Leaves of Thankfulness and Service

In years past we have usually done some sort of special activity having to do with leaves and writing down things we are thankful for. This year I had an idea to expand that. I cut out orange and yellow leaves. Every night after we read scriptures, sang a hymn, and then said our family prayer, we would each write down one thing we were thankful for on the orange leaves. Then we would write down one act of service we did that day on the yellow leaves.  (If it was a secret for another family member then they could just write down "secret service.")  Afterwards we'd tape them up to our living room wall.  At the beginning, it seemed we were forgetting the service part.  We were still filling them out, but it was more like, "Hmmm...  What did I do today for someone else.  Oh, yes, I did______."  So it was more of an afterthought.  So we kept working on trying to plan acts of service we wouldn't normally be doing.  By the end of the month we were doing really well.  It was so much fun coming up with new ideas that the girls wanted to continue all year and keep taping up pieces of construction paper in whatever shape matched the current season until our walls in our whole home were completely full.  I decided against that, but reminded then we could still continue anyways, even without construction paper shapes.  :)

Happy Thanksgiving!

We hosted Thanksgiving dinner at our home this year. It ended up being so easy. It seemed everyone coming brought 2-3 dishes so I ended up personally just being in charge of the turkey, pumpkin pies and pumpkin cheesecakes, and corn. Alexis made deviled eggs and Emily crafted this darling little turkey appetizer. Ashley was my special little pie helper. It was so fun having everyone over. We had Uncle Doug's family, Nana and Papaw, Grandma and Grandpa, and Aunt Becca. It was snowy outside so the kids played in the snow after we ate and when they came in to get warmed up, Aunt Cyndi did a couple of cute crafts with them.  I'm so thankful for all the many blessings in my life, especially my sweet family.

Adam's First Taste of Chocolate

Daddy was so proud.

Letters to Daddy

When Daddy was out of time somebody decided to write him a letter. I'm not sure which one, but it snowballed and he returned home to three sweet letters from three sweet little girls.

Rocking Adam to Sleep

Alexis is able to rock Adam to sleep every once in a while and she just loves it. I always ask her if she'd like me to take him and she always tells me "no."  I understand completely.  One of the best feelings in the world is holding a sweet, sleeping little one.  Fortunately we've been blessed with a sweet baby who loves to be cuddled, rocked and held.

Playing With Big Sisters

Adam always ants to be right in the middle of whatever his sisters are playing. Sometimes this is impossible. (Such as when the game is Calico Critters with their many teeny pieces.) But whenever it is possible they are more than willing to include him, and this makes him so happy.

Morning Devotional

One of the best things we do in our day is morning devotionals.  It takes priority over all else.  If it is the only thing we get to then that's OK.  I believe that a firm testimony and love of God and a desire to be obedient to Him it is the most important learning my children will ever learn.  We always start with everyone sitting on a quilt and with a family prayer.  Then we sing a song that we are trying to memorize.  This time we are memorizing "If the Savior Stood Beside Me."  I print off charts from Jolly Jenn and we keep them in a box, bound together as individual songs that the children like getting out and singing throughout the day.  We also might review a song we've already learned or just sing one for fun.  After that we work on a scripture verse we are trying to memorize.  Then we either read a bit of scriptures and discuss them, read from the scripture readers, or read a character building story such as a story from the friend or from one of many great books like Uncle Arthur's Bedtime Stories.  Finally we get out some cards I bought that have vocabulary words.  Technically they are for studying for the SATs, but we have a few years before that, so we just use them to expand our vocabulary.  We choose one card at random and learn what it means.  Then the challenge is to use it in everyday conversation sometime that day.  We need to improve on this.  Normally the girls will rattle off a quick sentence using the word 30 seconds and then I never hear it the rest of the day.  So it's something to improve upon.  :)  After that everybody starts on individual activities/projects.  As you can see from the pictures I snapped this morning, Adam doesn't stay on the blanket very long, but he doesn't like to crawl off alone, so it's still easy to keep an eye on him.  :)

