Around the House - November

Building cars with Daddy out of shoeboxes...with real working lights!

Putting pipe cleaners into the colander.

Discovering the power of light switches.

Thanksgiving

I've really fallen behind here! I accidentally left my camera cord in CA over Christmas and thankfully my mom sent it to me so I can begin updating here again. Thanks Mom! :)

But it looks like I skipped Thanksgiving entirely...was the Christmas rush really that bad? Yes, I think it was. So here we go...
Setting off for Indiana, driving overnight. The boys are SO excited.

We enjoyed joining Lisa and her kids, plus Walt and Judy at the local nature center. Here the boys got to pet a tortoise.

Ronan is also being homeschooled this year, so it was fun to do a field trip together!

The kids learned about animal tracks and painted a plaster mold of one.

Almost all of the younger cousins enjoying time together at Chick fil A.

Play doh fun at Grandma & Grandpa's

Fun down in Ronan, Fiona, and Anika's basement "kid land"

The boys were chomping at the bit to drive those "dune buggies" around Gma & Gpa's backyard.

...It was COLD out there! But that didn't deter them, and Jim kindly watched them.

Grandma decided to let them open a present or two every so often so they could enjoy each gift and get to play with them while they were visiting. A good idea! They got these mix and match cars that were a big hit, and still are!

And this Hot Wheels track was also a great gift - it kept everyone occupied for hours.

Wade was really good at sending those cars down the track, wanting to do it for a long time.

Oh my goodness, GRANDPA was a BIG FAVORITE with Wade! Every night Wade wanted to cuddle with him before bed, and even fell asleep in his arms a few times! Look at his delighted grin!

Everyone was trying to get him to say "Grandma" but he only wanted to say "Grandpa." Wade slept in a pack-n-play in our room, and one night he woke up in the middle of the night and said, "Grandma! Said it! YAAAA!" and went back to sleep! It was so cute.

More Chick fil A fun...

Ronan shows G & W his guitar.

Thanksgiving! Alyssa shows us her cute turkey made out of fruit!

The kids' table! It's really fun that they're all the same ages.

The boys loved playing the piano.

Barnes Christmas in Lisa and Jeff's basement.

Fiona and Garrett.

Wade really took a liking to Uncle Tom. Just the other day he pointed him out in a family picture on his own saying "Uncle Tom."

Aaaannnnddd..... driving home, straight through, with the help of Chitos. Thank goodness for these salty little treats that kept Wade pretty sane.

When we got home we went right over to Lowe's to pick up our Christmas tree...we wanted to have as much time as possible to enjoy it before we hit the road for CA!

Garrett

Reading Home Improvement 1-2-3 to Wyatt

Garrett has been maturing and growing a lot in the past year or so. Although I don't have as many catchy quotes from him anymore, it's fun to look back at many of the ways he is maturing and learning. Here's the latest from the past several months:

7/9/13
I walked into Garrett’s room to get him up from quiet time today, and he was working furiously on a lock for his door. He had a system that he told me about in vivid detail that included a rubber band that wrapped around the latch and then a “shooter” on the other end that had a rubber band to hold it on. He also confidentially showed me the McDonald’s Spy Gear toy that shoots a red “bullet” out of it. He had it in his pocket to “be prepared” and to protect himself from bad people who might want to take him. The bullet would shoot out and hit them in the eye. I think we have a future gun owner/engineer??

Garrett has been enjoying summer camp at Cross of Christ. He likes being with the other kids even though they are younger than him. Today when I picked him up, all the kids said, “Goodbye Garrett!”  and waved at him, and another kid had given him a paper of letters he had stamped.

Garrett is devouring books on the solar system right now and can tell me lots of things I didn’t know about different planets, stars, etc. It’s so fun to see him poring over books that are probably 3^rd-4^th grade reading level, and loving all of the new information he is getting.

7/21/13

Garrett, who has apparently been reading everything in sight: “I notice that many of the things in the United States of America are from the Island of China.”

8/19/13

Today we started our first day of Kindergarten home school! I decided last-minute that this was the day, and so I told Garrett this morning. He immediately looked up sharply and then said, “And let’s do full-day Kindergarten.” He loved it and we all got tired out!

Highlights I wrote down one week (evidently it had been tough and I was looking for rays of sunshine):

When I forgot to pray at lunch, Garrett noticed and said, “Let’s pray.”

We’ve been doing round-the-table prayers and the boys pray more readily when we do this, and enjoy it.

Wade folding hands by himself to pray.

The boys holding hands spontaneously.

All 3 playing sweetly together.

Garrett saying politely but firmly to a bossy lady at the rec center playground who yelled at them to go down the slide on their “butt”: “That’s not an appropriate word.” (Not that butt is the worst word in the world, but I was happy Garrett stood up to that lady and was aware that there are nicer ways of saying it!)

Tonight Garrett asked me out of the blue at dinner, “What happens to the atoms, and even the protons, electrons and even photons when we cut paper with scissors?”

Last year at school Garrett loved saving the cups and little paper plates from the snack at school. He would sneak them into his backpack.

He loved doing “church service” for us. Standing on the bed, he’d have a stream of consciousness song come out saying things like, “God loves us, He does not hate us!”

