nap time Samuel

Two days ago when I announced that it was nap time, Samuel didn't come to me, answer me or even cry like he usually does. Silence. And then some giggles. I went around the corner and found him like this: 

Yep. That hiding place almost worked Samuel. Silly little punk.

grab it Ezra!

 Ezra is nearly four months old. He's just starting to try to grab stuff. Here he's just like, "Er... What?"

Grab it Ezra!

my 32nd

Yesterday I turned 32. It was a good day. Terry always makes my birthday particularly good. Like when I turned 27 and he sent me on a scavenger hunt. What he did yesterday reminded me of that. He wrote out the birthday plan, cut out the individual words, labeled them in half hour increments and gave Noah and Evie each a pile to give me at the appropriate time. For example, at 8am, I got the "Happy Birthday!" note. I had to figure out what we were doing based off this puzzle. This is what the notes looked like, but slightly out of order.

It should read: "Happy Birthday! Don't fret about swimming lessons. Be ready to leave at 5pm. Dress like you're going to church. Bring Ezra!"

My mom and dad came over at 5pm to watch the kiddos. I was thankful that that included Ezra and Terry and I were able to get away alone for a couple hours. Dad took Noah to swimming lessons.

I'm glad I had dad take a photo of Terry and I before we left. Nicey nice! 

When I told Terry I wanted the Hershey's cake that made me gain nine pounds in January while pregnant, he said he already had it taken care of. I was a little bummed until he showed me this Piece of Cake cake (where we got our wedding cake. i love their cake).

Nom nom nom!

Samuel helped me blow out the candles. I'm sure there was only a little spit on the frosting...

I'll include a couple of my gifts because they are so cool (I got him this for his birthday which might have given him the idea). He got me a Han Solo Frozen in Carbonite mold! 

And this Star Trek TNG Communicator Badge will have to be part of Halloween costume or something. Or daily wear. I'm wearing it today!

And here are a few family shots. Terry is making up for Ezra's lack of facial expression...

Noah gave Noah and Evie a camera to take photos with. There were a few good ones, but I erased like 300 blurry photos! They had fun though. Here's Evie taking Shari and Samuel's picture.

Jesse looks really excited ;)

I like this one of my dad. Snap likes my dad.

county fair

Two Sundays ago our church did a County Fair kick-off party for the new connection groups we're starting up. It was a great time. I snagged a couple of the photos that were taken of my kids. 

Watermelon Samuel face

Evie and Abilgail. I actually feel pretty terrible I didn't take a photo with her. Silly mommy.

Terry's birthday

Terry turned 35 two weeks ago.  And I hope he had a good birthday. Now that I'm thinking back, I can't really remember what we did! I did make him waffles for breakfast and grilled for dinner. Otherwise I just remember asking repeatedly what we wanted to do for the day. He kept coming up with stuff to do with the kids. He's a good daddy. 

So we ended up going to Main Street Square after nap time to let the kids frolic in the fountain. Then we went and looked at carpet!

It was a super hot day and the public school kids were still locked away so we got the place to ourselves for a while.

Posers

That's more like it. 

Samuel was not interested in the fountain.  

red face = very hot.

When we were about to leave the Square, a camera-man came up to us and inquired if we could ask the meteorologist a question for that evening's news. They also had us do the First Team Salute thingy. So we were on the news twice that night! Happy birthday to my husband. Sure him dearly.

spidey x 2

We were visiting our friends a couple weeks ago when Noah and Jack came upstairs as Spidermen. Thanks to Jack for getting our serious boy to dress up. He never does it!

Noah is on the left. Hard to believe there's another 8 year old that's taller than he is!

more swinging

Now that Evie knows how to swing, she really likes to swing...

And since Samuel is such a fan of the Eve-ster, he likes to swing too.

more hail...

Let's just say that if I had a garden, it'd be totaled.

On August 30th we had our second large hail storm of the summer. The first one was during Hills Alive where we were crowded under a tent. We were home for this one and it went on for-ever, seemingly. It did last over a half hour long though. I was upstairs nursing Ezra near the end of it and it was actually a little scary listening to the hail pounding our roof. It sounded like the roof was going to cave in.

