boys boys boys

I've read all those little forwards on the internet about what it's like to have sons, and always thought they were just funny exaggerations of the joys of raising boys. WRONG. I guess I got a gentle introduction to the world of boys with Elijah, because he is not your stereotypical boy. He's gentle, sensitive, quiet, and thoughtful. Isaac on the other hand, is not. Twice in the past month he has set something on fire in the microwave, and watched in amazement then innocently asked "what happened?" when I frantically pulled him away and yanked the plug from the wall. Today he decided he wanted to play outside when everyone was supposed to be having a quiet rest time; so he hopped out his bedroom window and went about his business playing. Simply saying I love you always turns in to a contest of who can say it the loudest. (and if he thinks he's losing he'll tell you to be quiet because "the baby is sleeping") When we were at the fabric store a few weeks ago, Jeremy and I looked down the aisle and saw Isaac behind one of the little shopping carts they have there very very slowly creeping up on a lady. I don't know if he just wanted to get close and see her without her noticing him, but it looked more like he was going to try to run her down at .02 mph. Nahshon doesn't seem to be too far behind on the action. He already loves to wrestle, and will chase Isaac around trying to bite him. (he only tries to bite Isaac though, no one else) I can only imagine what life is going to be like with Isaac, Nahshon, and Micaiah running around! I must say though, I'm extremely grateful God has given me such a good sense of humor when it comes to my kids. Without that, I think I would have lost my sanity long ago.

Thank you God!

Like all kids, Genna has areas of strength and weakness when it comes to her studies. Math has always been an area of weakness for her. Genna and math just don't click. Last year we used Horizons math, which did not work for her at all. Fortunately, we are lucky enough not to be bound to one curriculum or a schedule, so we can figure out what works best for her and go at our own pace. After HOURS and HOURS of curriculum research, I decided to try Singapore math this year. So far things had been going well with the new curriculum, just very slow. We have been working on very simple subtraction, but Genna just was not getting it. She gets so frustrated and overwhelmed that she starts over thinking the material. Finally two days ago the light bulb went off! She whizzed through 19 pages in her math workbook in one day!!!! Yesterday we started a lesson on ordinal numbers. I know from past experience that she has had great difficulty with these, so I decided to do the lesson on my bed where it would be quiet and she could be as comfortable as possible. We worked together slowly through the first couple pages, then I encouraged her to do that last two pages on her own. By the time she got to the last page she said "this is getting really fun!" It is so amazing to watch your child go from tear-filled eyes to pure joy because they finally understand something! I pray often that God will direct me when instructing my kids so I can be the best teacher they need me to be, and clearly God is listening! So to that I say thank you GOD!!

So good, so true

Mandi posted this on Facebook, and I thought it was great and wanted to share with all of you

sorry about that!

Our computer crashed completely last week on Thursday, but we are now up and running again with a new system. (thank goodness for Craigslist!) Now, if anyone could tell me why my dishwasher suddenly stopped working last night.........

memory making at midnight

Not too long ago Jeremy was talking to me about how he feels like he doesn't get enough quality time with the kids. I reminded him that one of the many joys of homeschooling means that we don't have to keep a traditional schedule, and we can set up our lives any way that works for us. Last night Genna was having trouble sleeping, and was too restless to read a book or watch a movie. Jeremy decided it would be fun to teach her how to play Monopoly. (we got a neat Disney edition a while back, but hadn't really taught the kids how to properly play yet since it was a bit above their level) She and Jeremy sat down to play at 11:45pm, and played until after one in the morning! I sat at the table sewing while they played, listening to their silly competitive banter, and thinking how wonderful it is that our kids are at home. Genna had no where to be this morning, so it didn't matter one bit to me if she stayed up late and slept in a bit today. These moments are what make life GREAT.

midnight snack anyone?

Just making himself a little something to eat

(I know it's blurry, but you get the idea)

My little bucket head

Don't know why, but Nahshon thinks he's hilarious when he walks around with a bucket on his head.

Be careful, or you'll catch it too!

The sewing bug that is. I was having tons of contractions the past couple days (always happens when I hit 28 weeks), so I took a break from my quilts to just lay around and rest. Since the sewing machine was sitting quietly, Jeremy decided to try his hand at making some curtains for our living room. We actually took our old curtains down when we painted in August, and never put them back up because we wanted something different. The problem is that despite looking everywhere, we never found anything we both liked at a price we wanted to pay. Jeremy found the perfect fabric at the fabric store, and spent two days making our curtains. He put so much thought into how to cut them based on the print, ironed everything before he sewed to make sure it would come out nice, put a really nice trim on them..... the works. They look fantastic! I'm so proud of him. I can't post pictures yet because he thinks he wants to do one last thing to them, but I will post pics in the next couple days when he finally decides they are finished.

a tip for husbands

If your wife is pregnant, make sure you are putting away your shoes, books, or any other little thing you may leave on the floor. Chances are that if she can't see her own feet, she's not gonna see your junk either and you'll just make her mad when she inevitably trips over it.

Doesn't everyone sleep like this?

Despite being built like a mini linebacker, Isaac is incredibly flexible. When he was a baby, it was not uncommon to see him tapping his ears with his feet. He was having a tantrum the other night, and exhausted himself with crying. Rather than get up and go to his room, he just folded himself over and went to sleep.

You know you have a house full of boys when.........

