Gingerbread house

The kids received a Gingerbread kit for Christmas from a friend. Our Christmas celebrations have been quiet and low key.
I am thankful for the change of pace and the opportunity to just enjoy the season.

Coming to a mail box

near you....
The kids and I worked from 11am - 3pm yesterday folding, stuffing, addressing, sealing and sorting 450 Christmas cards. Some families "go big" on gifts; some on decorating; some on food and feasting. About the only thing our family goes big on during the Christmas season is Christmas cards. Each year our total number creeps higher and higher. I am not really sure what possessed Peter and Emma yesterday but they were on fire. They truly wanted to work on the Christmas cards. They were on a roll and didn't want to stop until we were finished. I never intended to complete the entire task; we even had some helped lined up for the next day. They were determined. It made me super proud. We had Pandora going on the computer; we even opened the windows. Ryan and Nathan played together just about the entire time except for lunch and a nap.
If you get a Christmas card from us and the fold isn't perfect or the mailing label is a little crooked or even upside down, just know that it was done with love from us.
I hope you enjoy it! If you don't get one in the next day or two, let us know and we'll add you to our list. There's always room for more.

Sleep over

Last week Peter and Emma had friends over to spend the night. We all had a great time. Philip built a fire; we roasted marshmallows. We had a dance party. They played outside and read stories inside. All through the evening, I kept having visions of what is to come for our family as our kids keep getting older. Philip and I want our kids to invite friends over. We want our house to be filled with kiddos on weekends. We are thankful for the friends that God is providing for our kids. We realize that it's our job as parents to help our kids cultivate good relationships. What better way to build relationships than to have sleepovers.I just need to start figuring out who to feed everyone!

On to Animals

We've about learned all we want to about the American Revolution, the Native Americans, the Pilgrims and all that history stuff. I have decided that we would move from history on to science. I will admit that it Peter who did the majority of the American History studies so far this fall. I did my best to bring it down to all levels but I found that to be quite challenging. I also have a hard time balancing history and science so I decided I would just alternate the subjects. We are going to be studying Animals. I know this is a subject that all the kids can enjoy and learn from together.

I knew that the concept of the animal classification system would probably be a bit to complex for Ryan. I figured he could always understand something having to do with candy!I dumped all the Halloween candy we have left in the center of the kitchen table and divided it amongst the three. I sent them off to private areas to categorize the candy as they saw best.I loved seeing how they each had their own system, each being age appropriate.It really worked out to be a great introduction to classification. The following day, I did some teaching on the classification system. Remember: King Philip Called Out For Goodness Sake. Then I dumped all the stuffed animals I could find into the center of our living room and gave them the job of sorting between animal, reptile, amphibian, bird and fish! It was a fun start to hopefully a great learning semester.

Christmas Tree

With Thanksgiving right behind us, help from my parents and friends, we gave into the kids request of putting up the Christmas tree before it was even December.

Admittingly, I think it took longer to get everything out of the attic than to actually decorate our little tree.

I don't think that deterred the kids excitement one bit.

Thanksgiving

One of my favorite holidays of the year: Thanksgiving. I love it because the roots are undeniable. A time to gather; a time to give thanks; a time to be with family and friends. It has yet to become tainted and tarnished as other Holidays have - at least in my opinion.
This year we gathered with the Chryst family in Charlotte.
Needless to say we had a big or should I say huge time!
Charlotte has an annual Thanksgiving parade Thursday morning. There were horses, camels, marching bands, puppy doges and floats. Great times.
It was a special time to celebrate for the Chryst family with a new child to join our family and a wedding in the future. My heart is full with things to be thankful for. I'm thankful that all my children could find something to share when we circled the room and shared each of our own our thanks. God has been gracious to us this year and it is to Him that my thanks goes to.

West Virginia excursion

The kids and I took a quick fall trip to WV to spend some time with my sister and her kids. This time with my sister is so enjoyable. The kids play together wonderfully, for the most part!
Nathan and I got to babysit baby Calvin while my sister took the other 6 to a homeschool class.
Somehow, I think I got the better end of that deal. Even if it meant trying for over an hour to convince Calvin that drinking from a bottle wasn't really that bad. Unfortunately, I lost that battle and called my sister so she could come home a bit early.

That was the smiling Calvin before he figured out that I only had a bottle to offer him.

Two outtakes from my attempts at getting 8 kids to look at the camera and smile at the same time! You'll have to wait for my parents Christmas card to see the best attempt!
It's always hard to be the one who has to bring the kids back to reality, pack the suitcases and drive away. I am so thankful that they are only 5 hours and not 15 hours away.

