The Things They Say

Nathaniel: Me push you?

Edmund: No! This isn't a slide.


Nathaniel: Not a playground?


Edmund: No, they're stairs.




Oh, my.

Good thing Nathaniel thought to ask if Edmund wanted a push first, instead of just doing it!

Flannel Pajamas and Quilting

There aren't as many clothes patterns for boys as there are for girls, so I don't sew for the boys very often. I sew costumes for them, so far Robin Hood and simple surcoats. (I can't believe I don't have any pictures of them in their Robin Hood costumes on my blog; I'll have to look into that.)

One thing I like making for the boys is pajamas, especially nice warm flannel ones for the winter. I wonder if my in-laws would recognize these flannels that used to be button down shirts? :)

Edmund is always interested in what I make and gives me his opinion on all the things I turn out. Of course he likes it when what I am sewing is for him.

So there is one sewing project done. I have finished most of my mending pile as well. I still have a few things left in that pile, but I have moved on to some new projects that I really want to get done before the baby is born.

Here is the beginnings of one of the new projects. 64 blocks (composed of 9 3" squares of fabric each) to be made into a new, larger picnic blanket. As of the writing of this post I have pieced about half of the blocks. Now to do the rest and then join them all together and find a good backing.

I love to quilt. It is kind of addicting for me. :)

Speaking of quilts, did I ever show you the one that I made with my mother and sisters-in-law for a friend's wedding?This Log Cabin quilt is between a typical king and queen size. We used mostly fabric from our scrap box (we always save every bit of fabric from other sewing projects for quilting). It was so much fun to compare fabrics and figure out the diamond pattern.

I quilted it on my sewing machine.

Then I tried my hand at embroidery. On top, the couple's monogram (AHR) and wedding year. On the back is our signature.

A Weekend in St. Louis

This past weekend we went up to Saint Louis for a family reunion/great uncle's 95th birthday celebration.

A good part of Friday was spent at the zoo. Last time we went to the zoo we stopped to see each animal we passed and consequently weren't able to see the elephants, hippos, or rhinos. This year I had the boys make a list of the animals they wanted to see and we were able to see everyone that was on the list.

It was a pretty hot day, so we really enjoyed getting to cool off while visiting the penguins and monkeys. We took both of our strollers (a double and a single) and I am glad we did.


Waiting to go into the penguin house. As I said, it was hot. Jeremiah was really flushed; he probably drank a gallon of water and iced tea that day.

Nathaniel.

The boys did really well wearing their hats the whole time.

Somehow I never took a picture of Edmund, so instead here is a funny elephant showering itself with water.

Our great uncle paid for everyone's lodgings for the weekend. We got to stay at the Ritz!

The whole Hall contingent at the big birthday dinner.

Left to right, Glenn (Pop), Justice, Kimberly, Mary (Mom), me, Jeremiah, Nathaniel, Jaired (oblivious to the picture taking), Ellie, and Chava. Edmund is sleeping on Chava's lap.

Our Summer in Pictures (So Far)

Mr. Toad (named after Mr. Toad in The Wind in the Willows). This fellow provided Edmund with amusement for a long time. As did a turtle Edmund found and carried around for quite some time, hoping it would come out of its shell.

Mr. Toad doing Jumping Jacks.

The three boys are finally starting to play well in the pool together. Nathaniel actually likes being splashed now (at least most of the time)!

Jeremiah bailing water for all he's worth. I don't think he ever made much progress. :)

Jeremiah seems to take the heat worse than the other two boys. This is how he sleeps pretty much day or night. (Though he usually does have a pillowcase on his pillow.)

Another way Jeremiah stays cool. This is also yet another example of Jeremiah being different from the other boys. Edmund and Nathaniel are terrified of showers, but this guy loves them!

Where's Jeremiah?

Peek-a-boo!

Cicadas

This year the Magicicadas emerged. The link will take you to Wikipedia's page about these interesting insects. A couple things I learned by reading the article: 1) the adults don't seem to eat anything, their sole intention being reproduction and 2) the adult life span is only a few weeks, so they will all be gone about mid-July.

I don't know how it is in other states, or even in the bigger cities compared to where we are, but there are so many cicadas everywhere the noise is terrific!

We first noticed the cicadas coming out about two weeks ago. It was a pretty much overnight thing, one day none, the next day they were everywhere. Then they kept coming for three of four days, I think. What seems really strange to me is that at our house, as I said, they are everywhere, but just about half a mile through the woods at the family's house there are very few. In fact, the family didn't realize until the second or third day that the cicadas where emerging.

