What Do You Do...

What do you do when you look out the window and see that a little boy has climbed AGAIN into a bush that he is not suppose to climb in... but he is happily trying to sing a three-year-old version of the Zacchaeus song???!!!  How can they be sooooo cute and so naughty at the same time?

FIVE.... plus this and that

Our precious girl turned FIVE yesterday!  These years with our Clara have zipped by so quickly!  She is such a dear, energetic, sensitive, caring, helpful (at times :-)), lovely, fun, addition to our family.  We love you, sweet girl.

So, here's a bit of what Clara is like at five:

Her favorite color is pink
Yesterday, she said her favorite animal is a monkey
She's put in her "order" for a little sister
She loves to have someone to play with
We're working on some home school preschool
She likes to teach... she's done a lot of pretend cooking type "presentations"... and we got a kick out of hearing her instruct her brother on how to do a job the other day.

Like I said, we love you girl!!!



Now, here are some more recent shots from around here.

Hil's got some big shoes to fill!  :-)

Our smiley girl!

Sometimes, Ittai fights going to sleep.  The other night after he'd been fighting and struggling.  Daddy took off the warm, long sleeve shirt the little guy had been wearing and the little man calmed down and started dozing on Daddy.  So sweet.

And here's the man in action!

Who Needs a Movie...

... when you could just watch the washing machine!

Snow, Rocky Road, Baby Ducks...

 On Thursday, May 2nd, this is what it looked like at our house in the morning!!!

Here is a boy after a lovely afternoon out with the family on Saturday... and after sharing Mommy's Rocky Road ice cream cone!  :-)



And here are the two latest additions around here.  Cute huh?!  On that lovely Saturday outing, that I already  mentioned, we went into a local farm and home supply place... with no plan to come home with ducks... but things change.  :-)  Particularly, when a lady from our church works there and asks us to PLEASE take them.  Our chickens were pretty disturbed by the little guys, but they seem to be adjusting.  I've been concerned that the chickens would attack the little guys... but after two days, so far so good.

And now, a couple shots of Ittai cuteness!

Make sure NOT to miss Stephen's post below about his new Youtube channel!!!

New Channel

Some of you may or may not be aware that I (Stephen) started a Youtube Channel to do some Bible teaching.  Here are my two latest.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HPqFa_Rx8IE

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GR9dDdeaekY

 

 

 

 

 

 Our Hilkiah turns three this week.  We had an early birthday celebration at lunch time today.  He wanted "toppa" (pasta), so that's what we had.  The other day, when we were seeing what he wanted to have, after getting his "toppa" order, Stephen then asked if he wanted cake or pie or ice cream cones.  His response: "toppa".  :-)  Ended up getting him to vote for ice cream cones... to be had after the toppa.

Hil has already brought such joy and fun to our lives with his boyness, his 100 watt smiles, his rambunctiousness, fun times with his sister, adorable ways of saying things, and squeezable cuteness.  We love you, boy!!!!

 In other news, this little man is eating more solids here he is with... whipped cream.  :-)




Yesterday, I was wanting to feed Ittai something, but also needing to go get Hilkiah up from his nap.  I set Clara up to feed the little guy smashed banana.  She informed me that one Momma would be getting a boy up and one Momma would be feeding another boy.  Sweet girl!  After bring big brother out to the living room, I grabbed the camera.  Of course, once Ittai saw Mom and the camera, he didn't want to stay put.

Here he comes!  

Total round faced cuteness!  :-)

Updates!

It's time for some little people updates... how they're growing, changing, developing.

Clara, our lovely little lady, is pushing 5 already!   A little lady she sure can be, as she likes to dress up and twirl and dance.  She also has thought and concern for spiritual things.

 A mover and a shaker, would apply pretty well to her too.  She could direct the house hold (or at least try) if we allowed that.  :-)

 She and Hil and spend lots of time playing together, and sometimes she get's bummed when I put Hil down for a nap, saying "But then I won't have any friends."  They're buds. And sometime... they're NOT buds.  :-)

We've been doing some preschool and she's learning!  We don't do a whole lot, but slowly, bit by bit we're making progress.

She's is a dear and is getting to the age where she can be more helpful.  She got out cereal, milk and spoons this morning for breakfast.

Clara is also a good interpreter.  There are times when I'm NOT getting what Hilkiah is saying, but she does.  :-)


Hilkiah is finally clicking with potty training!  Yay!  Makes Mommy happy!  We've got a lot of improving to do, but he's made some huge strides in the last few weeks!

Hil's vocabulary continues to grow and he's becoming quite the little talker!  :-)

He's spends lots of time playing with sis, and has hit the stage of playing imaginary games in a big way!  He can go hunting or take care of babies, or be an injured individual that Doctor Clara is caring for, etc.

He can eat like crazy, putting away almost as much as Mommy or Daddy at times.

