4 months

4 months already!

Almost rolling over. She did it once but I suppose I don't put her down often for her to practice.

Katy is always smiling! This is kind of a goofy picture of her but I wanted to show off her dimples.  I need to work at getting a better picture of that precious smile.

Loves, LOVES to chew on her finger! She always has that hand and those fingers in her mouth. And she is always drooling. She needs to wear a bib all the time because if she doesn't she soaks her clothes and I have to change her several times a day.

What a sweet and pleasant person she is.

I need to do an actual 4 month photo shoot, these didn't turn out how I was imaging them to. Oh well, just another excuse to take more pictures of my baby. {smile}

In love?

Ryan announced after dinner tonight, "I'm in love with Trina!"

Me- "In love? With who?"

Ryan- "Trina, she's my girlfriend."

Me- "Girlfriend?"

Ryan- "Ya. I have two girlfriends now.  Ella and Trina. I guess I'm going to have to decide who I want to marry."


Me- "What?"

Ryan- "Yeah and Riley is mad at me."

Me- "Why? Who is Riley."

Ryan- "A girl in my class.  She's mad because I said I love Trina. But Trent loves Riley."

(apparently there is some sort of love triangle going on here)

Me- "When did this happen?"

Ryan- "At the beginning of the school in Writer's workshop."

Oh  my word!!! I wasn't planning on having a conversation like this until MANY years to come.  My 1st grader thinks he is in love? Needless to say we had a chat about the fact that we don't need to have a girlfriend in 1st grade. {smile} I asked Ryan if he was old enough to get married, he laughed, "No."he replied like he thought I was silly. We talked about the purpose of having a girlfriend and we all agreed that it was to find a wife or husband. There seems to be some confusion in his mind as to what a girlfriend is.  I had a hard time not laughing during this conversation because of his innocence and matter of fact attitude about it all. With that being said, seriously I was not expecting that! I am simply amazed at the things my kids come home saying (and amazed in not a good way). This just makes me all the more excited to start homeschooling again in December. Anyway...

I just love that boy and the things he says and does! He is such a sweet guy.  I can see why all the little girls at his school like him so much! {grin}

Weekly Wrap

Ahhh, my time has been so limited lately.  We have been up to our eyeballs in homework (all things Dobu) so I have not been able to get on here. To sum up my week I could just say HOMEWORK, HOMEWORK, HOMEWORK! I think you get the point.  We have been busy analyzing all the info we got over the past 2 months in the culture we were studying. We have one more week to go and then we will be done with this class. This upcoming week is more paper writing and analyzing. I have analyzed so much I dream about it until my brain hurts. LOL

We had our last session with our language helper on Friday.  We decided to keep Anna and Ryan out of school for the morning so we could take them with us. We prepared them as much as we could. We weren't sure how they would feel being involved in the simulation. They did great however. They were both very attentive during the session.  Ryan kept leaning over and whispering to me and pointing out all the interesting things in the room. Anna didn't say a word until we got home.  Then she took some time to vocalize what she had observed. One interesting thing that she picked up on is that our language helper is unsaved (the character is unsaved that is, not the person who plays him) because she noted that he talked about putting sickness on the trees. She noticed some worldview things that Alo (our language helper) said that don't line up with what we believe. I was excited that it turned out to be  a very positive experience for both of them.

Picture of our language helper and his hut.

It was bittersweet to have our last session in Dobu. We really enjoyed it. It was a lot of work (and all those wrap up papers will be a lot of work for the next week) but it was worth it.  I learned things that I wasn't expecting to learn...things about myself.  I don't have time to expound on that right now but I will soon.

I think this is all I have time for tonight. I am hoping to get back to write the things my heart has been learning.  We start our simple living class a week from tomorrow. That will be two weeks of no electrical appliances, no electricity after 10pm, cooking TOTALLY from scratch, no computer/Internet, etc. Sooo, hopefully between all the papers I have this week I can make time to get back on here, if not it might be a few weeks. {grin}

That's a wrap. Until next time!

What do I know of Holy

 Aching to lay at His feet
Struggling to find the time
Realizing that I don't know as much as I thought I did
I've know Him since I was a little girl but wondering how well  I really know Him
Realizing His goodness in spite of my weakness
At a loss for Words as He proves His faithfulness to me and meets me where I am.

I want to know more
I want to go deeper
I want to know Holy


This is where my heart is at.

"What do I know of Holy"
I made You promises a thousand times
I tried to hear from Heaven
But I talked the whole time
I think I made You too small
I never feared You at all No
If You touched my face would I know You?
Looked into my eyes could I behold You?


What do I know of You
Who spoke me into motion?
Where have I even stood
But the shore along Your ocean?
Are You fire? Are You fury?
Are You sacred? Are You beautiful?
What do I know? What do I know of Holy?

I guess I thought that I had figured You out
I knew all the stories and I learned to talk about
How You were mighty to save
Those were only empty words on a page
Then I caught a glimpse of who You might be
The slightest hint of You brought me down to my knees


What do I know of You
Who spoke me into motion?

