Caleb

"Mommy, I want a house, a cooker, a door, a garage, an office, a big movie, a computer, "tindo land, and Mario Karts!" said my Caleb after sister finished frying him some eggs.

Sabbath Afternoon Kiting

"This is how you put it on Caleb"

Concentration

Thrilled

In Daddy's arms - the best place to be.

Look ma! No hands!

Getting the hang of in and brave enough to stand.

Don't look now! But mom even participated!

Eventful day

"Mom, how do you set off the smoke alarm with no bake cookies?" said my Abrianna this morning. Not only did it set off the alarm but evacuated the church!
Arriving home we found 2 chickens in our closed chicken pen. We managed to round up an additional 17. 
And to finish off the day Abrianna finished her math book for the year. Eventful.

Happy 6th birthday Emmy Lou May!

She insisted since she is 6 that she light her own candles.

After lighting the candles she burst into song, "Happy birthday to me! Happy birthday to me! I look like a monkey... And I smell like one too!"

Big inhale.

Big Blow!

She blew so hard she is cross eyed from the effort- and still didn't get them all out. 

Hummus the Train

Caleb on eating hummus, It's Thomas the Train." Me, "No its hummus." Caleb, " Hummus the train!" he happily declared while chomping it down on carrots.

Stories

TMI story.

When I weaned Caleb at just past age three, he still begged to nurse off and on. Ok, I thought. I'll let him see and tell him it's all gone and they are empty. He asked to nurse. I pulled up my shirt and showed him the milk was gone. His little eyes got wide and with an incredulous look on his face he said, "It all stretched out! It all gone!!!"

Today I was laying on the bed letting Caleb play horsey on my legs. " Momma! There are pokeys on your legs!" he announced rather startled.  Oh the honesty of a three year old.

Caleb was standing at the toilet peeping. Lucas started giggling about it. "Doesn't he have a cute little butt?" I asked. Caleb turned around indignantly and declared, " I don't have a cute butt! I have cute little balls!"

I VERY strong!

A few days ago, some friends came to visit. Their little girl is a few months younger than Caleb and afraid of dogs. He, seeing her distress, wrapped his arms around and wrestling the puppy back to protect his friend declaring, "See! I VERY strong! See I VERY strong." Love how he was looking out for his friend.

Stories

 Caleb at age three still sleeps with me. I keep a water cup on the head board for him for during the night. He woke up asking for water. I reached for what I thought was the honey bear filled with water. He spit and sputtered pushing it away and demanding," I want water!" Only then did I realize that it was Astroglide. Poor kid.

Lucas -age 12 -feels like he knows everything.  He was being a punk while I was cutting with my bread knife. I shook it at him like a warning finger. He snarkily replied, " You are threatening me with a knife! I am gonna call 911!", proceeding to pick up the land line, turn it on, and dialing a number that was close to 911. Here I must insert that he didn't realize that it wasn't a cell phone he was calling on and it would dial without hitting a send button. 
I warned that if you dial any number close to 911 that it will call 911. Immediately the phone rang, "This is the Walla Walla police department. We just had a 911 hang up call from this number. Is there a problem?" Stifling my laughter I asked the officer if he would talk to Lucas and explain the gravity of what he had done. My son was mortified.
A little while later, I was laughing about the situation to Rick as we were walking when we noticed a police car driving towards us. Not only had 911 called back but they sent out an officer to double check. He talked to Lucas at the house then drove out to double check that what Lucas said about mom and dad walking was true.
Oh, if Lucas thought he was embarrassed before now he was to the point of tears, begging me not to EVER tell anyone about what he did. I doubt this will ever happen again.

