Giving Thanks

At meal time, Jonah takes a turn giving thanks before we eat. Once I asked Nate if he would like to thank God for our blessings, and he looked at me terrified, very quickly said no, plopped his head down on the table and started fake snoring. we'll wait until he is ready...

Sitting down for supper tonight, Jonah slowed himself down and started to pray.
J: Heavenly Father, thank You for making everything for us and thank You for sending Your Son to die on the cross for our sins and washing them all away. Ummm, thank You for the Lord Jesus, in Jesus name, amen.
Me: great, thanks.
*indistinct chatter* Jonah's eye's get big
J: wait, wait, I forgot something.
we all hold hands again.
J: Heavenly Father, thank You for the Lord Jesus, and for the food. In Jesus name, amen.
J: ok.
He often includes things we often don't think of, like bees and honey, blackberries, rainbows

Overheard: Jonah to cousin Brianna (7 yrs)
J: I am going to live to be 100.
B: Jonah! you will be dead by then.
J: No I won't. the bible says if you obey your parents, you will live long on the earth.

A couple of Quinn

A couple of the baby. Making lots of noises and smiling a lot. I'll post a video here soon too. The pics will have to do for now. Great kid so far.

Brotherly Love

It happened one evening while I was in the shower.  Leah was nursing Quinn. I could hear Nate screeching and crying. Leah yelled, "Jonah pushed Nate, he cut his head, and he is bleeding" and ran out the door and down the road. (jk, that was Leanne... remember, falling with my bike, knocking pieces off my teeth and getting the nice furrow in my head from the bedrock I fell on. When Leanne saw the cut, she ran out of the house, all the way down to Uncle Freddy's house. Dad used that a lot to remind her that she actually did like me.). Out of the shower, down the stairs, this is what I found. Panic all around. Been there, done that. Way to carry on, Son.

After getting the story, Nate getting pushed and hitting his head on the coffee table, we went to Emergency. Nate was letting me know on the drive to the hospital that no one would be looking at the cut. NO ONE. Everyone I explained the story to, rolled their eyes and said "boys, huh". No issues, put a little crazy glue in there, good to go.

He was watching Dora yesterday.
TV: Hi, I'm Dora. What's your name?
N: umm, NATE!
TV: my favorite snack is a banana! What's your favorite snack?
N: umm, umm, umm, schrlub.

better to say something, I guess, than nothing at all.

Here he is 'preparing' one of the kittens for its adoptive home.  They have passed a very rigorous 8 week program designed to carry them through every conceivable situation they will ever face, and then some.  It certainly would not be described as "Kitten Whispering". Probably the most stressful situation was the wall walk but they have proven to be mentally sound and resilient. Yes, they do land on their feet. The kitten pictured here graduated the program today. Sensei was not impressed with losing one of his prized pupils and directed all his negative energy he could to the new owner with an intimidating mean mug and a snort.

The Ghost

Jonah's first attempt at writing. He is fortunate as he has someone to transcribe for him. The following short (very) story was composed, dictated, illustrated and published by Jonah Macdonald.  He has decided that he will not adopt a pen name.

Be careful, the story involves sinister characters... Do not read late at night.

Front Cover

Story & Illustrations

Another quick update for you all.  Jonah likes holding Quinn for a few minutes here and there. Quinn takes it all in stride, no problem. He just wonders at which moment Jonah's thought's will wander from him to the "extremely urgent" issue that needs to be handled right this second... 

Not all of them are sleeping. Can you guess who is faking?

Remember the 'kitten in the box' story. Today there was a 'kitten in the bag' story. I had a bag of nuts mixed with reese's pieces (very yummy) sitting on the coffee table. Nate dumped the whole bag, ate all the reese's pieces and went away with the bag.  A few minutes later he arrived back singing quite merrily, "Mommy, I have a delivery for you..." there was a lucky kitten in the bag, very obviously not a willing participant. We're just lucky his attention is diverted from Quinn for now. At least he won't be putting lipstick on him, dressing him like a girl and leaving him in the room when company arrived unexpectantly. (Leanne)

I'll throw a pic of Nate in here too. He messes up a room in seconds, takes stuff all over the house and cannot remember where he puts a single item. Not one! typical conversation while hunting for something.
M - NATE! where is the remote control?
N - i don't know.
M- but you had it, where did you put it? (I am never agitated)
N - oooooooh. Dad, my tuuummmmy huuuurtss... (rubbing his belly)
M - huh? your tummy hurts again does it? why?
N - yee-ah (sensing he might be getting away with this). I ate too much. I can't go find it.
M - Ok Nate, maybe we should go to bed?
Jonah - Nate, how many times do I have to tell you... (using his parent voice)
N - cue cry.

Vermont MTB Trip

Quick video of our trip to Vermont this summer. We left the kids at home and went biking for two days at a really nice spot in East Burke, Vermont.  Allen put the video together.

