Love Hanging Out w/ Little Talkers

James: Can we get wallets?
Mom: Don't you have a Transformer one?
James: It's lost. I lost it.
Hannah: It's gone, I lose it. I throw it trash.
James: You didn't throw it in the trash.
Hannah: I did. I did throw it in trash.
Matthias: You didn't.
Hannah: I did.
Mom: You guys are hilarious.
James: What does hilarious mean?
Hannah: I so funny. Hannah so funny.
Matthias: Yes you are.

Step Out In That Wild Back Yard --Justin Roberts

Which we did...our first full day at the home all day! 1/2 acre of bliss and happiness. Hours of exploration. We found many bugs and interesting things. But the big find of the day is the opossum living inside one of our fifteen tree trunks. The boys found it sleeping away.

We looked up opossums in our big Animal Book and right on the page the index sent us to was a picture of a Tasmanian Devil baring it's fangs. That got the boys all excited about our backyard creature. We assured them if they left him alone he would leave them alone...we hope.

But we will probably have to get him to move on before the chickens take up residence in the spring.

I love our little rambler on our beautiful plot of land. After a lot of paint, Lysol, and many man hours the place is looking lovely. A perfect home for our family.

James Inherited the Math Brains

James: One hundred is like tenty. Like it’s the 10 they put a zero on it so it’s tenty. But they thought that sounded weird so they called it one hundred. It’s the same with the one-tys. They are the teens. But they thought one-ty sounded weird too so they did the teens. Did you ever know that when you were 7?

Kristi: Uh, I don’t really think about numbers a lot.

James: I LOVE writing my numbers.




James: Negative infinity is the lowest negative and negative zero is the highest. Oh!, if you subtract a negative number then it will get bigger.

Kristi: thinking…(WHAT????? Where do these concepts come from??)

James: So one minus one is two. (meaning negative one).

Kristi: I’m really impressed that you figured that out. Where do you come up with these things?

James: I just love thinking about numbers. I’ve been thinking about negatives a lot lately.

Sore

There is a dead bug laying on our stairs. In the house we are actually sleeping/eating/bathing in.

It's been laying there all day. It's kind of large and black. The kids poked at it a little earlier. It's still laying there.

And I'm going to bed.

Which is a testament to a) how incredibly exhausted I am, and b) how amazing filthy our new home (that we work/spend almost all waking hours in) is.

Dead bug, no big deal.

Maybe I'll pick him up in the morning. Or ask James to.

Kristi: Why are we so tired all the time? Is something disturbing our sleep?
Taylor: Three somethings.

"Eating Sugar Makes Me Happy" --James

We have long since learned in the Harvey Family that a little down hearted-ness can most always be solved with some ice cream and chocolate. So for dinner this evening we had fried eggs, pomegranate, Brie, and chocolate peanut butter milk shakes.

The kids were pleased with the food. And honestly you're receiving a pretty well balanced meal from these items. If only I had had some spinach to throw in the milkshakes.

Yes, Hannah is licking her plate and is belted into the chair. She ALWAYS climbs on the table and putting her on the ground is not sinking in. She still just climbs on the table again after she gets back in her chair. When she was all done she said, "I want my belt off."

James insisted I take a picture of his cookie dough (because he doesn't like chocolate ice cream...). He said, "Eating sugar makes me happy. Boatloads." Then danced around saying, "it's like a party tonight".

Matthias loves his Brie and was very happy with all the rest of the yummy eats. He was quite calm through the whole evening. Food must have a subduing affect.

The boys always climb on the back of the couch. Hannah does to. It's this set up in the house. Drives us crazy because it's smashing down the back cushion. So I was also able to catch that on video with the general party atmosphere.

The video is quite entertaining. It was a lovely evening in our blessed home.

"I So Cute" --Hannah

Hannah was in serious need of a cute jacket. It's been 60s here a couple of days lately. So I found a jacket I liked on etsy and actually bought a pattern. The fabric was also found on etsy and goes great together. I'm in love with the buttons. I think it turned out pretty wicked cute. And she of course loves it. Because Hannah loves cute clothes.

Spudnuts for Halloween (made w/actual potatoes)

On Halloween day we made donuts and had some friends over. We plan to keep this a tradition in our family as homemade donuts are delicious!

Witches' Brew

Every year around Halloween time we make Witches' Brew and eat it in pumpkin bread bowls. The kids love the pumpkin bowls (especially Hannah this year!) and we have a great time making everything. This year we had the Elders over for dinner the night we did the Brew.

"That Not Pumpkin!" --Hannah

The kids were so excited about pumpkins this year. We got a book at the library "This Is Not A Pumpkin" and Hannah spent all of October shouting "Pumpkin! That not pumpkin!" every time we saw a pumpkin. The boys planned their faces out on paper before we carved and spent several days choosing different features for various pumpkins they drew. Hannah dropped hers (several times) so it got taped back together.

James' Kindergarten

A couple weeks ago James started a Kindergarten for Matthias. They were in the bedroom for at least two hours with James giving Matthias assignments and Matthias working on different projects. As soon as James got home from school the next day they raced up to have class again. He even gave Matthias a homework assignment to write the numbers 1-10 which I dutifully helped him with while James was at school.

The morning after the first class as James was eating breakfast and getting ready to go he said, "We need to get a sign and hang it by our door so other kids will see it and come to my kindergarten."

Me: Um, I think probably most parents want their kids to go to school with an adult teacher.
James: Why?

Driving to Texas

Because I like these pictures. And yes, this was 2 months ago.

Reading W/Dad

Halloween

Despite my dislike for Halloween we had a great year...because it was on Sunday and we could forgo trick or treating. Which I can never understand as I don't want my kids to have a bucket full of junk (let's be honest, Halloween candy isn't even good quality sugar) and I certainly don't want to purchase candy to give to other people's children. It's a lose-lose situation. If we're going to eat chocolate and sugar let's have Dove or Lindt at the very least.

So this year we had a great activity at the church w/ a small amount of candy and dancing!! So fun. The kids had a blast despite the freezing temp of 60 degrees. Hannah loved dancing, alone or with Taylor. The boys ran around the dance area in circles for about 90 minutes.

James was a Sand Trooper (?) and was disappointed he couldn't wear his mask since it was a church function, but was really happy when I said I would paint his face instead.

Matthias changed his costume every day and settled on bat about 15 minutes before we left for the church. His other ideas that stuck the longest were army, rhino, missionary, and muscle man...which he was still insisting on as everyone else was dressed and ready to go. Not sure what he was envisioning, but we talked him into bat. That bat costume has gotten a lot of use.

Hannah was a witch because she put that hat on about 3 weeks before Halloween and I feel in love! So I made her costume so it would have hot pink. She looked excellent!

My costume was a last minute idea so my YW didn't think I was lame...all made possible by Matthias army hat. They liked it, I fooled some people, and started some rumors. =]