August 31, 2009 by Amy Jo.

DADDY:  Carter, it’s time to get dressed.
CARTER(wailing):  I don’t want to wear dress!  Dresses are for girls!
DADDY:  It’s time to get your clothes on.
CARTER:  OK.

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August 26, 2009 by Amy Jo.

This is what I see looking out from my favorite chair tonight…

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August 26, 2009 by Amy Jo.

When asked to help her brother move his chair:

      ALLISON:  Oh yes. I love using my manners.

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August 26, 2009 by Amy Jo.

Carter just came in from the backyard and said:

      “Us are picking up leaves that are on ground and
putting them in toy box for bubbles.”

Then he smiled at me.

And although I’d rather not have to go clean leaves out of the outside toy box sometime in the near future, because he was so cute, I decided that I’d let him get away with it for today.

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August 20, 2009 by Amy Jo.

The kids played outside for quite a while today - which is amazing because it is still 100+ degree outside here.  When they finally came in, Allison told me that she’d made a birds nest on one of our large boulders and that she put toys around it for the birds to play with.  Then she decided that she wanted to make a “bird paper doll”.  So, after about 5 minutes of Allison working at the craft table on the bird paper doll, it occurred to me that Carter was being suspiciously quiet.  He was over by the sliding glass door and I couldn’t see him.

ME:  Carter, what are you doing?

In  response I heard a little bit of rustling around, which only increased my suspicions.  Finally, after a long pause I heard a small voice say:

CARTER:  I’m listening for birds.

ALLISON:  While I made the bird paper doll, Carter said he’d listen for birds for me.

My little stinker was sitting quietly at the sliding glass door watching a listening for some birds to come to the “birds nest” that Allison had made.  I had no idea that he knew how to sit so quietly!!

Now they have taken a toy phone over to the sliding glass door to listen to bird “calls”.

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August 19, 2009 by Amy Jo.

These aren’t the best pictures, but I wanted to post something of the changes we’ve made to the family room.  Last Sunday afternoon, we painted a good portion of the family room and rearranged the furniture.  I like it SO much better!  Two more walls of brown to paint, then we’ll move on to the burnt orange paint for the kitchen.  Next we’ll paint the bathrooms and upstairs and…  This is a 6 month project, but well worth the effort!

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August 11, 2009 by Amy Jo.

This morning when Allison didn’t want to walk close to him, Carter said:  

“You know why I wanna be close?  ‘Cause I wuv you and I can’t walk without you.”

Yep.  That’s my adorable little stinker!

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August 10, 2009 by Amy Jo.

Allison and Carter playing with stickers and coloring at their new craft table.

 
The finished playroom.
Freshly painted and organized.  I snapped pictures quick because
 I know it won’t stay this neat! We turned our empty
living room into a playroom for the kids… It gets the toys out of
the family room and out of the main areas of the house.
  I did it for me, but the kids think I did it for them
and they are thrilled!

 
Before…

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August 10, 2009 by Amy Jo.

According to Allison:
“This is a pile of bones that we had to bury.  But Carter keeps pillow fighting it.”

Now, that’s imagination!

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August 6, 2009 by Amy Jo.

This is the result of letting the kids play upstairs unsupervised one morning last week…

When I gasped at the disaster, Carter said to me,  “Don’t worry.  You can go past it!”

While that disaster was upstairs, this was the toy mess downstairs…

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