Uncle Josh

Uncle Josh is back from the Navy and came out to our house for a visit.  The kids really took to him as shown in this image:

When all is Quiet

When all is quiet in the house, and has been for a while, a mother starts to wonder. Something's not right. Usually my services are requested at least every 2 minutes, if not more. There is yelling, whining, crying, or sometimes even happy playing noises. But when it's quiet.... that means trouble. It means that the child(ren) know they are doing something they are not supposed to be doing. Their objective is to keep mom away, only they don't realize that by being completely quiet, they inadvertently alarm mom.

Yesterday, while the big kids were at school, such a quiet moment occurred. Ginger plays very nicely by herself, but like any other kid, she does make noise. So I went to check it out. This is what I found.I had the choice between getting mad, and setting some rules to keep the mess to a minimum. Since I wasn't in the mood to give her a bath right then, I decided to put a towel on the floor, and one on the counter, and let her play. I told her she wasn't allowed to add any more water to the sink, and to make sure not to splash (too much). She was happy as a clam as she "washed" everyones toothbrushes, and any other little things laying around in the bathroom.

Farm Baby

When we moved to this house in the country last year, Ginger wasn't 2 years old yet. This is the only life that she remembers. She is so tough.

• If she falls, she'll only cry if she's really hurt.
• If there's a spider in the house, she gets a (butter)knife from the drawer and squishes it.
• She then picks up the remnants of the spider, and throws them in the trash - with bare hands
• Ginger loves all the farm things

Feeding Chickens

Climbing haystacks

Loving the Cats

Catching Fish

Helping Dad with Chores on the motorcycleWe love our little Farm Baby!

Bass for My Birfday

Yesterday, Ginger and I went out fairly early to catch some fish on the lake. We had a good day and pulled in 4 decent sized bass. Ginger kept asking, "is that for my birfday." Finally, we decided that the final bass was indeed for her un-birfday. She seemed to be fine with that. Then later in the day, she decided the corn-on-the-cob we were cooking together was also for her birfday. Not sure where the B-day thing came from, but it is cute phase.

Purse of a 2 year old

Ginger is a very girly girl. She always wants to dress up, wear dresses, play with shoes, and carry around a purse. The other day I found it laying on the floor while she was taking her nap, and here's what I found:
Necessities for a 2 year old:
Dora phone: in chase she needs to call her friend Dora
Whistle: You need to be prepared for an emergency!
Mirror: Make sure you look good all the time
Butterfly: They are pretty
Watch: Don't loose track of playtime
Hair clip: She can't seem to keep these in her hair
Tire for toy car: Sterling might need one
Plastic rooster: Remember your roots
Wise owl: Education is important
McDonalds tricycle toy: the best restaurant for kids.

Ginger - She's Tough

Ginger really is about the toughest little girl I have ever seen. She probably fits in best here at the ranch than any of the other kids. She runs around barefoot, grabs crickets and even spiders, runs-wipes-out-gets-up-and-keeps-going, catches minnows in the fishtank on the dock, splashes water, plays with chickens, and in general is just plain like a big kid. She rarely cries - even when she takes a pretty good hit (elbow to the head on accident, crash & burn, whatever...) and at age 3, she can walk all the way from one end of the 20 acres to the other on a rabbit hunt (at adult pace) with nary a complaint. She is super tough, but she is also super-sweet. She is never short on big hugs or kisses, she has a great sense of humor and is really pleasant to be around.

Swimming

The whole family had a blast swimming today. I can tell that the kids are really getting used to the water. While a few weeks ago Sterling would just sit on the steps, he is now to the point that he jumps in the deep end. Ginger has figured out how to go down the slide by herself, and does this cute little prep before she runs and jumps into the water. I tried to capture some of this in this video. Winter is also getting better and better at swimming, and can now easily swim from one end of the pool to the other. Her and Joe like to race.

Clowns

This afternoon 2 clowns from the Ringling Bros circus came to the Leonard library. They did some fun tricks and made the kids laugh. I have never seen so many people at that library! Out of the 3 kids, I think Sterling liked the clowns the best. He was just grinning from ear to ear. After their little show, they announced the summer reading program. If the kids read 5 books this summer (should be easy) they get free tickets to the circus. Winter got so motivated and has been reading all night. Of course the down side to them getting free tickets is, that I still have to buy tickets for me and Joe. That's ok though. I think it will be great fun. I can't remember going to the circus as a kid (my mom tells me we actually went twice) so I'm kind of excited for myself too.

Fish in the water

Winter is like a fish in the water. Since the weather has gotten much nicer, we have been using the pool a lot. After naps, the kids love to go out and swim. After just 3 days this week, Winter can now swim all the way across the length of the pool by herself. She still insists that she needs to wear her goggles (with nose piece), but sometimes she forgets to put it on, and still does great.
It's interesting to see the difference between the kids. Winter loves to swim. Sterling is petrified of the water. Ginger takes after Winter and is already jumping in the deep end. Joe is really good about getting Sterling to explore though, and he got him to go in the middle of the pool with arm bands and a noodle. I'm hoping that by the end of the summer all 3 kids will swim as good as Winter does.

What Tampa?

