a little halo

Halo turned 18 last week ... crazy how time went by.

The birthday photo, with Finney :)

I was going through some things in preparation for our move, and came across a notebook where I had written some funny Halo-comments from when she was little. Her funny sayings got somewhat skipped on here, as she was older when I started blogging. 

Here are some funny things from her in 2007.

Lost first tooth day after Easter (flute)

Lost second tooth May 27

Lost third tooth at Panera July 22 - daddy tried to find it in the trash

Lost fourth tooth in August at Henry's. (Reading this out loud just now, and turned to Halo, "Who's Henry?" "Hmmmm, I have no idea. I don't ever remember a Henry." she replied. A mystery for us to solve ;) )

May 26, 2007
Halo got Bubbles, her first fish ... after coming home from Walmart, we had this conversation:
Halo "When my fish dies, can I eat it??"
M "It's too small to be eaten."
Halo "Well can just I eat it?"

~

Now she's 18 and doing her first year of college ... crazyness!

a little baby-love

Halo, holding Finney: "I love you, baby! You are the sweetest thing in the whole wide world."
Gun: "Do you want to marry him?"
Halo, not paying attention: "I don't know." And then realizing what he said, begins to laugh ... "I mean, no, silly!"
Gunny didn't see the humor in that and walked away, confused.

a little baby #6

Finney arrived in September! The older kids have been all over him :) It's crazy that he's now a month old.
(photos in chronological order from September 26 to October 27.)

 Finn and Gun (notice the camo ;) )

 Some of his first smiles!!

With big sister!!

a little six kids

We tried taking a photo of all six kids ... this was the best we got :) 

a little bit of gunnar-isms

Got him new PJs and while in the van, asked what was on them. I said, "Stripes and balls." (They were sporty, and I thought he wouldn't "approve.") And Gun replied with, "Um, no thanks." But now he wears them ... ;) 

While riding in the van he says, "When I grow up, I'm not gonna be in your family."
Me: "You aren't?!"
Gunnar: "Nope. I'm gonna have my OWN family."
After a few seconds of thinking ...
"But...I'll come visit you, on my MOTORCYCLE."
(This was just after a conversation with him about how dangerous motorcycles are, which ended with him saying he'd give Halo a ride on his motorcycle that he was getting when he grew up.)

He says "Bam! Gotcha dude!" to all sorts of funny things. And to his sisters, "Bam! Gotcha lady!" (Though sometimes he slips and calls them dude too.)

He came in from playing outside and says to Ezzie, "I'm gonna sing you a song!"
(Playing an air guitar)
God is always with you!
He's never with anyone else!
God won't go anywhere!
God will never leave you.

Talking to Baby, You have two ears, two eyes, one nosey, one head, one mouth, two arms, 5 and 5 is 10 fingers, two legs, 5 and 5 is 10 toes, and one butt. 

He is a crazy "kisser." He loves to give kisses - I used to be the main recipient, but since Baby was born, Gun smothers Finney with kisses. And he always has to give back ones to his sisters, if they sneak one on him.

Everything is about war and guns and camo with Gun (and Ezzie) right now. The first thing he analyzes, even when getting new clothes/shoes, is "are they army"? His new rainboots/snowboots: They use these in the ARMY!

The middle boys marching in their army-getup

a little back to school, yet again (part i)

It's September again. Last school year seemed to fly by! Hayley did some photos of the kids today (minus Ivy and Jensen - they'll be later).

Halo, age 17 - junior in highschool and freshman in college.

Ez, age 8 - 3rd grader

Little Gun, age 4 - K4

And this adorable one of our oldest and the current (not for long) littlest :)

a yummy heart

"Wow, G!  I can't believe you're almost four!"  I said.

"I'll still be small and I'll still be so nice to Mommy," he replied.

"You're so sweet," I told him ... "You make my heart feel happy."

"And YOU make my heart feel so yummy, Mommy."

