My Children Are Funny. And Weird. But Mostly Sweet.

The other day Ben was driving the kids somewhere. Inevitably, Will and Elizabeth got into an argument about something. Beth kept saying that Will was rude, which was really ticking him off. Ben told them to stop talking to each other at all. So then Beth piped up (to no one in particular) "I'm so glad that I'm in Kindergarten and not Second Grade because I KNOW there are some RUDE people in Second Grade." She is her father's daughter!

There was a Halloween, or excuse me, FALL Carnival at the kids' school the other night. I gave Will some tickets to go around to some games and told him to check in with me after every two games. (How did he get old enough to be allowed to do that, I ask you???) At one point I saw him and stopped to talk. He told me that he'd gone through the trick or treat hall and I asked where his bag of candy was. He said: "Mom, bags cost TWO TICKETS. Why do you think I have pockets?" He is his father's son!

Ella just came running up to me while I was surfing the internet. She stared at me without saying anything, so naturally I looked over at her. She said: "Mom, do you peel wike you need be nervous?" and then began laughing hysterically while her eyes bulged out of their sockets.

Right this minute, all four of my children are in my bedroom laying on the floor while Will reads to them from an animal encyclopedia. (They sound like nerds but they like it, so hey. At least they're not drawing on the walls, right?) Will asked Beth "what animal would you like to learn about next?" and Beth said: "Hmmm, just a minute. Lainey, what would you like to learn about?" (leaning her ear down near Lainey's mouth.) At this point, Lainey begins to grunt and squeal for joy because she is in grabbing proximity of Beth's long hair. Beth patiently and gently takes her hair from Lainey's hand and then says: "Hmm, oh, what was that last part? Oh, OK!!" Then she turns to Will and says: "We would like to learn about owls please." A few minutes later all three older kids are trying to teach Elaina how to whoot like an owl. It's so cute to see her happy little drooling face as she sits in the middle of her whooting siblings.

And here are some catch up pictures. I know it is annoying to post a bunch of random pictures, but it's better than posting no pictures, right? I'm a little disappointed that I can't use my free Picasa photo editing software on these pictures (to fix the contrast - my point and shoot can only do so much, ya know?). I can't get it to work for some reason. The internet here is a little patchy and if I fight with it any longer, I will pull what is left of my hair (I just had a baby so I'm seriously loosing it all *sob*) out of my head. And I like having hair so I will settle for non-contrasted pictures.

These are the two dogs that we *almost* had trained to be service dogs for Ben. Ella ended up not being able to be around them. They were the sweetest and HUGEST things. They were just over a year old in these pictures. They are the size of my cedar chest. These pictures do not do them justice.

Ella spent most of her time the first day the dogs were here sitting here or on the back of the love seat because she was petrified of them. After the first day she realized they were just giant slobbery hearts wrapped in fur and she decided that she could pet them and touch them. They were so good to her. They were great with all of the kids. Their names were Venus and Hera. Ella can't say "V", she makes the "P" sound instead. So she sat on the edge of the love seat all evening talking loudly to Venus, telling her to sit and and come here. You figure out why that was hilarious.

Alaska is so beautiful. Most of the pictures I've taken have been through the window or windshield of a moving car (hence the many shots I have with the road in them) so they don't do it justice. So times these pictures by like 100 and you'll be getting close to how beautiful it is.

This is one I took on the way to the Nature Preserve for Elizabeth's field trip. See the sun? It's like 10 am and that's where it was. And that was like a month ago. There's still plenty of light right now, and where we live will never be completely dark even in the dead of winter but I have to say it is kinda weird. It messes up your sense of direction (like I needed any help in that department) to have the sun change all the time and never be where you expect it to be for the time of day that it is.

Anchorage has a really fast tide. Most of what you see towards the bottom and the middle of the screen is not covered in hardly any water and underneath it is sand that is famous for sucking tourists in, to their death. So just a little tidbit if you ever come to Alaska: Don't go out on the beaches around Anchorage even though they are pretty!

Ella and Elaina were troopers on the field trip to the Nature Preserve. They had lots of fun. Elizabeth was so sweet with them. She kept making sure that Elaina was warm enough and taking Ella by the hand so that she could look at everything that the class was seeing.

This lady was so nice. She was our tour guide. It was really funny when she asked the kids if they had any questions about the salmon. A little girl asked how the fish could communicate with each other. A little boy asked if they had venom so that they could disable their enemies in battle.
This was after Will and Beth's race for running club. They were so proud of their little medals!


I have 5-10 more pictures that I want to upload but I've run out of time. I will put them on as soon as I can!

Things 3 Year Old Ella's Should Know

Yes, I think you are a wonderful spinner. Yes, you do a great job. Yes, even with your "wainbooks" on.

Creating imaginary friends is cute and it makes me laugh. I'm glad that Gangook doesn't have any aldergators in her swimming pool. And I'm glad that Gingle Mommy will let you live with her if I ever die. I find it a little disturbing that you already have a plan in place should I die, but hey, I'm glad you're prepared.

Stuffing a no-bake cookie up your nose? Not a good idea. Yes I understand that it makes your nose smell like "gawkolawt"(chocolate), but still, not a good idea.


Getting dressed for the day by putting on a tutu and your pink rain boots over your moose jammies makes you perfectly, squishably adorable. And yes, if I did have to go to the store and you wanted to wear that, I would let you. And yes, I think it is "most beautiful pretty" too.

I'm glad that I'm your "pavorite Mommy ever" and your "best Mommy" too. You can say that as much as you want. And yes, you will get cookies if you say it often enough.

