Us

Derek and I went to they symphony Saturday night and enjoyed some beautiful music. The first piece was by  Beethoven and it featured a solo violinist; the piece was 25 minutes long and the musician did an outstanding job! After the intermission, they played another lovely, lengthy  piece, but by Brahms.  I love how grandiose his music is, with all of the big chords. I had been battling a bad cold/cough/congestion and had lost my voice, so it was great to just sit back and enjoy.  The scarf I'm wearing is one that I picked up earlier in the day while shopping with my mom and sister ($4)!

Autumn's birthday

My mom and sister came down over the weekend.  Autumn tuned 16 and we went shopping at some second-hand stores and a few western/boot stores. 

The cake I made for Autumn's 16th b-day. I thought it turned out pretty well!

The kiddos and Autumn

Here's a song I made up that David "rapped" out to her: 

Here’s a song dedicated to our Auntie Autumn

It isn’t hard to do because you are so awesome.

You’re smart, you’re funny, and you play with us, too.

And of course you look good in FFA blue.

There’s boots, spurs, and don’t forget the bling,

We know it’s just a part of the cowgirl thing.

You have a love for God that shines through and through

You are caring, kind, thoughtful, loyal, and true

We love you, you’re special and couldn’t be replaced

And since you are here, we’ll give a big embrace!

We’ve come to the end, but have one more thing to say:

We wish you a happy 16^th birthday! 

preschool crafts

 I thought I would take a few pics of past projects before they "mysteriously" disappear.

Marble painting

This was a good activity for Nathan to put in order the different lengths of green pieces. I think his favorite part was adding the snow, though.

First attempt at weaving and I was surprised at how well he did on his own!

Feb. 2013

We've been doing a lot of preschool craft projects.  Here they are painting paper plates brown for their owls.

I never know just what he will be wearing at any given moment.  Now, if he would put those gloves to use and help with the dishes! :)

Writing his name for the first time!  He did a great job!

Elizabeth had her siblings put on a play, "Moses."  She dressed Nathan up as Pharaoh's daughter.  The play was very well done! 

finished owl craft projects

Sleepovers

The 3 boys all share a room, which has been working out well.  However, a few weeks ago, the younger boys started waking up when David wakes up, rather than sleeping for a while longer like they used to.  We still didn't let them come out, with the intention of helping them get back into the habit of sleeping longer (because they really needed it!). Before too long, they were having "sleepovers" in the mornings, where they would crawl into a particular bed (it changed from day to day), and gather all the blankets/pillows, etc. and have a party until it was officially time to be awake.  They would have so much fun!  But, it got to be too much fun, and often the laughter would be intermixed with crying, (sometimes a party would be held in the bed of a child that was just starting to wake up)... so we had to say "no more."  If they want a sleepover, it has to wait until after breakfast.  I will say that overall they have adjusted to the time change fairly easily, though!

Winter

This pretty much sums up what life further up north is like.  We recently had a day when it was beautiful out and we even had a window open a little bit...then the next day we were hit with several inches of snow.  It prompted me to think about the Children's Blizzard of 1888.  The kids had yesterday (Mon) off because of the snow and we went to yet another new sledding place.  We had a great time, even though they liked other sledding hills better.

The boys

I sometimes wonder what Joshua will be when he grows up... He his so lively and good at almost anything he does.  He is very athletic and has amazing balance and coordination (we sometimes call him Monkey because he loves to climb, swing, and jump); he's also pretty confident (while getting other kids ready for sledding, he jumps in the sled, takes off and loves it!).  He has an engineering bent to him - he loves puzzles (he has mastered some that have 24 pieces) and certain mechanical things.  But, he is also very dramatic and expressive; definitely the "class clown" of our family!  He is also by far the most vocal of our kids, at least this age.  And, lastly, he is very observant.  He's always taking in various information, and when he talks about it, it can be very funny!  Recently, he was sitting on Derek's lap and saw a freckle on his arm.  He laughs and says, "Dad, you have a round-about on your arm!" (Man holes are also "round-abouts" to him). He also referred to a picture of a cardinal as an "angry bird," and when he looked at a video of a newborn baby asked if it was baby Moses.

On another note, Nathan wrote his name on the marker board for the first time!  I haven't done much with writing letters, and he did a great job! While at the marker board, I wrote "at" and he was able to sound it out.  We continued with other "at" words - cat, bat, hat, etc. and he got every one!  He loves counting, adding, and counting by twos.  It seems like he is really growing. He is currently stuttering quite a bit again, but it doesn't seem to bother him too much.  I did take him to get a preliminary evaluation done (end of Dec.) to see if he qualified for speech therapy, but he didn't.  They also testing his hearing in a few different ways, and his hearing is right at the average mark.  It was comforting to know he hasn't had a lot of hearing loss after 4 sets of tubes.