5 weeks reading

Noah and Evie are doing the library's summer reading program so we try to get in some reading every day. And actually, I think it's helping Noah improve his reading skills. And that's a good thing.

Here is Evie showing the five week old Ezra (and then everyone else came over) a library Star Wars Han Solo book. She wanted him to read it. But since he can't, who wouldn't enjoy looking at photos of Harrison Ford? He he he...

Or perhaps not... 

Yep, I guess he doesn't like Han Solo as much as me.

That's a lot of kids! If only I could photo shop myself in. 

July 4 2013

This year's Independence Day was pretty laid back for us. Nothing like fishing like last year or going out to friends in Gburg. We just stayed home, except for Terry who helped his dad rake some hay. But we do have a little newborn! Okay, so he was nearly five weeks old, but the excuse still applies I think.

Here's duckface girl and dreamy boy with sleepy-and-still-a-little-orange Ezra. Pretty sure we were waiting for daddy to get home.

Terry brought home the few fireworks that were allowed in the city. Here's a smoke bomb. Stinky.

We were encouraging Evie to light one herself but she was too afraid. It was quite silly. So I had to help her.

And these two are just too cute.

Pretty girl. This is a good shot of her new haircut too! Her hair is so fine that it tangles very fast and the tears when it was time to brush her hair were getting annoying. So we chopped it.

Pure concentration.

Evie got over her fright with the noise maker popper things and had a good time.

lightsabers

A few months ago, Terry had bought some long wooden dowels from Menard's to make a flag for a youth group event. Noah really loved that dowel and wanted to have one of his own. His desire for a long stick was heightened when he played with his friend Eli on Mother's Day and they used sticks to pretend they were Jedi knights. Also, his friend Asher has a super sweet legit toy lightsaber. 

So Noah desperately wanted a dowel to make his own lightsaber. Whenever Terry went to Menard's, Noah would ask him to buy him a dowel. Terry would never remember. So a couple weeks ago, Noah forked over the only two dollars he had from some birthday who knows how long ago, and insisted Daddy use it to buy a dowel. Terry couldn't forget after that! So he got Noah the longest dowel and a couple more for Evie and Samuel.

Terry also bought a rainbow pack of Sharpie markers and Noah spent two days coloring all three dowels to make them into lightsabers. Blue and red for himself. Because, you know, what's cooler than a double lightsaber?

Evie got pink and purple. She tried coloring her own for like five minutes and grew bored. Noah finished for her with no request or complaints.

I love Evie's expression. You know Noah's all serious but she's just having fun.

Noah colored Samuel's orange and yellow. So they had a lot of fun with their lightsabers for a few days and now they're all sitting in various parts of the house not getting played with. Poor dowels.

dungeon: part 6, furnace, insulation

It's been almost another two months since my last dungeon post and it's high time for an update. I guess I've been too busy having a newborn to get this done!

In my last post in May, we had just passed our electrical inspection. Since then, we've got a lot done. It's helped that we are working in the evening after kid bedtime since we've finished watching Battlestar (sad face). So, Terry's put up all the insulation and we've had the new furnace put in.

Two days after Ezra was born, Terry was outside digging a trench for the gas line to go in. He wasn't feeling well at all because of a sinus and ear infection he didn't know he had, but that didn't stop him. 

Plus Terry is motivated by our neighbors who have been busily working on their enormous addition. I keep telling him that they are hiring it done so he shouldn't compare. I guess I shouldn't complain that we're moving along. :)

Here is the neighbor's huge addition to give more room for their family of six kids.

Once Terry got the line dug, the gas company came and installed this beauty.

Here is an old photo before we started all the construction (we have come so far!). To the far left you can see the old gray furnace. It was a good furnace but the heating bill was super expensive. Plus, it could not heat the dungeon. We considered putting in a gas fireplace, but thought if we were going to spend that much (it was a lot!), that we might as well go a little higher and invest in a gas furnace.

In this old photo you can see all the old silver insulated ducting in the ceiling (plus, I've gotten rid of nearly half of those tubs since I've sold almost all of Evie's old baby things)

Here is the new furnace! It's smaller than the old one and they replaced all that insulated ducting. They also added two vents to heat and cool the dungeon. We don't even need the AC for the dungeon though. We have those vents all blocked up.

Here is the new ducting. They also added an air return. And the white PVC piping is for venting.

