Making Memories

Here are some pictures of our first spring time memories:

Elyssia in short sleeves and wearing crocks. A really hot day, but the mounds of snow are solid enough to walk on top.

He's playing a pirate game.  The deck is the ship.

Caleb is either a fellow pirate or the enemy depending on the mood of the day.

Kiersten watching the fun and waiting for the door to get left open so that she can escape outside.  She gets out a lot:).

The propane truck came today!  They overfilled it again:(...

Building lego in between trips outside.

School or snack?  Both!

My 4 big helpers have worked me out of a job:).

Yes, that's what you think it is.  A big spring memory is Caleb being potty trained. He received a sucker as a reward and had to document it with a picture because Daddy was at work.  Sorry if it grosses anyone out.  I promise not to post any more:)  We're very thankful that it only took a week.  He doesn't have to be reminded all the time now and wakes up from naps and bedtime dry, so I "think" it's safe to declare him potty trained.  Next task=Kiersten.

I was checking to see if we're on schedule for Elyssia to finish grade 1 in June and I'm excited to say that we are!  We might even finish a bit before then if we keep up this steady pace.  She's been doing times math drills and actually seems to do even better under pressure than when she's left to do it at her leisure.  Her last drill was 35 addition problems and she did it in 1 minute.  I remember doing those when I was her age and I always got quite nervous. 
  Garrison is going through his school books at a 1 pace a day.  That means he would finish 1 years work in 12 days!  I think I'll probably have to give him some more challenging work. We have plenty to work on with reading though and his brain seems to have made the connection.  If I put him on the same schedule I did with Elyssia we should be able to get through about 4 books a day.  It may seem to be a bit much, but their ability and confidence grows much faster when we do it like that. 
  Caleb has many other accomplishments other than the one pictured above.  He's loves to get the clothes out of the dryer and haul them up the stairs.  He's the milk man, making sure that the milk is on the table for every meal.  He's also the master puzzle man.  He's quicker than his siblings and even his parents sometimes. He's quick to say, "no, that doesn't go there", then proceeds to take the piece from you and put it in.  I'm not talking about 24 pcs anymore.  I think he's up to 100 and he's mastering ones that have been given to his siblings.  His uncle sent him a puzzle postcard and he can put it together not even having a picture to go off of.  Such a smart little guy.  Too smart for his own good sometimes:).
  Kiersten is quite a busy girl now.  She's adjusted to sleeping with Elyssia in the big bed and seems to have picked 6 as her wake up time.  It's okay with me now that she's sleeping through the night all the time.  Her last molar has been very stubborn, which I think was waking her up for awhile.  She seems to have moved on.  She loves the cats and this afternoon I heard her in the back bedroom.  I came there to find her talking to one of the cats, who just happened to have made itself comfortable on our bed!  That cat didn't realize what a huge mistake that was.  I would've taken a picture, but I didn't want the cat to think that it had any place in the house, let alone in our bed.  I asked Kiersten if she told the kitty to go on the bed. She just smiled. Her favorite book right now is "Biscuit makes a friend".  She's quicker to climb up into our laps to read now and gets offended if one of the other ones won't let her up.  Fun times.  WELCOME SPRING!

A Pictureless Post?

Well, practically, considering how full the others have been.  We've just been busy with life and forgetting the camera lately.  I had it all ready to go last week for anniversary Sunday, but didn't need it.  Then this week when we had services I forgot it!  Thankfully Brenda had hers, but I don't have any pics to show until she e-mails them to me.  Services went really well.  It was wonderful to see almost everyone there yesterday.  We even had two visitors. They'd come for the Christmas Eve service, but not to a regular one.  We were able to visit a bit during potluck and enjoyed them quite a lot.  They're sisters and I think that they're around 80 or so.  I'll have to ask Sharon, since one is her mother. The weather was beautiful and sunny.  It's actually been quite nice since last Thursday and we're seeing quite a bit of the snow melting.  Yesterday we had 3 awake all afternoon, for some reason they thought that 15 minutes was a sufficient nap.  Garrison on the other hand thought he was Rip Van Winkle and fell asleep in the van.  We had to wake him up for the evening service at 6!  I'm wondering if he's having another growth spurt.  The boys insisted that they weren't tired on Sat.  This is what happened after Scott read them a couple books:

Proof that they aren't too old for naps yet.

 

