books last month, so I'm up to 12.  Yay.  :)

3.  Read the scriptures more this year.  Going great!  I even read on my vacation every day, which has not been the case in the past.  :)  I also started doing scripture study with the kids in the morning, and that is going really well, too.  It's super short and usually is just a scripture story while they're eating.

4.   Spend time/Read to kids each day  Still going well.  There are days that are better than others, but we definitely read a lot of books and play a lot more together.  I've been encouraging them to play more with each other, too.  This causes more fights, but they now have specific games they like to play with each other (Emmie likes playing letters with Charlie, Andrew likes to play cars with Emmie, etc.)

May= a fun month, resulting in some good and some bad habits.

Beliefs, Opinions, And Why Everyone's Right

 Just know this is not a rant, nor do I think it's something that will change lives.  It's just a thought I had recently.  :)  The ironic thing is that I think this post is going to cause controversy

 

Why does everyone seem to think they are always right?  Well, because they are.  Now, hear me out.  There are things that are irrefutable.  The Rocky series is the BEST thing to happen to humanity.  Blinking is really gross when you think about it.  Actually, eyes themselves give me the heebie jeebies.  Ice cream is happiness.  Just to name a few.

 

There are things that I believe with all my heart, and there are others who feel that the exact opposite is true.  It is my opinion that spanking kids rarely does any good.  (I have spanked my kids a couple times, and I was as a child probably 4 times and totally deserved each one.)  I believe in a God who loves me.  I have friends who believe that is a fantasy.  People feel very strongly about both of those things, so that's why I chose them. 

 

I don't know about you, but when someone states an opinion that I don't agree with, I sometimes feel defensive or slightly upset.  "What?!  This random person on the internet feels like baby formula is evil?  But my kids all started formula around 8 months.  Does this person think I'm a bad parent?  I'm NOT a bad parent!  What a jerk!!!"

 

Am I the only one?

 

The problem is, 99% of the time, people are only stating what they believe to be true.  They're not trying to make you look like a bad person, a bad parent, a racist, a fascist, a lazy ignoramus, or a rodeo clown.  They're just stating their opinion.  And as for the other 1%, they have more problems than you.

 

I hope that all the people who know me know that although I have strong beliefs and opinions, I respect and admire those around me for being different and unique. 

 

Opinions.  Beliefs.  That's what they are.  You can deny evidence and facts.  You can argue them all day long.  (Not that I condone fighting.)  But what someone thinks and feels and believes is real to them.  It's true to them.  So yes.  EVERYONE IS RIGHT.  Just because I believe something strongly, doesn't make everyone else wrong.  The more I remember that, and the more I try to incorporate it into my dealings with those around me, the better my relationships will be.

But that's just my opinion.

Best Theme...Ever.

We've had a lot of fun around here lately!  Andrew's birthday was yesterday, and we celebrated with family on his actual birthday, and with some friends on Saturday.  He chose the best theme ever.  A Roly Poly Birthday Party.  Andy has a love bordering on adoration for roly polies, and since they are featured in most of his drawings, it was perfect. 

\

He designed his cake, and was happy with how it turned out.  The roly poly dragging a 5 didn't really turn out like I had envisioned for him, but he liked it.  :)  Emily was even more excited about the party than he was, I think.  She insisted on wearing the party hat as soon as friends started to arrive, running around screaming, jumping, and clapping.  She told him "Happy Birthday" about a million times over the weekend.  We all did.  :)  I think she'll like her birthday later this month.  Andrew was such a cutie all weekend, and was so proud of the decorations he had made.

 I had to cut Andrew off from how many more friends could come to the party, because he wanted to make it an all out festival.  We were so glad they could all come!

 It was so bittersweet for me to see Andrew running around being such a big kid yesterday.  Five to me seems so....different.  I remember being five.  He has become such a sweet little boy, though, and I love getting to know him more and more as the years go on.

 

After he opened presents, he asked when we were going to play party games.  Wellllllll......since we didn't have any planned, we played London Bridge and Red Light, Green Light.  We also played with his new basketball hoop.

Happy Birthday, Sweetheart!

5

Five years ago, we were blessed with a tiny little boy.

 

Five years ago, we felt blessed beyond compare.

 

Since then, we have gotten to know the amazing boy he has become.

 

Happy Birthday to the sweetest, funniest, weirdest, most wonderful five year old in the world!

 

We love you, Andrew!!!!