Conversations with Dashell

I just had to share this evening's talk I had with Dashell. Most of you probably know how much I love talking to Stratton, and Dashell is starting to talk enough to share a little insight to himself too, and I love it. It makes me laugh every time. Tonight we took the boys to their first hockey game with Brigg's family while they are in town. I was bringing Dashell home early to go to bed since it was already almost 2 hours past his normal bed time, even though he was loving the game. In the car, I asked him if he liked the hockey game and this is exactly what he said;

" Hockey...fun. Fourwheeler....fun. Trucks....fun. Stratton....fun."

So I have a little boy who loves his brother, trucks, fourwheelers and hockey. It sounds like it is a good thing we moved to Alaska.

Pneumonia, My Old Friend

The last two weeks have been a complete blank. I somehow managed to come down with pneumonia and am finally getting back to myself. Two rounds of antibiotics and who knows how many other pills, codeine cough syrup, inhalers and ibuprofen and I'm finally down to only the occasional uncontrollable coughing fit. Lucky me. So, I realized today that we have taken 2 pictures over the last six weeks. I can't give a reason for this, but we just haven't been pulling out the camera. We have been staying busy, just not photographing it. Stratton finished his first ever round of swimming lessons on Saturday, preschool has been going great, our house is ready for winter, and Brigg and I got to go our last night. I don't feel like downloading the only two recent pics, so I thought I would post this old picture from the summer of our little face plant boy styling an Avatar look after a scooter mishap. Stratton was equally upset over the smear in his chalk drawing. We are all just trying to get back on our feet like Dash. And we had better do it fast because we have a busy few weeks ahead....thank goodness I made Stratton's Halloween costume last month! We have all our normal life schedule, family coming at the end of the week, an upcoming Primary program that I have only 1 more week to practice with the kids, elections, my mom's birthday and a million other small projects that have managed to accumulate. Too much can stack up in 2 weeks. Tomorrow the projects begin!

To My Boys

To Dashell:

Welcome back, my little man! After last week, I was worried that the grumpy dwarf had come back to stay, but I guess we have chased him away again. Thank goodness! You are such a charming and mischievous little boy, I would hate to only see your sense of humor and fun occasionally. I love your total enthusiasm for life. The older you get, the more convinced I am that you could hardly wait to get started on your life. It's like you are worried you won't have time for all the fun you plan on having. And as you get older and more coordinated, I just wanted to tell you how much I will miss your little half jumps that you do when you are excited. And I may even miss it when you stop adding "-y" to the end of every single word that comes out of your mouth. It makes it seem so much less serious when you tell me you fell "downy" and got "hurty". And the roads will be much emptier without all the truckys, carys, dumpys, bikeys, and mooseys you see.

To Stratton:

I cannot believe that I am old enough to have a 4 year old. You have turned into such a sweet little boy. You still run in high gear, but you are thoughtful and considerate, most of the time, and are a great friend. I love our conversations and how hard you try to help Dashell and me. Not to say you don't have bad days, but your good ones more than make up for it. You are a constant surprise. This week, I am especially proud of you getting all your winter gear on by yourself every time, and writing your name all by yourself. Don't worry. The other things you are working on will come.

Fall just in time for Winter!

Since the first snow of the year has been falling out my window since yesterday, it seemed like time to put up a few of our fall pictures. September has been a busy month full of preschool, music, trips to the library, yard work, and birthdays. It has been great to get into a routine and really settle in to life here. Here are a few highlights...

Here are the boys hard at work on the dirt wall behind our house. They literally spend hours playing on it almost every day. I don't even mind going through a couple pairs of pants in a day when it can keep them so occupied for so long.

Stratton shows off the potatoes from our garden this year. I wish I could take credit for them, but they were planted before we moved in. We just get to enjoy them! Stratton harvested all the potatoes with his Dad one Saturday afternoon.

His job was finding all the potatoes in the dirt after Brigg had made the initial hole. He did great...it must be the spud farmer in his blood. He is still very proud of the buckets of potatoes we have in the garage from his hard work.

I love this picture of Dash from one day out picking lowbush cranberries. My boys are learning to love, or at least tolerate, lots of berry picking with their mom since we moved here. Maybe I'll be able to talk them into even more berry picking next year. For now, they have snow on the brain, just like their dad.