Red Pandas, Bumble Bees, and so much more!

I just like this one right now so I'm putting it here:

Joshua 23:14-- "You know with all your heart and soul that not one of all the good promises the Lord your God gave you has failed. Every promise has been fulfilled; not one has failed."

(Your normal dose of pictures with some cute stories mixed in.)

So excited to go to the zoo!

Red Pandas.  Emma's favorite animal is still a black and white panda but as they are only in like 2 zoos in the USA and we'll probably never see them, this is her second favorite animal.  Aren't they cute?  They are about the size of Jellybean...so not very large either, if you can't tell from the picture.  Our zoo used to only have one but they recently acquired another one and I think it's mating season.  These two were very playful and active for the first time ever.  Normally, the one just sleeps up at the top and looks like a little red ball of fur.  I guess having a new friend changes things up. 

Emma with her beloved red pandas. 

Emma placed her Barbie on Jubi's chest. Jubilee immediately pulled the Barbie toward her face and tried to suck on the Barbie's face for a minute. Emma said, "Maybe Jubi's giving my Barbie a kiss." I said, "Maybe!" Then Emma leaned her face close to Jubilee and Jubilee complied and proceeded to "kiss" (lick/suck) briefly on her chin. Emma grinned, "I think she loves me!" ♥

"Abby, go get some jammies for bed."

"Ring a rosey. Pocka posey." Noah says right before he tackles Isaiah.




One morning...thought it was cute 

The kids were saying, "We're hungry."  So we were joking, "Well, maybe it's time for you to cook the supper for us."  They were like, "Okay!"  So then we went to the kitchen and they were trying to see what they could cook. They offered tons of suggestions.  Here Emma has a bag of potatoes.  Brandon:  "Do you know how to cook potatoes?"  Abby: "Put them in water on the stove!"  Brandon:"Do you know how to cut them up?"  Abby:"But we can't use the sharp knives!"  Brandon: "Then I guess we can't do potatoes."

They settled on mac n cheese since they can do a lot of it by themselves.  ;)  

Noah, waving a word card at me, "Who that one name?" (the letter... not the word on the card) 
Me: K
Noah: "Who that one is?" 
Me: E
Noah: "Who that one?"
Me: E
Noah: "who that one name?"

... 

:) I love this boy!




She loves her sister!  She's such a good helper!

Abby: I have 2 freckles on my nose. One is little and one is big. I named this one Abby and this one Jubilee.

One looks super rough today, the other looks a little too pretty today...
That's what happens when you are 3 and your sisters want to play dress up with you and you comply.
That's what happens when you are 2 and your sisters want to play dress up with you and you wrestle instead....

Abby filling the pot with water.  Emma and Isaiah and Noah each have a box of Macaroni...Noah's not in the picture, but he's off somewhere trying to eat the box open to get to the good stuff inside.

Noah putting something up high on the cabinet. "Mom, put it up high so Nonah can't reach it. Nonah put it up high. Somebody reach it. Nonah put it up high so Nonah can't reach it."

We made an Easter tree craft and here Abby is playing with the scraps.  

Engineer Isaiah: "This toy doesn't make noise anymore."
Emma: It needs batteries.
Isaiah: (Turning toy over and over) There is a place where batteries go. I need a screwdriver.
Emma: There's your screwdriver. (toy screwdriver with huge parts.)
Isaiah: No, Emma. I need a real one. That one is too big.  I need one like Daddy.

He's showing off the fact that he's Isaiah Sleeping Beauty today.

Why cliche's don't work around here

Me: Last one down there is the rotton egg.
Kids: (running to destination except Noah.)
Noah: (cheerfully) I rotten egg!

Me: Move it or lose it.
Abby and Emma: Win it!

School one day we did it in this area just for a change up

Abby: Emma, you are going to smash Noah's foot.
Noah: (scared noises...picking up his own foot and kissing his own toe before it gets smashed.)

This color makes her skin look more coral colored.  Cute!  (it's better in real life.)

