Kids Say...

Ashley was looking at a picture of Justin's activity play mat on Facebook.  It had hanging toys like a bee, a frog etc.  Then she pointed at one and said "Is that a tuna can?"  Me, "a tuna can???"  Then Mike got it, she meant a toucan bird!  

It was Bennett's last real day of summer vacation and we needed to go to Target and then as a treat I had decided to take them to McDonalds to play in the Playplace and then to get some ice cream.  In the McDonalds parking lot when I told them what we were doing there, Bennett's face lit up and he looked so happy.  I said to him "Am I the best mom ever?"  He replied with "Yeah!  But I still like Grandma better".  Gee thanks kid.

About a week after Kristen had left for college, she had called to talk to my mom while we were over at her house one night.  I said to Bennett "Do you know who Grandma is talking to? I'll give you a hint.  It is a person that used to live here that doesn't anymore."  He stood there thinking for a second and then started to walk over to a family picture hanging in moms living room and pointed up and said "That guy!"...meaning my dad.  Jon and I burst out laughing.  Though this is true, it was not the obvious answer.

At my mom's farm a mama cat had 6 baby kittens in August.  One day when we went out to check on them a few of them had their eyes open.  Bennett was excited and got down real close to the box and said "Hi kitty.  I'm Bennett Ford".

Family outing to Fleet Farm.  Ashley and I went into the bathroom.  She went first and then I decided to go quick.  While I was sitting there going to the bathroom, Ashley apparently had a burst of love for me and decided that was the perfect time to give me a huge hug and tell me she loved me.

After watching Wheel of Fortune and seeing someone win alot of money, Bennett said "Mom, we should go on this show so we have money to buy me the flashing shoes".  For school he wanted the light up shoes (which I'm just not a fan of) so as an excuse while at Target I told him they were too much money....which they were a few dollars more so I wasn't totally lying to him.

Ashley "What is a touchdown?"  Bennett "A touchdown is what it's called when they get a touchdown"

Overheard Ashley singing "I'm on the toilet, I'm on the toilet, I'm on the toilet. I need to go pee."

While driving to Kristen's volleyball games I asked Bennett if he remembered what number Kristen was.  He knew and right away said "4".  Then he said something like "she's still on level 4 and hasn't gotten to 5 yet."

David's Shed Update

 If you remember, last summer/fall, David took down this old shed at my mom's to put up a new poll shed as his shop.  Here are the links if you need a refresher and some before pics.

http://4dfam.blogspot.com/2013/07/corn-crib-shed.html

http://4dfam.blogspot.com/2013/08/shed-update.html

Here is a quick update of where he is with his shed this summer:

Unfortunately because of our late spring and then very very wet June, he didn't get stared on this as soon as he would have hoped.  The first step was to bring in fill and get everything leveled out.  Because it was too wet, this didn't happen until the end of July.  And then of course a few days later we left on vacation so he didn't technically start building anything until the first week in August.  He has been doing the whole thing by himself with Josh's help, and alittle bit from his friend or Jon or Kristen.  Here are a bunch of pictures showing the progress from August until now.  (I missed the day when Hennings were over bringing in the fill and leveling it off...Bennett's favorite day to date - he got a dump truck ride, backhoe ride and bobcat ride from them!).
As you know, click on the pictures to make them bigger.





 



 

 

 

 

 

The first few weeks of actual building went alittle bit slow and tedious because everything needed to be so precise.  But once he started with the roof tin and siding, he's been moving right along and it looks awesome.  He hopes to have the remaining siding on the front done this weekend.  Then the next steps are to insulate the inside, put tin on the inside and bring in a cement truck to cement the floor.  The goal is to obviously have this all done yet this fall so that during the winter he can finish off some of the details inside and move his tools in.  He's saving himself about $7000 by building the shed himself and he's doing a great job at it and it looks amazing! 

Farm Kittens

My mom's farm had no cats left anymore, which for me is incredibly strange because when I was little, we'd literally have 20-30 on any given day.  But over the years, they've died or ran away and the past 2+ years she hasn't had any, except maybe a scared stray or two.  So Kristen found a lady on a facebook swap site who was giving away a momma cat and her two kittens.  She also got two more but one of those died.  We now had 4 - 1 mom and 3 kittens.  As the summer went on, we noticed how momma cat's belly seemed to be getting bigger.  Sure enough, she was pregnant and last month she had 6 babies!!!  So we currently have 10 cats and my kids are beyond thrilled and they spend as much time as they can in the barn playing with them.  We haven't named the new batch yet because so far they all still look alike and it'd be too hard to keep them separate.  Bennett named the others though - Mama:  Sheriff Callie, Kittens:  Sky, Marshall and Chase....these are all characters names from a show he watches.

Ashley - 3 Yr. Preschool

Last week Ashley started 3 year old Preschool.  All summer she would tell me she was nervous to go to school which made me nervous for her.  But, she shocked me and did great and was very excited to go!  She hung up her backpack, gave me a hug and walked in and went to start playing.  I'm really happy that she's likes it and looks forward to going.

 

She has class on Tuesday and Thursday mornings.  There are 12 kids in her class with a teacher and helper. 

 

I hope she learns a lot this year obviously, but we aren't sending her to preschool to learn her numbers and colors etc. since she already knows all of that Very well.  But socially, she is shy and talks SO quietly around people she doesn't know.  She will hide behind me and will not make eye contact with people she doesn't know.  But for those of you who know Ashley well, you know that she talks and talks and talks all. day. long.  So hopefully this will help her with her quietness around other kids and adults.

Her first ever assignment - to make a picture of herself.