Funny Quote of the Day

This evening I noticed Quinn laying around in the living room and I thought that he probably hadn't been to the bathroom in a while.  I told him to go potty.  As he was walking toward the bathroom I heard him mutter, "It's about time someone told me to do that.  I've been needing to go."

CSB Shape 'n' Race

This past weekend was Kent's Christian Service shape and race event. 

Kent did almost all of the work and assembly on his car, waiting until the last minute and putting it all together and painting it the afternoon it was due.  He named it "The Green Toothy Monster."  Jeff helped the girls build a race car for the Powder Puff run.  Katy worked on the design and painting and Kaomi helped with the wheels.  Katy painted it red and blue with white stars.  Felicity didn't like it, so she didn't want to participate.  Jeff designed and built a Ford Bronco for Clark and Quinn to enter in the open class event.  He spray painted it yellow and I added the detail work with sharpie markers and Clark's input. 

They all worked hard.  Kent's race had many entries and his car struggled to make it down the track.  Jeff thought he had some glue on the wheels.  Katy's and Kaomi's car did well, she came home with 2 red ribbons.  Clark's and Quinn's had only three entries in their race and they got three blue ribbons and the trophy.  Clark was beaming with excitement.

I guess I only got a picture of Clark and his car and ribbons this year.

Reading Together

I caught Clark and Quinn "reading" airplane books together during school time.

2-23 to 2-25 Sleet/Snow Pictures

2/23 - Freezing Rain and Sleet

Sledding down a neighbors driveway with friends

2-24  Day after freezing rain/Sleet

Kent and his small fort

 2/25 - Snow

Kent was out in it too, but he came in before I took the picture.

Quinn's First Hair Cut

Quinn got his first hair cut on January 30th.

Quinn's First Hair Cut

Quinn's First Hair Cut

Quinn's 2nd Birthday

Last week we celebrated Quinn's second birthday with him.  He likes dinosaurs, so we had a little bit of a dinosaur theme.   I served bagels for breakfast.   In the morning, we made dinosaur sticker papers.  They adorned the table for the rest of the day as part of his decorations.  After lunch we played outside and drew some dinosaurs on the driveway with chalk.  Jeff came home early and we went to the playground, then came home and had pizza for supper.  Grammy and Riley (the dog) came over for cake and brought a present. 

Quinn is 2.

Special Place Setting

Birthday balloon

Dinosaur cake and some dinosaur papers.

Time for cake

at the playground

Time for presents

Family Picture - 2014

Jeff, Quinn, and I found a beautiful patch of firewheels in a state park.  We went back the next day to get a family picture.

School's Out

We are done with school for the year.  Everyone passed their work and gets to move on to the next level.  Silly Katy told us after only one day of no school that she was bored without school and wanted someone to print some math worksheets for her.  I made a deal with the older kids.  If they do a good job on their responsibilities and chores they will have more time to play.  If they do a bad job, waste too much time, or complain too much they will get to work for me.  If they owe me work it gets completed at 9:00 in the morning or 4:00 in the afternoon unless I tell them otherwise.  So far I've gotten some doors, window sills and floors washed.  I had some help on a short cleaning project I was tackling and the bookshelf upstairs is on its way to having the books look like they belong on it again.  This morning Clark and Felicity were in the backyard at 7:30 picking yellow flowers for me.  They are so sweet.  Quinn has been up since sometime after 5 am and he even convinced me to give him some breakfast at 6:30.  He'll be ready for a nap soon.

More of Clark's and Quinn's Fun Stuff

Clark told me he was getting a hair cut.

Quinn thinks its fun to play in this car.  He can get in and out all by himself.

Late night giggles and snuggles are worth it.  Even if the baby gets wound up and doesn't want to go to sleep until after Mommy's normal bedtime.

Clark was practicing his name.  I told him to put the letters in order and this is what he did ALL BY HIMSELF.  He didn't even look at the placemat on which he usually matches up his letters.

Yesterday, Clark was playing with this wrench and then he told me, "I have a holly-lop."

Other happenings:
Quinn is taking more steps and realizing it is kind of fun.  It is fun to hear all the kids exclamations of "Quinn just walked!".

Clark put a sticker on his "eyeball" this morning.  It was really on his elbow.

