Pictures At Last!

Sunday, while the kids were dressed up and at the moment clean, we decided to take some pictures.
Aren't they cute? We had fun and they did too. When they stopped having fun, we knew that the photo session was over. Near the end you can see that Emma tried to take a picture of Ty and I with mixed results. Enjoy.

Say What?

This is a very rambling post. Sorry in advance.
Joseph did a few things today that made my heart melt. He cut me a bunch of flowers from the yard to put in a vase. That was cute. Then, we had vegetable soup and muffins for dinner. A little later he was still hungry and asked if he could have more soup. I said "go ahead and finish it up." He looked at me enraptured and said, "imagine, a mom telling her son to finish the rest of the soup! This is awesome!"  Now its not like I don't feed him or anything, its just that this boy's idea of a good snack is a hearty helping of veggies. Anyone jealous? These two things have pretty well made up for him hopping like a frog in church today.

With the big kids in school now one of my favorite things to do is listen to Abby and Bethany play together. The other day they were by the coat closet putting on coats and purses, etc. and I asked Abby where they were going. She enthusiastically said " we are going to Texas and Kansas and Oregon .Com." Do I spend too much time on the Internet?

Being Sunday and us all being home together, Emma took the opportunity to do one of her favorite pastimes,      play school. She spent hours this afternoon holding a very organized preschool for her younger sisters and Joseph when he could hold still long enough. There was math, reading, story time, nap time, singing  and dancing. I must say I was very impressed! It is a toss-up who is more excited for her to become old enough  to babysit, her or her parents. Just a few more years... 

One more little side note about Joseph. The Thornock grandparents are on vacation in the Dominican Republic at present. The boys were musing about what they hoped they would bring back for them. Ethan said "I hope they bring me some real sand from the beach." Joseph said "I want a real island snake from the Republicans" 

m

Anyway, life is fun and we sure are blessed! 

Our Country Heaven

We are enjoying our country hick lifestyle just as much as we hoped we would. With 5 barefoot kids, a tractor, 2 dogs, and a cat (and 12 deceased chickens) we are just like a Norman Rockwell Painting! We haven't even had the internet for the past two years. Now that we have the internet again you will see more of us again. Here are our cute farmer wannabe kids.










So here is Abby tearing up the grass in our front yard.

 Emma and Abby standing together here.  What you don't see is all the shots of Abby jumping up and down while Emma is trying to hold 'er down and smile at the same time.  Luckily, she finally got her jumps out for a bit and we got a good picture.

 This s the rope swing in the front yard.  It ties to a branch almost 20 feet up.  One of Joseph's favorite things to do is to be pushed on the swing as high as he can go.  He will swing up until his toes tickle the leaves.  He is also getting good at climbing the rope.  he can climb it nearly to the top, then come down again.

Ethan loves these dogs.  He is our animal boy.  He has caught birds, dragonflies, mice, gophers and even a 2 foot long bull snake.  I just hope he doesn't come in the house with a skunk sometime.  The amazing thing is that he hasn't been bitten yet.

Just look at this cute girl.  Emma is getting to be such a big girl.  She likes drawing, reading, and pretending.  She is just young enough to enjoy dolls without being too embarrassed by them.  She would think country life is perfect if she had a horse.

Bethany is such a cute little girl.  It was tough to pick a good picture to post, there were so many.  She loves going out to the strawberry patch and eating.  Green, red, doesn't matter.  She eats them anyway.  She has started carrying around the cat, much to the cat's chagrin, but it sure is cute!

Birthday x 2

Happy Birthday Joseph! For those of you that do not know, his birthday is May 1st. Happy Birthday Bethany! She was born on May 2nd. This post is for them.

See that light in his eyes? That boy knows a tool when he sees one. This is just a cheap double a run screwdriver. We let him have some screws and some wood to use with it. As soon as he opened it he decided the laundry room was his work room. You may notice the small tool on the table in front of him. That is a fork, knife, spoon combo. The Knife had a bit of a run-in with my file. Now it is just barely butter knife quality.

What good is a tool kit without a flashlight? This one has a lanyard to hang around his neck.

Here he is with his entire horde from his birthday.

This was the cake. It was quick and messy, but it at least mostly resembles a wrench. Joseph told his grandma K. "That was a good tool birthday."

One day later...

Doesn't she look happy to be born? She has only cried once since she has been born, and that was when they drew blood. She will fuss quietly when hungry, but that's it.

Isn't she beautiful?

The kids all came to visit at the hospital. They were sure fascinated by that baby.

Abby loves her own bellybutton, so, when she saw the baby she justbarely glanced at the face, but could not get over that cool umbilical stump.

Emma and the baby. It is nice that she can hold and feed the baby unassisted.

Joseph loves her too, but requires more careful watching.

Ethan more than any of the others is excited about taking care of her. He is such a tender hearted boy.

Abby Blog

Well, we got so many good pics of this girl today, that we decided to do a blog just about her.

She loves 'bawberries' this one. You have to be careful not to leav any stems or ends on the table after you eat one because she will go back and try to pick off pieces you missed.

I got her to run to me by showing her where her tricycle was. She had just been trying to turn over the neighbors trike (the red one on its side in the background). When she saw hers she came a runnin'.

She is so funny. A more cheerful girl you will never meet. She loves climbing in laps, or up into beds and sitting on people and saying "Hey there!". Her favorite song is "Happy birthday". She tries to sing it and whenever anyones sings it to her she lights up. Laura was pretending with Emma and had sung it, but to Emma. Abby said, "Abby! Abby!" When Emma's name was used.

Don't worry. She peed on the floor, not the chair. We figured that since she had already evacuated her bladder and looked so cute we might as well get a couple of pictures.

This girl, any time she sees an animal says, "Oh! Cow!" often followed by "Raaaar!" It doesnt matter if it is an elephant or a duck. It's a cow to her.

She loves stuffed animals. They are all bears. I think it is because we have this really old board book called 'Me and My Bear' that she really enjoys. All these different stuffed bears, you know.

Well, that's it for now! Ty

New Baby

Well, here she is. My lovely wife and the one that has struggled valiantly these past 8 months with a baby growing inside her. Fortunately, the last ultrasound we got some great pictures and video.

This is the face. to the left is a hand and the chin followed by lips then nose surrounded by a dark area that has her eyes. Although this picture does not show it, this is definitely a girl.

Well, I may have put the same video up twice, but everybody loves a great re-run, right?

Happy Easter!

Yessiree, its here and gone!

EASTER!!!!!!

Ready, set, go! The kids had 3 egg hunts this year and the pictures are all out of order. This is from the one in our back yard on Saturday. It was just a little one.

Here we are at our friends house. We were invited there for egg dying and a hunt. We had the hunt indoors because we were likely to be blown away if we tried to do it outdoors.

Isn't this girl adorable. Note the sand in the corners of the mouth. That is rather common since the installation of the sand box.

Yep, the master at work. This guy is our expert finder. At Todd and Sandy's house he found 17 eggs. He still hasn't come down off that sugar high.

Emma found a few eggs at the Potter's house. (That would be Nathan and Jenny -they are trying to edge out Thornock as the most popular last name in the Ward with three families of that name.)

The End. Joseph enjoying an egg before getting ready to go home.

We had a great Easter weekend. Hope you had one too!