The view from the other side. 

While we were waiting for the guys to install the furnace, Terry got all the insulation on the walls. And you can see that he's started hanging drywall too. Actually, he's nearly finished with the drywall (only has the hall left to do) but I'll wait to do another post until he's completely done. We are coming so close to being able to move down there! Yay!

papasan Samuel

Which baby do you think this is? Is it hard to tell? Well, I'll tell you it's not Ezra. He's not smiling all that much yet.

It's Samuel! He was two and a half months old chilling out in his baby papasan chair. Since Ezra came, I got the papasan chair back out. The kids all love to play in it when Ezra's not using it...

Case in point. Here is Samuel two years later chilling out eating blue berries. What a grown up boy! I love that little punk.

slippin 2013

Daddy thought we needed a new slip n slide, so that's what he bought while he was out a couple weeks ago. The kids had quite a bit of fun since it was their first slip of the summer. They liked it last summer too, but the novelty seems to wear off... 

Evie gets sprayed

Samuel was a little hesitant. Perhaps he remembers falling and smoking his head last year... Maybe next summer he will be more into it. Plus, Ezra will be able to join them! Now that's exciting to me.

Noah and Evie had a ton of fun since they could go together. They kept backing up further and further in the yard so they could run faster for their jump down the slide.

 It's nice to see them smile so much.

Samuel looks like he's trying to squash a bug. I hope Evie didn't run into the poor kid.

Airborne! 

What a nice backdrop for photos eh? Our neighbors are doing a huge addition right now. It's motivating Terry to work on our dungeon :)

black eye

Noah got a black eye way back at the end of April but I kept forgetting to post about it (just like I kept forgetting to take a real camera photo of it - this cell phone picture will have to do).

The poor boy must have been playing a pretty intense game at Awana that week!

masks

Terry bought the kids these luchador masks in Mexico during his 2011 trip. So that's a 3 year old Evie under that thing. Noah refuses to wear it. 

Samuel will wear it though! And it's funny, because I think he looks almost exactly like Evie under the mask. Their eyes are so similar!

storybook - first time out as a six pack

When Ezra was only a week old, we had some good friends, the Crumptons, visit us for the afternoon. Terry knows Adam and Krista from college at Moody and Adam lived out at the ranch for a couple summers. They are missionaries in Mexico (we even visited them once and need to again) and were on the road visiting some churches. They went out of their way to come and see us!

It was our first time out as a six pack! I looked in the back seat and was almost startled to see all those kids. Whose are they? Oh yeah, I'm a mother of four now. We are a family of six! Crazy. Nothing felt like four kids like getting them all into the van. The Crumptons patiently waited for us to get loaded up for Storybook Island.

Terry and I disagreed about which stroller to bring. I thought Samuel would have plenty of fun running around and we didn't need to bring the bulky double stroller. I was wrong...

Yeah, I'm woman enough to admit when I'm wrong. Samuel had a hard time being ousted from "his" stroller seat. We should have brought the double stroller...

Our two oldest with their two oldest: Alistair and Anson.

Digging in the sand.

Adam and Krista and Ainsely 

Shari and Grace joined us as well. Grace and Samuel are driving an old fashioned fire truck. 

Samuel (and Terry - haha) and Anson. 

Noah flashes his gang sign at the top of Pooh's tree house... 

Noah and Evie and Alistair on a funny little boat on Noah's Ark island. 

I was there. See?! Funny thing was, even though I took every opportunity to rest and sit down (only a week postpartum!), I ended up getting quite sick the very next day. Mastitis. Thank the Lord for antibiotics.

Train ride. 

They spent quite a lot of time climbing in this space ship thing at the very end. Afterwards, we got some take and bake pizzas and ate at home. The Crumptons stayed til bedtime and then drove all the way to Chicago! It was really good to hang out though. So glad they stopped.

daddy bike ride

Here's Ezra at 3 days old getting his PKU drawn at the birth center. He was so relaxed we had to take a photo. It could have had something to do with the warm light he was under, but he does seem to have a pretty good temperament. Of course, he's nearly 4 weeks old now and in need of figuring out day time napping, so perhaps he's not as relaxed as we thought at first...

Later that same day, even though he was feeling quite sick, Terry took the kids on a pretty big bike ride. Here they are a couple miles away at Sioux Park. He's a good daddy.