Happy kids!

Here are two happy kids!  My wonderful friend Jen's youngest girl, Hanna, and Caleb enjoyed being together after not seeing each other for a while.  They love playing on her swingset in the backyard.  We hadn't been over for piano lessons in over a month while we let Jen recuperate from her surgery.  We are so thankful that she is feeling better!

 One of the first things the kids wanted to see at Jen's were the kittens.  I have known Jen for almost 30 years and it seems like she always has some cute little kittens around! Believe it or not, at one point in my life, I had one of her kittens as my pet, Frankie. Jen helped the mama cat deliver these kittens...she never ceases to amaze me!

 A few days later, we had our next gathering of our Little House on the Prairie group.  This book was so much fun, we had two meetings full of activities.  Our group activity was organized by Laurie, who taught us all about the Pony Express.  She explained how it started out in St. Joseph, Missouri, and ended in Sacramento, California.  She explained to us that it cost $5.00 to send a letter through the Pony Express, so not very many people could even afford the service!

 She set up a miniature Pony Express trail in the backyard, with a bag full of letters that needed to be delivered to various stations.

 Different kids were spread out around the stations helping to deliver the mail.  I think the moms enjoyed watching this activity as much as the kids did!

 Through Marilyn, I have had the pleasure to get to know Kim Medina and her two sons, Reuben and Isaac.  They are such a pleasure to be around, and fit right in with our group.  They love to play cowboys!

 Inside each letter, was a handwritten note, courtesy of our resident novelist, Laurie, and the letters were hilarious!  Sadly, I don't have a picture of any of those!

 Marilyn also taught us all about some of the simple machines/tools that Pa used in the story.  Here she is showing us why Pa used a wedge when he was cutting wood for the house that he built.

 She also explained to them why there are grooves in a screw and how that helps it to keep things together.

 Kim Medina taught the older kids how to make lots of fun designs with string, like the cat's cradle games that Mary and Laura played in the book.  Dylan and Gracie really got the hang of it quickly.  They both carried around string with them for the next couple days trying to come up with new tricks.

 Laurie showed them even more tricks that she remembers, like overalls and bananas.

 My activity was to play cowboys and Indians, and make our own little tepees to go with them.  We looked up various Indian symbols to use as their designs.

I just love these times we have together, because the kids learn so much from the unique talents that each of the moms bring to our gatherings.  Looking forward to On the Banks of Plum Creek, our next book!

It's Halloween, It's Halloween!

 It's Mario and Luigi!  Many months ago, Luke had the great idea that our whole family should be characters from the Mario games.  We couldn't figure out how to do Bowzer, and Gracie didn't want to be Princess Peach, so that left us with just the two brothers.  I bought the costumes early in October. Caleb could see them sitting in their packages on top of the washing machine for weeks and didn't understand why he had to wait! After days and days of asking if it was Halloween yet, he could hardly believe it when I actually handed him the costume to put on.  He did not take it off the entire day!

 Gracie has been studying the American Revolution the past few weeks, and loves her "Felicity" doll, therefore it made sense for her to pick a colonial outfit for her costume.  Aunt Gail outdid herself this year with a beautiful dress and hat that matched her Felicity doll.  Dylan got into the spirit of things and decided to be a patriot soldier.  He wanted the gun so bad, I think he would have worn almost anything that came with it!  Grammy got into the spirit of our "Little House on the Prairie" books we have been reading and dressed like Caroline Ingalls.

 Grammy brought a basket full of fake eggs to complete her costume, which led to an impromptu egg hunt before everyone showed up for the party.  What else are you supposed to do with pretty colored eggs in a basket?

 Caleb and Grammy closing their eyes while Luke hid the eggs in the backyard.  It was a beautiful morning for fun outside.

 We are so thankful for Grammy's best friend, Grandma Delena.  The two of them come to almost all of our get-togethers and help us so much.  On this particular day, they helped me prepare for the games, prepared the food, and cleaned up afterwards.  I am so blessed by their wonderful examples!

 Laurie made a game about pumpkins where the kids had to search for answers hidden all over the backyard.  Did you know that 80% of pumpkins are bought and sold in October each year?  Did you know that Native Americans used pumpkin seeds as medicine?  Did you know that pumpkins are rich in Vitamin A, potassium, and high in fiber?  We learned new things together.

