last night I was the tooth fairy

Chloe's a very odd child. Most children get excited about their loose teeth. They find joy in twisting and turning and torturing adults by showing us how they dangle by just a thread. Not chloe. She does get excited about her loose teeth, but she can't stand them being out of place. Once they become fairly loose, she can't stop complaining. "I can't eat. It might hurt." "It's sticking out too far." "it won't go back where it's supposed to." "When is it going to come out?" Last Thursday, she spent her entire lunch time crying, because she "couldn't" eat her peanut butter & jelly sandwich (no matter how much I told her she could chew on the side of her mouth.)

The first time Chloe lost a tooth, she cried, because it felt funny. What kind of child cries when they loose their first tooth?

Sunday, at 2:00 in the morning, while I was sound asleep, Chloe came into my room, telling me, "I lost my tooth! I lost my tooth!" I was so groggy that i thought she was saying she acutally *lost*it. It tooke me a few seconds to realize what she was saying. :) Hooray for chloe! i'm so glad it finally came out. and now she's got that adoreable smile, and that cute little lisp. :)

My tooth ith loothe! My tooth ith loothe!

I can't go to thcool, thath'th my excuthe.

I wath fine latht night when I went to bed,

But now it'th hanging by a thread.

My tooth ith looth! My tooth ith looth!

I'm telling you the honetht truth.

It maketh me want to jump and thout!

My tooth ith loothe!...Oopth! Now it'th out.

~George Ulrich

She told me all day, sunday, "mom, don't forget to be the Tooth Fairy tonight!"

Robot

Grace

Awhile back, chloe got in trouble for something, but i wasn't able to discipline her right away. So i told her that she would be disciplined when we got home. Once we got home, i was really busy with other things, and, to be honest, just didn't feel like going through the ordeal of disciplining. so i decided that this would be a perfect time to teach Chloe about grace. :)

I took her aside, and reminded her of what she had done, an that she should be getting in trouble for it. She was very sober, and i could tell that she was dreading the consequences of her actions. I said, "but today, you're not going to get in trouble for what you did. Today, I'm going to show you grace." And I continuted to explain what grace was. What a beautiful thing it was, to watch her eyes light up, and fill with joy and relief. She gave me a HUGE hug, and thanked me profusely for showing her grace. And then she left.

A short while later, she returned with a gift for me:

This is one of the most beautiful pictures i have ever seen, because it's a picture of grace. Me & chloe, smiling together, surrounded by her favorite colors.

i love what she wrote on the back, too. on the left, in pencil, it says, "Thank you mom for giving grace." And at the top, it says, "i love you. YES"

Good-bye, Butterflies!

Well, we had five butterflies. Two were girls and three were boys. --doesn't make a great mix. it was wonderful at first. The couples hooked up, and the mammas laid their eggs. And then poor Tiny Tim came out of his cocoon and tried to find himself a honey, but they were all taken. He kept going after the girls, and they kept rejecting him. Poor guy. so after a couple days of frustration, I put him out of his misery and set him free.

A couple days later we released the others. They sat around for a long time, and let me take their pictures before they all finally few off. you can see the complete set of photos on my flickr account, and you can some of see my favorites here:

April Fools!

Every morning when we start school, we have calendar time. This is when we look at our calendar and talk about the days & months, and all the exciting events that are coming up. At the end of March, I told the kids about everything that was coming up in April, and I explained what April Fools day was. The kids loved the idea, but didn't quite understand that it was just *one* day each year. Zachy likes to tell me, "mommy, you have two hands." And i say, "yes, I do, Zachary." and he says, "April Fools!"

Funny story from Yosemite

They have bears in Yosemite, and if you're not careful, they'll tear your car apart, trying to get your food. so the park has big storage bins at every campsite, where you can store your food so the bears can't get to it. When we got to our campsite, chloe asked what the big metal box was. Chris told her that it was bear storage. Chloe said, "How do they get the bears to fit in there?"

more yosemite pics

Well, I've finished going through all of my Yosemite photos. you can go here to see them all, or you can just look at my favorites:

more exciting news

I forgot to mention that Zachary asked Jesus to come live in his heart, last week. :) Yay, Zachary!