He can sure be a handful, but he's got tons of cuteness to make up for it.


Ittai, our sweet little dumpling, is eight months now.  He's not crawling yet, but rolls and scoots and squirms his way around.  He's also sitting pretty well on his own, but will eventually topple over.  

We've started regular solids in the last week or so. He'd been trying stuff here and there before, but he wasn't too impressed and it would generally get pushed back out.  But he's now swallowing it down!  Yay!

Generally, he's a pretty easy little guy, and can keep himself pretty busy for good lengths of time playing with and chewing on toys.   


We're so blessed to have these three precious gifts from the Lord!

More From the Trip

Grandpa and his boy.

Happy Birthday Aunt Amy!  (I'll add here, that my dad also had his birthday when we were out there, and Clara wanted to give him a gun for his birthday!)  :-)

Uncle Josh with a niece and nephew.

Cousins!

LOVE this shot!  Some priceless smiles there!!!

Sister outing!

Helping Uncle Josh with the garden!

One of the great blessings of this trip was that my brother David and his wife Amity had there second daughter two days before I left!  So, I got to meet sweet Anika Carmicheal before I left!

Clara showing off her "big" tummy!

 I'll add here that Clara loved "helping" Grandpa in his office and garage (which are affectionately dubbed "the salt mines").  One time she was answering her imaginary phone and would say "Hello, this is the salt mines".  :-)

Us with the Family!

The camera battery and charger arrived and now, here are some pictures from the trip to see my family!  I think this one of my Mom and Ittai is lovely!

Aunt Melissa and Ty

I got to meet my sweet niece, Sabina, for the first time on this trip.  Here she is "holding" Ty.

Hilkiah and Uncle David

Another one that is simply lovely!  Clara and Aunt Amy

 Playing with "Uncle Wany" (Randy)

Me and my dear Dad!

More coming soon, Lord willing!

The trip home...

 My battery and charger are in the mail... so I'll soon be sharing pictures from the camera of our time in CA with my family.  However, for now, here are some great ones from the very end of the trip.  My dear Mom, drove us down to LA and we were reunited with my dear hubby, who we hadn't seen in four weeks!  Here are some shots of us while waiting for our train to leave for the trip home.

 A sweet lady we met who held Ty for a little while.

Following this, we had a 20-something hour trip home on the train.  The train really is a great way to travel.

We're settling in here back at "the homestead".  We have had a round of sickness going through the ranks... mostly the little people ranks.

We've enjoyed some lovely spring weather, and the bulbs are coming up!  We're also dreaming about spring planting... more on that later!

Home Again

Well, we are indeed home again, after a lovely visit to my family and friends in my home town.  For four weeks we got to see people I hadn't seen in over two years, make to visits to the beach, go ice skating, meet  two dear nieces, do a little shopping, get treated to a visit to a tea house, have a girls coffee outing, be present for my Dad's, Amy's, and Josh's birthdays, eat at In-N-Out :-), and mostly just spend a lot of time with friends and family.  What treats!  The time went by quickly!  Thank to each dear family member and friend who did so much to give us an enjoyable time!

I left the charger for our camera batteries behind... so it may be a little bit before I post pictures from the visit... but Lord willing, I'll be sharing some before long!

The other day someone asked Clara about whether she was glad to be home.  She said "Yeah.  But now I miss my California family."

My People

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G and the kids are in CA visiting Grandma and Grandpa F.  So I am alone for another week.  I have been trying to get some things done around the house to pass the time and be productive.  One of the things on my list is to post.  Because I figure that if I am getting tired of the lack of new posts, then our miriad of fans are probably about to boycott.  So below are some of the pics that G has sent to help me get a fix.

 

These are the kids waking up in the morning.  I would guess that if this pic was taken -10min prior, then the girl would have had her thumb in her mouth.  The boys like their passies.  I know some parents my age that trained without passie, but we are not that good yet.

 

 

Here is Ty expressing his gratitude for some time on the swing.  Chunky boy. 

 

I wanted to add a picture of my girl.  I miss her super much.  Don't you think she's really pretty without makeup?  I heard this line from an older, wiser man:  "I tell people that the kids got my looks because my wife still has hers.  hahaha!"  True in our case, esp. for all of their noses. 

 

 

The Happy Couple!  :-)

Sweetness.

The girl set up her office, on one of our bedside tables, so the boy....

... set up his too.  The "office" is great... but the boy himself cracks me up!  :-)

 And a cute one of the little man!


Well, it's a busy day around here!  Packing, tidying, and last minute this and that.  Lord willing, tomorrow morning, dark and early, Grandma F., three kiddos and myself will be climbing onto a train, headed out west for a good long visit!  It'll be an adventure!  And my Mom is here to help with the travels... and she's been a big help with final preparations too!