Visit from the Australians!

This week we had a visit with a family who are from Australia and are touring North and South America for 18 months. The boys really took to their daughter, Amy who is 13 and very sweet with them. What an experience for all of us! To learn about Australia and make new friends.

Daily Entertainment!

Wrestling and more

The toy box got dumped today and the boys decided to climb in. The next picture shows them helping make the egg salad for lunch. They are adept at cracking the eggs in half and scooping out the egg. Then they mash it for me. They are very teachable little boys.

They love to wrestle each other. It started about a month ago when Matt was looking at old videos of himself wrestling. The boys decided to give it a try and have been at it ever since. They have tried after gospel meeting and at Jennie G. which isn't quite the right time or place. They both enjoy it and I would say they are very well matched. Thomas is a little bigger and heavier but Nathan has more coordination. They are good about stopping if the other gets upset or hurt.

For several months, the boys have been into stories. My father started it by telling them made-up stories. They do things like as soon as he walks in the door even before his coat is off, they ask for a story. Quite often when we are just relaxing together, they'll ask me for a story. I'm not as good at it, but that doesn't slow them down from asking. One time, when we were at my parents house, Nathan was sleeping for the night in with my parents. He was really wanting to come in with me and was unsettled. All it took was for my Dad to start a story and he relaxed.

Flags

Flag day or just the boredom of bad weather? This is their creation, I was just the camera dude. We've graduated though since the time of the picture from flags to a tent concoction on the couch.

We read every day. Since the new year, the boys have been really taken with the disney stories. We have a large book with many of the stories written very simply. We got through that and found our library has a collection of stories that are much more in depth. We take out a couple every week and enjoy them. Thomas is really getting the humor in books. He cracks up on the funny parts and he covers his eyes on the scary parts. So innocent! We are also really enjoying the Beatrix Potter books. There is something very appealing about those books.

We were looking at the swimming videos from last week just before I did this blog. Nathan said "I want to go there!" Great! They were absolutely freezing when they got out last week but they don't seem to remember that.

Well, we are off to take a(nother!) snowy tramp.