Alex!!!

At church he's known as *smiley*. Now being added to that is *wiggley*!! When we had Ella here, everything had to be kept off the floor. Now it's for this little tyke! I won't get to turn my head for this one! He's already pulling up on his toy box and in the crib. And yesterday, when I stepped into the kitchen for a quick minute, he crawled over to the lamp, pulled up on it and then fell back and when I heard this, I saw the lamp laying on him! Luckily it wasn't heavy and he hardly cried. This is one of his characters. He is ALWAYS smiling! Even when he's upset, he manages to perk up a smile (yes, while crying). Jeff sweetly tells him, "It's okay buddy, you don't have to smile when you don't feel good." One night last week, he had a rough one (ended up in bed with us). He woke up crying and cried for about half an hour. We couldn't figure out what was wrong, but even in the midst of all the tears, he smiled at us a couple times. We could tell something was wrong, but the smiles were still there. He's also constantly laughing at his brother and sister. They are silly and they can really get him going. It is so fun to watch the three of them together. They all love on each other so well! I think one of Alex's favorite things to do is reach out for his sister's hair and yank on it when he gets a hold of it!
I can definitely see some struggles there in the future! I think he's going to be a little joker...he laughs at the word "no" and when his name is being called.
He's also pretty funny with his bottle. Sometimes he'll finish it really fast. But other times, especially at the high chair, he'll grab on to the nipple and watch all the milk squirt out! Not only does he just watch, but he laughs! We call it, milking his cow. He is a very curious little fellow. I've noticed this week that he likes cords. No matter how many times we've already told him to leave the lamps alone and re-direct him, he's back at it again a few minutes later. Hmm...I wonder what the future holds! He is also becoming verying interested in that floor that goes up where he sleeps (the stairs). It is such an interesting place, everyone goes up and down right there! We've got the gates in place, but for some reason I don't think that he will care, one way or another, he's going to discover *stairs*. Ahh!!! He also loves food. His favorites include: his morning cereal with chickpeas, barley, flaxseed, and wheatgerm; sweet potatoes, zucchini, squash with asparigus, blueberries and pears, peaches and bananas. He loves it when we let him have food he can take to his own mouth, cheerios are at the top of that list. But anything we let him try he'll go for it and want more! He's got the cutest two little teeth and we think more are on the way soon! He's got a few babble words and that's growing too: dada, baba, nonanan (we're pretty sure this is Jonathan!), ada (and this has got to be Adie!). He uses baby signs for "milk", "all done", and "more". We are working on please and thank you, and so many others. He is definitely comunicating though! I can tell that he's going to love books. He reaches for anything that has words, and it's not just with the baby, "I want that." He has an extreme determination and he's going to get what he wants. God gave him a beautiful personality, a strong personality. He is very determined and that is a wonderful character to have! His name means "helper and defender of mankind." With his extreme determination, positive outlook, and ability to laugh, this young man is going to soar to great hights and do amazing things for God!

Summer Fun! (weeks 4-10)

Real quick, I posted some pictures this morning before things got going. Scroll down to see them! It's quiet time, so I'm taking advantage to catch y'all up on the summer!
WEEK 10 ~ ANIMALS!

We spent a lot of time with our new friend, Ella, learning about puppies. Then on Friday we went to the KC Zoo. It was horribly hot and humid so we couldn't stay very long but we got to have lots of fun with CHALK, meeting new people and making more new home school friends, and we got to see otters up close for the first time! One of the zoo keepers came out and told us all about the cute little creatures. These otters we saw are native to MO. It was neat to hear about them.


WEEK 9 ~ WONDERFUL WATER!

This was a perfect week for water. The heat really started to rise! We played with soaked sponges (the car wash kind), water balloons, and the water hose. We also spent another afternoon at the pool with some friends. At the end of the week we went to down-town KC, to the Crown Center. They've got some fountains that shoot out of the ground. There were tons of children there, all running through the water. It was a delight to watch! A perfect end to a wet week!


WEEK 8 ~ PLANES!