Abrianna had a progress evaluation test scheduled for Friday at 1:30. At 12:30 we climbed into the Yaris and I backed off the cement pad. I was sure I had drug Caleb's dump truck under the car. I stopped, climbed out, and looked under the car. Nothing. Back into the car again. Oh, it sounded awful! I turned off the radio. Making it to the end of the garage I stopped again and asked Abrianna to get out with me and look. Low and behold there was a flat passenger tire.
As I walked into the house to tell Rick, Abby yelled, "Mom! The back one is flat too!" What? Two flats on the same side?
I unloaded the car, placed things into the van and turned the key. Click... Ok... So Rick's fix to keep the battery from running down obviously didn't work. Guess we weren't going to the appointment today after all.
I  called vision therapy to tell them about the vehicular troubles and to reschedule. Then I called Roadside Assistance to get a tow truck on the way. ( Did I ever say how much I appreciate Roadside Assistance??? This is the second time I have had them out in the last 6 months to pick up a car from my house.)
Abrianna and I rode with the driver to Les Schwab where the car ended up needing all new tires. When I asked to see what ruined side walls looked like the technician picked up one of the tires and a cup of rubber powder fell out. Okay then...
Paying for the car, Abrianna climbed into the front passenger side seat and we crossed the road to pick up our groceries from Wal-mart. Imagine my surprise when I opened the door to see a police officer beside me his car parked behind me with flashing lights. He asked how old my daughter was and then for my registration and drivers licence. What? a fine on top of the new tires and vehicle troubles??? I burst into tears as I fumbled for the correct paper work. I didn't get a ticket. I got a warning and a brochure about WA state laws for children in cars. I am grateful for no ticket.  The officer did tell me that they were running a special emphasis day on kids in the front seats of cars today. Looking around I saw multiple police cars and unmarked ones as well. I suppose my older kids aren't going to fight anymore over who gets the front seat since they are both under 13.

God's protection at South Fork

Last time we went to South Fork in July of 2017, we met up with a rattle snake separating us from our girls. This Sabbath we met other interesting experiences.
We were invited to go to the Michael's for lunch then out to South Fork to hike. It was a relaxing day of hiking and playing in the river with NO snakes.
Upon arriving back at the vehicles,  Tiffany asked if I wanted to make sure the van would start before they headed off for home. ( I have had several times recently when it wouldn't start or run)
I walked around and started the van leaving the door open. Caleb immediately scrambled up on the drivers seat.
Rick called for the kids to come to the passenger side front of the van to see what a tick looked like- can you believe my kids don't know what ticks look like??? I walked to the back of the van noticing a pile of kiddos treasures on the back bumper. All of a sudden, the van began to creep forward towards the rushing river. (I must insert here that I thought we were maybe 10 feet from it when in reality it was more like 20 feet.)
Panicking I shrieked and began running towards the front of the van. Rick and Lucas both thought I was the driver. It took a moment to registered with them that I was the one screaming instead of driving. Rick reacted quickly clambering into the passenger side and shoving the gear shift lever into park- wincing and hoping the transmission wasn't stripping out. The van came to a rest 2-3 feet from where I had parked it the front end pressing into the bushes.
Tears of relief and fear of what almost happened sprang into my eyes. But my baby was safe. Praise God. I waited for my heart to stop pounding and the shaky feeling to subside before driving us home.
We felt God's protection very strongly that day. Thank You LORD for your protection. Here on some other pictures from the weekend.

A new "baby" in the family.

Meet Jasmine. She is a 6 week old German Shepherd puppy we found on Craigslist. From all appearances she's gonna grow to be a really big dog. Her birthday is March 9th, 2017.

Happy 10th Birthday Abrianna

Abby looks concerned.

Blowing out the trick candles.

Always more fun with friends.

Birthdays!

Abrianna has been taking cake decorating at co-op. She made me ( mommy) my birthday cake this year.

She was helping little sister learn the basket weave.

Happy 3rd Birthday Caleb!

Caleb's third birthday

The day of Caleb's third birthday was spent running errands in town. He had a post-op appointment to check his teeth. Then we met up with Uncle Reggie as a surprise at the Taqueria. Then Uncle Reggie took us to Iceburgs. After that all of us went to the Walla Walla clinic for Abby's hip x-rays. The pictures are from stopping at Lion's Park to play for awhile. Long day. Good day.

New teeth

Silver fluoride treated teeth. When he was 18 months old his teeth started rapidly to decay over about 6 weeks. He was too little to sedate and properly fill them so the decay was stopped with silver fluoride.

Now he had a tooth that was badly decayed break in half so the dentist thought it would be best to remove it. I also asked for the black to be fixed. The front 3 are capped and the other black areas filled.

As he is as big as me...

I started to compliment Lucas on his nice looking pair of jeans today when I realized they were MY jeans! Oops. Guess he could swipe mine in a pinch ( he was pretty horrified he was wearing his MOM'S pants).

Easter at the Church.

"There's an egg daddy!"

Here's another one.

So this is what's inside it.

Chocolate!

Stickers!