update on the kids

Oh goodness! I used to be such a great blogger! What do I say??

First, I just saw online that a family in the area was in a car accident today and one of their kids, a 5 year old boy, was killed. I can't imagine losing a child, especially in a car accident and so suddenly like that. All I can think of to make me feel better is picturing a little boy in heaven with Jesus, smiling and happy. I'm glad that I know there is a God and that families can be together forever. If not, what's the point of life?

Well, I can't sleep so I thought I'd write an update on the family.

Todd bought Magic Cards (the game) to play with the boys and all of them are loving it. The cards have monsters and creatures on them and they attack and block each other. Nathan especially loves monsters and creatures and battles.

Abbie is starting to say words! She knows: Daddy, doggie, Mama, NayNay, but will repeat lots of words. She does this cute thing where she lifts her eyebrows and makes her eyes really wide. We laugh so she loves to do it. She'll do it every time we say, "Abbie, do big eyes!" The other day Katherine and I were dancing and she wanted to dance too! She wanted me to put Katherine's tutu on her and she walked around trying to lift her leg (like marching) and wiggling her hands. It was SO cute! She wanted me to hold her and dance with her too. She's a climbing bug- or should I say booger! she always climbs the stairs, and can NEVER just sit in her chair to eat at the table! If she's not strapped in (which she hates), she will be on the table running around in 2 seconds flat. She is still happy as can be and so easy going. She is always laughing with/at her siblings. They like to do things to make her laugh and she laughs at anything and everything they do. It's so precious. she's starting to walk around with dollies, or stuffed animals or blankets. She found a toy necklace the other day and put it on and walked around with it, taking it on and off.

Katherine is still so obsessed with dancing. She still watches ballet DVDs all the time and spends the whole day changing her dress up clothes (dancing clothes) from one to another, all day. Her favorite is to wear her tutu and be shirtless. Hmmm... She is such a sweet little angel. I was taking the kids to ice cream and when we got there she said, "Amazing!" I said, "What's amazing?" She said, "YOU are amazing!" She always tells me "I love you" and "You're a sweet mommy" and always gives me and Todd and others compliments. She always tells Todd, "thanks for cooking the yummy dinner" or some compliment about his cooking. She has her tantrum moments (she has the Carlson banshee scream) but most of the time if she's in a bad mood, if you smile at her she can't help but smile back. She loves doing whatever her brothers are doing, and is a great helper for me. (Except in potty training. She has been potty trained, back in diapers, potty trained, and is currently back in diapers.) She really loves animals. She wants a horse. She loves going outside to play with the chickens, bunnies and dog. She's with them a lot. She's a very smart girl. She catches on quick, like her daddy and brothers. She just started a ballet dance class. The studio is supposed to be really great. She likes it a lot, so we'll probably have her go there. I have a lot of anxiety and think a lot about the best thing to do about her dance. I don't want to make her not like it by putting her in classes, or changing her dance studio, or if she'll like her teacher, but I want to foster her love of dance. So far she's loved dance classes, and she likes ballet best, and she's loved her ballet classes so far. I guess we'll switch, and I hope I'm making the right decision!
She's so cute the way she talks right now. If a word starts with "S" then a consonant, she leaves of the "S". So "smell" is "'mell", and spoon is 'poon, scary is 'cawy. Nathan is na's'in.

Nathan is still such a funny character. He says the funniest, craziest things. He and Alex are such good friends they can read each others' minds. One will start something and the other will join in or finish it without having to talk about it. They do that all the time. Alex and Nathan are getting so big now! They are really great helps to me. Yesterday and today they have helped clean a TON and I don't know what I'd do without my helpers. Sometimes they'll want to take turns being the "mom". (Lots of work, but then they get to stay up as late as they want:)). We're listening to the "Little House on the Prairie" series on CD right now and we all love it. I heard the boys playing it the other day, like they had to survive on the land. I love reading with them. One of the things I really want to do as a mother is to read to my kids lots- lots of great books. Alex is really into friends, but Nathan isn't really much at all. I told the boys no video games for the whole summer (and maybe longer). It's been so nice! I love the summer. When it's nice weather, I just want to be outside all day. They've had sports camp the last two weeks, and the next two weeks is swim lessons, and we've been going and doing lots of things like going to the zoo, etc. I am still going to do some school during the summer too, so they haven't had any time to say they're bored or miss video games! They are such happy, good kids. Today I was getting frustrated trying to clean and the girls were making messes, and Nathan said, "what can I do to help? Should I...?"
Last week the library had an activity where the kids could bring their stuffed animal to the library and the stuffed animal would spend the night there. In the morning, the kids picked up their stuffed animal, got a little breakfast and a picture of what their stuffed animal did that night. The boys, especially Nathan, were SO into it! It's so funny because they want to be "manly", but they still have a soft spot for their bears. Nathan checked out "Paddington Bear" books and other books about stuffed animals and read it aloud to his bear to get him ready to go to the library (aww). Nathan told his bear all about it, and to not tell the other stuffed animals about it because they might get jealous. In the car, Nathan had his bear in the seat belt with him on his lap! So adorable! Alex had fun and was into it too, just not as much as Nathan was- Nathan was really into it. One day they were playing with all their stuffed animals. They had them all lined up on the stairs and they were playing their instruments for them. They told me they decided to do stuff for their bears, and they had just got done doing a treasure hunt for them, and now they were giving them a concert.

Nana and Papa are coming to visit in 10 days, and the kids want Nana to bring them turtles, since turtles are everywhere in AR. Katherine says, "bring me a little turtle!" Nathan calls Nana to remind her. I heard Nathan telling a friend, "My nana and papa are coming to visit." They are so excited for them to come. They love it when they get to see them.