Family Pictures

So we were trying to get a decent picture of the three kids for our Christmas card and a decent picture of the whole family for my mom and mother-in-law. After several hours spent with my now photographer best friend, we came up with almost nothing (not her fault)! It is so hard to get 5 people to look at the camera at the same time, let alone smile! And the kids were so wild and trying to wrestle each other which in turn made Abe cry. All in all there are some good pictures but they are not exactly what I was aiming for!

And we messed around with the lighting on some of them, that's why they look so different! None of these are the current front runner for the Christmas card, so I will not ruin it for anyone :)

We will miss you, Maddie (too)

It has been a bad week for pets at our house. Yesterday Piper went to Maddie's (hamster) cage to give her a treat and after shaking the cage and grabbing at her (she sleeps under a ledge in the cage where it is hard to see her) Piper came to me. I realized pretty quickly that she had died in her little sleeping nest. Piper was so upset and wanted Chad to bury her immediately. She has dealt with way too much death in her short life, having lost 2 great-grandparents and numerous pets.

I was sad to see Maddie gone too. She was a great, low-maintenance pet and really cute. Piper insisted that we pray safety and health over the other pets, Max and the 4 cats. I love that she is so comforted by prayer. She really can pray about something and hand it over to Jesus to 'worry' about, something I struggle with myself. It's amazing what we can learn from our own children!

We will miss you, Freddy

While we were vacationing last week Freddy (the donkey) passed away. The owner came down to visit him in the barn and he could not get up. He called the Emergency Vet who upon arrival encouraged that Freddy be put to sleep. Best she could tell, he had a stroke and was not able to get up. So sad.

We will miss hearing those brays all day and night and seeing Freddy hanging out in the pasture. I think Max even misses Freddy; he goes to the middle of the field and barks and barks looking for him.

We will miss you Freddy!

VACA

We have been gone all week vacationing on the river! It was about a 4 hour drive toward the beach, but not quite as far as the beach. Our accommodations included access to an indoor pool, mini golf and an awesome paved trail for bike riding. We took advantage of all those amenities and visited a local fireman's museum, a skating rink, a kid's fort/playground and bowling. There was so much to do and the weather was perfect!

I took tons of pics with disposable cameras as someone has borrowed my digital. I have forgotten how wonderful a digital is, now I will appreciate it more after working with disposables!

Piper's birthday party last week went so well! She really enjoyed playing and loved all her gifts. We took most of them on vacation since she was not ready to part with them when we left.

We have got to get back to homeschooling!

From Cohen's mouth

Cohen newest thing is to come up to Chad and I, jump in our laps and say with the sweetest voice, "I love you Mom (Dad) and I'm goin'a be your best friend." He has such a kind, loving spirit.

On a funnier note, he also says, "I'm John McCain and I approve this message." He has heard these political commercials so much that he constantly repeating them! He said the above in Goodwill the other day and every adult around us started laughing when they heard him! And when he sees either candidate on a commercial or poster he yells, "Mom, there's Marack Obama!" or "Mom, there's John McCain I approve this message!" He actually thinks 'I approve this message' is part of his name and Barack is pronounced Marack just because.

Piper's birthday

Chad and I gave Piper the choice of a birthday party or a present from us this year for her 6th birthday. I did the big birthday parties when she turned one, two, three and four, but I learned my lesson after that! Those parties were mostly for me to be honest, she has no memory of the first two parties, the second two were at her gymnastics facility, so she did enjoy those. But my point is that I spent so much time and money preparing for those parties, ordering coordinating plates and pinatas from eBay, buying canned drinks and cakes from Sam's that I did not put my focus on the birthday girl and really enjoy her. Stressing about the details is my downfall!

Well, this year she has chosen a party instead of a present, not what I wanted her to chose but at least she is old enough to chose who, what, when and where! I mention all the above to say that I have let her pick the place and the cake and I am not coordinating plates, napkins, pinatas, etc this year! We are not inviting every member of the family either (like in the past), just the few that have kids Piper's age! I refuse to stress over this this year!

Anyway, the party is small, all cousins and I am looking forward to it. I am going to enjoy it and make it fun for Piper!

Piper in her Bible garb

As part of Piper's schooling we ofter complete activities to help her learn more about the bible. It seems something hands-on is so much better for teaching with Piper, or most kids for that matter. This past week we dressed Piper up like she lived when Jesus lived. Although our interpretation was far from perfect, I think she got the message. We were aiming for a long robed tunic style outfit which was achieved with a printed Japanese robe (too small) and a towel underneath to get the desired length. Also she is wearing her brown leather sandals and headpiece!