Traveling down a winding, bumpy, hilly road in rural Nebraska, Hannah piped up from the back seat:

"I'm getting noxious."

Hannah: Don't give Ainsley any more milk; she just spits it up.

Mom: What will she live on if we don't give her any more milk?

Hannah: On an island.

Eating lunch at Long John Silver's yesterday, with piped-in music standard to all fast-food joints...

"Mom, this music touches my heart," Noah said.

Noah: What are we buying at the store?

Mom: We're buying cases of vegetables. They're on sale.

Noah: Not peas, though, right? That's the one thing I don't have to eat.

Mom: New rules -- now you have to eat peas. (teasing!)

Noah: I'm going to go live with a different family.

Mom: OK, kids, Daddy is serving the concession stand at the fair for Knights of Columbus. Would you like me to go and pick up some hamburgers for our lunch?

Hannah: I don't know... are they JUICY?!

Mom: We don't like to punish you.

Hannah: Really? I thought that's what parents do best.

Ainsley has been pulling up to stand for almost 2 weeks. She is 7 1/2 months old. Several days ago she started "cruising" around the furniture. And biting, hard. And sticking out her tongue at us.

I'm SO not ready for another "into-everything" toddler already!

Driving down the highway, we saw a Humvee.

"A Hummer! Now THAT's what I'M talkin' 'bout!" Noah exclaimed.

Visiting Daddy's old stomping grounds in his college town was fun for all of us, as he reminisced about his favorite places and told the kids stories about his college days. His college town is very hilly, so he took us to one very steep hill to scare the kids a bit. ;)

Noah: "Now THIS is a hill!"

Hope: "Hold on to your jeepers!"

Elizabeth: "Everyone shut your pieholes up!"

Mom: "Hannah, why don't you try to find a girl in the neighborhood to play with instead of always playing with the boys?"

Hannah: "What boys do I play with? Oh, you mean Tristan? Never heard of him."

Mom: "You can be sure, girls, that when you start dating, Daddy will grill your dates pretty hard."

Hannah, horrified: "You're going to GRILL them?! Ouch!!!

Mom: "When I was your age, we didn't have computers."

Hannah: "Man, I feel your pain!"

Overheard conversations between the kids can be hilarious. And there are so many, that I forget to write them down.

Today we were driving to a nearby town, and the girls were teasing Noah about "kissing a Wookie" -- from a commercial about Star Wars. Anyway, arguing ensued and eventually led to Hope telling Noah that if he likes Darth Vader, then he's "on the Dark Side."

"Man, I'd sure hate to pay for electricity on the Dark Side," Hannah replied.

Hope: At camp, the archery guy kept telling us to shoot at will. Who's Will?

Hannah, cutting up her chicken-fried elk steak: "Great Scott! Is that a pink spot?"

Hope: "Who's Scott? Someone I should know about?"

Noah: "Guess what, Dad? I just saw a 4-wheeler with six wheels!"

Hope, on Father's Day:

"Mom, is it hard to find a man?"

While driving through Garden City, Hannah noticed some construction going on.

"Great, just what this town needs... another business," she moaned.

Noah: "Mom, Elizabeth threw her stuffed chameleon on the Duncans' roof!"

Mom: "Elizabeth, WHY did you do that? How are we ever going to get it down?"

Elizabeth, excitedly: "We can call the FIREMAN!!!!"

Speech lessons

"I want a tookie," Elizabeth said.

"Cuh, cuh," I corrected. "Cookie starts with the 'cuh" sound. You try it."

"Cuh, cuh, cookie," she said, proud of herself.

For the next 30 minutes, she tried her new sound in front of words.

"Cuh, cuh, mom."
"Cuh, cuh, Dora."
"Cuh, cuh, kitty."
"Cuh, cuh, Ainsley."
"Cuh, cuh, Noah."
"Cuh, cuh, Grandma."

Carrots

Before dinner, Hannah asked what we were having. On the menu was Lemon Chicken, Glazed Carrots, Cheesy Potatoes, and Rolls.

"Oh no... carrots are my arch-enemy," she groaned.

(During dinner, by the way, she had two big helpings. As it turns out, she likes them after all.)

************

"Noah, what was the best thing you got to do today?" I asked Noah at dinner tonight.

"I got to play with Marvin," he said.

"What was the worst thing that happened to you today?" I asked him.

"Eating these carrots," Noah said, through a mouthful of the vile things.

We saw a TV show yesterday where a girl died of anaphylactic shock caused by exposure to bee pollen. The kids didn't understand, so I tried to explain allergies to Hope, Hannah and Noah and talked to them about how some people can't eat certain foods, like peanut butter, or they could die from it.

That led to talking about my friend Suso, who is allergic to nuts. I told them that eating a walnut could possibly kill Suso, and they were VERY impressed by that. I mentioned that Suso can't even eat candy bars with peanuts in them, or peanut butter sandwiches, and that seemed to make them sad.

"You mean she can't eat any candy bars with nuts in them?" Hannah asked.

"No," I said.

"Not even a Hershey's with almonds?" Hannah asked.