Halloween

I announced to the kiddos that we were off to the library and the Person Co. offices to do some afternoon trick or treating. In about 10 minutes, the kids were dressed in costume. Halloween has never been a holiday that I'm really fond of. With 4 kids, I frankly can't afford to buy them all costumes so they are left to their own creativity and hand-me downs.
Confession: I neglected to even buy a pumpkin this year...
Even without store bought costumes or a pumpkin on our front porch, we enjoyed a few hours of afternoon entertainment. Thanks Person County offices for having us; it sure beat trick or treating when it was dark, cold and crowded!

Ponies

We got the call yesterday morning. The ponies have arrived! This summer the boys Sunday school teacher left corporate America, IBM, to become a miniature pony owner. Needless to say, Nathan has been asking weekly about the ponies. These pintos are precious.Nathan was a bit disappointed that Mr. Ernie didn't get an Appaloosa. However, he seemed pretty smitten with the ponies.

There were two 6 month old ponies who were determined to stay together. Although they aren't siblings, they were raised together and wanted to stay that way.

Walking a dog on a leash is only slightly different than leading ponies!

Alamace Battleground

In my meager attempts so far this fall to teach history, we have studied the American Revolution. We breezed quickly through the Native Americans and explorers as Peter was eager to get to the battles. The timing couldn't have been more perfect for us to attend the Colonial week celebration at Alamance Battleground. The kids and I made the 1 hour drive Monday. We all had a wonderful time and learned a tremendous amount.You can tell by the look on Emma's face that she was enthralled with this process. However, I'm not so sure they appreciated the lesson these ladies gave on what each of the children would have been doing throughout the day to help their parents. Nor was Ryan too impressed that he would have been wearing a white dress!
We came to the cooking station soon before lunch. I have to say I'm so thankful for sliced bread, peanut butter and jelly.
I'm glad we have this practical example to refer back too when the kids ask for their own room. Twelve children and 2 adults, in the family of John Allen, lived in this tiny log cabin. I'm guessing nobody had their own space or even their own chair at the dinner table.Amongst everyone, the favorite station was the cannon firing!Following closely behind, in second place, was the musket shooting.As cheesy as the saying is it was really great to see "history come alive". The Regulators were stationed near this rock and Govenor Tyron's militia was stationed by the red flags.

Buzz cut

It again was time to oil the clippers and this time Nathan was on the docket. I have delayed his hair cut as long as possible. I even had a friend cut it when I knew he was close to getting sheared by his daddy.As we expected, he smiled all the way through the buzz and I was close to tears as my baby boys blonde hairs fell softly to the ground.

I'm not quite sure if I'll be able to endure this again. I might just weasel out the cost of taking Nathan with me when I get my hair cut so I can still rub my fingers through that baby blonde.

I must say with all three boys having just had a hair cut it is more than obvious that they are related! Can you see any resemblance in these two blondes?

Ryan at 2 years and 2 months.

Behind again....

I have done it yet again and allowed a few weeks worth of memories to store up on my disc. Forgive me as I unload - I really wish I understood how to make photo collages...oh well!

My husband, whom I love dearly, thought my kids would enjoy a birds eye view of well, I don't know what of....They loved it, of course! Thankfully, Nathan moderately understood that he wasn't "big enough" yet to get on the roof!

Philip had a birthday last Sunday. We celebrated in style and tradition. Two Angel pie's; one for him and one for everybody else to share. Meatloaf, mashed potatoes and cabbage were on the menu for his birthday lunch.

Cookies

I can't even remember when we made these but I do remember how good they were!
Emma did the majority of the work and even helped clean up!

a break...

My parents and their dog arrived late yesterday afternoon and will be leaving first thing tomorrow morning. There stay will be less than 48 hours but it is amazing how helpful it is to have two extra sets of hands for that short of time. Not long after they arrived, we sent them off to take Emma to gymnastics and they actually stayed and watched. Something Philip and I don't usually have the luxury of doing. Then they came back home and stayed with the 3 youngest so Philip could take Peter to Cub Scouts. Philip had the luxury of staying with Peter for the entire cub scouts and I was able to sneak away to the UMW mtg which conveniently and deliciously happened to be at a restaurant! That was just in their first 4 hours of being in Roxboro.So today, we took time to buy Pansies. We went to Lowes and bought a much needed new toilet seat that my Dad installed. We went shoe shopping and bought Peter a new pair of sneakers that he's needed for about a month.I took pictures and am actually posting them in real time! The days only a little half over.....It's been like a breath of fresh air.
Thanks Mom and Dad!

The Bullfrogs

Ryan has entered into a new stage of life. We enrolled him with Parks and Rec soccer. He has become a Bullfrog!
I'm quite positive that Peter didn't start playing soccer until he was 6. Ryan is most certainly that 5 year old player who is mostly excited about seeing his friends on the field and getting to use his "mad face" when he's going after the ball. He's had a good time and feels quite proud of his uniform. He's had his time on the field chasing balls, kicking them toward the wrong goal, falling down on the field when somebody else gets tripped and getting some great exercise.
I think I remember now why we waited until Peter turned 6 to start organized sports!