You buy Neosporin in bulk at Costco

Sorry hun, but it's funny

The other night around 4am, Isaac was bugging Jeremy about wanting something. Jeremy couldn't understand him and kept trying to convince Isaac to go back to bed. Exhausted and annoyed, Jeremy decided to get up and figure out what Isaac was asking for. The only problem; IT WAS ALL A DREAM!!! Jeremy was dreaming that Isaac was standing at the bedside asking for something, but ended up waking up and getting up because he thought it was all real. Isaac was actually sound asleep the whole time. I felt bad he actually got up for nothing, but not bad enough that I didn't have a good laugh!

Learning to sew

I used clothes pins to hold the fabric together so she wouldn't have to worry about straight pins


the shell of the pillow



Let the stuffing begin!


Stitching the top closed

TADA! All finished!

On our first trip to the fabric store to pick out the majority of the fabric for the girl's quilts, I could just see the creativity wheels spinning at full speed in Genna's head. I told her to walk along the wall and pick out her favorite fabric quarter, and we would do a craft with it. I really didn't have anything in mind when I told her to pick it out, but later decided she was old enough to learn to hand sew. She was a little nervous with the needle at first, but she did a great job and ended up really enjoying herself. I'm very proud of her, and she can't wait to get some more fabric and do some more projects!

Here we go!

Thanks to Kerry and the beautiful quilt she is making for her baby girl, I've decided to give it a try. I've had my sewing machine for a year, but have only sewed a few items, and I am still very much an amateur. However, I find sewing to be very relaxing and I'm learning to have more patience with this type of stuff, so I decided to just jump in with both feet. Jeremy helped me come up with my own pattern; we took some ideas and inspiration from about 4 other patterns that we had seen. I have cut most of my fabric, but need to head back to the fabric store to pick up just a little more to be able to do the design I have decided on. Since I am making quilts for both of my daughters, and being pregnant makes it hard to lean forward for long periods of time, I know this is going to take a while. I'm excited though to see how this is going to turn out. Stay tuned for pictures!

Another old one, but it still makes me laugh

I don't know what made me remember this story, but it cracks me up looking back on it, so I thought I'd share. One evening when Isaac was about 3 months old, I had him laying in the middle of my bed while I cleaned up in my room. The TV had been left on from a show I was watching earlier, but I wasn't paying any attention to what had come on once I started cleaning. Suddenly I heard Isaac making all kinds of happy baby sounds. I looked over at him and he was smiling, laughing, and wiggling all over the place. (before I go any further, it's important to know that at this time I was still nursing him) I noticed his gaze was fixed on the TV, so I looked up to see what was so interesting to him. Imagine my shock when I realized my baby boy was going crazy watching a Hawaiian Tropic Bikini Contest!! I guess he was hungry and thought he was at a buffet.........

pregnancy update

I finally made it in to see my Dr. today. (missed my appointment in December because of all the snow, then just got too busy and forgot to schedule on in January) Baby is doing great. He is measuring right on schedule, heart beat is nice and strong. I have to go in for another ultrasound in 2 weeks though because my last ultrasound showed my placenta laying extremely low. It wasn't low enough to be considered placenta previa, but they need to see if it has moved up at all. Please pray that things will all shift around where they are supposed to be, and that this baby will be born healthy and strong come mid-May.

Look Dad, mom's feeling better!

When I was a kid there was a commercial on TV (for some sort of medicine, don't remember what) that would show a mom sick in bed, so dad would take over kid duty. The mom would take the medicine, start feeling much better, come out of her room looking refreshed, only to find her house in complete disarray and the father looking rather sheepish as a child announced "Look dad, mom's feeling better!". That was me today. Yesterday morning I woke up very early very sick. (we've had a stomach flu running through the house. The kids each took turns getting it, so I knew it would hit me sooner or later) I pretty much spent the entire day alternating between my bed and a warm bath. Jeremy was home all day, so I didn't even think twice about the kids. I woke up early this morning and was feeling like I was actually ready to eat, and walked to the kitchen completely shocked at what I saw. HOW? How is it possible for them to make this much of a mess in just one day? What in the world did they do all day???? I'm tired enough today just recovering from yesterday, I really didn't want to wake up to find my house in need of a complete scrubbing. UGH! As a side note about the flu: the flu is horrible at any time, but is even worse when pregnant. You know that lovely "just been beaten with a baseball bat" feeling you get with the flu? Pairing that up with internal kicking, punching, and squirming makes for a very long and painful day. I'm just glad it passed in only one day, now I'm off to clean.......

That's a way to keep it interesting

The other night the kids had some extra wiggles before bed, but it was too late/dark/cold to go outside for a last minute run around. Instead they decided to play red-light green-light in the living room. The problem is that our house is small and there isn't much room to run, so the game ends rather fast. Being the creative little people that they are, they quickly figured out a way around this little setback. They created an obstacle course that they had to run through, and the person calling out red-light or green-light had to speak only in Spanish! It certainly made for a fun time all around!

Did you really just ask me that?

Before you continue reading, it's important to know that Bella was standing completely barefoot in the living room when this exchange took place:

mom- Bella, can you please go unload the dishwasher?

Bella- Do you want me to do that with or without roller skates on?


HUH?

It won't always be like this

I was asking Genna the other day how she was feeling about being homeschooled. I like to get her feedback every so often to make sure she is still pleased with being home, find out if there is something she feels we are not doing enough of, find out if there is something in particular she wants to learn about that she hasn't told me yet, etc....... When I asked her how she felt about doing school at home vs. regular school she said "I love doing school at home, it's really fun. I love all my homeschool friends. But what I love most is that I get to spend so much time with you." What did I tell ya about this girl; sunshine and rainbows all the time. :) I'm sure there will come a day when she won't always feel that way, but for now I'm just gonna soak it all up and enjoy.