Home again

we're home from the race track. It was a lot of fun. Chris rode with the best riders there, (there's a big AMA race next weekend, so a lot of pro racers were riding with him as practice) and got his best lap time ever. yay, chris!




We brought the kids' bikes w/us so they could ride around the parking lot while Chris raced. we took chloe's training wheels off months ago, but she didn't learn to ride, & we haven't had a chance to work with her again. So we hoped to work w/her on it over the weekend. Gideon also showed signs of being ready to ride, so chris took his training wheels off during his first break.

As soon as they were off, Gideon took off & never needed anyone's help! YAY Gideon!!!

Poor Chloe was sad that Gideon learned before her. :( But I think it motivated her, too. While Chris rode, I worked with Chloe. By the end of the day, she was riding great!!

We had lots of accomplishments this weekend. It was very excitng. :) --Last night, at dinner, we all talked about our favorite parts of the weekend. Everybody agreed that Chloe & Gideon riding their bikes was the best part.

Now, the kids are praying that God will give them a house with sidewalks where they can ride their bikes. :)

Now, I just need to get Zachary potty trained, and I won't have any more major milestones to work on for at least a month. :)

Yosemite

Tomorrow, we leave again, to go w/chris while he races his motorcycle at the track. I probably won't post again til monday. maybe i'll get some cool racing pics while i'm there. :)

until then, here are some of my favorite yosemite photos. i'll have more, later, when we get back.

Half Dome:

Yosemite Falls (I think):

Our view from the RV, as seen in a puddle. --I think this one's really cool full size.

Another view of half dome, off in the distance. --this one's really cool full size, too.

The kids watch a squirrel:

My Favorite Flower

i was taking pics of lilies the other day. These are 3 of my favorites. :)

Zachy's Tower

I couldn't believe how tall Zachy got his tower to be! he's really good at stacking things well. :)

the birds and the bees...and the butterflies

four of our butterflies came out of their cocoons while we were away on vacation. Here's a photo of 2 of them.
well, the kids had their fist sex ed. class today. in our science book we learned about how butterflies mate. A few hours later, we got to witness it first-hand! Chloe is ecstatic! She can't wait for them to lay their eggs, so we can have more caterpillars, and then more butterflies. She's getting a little annoyed, though because they've been together for a good hour, now. She told me, "i think they're stuck." :)

We're back!

Yosemite was beautiful and wonderful! We were s'posed to come home on Sunday, but we stayed an extra day. Such fun! This is the first year that we've gone, that there wasn't snow everywhere. Usually, we run out & enjoy the snow & then run in again, to get warm. But this year, the weather was nice, so we spent a lot of time outsite. this is also the first year that we've stay *in* yosemite. --usually, we get a hotel in Oakhurst. Anyway, it was really nice to stay there, & let the kid run around outside at the campsite & enjoy the great outdoors. :)

On Friday, Chris took the kids on a hike to see a waterfall. Saturday, it rained all day, & we stayed in the RV and watched movies (the joys of RV's!). And Sunday, the whole family took a trek to see a waterfall. That evening, we came back to homebase & had s'mores. Such fun! The best part, to the kids, was the s'mores --and after that, watching Charlotte's Web.

--as a side note, i was very excited about watching Charlotte's Web, and was planning to read the book to the kids this summer. But I decided it's too depressing. I'd be happy if the book ended w/Wilbur winning the prize/ Why does Charlotte have to die. i'm not into those "life-lesson" depressing kinds of books. i just like a good story.

