more ezzie-isms

We were going swimming at a pool ...
"Are there sharks in it?"
No.
"Are there hippopotamuses in there?"
No.
"What's in there?"
Just water.
"Just water?  There's no animals in it???"

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I was honey-ing Ezzie's sandwich with swirls and such and he said, "It's like letters, Mommy!  It says ... Ezzie, I love you!"
That's right, Little Honey :)

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While praying ... I asked Ezzie if there is anything he wants to thank God for ...

"Yes," he said, "Thanks for mooses, deer antlers, and bears ... PANDA bears."

---

Little Dude handed me a "list" he made ...

"Here's my list, Mommy!  It says ... play ... shower ... go to bed.  But I don't write with letters ... just bumps."

---

"Do dolphins have meat?"
"Yes."
"Do bears eat dolphins?"
"I don't think so ... I don't think they can catch them ... but maybe they would eat dolphins if they had a chance."
"Would they eat the eyes?"

---

And a little Foof story from this morning as well ...

After Daddy left the house on a "top secret mission" ... Foofie said to me, "I think he's getting us a puppy dog or a prairie dog."
I laughed ...
"Well ... it might be some kind of animal," she stated.
"No way," I answered.

Then she went off to her older sister and brother and told them it wasn't a puppy dog or a prairie dog.  They asked her how she knew and she said, "I asked Mommy and she said 'ha. ha. ha.'"

Daddy returned home ... and Foofie tried to get information out of him.  Then I said,
"Maybe he's just teasing us.  Or maybe he was buying something for me.  Or maybe he was buying one of those top secret things from a craigslist ad," I continued.
"I doubt it.  I am spectacle about that," Foofie said.
After we had a good laugh ... we told Foofie that she meant skeptical -- not spectacle :)

a little sky-gazing

I think this was November 15th ... and it was one of those precious fall days that isn't so winterish yet ... one of those days where you must seize the opportunity for a little sunshine and fresh air ...

the opportunity for gazing up into the sky ...

feeling the breeze tickle your toes ...

and lounging in the grass with a buddy :)

And moi?  Since I was created for a much warmer climate ... I was enjoying the day in my "warmest" Lands' End down parka :)  I probably had my Cuddl Duds on too ...

a little about Ezzie

Some things about Ezzie {age 3.5} ... just a few, of course.  Almost daily there are things I make a mental note to write down -- but I often find it's already forgotten by the time I'm trying to jot it down ... oldish age, I guess ...

brecks-best (breakfast)
Grampa and Grampa (for gramma and grampa)
wah-grr (water)

very interested in animals ... especially bears ... always pointing to the globe and wanting to know where the bears live ... what they eat ... and if they're "kind-of a little dangerous" (danger-wuss)

likes to cut with scissors

like his sisters ... he loves KTIS and can sing along with many of the songs {albeit it is on far too much for my liking and I sometimes threaten to throw the radio out the window ...}

"Mommy ... what are relatives?"
"Grandmas and Grandpas ... aunts and uncles ... cousins ..."
"Do they have swords?"  Ezzie asked.

"Can you help me with this puzzle, Mama?" asked Foofie.
"I can!" said Ez.
"Isn't he darling, Foof?" I said.
"Just don't let me do it, Foofie!  Just don't let me do it," said Ezzie.
I thought he was possibly experimenting with reverse psychology ...
"Why not?"  I asked.
"'Cause I don't wanna," he declared.

He likes a certain Richard Scarry book about Pig Will and Pig Won't.  I like it too :)  Anyway, Pig Won't is a big stinker and Ez doesn't want to be like Pig Won't.  So ... when we get to the part that says "Pig Won't won't learn to read so he can't read a book" ... Ezzie says, "I can read The Truck Book." :) 

Later in the day when we had told the kids we were going to have a new baby ... Ezzie asked Halo if he was the new baby :)

He saw a truck/vehicle he liked at Kohl's ... and he was telling me about it.  "I like that two-wheeled bobcat from Koh's ... not from Koh's-laks, Mommy {we ate at Kozlaks' recently} ... it's from Koh's."

a little vehicle trouble

Jeff's truck died on Sunday morning.  I towed it to the auto body shop {which was rather adventurous}.  Then our minivan got a flat tire.  On Monday, our minivan had a dead battery {my Dad had to come over and give us a jump-start} and Jeff biked to the house {his current project}.

