Shut the Door!!!

If I could have a penny for the times I have said "Shut the door" in my days of being a mom....I would have lots of pennies :)

One particular child that has really been giving me grief in this area is Mikaya. It seems every time she would follow her brothers and/or sister outside and would be the last one, she would leave the door wide open!!!! Again and again this happened....and no matter how many times she would have to come back and close the door, it didn't seem to sink in!

And then yesterday it all became clear to me when she once again didn't close the door and I called after her, "Mikaya, why do you leave the door open?" to which she sweetly replied, "Cause I didn't open it!" Now I get it.  It makes perfect sense....NOT!!!!! Nice try Mikaya :)

For cheap family entertainment....

Give a two year old a wig and glasses.....

And get ready for TONS of laughs!!

WE LOVE YOU MIKAYA!

Converstation Between 2 Brothers

Caleb: (picking up his baby brother) Oh my baby...my baby!

Nathan:  He's not your baby, he's mom's baby. She laid him!

Guess that's what happens when you have laying hens :)

Monkey See

We have now entered tick season around here. So now at night when the little ones go to bed we check them all over

for these nasty little creatures.

The other night I was looking through Brooke's hair (probably looking somewhat like a monkey checking for lice:) Nathan was watching me and asked, "Are you checking for gray hair mom?" So here's hoping the ticks don't multiply. Maybe the cooler weather will be good for something!

Do They Grow?

The other day Nathan was so pleased when he picked eggs and found a tiny little one. He announced to me that he was going to have it for breakfast the next day. I was rather surprised when he didn't ask to eat it for breakfast the next day or the next.... Then a couple of days ago he was staring at the tiny egg that was sitting in the bowl with some larger ones. He looked at me with a rather concerned look and said, "My egg isn't growing yet!" Then I understood why he was waiting to eat it. He was looking forward to a bigger meal :)

WHAT!?!?

This joke has been going around our little ones for a few weeks. Hey ______. What. Made you say what! Well since everyone is catching on to this they are starting to refuse to say 'what'. So here is the conversation between Brooke and Nathan at supper tonight.

Brooke: Nathan

Nathan: (knows better than to say anything)

Brooke: Nathan

Nathan: (still keeping silent)

Brooke: Nathan, say what!

Nathan: No!

Brooke: (giggling) Made you say 'NO"!

What More Could a Mama Want?

Nathan: Mom, can we clean the floor for you.

Mom: Yes, I would like that.

Brooke: Thank you Mom!

Not every day a mom gets thanked for giving her child permission to do work. I kind of like it. But from experience I am thinking that this won't last through to their teenage years. Well, a Mama can always dream can't she?

For the Record

Concerning this post of What do you think. When I saw the picture I immediately saw Caleb. Especially in the expression on his face. I think every one mentioned Caleb, and around here that was the vote, so I think Caleb it is. Even the color of Caleb's hair is the same. Thanks for your participation :)

Memory Challenge

I have found a way for your kids to work on developing their memory without them even knowing it!

You just have to have a large family :)

Often we find our younger ones racing through the list of names in our family seeing who can recite them in order the fastest.

I caught Brooke on video today. Thought I'd share it.

And I thought they were washing eggs :)

4 Boys and Mud

????Why do boys like mud so much????

This Just Cracks Me Up!

See if you don't break into a smile when you look at this face.

Megan Tries Her Hand At Driving

Well Megan has been begging for some time now for me to teach her to drive. I have been a little apprehensive, and putting it off. But yesterday once again she was on my case, so taking into account her track record of being quite responsible, I decided to let her have a crack at it. Being farmers, we have quite a choice of vehicles, and so I tried to find the one that best suited Megan. Slow, steady and reliable. I can't say she was too impressed with my choice, but hey, take it or don't drive! She started off quite well, slow, steady, slow steady.

After some pracitce I felt confident that I could leave her alone to practice in the pasture. She was out there quite awhile and I figured that no news was good news. There was one thing that I apparently forgot to mention to Megan. Watch out for those pasture holes and slough bumps. Well I guess that would have been some valuable information for when I went out to check on her she was having a bit of trouble. In fact, a lot of trouble, she had lost her front wheel.