ANYWAY...i took some fun pictures, but it'll probably be a little while before i post them. I took them in a format called RAW. I don't know anything about it, so don't ask, but i guess you get better pictures that way...you just have to edit them first. So...once i figure out how to edit RAW photos, i'll post the pictures. :)

and while we're talking about photography, i just have to mention that Chris bought me a book, while we were there, on photography in Yosemite. It has tons of great pointers on where & when to get great photos, but it also gave a lot of basic instruction for the how-to's of good photography. I read it on the way home, today, & learned a lot! I can't wait to start practicing. :)

cool photos

Check out this guy's portraits. I just love them! they're so full of life, and have so much personality! --i think my favorite is of the big lady in red, wearing a Santa hat. --or the old guy at the very beginning. --or the guy w/the yellow teeth, playing the accordion . --they're all great. Maybe some day I'll be able take portraits like him.

Yosemite

Chris and I like to go on a mini-vacation every spring, to Yosemite. We haven't made it for a couple years, but we're going for it this year. But this time, we'll be taking an RV. We took our first RV trip last summer, and took a week or 2 to drive up to Oregon. It was a lot of fun and a lot of work. But this time will be shorter. We're leaving tomorrow, and will come home on Sunday. I'm really looking forward to it. (it's supposed to be snowing today!)

Our first time there (after our honeymoon) was when chloe was just a couple months old. We went on a hike with chris holding her in the little baby pack. We saw a bear & her cub on that hike. :) Anyway... this will be very different with four kids now. I can't believe how much our family has grown!

So, I'm off to pack, and hopefully I'll have some great pictures to share with you when we get back. :)

Zachy and the bug

I took some really fun pictures of Zachy playing w/a rolly polly the other day. i posted them all on my flickr acct. You can see them here. That page also has some fun pics i took of the kids playing w/snails on Easter. :)

A new sister?

The other day, i looked outside to see a little girl with pink hair and ballet clothes playing with Chloe. It took me a minute before I figured out who it was. :)

It's so easy to be happy when you have low expectations.

Chris was so sweet and encouraging to me last night. He said, "you're such a great wife and mother. I came home today, and the kitchen was kind of clean and you were alive." :)

Linda's Garden

Here are some more photos from Easter. I had a blast taking pictures of the flowers when we were there. You can see the rest of the photos here.

For Linda

Easter

We had a wonderful Easter, did you? After church, we drove to my mother-in-law's house to enjoy the festivities w/Chris' side of the family. Linda always goes all out & makes everything fun.

Of course, I took tons of pictures, but thought it was impractical to post them all here, so here are a *few* of my favorites. You can see the rest here. You can see Gideon in his Easter tie (he was very excited about it), and Chloe & Evelyn wearing their matching dresses, and all the kids hunting for eggs, and some other fun stuff. I'm very proud of some of them, and others are just fun.

Chloe

I took this picture of chloe the other day. I *love* how it turned out. :) so cute!

lefty

Well, it looks like Evelyn's gonna be a lefty. Dad will be so proud. :)

For Julie

Gideon Sleeps

The other day, Gideon fell asleep on my bed. When I looked at him, he was laying flat on his back, with his arms crossed over his chest. He looked like a dead person laid out in his coffin. Anyway, i thought it was so funny that I took a picture.


After looking at it on the computer, he didn't seem so funny to me. Instead, i thought he looked like an angel. :)

Why I hate Fantastic Sam's OR Gideon and the terrible, horrible, no good, very bad haircut

Chris took Gideon to work w/him for a little while yesterday. Gideon has been in desperate need of a haircut. But our usual hairstylist was booked for two weeks. So it was going to be awhile before it get any better. So while the boys were out, Chris decided to take Gideon to Fantastic Sam's. Now let me just say that we used to be regulars at Fantastic Sam's, but I felt I could do a better job cutting hair than them. So the whole family started seeing my hairstylist, who is AWESOME doesn't charge all that much more. Anyway... I was peasantly surprised that Chris had done something about Gideon's hair, until I looked closely:

It doesn't look quite so bad in this photo, but she totally shaved a big chunk out of the bottom of his hair!!! --and she completely shaved little sideburns off, leaving an ugly tan line from where they used to be.

and his bangs are all long in the middle and short on the sides! AK!

We'll let this grow for a couple weeks & then have my hairstylist fix it up when I take Zachy in for his appointment.