I found a super book at Mardel~ *My American Journey: From Ground to Air with the Wright Brothers* by Deborah Hedstrom-Page.
It's got eight chapters about their story. Corisponding with each chapter, there is a character building section about Patience. Each chapter has some questions and Bible verses and application. We did a few of them for our family devos and they are awesome! The very last section of the book has some activities and exxperiments. We made paper helicopters and paper airplanes. We've been taking our time going through the book and we've all enjoyed learning about the Wright Brothers! At the end of the book, the kids will have honorary flight wings!

We didn't make it to the Amelia Earhart Festival. This was the weekend we took Ella in and decided to stay home with her. Next year we can go and it'll still be great!


WEEK 7 ~ STORY WEEK!

We read lots of books and cuddled a lot. Jonathan did write a short story that I hope he builds on. It was about chickens. At the end of the week, I took the kids to the Deanna Rose Childrens Farm to hopefully inspire more to the story. We saw chickens and they were cute, but we had fun checking out all the cool stuff they have.

Adie also really got into telling us stories, the favorite was Goldilox. It's such a joy to watch and hear her tell it! She's so animated!

Here is Jonathan's story, maybe we will add on to it this year:

One morning, there were three little chickens and their mom. They told her that they wanted to go out and pick berries. Their mom told them to be careful and not talk to strangers.
So, the three little chickens went out. While they were on their way, they saw a wolf. The wolf's name was Garlic and they knew him from church. So Garlic went with them to pick berries. Then they saw another friend from church, a hippo named Lion! So they were on their way to the berry patch. Before they got there, they saw a stranger! It was a pig named hippo! The pig talked to the three little chickens and they talked to the pig. They talked to the stranger before they got to the berry patch and they got in trouble.
The End

WEEK 6 ~ FAMILY CAMP!

Hot dogs, hamburgers, grilling out
This week our family had a camp out!
Swimming pools, popsicles, cooling off
The camp out was full of cool stuff!
Graham crackers, chocolate, and marshmallows galore
You know the name ~ we had s'mores!
Black and red was the color of our tent
Sleeping outside, the whole night we spent!
We loved it so much I just want to shout
This week our family had a camp out!


WEEK 5 ~ PLAY BALL!

Really there isn't a whole lot to say about this week. We played T-ball a lot andwaatched a few games on TV. I think we also went to a T-Bones game. It was a lot of fun but we didn't do anything too big or exciting. Some times a more relaxed, normal week is good!


WEEK 4 ~ MUSIC WEEK!

The big event for this week was our talent show! Most of the week the kids were singing and picking out their songs and music for Saturday. Adie decided she wanted to sing "Part of that World" from Little Mermaid. Jonathan wanted to sing "Do Re Mi..." and play his guitar with his daddy. Jeff played a couple of songs and then played some chords that we could sing a few of our favorites with him. Then I sang a karaoke song from "A Walk to Remember." Jonathan and I also played on the dulcimer. He played "Twinkle Little Star" and I did the few that I know.

We are turning out to be quite a musical family! Jo and Adie are constantly singing church songs - their favorites are "The Glory Land Way", "Heavenly Sunlight", "Our God, He is Alive" and "This World is Not My Home." Jonathan even has the song #s memorized! They often ride their bikes in circles in the basement singing at the top of their lungs! They both also tinker on the piano and dulcimer. Jonathan has a guitar and keyboard in his room and loves to sneak up there while Alex is awake and play. He also enjoys playing the guitar for his brother and Alex loves it! For a few years now, Jo has wanted to play the fiddle. It's looking like that may be another instrument in our future! We'll see! Oh, and I mustn't forget, Jo still plays his band!

Well, I'm sorry I haven't been the greatest on updating y'all about our planned out summer. But we've really had a great time! I highly suggest planning out the summers, at least some sort of planning. Being able to tell the kids some kind of theme about what is coming up is so helpful. They looked forward to the activities that would come with each week. It was also a neat way for us to do a little research to find out more of the things that are available around the region. We didn't make it to the capitals, but we still intend to do that for sure. We also want to try and make it up to Nebraska and possibly Iowa, but we'll have to judge those.
School is right around the corner. And for my teacher friends, I'm sure most of you have already begun your year! Good luck to all of you. In a way, we are all teachers! I look forward to reading about more things going on in your lives. This week is Bug week - look for details coming up. I've already got so much to write! and Next week is Olympics week and next Thursday (14th) is our first day of school! I'll be posting our school activities as often as possible.