"Noah, I'm cutting some of your hair. Be real gentle and still." Isaiah says as he waves his giant plastic sword menacingly at the back of Noah's head.

Looking down at the "school room" on this day.
Abby and Emma are doing math problems at their separate desks.  (I don't actually have a problem with them together, but it was just a change up.)  The boys are at the coloring station.

Noah: (trying to close my huge 3 ring binder.)
Me: You are going to squish your fingers.
Noah: (continuing to do it.)
Isaiah: No! Noah! No! My brother! My brother! Noah! Stop! My brother! (in REAL tears)

How Noah wakes up. (Actions inferred from the sounds emitted from his room.)

Thunk! (Flying leap out of bed?)

Noah: "YAY! MORNING! YAY! WOOO! WOOOOO! MORNING! YAY!" 

(At the TOP of his happy little lungs!)
(Flying tackle onto Emma?) 

Emma: Aaaaaaahhhhhh!

Noah: YAY! MORNING! YAY!

(Flying tackle onto Abby?)
(She ignores him because when I went to check she was still sleeping.)
(Flying tackle onto Isaiah)

"YAY! YAY! WOOOO! WOOOO!"

(Normally Isaiah doesn't wake up well but last night I guess he got enough sleep so there was no noise from him.)
Thunk thunk thunk down the stairs. Thunk thunk Yelling all the while,

"YAY! MORNING! YAY! WOOOO! MORNING! WOOO! YAY!!!! MORNING!"

(Arriving at the playroom.)

"YAY! TOYS! YAY! MORING!!! TOYS!!! YAY!!!!!"

(Me dragging out of bed. Finding Abby in bed, Emma in the bathroom, and the boys in the playroom. Glancing at clock. It's 6:56.)

Me: "Arrrrrrgggggghhhhh."

Noah seeing me: "MORNING!! YAY!!! MORNING!!!! YAY!!!!

 

 We had a parade going in the playroom one day.  I couldn't get the whole thing in one shot.  Abby was pushing Jubilee in a walker and the others had various bikes or push toys and they were all running in a circle and laughing so hard.  Jubilee seemed to love it too!

More of the parade 

The girls played dress-up with Jubilee.  She actually has 4 things on but you can't see the other shirt...2 shirts, a dress and a onesie.   

We don't allow the kids to call us by our first name, obviously, but it would be helpful if there was some kind of emergency situation if they knew our first names so I was asking Noah to see if he knew our names:
Me: What's Daddy's name?
Noah: Daddy Buddy.
Me: Daddy Brandon?
Noah: Daddy buddy!
Me: What's Mommy's name?
Noah: Mommy!
Me: Mommy Becky?
Noah: No! No Becky! Just Mommy! Mommy!

Another of these.  This came from my camera so it might be a little clearer than the other I pulled from B's camera phone.

With Puls grandbaby #10.  ;)

 In age order.  :)  Kara looks so tall next to Emma and Abby!  We should have taken a picture of the three standing together, but seriously, she looks as old as Abby to me based on her height!

Isaiah: Mom, I want to pray, "Jesus you are the best God EVER."

Sleeping across my lap

Isaiah: When I grow up I'm going to be a daddy. (As he gently rubs Jubi's head and says sweet things to her.)
Me: You are going to be a good daddy!
Isaiah: But all the girls said there's no more mommy's for me.
Me: Jesus will give you a special girl when you grow up. You don't have to worry about it. Jesus knows who you will get married to some day.
Isaiah: And I'll name her Mommy. (Big smile.)
Me: (chuckle)
Isaiah: And I'll take my mommy to the doctor and the doctor will take a BOY baby out of her tummy. I'll be his daddy.

1) My kids just tore up a pound of raw carrots like they've been replaced with bunnies. (And they barely ate any dressing with it.)

2) Jubilee had a bow headband on and Isaiah said, "Awww! It looks like you are holding a baby angel!" ♥ He's sweet.