"I don't think so," I answered.

"Man, I feel her PAIN!" Hannah exclaimed.

Elizabeth pooped in the potty today, and then wanted to "call Shrek" and tell him about it.

She was very excited to get to talk to Shrek on the phone, even if he did sound just a little bit like Daddy if Daddy were an ogre with a Scottish brogue.

Last night, I was conversing with Hope about friendships, and how, even though school friends will come and go over her life, she will always have Hannah and her other siblings as friends her entire life. I told her that Aunt Tiff is my best friend, except for Daddy.

"So, is Daddy your best-best friend?" Hope asked.

"Yes, he is," I said.

"So you like him even more than you like Aunt Tiffy?" she asked.

"Yes, in a different way; he's my best friend in the whole world," I said.

"Is Aunt Tiffy OK with that?" she asked.

Habemus Papam!

My excitement must have been contagious... Elizabeth spent about 20 minutes dancing around and around, singing:

"We have a new pope.. We have a new pope... We have a new pope... We have a new pope..."

Vive il Papa!!!!!!!!

Hannah: "Mom, why do they call it Miracle Whip? Is it because when you hit somebody with it they are cured?"

Hope: Mom, why is it so cold? I thought it was supposed to be spring.

Mom: Well, March weather is crazy. You know that old saying, "In like a lion, out like a lamb."

Hope: That's what they WANT you to think.

Mom: Noah, shut off the TV now.

Noah: (silence)

Mom: Noah, I said to shut off the TV NOW.

Noah: What did you say?

Mom: You heard me.

Noah: I was plugging my ears.

Discussing the teacher/parent conference schedule, Mark asked whether it would really take the whole 30 minutes that Mrs. F had scheduled to discuss Hannah's progress.

"That depends on how naughty she's been," I teased her. "Hannah, have you been sent to the principal's office?"

"No!" she replied. "I haven't even been sent there one time THIS year."

(No, she hasn't been sent there any other year, either.)

General update on everyone:

Elizabeth looooooooves cows. Loves them. She has some toy cows that she carries around everywhere. She loves giraffes, too, but not as much as cows. She turns 3 this coming Saturday -- where did our baby go? Yikes! She's growing so fast! Her blonde hair is long enough for a ponytail now, and she is always asking for a "pony" on her head. She can sleep anywhere, and we have a whole collection of photos of her crashing and sleeping wherever she happens to be playing at the moment... under the kitchen table, on her knees at the table, upside down on the couch, head back in the chair, on her knees with her head on the back of the sofa... Elizabeth is a real joy and we are so blessed by her antics.

Noah still loves his trains, but has branched out a bit into Hot Wheels cars, too. His favorite thing in the world is to go play at his buddies' house. Brandon-and-Brady is like one word here; they are the brothers who live down the street, and fortunately, their mom seems to like our kids a lot and invites them over frequently. Noah is doing well in Kinderprep, and his speech is also improving greatly. He is proud of his efforts to say sounds he couldn't say before, like "c" and "k" in particular. He's a happy-go-lucky little guy, and although he makes a lot of mischief, he adds the lively spice to our lives and we are so blessed to have him!

Hannah has turned into the most compliant, obedient child on the planet lately. She aims to please, and she tries very hard. She is our Curly Girl, and the care-and-feeding of her hair has become a bit of an obsession since we got the Curly Girl book and found the Naturally Curly website to teach us how to take care of it. Hannah loooooooves horses, and spends much of her day drawing them. When she's not drawing, she's checking out movies about horses at the library, reading about them, or dreaming about them -- not to mention playing with her toy horses. She is very much looking forward to "horse camp" this summer. She discovered "The Apple Dumpling Gang" and Herbie "The Lovebug" movies recently, and is enjoying the old Disney movies I grew up with. Hannah is a bright spot in every day for us, and we are so blessed to have her as our daughter.

Hope is such a little lady these days, and very helpful with her younger brothers and sisters -- of her own accord. She has also become very self-conscious and a bit shy. Her teacher mentioned the other day that Hope has a strong, clear singing voice that we should perhaps help her develop -- and Sunday at Mass, we heard that voice singing loudly and proudly during one of the hymns, and it was the voice of an angel! Hope loves reading, especially about the American Girls, and playing with her dolls. It's hard to pick out just one thing she loves most, because she has so many interests, but she is enjoying 4-H and is looking forward to arts & crafts camp this summer. Hope lives up to her name, and while I can't believe my baby has turned into this gangly, silly, loving girl all of a sudden, I also can't believe our good fortune in being blessed with her as our firstborn.

And then there is Ainsley. Our newest addition will be 3 months old this coming Sunday, and the time has flown! She rolled from stomach to back the other night, taking Mommy by surprise. She has been smiling since mid-January, and her smile lights up her eyes and shows off her adorable dimples. She was baptized Jan. 30 at St. Alphonsus Church, and so far has refused all pacifiers and bottles but loves to suck on her daddy's fingers. Ainsley loves her swing and will sleep for 5 hours in it sometimes! And once again, we think we were incredibly blessed to have been given the gift of Ainsley in our lives!