The first day, Edmund was a little wary of these scary looking insects. He said they looked like red-nosed dragons. After a little science lesson, during which he learned that the brown skins where empty, he began to inspect the cicadas more closely. It started with collecting the skins and looking at them and how they where open on the backs for the adult to climb out. Then he started using leaves to pick up the cicadas (similar to how you would use a pot holder to pick up something hot). Now he is very free with them and likes to collect them in buckets, or even just care around one or two and let them crawl on him as he plays with them.

Nathaniel is not nearly so friendly with the cicadas. He likes to look at them (and squash them), but is almost paralyzed if one gets on him. He will pick them up now, but very gingerly, and he doesn't hold them long.

Jeremiah, on the other hand, has no fear whatsoever. One of the first things he does when he goes outside is pick up a cicada. He carries them all over the place. The poor things get somewhat tortured, but not on purpose. He has put one in his mouth before, but didn't eat it.

I like this little picture sequence from one of the first days:

Nathaniel watches nervously as Jeremiah touches a cicada.

Then, just as nervously, Nathaniel finally touches a cicada.

Finally, for whatever reason, Nathaniel feels it necessary to help Jeremiah touch the cicadas, though Jeremiah would rather do it by himself.

Summer Activities

As with my other pregnancies I have hit that point where I feel the need to finish my half done projects before the baby comes. Sewing projects are the main thing on my list. But there are also a lot of things that still need to be done in the basement that I would like to do before Miss Cook comes. It would be nice to get the schoolroom completed and ready for the new school year, as well as getting the bathroom down there up and running.

For now, I have started on my sewing projects. There are many, ranging from mending to new projects and as I sat and looked at my boxes I started feeling overwhelmed. So I closed all but one box, and from that one box, pulled out the first thing and finished it. Now I have gone through an entire box, fixing what I could and making a list of necessaries for the other things. Some of the projects were so easy and quick that it is ridiculous that I took so long to do them.

One of these was Jeremiah's name sampler. I have made these for the other boys, always finishing them up while pregnant with the next child. After I finished Nathaniel's I started Jeremiah's and had it almost done before he was born. Then I never picked it up again. Well, I finished it the other day, and when I said it was almost done I meant it. It took me all of maybe four hours spread over a few days to finish it. Wouldn't it have been nice to have finished it back when Jeremiah was a newborn?

Here it is: finished, washed, and framed.

And a close-up.

It would be nice to get Miss Cook's done before she comes, but I do think I should finish all the other half done projects I have going first. We will see what happens.

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On another note. We have the pool out and the boys have been in it pretty much every day for the last week and a half. Some of the days were really too cold and they didn't last long, but Sunday and yesterday they were in it a lot.

They all love the water, but of the three fish this one is the fishiest:

Neither of the other boys liked the pool much at this age, but Jeremiah loves it! It doesn't matter how cold it is. In fact, last month when we went to the river for a picnic Jeremiah actually crawled right into the river. Not only is the river always rather cold, but below the spring (where we were) it is ICY!!! But Jeremiah didn't care. As you can see, he loves to splash!

While Jeremiah sat down right away, it took Edmund a little while to get acclimated.

But it didn't take him too long. Oh, the life jacket? I don't know, maybe he was afraid he would be out of his depth. :)

Nathaniel was sleeping when some of these pictures where taken, otherwise he would have been in there more, too.

On Narnia, Imitation, and Walking

Harper Collins has a great unabridged audio book set of The Chronicles of Narnia. Jaired and I discovered it at the library when we were back in Virgina Beach. Recently, Edmund has become really interested in listening to audio books. He started out with some Jaired made for him, just reading books into a voice recorder, then burning them onto CD's. A few months ago Jaired brought home The Magician's Nephew and Edmund has since listened to all the books several times. He loves them and can recite all his favorite parts.

Last night, the evening wrestling matched somehow evolved into a game of Narnian kings fighting giants on the western border. Then Edmund got his "magic U" (a plastic letter magnet U) and transported us to the little country train station where the book Prince Caspian begins. He proceeded to give us a blow by blow account of the story and what each of us, as the different characters, was doing. We were then transported to The Voyage of the Dawn Treader, where we went from listening to his accounts to actually acting out the story. Particularly one of his favorite parts, where I, as Lucy, had to go read the magician's book, and act out all the events related with that.

It was very amusing and fun to be able to participate in and encourage his imagination. He was so serious about it and was so pleased every time I was able to insert the correct Lucy quotes for each event. The evening ended with him asking me to read him a story from "the magician's book". When he climbed into my lap I asked him how is was that the magician (for that's who he was playing at the time) was able to sit on Lucy's lap. He said that he was a small magician. :)

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"Me, too!" For everything. Nathaniel wants to be like Edmund and do what Edmund is doing. Even when he doesn't know what we are talking about, if he thinks it sounds good, "me, too!" Even if Edmund is excused from the table and Nathaniel is still eating he wants to be excused too, though he ends up being hungry and wanting to come back to eat more.

