Ordinary Events From the Last Few Months

 Before the Move:

"Dad put me in here, diaper and all! "

"Thanks Dad!"

One morning when I got up, this is what I saw in the girls' room.  Hmmm.

Oh.  I see.  :-)  Girls are reading books under there.

Modern art sculpture of boxes, getting ready to be filled.

The boys saved all of their fish fillets from the year's catch in the freezer until we had enough to have a dinner for everyone.

Samuel did all of the preparation and fixed them just how he wanted to.

Samuel is serving out his fish.

Roasted red potatoes and brown rice casserole with kale to go with it. 

Sam's picture of his empty plate.  :-)

There was one other thing that the boys saved over the summer.  They diligently picked berries in the woods behind the house and stored them all in the freezer until we had enough for a pie.

Clearly, they are very proud of their berry pie.

A picture of the finished pie.

And a piece of it.  The boys took these.  These are the things that are important to them.  A side note:  that pie was much better than was expected.  I thought it would be very seedy.  It was actually a real treat.  Hurray for the diligent pickers!

Pretzel art at lunch.  Maybe you can guess who made what.

 After the move:

My wonderful and cute kitchen helper.

Trying out the new bathtub. 

First snow at our new house.  It's so beautiful on the trees!  This is the view from the deck behind our house, looking out over our property.

Warm and cozy inside, looking at the snow outside.

Another picture taken by the boys.  They were excited about the very large icicles they found.

And last, a science project.  We had a fun time putting candy into jello to make edible cells.  We are learning about cell anatomy.  This was a fun and tactile model!

You at least knew that that was a nucleus in the center, right?  Don't forget the mitochondria, Endoplasmic Reticulum, Golgi bodies, etc.   

Christmas in February

  It took me forever to do this post.  That's excuse #1.  The other excuse isn't really an excuse.  I'm just trying to get settled into our house and I'm not worrying about the blog just now.  Life has to have a regular flow in order for me to fit in time to blog.  We're getting there.  Slowly. 

New pajamas on Christmas Eve.

Four (?) musketeers, amigos, etc.  :)

Reading the Christmas story from Luke.

Nativity for the little people to "see" the story.

One of their first nights in their new room.  Some of them are still in sleeping bags because the beds aren't all made yet.

Peter and I worked together to wrap everything that still needed it.  I bought myself an alphabet stamp set this Christmas and had fun putting the kids' names on their book gifts.

All set.

Stockings before Church.

Snacks and appetizers after church.

The children exchanged several small gifts.  I think that was the best part of our Christmas celebration, for sure.  They thoroughly enjoyed the things that were picked out for them and watching their brothers/sisters open the things that they had picked for them.  Good memories. 

Millie and I knew Cecily would just LOVE these mittens as soon as we saw them.  I think we were right!  Millie is reminding her that she also got her a play oven mitt. 

Calvin found this fish ornament for Sam at Goodwill.  It was just the thing.  Sam was quite pleased.

Next is all the gifts from Grammy and Papa, starting with Elijah.

I apparently missed Cecily's gift.  Sorry.  :(  But did you see those happy faces?  They loved their gifts!

The kids all got a "book stack" gift (a few new books each) and one other gift.  Here they are with the book stack gifts.

One of Amelia's new books.

Here is Cecily with her new horse. 

Coloring books from Aunt Leslie.  They're awesome.  And so is the zipline and shopping cart from her too.  Thanks, a bunch!

 It was  a crazy Christmas with the move.  But taking some time to celebrate Christ's birth with the kids is too important not to do.  It will be a memorable year.  :)