 The kids were thrilled to have Bill home from work and helping them with all of the games.  Even though we aren't thrilled with furlough days, we love having him home more!

 Did you know that pumpkins are grown everywhere in the world except Antarctica?  Did you know that Christopher Columbus carried pumpkin seeds on his return trips to Europe?

 At the beginning of the party, Laurie noticed that we had more grown-ups at the party than kids!  We both talked about how blessed we feel that so many of our sisters in Christ have taken such an interest in our kiddos, and love spending time with them!

 You can take the coach/athletic director away from the school, but thanks to phones, you can't keep the school away from bothering the coach!

 I didn't get a picture of all the different types of breads that we tried.  (Thanks Molly for the fun idea!)  Each mom made a bread from a fruit or vegetable and we had a taste test to see if we could figure out which item was in each bread.  Grammy put chocolate chips in her apple bread, so hers was the hardest one to figure out, but probably the one everyone liked the most.  I loved the sweet potato bread, the pumpkin bread, and the extra loaf of zucchini bread that Marilyn left for us!  What a treat for breakfast the next morning.  We also did a memory game, a puzzle, and the egg race.

 This picture cracks me up as Gracie is trying to hold her dress with one hand while carrying the egg in the other!

 I was amazed that we only had one dropped egg for the entire race!  Everyone took their time and did a great job.

 The three oldest kids relaxing on the swing waiting for their turn in the race. 

 We also did a game with throwing pennies into the pumpkin bowls.  When I thought of this game I didn't think about how well pennies blend into the ground.  I had to double check we didn't leave any on the ground to mess up Bill's lawn mower!

 Our group!

We met Emi and Abby at Molly's house to begin our night of trick-or-treating.  From there we went to Len and Shirley's and then ended with Bill's mom and dad's house.

 When we got to Diana's house, her place was decorated as usual and Bob was in the Halloween spirit with his gorilla mask.  Bill, Bob and Clay took the kids around the neighborhood while Lori, Caleb and I hung out with Diana passing out candy.

After a fun night, everyone relaxed on Diana's couch and watched some "Tom and Jerry" cartoons.

Here's my favorite picture of the day.  Thanks to Joy for catching a moment while Bill was running around playing pirates with the boys at the party.  Several people mentioned that they were surprised to see Bill acting so silly.  It's funny because that's one of the many reasons that I love him and the way he seems most of the time to me! :)

Babies!

I have a major weakness for babies.  Bill says it's because I watch the Duggars' tv show too much, or maybe I was just too fascinated with the Waltons growing up.  All I know is, ever since I was a little girl, I dreamed about having a big family.  The Lord has blessed me so richly with the four wonderful kiddos I have, and here you can see me trying to win Bill over onto the idea of having another... no major announcements coming for us... our family is complete and perfect as is!

 I have had the pleasure to watch my four kiddos being born (obviously) and Emi too.  I got the unexpected joy of getting to watch little Everlee Grace Dow come into our world on Monday, October 24th.  Getting to watch Sarah and Matt become a Mom and Dad was a beautiful thing.  Babies never fail to remind me of God's perfect plan for us, and how much He loves us.  He gives us these children to help us understand how deep that love really goes.  I am in awe of His power every time I look at a newborn baby. 

 Bill enjoyed holding Everlee and reminded me several times about how far we have come in the past 12 years and how grateful he is for all of our kids being healthy and happy. Not to mention, how much he enjoys getting to sleep through the night, go out of town every once in a while, etc...

 How can you resist this face!  While we were all staring at Everlee, Luke was messing around with my camera :)

 Luke has no memories of Caleb being born, so he really didn't know what to think about a newborn baby.  He kept asking me about what she was doing, could she really see him, was she really smiling, does she get scared, why does she cry, what does she eat.... the list went on an on...

 Sarah is great at taking pictures, go to her facebook page for more beautiful pictures of Everlee.  I have no doubt Everlee's life will be well documented :)

And now in April of next year, Molly is going to have a boy of her own!  I am so excited for her to have this amazing experience.  She was there walking the Ontario Mills mall with me right before Dylan was born, she walked with me around Hermosa park almost every day before Luke was born, she came and held Luke for me on the days when I was going crazy wondering how I could handle three kids.  She has seen me at my absolute worst days as a mom, and I'm thankful she still wants to have one of her own :)  Click on Molly's blog for pictures of the "mustache and bows" party that we had for her last weekend!