STUFF AND NONSENSE

Here's a mismatched collection of pictures from the last week or so. First is Ben and Millie really proud of themselves for getting ready to go to the store with dad on their own. Good thing Peter was the one taking them, because I would have had to break their hearts and make them change their outfits.Cecily on Valentine's day in the "heart" outfit from Grammy.
Apparently, she was very drooly.

Valentine's/Sabbath dinner

When you hold her, you really can't help kissing her.

A "man" Sam made from the sled.

Watching Little House on the Prairie. The boot lady strikes again.

The 3 year old that's nearly 4.

In the previous post, I put some pictures of Ben and Millie picking up sticks off the deck. This picture was taken literally minutes after those other pictures were taken. A storm just sort of blew in. It was funny because it got very blizzardy and then suddenly the sun came out and ALL of the snow melted again. By late afternoon, it was all gone again. Crazy.

Watching the snow. This sliding door ends up being one of the major distractions to school time. It's so hard not to want to watch the trees and birds out back (and storms).

Peter working. His daily work usually looks a lot like this. Slippers and all.

Not going anywhere without a baby in hand these days.

She does share the babies. She often wants Cecily to have one.

Ever since we went to the Aquarium we've had an even higher number of aquatic themed drawings than normal. This one is William's from this week.

William drawing during read aloud.

Calvin's favorite coloring utensil lately is a marker. He's working through several pictures in his truck coloring book.

One of Sam's drawings.

Sam drew some fish for Ben and then Ben colored them.

Amelia really wants her babies to do what she's doing now. If she sits, they must sit.

She does try to feed them when she eats, but we have to draw the line somewhere.

Another boot and hat combo.

Believe it or not, she's ready for bed.

CHORING

When I take pictures, it tends to be because we're doing something special. I decided to take a few pictures of just normal life. I snapped a few of the boys doing chores for a couple of days and thought I'd share them. I ended up somehow omitting Samuel, who is a huge help when it comes to cleaning. He was busy doing his chores too, but I forgot to get him in these pictures.

Here, William is actually putting the vacuum away and getting a spontaneous hug from behind. :-)

Putting books away. We do a LOT of that.
Hurray! He is old enough to sweep and mop on his own these days. He's been doing a really good job of it.
Putting clothes away.
I saved the best for last. Yesterday, I asked Ben to go out and clean all of the twigs and branches off the deck that had blown/fallen there. Millie was very excited to help him. Of course, she didn't care that she was still in her pajamas. Lately, she always has someone's (anyone's) boots on and a hat of some kind. The combinations can be quite charming and occasionally hilarious. She saw Ben with boots and hat on and threw these on to go join him.

Ben very nicely helped her "help" him.

They had a GREAT time carrying these sticks over to the woods.

This was my favorite. You can tell how much fun they had!

SOME CHEERFUL FACES

I have some new pictures to post, but no time to do it tonight. I thought I'd just put a couple of cheerful faces on here for my mom and Grandma to see when they check the blog tomorrow! Mom had surgery on her foot today and all of us over here are hoping she sleeps well and is feeling good. We love you, mom!

AGAINST THE WORLD

I just finished reading a couple of chapters of Against the World, The Odyssey of Athanasius, by Henry W. Coray to the kids. There's a picture of it in the sidebar. It's quite exciting for me for several reasons. I am not a great reader. On my own, it is a real challenge to read about church history and theology in particular. Obviously, having time to do it is part of the issue. I do try to discipline myself to fit it in, but I confess, it's rare. I am finding that reading it aloud to the children is the greatest avenue for me to do it. It's so great to have kids big enough to share this with. Reading it together gives us the opportunity to discuss it and makes what would usually be hard for me, much easier.
I feel so stirred up after each reading of this book. Hearing about the debates and battles that were fought to protect orthodox Christianity is so inspiring! I feel my own faith strengthened and my ability to defend it increased. The chapters we read today were about the Council of Nicea. Athanasius was there, representing the orthodox view of the diety of Christ. For a portion of the debate, the Arian idea that Christ was like God, but not the same as God, was the popular view and looked to be the winning argument. A priest who was persuaded of this heresy, privately asked Athanasius, "Why do you not admit it? You are fighting a losing battle. Do you not know that at this moment the whole world is against Athanasius?" His famous reply, "Is the world against Athanasius? So be it. Then Athanasius is against the world!"
Good stuff.
We met a lovely family this last summer who named their youngest son Athanasius. Marvelous namesake.

A LITTLE LOVE ON VALENTINE'S DAY

We can actually get a smile on camera these days!
A valentine lunch with some lovely company, the Moss ladies.The other night when I was cooking dinner, I heard Amelia in the dining room and looked to see what she was doing. She had gotten out the napkins and was laying them out at each person's place and saying their name as she did it. She still can't say William and Calvin's names. The names that she can shorten and add a 'y' ending to, she can say, such as Sammy, Benny, Millie, Cecy, Mommy and Daddy.

Here she is saying, "Benny..."

CUTE PURPLE HAT

Despite the looks of it by the snow shown in the picture, the temperature was on it's way up and everything was melting. We decided to take a walk around our neighborhood. I hadn't taken a picture yet of the cute purple hat that my friend, Jocelyn, made for Cecily, so we snapped a few while we were getting ready.
Wasn't that a nice gift for my little girl? And a warm head for a winter walk to boot.

TAGGED

I was tagged by the Kincell Family.

The rules are:

1. Go to your documents/pictures.

2. Go to your fifth file.

3. Go to your fifth picture.

4. Blog about it.

5. Tag 5 people.

This picture was taken on the 4th of July this last year. I rolled up Amelia's pant legs so she could put her feet in the dish water. She has a funny little scratch under her nose.

Ok, so I tag:

1. Dustin at The Bailey Family
2. Jaime at The Miller Family

3. Lora at The Berhar Family

4. Jenn at The Meysenburg Family

5. Jennie at Tending Our Gardens

WILLIAM'S 8TH BIRTHDAY

"...Happy Birthday dear William, Happy Birthday to you!"

Hurray! It's my day!

Our family party table.

Kazoos

Not too hard to blow out that one candle. :-)

A fun, four-layered cake.

A G.A. Henty book for his collection, from Aunt Leslie and Uncle John. I believe this one is called The Dragon and the Raven.

He really enjoyed this Dr. Seuss card from Leslie too.

A military compass.

This package contained a yo-yo for William from his brothers.

A military canteen.

Some C.S. Lewis books from Grammy and Papa. Always a good gift. Look at that smile.

He got a couple of cards with money in them. He's always happy to see these gifts too because he loves to see his savings grow.

The big gift for last. He got some more fischertechnik engineering building pieces.

This last picture is of the birthday fort. Peter let the boys build a big fort and Sam and Will got to sleep in it on Will's birthday. The next day was Saturday, so they got to leave it up and play in it a good bit of the day.