Daddy Daughter Outings

Don and I each try to take the girls out every so often for some one on one time. Don has taken each of them out in the past week somewhere different. He took Alexis to a Bach symphony concert. She adores classical music and wants to do something with music when she grows up and so this was a perfect outing for her. Then the next day he took Ashley out for ice cream - he favorite treat. They also went to the park for a little while and he pushed her in the swings. She was in heaven. :) The following Monday he took Emily to the American Girl store in Columbus and they ate in a little restaurant there with her doll. He said they had a little box of questions on the table that they would each draw from and take turns asking each other. He even splurged and let her pick out a little outfit for her doll. I'm glad the girls get to spend this one on one time with each of us once in a while. It's a wonderful to get to talk to them with no interruptions and just focus on the one child.

Knitting, Knitting 1, 2, 3.....

We've had some little knitters around here lately. Alexis surprised me by knitting a little red dress for her favorite doll, Wanda.  She impresses me on her desire to learn new things and then teach herself.  Emily has also now desired to learn to knit so Alexis got out her knitting circles she's used to make hats and taught her to use them.  So Emily is now making a blue knit hat for Ashley.  She's doing great and loves it.  After she's mastered knit hat making, she wants to learn to use the knitting needles, too.  Ashley has been watching all of this knitting and decided she was going to knit, too.  Sol she picked out a couple of pencils and some yarn and tried to "knit".  It didn't go quite as she expected, of course, and so she decided maybe next year when she's six years old, she'll learn.  ;)

First Snow of the Season

We had a very early snow this season. Winter's not due to arrive for almost another 6 weeks, and we had a winter storm warning - and at the exact same time a high pollen alert. :) We ended up with 3 or 4 inches and so right after breakfast the girls put on their snowsuits, mitten, and hats and headed out to play.  They spent a good part of the morning looking for tracks, having snowball fights, making snow angels, and exploring the beauty of nature in the snow.  When they were thoroughly chilled, they came in and warmed up with some hot cocoa and gingerbread cookies.  We took Adam out for a quick photo, but he stayed inside with me the rest of the time and played and napped.  I just love these sweet days with my children around, enjoying nature, childhood, and each other's company with no outside commitments.  Pure heaven on earth.

Poor Little Guy

When you are tired and past ready for bed and Mommy tries to take your picture......

9 Months Old

Our baby is 9 months old! After taking his time crawling on his tummy he is now up on all fours and speeding along. He won't perform on command, but when he wants to, he says Mama, Dada, Yeah, and shakes his head "no." He smiles a lot and is pretty quiet overall. He adores his sisters and always wants to be near them. He doesn't really crawl off on his own very much.  He likes being where we are, and if we leave him, he whines and quickly follows.  His favorite toys are balls.  He loves chasing them all over the house.  He'll eat almost anything and is a social eater.  He could already be fed, but if he sees someone else eating, he wants a nibble.  He loves to nibble throughout the day on little bits here and there.  He loves nursing and cuddling and is happiest when I'm carrying him around while going about my day so he can see everything.  He still LOVES music and also seems to have an interest of how things work.  He will imitate us if we are using tools and is fascinated when we do.  As an example, once I was changing the batteries in a music toy and when I put the screwdriver down he picked it up and put it on the screw and twisted his little hand back and forth trying to screw it himself.  He has the cutest laugh and loves when Daddy tosses him around,  We just love having this little one in our home.

We Help Daddy

One evening I read Ashley one of our favorite books at bedtime, "We Help Daddy." We read the part about the children helping Daddy build a bird feeder and she looked up at me and exclaimed, "Tomorrow maybe Daddy and me can build a bird feeder!" So the next morning she grabbed her little book and crawled into Daddy's bed and showed him the picture and asked if he could help her make one that looked just like the picture. Later that day they found some scraps of wood in the garage and fashioned this sweet little feeder. She was quite happy with it when they were finished and I'm sure our little bird friends will be thrilled, as well.

Sick Baby

Adam came down with his first cold this week. The first couple of days were pretty tough. He was fevered and felt so miserable and couldn't sleep well. I held him almost constantly the first day. Now he's doing better and is up and playing. I think seeing your kids suffer with illness or pain is the worst part of mothering. Thankfully those times are not the norm.