wash, dry, fluff, play

We give Luna and the cat a bath every week or two and since this particular bath fell very near the very first time we ever gave her one last year, I decided to take some pictures.

Look at her silly, fluffy head. Her fur is three to four inches long and is always finding it's way onto my pants.

Rewind to that very first bath, back when she could fit right under the shower tap. What a good girl.

I usually wash the cat so we have no pictures of that, but afterwards when Terry was reading the blog to the kids, the cat warmed itself on his lap. 

Wet cat...and wet lap.

Fluffy puppy

The following day was Sunday, and after church we went into wrestle mania mode with the littles. Luna wanted to lick Ezra's face and the cat just continued to sit next to me through all the thrashing. I thought Terry's faces were hilarious. Obviously.

Noah took some video. I like the glimpses of the cat's belly, just hanging out there. 

A couple night's later Ezra wanted to hug the kitty to sleep. 

The following week the cat joined me during quiet time.

We had to put the cat on a diet early on because he would just never stop eating and was getting mega fat. He's still fat but is more hungry. He will clean up anything on the floor probably faster than the dog. Plus, the dog can't reach the table...and though we spray Trouncer with a water bottle, he is always on the lookout.

See?! He's such a scavenger!!

Here is Mega Fat Belly luxuriating during school in Noah's room (the kids like to snuggle with him in there while they read).

The next weekend Terry was going through some old things his folks had returned to him from his younger days while they were cleaning up their basement. Ezra thought Terry's old's Jets helmet was a perfect fit for the cat. The cat did not agree.

Noah took this one night before they went to bed.

He likes being a lump. 

He puts up with soooo much.

Last Wednesday I let the dog and cat out after returning from church but the cat never returned after an hour or two. I called and called but since it was after 10 and we were going to bed, I thought I would walk down the road and look for him. I finally found him two doors down when I heard a very faint meowing coming from between two houses. He was hiding under our neighbor's pine tree. The punk. No more night time outings for him.

This last Saturday Terry was gone all Saturday for a men's event and I went cleaning gung ho. Besides cleaning the entire house, I gave the boys haircuts and baths, and then washed the pets. Look at Luna's curls and the cat's outstretched leg! 

Last night was the Super Bowl and the cat spent most of the first half sleeping on one person or another.

Evie's turn. She's wearing my glasses because after her optometrist appointment last week, we discovered she has the same prescription that I used to have. 

One more of the fluffy puppy and we're done. 

that pinstriped seersucker suit...

For the kids' Christmas program I dressed Ezra in a blue pinstriped seersucker suit. I bought it for Noah on sale at Target back in the day and now all of the boys have worn it. Noah was a bit big for it so he couldn't wear the pants. Samuel wore it for Christmas two years ago and now it was Ezra's turn. Hand me downs are great!

That Sunday was pizza movie night and when I came upstairs to make the pizza, the sky was amazingly pink. I thought I'd take a photo of Ezra in front of it. 

Cutie.  

"I have a zebra car and I like it." 

Beautiful. 

It was just gorgeous.

But I shouldn't have given Ezra a warm cookie while he was still in his suit that night. Mistake! Thankfully I got all the chocolate out, but it's not like I have any more little boys to wear it. Awww :( 

dungeon play

I have several different random photos of the kids playing that I've grouped together here. 

When Noah was a toddler, we started out with just a few Thomas train tracks and he would have daddy build him a new track every single day. We've found tons more tracks from garage sales over the years and have a large collection. When Samuel became old enough to be interested, he'd ask Noah to build him tracks. But now Samuel is becoming quite the train track builder as you can see from the photo below. Ezra is getting better about not destroying the whole thing. Though he does love to do that just to bug Samuel.

And FYI, that rug is not a random dead guy on our carpet like several facebook friends thought. It's an awesome rug of Han Solo frozen in carbonite. 

We limit video games to a few hours on the weekend. Evie and I don't like them at all so you can guess who does...

The one game I do like is the Michael Jackson dancing Wii game Terry got me for my birthday. No, I will not post the video of me dancing. 

More tracks! 

