Grandma's House

These pictures are from the time we went down for the temple open house, but I thought I'd put them on here anyway.  

My mom was babysitting Jenny's dog, so the kids all fought over who could snuggle her.  I asked Allie to take a picture of Jake because he looked so comfy with Jojo.  He always smiles for me...I guess he doesn't always smile for Allie.

She turned the camera on me and the boys.

Lori turned 10 this year on leap day.  We celebrated while we were down there because we won't be there on the actual day.  My kids think it's pretty cool to know someone who is younger than her kids.

More dog snuggling...

My kids love to sit on Grandma's bed and watch Veggie Tales.  They never watch it anywhere but Grandma's, so it's still fun for them.

Jason was a sad, sad boy as I was loading the car up.  He's like Mike...he's always good to go somewhere for a day, but after that day, he is asking when we are going home.  He was also starting to get an ear infection, so he was just needing a snuggle and then to get home.  That drive home was actually not all that fun  He slept a little while and then cried the rest of the way.  I think the other kids were ready to go nuts by the time we finally pulled in our drive way.  They don't know how to tune it out like me.  :)   It was worth it though... we love going to Grandma's house!

Famous

Jake is famous.  He was in the Sunday paper...Herald Journal News .

Our district has the kids all read a book with their families for the month of February.  This year it was The Last of the Really Great Whangdoodles.  We read it together.   Some nights it was with the littles, but mostly just me Jake and Allie.  Then, at the end, there was a literacy night at the school.  We got to go and take pictures with the Professor from the book, and make scrappy caps (another thing from the book).  For some reason, my phone doesn't have the pictures we took with the professor...bummer.

Allie really wanted to make a "scrappy cap", so we went into the library and tried to figure out the folding and making of a scrappy cap.  Jake made his without my help, so he actually got it done.  The kids all got a free book that night and since Jake had a book in his hands, he started to read it.  I don't think it is possible for him to not read a book that is sitting in his hands.  :)  Next thing we know, the photographer for the paper was asking him what his name was.  He said he had been waiting all evening for someone to be reading and wearing a scrappy cap.  Jake was the lucky guy!  Allie was pretty jealous that she didn't have hers done, but I was helping her, so it never got done.

We left the frustration of the folding behind and went to the kindergarten room to hear one of the teachers read a book.  Nate made his way to the green chairs and sat enthralled.  He kept asking me if the reader was his teacher and if this was his desk.  We'll find out soon enough!

 Allie and Jake were drawn into the story too.

It was a fun night.  We didn't have Jason with us, so it was relatively easy too.  Ours is a family that loves to read, so literacy night was fun for us.  Yay for books!

Dates

We have kept up with the dates that I have talked about earlier.  The kids wouldn't let us quit even if we wanted to.  They keep track of date nights and are so excited for their own.  Jason has the hardest time waiting for his night to come, but the others are pretty good about being excited for their siblings when it is their night.  The dates seem to follow a trend.  Jake will get a Slurpee on his date night and then that sounds good to Allie too, so she'll get one.  By the time the next week rolls around, Nate has been craving a Slurpee for 3 weeks, so he's excited to get one.  Then Jason rounds it out on week 4 coming home with a Slurpee in his hands.  They have also all come home to play board games or cards for the last month or so too.  I think they have more fun playing those games one on one because Jason isn't there to mess things up and they have a 50% chance of winning the game.  (Really it's 100% chance when you are playing with me because I usually throw the game).

 Here are Allie and Dad on their date.

I have really enjoyed the dates, especially with the older kids because I feel like I don't get enough quality time alone with them.  They really are fun to talk to and I like hearing about the things they find interesting.  It's been a great addition to our lives for sure.

Sunday Shenanigans

Pretty much every week, these kids build some sort of hut in the basement.  This week, they decided to gather all the blankets in the house and pile them on one person on the couch to see if they can stand to be trapped by all the blankets.  They were pretty good about asking every so often if the trapped person could breathe...oh good.

 

 I was also called down later, to see the "cow".

When these guys get along, it is magic.  More often than not, there are one or more kids screaming and getting angry about teasing or whatever there is to complain about.  I never care what they do as long as the fights are kept blood free and they clean it all up in the end.