Finally, the pictures I've spoken of!

Okay, so I don't remember all the pictures I said I'd post, but here are some from the past few weeks. And, I'm working on posting the video over at the sharesite, you should be able to view the link now over to the right. Please bare with me, though, right now. Blogger has been working very slow for me the last couple of days. I'm trying to get lists set up but it keeps blanking out on me! Hopefully I can get all the pics uploaded.

This is from the Deanna Rose Childrens Farm. We had so much fun there during story week!


They have been bouncing off the walls and flipping off the furniture ~ litterally!


This is sweet little Ella.


The kids had so much fun camping out the night of July 3!


This was our trip to the KC Zoo with some friends from the homeschool group.


This was our nature walk looking for bugs this week for Bug Week! Friday we will be going to a Butterfly Festival!

Well, I hoe you enjoyed these pics! I will be uploading some of Alex later. I've got a post for him, but it's breakfast time!

Goldilox Story

We've posted a video of Adie telling the story at our Photo ShareSite. There is also a video of Jonathan playing T-ball on his page there. So have fun and go watch my cuties! (I hope you can view all of both videos - our computer is going too slow!)

:)

AHHH! Puppies!

Okay, a puppy is just too much! We did fall in love with the little sweetie, but she was just too much. She was very mouthy and began to scare me. She did bite Jeff one night and nearly bit me several times. It was all in play but it really concerned us for the kids. What if she got too rough with one of them, or with our helpless little Alex right now. It hurt us to let her go, but we just could not keep her with those concerns. We have decided, though, that dogs are not completely out of the picture for our family. The kids really responded well to having one around, especially Jo. We could see the little boy and his dog in their relationship developing. One day, we will have a dog. Just not a puppy.

I do hope you enjoy the new layout. I've been thinking it's time for a change and I'll be adding new things now and then. I tried to get everything back together yesterday, but the computer doesn't like me all the time.

I was able to get a picture of Ella so I'll go ahead and post it some time.

Have a great day!

Reflections...

REFLECTIONS OF A FIRST
I have witnessed a first again. This one makes me sad. My heart is so warm right now. My last baby has just taken his first crawling steps today! I am so excited, but at the same time, sad. I will no longer be able to have children. It is hard knowing this is my last baby and watching all of these firsts is the last time I will see them.

But I've got to get on with the cute story. We've been working with him for a few weeks on crawling. He's been sitting up for a couple months now and I've known crawling was on it's way. He could crawl with his hands for a while, but never did the army crawl. We've been scooting his knees along with him every time his hands would make their movements. Whenever he would try to do it, he would just flatten out on his tummy. Today, it was different and so cute! He did his hand crawl for a couple steps then, his tummy would hit the floor. Usually, at this point he pulls up his arms and bends his knees to where his feet are up in the air. It looks as if he's flying through the sky, about to open a parachute. It's also been as if he's been willing his body forward, saying MOVE body, move! Today, after the tummy hit the floor, he scrunched up his knees and moved them toward his arms a bit, then crawl his hands forward, then his tummy would hit the floor again. He looked like a little inch worm! Tonight, he actually made it about a foot and a half, crawling hand then knee. It was so cute. I can't believe it though. Today is over, the day he crawled for the first time. It's gone and I'm so glad I was here to see it.


"YOU'VE GOT YOUR HANDS FULL"
So many people have been saying that to me lately. I don't quite understand why. The other day, the kids and I were out walking the dog. A woman driving by, stopped where we were and complimented the puppy, then asked what kind she is. Then, she looked at me and said, "So, you have four children then." I replied, "Well, no. 5. We have a cat at home." She made some chuckle noise then drove off. Wierd, never had that kind of conversation before with someone driving by. Anyway. Yesterday, I was at the store with Adie and Alex. As we pulled into the checkout line, the woman in front of us turned around and said, "It sure looks like you have your hands full!" I again thought this was wierd and said, "No, it's really not bad." Then I just smiled. I didn't know what to say, but while I stood there the thought about how many people say things like that started to bother me. What are they really saying? It's as though more than one child is insanity. While this was going through my mind, I came up with an answer the next time someone says anything like that to me.