Nathaniel is definitely in the unenviable position of middle child. He tries so hard to do all the things Edmund does, and at the same time is trying to stay ahead of Jeremiah. It's not fun. But that little, "me, too!" sure makes me smile.

And after saying hello to the baby, he always point to his own tummy and says, "me, too. Baby!"

Oh, and he has started volunteering kisses. He has the cutest little pucker.

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Jeremiah has finally started walking. He is so funny. Sometime last week, he started by walking up to something with his walker and stopping a couple of steps away, and then taking those last steps alone. He would hold his hands up above his head and as he reached his target bring them down onto it with a triumphant crash. Yesterday, we again had a fire going in the fireplace, so we spent most of the late afternoon and evening in there. Jeremiah walked back and forth between the couches or people, trying further distances as he went along. Today, he got up to halfway across the room.

He is so proud of himself. Of course we are proud of him, too.

(No pictures, I know. I'll try to get some in the next post.)

"April Showers Bring May Flowers"

We have been getting a lot of rain. More rain than sunshine, particularly this past weekend.

On Saturday we and the fam went to Jaired's office for a spring clean up. It started to rain about halfway through the morning, but we still managed to get all the outdoor work done. I think we worked faster because of the rain than we would have normally. The indoor work all got done, too, though there wasn't as much of it. Mostly just a thorough cleaning of the whole building. We were able to hang Jaired's diplomas and other documents that we had finally just recently gotten framed. And Kimberly cleaned the chimney. I think she got about 30 lbs. of ASH out of it. Really? How was there ash in the chimney?

Saturday night the rain got really crazy. We even got hail, which, though it is sometimes in the forecast isn't really that common in this area. No tornadoes though, thankfully.

When we moved into this house there were four or five places in the basement that leaked. We thought we had taken care of all of them, but there is still one left in a side room. It turns out that the leak is in a different place than I thought, but I believe I have it pin-pointed now. We have to go down there a few times a day to vacuum and mop up the water that comes in. But things got even more wild when the back yard and patio flooded up to the house and water started pouring into the schoolroom. After frantically trying to scoop it up faster than it came in I happened to glance over at what we have always thought was some odd hole in the patio floor that was kept covered with an old pot. Willing to try anything I pulled out the pot and watched with relief as the water began to pour down the hole. We don't know where this drain goes, but it seems to work well. Hopefully we aren't flooding something else.

We had a very simple Easter. Homemade sticky buns for breakfast, then off to church where Edmund joined a couple of the other boys in singing "He Reigns" by The Newsboys for the congregation. Back at home we got a fire going in the fireplace and Jaired and I relaxed with our books while Edmund and Nathaniel watched a Curious George movie. In the evening we had an Easter egg hunt. This was Nathaniel's first hunt and the first one Edmund has had in a long time (since we lived in Virginia). Because of the rain we had all the eggs inside. I am really bad about taking pictures of these kinds of things because I am so focused on them and making sure they know what is going on and that they are having fun. They did have fun and they didn't have any trouble figuring out what to do. (Sometimes I wonder if I worry too much?) They opened their eggs by the fireplace and seemed to be as excited about the new cars and bouncy balls as they were about the candy.

Spring is Here

Spring has pretty decidedly arrived now. We are having the usual mixture of sun and rain, cold, warm, and hot. I like it. It isn't likely that we will get many, if any, more frosty mornings, but even if we do they will certainly warm up to be quite lovely by lunch time. There is some heat, for example, on Saturday we went over to the family's for dinner and they got the pool out for the boys to play in. But the heat isn't too bad either, and the evenings cool off.

The boys and I are spending more time outside now. All three of them love to be outside, so it works out well. I am able to get some yard work done while they play and even when they are cranky they will play happily, then when nap time comes they are ready to lay down and take a good long nap. Sometimes when Jeremiah is having a fit at lunch and refusing to eat I will sit him out on the stoop and he will eat up all his food with almost no complaint.

Right at the end of February we bought a John Deere garden tractor. That, along with an extra wagon the family had from one of their old garden tractors, has been a great addition to our spring yard work. We have been spending the last several Saturdays outside working on a lot of the neglected aspects of our property. We still have work in the basement that needs to be done, but I am glad that we are spending these weekends outside. There will be plenty of time to work in the basement when the weather gets hot. In the past we spent a lot of days not doing anything because of not being able to work on the basement for various reasons, but at the same time feeling like, if we were going to be working we should do the "important" projects, instead of stuff like yard work. But now we are really enjoying the spring and getting work done.

I have been working on trimming plants, pruning dead branches, and in general cleaning up the place. I am at war with the wisteria, which is trying to take over the garden. Jaired has been mowing the field, tearing down fences, and building things.

I love this time of year.