Library Time

When we take Allie to dance, we go over to the library and kill an hour before we have to go pick her up.   A few weeks ago when we went, Jason and Nate ran so fast to get into the building that Jason ended up having a little coughing fit.  He just kept coughing the whole time we were there.  At one point, after coughing a few times, he looked over at me and said "I sick Momma!" in his most miserable voice, and since he had his headphones on (probably at full blast) he actually yelled it to me.  A few minutes later, he yelled "My tummy hurts...can we go home?"  That's when the mom across the table gave me the stink eye for bringing my obviously sick boy to contaminate the entire library.  I didn't feel like explaining that Jason tells me his tummy hurts every time he needs to go to the bathroom.  Yikes!  Anyway, he wasn't sick and it was a bit embarrassing, but I'll probably never see that lady again, and they had a great time at the library, so...

  

Helpers

It's so nice to have helpers that actually help!

Conversation in the Living Room...

Jason: (holding a Transformers wii game) This guy us going to come out of this game and he's going to cut me with his cutters and I'm going to died.

Me:  Oh, that's awful!  Those guys can't come out of the game!  You'll be just fine.  I will save you because you're my guy.

Jason: You can't save me.  They are big and strong.  They will come out of here and get me.  

Me:  They are just pretend.  They aren't real.

Jason:  They ARE real and they are going to get me died.  

We went round and round until I told him that the good guys in the game wouldn't let the bad guys get him...then he seemed to believe me...

Yikes!  It's hard having older brothers who introduce little brothers to scary things!

I took these pictures because when I see them, I can almost hear his little voice telling me about the bad guys.  He is so expressive!

Box

It's always fun to play in a box...

Helpers in the Kitchen...

Jason and Nate are the best of friends and the worst of enemies.  They always seem to fight the worst when I am trying to get something done.  It's usually too much work to involve them in my projects, but I guess if it makes them quit fighting, I'll do it.  I usually get pretty grossed out by kid helpers...no matter how clean their hands are, but in chicken noodle soup, all the things get boiled for a long time, so I never mind having helpers with that...

Plus, they usually eat huge amounts of celery and carrots along the way, so that's a bonus...

They are pretty good bread helpers too.  I can't believe how much better these two are at dumping things into the bowl without making a mess than Allie and Jake were.

Nate likes to make his own little loaf.  I cook it separately and he eats it, even though it is rock hard
from all the extra flour and mauling his has taken.

I love these two boys of mine.  I really do feel like I have two separate families.  Jake and Allie were little like this so long ago and now they are so busy that they are gone all the time and I have these two to keep me company.  I know it won't be long before they are out doing a million things, so I'll put up with the fights and enjoy them.

Conversation in the Car

Nate has been asking lots of questions about marriage and changing names, and all sorts of random things for a 4 year old boy to ask.  He knows that my name used to be Johnson and that Allie will change her name, but he just doesn't get that he's going to keep his name...here's our conversation...

Nate: When I am old enough to get a wife, I'll be Nathan Watterson...or Nathan Jackson.

Me:  You going to marry Sophie or Gentry?

Nate:  Yeah.  Probably Sophie.  She's really nice to me.  She wears pretty dresses to church too...they call her Sofia in church!  There can't be two Sofias! (like Sofia the First on TV)  She's Sophie!

Me:  She'll be robbing the cradle.  She's 4 years older than you!

Nate:  Yeah.  She's really nice....Jason!  When you get old enough to get a wife, you have to be really nice to her.  Like Daddy is to Mommy.  You have to be really nice.

Jason:  Not nice!  (with his growl...because he doesn't want to be told what to do).

The next few minutes were dedicated to an argument about how you have to be nice to your wife...

Nate:  When I get my wife, and she gets a baby out of her belly, I'll buy a Wii for my babies.  A Wii for downstairs, and an x-box for upstairs.  I'll probably buy a big tv too...and probably a remote.

Me:  How you going to get all that money?  What kind of job are you going to do?

Nate:  Probably sell school supplies.

Jason:  I'm going to get my tools and fix my truck.

Nate:  I'm going to drive a truck when I get big enough and get my wife.

I love hearing my cute boys plan out the future and talk about being so big that they are as big as Daddy.  I sure hope they are nice to their wives and that they love their babies.  For now, I don't mind if they stay small, and are nice to their Mommy.