Garrett: “The things that are hard I do first, and then I’ll do the fun things.”

Garrett, starry eyed in his bed after reading: “Mom, someday I want to build a model rocket that comes in the mail and fly it around the world.”

Wants to be a chemist, like Daddy.

Garrett and Wyatt have named their mini-tower fans. G’s is Joe Joe. W’s is Pee Wee. J

Garrett told me he really wants to learn more about the Bible. Later that day I gave him the kids’ section out of the Answers In Genesis magazine and told him it would help him learn more about the Bible, and he ran upstairs to read it saying, “Yes!!”

Garrett notices that Uncle Wiggly is a gentleman because he thinks of others and is nice to others. As Jim was snow-blowing he said, “Our Daddy is a gentleman."

 

Garrett has been devouring "Home Improvement 1-2-3, and can spout off whole sections of memorized material, telling me how to fix things that I've never even considered learning how to fix! His memory is amazing.

Being an inventor is probably Garrett's greatest aspiration right now. He is constantly trying to think of new things to invent!

Before Thanksgiving, he started drawing some amusing cartoons about a turkey so I encouraged him to draw them in a book and he dictated to me what to write. Here are the pages of the book:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Wyatt

I think it's about time to update all of the kids' latest sayings and doings...surprised that the last post with them was way back in April! So for Wyatt, here are the latest notes I've taken in the past 6 months. I love his zany sense of humor, his laid-back personality, and his loving heart!

5/24/13

Wyatt got tired early on our bike ride/walk with the double stroller. Soon after we left the house he said, “I need to get my energy IN…all of my energy flew away from me at home” and took a seat on the double stroller. J

 

7/9/13

Wyatt was SO excited tonight that we would be able to look through a REAL telescope when we are camping this summer (I’m bringing mine). He talked to me about it in bed tonight with wide eyes and awe and wonder in his voice. "Am I going to get to see the HEAVENS with the telescope??” “I can’t wait to get to the cabin and look through the telescope!!!”

Wyatt is so cute when we gets up from bed and comes in and out….he always starts out with, “Well, ya’ see, actually, you know, I need to tell you somethin’…” (with a cute little tongue-click sprinkled throughout!)

7/16/13

Wyatt loves to play “accomplished baby” sometimes with me…he pretends to be a baby and then shows me all of the amazing things this accomplished baby can do….like talking, walking, etc.

Wyatt loves to try different foods. Yesterday we gave him a whole artichoke to eat all by himself for the first time, and he actually did a pretty good job eating it! At the store he specially requested corn (he loves to shuck it), peaches, and grapes.

 

7/23/013

Wyatt: Today at 5-Day Club, Wyatt had memorized John 3:16 so he got to choose a prize. He chose a pair of 80's neon yellow and black big sunglasses. On the way home, he said, "I love these sunglasses so much, I want to keep them until I go to heaven!!"

Wyatt also frequently says he loves everyone in the whole world soooo much! Today he said that he sends it to each person in each state, and made blowing sounds over and over. I asked if that was him sending his love and he said yes. J Little sweetie.

 

 

9/26/13

I recently discovered that Garrett and Wyatt have a little game they play that they call the Santa Clause Game – they sneak into each other’s rooms at night and put pennies under each other’s pillows. Garrett says he does it while Wyatt is sleeping, and I assume Wyatt does it before they are going to bed because that’s what he did tonight.

10/21/13

A collection of quotes from the past few months:

Wyatt: “Dr. Vacuum is the friendly sucker-upper!”

“Wade obeyed you! That’s called a baby miracle!!”

While watching me change Wade’s diaper and put Desitin on Wyatt was very sympathetic and said, “A diaper rash is like a fan blade whipping against you.”

I got the kids a learning snake toy that teaches them to fasten different kinds of things, and when it’s all fastened you have a snake toy! I showed it to Wyatt, and let him do it in the living room. Later in the day I realized it was all over the room. He told me he had “cut off its head so it won’t bite us” and that was on the secretary. Another part was lashed to a chair leg with a very elaborate knot!

Me: “Wyatt, what would help you stay dry at night?”

Wyatt: “Well, putting leaves under my pillow.”

On his own after I made him a place to hide out, he came to me and said with a beaming face, “Mom, thank you for making me one of those hide-out covers! ‘Cause I needed one of those!”

“I love you as much as God does! There’s no end to my love! Unless God snips my love wire.”

Wyatt sneezed, and I said, “Bless you, my dear.” He said with a dreamy voice, “I love it when you say that. It makes me feel like you love everyone in the whole world!”

Frequently loves to announce that he loves everyone in the whole world.

Me, reading a book about space to the boys: “Several major countries have agreed that space belongs to everyone.”

Wyatt: “No it doesn’t! Space belongs to the Lord!”

Jim: “Where do the Easter baskets come from?”

Wyatt: “There’s a magic bunny called the Torticollus bunny.”

Likes to talk about “zero” in terms of “zero times,” etc.

Put a thumb in his mouth and said, “This is a musical suck-strament.”

When a miracle happens in one of the Bible lessons in the Children’s Bible, he gets so excited! His eyes light up, he laughs open-mouthed, and yells, “That was a miracle!!!!!”