Here is the beginning of the hail. The kids found it amusing how the hail bounced when it hit the ground. I was just glad it was the ground and not us getting hit. Very thankful for our house!

Another golf ball sized hail stone. Now the deck has hail divots all over it.

Talk about a lot of hail.

Like snow! We just had an insurance adjuster over yesterday. We'll probably need a new roof like everyone else in the neighborhood. 

first day of school 2013/2014

I made another curriculum change for school this year. For preschool and kindergarten with Noah we did Sonlight. Last year was My Father's World. And this year we're trying classical education. I've done a lot of research - quite a bit of reading and also discussion with some folks at church whose kids I have been very impressed with. All in all, I am just drawn to it. Probably because it's very structured, thorough and systematic. 

I read through newest edition of The Well Trained Mind. Great book. Plus, it told me exactly what to do. And that's what we're doing.

Even though I had been researching classical education since the spring, I was behind on ordering our books. Plus, our laptop was down for part of August. So when the first day of school arrived (Monday August 26, 2013), all I had were our Math and Handwriting books. It was just fine to have an easy, relaxed re-introduction to school.

Here are my little punks all ready to begin. Samuel just makes a mess of things of course. But at first he did want to sit right up at the table with us and write squiggles.

Noah (8) 2nd grade, Evie (5) Kindergarten, Samuel (2.5) keep-himself-busy school.

And here's our school room. Looks a little different than last year with all of Noah's art. But I just can't hardly wait for our dungeon to be done so we can make this side of the room a bedroom (so we won't have three in one room altogether anymore)...

...and the other side a school room! The big couch and TV will go downstairs along with all the toys. Then I'd like an actual wood table to do school on instead of a card table (it'll go under that painting and will be so much fun to work at with a fire going in winter!). Gotta be patient with all these projects though!

palmer gulch weekend

Last year, Terry took just Noah and Evie to the Palmer Gulch/Mount Rushmore KOA for the first Faith Family weekend. The kids had so much fun watching their favorite music group (Go Fish) and playing at the resort, that we wondered why Samuel and I didn't go along last year. So we decided to get a room at their lodge and all go this time around. 

Here's me in the back of the old firetruck that hauls you to the concert. I was regretting, slightly, going along with Ezra. But he did better than the rest of us probably. 

We were a little late (we have 4 kids) and missed Go Fish's first song. The kids were bummed but they were able to get right up front to watch. This was Terry's photo of them...

 And here is my photo of Terry taking their picture. I stayed in the back with Ezra and Samuel. 

The kids didn't have all their little attending friends like last year, but they managed to get a high five from the singers. 

My little caveman.

It was so hot that the kids didn't last long in the front in the hot hot sun. Soon they came back to me and we all huddled in the sliver of shade next to the stroller. Evie still managed to look cute.

Proof Terry was there.

This year they added bouncy castles. I would have loved those when I was little... Sigh. I've never been in one! This one was a little too big for Samuel, but the other two helped him.

After bouncy castles we headed over to the big yellow inflated blob thing. It's for bouncing. Again, I would have loved that when I was little. These kids better be grateful ;) 

Sun rays and a pretty girl. 

He and Evie get very red faces when they're hot. They can thank me for that. 

Noah eye!

I should wear hats outside more often. They help keep you so much cooler.

Happy swinging

We had hot dogs for dinner. Noah hates hot dogs. As a reward for eating his, they got to mini-golf. Twice.

Following a surprisingly good night with four kids in one room (Ezra slept all night), Terry took the kids swimming and sliding. I tell you what. This place makes me wish I was a kid again. 

Noah and Carter coming down the slide.

Samuel did not care for the slide. Since he doesn't talk much, he kind of grunted to Terry that he wanted to just sit in the chair at the bottom of the slide and watch them all go down. So that's what he did.

cousin visits

Terry's sister Shari and her little family recently moved into their first house. What's great about that (aside from being out of an apartment and into a house) is that they're only .7 miles away from us!

So, we've been seeing a lot more of cousin "baby" Grace, as Evie still calls her.

She and Samuel were getting along well on this particular day. A lot of times they fight. Jesse says if they weren't related they'd probably get married.