Left here Thursday after work, stayed in Waterville, Mn and then to the trails Friday afternoon, where we hit the trails until 6:30. Next morning, the girls went shopping and we totally wore ourselves out riding the whole day. The two days were full of highlights and we had to force ourselves to stop to take pictures and videos because the trails were so fast and addicting. Dave's good bike was being repaired so he had his old one, I wrecked my back tire on the berm trail the first day and Allen's crank arm kept falling off but we had a BLAST! Stayed at a beautiful house on the mountain and had meals there and also ate at some spots in the village. We each wiped out once, and we caught two of us on tape.  The Sidewinder was the most fun I've had on a bike, although you can't appreciate the speed on the video. Uriah, we missed you.

We left Sunday morning early and made it to Augusta for meeting and then travel back home by 8 pm. Benn thinking about the trip ever since. 

Enjoy the video.

Kingdom Trails, East Burke, Vt.

Day Seven - all is well.

Quinn, seven days old today. Had both boys in bed with me this morning. Got Jonah off to school for 8:15. Nate and I went to Home Depot to pick some things up and then met Dave K. at Tim Horton's for a quick visit. The store was almost empty so Nate turned it into a playground. At one point, he climbed unto the window sill, hopped unto a table and leaped off unto the floor, smiling the whole time. He also stole one of Dave's timbits. He had given Dave the timbit 5 minutes earlier. Dave was cool with it though, he's got 4 brothers... Picked Jonah up at school, and he wiped out on his bicycle on the way home. He skinned his knee, elbow and hand and could not continue, but did not cry. I was tending to him and he said "Dad! I was not even thinking about showing off right there. I was only thinking about doing the jump." We piled in the van, went for a drive in the country and back home for pizza and sweet potato fries. Get the kids in PJs, into bed, thats a wrap! oh wait, wake every 3 hrs...

Jonah must think Leah is not as accessible as she once was. He sat down beside her tonight and asked her "Mommy, would you like to touch me? or, hold my hand". A cuddling session was soon underway.

Here is a video of Quinn swinging away. Listen to the hiccups. Jonah gets props as the cameraman. 

Jonah watched the trailer for Conan's new show. He was lying in bed, doing 'the stare' when Leah asked him where he was.
Jonah - remember the guy who put all the explosives in his car, beat up the guy and then drove the car off the big cliff? that's what I'm thinking about right now...  umm, WHY would he do that?
Me - He was just being funny. he didn't really do it.
J - how is that funny?
M - big people find it funny.
J - umm, ok. but why did they need to put all the extra stuff in it too?
M - the fireworks?
J - yah. why?
Me - to be extravagant.
J - WHAT'S EX-TRAV-enn mean?
M - over the top. to make it really crazy so people find it funny. Do you get satire at all Jonah?
J - no.
M - good night. love you.
J - love you (head butt kiss).
haha, gotta love him.

The 5th Day

Quinn has found his voice and is willing to practice it at any time. He was awake about half the night last night. Leah is getting along pretty good though. Public Health nurse (Grant Thomas' sister) was in yesterday and was very encouraging, he is gaining weight, etc.. Nate and I are hard at work all day. I do the cooking and cleaning - He does the eating and messing.

I have tries multiple times to upload a video to Blogger but its not happening. Guess you'll just have come and see him.

Coming Home from Hospital. Didn't make a peep. Just the way we like it.

Asleep.

Proud BIG Brother. Nate calls him "Dur-ruther Baby"

Rocking his new swing

We have the same picture of the other two boys. He really looks like them here.

Car seat pushes his cheeks up. Thankfully he likes it.

makes it all worth it!

Thought I'd throw this one in. It takes him about 2 hrs to eat an apple this size. During this 2 hr stretch, the apple picks up its weight in various objects, all of which is consumed by an oblivious little boy. He just had the apple in visiting the kittens, trying to teach them how to use the litter box... I try not to look...

More Quinn

Some more pictures of the little guy. I finally got to sleep through the night... jk. Last night was a really good night for Leah and Quinn. He is just sleeping, eating and making us change his diapers. He's a pretty great little guy. Leah had some visitors in last night.

Jonah's hand. His hands always have extra stuff on them. That's because they are everywhere, always moving, never stopping to rest. Even when he is sleeping... 99.9% of the germs on his hands have been destroyed by the mandatory gel we have to use at every doorway. One doctor told us it is the 99.9% that don't hurt you that get killed. whatever, as long as we think we're safe, right?

He is attending to his Mommy. I think she looks great. She thinks she looks like a cow. I think its all in your perspective. In this case, my perspective is correct.

Auntie Melody. Nate calls her Med-O-wie. She was and is a huge help. These boys have no idea how good they have it.

Jonah finds him really interesting. Nate is hiding under the bed to avoid getting pictures taken of him.

He is rocking out to some tunes here. Might be 'Welcome to the Jungle".

All for now, we'll post later.

Quinn David

Here he is, arriving @ 11:08 am. 7 lbs 12 oz, 19 in.

This was the easiest way for you guys to see him. I'm going back in tonight.

Small, Medium and Large... Triple Trouble.

Jonah is very mature about all this. Nate could take him or leave him, although he did say he thought he was pretty big. He was expecting Quinn to be 'reedy small', like the size of a dinky car or a kitten.

I will not promise more pictures on here, but will try to remember.