Friday, October 23, 2009

Firewood

Okay, I've been having major problems with Blogger, so if I can get this post to actually post, I'll be happy! Sorry there aren't more pictures, I really wanted to put a ton more up.




























Wednesday, September 30, 2009

Anastasia says "Please"!

Well, it's more like "Geesh". She loves tomato soup...and tomato sauce too for that matter. :-)

Monday, September 21, 2009

New Worship Space

Our church recently moved to a new building:


Outside


A view of the Nave


The view of the Nave from the cry-room


Another view from the cry-room


Timothy and David drawing while I help set up


Noelle being her beautiful self!

Dancing Baby


Tuesday, September 8, 2009

I had a great birthday. Sunday, my parents did a family birthday celebration for me. All my siblings were there, Mommy made me chicken parmigiana and stuffed mushrooms, yummy breadsticks, salad, pasta & sauce. We had pies for dessert and I was given a couple gifts of spending money. It was a relaxed, uplifting day of fellowship.
Yesterday, Forrest made me a nice breakfast, and while I made a cheesecake and got myself ready, he oversaw that everything else got done. It was great to have a break! Ryan and Taneisha came over and watched the kids, while Forrest and I went out on a date. I'm so glad Forrest likes shopping! We went to Burlington Coat Factory and I found some nice dressy pants and a really pretty dress. Thanks Daddy & Mommy for the money to buy them! After that we went to Target and after a bit of browsing around the entire store, I picked out some makeup (for the first time in years!) Also I got myself some chocolates. :-) Thanks Rick and Rachel! Then we were ready to have lunch. We went to Chili's and it was really yummy. They now have a half-rack of ribs you can get (a full rack is so expensive for one person...and a lot of food for one person), and I've always kind of wanted to try their ribs...so I got that and they were good. Not my #1 choice in the future but I enjoyed them and now can say I've had them. :-) Thank you Forrest! After lunch we browsed the mall a little bit, got a Thomas Hammer mocha, and headed back home. Thanks Ryan and Taneisha for watching the kids! We visited for a while, had a yummy stir-fry and potstickers for dinner, watched some Flight of the Conchords, had some cheesecake and coffee, and watched Keeping Mum (while the kids watched their own kids-appropriate movie in the other room). It was a fun, full day, and thank you to everyone who made it special!
And now I'd better go...it's our first day of school!

Thursday, August 6, 2009

Update...