As she was feeling a little discouraged I tried to cheer her up and tell her that this happens to everybody..... well almost everybody. Thankful we live on a farm, we were able to hook her up with another mode of transportation. Once again, she was a little disappointed that she couldn't drive something like Joshua's shiny truck, but I figured he might not be too happy if she would happen to have another 'incident'. So the old truck it was. After a little coaching on the different set of wheel, once again Megan was ready to roll. I reminded her of the holes and bumps. She gave me the 'yes mom I know look' and I figured she was good to go. So, confident that she would be just fine, I went back in the house, hoping not to hear of another 'incident'. All was well, no news, and then all of a sudden Megan came bursting into the house. 'Mom, come quick, I have a bit of a problem'. Not the words I wanted to hear. So, I went running behind her, having a quite a time keeping up, being much older, and much more shall I say 'out of shape'. When I got there, I could hardly believe my eyes. How could I have neglected to tell Megan of the one other danger that was out in the pasture. The tree.

The one and only tree. Well, she found it, she hit is and the rest is history.

Megan I hope next time you practice driving again, it will be under much better circumstances. And maybe one day Josh will even let you drive his truck:)

Mikaya's New Fashion Statement

And next we have Mikaya Pauls. 10th of 10 children and as you can see

very 'fun loving' especially in her style of dress.

The lovely bug hat she is sporting on her head was pulled out of the summer hat box just this morning. It will be a wonderful way to keep that warm sunshine off her bald little head (when we get sunshine that is:) Just don't get too close to a fly swatter Mikaya!

The lovely firey red glasses are a hot item around here and she loves to wear them rain or shine.

The pastel pink hoodie was a bargain find at a garage sale yesterday. Perfect for those cool summer evenings.

Don't you think pink is her color?

The fun striped 'jail bird' dress and bloomers were also pulled out of the summer box.

With it's unique stripes and sporty short sleaves it is a perfect summer outfit.

Mikaya looks forward to wearing this to her next summer outing.

Then there are those nice white socks. Oh if those socks would just stay nice and white.

Long enough to pull them up to her belly button,

yet flexible enough to roll them down as bobby socks.

Mikaya thinks that she will find many uses for these 'oh so white' socks.

And then to top it all, the nice brown robeez booties. Also a garage sale bargain.

This will be a nice compliment to many of Mikaya's summer outfits.

And if her feet get to hot, she can just take those booties off.

How handy is that?

So here you have it folks. The new fashion trend of summer 2008.

Don't be caught wearing anything else!

Special thanks to Mikaya for doing such a wonderful job

modeling these items for us.

Finally.....She's Walking

Enjoying Spring

Well, it seems the warm weather is here, hopefully to stay.

As soon as it turns relatively warm the kids spend most of their hours outside.

This is so nice as it helps them (especially the boys) get rid of their boundless energy!

I wish I had half, or even one-quarter of the energy that they do.

Their favorite pass times:

Jumping on the trampoline,

playing on the play structure,

playing in the sandbox

& riding bikes.

I would mention how they love to play with garter snakes too but I know I have

some readers that are a little squeamish of these little slithery creatures.

You know who you are, I won't mention any names.

You can just be glad I am not posting any pictures of that!

And another bonus is the house stays almost clean:)

Here's a cheer for warm weather, melting snow & sunshine!

Blow Me Down!

For those of you who live in Manitoba you know how extremely windy it was today!

The younger ones had a lot of fun being "pushed by the wind"

The wind was supposed to gust to 60kph, not sure what it actually did.

This seems to be a necessary part of getting some warm weather these days:)

A Day in the Life of Mikaya

On Mikaya's birthday the girls decided to take some farm pictures.

I thought they were too cute not to share:)

OUR LITTLE SNOW-BUDDIES

Who's Who

Here are pictures of Mikaya and Brooke when they were about the same age.

Can you tell who is who?