Today was a busy errand and grocery shopping day.  It was the 15% off day, so we can't miss that:).  I ended up saving $45 because I got up to $100  three times!  I usually only spend $200 at the beginning of the month and save the other $200 for the second half, but there were too many items that were a good price that I decided to get them today and save even more.  One of the best deals was the flour.  It was 10 kg for $5.98!  The normal price has been around $13 lately.  I now have a full flour drawer and will have one in reserve for later.  I'm really hoping to get ahead on my baking in the next couple weeks so that I won't have to do much once it really starts warming up.  It's also a good way to keep the house a good temp without using up the remaining propane.  We're very thankful that the outside temp has been good. I've been able to keep the thermostat at around 15 C.  I had these two sweet, angelic boys help me do the shopping today:).  They actually did pretty good.  Garrison helped me push one of the carts until it got too heavy for him.  Caleb made sure that his favorite foods didn't fall out of the cart:).  Garrison even fetched several items for me so that I didn't have to push both carts down every aisle.  He would forget that he was in the store every once in a while and start singing a bit loud, but it was kind of amusing.  We managed to get everything bagged and almost into the van without incident.  I went to put a bag in and it slipped out of my hands.  The only thing that broke was the carton of whipping cream!  It got on several containers and wouldn't you know, this was the day I didn't pack extra wipes.  So, I had to purchase another carton and THEN we were ready to head home.  The rest of the day was spent putting things away, fixing meals, planting some seeds to keep inside til the weather is right, and snuggling a particularly fussy Kiersten.  I think I can see the top part of her last molar and I'm praying this is the real thing. It's been bugging her for a month off and on and really seems to hurt her.  In between she'll get cheerful, but then she starts to cry.  She also bit her lower lip today when she bumped her chin.  Her new thing is to beep her nose and ours.  I have to remind her to be gentle because she does have a strong pincher grip. She's very good at identifying her nose, eyes, mouth, hair and eyes now. I think we're going to see quite a bit of development in the next 6 months.  Yesterday was her 18 month mark and she's showing more growth every day.
  Well, I think that's about it for today.  Scott heads back to work tomorrow and there's lots of school on the agenda.  The kids have been really great about helping with dishes, laundry and taking out the trash, so we're all caught up on that.  Speaking of which, one more thing.  We cleared all the bags of milk jugs, etc off the porch today.  There were about 10 bags saved up.  We got close to $3 for them, which says a lot because I think they only give us 2 cents per jug.  The bigger reward though was not having them on our porch anymore:).  There might be another bag somewhere, but I'm going to enjoy having a clean porch once the last bit of snow melts.  The boys have been helping with snow removal too, so it should be fairly soon.  Signing off for now. 

So this is Spring?

Our van got stuck on Sun.  We didn't get it dug out until Tuesday.

Scott's parents and the tractor that came to dig us out got stuck and the men had to dig both of them out.

At least 3 little people are enjoying the mountains of snow:).

I can't remember what devotions they were part of this time, but it was pretty cute.

Caleb's Birthday quilt from Nana.

Enjoying the rays of sunshine.

Kiersten loves sunglasses(these ones are Caleb's).

Elyssia made "stone" soup with carrots(Nana and baby ate it).

2 more kind people that agreed to eat it, even though it was cold.

Enjoying the Toy Story Lego set that Kirk gave to Caleb.

It's been a crazy week since we got home.  We've had one thing after another and this afternoon seems like the first time that we've just gotten to sit around and enjoy just being home together.  Scott's family came for Spring break, but when they arrived on Tuesday it really wasn't very Springy.  Thankfully there was a neighbor down the road that was willing to come help us get the yard cleared.  The propane truck was supposed to make a delivery this week, but they never showed up.  When we called them today they said that they tried on Wednesday, but they were told the roads were too muddy.  I think we're below 8% and they said that if we really need it they'll bring a small container to tide us over.  Scott went into town on Wednesday to teach at Caleb Village and run some errands, meet someone for lunch and check out some potential jobs.  He arrived home to find that the drainage system for the toilet wasn't working properly.  Poor guy couldn't even sit down.  The smell of sewer gas was pretty bad, but thankfully the sewer didn't back up into the basement.  On Thursday they were able to get a pipe and get it flowing out into the field again.  They figured that part of the pipe had frozen up, but I'm really not sure about all the details.  I do know that it's now working, Praise the Lord! Then this morning, part of the tooth that he was waiting to have capped broke off.  The dentist' office said that they should be able to do that sometime this next week or two.
  The other major job has been working on potty training Caleb. The first day didn't go so well.  He would sit on the potty, but only while protesting.  The second day I told him that I would give him a treat if he went.  He went to the toilet, sat down and got the job done. Since then he's gone on the potty at least 10 times each day and we've praised him loudly each time:).  We found out that the Nutters store in town was closing and Scott picked up a bunch of yogurt covered raisins and special mints at a good discount.  They've really come in handy for the potty training.  Elyssia and Garrison have been volunteering to read to him while he goes so that they can have treats too:).  I usually let them do it once or twice a day.  By the way, all 4 kids have been wonderful helpers lately.  They've all been volunteering to wash, fish and dry the dishes, taking out the trash, making their beds and generally being quite helpful.  They don't always want to set the table, but they've been doing it anyways, which is a great help and blessing.  Looking forward to seeing more and more of it as they get bigger.
  Another exciting thing has been watching Garrison's reading skills improve.  Seeing him recognize the words he's been reading from the easy readers in the more advanced books too.  Today he read through a fourth of a book without all the prompting.  I even skipped around to make sure that he didn't have it memorized:).
  Thursday night we went to Prayer meeting.  It was the usual 2, our family plus Kirk.  The kids did pretty good, considering that they've been going to the children's classes while we were on vacation.  I know they're going to miss the extra fellowship, but there's not much we can do about it since we don't have any other kids coming to Sunday School right now.  On Sunday(when we were snowed in) we were able to watch the preaching from Pinecrest.  It was kinda like being at church with the family and thanks to the time difference we can watch their evening service at 4 and be preached to before going to our evening service at 6!  I think it will be good for us, as adults, to have the extra preaching.  It's neat to hear Elyssia and Garrison talking about their "teachers" in Georgia and identifying them singing in the choir and serving the Lord.  So, now our prayer is that we can go forward, renewed and encouraged by our time away and be ready to give more in the coming days and years ahead.  Thankful for all that the ways that the Lord has blessed us.  To God Be The Glory, Great Things HE Hath Done!