We had a special treat of ice cream cones for dessert today. We were all admiring Ginger's cuteness, and she was happy to comply.
At one point Ginger just looked at Earl and said: "What Tampa?"

Turtles

We have turtles in our lake. At first I didn't believe it. I mean, turtles live in zoos and pet shops, and Florida... not in OUR lake! Sterling found the first one last week. It was a pretty good sized box turtle. A few days later he found another one. Then a few days ago the kids found a good sized "red" turtle. They like to keep them in a box by the back door and think it's hilarious when its head shoots back in when someone walks up.

Farm Work

The kids really like helping out whenever they can. Ginger and Sterling braved high-90s temperatures and very high humidity to help load our ailing bush-hog into the back of the truck.

I Go My Classes?

Every Sunday, immediately after the "amen" of the opening prayer in sacrament meeting, Ginger shouts out, "I go my classes?" in a mixture of inquistive and exclamatory tone. She sometimes will also do it after each of the sacramental prayers and after the closing prayer as well. It is super cute - even if it is a bit disruptive.

At least she likes going to nursery now - A month or so ago, it was a major ordeal getting her settled in there without a lot of crying.

Jumping fun

Grandma and grandpa Ashurst came to visit. Grandma had some fun with the kids on the trampoline.

Pronunciation

Winter started hear journey into speech with dual fluidity (speaking both english and dutch.) Jessica was determined that Winter would be able to speak to her great-grandparents. It worked, as Jessica spoke Dutch to Winter and Joe spoke english. All seemed fine until Winter started going over to friends houses to be babysat. She would ask politely for "mucka" and nobody would understand what she saying. She would talk about the "fokachas" and the response was the same. She would get frustrated and Jessica decided to let go of dutch (for a while.)
It appears that one of the consequences of Winter's early language proficiency was that she had a real ear for pronunciation and rapidly learned to pronounce things with remarkable clarity. She never had problems with her "R"s or "Y"s. Sterling and Ginger (on the other hand) who have never learned any dutch to speak of, show signs of being a bit slow to learn to pronounce things properly. Did the Dutch lessons early on help? Who knows.
One other little tidbit is that Sterlings tongue was "tied" and we actually took him in for surgery as a youngster to have it loosened. It is conceivable that that may have affected him as well, but Ginger seems to be following closely in Sterlings footsteps.

Hooked it

Today Ginger caught her first fish by herself. She caught this beautiful bass from our pond. Joe loves to do a quick 30-minutes fishing session right as the sun goes down, and the kids like to go out there with him. Tonight, Ginger was just kind of playing with her pole in the water, when it bit. She was slightly surprised that there was something pulling on her pole, but reeled it in all by herself. By the way, we let this fish go back into the pond, so that we can catch it again, and eat it when it's bigger.

Capes

The kids always like to use their blankets as capes. Sterling will come to me with his blanket and one of those large black paper clips and beg me to make a cape. The paper clip really doesn't work! So today we were out of those big clips, and I had the genious idea to just use hair bands. Turns out, they are much easier to work with, and don't fall off! Sterling and Ginger have gotten to the point where they start dancing and posing as soon as I pull my camera out. I never ask them to say "cheese", but I guess it was ingrained in them early on in life so much that they say it anyways. At first I was taking pictures of Sterling. Then Ginger came and started posing while continuously saying "me, me, me"

Perfect Imitator

Today, as I was stretching after my workout, Ginger sat next to me and started imitating all the different poses. It was super cute. I wish I could have captured it on video. She would look at me, then at the tv, and make the pose. The would keep checking to make sure she was doing it right and make any corrections if necessary.
She and my other kids are funny though. When you try to make them do something, they flat-out refuse. Even if they really want to do it. If they want to do it, they'll do it a few minutes later when I'm not looking. For example, yesterday I though it would be fun to show Ginger how to play some harp. She threw a little fit, so I gave up. Then not 2 minutes later I heard her plucking away. This is why I could never home school my kids, or teach them to play a musical instrument. It must be my teaching methods..

2 year old Ginger

Ginger loves to wear dresses

She loves to sing
She squeezes her cats, chickens, dogs, and ducks (sometimes with bad consequences)
She loves her grandpa Ashurst
Her hair get curly when it gets wet, just like her daddy
She loves her blanky that grandma Ashurst made for her
She loves to play alone
She loves to dress up, especially with wings
She has been potty trained for about 2 months, but still insists I go with her every time
She tries to do everything the other kids do
Her and Sterling quarrel all day long
She gives good hugs and wet kisses
She is very tough, and wipes out a lot
She doesn't like mud on her shoes (which is a problem at our house)
She sucks her right thumb when she's tired
She love it when I do her hair
Every time I tell her "no" she says "why"
Her eyes are as blue as her moms
She calls her grandpa "tampaw"
She loves to play with dolls

She still cries when she has to go to nursery
We call her baby - she still is the baby of the family
She is growing up way too fast

The beginning of a Journal

My objective for this blog is to keep a sort of journal for my kids.
I found out today that a blog can be printed into a book, and decided that it would be cool to make books for my kids, so they can remember things that they won't otherwise. I will try to write a bit about each kid individually, as well as combination posts.