Calendars

I found this craft idea in a book I had so yesterday afternoon we completed it. We made a calendar mural. I seem to be constantly answering question about when is is fall, when do we get pumpkins, when is my birthday....I thought this might help answer some of those questions. Unfortunately, most of the questions come from Emma and I realize that even this won't help her understand! She still gets breakfast, lunch and dinner confused!

Field Trip

Today was our first official field trip (outside of "family trips). The homeschool group organized a trip with Lowes Food for the preschool and elementary aged kids. It was a great day. Emma connected with a friend of hers named Aubry. You will see them together in every picture. It was fun to see her acting like you would expect little girls to act - holding hands, touching each others hair...Peter stayed close to Ryan and I for the most part expect for when I encouraged him to move toward the front!

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Thoughts on Ryan

This past week I have just been amazed by Ryan. I think part of it is because I'm beginning to realize that he's almost 2 (as of March 18th). Where has the time gone? My baby's not so much a baby but becoming a toddler. He is just a cutie.
I wanted to record some things that he's doing that I just think are adorable!

1. His vocabulary has blossomed. He will now attempt to repeat anything you ask (if he's in the right mood). He's stringing two word phrases together and using lots of names and words. Some of his current favorites are: choo-choo, STOP, books, Ta-da, help, tractor, car. He always greets me in the morning with a "morning" as I come into his room. Whenever he gets hurt he always come crying to me and says "Peter"- even if Peter wasn't involved! He is starting to sing "happy birthday", "Itsy bitsy spider", and "ABCs". He will count 1-4 with a little help. He will pray on his own by closing his eyes, saying a name and then saying "amen".

2. We were blessed with a Thomas the train table this summer. It's home is in Ryan's room. It seems in the past month, he has really developed a great love for Thomas (choo-choo) and playing with the table. The only problem is that he wants all of the trains to be connected which makes for a lot of crashes and the need for urgent help from mom.

3. He has become more comfortable with folks at church. He doesn't give quite as many scowls at folks who try to talk to him or touch him. He loves "Ms. Jan" and her Sunday school class. He doesn't cry at all when I leave him for Sunday School. He recognizes Ms. Jan's voice and calls for her when class is about to start. He as taken the liking to other ladies and big kids which is great for me.

4. He is very nurturing and kind. When Emma spent the last week on the couch, Ryan would bring her a Tupperware bowl, try to give her kisses, rub her arm and just show concern. We visited with a friend yesterday who had a 7 month old and he was taken by her. He searched her diaper bag and found her cup. He tried to feed it to her, gave her toys, wanted to hold and hug her, patted her back and loved on her. It was precious.

A great Monday

We celebrated Emma feeling better and a warmer day than usually by going to Mayo Lake. It was great to get outside and breathe fresh air.

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smiles

 

I noticed a recent comment that I have not had any pictures posted lately. Since Emma's been on the couch for the last 3 days and it's been way to cold to do anything outdoors or worthy of photography, I took the opportunity of being dressed for church as a time for a quick snap shot. They all happened to be matching which is a plus. I actually would have blended in nicely with my "outfit" but then nobody was around to take the picture for us and setting up the tripod was just way too much for for this occasion.

Emma seems to be on the road to recovery and nobody else seems to have gotten the bug. Hopefully, we will have a fun week and maybe some picture worthy adventures!

land of the living

Well, I think we are beginning to get back into the "land of the living". Emma got smacked with a yucky stomach bug and spent all day Thursday and Friday on the couch throwing up. She is up this morning and on her way back. She was a really good patient. She wasn't bothered by throwing up. She was mostly upset because she wanted to know when she would get better and when she could eat again. I was very thankful at how well the boys handled the days. Somehow, Peter was able to stay fairly calm. I have been trying to figure out how and why he was so calm so I can try to keep him that way! I really think that by not having Emma around it just eliminated a lot of the things that he usually does that gets him wound up.

Even in the midst of being sick, Emma was so gentle and caring. She would often say to me, "Mommy, I'm ok. I'll be alright"; "Ryan, don't worry, I'll be ok". She would rub my arm or shoulder as I was sitting with her on the couch. She would ask me questions like, "Is God answering your prayers" (since I'm still throwing up); "How do Angels watch over me". It is really amazing to me what these little ones think about. I truly believe that they are able to process much more information then we give them credit for. I think we in society have "dumbed down" our conversation and expectations with toddlers, preschoolers and young ones. They really are smarter than we give them credit for!

Scarey thought

I just realized that Ryan is 22 months and 4 days old. Nobody would think of this but a mother but ....
When Peter was 22 months old, Emma was born.
When Emma was 22 months old, Ryan was born.

Wow- I was really brave back then. It must have something to do with being in my twenties.

Schedules

It's quite here at home and Philip is at a meeting. Tuesday's night are one of our two tv nights so we are taping "our show" / NCIS. I have few minutes to spare so I thought I would write some.

One of my goals over our Christmas break was to read, Managers of their Home. It's a book/ workbook designed for Christan homeschooling families. I read it and began to work on my own schedule. So today was day three on the official schedule. I have to admit that it wasn't a great day. There were good things about the day but it wasn't quite on the track I had hoped. I am really struggling with this cold weather and our very active and energetic 5 year old boy!!! I know that this is completely natural and one of the reason's that Dr. James Dobson recommends waiting until little boys are 6 yrs old to begin Kindergartner. I have learned that the busier and more occupied I can keep the boy the less trouble he gets into and the calmer things are.