Yes, we can go back to the "wieberry" and get you more Max and Ruby books. And no, I'm so sorry, but you can't grow a bunny tail. No matter how hard you try. Yes, it would be "so so so cuke". But no matter how cute it would inevitably be, it will not work.

Yes, I can see you, too. Yes, even when you stand that close. I'm sorry helping me sweep up your mess "hurks your bwain", but it must be done. And no, you can't eat the crumbs off the floor instead of letting me sweep them, even if they are "just gooliscious". Sorry.

Your big brother and sister will be home soon, I promise. I know it's hard. It's hard for me, too. And yes, I know you would be a "berry berry berry good girl" if you could just go with them to school. But don't grow up too fast, ok? That's what the first two have done. Not you, too. Mommy's heart can only take so much. And no, I don't think it's a good idea to wait at the window staring outside for them "awl, awl, AWL day wong". Come play with me, instead.


I'm sorry that you "miss all your gwammas and fun gwampas" and "AWL AWL AWL of your pamily". I miss them, too. Yes, it would be lovely if you could have a marching band with Kolby, Max, Emma, and Cooper. And yes, I'm sure they'd let you be in the front sometimes. And I'm sure that Will, Beth, Bennett, and Spencer wouldn't mind that it would be "their job" to just watch and maybe hum sometimes, but only when you say.


Yes, "Wed Wover" is the "berry best game, EVER". I agree.

I don't know when you will be able to have "wunch" with your "Gaddy" at "hims work". Yes, I'm sure that if you ask him "pwetty pwease" he will let you have lunch with him at work one day. Because you and I both know, that ALL you have to do to get something from your sweet Daddy is just ask.

I Think I Would Rather Have My Arm Sawed Off

over ever spending this much time away from Ben again. It's killing me! I'm just no good without him. I guess that's a great way to feel after 8 years and 4 kids, though.

Speaking of kids, Elizabeth lost her first tooth! And Elaina laughs out loud and rolls from her back to her side. And poor Ella and Will both look like they're abused children. They've enjoyed the summer a ton and therefore have all the scrapes and bruises to prove it.

I have a lot of pictures to post from the fun things we've been doing. I just haven't been able to find the time to put them up because by the end of the day I'm pooped. 4 kids is a lot, incase you were wondering. And 4 kids 7 and under? Really a lot. But I really do love every minute of it.

The kids and I will be flying to Alaska in 8 short days. I am so so so excited. I keep having dreams that giant moose want to talk to me, though. Hee Hee. I guess the fact that I saw 5 moose in people's yards while I was there had more of an affect on me than I thought. Or maybe it's just my brains way of protecting itself from having dreams of what could (and probably will) happen on my marathon trip alone with 4 kids. I haven't flown with kids since Will was little enough to ride on my lap and he cried the whole time the last time I did it. Maybe Elaina will take pity on me and be the perfect little angel that she normally is. I'm sure hoping. And I'm not above the liberal use of Benadryl to help them sleep. Hey, our last and longest flight leaves at 8pm as far as our internal clocks will be concerned and it lasts for nearly 6 hours. And really, if you were taking 4 kids on a nearly 3,000 mile journey alone wouldn't you contemplate the use of sedatives? Maybe I should take some for myself. Ha ha!

Happy (Late) Father's Day

Ben, since you couldn't watch this yesterday anyway, I'm just putting this up now. We love you and miss you. I was talking with the kids about what they thought would be a good idea for a Father's Day gift. As you know, we already mailed two things, but this was the other idea that they came up with. A video of them dancing (or trying out their moves, as Will puts it) because as Beth said, "our Dad makes us happy and he thinks it's funny when we dance." We love you. Enjoy watching your crazy kids.

(For anyone else wanting to see this, just let me know and I'll add you as someone allowed to see videos on our You Tube. :-) )

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IbcdFFZEYkA

53 Days Left

Yes, I'm aware that it's totally pathetic to keep labeling my blog posts with how many days are left until we're in Anchorage with Ben. But I don't care because I miss him. Here are some pictures of some of what we did yesterday. I didn't get the treasure hunt in there, which is ok because the treasure wasn't actually buried under the X so there would have been 4 or 5 pictures of holes without treasure before the one that had it. You gotta love 7 year old pirates having treasure burying duties.

Messy garden planting/treasure burying hands.

Messy messy face on a happy happy girl.

Messy garden planting hands.
Every morning I wake up to all three older kids staring down and Elaina and I. They love her so much and are so happy to see her and fight over holding her all. the. time.
The messy hands accent the still (sort of) present tattoos on her arm from weeks ago.
She smiled at me, on purpose, yesterday! I was trying so hard to capture it on film but she thought that the camera was far too interesting to be bothered with smiling at her mother.
A hose with a pressurized sprayer at the end that is under your control. Every little boys dream.
He thought he'd put it to good use and attack his sister.
He realized a little too late that it may not have been a good idea.

Overall it was a pretty fun summer day.

58 Days Left

And if I somehow didn't get the math right and there's more time left, don't tell me. I miss Ben and this whole apart thing stinks.
Here are some random pictures of the kids doing fun things like going to the park, jumping on the trampoline, playing silly games, and there's one of Will vacuuming cause he's the bestest boy ever. And as you can tell by their messy faces, they've all been enjoying some treats at Grandma's.

Will's healing sunburn. And in case you've noticed that Will always has on the same shirt, it's because he loves it and I have to wash it constantly so that he can wear it pretty much every day.

What could be more fun than jumping on the trampoline in your pajamas?