Birthday Season...

The countdown has started. Elyssia can hardly wait for it to be Kiersten's Birthday. Only 4 more days, but the suspense is killing her:). I went out this morning to get some of the things I needed for decorating cakes and to see what I could find for presents. We're keeping it small and trying not to add too many more "things" in the house, while making it memorable. Part of that is in decorating the cake. Thus far I've made the cupcakes they've requested or we've gotten ice cream cakes from Dairy Queen. Kiersten is into dollies and stuffies, which she has plenty of. At the last parade the kids seemed the most excited over balloons. These are included for days of enjoyment, or maybe an hour once Kiersten gets ahold of one:))). She's quite good at popping them, to the great consternation of her siblings. I think we'll have a little tea party and make little sandwiches and finger foods, maybe even a picnic, if the weather is nice. Things that little girls like and with lots of pictures we can look at to remind us of it later. I bought a "new to her" sleeper today. When Kiersten saw it she grabbed it up and giggled every time she looked at it. We'd say, "do you like it?" which seemed to make her giggle all the more. It's pink with Piglet on it and I wish our camera's sound still worked with the video. She's at such a giggly stage and it makes everyone laugh. Loving each little stage and thanking the Lord that we haven't had to deal with a stubborn streak with her yet. Elyssia's started to sow at about 11 months. Garrison not so much, but he's very quick to cry or get worked up about things. Caleb was quiet until close to 2, now he's probably the most strong-willed of the bunch. So, for now we enjoy each day of Kiersten's sweetness and pray that the Lord helps us to guide the others to use their stubborn streaks for good.

Elyssia turns 7 next month and seems to be more growing up faster than ever. She still has a lot of little girl in her, but it's neat to see her growing into a helpful young lady. She's been a big blessing and help with Kiersten. She's helping more with baking and loves most cleaning jobs that involve water:). We've found that making things into a race gets most chores done super fast. Whatever works:).

Garrison turns 5 on November 7th and I think we've seen the biggest physical growth in him over the past year. He's about an inch shy of being as tall as Elyssia. He delights in showing us how strong he is bringing in the groceries or taking out the trash. He's quick to see if Dad needs help with a job and is overjoyed each time he gets to "go to work" with him. Last night we were taking pictures after they got haircuts. They all had a bath and as I was combing Garrison's hair I remarked that he looked like "Grandpa Prisk" had at that age. There are some differences, but some strong resemblance as well. Here are a couple:

Caleb is quite disappointed that he has to wait until March for his next Birthday, but I think that there will be plenty of cake and games to make him forget:).

Is it just me, or does Caleb resemble Scott's cousin Brock in this second picture? Asking the Holloways that read this:).



So, it's been a good year overall. So many blessings and things accomplished. It's hard to believe that it's going to be October soon. We thought our trip to Georgia would be hard to wait for. Now it's come and gone. We've made lots of new missionary friends this year. This pregnancy has gone by quite a bit faster than the others and we're enjoying Elyssia's second year of homeschooling. So much to thank the Lord for and so much to continue to look forward to...

Lost...

Elyssia is going to be requesting at least one of her front teeth for Christmas:). Scott pulled it out this morning and the one next to it is starting to wiggle. Today's tooth was number 4 and she's very excited about the large space to move her tongue through.

Along the same lines of the title I can write something about 2 of our 3 cats. We've only seen Taffy lately and think that coyotes might have gotten the other two. They were becoming quite the troublemakers and I think they just took to wandering a bit at night. I have to admit that we weren't super attached to those two, but wouldn't wish them to be devoured by the coyotes. We bought the cats to catch mice, but Sam, the dog, ended up catching the most! So, I'm not sure if we'll try to get more cats next Spring. I think we'll see how things go this winter. If we have a lot more mice coming in, then we'll definitely be thinking about it.

I also FOUND quite a few tools while cleaning Scott's shop that I think he forgot he had. Amazing what can be found under piles of sawdust. I think he could probably take at least a truckload of stuff to the dump, but that will probably end up happening in the Spring. For now, we were able to clear a large floor space and hopefully that will be helpful if he needs to do some of his work in there this winter.

Last, but not least, Sarah's baby is Mattaya May Smith. I think that mother and baby are doing well. Unfortunately, her dad was in a motorcycle accident yesterday and broke his collarbone. Last we heard they were doing more tests to see if there was any internal injuries. Please pray for a quick recovery. I'm sure that he's anxious to see his newest granddaughter.

Tea House Trip

It's been another busy weekend, so this post is delayed a bit. Saturday we made the much anticipated trip to the Nilgris Tea House in Three Hills, Alberta. It's kind of a late birthday present for me and an early 7th Birthday present for Elyssia. The drive should have taken 3 hours, but we had two stops and road construction that turned it into 4. That's okay, there wasn't much fussing from the kids and a new story cd got us through the drive there. It was called "Buried in the Snow". Another dramatized story done by Lamplighter Theatre. I think this is my new second favorite.

I'll post pics from the trip first, then write a bit about what we enjoyed most.

Scott took the younger 3 to the park for a picnic lunch, while Elyssia and I were at the Tea House. Afterwards I watched the kids for a bit so that Scott could visit with Bro. Ironside. We ordered the homemade mac n'cheese with farmer's sausage and a side salad. There were so many good desserts to choose from that we ended up choosing 3 to share with everyone. They were all delicious, but I have to say the Carrot Cake was my favorite. I'd heard it was good and it definitely lived up to it's reputation:). Afterwards we went back to the park to run off some more energy and I got a couple good pics of the older two. I love sunny day pictures. The pictures just end up looking so much better than all the others.

Overall it was a really good weekend. There were a couple people at church that we hadn't seen for most of the summer and the kids were mostly good. The day went by pretty quickly. Yesterday was grocery sale day, so I went as close to opening as possible. There was some cleanup to do at home, but the kids were up early, so we got that done first. While I was gone they picked saskatoons and Scott made a potato soup with ham. Very yummy! When I got home we were able to cut up the fruits, meats, shred cheese, etc and get them into the freezer. We find that it saves quite a bit of prep time later in the month when things get busy. The older 3 were really good about unloading the groceries from the van. Garrison was packing so much each time that his arms were sore at lunch time. They had also worked together to clean Elyssia's room, which was a nice surprise. Unfortunately Kiersten and Caleb managed to mess it up again before bedtime, which was very upsetting to Elyssia. Today the boys are working on their room while I make buns. Scott had a job in town and he needed to take Elyssia, so it's a bit quieter around here.

Our garden has been doing really well this year! We've already eaten corn on the cob 3 times and I could eat it at least a dozen more. Last night we made extra so that I could cut some off and freeze for later use. Elyssia's been saving the silk, etc, to make a corn cob doll. We'll see how that turns out. The older 3 are getting really good at shucking corn:). They kinda race to see who can do the most. We also had some overripe bananas and extra whipping cream, so a batch of homemade banana ice cream was in order. If you've never tried it before, it's delicious! Very few ingredients and you don't have to worry about it going bad because there's rarely any leftovers:).

Well, I think it's time to work the bread dough and switch the laundry to the dryer. "Labor Day" is every day around here:).