Well, facebook isn't working for me at the moment so I guess this is a good excuse to update our blog! It has been a while.
Our weather has been so hot lately. It's great for drying laundry outside (which, I just remembered, I need to hang sheets and put another load in!) but other than that I've been staying indoors! It was getting a little discouraging how much we've been running the air conditioner. But I guess not running the dryer more than twice in the last 2 weeks helps offset that. I certainly have not done as much cooking and baking as I'd normally like to do...and don't enjoy having the oven on for the things I have baked. It looks like we're finally going to get a break with some cooler weather though! I love being able to open up doors and windows in the morning and get fresh, cooler air in the house.
Anastasia is growing and maturing so fast! This morning she figured out how to clap, and then all the other kids started clapping at her to try to get her to do it again. She just stared at them, like, what's all the fuss about? She says "dada" for Daddy (sometimes) and "nahm" for food (often while she has food in her mouth). She's eating solids and loves potatoes, likes rice cereal, is excited about anything with sweetness but unsure about the acidity of fruit. She goes for the dog's food all the time, so the poor dog has his dish put out of reach half the time. She doesn't seem to mind the taste of dog food either! She loves her daddy, and when he gets home she is not satisfied until he holds her. Even if I've been holding her. She is crawling all over the place and pulling herself to a standing position. The last time I weighed myself with and without her on the scale, she was 25 pounds. I don't think any of my other kids were this big at a year!
Noelle is loving being a big sister. She is starting to talk more "grown-up"ish and loves playing with her brothers and being a big helper to me. A typical girl, she changes her clothes often, not because her former outfit was necessarily dirty, but just because she felt like wearing something else. She likes to help me make food, and she likes going outside to swing when I "hang laundwy on the laundwy line". She likes playing with her baby dolls and is very mothering, and probably her favorite thing to play is "Mom and Dad."
David likes to play "Mom and Dad" too, and gets along really well with Noelle (most of the time). He's very creative, often building things with Duplo or drawing pictures. His pictures usually have a story behind them that is quite imaginative too. He totally gets into his own little world, which is probably why it's sometimes a challenge to get him to finish a job without me reminding him several times. But he's getting better at doing his chores. He really enjoys helping me in the kitchen, as do all the older 3 kids. He also is most likely of my kids to just come up and give me a hug and say "I love you." He's endearingly tenderhearted.
Timothy is still great at gymnastics. We were going to put him in a class again this fall, but as we cannot afford to have both him and David in classes, we are foregoing it this year. As much as I'd like to be able to put them in gymnastics, I don't regret this because I figure God provides everything we need, and He knows what's best for us, so apparently this is not something we need, and possibly wouldn't be best for our family at this time.
Anyway...back to Timothy. I'm glad he got the year of gymnastics that he did, because he's kept in practice as much as he can and is great at what he does! He is an ambitious kid, not only in that but in other things: he helps me out sometimes voluntarily, in order to be a big helper. He is smart, and also has an easy time learning things, which makes me just pray that in his education through the coming years, I can keep him challenged enough! He's excited to start second grade, and already started his Arithmetic 2 book. It's a great blessing that he has learned to read so well, because he is already beginning to self-teach himself just by reading books that interest him. He also enjoys playing, of course...I'd be lying if I made you think he's all ambition and hard work. He likes playing in the pool, playing "Mom and Dad" with David and Noelle (his part is "John," their teenage son)...he also likes watching movies, especially superhero ones, and playing games (both board and video)...and he loves to draw. He's getting quite good at drawing too.
I've been enjoying the summer this year. For the first time ever, we've had a great garden. We've gotten lots of zucchini and summer squash, some radishes, strawberries, fresh herbs, and thanks to my mom, tons of peppers and tomatoes. I made some fresh salsa a week or so ago, and it turned out great, so I'll need to can a batch of it! Homemade salsa is so superior to store-bought! I love the summer-long harvests...we went and picked some strawberries the end of June, cherries the end of July; my mom let me pick some of her raspberries, and I'm looking forward to peach and apple harvests also! I think I'll try to get some cucumbers as well from Greenbluff, and make homemade pickles.
Well, I should probably get off of here for now and take care of that laundry. But I'll leave you with some pictures. :-)






























































Wednesday, June 17, 2009

Random cuteness from the last few weeks












Sleepy Anastasia was just lying against Forrest and ended up falling asleep this way.

















Noelle.

















Baby girlie with Leia.



















Goofy boys.

Friday, May 22, 2009

Get on Board!!!!



I was only able to get one due to the small memory card.

Thank you Soles family for a great concert!!

Sunday, May 17, 2009

Highlights from Mother's Day...

Pretty much in reverse order.

















Rachel and Antonio, and Matthew, accidentally pretending to be a creepy stalker-type.







































Pretty Japanese garden.


















Some of the Koi. If you look closely you can see there was one with blue coloring...I thought it was really pretty.

































































David.





































Can you say "chubby"?























































































































































The Perennial garden.

Friday, April 17, 2009

Easter pictures, etc.




















Our cute baby, snuggling a baby doll.





















Coloring eggs.

































On Easter morning, before church. Antonio totally posed for me.




















At Rick and Rachel's house for Easter. Thanks guys for hosting, it was great!















The kids after the egg hunt.
















































Isaiah and Leia.















My cute three older kids, all snuggled in bed. More pictures on Facebook.