Wrestling with Rybak

Jaired's sisters introduced me to Alexander Rybak sometime last year, but it wasn't until Jaired got a hold of Chava's CD Fairytales in December, that we really started listening to his music. Now when I say we listen to his music I mean just that one CD, but....

This song has become one of our family favorites. Edmund can sing the chorus and parts of the rest of the song, and even Nathaniel tries to sing along.

Jaired and the boys wrestle most evenings and Fairytales is the go-to wrestling music for them. If Jeremiah is in the kitchen with me while I am cleaning up and he hears Rybak start up he knows that the office is the place to be, and off he goes.

The Bite of the Sewing Bug

It seems like I end up sewing more during the winter than the rest of the year. At least that is how last winter was. Before Christmas I was making gifts, then afterwards I had several things that I wanted to get out of the way before Jeremiah was born.

I just got my first "load" of fabric for this winter's sewing delights. Be prepared for pictures of sewing projects over the next few months.

For now I will show off my babies and see if you can tell the three apart.

Exhibit A:

Exhibit B:

Exhibit C:

These pictures are the boys in order, as you may have guessed. Jeremiah is 7 months and the other two are about 5 months. He kicked his feet when I was taking the picture, which adds to how much bigger he looks than the others.

Random Sunshine and Babies

No time to blog. Because I haven't made time. Facebook is an evil vortex, sucking me in to see what other people are doing and saying. Once a week really should be often enough for me from now on. Not that I am on Facebook all day long, but rather, that when I do spend time on the computer it is on frivolous, time-wasting pursuits.

I am a wife and mother. That is the full-time job I have chosen. Some days I feel like I haven't gotten "anything" done, but when I stop and look back over my day I have done a lot of things that are my job: fed three hungry boys (several times), washed and hung on the line a load or two of diapers and baby clothes, read multiple Dr. Seuss books, cooked yet another (hopefully) delicious supper, kissed hurts away, and talked about anything from cows to knights with a three-year-old.

I love to hang laundry outside during the warm weather. It is a good time for me to take a break from the house and get some fresh air and sunshine. It gives me a chance to be quiet and enjoy the beautiful outdoors, on a day when I would otherwise have just stayed inside. The boys also like getting to run around outside. Plus, it saves on electricity, so it benefits us in more ways than one.

I could probably sit all day and hold Jeremiah, but I have three boys who all need my attention in different ways. Jeremiah by far requires the least brain cells, just feed him, change his diaper, and hold him; and he is the happiest boy in the world.

Nathaniel is still a baby and is now finding himself in the unenviable position of middle child. He wants to play with his brothers, but he is too big for Jeremiah, and yet sometimes too small for Edmund's games. He still needs a lot of my attention, but sometimes has to wait while I take care of Jeremiah. The week leading up to Jeremiah's birth I felt so sad for Nathaniel. He did not understand about another baby coming into the family, and the changes that were coming with it. He is doing very well, though. He loves his baby brother.

Edmund always has something to tell me -- which always needs a response. He still would rather play with me then with Nathaniel, or even by himself. He likes to have me help him, even if he knows how to do it without help. He also likes to do things that make Nathaniel mad, which then requires me to step in and sort things out.

Never a dull moment for sure. I love my life and my job, but there are definitely times I just throw up my hands and want to stop. All I need to do is remember that laundry and caring for the boys is my main job, then I will be happy, not getting frustrated that I never get anything done. :)

The Three Musketeers

Sweaters courtesy of Chava Hall. Three cute boys courtesy of Jaired and Tracy Hall.

And a little brotherly affection. (For real, Than loves to hug his brothers!)

Tuesday Evening Randomness

We bought Edmund his first bicycle this weekend. He likes it well enough, but as he has not yet learned how to peddle it is not a very fun toy for him yet. When I try to get him to push on the peddles he pushes backwards, and, as you know, that makes him stop, not go! I hope he will learn soon, but for now I am pushing him up and down the driveway.
We have been having unseasonably cool weather for a good part of this month. It feels more like autumn than summer, with temperatures being in the low 70's rather than the high 90's. I really like having the weather this way, but am wondering, if this is what we have in the summer, what will the autumn be like, and then winter?

Nathaniel is loving the cold weather. Both of our boys do really well in the cold, but with his allergies, cool weather is definitely the best thing for Nathaniel. He has been such a happy boy this whole week, and hasn't been scratching very much. I have began weaning Nathaniel, very slowly. This is earlier than I weaned Edmund, but I feel like it is time to start. Nathaniel can be demanding, which Edmund wasn't. Now, less nursings for us means that Nathaniel is nursing about four or five times a day. I know this is the norm for some peoples babies who are nursing full time as little infants. My babies like to nurse every two hours, however, so this is a definite improvement!

Nathaniel wants to ask you all, "What's up?!"