Yes, my hands are full of love, my quiver is full of children, and my heart is full of joy!


THIS LITTLE LIGHT OF MINE
I love that song, and our children do to. In fact, I love most childrens Bible songs. They are so fun and they bring sunshine to my soul. Today, we went to the zoo with a group. One of the moms, bless her. I've learned that she can be very opinionated. She's got 6 children and they range from around 16 down to about 4 (I think). I've enjoyed getting to know her, she is a joy! However, today, she said something that really made me wonder, then got me thinking.
She does not like childrens Bible songs that have a deep meaning. They annoy her, in fact she says. I asked her for an example and she gave me, This Little Light of Mine. She also said, "How are kids supposed to get that!" Well, I don't know about every family, but we talk about those kinds of things in our family. And, I know I've heard in their Bible classes talking about shining our lights, sharing about Jesus!
I personally believe that children do need to have some simple songs that have a "deeper" meaning. I believe that children do need to be taught the seriousness of Christianity, in a gentle way. If all they know while they are young is the frills and fun of Bible songs, then how is it going to be written on their hearts and bound on their forheads?

As for me and my house, we will serve the LORD. We will talk about these things when we walk, when we play, when we eat, and as we go to bed. We will revel in the joy of knowing the one true God. And yes, we will let our lights shine!

The "Twins"

There's another story about my two babies that I have to tell you. The other day, I was getting dinner ready and had Alex on the floor with me in the kitchen. Ella was in the living room with Jo and Adie, chewing away at her things. Out of the corner of my eye, I saw Ella peek around the corner and look and Alex and me, then she just went back. Not a minute later, I saw her coming in with a chew-eez in her mouth and she perched herself under the table, two feet away from Alex. He was chewing on his things and she was chewing on her things. They watched eachother chew. I wonder what went through each of their minds. Maybe, "Hey, is that good? What I've got is pretty cool. I guess we shouldn't share, Mamma wouldn't like it." Or maybe even, "Yeah, you're cute, but this is MINE!" It's fun to think of the things babies might be thinking. Anyway, after just a couple minutes, they both stopped and just looked at each other. Alex continued chewing, but Ella scooched over to him on her tummy, real slow and licked his arm. He then reached over and started to play with her tail. I didn't have the camera in reach, and I couldn't leave the two of them alone there. As cute as it was I had to separate it pretty quickly, dinner had to be made!

But that was towards the end of a fabulous day. Just an hour earlier, all 5 "kids" gave me an hour of complete silence! I've instituted mandatory "Nap Time." Jo ceased his naps over a year ago and Adie stopped last fall. It's begun to wear on me. I love the two little ones, but I've got to have some quiet time in the house! It was so nice, Alex was in his crib, Adie was on the loveseat, Jo was on the couch, Binx was on the Ottoman, and Ella was in her kennel. I sat on the floor and just read. That's something I haven't enjoyed, truly enjoyed in a long time. We got our curriculum last week and I've been preparing for the first month.

As nervous as I am about all the logistics, I'm extremely excited. Homeschooling is going to be absolutely wonderful. Yesterday, I went on a search to find some classical music to play for the children throughout the day and to use during music studies. I found something wonderful on iTunes - Classical Child. It is a series of at least 8 albums. They are so fun! Then, last night I discovered a gold-mine of Classic Children's Poetry. With our budget being tight, being creative is becoming a necessity. I printed off most of those poems and I'm going to turn it into our own collection of poems. Last night, before bed, I read about four of them to the kids and they absolutely loved it! We haven't actually read a lot of poetry together, and so I wasn't sure what to expect. THEY LOVED IT! Poetry studies are going to be a favorite, I can tell. Oh, I guess you'd probably like to have the website where this was found...(don't worry, I was going to share!)
Classic Poems for Children It's a fabulous place to get some pure enjoyment!

Well, It's time to begin my day. We are off to the zoo today, with the homeschool group! Animal week has been kind of weak, Jo was sick the last two days, but he's feeling better. Today, we'll go off and have some fun with friends and enjoy the animals together.

Love to you all!