On Monday night, we were discussing whether to put a new engine in it for $4600 or whether to just get a new truck ... which would actually be a new OLD truck {for cheaper than $4600} ...

"Well ..." I began ... "After the house is done and the townhome is fixed up {Lord willing, his spring project} ... what do you see in the near future?  Do you think you'll be building or rehabbing some more ... or taking a break from that for a while and doing something else?"

Jeff didn't answer for several moments.  I think he was about to ask me if he should look in our crystal ball ;) so I beat him to it and said ...

"When you look in the crystal ball ... what do you see???  Do you think you are going to need a work truck after these couple projects are done?   What do you envision six months from now?"

"Farming.  I think I want to buy a farm," he answered.  "I've been doing some research ..."

Who knew?!?!? 

*** This is where I was hoping to end this story and it is such a good place to end.  If I had written this story Monday night, I could have ended here.  But, alas, there is now more to this story of vehicle woes.  Sorry ... ***

So ... yesterday, Tuesday afternoon, Jeff and I and the littlest two went to the "hood" {where all males under thirty are seemingly incapable of properly pulling up their pants} and purchased a $900 POC van from a strange fellow.  I was thinking he might be a scammer ... dishonest ... can't say why exactly.  Probably because he had someone call and inquire about the van during Jeff's two-minute test drive.  Really???  Anyway ... I was telling Jeff I thought he should have looked at a couple other vehicles first ... before deciding on this truck in a mere five minutes.

"Well ... I had to buy something.  Even if we decide to get the truck fixed, I need something now.  I need to haul stuff today.  I can't be immobile for a week while the truck gets fixed.  So ... even though nine hundred dollars is a lot of money ... it isn't a lot in terms of vehicles.  And ... since this van was so cheap ... if I find something better and decide I don't want to use the van anymore, I can just park it."

"So ... what you're saying is ... you want to have one of those yards with six or eight junkers parked all over the grass???" 

He laughed and I didn't.

Then, last night, he said he had a funny feeling about the van after driving it a little yesterday and that he hoped it would start in the morning.

This morning, the van started up and he came and banged on the window ... "It started!"  "Praise the Lord," I called : )  A few minutes later, I happened to glance out the front windows again and he was stalled :/ He'd barely gotten out of our driveway and was completely blocking the street.  Thankfully, a neighbor with an SUV had already maneuvered into an opposite neighbor's driveway and was trying {bumper to bumper} to nudge it back onto our driveway ... this was good news for me ... otherwise Jeff might have had me out there pushing it with my bare hands {which I did on Sunday at the auto body shop when we were trying to get the truck in an actual parking spot} ...

Then, amazingly, the van came to life again and Jeff revved off.  Hopefully he will make it home today!  Otherwise, he'll be calling me for help as I'm his new towing service ...

Oh, I almost forgot, I am already scheduled to tow our dead truck again tonight ... from the body shop to our house.  I wonder how long it will sit in our yard ... maybe 'til we have a farm to park it at ;)

a little fallish...part 2 ~ by Jean

Hi all!!!  I am back with some more of my pix : )

This was from a quick impromptu shoot on Sunday morning before church ... I think she looks quite dreamy and cute : )

Here is another action shot of Foof : ) This one is a bit better than the other one on the previous blog post ... I love her expression : )

Here is a super cute one of Ezzie : )

Another one of Ezzie ... Isn't he adorable??? : )

I call this picture ... The Laughing Leaves picture : )