My Life is Full - Part 1

My life is full of enjoying my children.  I thought I would share some of the ways my youngest children constantly fill my life.

Quinn -  My sweet one year old fills my life with giggles.  He likes to be tickled and to tickle others.  He still nurses several times a day and once or twice at night.  With nursing comes extra snuggles and holding a sleeping baby who is sometimes just too cute to put down right away.  He is learning that it is fun to play with cars, especially with Clark.  He also gives lots of hugs to anyone who is close enough to receive them.  He isn't walking independently yet, but I think as soon as he realizes how much fun it is he will run as fast as he can to wherever he wants to go.

Clark - My very busy two year old fills my life with cute actions and sayings.  He loves to help me in the kitchen.  Lately, he's been helping me make lunch and he's been rushing in to set the table for dinner, even though it is Felicity's job.  He loves playing with cars, trucks, and airplanes.  He likes to build garages for his fire truck and police cars with Duplo Legos.  He snuggles with me when he has just woken up and sits in my lap during the older kids storytime.  Occasionally, he'll fall asleep while I'm reading.  He seldom takes a nap and his afternoon quiet time is full of play.  I just encourage him to stay in his room and stay relatively quiet.  He enjoys preschool time.  He really enjoys playing outside and I have to watch him closely if we are in the front yard as he has quickly disappeared before we realize he had even moved.  He loves to ride the blue tricycle.  He runs his feet up and down the sidewalk as fast as he can and doesn't often use the pedals which are still a little hard to reach.  He is learning to put words into coherrent sentences, but likes to make up his own words and pretend he is saying something.  He loves to "play" football, just like his big brother, Kent.

Felicity - My gentle 4 year old enjoys life to the fullest.  She spends time playing pretend with her dolls, animals and other toys.  She has fun building puzzles and her excitement is catching as she shows me how she finished the puzzle she was working on.  She loves to play with Clark and they are so much fun to watch when they are playing together.  She enjoys making crafts and coloring, often giving her beautiful masterpieces to me to hang on the wall.  We also enjoy having a snuggle with a story.  When she eats something that she really likes she has a special look on her face and sucks her bottom lip in enjoyment.  She's done this since she was a baby and it is still precious.  She also likes to play outside and rides her red tricycle up and down the sidewalk.

As you can see there is so much to take in just with these children, that I will follow up with My Life is Full - Part 2 about my older three children.

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Raising Arrows     

Big Sisters

Quinn's 1st Birthday

Wow!  Wow!!  Wow!!!
Can you believe it has been a whole year since Quinn was born?

Yesterday he had his usual breakfast of cheerios.

Happy 1st Birthday, Quinn!

 We went to church in the morning and Quinn took a nap in the afternoon, waking up in time to go outside and enjoy the warm weather.  It was over 70 degrees and we wanted to make the most of the nice day before another cold front came through overnight.  For supper Quinn had winter squash and crackers, while the rest of us had chicken nuggets and fresh tropical fruit salad.

 

Fresh Tropical Fruit Salad

After supper we sang happy birthday and ate cake.  We had a choice of cupcakes or gluten free brownies with strawberries and whipped cream.  The kids chose cupcakes and Jeff and I ate the brownies.

Quinn decided cake is good.

I ate it all, Mom.

 After we had cake and Quinn had a bath it was time for presents.  Quinn wasn't interested.  He wanted to play with a ball that he found on the floor instead, even though Jeff tried to entice him to check out his presents by rattling them and making them make noise.

 He finally came over to check out his presents and he thought maybe they would taste good.

He was ready for bed by the time he finished getting his presents.

Ice Strom Pictures 2

On Saturday, December 7th, after the ice storm my brother and his family came over to enjoy playing outside with us.  I didn't get any pictures of their older boys, since they weren't around when I was out taking pictures.  We also took Quinn outside for his first picture in the icy white weather.  He was interested in it, but wasn't to keen on sledding on a cookie sheet or sitting on the ice.

Quinn, Jeff, and Ben

Jeff and Quinn

Quinn sledding on a cookie sheet

Zach

Lisse and Jojo watching out the window

Samarah and Quinn

On Sunday we had a worship service at our home, since church was canceled.  We had one family who tried to come, but struggled to walk out of their driveway and decided it was safer to stay home and not fall and potentially get hurt.