Busy, Busy, Busy

Sorry I have not been in touch, things pretty much exploded in the month of August and we are soooooo busy now. I did art classes over the summer and between that and the occasional schooling (LOL), swimming, soccer camp and some day trips here and there, it was crazy. Now we are back into school full swing, including starting Erika on preschool/kinder material. I am in leadership for our homeschool group, so that adds to my load, and this is the first year we are going different directions with the kids. Tim is taking Archery lessons (he loves it!!) and both girls are in a program called Keepers of the Faith, which teaches them homemaking skills. They are learning how to cook this month, so my kitchen constantly looks like a tornado went through it. We are also doing a co-op class with some friends, swapping out teaching Art and Science every 2 weeks. All this with one car (yuck), but we are hoping after taxes next year to buy a cheapie one that we can pay off. Just something for Mike to take to and from work. That is the plan on our end anyway. Heh.
Mike is good. He has been at his current company for over 11 years and is doing well. He is also teaching a Geek language class out of our house once a week. I am good, like I said, just busy. In between being busy we are active in our church and it seems like each weekend I spend trying to get caught up on laundry and cleaning, and now that we have a bigger place we entertain a lot. Whew. It's all good though :) Anyway that is the quick version of our summer.
Hope you all are doing well, and I look forward to hearing from you.
Anyway, posting some randoms pics from our summer, enjoy!

Time flies

Well November has come and gone... things always seem to get a little crazier at the end of the year. Tack on all our added homeschooling responsibilities and things get REALLY crazy!
Anyway, let me back track to where the last blog left off.
We had a good Halloween. The girls dressed as butterflies and Tim was a ninja. We had a party with our school group... games and lots of candy. We were going to go out to a fall festival that weekend, but Erika turned up with a fever, so we ended up just staying in and watching movies.

Well the weather has been so nice here, we have been outdoors A LOT in the last month. In fact here it is mid December and the predicted high today is 78 degrees. Anyway, here are some shots from hiking and the zoo.

We also had a good Thanksgiving. It was pretty low key. We had a school party and the kids got to be Indians and pilgrims. LOL you can guess which one most of the kids picked to be. :)
Then we spent some time with family. It was nice.
Now we are into December and looking forward all the lights and decorations and celebrating Jesus' birth. We did decorate the house this past weekend, I just have not had time to upload the photos yet. Plus with our school group we are going on a double Decker London type bus to look at Christmas lights on Thurs. I know I am getting excited for that. Anyway, Christmas always makes for some good photos... so I should have more to post soon. Thanks for checking in, and Merry Christmas.

A Mother's love

OK so these are for everyone who has been bugging me for pictures of me. I usually hate having my picture taken, but these came out OK (but it helps to have Erika in the pics as she is waaaayy cuter than me.)

Easter

Happy Easter! Hope you all had a great Resurrection day!
The angel said to the women, "Do not be afraid, for I know that you are looking for Jesus, who was crucified. He is not here; he has risen, just as he said." Matthew 28: 5-6 Everything I am, everything I have, everything I believe is because my Jesus rose that morning.

Here are some of our pics from the day:

We did try and get pictures of all three together, but it just wasn't gonna happen. LOL

But we had a good time. Lots of family and food. It was all good.
We have another busy week ahead, so I am sure there will be pictures too... so make sure to check back. Thanks for stopping by.

Rituals

One of the things Mike looks forward to at bed time is his time with the kids. Usually we have a family devotional, but every once in awhile Mike likes to treat the kids to a cartoon. Well, as the two older ones were sitting on Mike's lap laughing at Tom and Jerry, Erika kept getting excited and looking over at them. So Mike told me to bring her over and let her join them. Oh my... she loved it. She was jumping up and down in Mike's lap and cracking up so hard at the cartoon, that Tim and Lex were laughing at her and not paying any attention to the screen. The harder Tim and Lex laughed, the harder Erika laughed. Mike and I too were practically rolling on the floor it was so funny.

Well guess that just goes to show how timeless some cartoons can be!

Update

Sorry for the delay in posting. In between being busy our youngest managed to squeeze in a few days of utter crankiness. She is teething and handling it pretty badly. She was at one point, last week, running a fever of 102.2. We think on top of her teething, she managed to catch a cold or something, as now she is coughing and has a runny nose. Poor baby.
Anyway she is now officially 5 months old as of the 25th. Bet you all thought I forgot huh? Here is her monthly teddy pic: I just love the ones where she is "talking" to the bear.

Here are a few of the new things she has accomplished in the last month:
* She is now rolling over from her back to her tummy. Mike said he saw her go from her tummy over to her back, but I have yet to see her do that, so I think Mike is a little delusional. (heh)
* I have also started her on solid foods. Not to much other than some oatmeal and some squash, but I am going to start introducing some new stuff this week.
* She is becoming much more adept at grabbing things, and can now manage to pick up most objects, so any of Tim and Lex's small stuff has now been officially banished to their rooms.
*As I mentioned above she is teething and we are hoping they make their appearance soon so she can get back to being her normally happy contented self. (Also so we can stop having to change our clothes every time we hold her due to the fact that she drooling buckets. uck.)
So there is the update on Erika.

Tim and Lex are good. We spent some time with my folks the weekend before last and had a good time. The kids played outside a lot with their gramps. He had to teach them the proper way to do hopscotch. Lex liked to jump in each square with both feet, so he helped her learn to hop with one foot in each square. I told him I thought maybe he was going through his second childhood. To which he replied that he never grew out of the first one. Guess that is why he gets along so well with the kids. :)

Of course we have been out enjoying this wonderful weather. We had some kites so we took the kids to the park and taught them to fly the kites. It was a lot of fun and the kids really seemed to enjoy it.

Well things have slowed down a little, but with the weather being so nice I am sure another trip to the zoo will be in the near future (thank goodness we are members. heh). Thanks for stopping by... take care!