Brandon to Dassah: "Hey, Dassah! How have you been?"
Dassah: "Something else."
Brandon about Dassah's brother: "How's Obadiah been?"
Dassah: "Good."

Our dinner conversation:
Emma: Noah wants to be a doggy when he grows up.
Me: Noah, what do you want to be when you grow up?
Noah: A Doggy Doctor.
Me: A doctor for doggies?
Noah: Uh huh! Fun!
Me: Emma, what do you want to be?
Emma: A fire grel. (girl)
Me: Abby, what about you?
Abby: I want to be a doctor.
Me: Isaiah, what do you want to be when you grow up?
Isaiah: I want to put skin on dinosaur bones. But not on the sharp tooth. He's mean.
Me: Yeah, I guess he's pretty mean.
Noah: Jubi grow up.
Me: What does Jubi want to be when she grows up?
Noah: A baby!

I love this stage of early-reading. Abby is "reading" to Jubi but the book she chose is a tad over her head so she is just making up words as she goes BUT she's sounding out her made up words "an evil w-w-w-witch locked Rapunzle in a tower."


Liz found my camera.  :)

Then, after everyone left, Brandon had reserve duty and I was all alone with some very sad children.  So we watched some TV until they could stop crying.  (Emma cried the longest and hardest of all my children and when I asked her who she missed, she said, "I miss my Liz!"

So to cheer us up, I decorated the girls' room.  I honestly, think this one strip of boarder changed the room a TON.  I think it ties the pink in better and makes it seem less pepto bismally.  The girls love it too.  Don't look at my terrible measuring job on the other side of the window... oops!  That side really is an inch or two higher.  

This looks better when the sun isn't so bright behind that blind/curtain.  The curtain matches the boarder I put up there.  That's the boys' old bed on our loft/school room/craft room.  It's a multi purpose room.  ;)  LOL Anyway, I re-did this whole room because...

While Rachel was here, the boys got a new bunkbed!  It was $50 with matteresses included!  :)
So we got everything ready for the boys to use their new bed for the first time that night when everyone else had gone and it was empty for the first time. 

 

My new table!  :)  Look!  I love it!  

Our Easter mantle.  I know Easter is still a LONG way away, but when I took down my Christmas stuff, I didn't know what to put up there and it was just so sad and lonely looking so I decided to go ahead and do Easter stuff now so we can enjoy it for a while.  I'm going to have to think of something to do after Easter.  I'm loving this house with the neat places I can decorate.  :)

After Breakfast one morning...

Me: "I'm going to get a diaper and clothes ready for Jubilee.  You guys talk to her for a minute so I can go get that stuff."
About 2 minutes later...

Guess she wasn't really ready to wake up yet.  

Poor little Jubilee! Sit her infront of a mirror and she starts to cry. She'll look between me and Brandon and our reflections with the most sad face as though she can't decide who the real mommy and daddy are and as though she's afraid the other daddy and mommy will take her away from us. Then she'll break down into the saddest cry ever. 

At the zoo

Walking into the zoo.  Brandon's taking that picture of Jubilee all smiley and cute and excited that is at the top of the blog.   

We tried to look at a lot of the favorite animals.
"Noah, what do you want to see at the zoo?"
"Um...puppy dogs."
"Well, how about some hyenas?"
(On a side note, something about the way hyenas move is creepier than all the other big predator type animals I've witnessed first hand at zoos, etc.  I don't know what it is, but they are creepy.)

Emma singing:
"The little Lord Jesus no room for a bed. The Little Jesus on the sweet hay. The Little Lord Jesus asleep on the hay. The Little Lord Jesus no room for a hay..." over and over. I think she forgot part of the song or she's making up her own. This is like verse 100.




Red Panda

Noah (struggling with shirt) "Mom, help me. Please."
Me (starting to take extra layer shirt off) 
Noah: "No! On!"
Me: Well, what do you want then?
Noah: On!
Me: Do you want the hood up?
Noah: please. (Big grin)

We got to touch lion fur!