One part of our schedule that I am really proud of is our circle time. I was recently reminded of how quickly Peter can memorize things. I was convicted of not initiating more scripture memorization for him. So I followed the example of someone I read about and created a scripture memorization sheet for both. Today was our 4th day working and Peter has completed the following verses: John 3:16, Philippians 4:13, Ephesians 4:29, Ephesians 6:1, John 14:6 and Psalm 23 (the whole chapter). That was his whole sheet. I still can't believe it. His reward was getting to go the convenient store with his dad and picking out a special treat (candy)! Peter is good. He has an amazing auditory memory.
It's been hard on Emma because she's not keeping up with Peter like she usually does. I will be making new memorization sheets tonight so I think I need to "cushion" hers a bit!

Tomorrow is a new day. I will be spending some time tonight getting some new tricks for up my sleeve to keep these little ones in line!

Snow

I'm a little behind getting these pictures posted! We did enjoy some great snow on Saturday. The kids got to play in the snow in Boone but didn't actually see it falling so this was really exciting for them. Ryan wasn't sure what he thought; he didn't like it getting in his eyes!

Radios

Again this semester Mondays will be Philip's day off and our family day. We didn't really have any places we wanted to go or things we needed to do so Philip got creative!
He found instructions online for how to make your own radio. So Philip, Peter and Emma spent the morning creating their own radio....

Step 1: Wrapping coil around a toilet paper tube 120 times. They found out that it really had to be 120 times.

Step 2: attaching lots of parts...of course Peter and Emma had to have a snack!

Step 3: securing the ground wire and bringing it into the house!
Step 4: "torching" the razor blade to burn off the clear coat so that it would be better conductive to the radio waves. Unfortunately our lighter wasn't quite strong enough but we borrowed our neighbors torch. That did the trick!
Final step - putting it to the test. Unfortunately as of now there haven't been any radio waves heard. However, Philip is planning to continue tinkering with the project and we are all hopeful to hear some tunes. It was a great way to spend the morning and the kids had a great time with their dad!

Argg....Pirates

We just returned home from seeing the Veggie Tales movie, "The Pirates who don't do anything". We went with a group from church and made an evening out of it because we had to travel to the big city, Durham, to see it. I have to admit that our family is devoted to Veggie Tales and Big Idea productions but I was a bit disappointed in the movie. I was surprised that there wasn't much of a spiritual depth to the movie. Sure if you were an adult and a Christian you could draw the conclusions but certainly not a child or a non-believer. It was definitely over Emma's head and she was a bit tense throughout the majority of the movie. Of course she is 3 and 1/2 and I doubt that is the target audience age of the movie. I think my favorite part was the first hour of the movie when I had Emma on one knee and Ryan on the other. I couldn't believe that they were both sitting there so quietly and snugly. I was thankful that Ryan did so well but also was thinking about how Peter hardly got near a TV until he was 2. Here we are with Ryan at 21 months at the movie theatre and this wasn't his first tv exposure for the day. My how things change!

My advice to others considering the movie. I was thankful that I could support the film at the "Box office" but I don't think I would recommend anyone younger than 5 viewing it at the theatre. It was just so loud and so big. I'm sure well be hearing pirate songs from Peter for a while!

Back in action

We arrived home from our wonderful week in the mountains, yesterday afternoon. We had a great time with many wonderful memories and stories to share. I do have a few pictures to share in another post but for now just wanted to say we're home.

When we arrived Thursday afternoon to Boone, there was still a bunch of snow on the ground and it was pretty cold. I was thankful that we took the last minute trip to Walmart Wed. night (before we left town) because I found a better winter coat for Ryan for $12.00!!! He was warm and cozy in his big jacket. We started vacation off with a bang by leaving the cabin Friday morning at 9AM and hitting the Parkway. We hiked through a snowy trail for a good 45 minutes. The kids we have are truly tough. Emma was still not feeling well from a lingering cold and Ryan's nose was also runny. They both were troopers. We were able to see a rabbit hole and possibly a fox den on our hike. We saw icicles, water falls and lots of snow! I realized that not only were we having fun but the kids were really having a science lesson. After making it back to the van and the temperatures rising to the 40s, we headed to one of our favorite Boone restaurants, Our Daily Bread. I thought all 3 kids would fall asleep in the car on the way to lunch but Emma was the only one. I think the hike energized Peter. Out of no where he asks, "Do Angels really have wings". Where does he get this stuff from???

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The fun continued and I'll record some more great memories in another post!

Happy New Year!

Happy New Year to you all. We had a quite unexpected new year's day here at the Chryst home. We had planned to spend the afternoon driving to Cary to visit with my grandparents. As we were approaching Cary, Philip got this twinkle in his eye and said, "I bet it's a beautiful day at the beach. Wouldn't you like to just keep driving." After I realized he was serious, I called my parents to make sure they would be home and to tell them we were considering a trip down.

So it was decided after our time with my grandparents that we would continue down I40 to the coast. It was probably the most spontaneous thing I've done since having children. With no extra clothes, three diapers and NO DVD player we made the trip. We spent a beautiful hour walking the beach before dinner and had a great pizza at our favorite Max's. We woke up, loaded up and hit I 40 this morning heading back home. This time we drove through snow and 30 degree temp. Quite a bit of a contrast from our hour long walk on the beach!
You might notice that Ryan isn't in any of the pictures! He said with my parents to play with the kittens.

I guess 2008 may bring a bit more spontaneity in my life!