Where'd It Go???

Okay, this just isn't right. Today, I was planning out August and September. Unbelievable!

Synopsis for the summer...
Zoom!!!! Everything was great. We did have our planned out weeks and most of the time it worked, but...
The planning wasn't there. The themes were great, but I was still on the edge of my seat with planning. I now what to do next summer (maybe...)

There was a campout, swimming, we did go to the fountains, a farm, talked about planes, made paper helicopters, played with bubbles, the water hose, water balloons. It was a fantastic summer.

Now, we are getting ready for school.

Oh, wait. There are a few new developements with us. #1: Jonathan has been typing his own blog. #2: Our neighbors are moving...they've been so good and now we need to pray for the new ones to be good! #3: VBS was a complete success! #5: Alex is beginning to get very mobile! Not officiall crawling (unless he does it when I'm not looking;) ) #4: Oh yeah, and we have a dog. No - a puppy.

I am now the proud mother of 5 beatiful children! Our newest addition is Ella. Our neighbors got her a few weeks ago and after two weeks, discovered that their 2 1/2 yr-old daugher is alergic. It was quite sad. They searched for a new family but couldn't find one and all the "safe" shelters were full. Jeff has such a heart for dogs, and I do too, we couldn't help ourselves. Now, we have a black cat and a black lab/mix. She is mostly lab and so adorable! She was born May 17, so that makes her almost 11 weeks! I'll tell you, it is like having twins in the house! With Alex moving around so much, EVERYTHING goes to the mouth! He AND Ella see every little crumb on the floor and want to eat it! They both litterally will put anything in the mouth. They both take about two/three naps a day and love to be outside. We love taking Ella on walks and do that about 3-4 times or more a day. She has to have her exercise or things just go nuts in the house! I've got a picture that I was about to upload. But the puppy is asking to be let out, so I better go!

Talk with you all later!

Week 3 - Nashville

Good ole Tennessee!
Week three was wonderful! The first part of the week was spent getting prepared for our trip and planning everything involved. In a nutshell, Nashville week included more books from the library (a trip there on Wednesday for story time); planning our days of travel; a night and morning in St. Louis; seeing grandparents, aunts, ncles, and cousins; four states; a cruise down the river; Tennessee state museum; Tennessee capital; swimming; and learning Tennessee state songs; and an excursion through the "Land Between the Lakes." (I wanted to also include Jefferson City, MO - another capital, but time just didn't permit)

Friday, after the kids and I loaded up the van and Jeff got home from work, we hit the road and headed for St. Louis! This was exciting for Jeff and me because St. Louis was the first major stop for us on our honeymoon. We were thrilled to show
the kids the Gateway Arch and the Mississippi River. We arrived in St. Louis around 8 pm and got settled into our hotel. We stayed downtown, right across the street from the arch and got to see lots of fun things right from our window. We saw
horses with carriages on the streets. We all wanted to take a ride, but it was so late by the time we got everything into the room, we decided to wait till the next day. (Well, they weren't available before we left, so we missed out on that one)
There was also a Cardinals game going on and we could see the stadium and hear the fans from our room. So, we sat and watched out the window. We couldn't see the game, but it was fun to see all the red. Jonathan was pretty dissapointed that we couldn't go to the game, but I think he still thought it was cool to be so close to their stadium. Jeff and I finally got the kids settled into bed and headed to bed ourselves.

Saturday morning, we woke up and there was fog outside. It was beautiful! I took a few pictures from the windows, there is an album that you can go see everything. We had brought a cooler with us that had things for sandwiches and cereal and lots of fruit. So, that morning, we had cereal in our room. It was kind of nice to not have to worry about finding fast food on the entire trip down there. After we got all cleaned up, and our things back to the van then checked out, we headed out to explore downtown St. Louis! We walked over to the Cardinals stadium and took several pictures there. We also saw some pretty fountains. Then, to end it all, we walked over to the arch and spent time down in the museum. That was fun and the kids enjoyed it. We did not go up into the arch (that will have to be in about 10 years I think), nor did we watch the Louis & Clark film. But Jeff and I did talk about making another trip in about 10 years when all the kids are old enough to really get a lot out of it. There is so much more to St. Louis that I wish we could have discovered, but I'm looking forward to the day we go back. Before we left town, we had to take the kids down to the Mississippi River. You can't go to St. Louis and NOT touch the Mississippi! So, we walked up the hill, and we saw the river, FLOODED! It was definitely higher than it was the last time we were there.