Well, that's all for now : ) Maybe I will get some winter pix : ) That would be the day! ; ) If you click on my name ... you can see my blog about the theory of evolution!!! Have a GR8 day!
~ ♥ Jean

a little fallish

Thanks again to Halo ... I have another post :) One afternoon recently, she had fun taking some fall pix of Littlest Brother ...  He is holding up his zipper pull because there is a compass on it -- and he thinks it is pretty exciting :)

Then Foof joined in the fun too :)

a little pear (& apple) picking :) ~by Halo~

Hi all :) Today we went on a rather spontaneous field trip.  We visited a family who used to attend our church.  They moved up north to a small farm.  It was a lot of fun -- we even got to pick some pears and apples :) They have 11 chickens, 3 horses (Mia, Chad, Elmer), 1 Shetland pony (Princess, she is not pictured), 3 barn cats (Pierre, Rex, Emmy (Emmy is not pictured), and 1 golden retriever (Maggie).

The pear trees...

Me picking some juicy pears :)

Foofie in the pear tree :)

Buddy in the apple tree :)

Me and Pierre the tabby :)

Buddy and the cat Rex...

Foofie and Rex :)

I especially love this picture...Buddy and their horse Chad :)

Foof feeding apples to Mia and Elmer  :)

Me, Foof n' Chad  :)

Little Man with Elmer coming to visit  :)  "Hi horsey," he said :)

Lil' Buddy and their little boy Jo-Jo  ... who doesn't love trucks?!?!?

a little album: Cabin 2012 part IV

You probably didn't notice -- but in case you did -- I'm skipping over Cabin III as I don't think we took many or any pictures that time. If I find some at a later date ... I'll probably let you know :) Although ... it would probably be mostly pictures of kids with frogs as Cabin III was a froggy affair. The kids caught somewhere around twenty frogs ... oh ... and a pollywog too ...

*** I had a funny video of Ezzie singing along to Frogs, Frogs, Frogs to add here ... but can't locate it :/ So ... posting this as is for now. Maybe I'll try to replicate it sometime ... although the best setting for this song seems to be at night ... in the van. ***

And yes ... we have been very cabin-y thus far this summer :) I think this is a record summer of cabining for us! Enjoying it while we can, you know :)

Cabin IV included lots of fun with cousins ...



G & G had a photographer come out and take a few shots ...
So I took some too :)
We spotted a fawn :)
Halo's big catch :)

And tubing was extra wild with Daddy on board :)

a little prize

You may recall my mention of Gianna's blog here http://lotsoflittles.blogspot.com/2012/03/little-guest-blogging.html where I shared the tale of my rant in the Lego store at Downtown Disney :) Anyway, through her blog, I WON a photo shoot from her cousin at Sarah LuAnne Photography :) Thanks Gianna and Sarah :)

Our blessings :)  I'll be glad when it's time for Halo to get some new glasses ... she has those "transitions" which always look like sunglasses when she is outside ...

The sisters ... she took some of the brothers too {as well as individual shots of the kids} but they weren't on the disk ... so I'm guessing they weren't great???  Afternote: I found out her computer crashed and she only had a portion of the pictures saved at that point ...

It was a beautiful day ...

I'm hoping I can get this one in color ... I think it's my favorite of the whole gang ... this is the "pretend it's our Christmas card" picture :)

And we had pictures taken in front of these gorgeous bushes ... I thought it would make a great background ... unfortunately, the rest of the family had their eyes closed or they were looking away or just looking goofy.  Getting six people to look nice at the same moment can be tricky :)

a little softball

This album is from our last night of softball ...

Daddy and Foofie :)

A swing and ...

A HIT!!!

Pretty in pink!!! {Foofie lost these two teeth on July 4 and 5.}

He's ready ...

Nice one!

Great catch, Halo!

She's loving this!

Good swing!

Ezzie with Grandma and Grandpa ...

Our cheering section :)