Sisters looking at something 

Isaiah looking at the donkey...I think we actually failed to take a picture of Isaiah's favorite animal at the zoo... "Giraffes!" (Too bad there aren't any dragons/dinosaurs.)  Sometimes, we park the stroller outside and go in the reptile house where the Komodo dragons live.  He and Emma both share a special love for them.

We were doing school at the table when Jubilee started to fuss a little so I asked Noah to go talk to her. Noah and Isaiah both popped up from the table and went to talk to her. Noah was upset that Isaiah was doing "his" job and said, "No, Mom said Nonah talk to Jubi." The boys then started to growl at each other over Jubilee's head; loud and fierce like dragons. Jubilee, scared by the creatures her brothers had apparently transformed into, began to cry. Both boys quickly forgot their quarrel and began patting her. "It's okay, Jubi." Noah assured her as she settled down and stared at them. Then Isaiah looked at Noah again and gave a loud growl. LOL

Noah looking silly and cute.  He's been the class clown since birth.   

I was writing a sentence. Jubilee was lying on the floor beside me and Noah was reading a book beside her. Jubilee squirmed around so that she was laying on Noah's book. Worriedly, he started saying, "Jubi on it. Jubi on it. Jubi on my book." I was finishing my sentence before I lost my train of thought. Seeing that he was failing to gain my attention, Noah changed his sentence. "Your baby on my book. Your baby on it. Your baby on my book."

Brandon: Abby, turn your plate around so that you are eating out of the close side of your plate.
Noah: (Turns plate around so that he's eating from the far side of his plate. Abby makes no sign that she heard him.)

Me: (thinking) Isn't it funny how kids don't listen except for the one you weren't talking to?

She looks so much like Abby and Emma.  :)  Little things here and there remind me of both of the girls at "this age".  I occasionally see Isaiah and Noah too.  Mostly, though, I think she's a TON Emma, then a lot Abby, then a little of Isaiah and even less Noah.

Brandon goes to work between 5 and 5:30 am when he works day shift. Sometime after that today, Noah woke up and was wandering around the house going "Mommy, where are you?" When he found me mostly asleep, he crawled in bed with me.

Heard over the baby monitor: (Opening the girls' squeaky door) Abby: "What?"
Isaiah: "but Abby, Nonah's not in my bed anymore."
Abby: "find him."
Isaiah: "I think the dragon got him."

They just looked cute--what can I say?  I love them so much!

The kids have a small Christmas tree in their bedrooms. Since toys are plenty around here and because our big tree celebrates Jesus and because toys are a lot less breakable we just decorate the little trees with toys. So the girls have a Strawberry Short Cake/ My Little Pony Tree and the boys have a Super Hero tree. Isaiah said as he was decorating his tree, "I think Jesus will say, *gasp* 'This is a good tree for my birthday.' " :) ♥

Looking at the elephant ears.  You can put your head in there and "hear like an Elephant hears."

--if you are tall enough, or if your daddy and brother and sisters haven't accidentally abandoned you and left you and your mommy alone at that exhibit while they look at the elephants in the elephant house--

so yeah, no pictures of the Elephant boy.

We were talking about zoo keepers while we were there.  Abby said. "I might want to be a zoo keeper when I grow up."  In the Elephant house, there is a TV with different things zoo keepers do.  I was watching it while the kids were watching the elephants.  I got to watch a short movie of a zoo keeper giving mouth-to-mouth to a baby tapir that was born earlier that year.  I thought, "Um, I don't think I'd like to be a zoo keeper if that is part of my job.  Sorry, but I don't love animals enough to give them mouth-to-mouth.  Yuck!"

Isaiah: Jesus made lots of snow with his snow-power.

Jubilee doesn't like pacifiers. The girls are sticking one in her mouth and she's pushing it out with her tongue. They are giggling and putting it back in and she's happy that they are playing with her so she's grinning at them and giggling back and pushing it out again to get the attention.