Terry wrapped Noah up as a burrito and threw the other boys on top as toppings :) 

a lost tooth, softball mess

While Terry was gone on his two week mission trip, the kids and I tried to stay busy in order to more quickly pass the time. 

On the third day of Terry's trip, while Evie was at Rainbow, Noah lost a tooth. It was pretty curious that he lost it while Terry was gone on this particular trip. The last time Terry did this trip in 2011, Noah also lost a tooth - his very first tooth! I never did find it and assumed he swallowed the thing. Ha! He held onto this one and even though the usual tooth fairy had a substitute, she managed to find the tooth and give him a prize.

That afternoon we had another play date here at the house. Shari and her girls came over, as well as  Samuel's friend from preschool - Harper (and his mom Sarah, of course)! I didn't take any photos, but it was his very first play date specific to him. It all went well, but I don't think he understood the significance ;)

That evening we stayed out late at the softball fields. Our church team played at 7pm and there was a BBQ afterwards. Because it had been so rainy that week (and the month before), the grass surrounding the fields was like a marsh. There were puddles everywhere! At first I thought it would be okay because it gave Ezra and Samuel something to do - throw rocks into puddles. But it soon dissolved into Ezra sitting, and then laying in the water. I tried and tried to keep him out of that water. But each time he got a little more wet and finally I just gave in and let him go for it. Our team in the dugout kept looking at me, trying to clue me in to what was going on. Oh, I knew. 

He would climb up the sand pile next to the dugout, run down and plop himself into this little puddle. 

I guess I should be thankful it was a small one. But perhaps if it had been bigger he wouldn't have gotten so sandy. Good Lord! The littles had to have a late bath that night. 

big and little bro

I woke up on the wrong side of the bed today. But perhaps it had something to do with being pestered even before breakfast to spell out complicated friends' names while Noah and Evie were excitedly putting together Valentine cards. I just couldn't handle it and was in a bad mood all morning. My poor kids. I don't pretend to be perfect (and don't believe it if you think I am). I am far from it. And throw in homeschooling with four kids and I get even less perfect due to the irritation of being with them 24-7. Let me tell you: There is no summer vacation. This is life. It is most certainly hard but most good and worthwhile things are hard. I am thankful, and increasingly all the more as I continue to learn about a great many things...

But, I love them and feel very convinced deep down that this is the right thing for us. So I keep going. But it is nice when the spunky punks sit still for just a bit and do something cute like this... I was marveling at the stark contrast in their sizes.

Noah was watching a Math-U-See instructional division video (there's Mr. Demme!) and Ezra plopped down right there and imitated him. So cute but not enough to improve my attitude. My kids are so sweet and forgiving though. I'm so thankful we are able to do this.

Ezra is growing too fast!

Noah and Ezra playing

Noah sure loves Ezra. He always wants to kiss him goodnight before any and every nap and is sad if I won't let him (b/c I've nearly got Ezra in bed). Lately, because Ezra is growing up so fast, Noah has been saying, "I sure am going to miss his baby face." 

Two weekends ago while we were all watching America's Funniest Videos, Ezra came up to Noah to play. I'm gonna miss his baby face too!!

Then a week ago during breakfast Noah just had to "play with"/encumbrance/annoy Ezra with a blanket. 

There's the annoyance.

Noah flying Ezra

The kids are especially fond of seeing Ezra fly, like here and here. Noah just figured out how to make it  happen without being dependent upon me. He does it himself. I had to grab the camera when he demonstrated his technique. No upper body strength? No problem. He just uses his legs. 

He sure loves his baby brother.

guitar hang out time

We had some time off last week with daddy home during the day for Thanksgiving weekend. I had to grab the camera when I found Terry and Samuel, who happened to match that day, snuggling under the blanket. Noah joined them.

It must have been the next day when Terry decided he'd had enough sitting on the couch and got out his guitar. He'd like to teach the kids. Here's Noah awaiting instructions. He's a cute boy.

Terry's explaining what frets are.

Got it, boy.

Wild girl Evie was rolling around on the love seat.

Noah likes to wrestle.