Where have I even stood
But the shore along Your ocean?
Are You fire? Are You fury?
Are You sacred? Are You beautiful?
What do I know? What do I know of Holy?

What do I know of Holy?
What do I know of wounds that will heal my shame?
And a God who gave life "its" name?
What do I know of Holy?
Of the One who the angels praise?
All creation knows Your name
On earth and heaven above
What do I know of this love?

What do I know of You
Who spoke me into motion?
Where have I even stood
But the shore along Your ocean?
Are You fire? Are You fury?
Are You sacred? Are You beautiful?
What do I know? What do I know of Holy?

What do I know of Holy?
What do I know of Holy?
 ~Addison Road

If you want to hear this song go here

J-man

I feel like I don't write often enough about the little men in my life. So in case anyone has forgotten, I do in fact have BOYS... {grin} not that I could ever forget that. My boys are loud and crazy but also a lot of fun!

I decided this afternoon to do a quick photo shoot of James. He was a blast to play with. I just let him do his thing (with a little guidance of course). The only bad thing about these pictures is that he is badly in need of a hair cut, oh well. I still love them because they totally represent James to me in this stage of his life. James is just one of those kids who, even as much trouble as he can get in, you just love...or at least that's how I feel about him. 

So without further ado I give you: J-MAN

Man I just love that kid! So thankful he is in my life. Life wouldn't be nearly as exciting without him!

Tuesday morning sweetness

Because who can resist a little pink sweetness.

Those cheeks are just too kissable.

"Mirror, mirror on the wall..."

Two fair ladies.

Weekly Wrap

Not too much to say for this week.  I am tired and not feeling well. I came down with a head cold this weekend and have felt pretty icky. I didn't get much done the last few days except for the necessary homework and some laundry.  Ryan also came down with something tonight.  I just had to run up to his room a bit ago because he said he was cold.  Poor guy was shivering and had teeth chattering.  I took his temp, 103.00 degrees Fahrenheit. I covered him with more blankets, gave him a heated rice bag, some Advil, and a drink of water. Hopefully he goes to sleep soon.  Looks like I won't be going to classes tomorrow. Actually this semester is going WAY better in the heath department then the last too so far.  The first semester I missed about a month's worth of classes, this semester I have only missed 2 days in the past 5 weeks.  Pretty good I would say.

Speaking of classes...have I mentioned how much I am enjoying this semester? I love how hands on this semester is and how we get to put everything we have learned into practice. One thing I have learned about myself (one out of a hundred things) is that I am more of a hands on learner then I realized. I never really knew that about myself. I learn best when I am an active participant.  I don't like to be the center of attention but sometimes with this learning style I have to put myself out of my comfort zone. I am sure knowing this about myself will come in handy later in the future.

As much as I am enjoying this semester it is also a lot of work.  We have about 4 papers coming up within the next 3 weeks.  All of which are going to take a lot of thought. Which for me means hours and hours of work. {smile}

I don't think I've mentioned it but the kids started Awana a few weeks ago.  This is James' first year in Cubbies. He was really hesitant the first 2 weeks.  Bill and I talked and decided that we wouldn't force him to go if he wasn't comfortable. So the following week we asked him if he would like to go to Cubbies he said yes.  Now he looks forward to it every week. He is so excited to learn his verse.  I love it! Claire is feeling a little left out as she is the only one (well, other then Katy) not going to Awana, but her time will come soon enough...hard to believe! My babies are growing so much.

Speaking of verses, Claire recited 3 whole verses from Psalms the other day.  I was amazed! I asked her to repeat it like 3 times and she did. They are learning Psalm 100:1-3 in Toddlers.  I got it on video because I thought it was too cute (I know I biased). {smile} If you watch the video you will have to turn the Volume up because she is pretty quiet. 


For family night on Friday we watched part of Fiddler on the Roof with the kids.  I thought it might be a little too old (like they just wouldn't enjoy it) but they all loved it and were really into it. We didn't even get half way through it so we will have to finish it on another family night. Family nights are really the only time we let the kids watch any sort of TV. It's a long story (if you don't know it already) and one I want to write about sometime. It works really well for our family not to have so much TV.  When the kids are bored they have other things to entertain themselves with.

Katy has officially discovered her voice. I was thinking she would be a little bit older when this happened but I guess she is Anna and Claire's sister {grin} (they both discovered their voices pretty young too)! Unfortunately she discovered it during one of our classes.  So I sat out in the hallway while Katy sang me a beautiful song.  She sounds like a little bird.  It's so funny because she sounds exactly how Claire did. Claire used to sing these high pitched songs when she was a baby.  It really is very sweet...just not during class time. {smile} I need to get it on video one of these days.

I had a few other things I was going to write down, but it's late and I need to go feed Katy so I can get to bed. I'll save it for next week...if I remember {smile}.

That's a wrap until next week!