 

Isaiah wanted his sisters and Noah to come play with him so bad that he came to them with this: "(the neighbor) house is on fire! Come see!"

Emma, finally curious enough to go and look retorted, "No it isn't, Isaiah!"

Then she left and went back to Abby. Isaiah burst into tears. Brandon dropped what he was doing to go play with his boy. Pretty soon, lured by the apparent fun, the whole group was playing cars in the playroom.

I love this man and my tenderhearted little boy. ♥

Emma and Brandon went on a daddy date to the grocery store.

Sometimes Daddy dates are just time alone with Daddy (or Mommy)  and sometimes they involve a special treat.  

This time Emma got a balloon.  This balloon has been following a little girl around the house for days!  She's very sweet and lets the others play with it too, but It's rarely out of her sight.  

Noah dialed 1111 and a bunch of other numbers on our phone. When I took the phone away, he smiled and said "humans! Humans!" I didn't hear any kind of connection on the line but if we get a billion dollar phone bill, we'll know he called China and got Humans!

Emma: I want to marry someone cute and nice like Isaiah when I grow up.
Isaiah: I want to marry the Princess Jubilee.
Noah: (with a charmer smile and batted eyes) Mom, marry you. Marry you.

Awwwww. ;) ♥


 

They saw me taking pictures of Emma and ran over to get their pictures taken.  Abby is "taking my picture".  

Abby: Let's play like this.
*crash! Bang! Emma wailing*
Abby: Let's not play that game. That's a dangerous game. Mama says don't play dangerous games.
*Emma wailing*
Abby: You shouldn't play dangerous games, Emma.
*Emma wailing*
Abby: Let's play over here. 
*Emma instantly all better*

Abby: "What does my picture say?" (Soe and PIPR)
Me:"What did you want it to say?"
Abby: "It says Zoe and Piper. Zoe is the princess and Piper is the duckling."

Class Clown...I tell you!  From birth! 

I didn't know how to teach reading.  I had no idea what I was doing.  Then at Christmas, Mom gave me some pointers and the kids have really taken off.  Something just clicked for them and now the girls are reading with a vengeance   It's fun!  :)  I give them a new story and they devour it!  They can't wait to show Mama Lynn how they can read.  

Abby is teaching Jubilee how to play the piano.

Did I mention that I can get free (cost of book and home instrument) piano lessons for my kids through our local school district's co-op with home school families?  I'm pretty excited about that.  Unfortunately, I can't start piano lessons until they are in grade 2. But on the up side, that means I have time to save up for a piano.  They also have tons of other music options and sports and lab classes (think Chemistry) with the co-op.  :)   

I recently replaced the batteries in this.  It's only been dead for a few weeks!  Not that long, really.
But Isaiah has discovered a new love.  He plays it for hours!  One time, he said, "Look, mom, it's like we're at church and I'm a boy who sings the piano."

If Jubilee's baby-personality is anything like what she'll be in 5 years... (most likely!)
I think this one is a "social butterfly/Queen bee."
She LOVES attention!  She loves to be the CENTER of attention.  She will "call" if you aren't looking at her or if you put her in a swing or something.  She spent a lot of time "calling" Papa's attention when he was here.  She doesn't like to be alone unless she's sleeping and she is very chatty and social.

Here, I'm cooking supper and Brandon's entertaining the social butterfly.  She also likes the "driving/walking movement" on games.  She's sitting eye level at Brandon's shoulder to see the game.

She's also a thumb sucker.  Big time.  As in, she uses a binky one out of 20 times and a thumb 19 out of 20 times.  She hates that pacifier, but occasionally, she'll take it.  (Especially if it's Noah shoving it in there.  I think she's like, "Let me just keep that so I don't get my lips mashed by you again.")

Our attempts to turn our boys into Gentlemen: Brandon: "Hold the door for your sisters."

Kids licking out the brownie bowl: Abby: "Hey! Let me have a turn! Always let girls go first!"

--To be fair, it was her turn.