This kid is a charmer :)  He has helped lift my spirits many times ...

a little Wyoming - Part 1

This is our third...well, fourth major family trip of this year. We've made a trip to Florida, a trip to the farm in Huron, and a trip to Rapid City where J's folks live, and our final trip has been to Jackson Hole, Wyoming! (Maybe more about those other trips later)

Jackson is about an 18 hour drive, so we stayed over night with J's parents on our way out and plan to do so on our way back! 

Some photos from the drive!

On our second day, we went on a three mile hike along Snake River. All the kids came and did really well. Scenery was beautiful, and ... we saw a moose!!!

Some rock-throwing was done

And running

 These two were taken right before the moose-sighting!

We got super close to this moose!

And that's a story in itself! We were down by a little branch of the river, admiring a beaver dam and some trout visible in the crystal-clear water. Then Hayley heard branches snapping and a grunt. She told Jeff and they tore up the little incline to the path ... where we saw this moose. Hayley began screaming and the moose started trotting through the woods. We thought it would be gone, but then it stopped and came over the barbed wire and up onto the path we were on! We kept our distance and assumed the moose would keep it's, but it started coming towards us! At one point some of us could have reached out and touched it, it was so close. It galloped up to the boys, and E did a "stop, drop, and roll" down into a ravine to get away from the moose!!! It was quite an adventure. 

a ranch and a cop

When we were driving through Wyoming, we saw lots of animals and farms/ranches.  At one point, Halo said, "I want goats!  I want horses!  I want a ranch!"

Then G said, "When I'm big I am going to be a U.S. cop and I'm going to GUARD Halo's ranch!!!"

Normandy Beach

I should be in a painting class because I can make World War Two.  See?  I made Normany (Normandy) Beach!  (photo coming)

more from G

If I was Hayley ...
and if I was taller ...
and if I was a baker ...
and if I made coffee cake ...
I would put ICE CREAM on top!
3.6.17


I want to be in the army ... but I don't want to be Nazis.
I want to be a general and have a bomber plane.
3.8.17

a little encourager

G is my cheerleader :)  He says endearing and encouraging things to me almost daily.  Here's a couple I happened to jot down ...

"You are the goodest mommy in the whole world and so sweet and so nice.  So nice. So nice. SO NICE!"  ("so nice" about 10 more times).

1.13.17

"I always want YOU for my Mommy!"  (He sang this a few times.) 

2.20.17 


"I love you so so bad, Mommy!  I'm so glad I have you!"
3.8.17

burnt toast and Methuselah

"There's only a bunch of days til we die," said G.

"If you eat a LOT of burnt toast you'll live for a long time ... I bet that's what Methuselah did," replied E.

"Did she get fat?" asked G.

"No.  And it's not a she; it's a he," concluded E.

childrens music

I was looking through some of our CDs and DVDS the other day looking for one in particular ... although I can't remember even what at this point.  Anyway ... as I was thumbing through them I realized we have a bunch of children's music that hasn't been played in years.  I played some of these CDs a lot when I only had three little kids ... but as those little kids got older and began selecting the music a lot of the time we had stopped listening to all of this *music made for kids*.  In fact, when Ezzie was two ... some of his most familiar music was by Matt Kearney.  So ... determined to expose Ezzie and G to some music geared towards littles ... I grabbed about 5 CDS to leave in the van.  

A couple days later ... it was just me and G in the van driving to pick up the other kids.  I popped in a Cedarmont Kids CD and after a few lines, G asked, "Mommy, do you know who is singing this song?"

"No, I'm not sure who it is," I answered.

He listened a little bit longer ... "I think ... I think it is Gunnar!"  he said with a bit of wonder in his voice :)  

for the love

Foof was bugging G -- and therefore me too -- by trying to make him wear a new sweatshirt ...

"For the LOVE!" I said with some irritation ...

"OF PETER!" G finished {without missing a beat and in the same tone and way I would say it}.

It was hilarious.  We all laughed and G got out of wearing the sweatshirt.