Fall 2013

We celebrated with Grammy and Grandad before they left on their Big Trip.

I tried to get a first day of school picture.

The next several pictures document the making of Dirt Cake for James 4th birthday

Grandma, Grandpa and Uncle Tommy helped us celebrate!

August 2013

We've been out of town almost every weekend this month. Soon enough we'll be hitting the books and the soccer field again so here's a little update on the end of our summer.

The uses for blue tape are apparently more numerous than I had imagined.

We made some miniature hot air balloons. This prototype was too small.

This happened for all of 20 seconds before it completely burned itself out. We did succeed with another one that flew high over our friends' property in Ferndale but that's a story for another day.

James decorated a poptart just like the residents of Krakatoa designed their homes in the book Twenty One Balloons. We read that story this year in preparation for the annual book party we have with some of our very good friends.

Book party fun: I asked them to make strange faces.

Happy babies.

We had the opportunity to join some of our co-op friends for the day while they camped on Labor Day weekend. We opted for the day trip and didn't spend the night but that didn't stop Josiah from getting fully dressed for the part. He loves hiking.

Daniel climbs

More camping fun: some of the daddies made a rope swing!

Yummy food

I think these guys were excited to see each other after a summer's long break from co-op.

And just for fun, I included some pictures from Augusts' past.

This is probably one of the last times (2007) we have been camping for real with our family. We had hoped to try again this weekend but alas, we chose a slower paced weekend instead.

Augustish 2006

And August 2005, when I was on some kind of modified bedrest while pregnant with Mercy. I wasn't able to do any lifting so the boys ate all their meals on the floor for a while. This looks like cinnamon toast for breakfast.

Soccer and school start next week!

Reuben Rockstar

Daddy made Reuben a guitar.

Most days prior to this new guitar, Reuben would strum the broom (too big), a bow with no string (lower left) but no longer.

 

And here he is on his stage.

What has happened since April

I think it's common knowledge by now that we've moved and I'm pretty sure that most people know that we're expecting Number 7 in December.

Those are the big things.
Oh, and Michael had surgery after a falling shelf severed the tendon on his left hand.


Apparently, none of those things are worth photographs- I found no record of them on my camera. It's hard to document 60 or so consecutive days of me lying nauseous in bed whilst the rest of the group is packing, selling our home and moving to a new house. It happened and we know it. We just don't like to spend time thinking about it.

So here's a collection of the small things that have happened since I last posted, a lifetime ago in April when we used to live next to the goats.

Reuben turned 2 in May

Josiah graduated from Co-op Preschool at the end of the school year.

Mostly I felt like James looks here, all the time. (This is at co-op on the day of our End of The Year Program)

Daniel helps by carrying Reuben around while other people make stacks and stacks of boxes.

Mercy helps too. And James wears jammies.

The New House. I'll post more pictures of it another time. Making breadsticks in the kitchen again means a small step towards normal.

Mercy caught this butterfly and took it every where with her until it died about three days later. Devastation.

Our deck is now a great hangout when it's hot or when you can't find a shirt.

Michael turned 9. Visible in this picture is his second cast, completely with snake eyes.

We made it to Chelan after a two week stint with the stomach flu. Never were the kids so thankful to learn that we were actually going after all.

It's too early for a picture but look how flat the lake is!

Daniel knee boards!

Daniel and I

Mercy and the camera cord

Josiah, James and Reuben hanging with Daddy in Chelan

 Well, there you have it. I'm sure some other things happened too, like the time I painted a shelf with Reuben and James and they ended up covered in white oil based paint. It still hasn't come out of James' hair. Or the many trips to Hand Therapy we've taken. And the unpacking and exploring of our new neighborhood.

August holds a few more adventures for us before we return to our school schedule for the Fall.

Spring 2013

Bob was teasing me that I only post birthdays so here I am to say otherwise. Except, there is a birthday in there somewhere too.

Here's a little wrap up from Josiah's fifth birthday. He wanted a Dinosaur Birthday. This is how that worked out: several large dinosaurs accompanied him at his birthday dinner (at left) and one large dinosaur sat atop his ice cream cake for dessert. Per Mercy's suggestion, we made dinosaur footprints on the cake by dipping the dino feet into cocoa powder and making it walk on the top of the cake. Easy. Fun.

Mercy might love birthdays more than anyone in our household. This year she made Josiah a watch out of an empty roll of blue tape. She did this in January, I think and saved it until the end of March in her closet so she could give it to him.

More about Mercy: She has learned to ride without training wheels. Or rather, she has realized that she has been able to do so for a long time without really knowing that she could. Daniel took her training wheels off on Saturday. Off she went on her own with the surprising and necessary skill of stopping well. Neither of our earlier bike riders could stop without jumping off or crashing at first. This is definitely an example of the when-you-are-ready-it's-easy-to-learn concept.

We celebrated Easter at our house this year. Nice weather meant that we could color eggs on the back deck in our playclothes after church. 

And hunt for eggs in the front yard.

We didn't get a family picture of Bob and the kids and I but we did get one of my siblings and I.

 

Reuben in the grass

 

After a busy weekend of prepping our house for sale and Easter festivities, we were not quite ready to head to co-op on Monday. We ended our 6 weeks of studying physics by dropping raw eggs from the top of a ladder truck. Firemen came to co-op to assist with this and families and students brought their own specially designed capsules to protect the egg on impact. 

Ours didn't survive this year!

 I visited Josiah's co-op preschool class briefly. He was coloring the letter U today. Next year will be his first year in the K 1 class at our co-op.

So that's what I've got so far for Spring 2013. I'm hopeful that the next few posts will include info about the sale of our current house and the purchase of a new one. Please pray for us!

Five Today