Saturday, February 19, 2011

My Special Valentines

I always loved when my college roommates would receive one of Mrs. Kimbrough's giant cookies  (They were always very kind to share).  I thought this Valentine's day I would share that treat with my kids.


 Each kid received their own giant heart shaped cookie
 Of course Daddy received the biggest cookie
 Ezekiel was asleep when I gave the kids their cookies, so I had to get a picture of him eating it instead
JA and I made lunch for the kids together - Quesadillas

Thursday, February 10, 2011

A Really Great Giveaway

I have been trying to find different areas in our budget that I can save money.  The one area I haven't even considered is reducing my use of the dryer  I just can't stand the flimsy drying racks that you buy at Wal-Mart.  They take forever for clothes to dry, and if you even look at them they collapse.  However, Life in a Shoe is doing an awesome giveaway.  There is nothing flimsy about this dryer rack.  If I had something like this, I think I could handle reducing my use of the dryer :)

Wednesday, February 09, 2011

A New Feature

For those of you who frequently visit my blog, but do not use a feed reader, I have added a new feature to my blog.  In the top right corner of the blog, there is a box where you can subscribe to my blog through e-mail.  This will allow you to know when my blog has been updated so you don't have to keep returning to the blog and finding the same posts you have already read. 

While I have good intentions to blog on a regular basis, I cannot guarantee that I will be able to stay on top of it.  In fact, if my intermittent blogging over the last few months is any indication, I will probably be blogging in spurts followed by long periods of rest :) Well, the rest will only be on my blog, I can guarantee that there will not be a lot of rest around our house!


Thursday, February 03, 2011

An Amazing Husband

 I love bragging on my husband, and he makes it so easy for me to do.  I absolutely have the most wonderful husband in the WORLD!  In the first couple weeks of Gabriel's life it seemed like he wanted two things -- To Eat and be Held.  The main problem came when mommy was holding him.  If I was holding him, it wasn't enough to be held, I had to feed him.  That meant for the first week, I didn't get much sleep.  One morning, J.A. woke up when I was exhaustively feeding and trying to get Gabe to fall back to sleep;  He reached over, took Gabe, and carried him downstairs to the living room so I could sleep.
 When I woke up, I found J.A. and Gabe both sleeping soundly on the couch; and I felt so much better.
 Tiny Gabe, only two days old.
Gabe just a few hours after birth.

Wednesday, February 02, 2011

My Little Babysitter

 Kara loves to help "Babysit" her baby brother.  He absolutely loves her.  If he's crying, she'll pick him up and start singing to him.  He just looks at her admiringly and smiles.
 Kara has been a great help to me so I can get some things done without having to hold Gabriel the entire time.
I think in a few years she'll be a great babysitter.

Tuesday, February 01, 2011

Winter Fun

Okay, I'm just going to say this once -- IT'S COLD OUTSIDE!  Now that I've said that I can continue on with my post.  Last month was quite a busy month for our family.  Between adjusting to life with a newborn, church ministries, having family come and visit, and trying to accomplish a month's worth of school so we don't have to have school way into the summer -- made for a great combination.  I don't know if it's the addition of the newborn or my determination not to fall behind on school again, but this has been one of the most profitable months in our household (as far as getting things done, not financially).

Ezekiel enjoyed his skating ride
School went amazingly well, we started school on January 5 and so far have completed four weeks of school.  Kara is doing great in all of her subjects and in her piano and violin practicing, and Lydia has almost completed her reading lessons, and Andy is beginning his reading lessons.
By the end of the night Lydia was skating really well, and refusing all assistance

However, the main point of this post is more about the fun we've been able to enjoy as a family and not about the work we've accomplished.

Andy was doing pretty well skating by the end of the night.
This past month we introduced the kids to joy of rollerskating inside with real skates (not the toys skates you slip on over your shoes that never seem to work very well).  They had a blast and are already looking forward to going back this month for a friend's birthday party.  Enjoy the pictures.
Kara spent most of the night clinging to Sarah or me to help her skate.

 Since J.A. doesn't skate, and I knew there was no way I could teach three kids at the same time to skate, we took a friend's boy with us to teach Andy how to skate.  My plan was to teach Kara and Lydia, but when we arrived at the rink, one of the teenage girls came over and offered to teach help me teach the girls, so we took turns with Kara and Lydia.  I absolutely love our homeschool group, and the servant's heart that so many of our teenagers have learned.  Now to start teach my kids the joy of serving :)
Gabe slept almost the entire time we were there -- waking up just in time to eat before we began the drive home.