Our ducks are almost five weeks now.   Tristan lets them out to run around every day now.  They all stay together in a flock.   Sawyer loves them:

 and the boys let them swim in a little swimming pool one day.   Of course, later, they found other uses for the water hose and swimming pool:

Here's another video I took yesterday of Sawyer with Scampy:

I finally got a video of Sawyer to share.   I must warn you, it has a little "potty humor" in it....

The boys have been taking gymnastics now for about 6 months.  They are truly addicted to handstands, and Tristan spends more time upside down than right side up sometimes!   He wanted me to video him so that his grandparents in Texas can see how far he can walk on his hands.

We've been under blizzard and snow storm warnings/watches for the last week or so, and it just keeps snowing.   I know it was still cold and icey last March, but not nearly as snowy.   I looked in my archives (wow, I've been blogging over a year now!) to look at some of my March photos from last year.   There's still not as much snow on the ground as in November, but at least a good couple feet at our house.   Hopefully some time this week we'll make a super snowman.

Last night I was in bed, and Nathan and the boys had stayed in the living room til a little later. Then Nathan came to bed and Morgan asked if he could crawl in bed with me for a few minutes. I said ok and we talked for a bit, and then he started scratching my back (I love back scratches ).   We talked about bats and caves I'd been to, and all sorts of things.

While talking he said, "Mommy, you're such a good cook. I've never even eaten at a restaurant that cooks as good as you do." Of course I gushed and thanked him. (I think he was still thinking of the tator tot casserole I made for the 1st time last night).

After a bit he said, "Mommy, it's a good thing you don't have an exoskeleton!"

Chuckling (and picturing myself as a giant lobster), I said, "well, I'm glad I don't have an exoskeleton, why are you?"

He said, "Because I like hugging you so much, and you're nice and soft!"

He's such a sweety huggy bug.   We have just finished Sonlight's Intro to Biology for science 3 by Holzman, and the book ended with the invertebrates, crustaceans, insects, etc. - must have been fresh on his mind.

Then today Morgan and Tristan were reading their readers (Morgan started The Cabin Faced West and Tristan finished Bears on Hemlock Mountain).  I asked Luke to do a little chore for me, and he said, "Mommy, I have to read my book."   He had this junior-high type Spaceship book, maybe 200 pages with no pictures - and remember Luke can't read yet - in his hands and he was looking very intently at it.  I said, "Well, what does it say?"   He said, "I don't know yet, but I will later."

I said, "Luke, maybe you should get a picture book you would understand with alphabet letters in it."   He said, "No, I can read this one, but not outloud, just to myself."

Just a little collection of funnies the boys have said, had to write them down so I don't forget them:

Lukey was eating a donut twist and asked, "Mommy, how did you know this was called a twist?"    Morgan quickly said, "Mommy is smarter than us, that's how."

What's the opposite of an evergreen?  Tristan says its a nevergreen.

Lukey said, "Mommy, you're a genius."  I said, "Lukey, what is a genius?"  Lukey answered, "I don't know."

Lukey said, "I know John's Wayne's other name.  It's Colonel Rooster."  I said, "You mean, Rooster Cogburn?"  Lukey stated, "Oh, that's it, Mommy knows his other name."

Last summer on a hike Lukey stepped on a wet, slick board, and fell on his rear.  He quickly exclaimed, "My nana busted out of me!"

We're still not quite sure how he came up with that?...

The boys like listening to Louis Armstrong while they are doing their meal time chores:

We went to our church's annual chili cook-off and kid's carnival last night.   It was really enjoyable.  The boys dressed up in their home-made costumes that they put together, and I made chili for the cook-off.

My chili didn't win a prize, but it was the first pot to be empty, so that's still a winner in my book.

Here is a photo of the boys in their outfits:

Yes, that looks like a real rifle, but it's not (it is a real gun stock from Nathan's SKS that he changed out for a composite stock).   I thought they looked very cute.   Everyone wanted to sword fight Morgan of course , this a friend of their's, Jace in his grandfather's old Navy uniform:

And yes, if you look closely at Tristan's helmet, that is otherwise known as a kitchen colander .   Ever since he was 2, he's been using that as an army helmet!

They came home with candy bags and a jar of m&m's that Lukey guessed the correct amount on - I'll be helping them with those items of course!

This morning we woke up to some fluffy white stuff, but it looks like it has all rained off now.  Winter is upon us.

I was pretty desperate in getting my laundry folded and put away the other day, so I paid the boys a penny for each item they folded and a penny for each item they put away.   And no that is not bribery - bribery is when you reward someone to stop doing something bad - I don't do bribery - but I'm all for rewards (and cheap labor).

I asked Luke how many items he folded and put away, and he held up all ten fingers.  "So I owe you ten cents?" I asked.   "Yes," he said.   He then thought for a second and asked, "Mommy, will we get paid money for eating?"

I looked at him, over my glasses, and said "No, Lukey, you won't get paid for eating."   He then started laughing and said, "Oh Mommy, can't you take a joke!"

Well, that tickled my funnybone, and I laughed and laughed, and went into the bedroom to check and see if Nathan heard Luke's witty comment (he had).

But when I got back to the living room, Luke was crying!   "Luke, did you hurt yourself?"   "No," he sniffled, "you were laughing at me."

Oh brother... its tough being witty and sensitive at the same time.

I gave Luke a hug and told him I was laughing with him, not at him.   And informed him if he was going to be a jokester, he better get used to people laughing.   Little boys, you gotta love 'em!

My boys have been in Texas for several weeks now, and will return the 10th of August when my parents, brother and sil come up to visit.   This was a video I took of the boys right before they got on the airplane with my mom.   It sounds like I get their names mixed up, since I ask Morgan where he is going, right after Tristan walks out of the video, but I was trying to get Morgan to talk about where he was going on the plane.   Its hard to hear what the boys say, but I think you'll like the end:

Here's a photo my friend Lynette sent me of her son and my boys playing in the pool in Texas:

"Dear God,

Tank you for this food.  Please 'tect us.  We have to wiv in Awaska, but I want to be in Texas again.  And I always get excited in Awaska.  I dance awot when music is on the TV.  We had fun swimming.

Dear God, Amen."

Noon-time prayer of Lukey, age 4

Meme gave the boys some new "friends"- Chickedoodle II, Quacky, and Bildy.  It appears that they already have a preference for human food.

Meme

All of my boys love to play with guns, swords and weapons of destruction.  Here's Lukey the Terrible in costume:

My middle son who is 6, started sleep walking when he was 4. At first I didn't know what was going on, he just got out of bed and was fussing, crying, but wouldn't talk, I tried talking to him, but his eyes were opened but he was just scanning, wouldn't focus, I thought, "what is going on?" The next morning I thought about it more and decided that he must be sleep walking. Since then he does it a couple times a month, usually in a kind of clustered pattern.  He did it again last night, now I just get him to crawl in bed with me and comfort him and tell him to close his eyes and go to sleep. He's always very distraught, but never remembers it in the morning.

Its very strange, we never had sleep walkers in my family - although my great-grandfather, Poppie,  told a story about how his own dad was a sleep walker and one time went out and rode a horse he was breaking, in his sleep!  Poppie loved telling stories, but they were usually true.  Thankfully, my son so far comes straight to my room when he is doing it, hopefully he won't ever go outside or attempt to ride a horse.