I warm you up!

Me to my girls...  "I know you older ones probably didn't do this... But please leave the heater alone. It was off." Abby declared, "I warm you up mommy! With my little tiny hands!" Then she stopped eating and  clasped my cold hand in both of her tiny ones.

What's a parent to do?.....

3- year old Abby stole in to big brother Lucas' bedroom commandeering a Lego car. Oh how sweet to play with forbidden goods, until.... big brother found her. He nicely requested she return the pieces ( by then she'd disassembled it) of it to him.  Refusing she popped a piece into her mouth.
"Momma! Abby has my Lego piece and won't give it back and I asked her nicely!" he whined at me. I followed him to her bedroom where he was attempting to make a forceful entry. Pushing him aside I went in to talk to her. "Where's the lego piece? " I asked. "In here!" she replied pointing at her mouth. "You got to be kidding me!" I thought. I tried rewording it. "Abby where did you leave brother's Lego piece?" Opening her mouth wide she said, "In here!" Oh boy! What's a parent to do...

She did what?

Daddy bought a pellet gun to teach everybody to shoot.

 For Abrianna's turn she pressed her little eye tightly against the scope and pulled the trigger. Ooops! It kicked her right in the eye! She stumbled back to the house blood smeared and tears falling.

Daddy noticed something was on the scope... bits of Abrianna's eyebrow. Oh well, must've gotten her hairs stuck there some how. He picked it off and resumed practice.

Meanwhile I saw my blood smeared little girl come stumbling up to the  house with a nice deep cute and a impressive looking shiner.

Ought to be interesting to hear the reactions when she tells others what happened to her eye. Oh well. You can guarantee she won't try that trick again anytime soon.

Minnesota Trip.

We stopped of a picnic lunch on the way to Itasca.

Grandpa helping Emmy towards the car.

So happy.

My wonderful parents - 37 years and counting.

A highlight was seeing Grandpa Vernon and Grandma Joan. Its been three years.

Uncle Mitch and Abrianna "braving" the head waters of the Mississippi.

Love... Crossing the mighty Mississippi. 

Cousins by the dozens. Well... almost.

Get that boy! The 5 year olds.

The oldest and youngests.

The 7 year olds.

Babies.

One of the most fun things? Frogs everywhere. 

Wow, check this out!

Jubilee Lake- a family adventure.

Four little cherubs.

Ready to take on the lake...

Or play horsey on daddy's tummy...

To watch the ducks on the little island...

While baby sister quickly slips into the lake fully clothed...

So everybody else joined in the fun.( Emmy was blue lipped, shivering, and having a blast.)

Facing life with no holds barred. 

 Our little "nature" girl, likes water on her terms.

Doesn't it look idyllic? Don't be fooled. 

We fueling up with roasted hot dogs we sett out. Stopping to take pictures.( We'll just pretend that my angry 3 year old didn't intentionally poop in her pants right after the first photos.)

 At our second stop, Abby fearlessly attempted to catch a huge frog. ( she caught a lot of them in MN last week)

We leisurely spent time climbing up the hill picking and eating huckleberries. Both of us thought the other was watching Emmy. (whoops!) I saw something out of the corner of my eye tumble down off the edge of a short bank. Fortunately she was none the worse for wear.

We stopped to visit with some church members,  watching some teenager boys swing out and plunging into the lake.

On the home stretch, we stopped for the kids promised "swim." I pulled off Emmy's shoes and handed her to daddy so I could take a picture of the duck island. He took his eyes off for a few seconds and was surprised to see she had waded into the lake fully clothed. She was so nonchalant.. for a few seconds. Then burst into tears holding her arms and hands out of the water. That quickly stopped  as she happily (shivering and blue lipped) splashed and played. Abby swam in her birthday suit. Lucas took off his shirt so Emmy could have something dry to wear on the rest of the walk. Abrianna managed to come out dry. Not sure how that happened. 

We finished the day off with some ice cream on the way home. Overall some good memories made.

In the news...

Laying on my bed with my two littlest girls, I patted Abby's tummy. "Sounds hollow." I said. She responded with a giggle patting my tummy. "You tummy says "hello" too!"

Lucas swatting flies, "Mom! I just killed two flies on their honeymoon!" "Uhhh, how do you know they are on their honeymoon?" I asked. "Cause we had ducks mom, and that's what they'd do..." he replied. "Ummm ok..."

He's so blessed. The scar isn't too bad, now that the stitches were removed yesterday. The doctor is pleased with how it looks and his teeth are meeting nicely. The challenge remains on how to creatively burn off little boy energy for the next 2 weeks until the bones finish healing.