More Fun Than a Barrel of Monkeys

More good news

I have so many things I could write about, and fun pictures to post that may or may not ever get done. But, the good news - Levi is finally starting to eat! I have doubted at times that he'd ever get it, ever get to where food didn't gag him as soon as it touched his tongue. But, he's eaten some crackers, and he's eaten a few bites of other things like muffins and pancakes. It has to be on his own terms, but he's starting to do it! One of these days, I can stop buying baby food - hooray!

And in other good news, we're ready to move! Within three weeks of accepting a new job, we'd sold our home here and bought a new one in our new town. John is already there working, and in a few weeks we'll be all moved and starting to get settled in our new place, before school starts (which school is only two doors down from our house!). It's going really fast, that's for sure!

Good news

It's been a very long time and I have a lot to say about the last few months....but who knows when that will happen. So, for now I thought I would share the good news - John has a job! He starts in 2 weeks. The bad part of it is that the job is in another state. I've tried not to say anything on here about our name or where we live, and I still won't - so if you want to know more details, leave a comment and I'll email you where we're going! It sounds like a good company to work for, and moving to a smaller town will be a new adventure for us! Now we have to do a lot of work to get our house ready to sell - and hope it sells quickly! Our ideal plan would be to be moved before school starts, so that Ian can start first grade in his new school and not have to transfer. But, we'll see how things go. For now we feel very blessed to have found a job so soon when there are so many people out of work right now.

The rest of March, 2009

The biggest and best news of the month is that John finished his schoolwork! He finished writing his project paper and had to present the project he did for his Masters Degree and he did it (very well, I might add) and they signed it off! So now the minor details of getting it all turned in and he's done - hooray! Caleb and Levi still tell him he needs to go sit down and do his homework :) They're not sure what else he's supposed to do besides homework!

Ian lost tooth #4 - so now he has no top front teeth. He's finding it a little harder to bite things these days :)

He has had spring break this last week and with sick brothers (and thus a tired mom) he has had a lot of time to do what he wants. He's written recipes and is writing some stories - here's a recipe he made for a banana split (he's never had one, but there's one in a book we like to read):

"Pell Pelen off 2 Banana’s put it side by side in a blow Add rasbere’s Choclitalte chip’s melted Choclitalte Add Vnelua Ice Cram Then wipped Cram Then Add a cerry on the top.
IANS
BANANA SPLIT Resupe"

And here's part of a story he wrote about a Valentine's Party Piglet and Winnie the Pooh and their friends have:

"Piglet looked at the resupe it said add 4 eggs then he mix it up he added 3 cup sugar,flaor vunela 1 cup cram 1 cup hauf cram hauf milk 2 cup milk then pink and red hreats he walked cerfle to the table with a cake on a flat dish in his hands."

I can't believe how much he likes to write!

Caleb and Levi have both turned into reading machines! That's all they want to do. Last week they were all sick, Caleb with pneumonia, and reading (or watching a movie) was the only thing that kept Caleb happy. They'll sit and listen to books, often the same one over and over, for a really long time. I get tired of reading the same book several times in a row before they get tired of listening! I'm glad there are libraries where we can go and get something new to read! They like to look at the books themselves, too, and can quote parts of their favorite books.

Here's Levi just relaxing.

I love the way they sleep sometimes! This is Caleb, sound asleep.

March 2009

March is only half over, but it seems like a long month already....we've seen a lot of John lately, not really for the reason we want, but he's working hard at looking for a new job - while preparing for his Master's Project Presentation. He works so hard! Ian got pink eye for the first time; he kept talking about having a pink eye or a black eye - I guess a boy in his class had a black eye. Ian's school had a read-a-thon, he didn't come close to winning by far (him reading means me reading), but we read for about 7 hours in 7 days - not too bad, I don't think. He got interested in Frog and Toad books and can read them by himself. Levi and Caleb got more interested in books, too, and will sit and listen to stories for a long time. Their current favorite is Mouse and Mole and the All-Weather Train Ride. They'll listen over and over. Three times in a row is about my limit, however! They both mostly have it memorized. It was Dr. Seuss week during the read-a-thon so we've read several of his books, too.

Making a collage is so fun! Thanks, Kellie, for telling me about it! Caleb and Levi both love to use screwdrivers. Caleb said one day, "I need to fix my man. He needs new batteries" (a little train driver man). Ian likes to play with race cars, and draws parking spaces for them. One day Levi said to Caleb, "come sit on my lap and I'll read Thomas to you." And he did! We went to the public library on Dr. Seuss's birthday and they dressed up, Ian in his "Cat in the Hat" hat, Caleb and Levi as Things 1 and 2. We met Thing 1 and Thing 2 there, and the Cat in the Hat. They had some fun projects to do also.

A few more pictures.....

Ian was being a tow truck, towing Levi. He towed him all the way across the room! Most of the time Levi was crawling/being dragged on his stomach.

Three little train engineers!

We tried making our own tortillas. They turned out okay. I should maybe have gone to the demonstration on it, to see how they really should turn out, but they were pretty good. Ian wanted to roll them out - he rolled out almost all of them, which was great - he could roll while I cooked. It worked out well - I'm so glad he's old enough to really be a good help! And still wants to be :)

A new song in the Children's Songbook?

Time for some lessons, it sounds like - they're ready for duets :)