When we were done experiencing St. Louis, we headed down to TN. It was a fabulous road trip. Everything between here and there is so beautiful! When we got to Nashville, it was beginning to get dark so we didn't get to see all that much. Sunday morning, we woke up and went to church services. That day and Monday we enjoyed time with the family. Monday afternoon, the five of us went to a place called the Hermitage. It is the home of President Jackson. I think it'd be a great place to check out on line (although I haven't yet). We learned quite a bit with just the short visit we had there. We didn't get to spend as much time as we wanted to there because we were going to meet the rest of the family for a dinner cruise on a show boat. The ride on the boat was fun. Jonathan soaked it all in. We had given the kids fun savers so they could take pictures at their level, things that they thought were cool. Jonathan and I walked around the boat for a while and he just took shot after shot. Some of the pictures turned out to be really good. I'm working on getting those uploaded soon. For dinner, the food served was delicious. There was roast beef, chicken, green beans, potatos (the best tasting ever!), and
bread. Dessert was delicious as well.

Tuesday morning, we woke up and got everything packed up and invited the family to join us at the capital and the TN State Museum. On our first anniversary, Jeff and I had a discussion about what we wanted to do with our family in the future. That day we pretty much decided that we wanted to home school. With home schooling would come so many great opportunities for educational travel! We decided that day that a goal of ours would be to visit at least the 48 state capitals. All 50 would be wonderful, but I'm not sure about going that far. So we had to go downtown! Jeff's parents were the only ones who decided to come with us. We had a good time. The museum was neat and the capital was nice. It was a pleasant experience before we headed back home.

On the way home we took out time. We actually ventured off of the Interstate through a place called "The Land Between the Lakes." This is an area of land that looks like a pennensula off of TN. There are all kinds of nature activities to take
part in here. Camping, fishing, boating, horse riding, etc. We just drove through it, to see what it was like. It was absolutely beautiful! It was interesting too, we kept seeing signs for family grave yards. I wondered about any stories behind them, how old they were, who the people were. What history is in that area. Four days for a trip like this was not enough time at all. This one's definitely going back on the list for more time! It was so much fun and I know we'd do it again. We finally pulled into our driveway at 2:00 in the morning on Wednesday. Jeff had the day off and that was nice for him to rest and get ready for Thursday. And it was good to have Daddy home to enjoy for part of Music Week!

You can go to our albums to view the pictures of our trip.

Happy 4th Eve!

Okay, so, I've been pretty terrible about keeping you all updated on our 12 weeks of summer fun. Truth is, we've had so much going on! I started a blog (in text) after we got home from Nashville and I haven't even finished it yet. This week has been camp week and we've loved it. Right now, Jeff is out back (it is 11:45 pm) in our tent with Jonathan and Adie. Yes, they are asleep! We thought it wouldn't work, but it is! I would have stayed, but Alex is in his crib and I just felt too wierd having him in here alone. We had the monitor, but I just had to stay in here. Anyway, the reason I'm on is I just had to write about what happened a little while ago.
So the three of them are out there sleeping (on the night before the 4th - what were we thinking?!), our neighbor came home. Usually the car they drive is very loud but this time, it was so quiet! It sounded to me as if they might have been trying to be quiet. Maybe they had an idea with the tent out there (no privacy fences here) that people were sleeping there! I was happy when I heard the car turn off. Within 5 minutes, I heard them, the fireworks. Ahh! These weren't just crackers. I heard the hissing and the crackling and saw the lights. Before I realized it, I was standing outside the door (I really don't remember getting up to go to there!). There they were, flashing up into the sky. I thought the kids would be screaming and crying from startling (I probably would have after being asleep). But it was quiet. I went over to the tent. Adie and Jeff woke up but Jonathan was still out! Adie was fine and actually excited to see them!
Funny family.

Well, I suppose this should be all for tonight. Hope you all have a great day tomorrow!