Monday, March 21, 2016

March

Wow, we have enjoyed a super early spring here!  
Cubby keeps looking out the window and, upon seeing green grass, exclaims:
"It's SUMMER!"

sweet sisters

LOVE!

we spend a lot of our days kissing those cheeks...

....and loving those eyes...

The kids at their Excellence in Education event last week
(only 4 of our children made it in this photo)

Jaci, Aaron and Orion's class
performing prepositions

loving the chub!

averaging 10 a day!

With the help of our built in babysitter,
we've taken lots of dates in March!
And we don't mind being a threesome for now...

it's fun to be out in public with just her...
...people make such different comments when you have 1 baby
compared to when you have 3 or 6 along with you!
:P

Ella is 12!

Our beautiful, talented, humble and SWEET firstborn turned 12!  
Thanks to all who sent her love on her birthday!
We did our best to make her have a great day!!
 Lots of "rose" themed gift bags!  :)
Her request for a date: lunch at Subway and open one gift there!
(She didn't mind at all that baby sister tagged along)



sledding in the afternoon.
It always cracks me up the way ALL the animals
want to be involved with the kids when they are outside!
This is akin to Bev Doolittle's paintings: Can you spot 3 mini horses and a dog?
The cats were out there too!  :)

Tuesday, March 1, 2016

3 months!

Baby is 3 months old... Where did the time go?

Piano lessons!
Morning fuzz heads
Angel baby
She is just beginning to grab items and bring them to her mouth-- so fun!!
Getting big!


Monday, February 29, 2016

4 months

Somehow this didn't publish earlier; here it is again...

Little T was 4 months on Sunday! 

Thinking she is such a big chunky monkey, I looked up all our babies' weights at 4 months:
ER 13 lb 15 oz
TJ 14 lb 8 oz
JC 13 lb
AR 16 lb 7 oz
OB 17 pounds
TG 12 lb 10 oz
...so at this age, baby T is the smallest of them all!  And we are loving every minute with her: 





in a sweater my mom knitted for Jaci almost 8 years ago: 











 

Sweetness


















Thursday, February 4, 2016

January!

We didn't see the sun much in January...
the road home
we actually pulled up chairs and watched this sunrise one Saturday morning!

So...what has been keeping us busy?
Each Wednesday, very early, we truck up to Whitefish for our
Homeschool Community Day.  There, we gather with friends to practice
all the memory work we've been working on at home!  
The children also do an oral presentation, 
an art project, and a science experiment every week.
Ella has an additional class in the afternoon focusing on the complexities of English grammar. 
She is getting pretty good at diagramming sentences (and I am hoping to!)

TG just keeps growing!

I heart Carhartt

Such a gift I have in my husband:
Adrian has been helping by reviewing with the kids on the evenings/weekends!
They get out their maps and the jelly beans, and are actually excited to study
"Jelly-ography" with Daddy!  
We are currently working on all of the waters, ancient empires, cities, and countries of Africa.

morning cuddles with a hat from Gramma L

The kids get soooo excited the times I let them do something hands-on, 
so this was the day they were gathering to prove their liquid equivalents: 
Even Cubby can tell you 8oz=1 cup, 2 cups=1 pint, 2 pints=1 quart, 4 quarts=1 gallon!

Tessa kept busy crocheting a bunch of cup sleeves to gift to friends!

All of a sudden, she began to grab at everything and pull it toward her mouth...
now we make sure "Grunt" the bear is ready to greet her at the changing table!

Lil' Miss turned 3 months


Such a sweet brother...he will even share his alligator with her!
Oh wait!  That's the toy he bought for her when she was born...
...but she shares it with him!  :)

hey, blue eyes!

this baby loves to scratch on textured things with her tiny fingernails, 
so the football makes a good surface for that!

Unfortunately, we have spent part of the month sick.. 
so here I am with my youngest 2 sick babies...
we learn to be thankful for the rest...
...and to be thankful when we're healthy again!!


she's a tired Taiya.

the kids dressed up Taiya in their own way...
Then I realized she was "Taiya with a tie"
ha ha