Now That's A Mouth Full!

Claires popped out a rather long sentence today... of course, it was a sentence of instructing little brother to behave himself!

We were getting ready to make granola and she had pulled out the oatmeal (pronounced something like "e-mail"). We had it sitting up on the counter. I was holding Kiah and Claires was standing on a chair, when out comes this very "big sisterly" type admonition.

"N-touch e-mail Ki-boy. K?" Translation: "Don't touch oatmeal Ki-boy. K?" :-) Gotta love it.

Speaking of granola, I did one of the simplest versions of granola ever today... and once I've tried a bowl of it, I'll have to give a report on the results. It contains simply: oatmeal, flaxseed, almonds, raisin, craisins, olive oil and honey... and that's it! Super simple... and healthy!

The Late Night Meeting on the Lord's Day

This is S: I was in the kitchen and G told me that I need to come to the kid's room to see the "meeting" that was going on. Once I saw it and heard the spontaneous singing of this "meeting" I had to grab the camera. First of all, Clara's bed has a shelf right at mattress level, so to keep her pillow from slipping out, we filled her headboard shelf with hymn books that were given to us. Below is what was happening. I took a little video but we can't post video yet. You would have heard a little of the singing. :o)







Makes me think of the following:
...a little maid; and she waited on Naaman's wife....Would God my lord were with the prophet that is in Samaria! 2 kings 5 (i.e. - waited on the prophet like the girl waited on the wife.) little truth still equals truth.

...And Moses said unto Korah, ...seemeth it but a small thing unto you, that the God of Israel hah separated you from the congregation of Isr. to bring you near to Himself to do the service of the tabernacle of the Lord, and to stand before the congregation to minister unto them? Num 16

Unto you therefore which believe He is precious....

Hold 'Im!

"Hold 'im!" That's how Clara lets us know she wants to hold her little brother. :-) She likes to hold him, but it usually only lasts for a few moments. Yesterday, she was doing such a great job and it was soooooo cute, so I ran and crabbed the camera and got a couple precious shots.

Claires is a great sissy. She loves to goof off and make Kiah laugh and smile. However, we have to watch her, as she can get too rough pretty quickly.

And if "Hold 'im!" is what she says when she wants to hold Hil, "Hol-jee" what she says when she wants us to hold her. She'll bounce up and down sometimes, going "Hol-jee, hol-jee, hol-jee!!!" And if you didn't know what she was wanting... it might take you a while to figure it out! :-)

More Of That Tummy Time!

Clara thinks tummy time together is just so great, as you can see!!! Kiah-man... mmmmmm... not too crazy about it just yet.

Fort Fun... Living Up To It's Name

A couple days ago we enjoyed trying out a different park, called Fort Fun! Good name for it. We made the excursion with our neighbor and her little girl, Emmie Lou, who is a month older then Clara. Fun times were had. One of Momma's favorite parts was that it was a beautiful day and there were quite a few trees, which gave lovely shade!










Fun times with Emmie Lou and new friends!



These twins were just too cute! You should have seen them toddling around! Their names were Hope and Faith!

Sweet Little Hands Discover Sweet Little Feet!

Kiah-man has been working on the challenging art of reaching and grabbing things! And in the last few days he has discovered these neat little things that are always there on the ends of his legs and can be grabbed with his sweet little hands! :-)



After seeing Kiah get his picture taken, somebody else seemed to want a picture taken of HER "footies"! :-) So, there you have it:



Stay tuned! Hoping to come back later today with some pictures from our adventure to fort fun!

Two Precious Blessings!

They are already becoming buddies!

Two-for-one

Opened up our first ever double-yoker from our chickens! I was pretty happy....!

One At Four

Made a discovery today. Our little fella has a baby white ivory that has popped through! He's growing so quickly! Four months already and the first tooth already coming in! Solid foods, here we come!!! :-) He'd been doing a lot of chewing on his hands and drooling all over the place... but very thankfully, hadn't been too fussy! May the others come in just as easily!!! :-)

In other news, we got home this evening from an enjoyable trip up north to visit relatives! What a treat! My second cousin, Grace, and her husband kindly invited us up for the holiday weekend, and showered us with kind hospitality! Clara had a great time getting to play with their girls and we were able to get to know Grace and Josh more, as well as visit with other relatives! What a blessing to have such dear family!


And a first tooth is not Kiah-man's only new thing these days. About a week ago he made the transition from pink bassinet, to the crib, which has taken on a new look! Much more manly then that hand-me-down bassinet from Sissy! The kidos are now sharing a room, and so far, the transition has gone fairly smothly! What a blessing!!!

In Recognition...

Stephen says the new blog design is in recognition of Hurricane Earl... our first hurricane. :-)

A Treat

One of the treats in our life is getting to go have a picnic lunch with Daddy! We hadn't done one in quite some time... but that ended a couple days ago when the three of us headed on down to Daddy's work and spent lunch break with him!


Waiting for Daddy



Kiah-man was so content lying there on the blanket kicking and grabbing the blanket.


And, of course, Sissy had a great time as usual! Special times!

Oops!

National Geographic has a fascinating video on their site, dealing with the function of a giraffe's lungs! It's a very interesting, short video, but the priceless part is the scientist's slip-of-the-tongue at the end! I was somewhat surprised that National Geographic didn't edit out the slip up! It is soooo great!

Click HERE to watch this great video!


Warning: This video involves scientists working with and discussing a dissected giraffe... so if that type of thing really bothers you... you may want to pass. But if you think you can handle it, please do! It's fascinating!

Chicken Wars and a Momentous Day

Our chickens were making a nuisance of themselves. Something had to change. We wanted that ideal cage-free chicken - free to run around and eat bugs and grass... but it just wasn't working. They were becoming increasingly confident about jumping the chain link fence and running around the neighborhood. Our neighbors were really good about it, but you never know when they might reach their limit. The nuisance combined with the expense was making us think about getting rid of them.

We tried catching them, re-clipping their wings and shutting them up in their coop. But one of them was just too good at evading us and we couldn't seem to catch her. And on top of that the captured, re-clipped ones were still managing to jump out of the coop.

When Josh was here, he and Stephen joined forces and took on the chickens. They managed to round up the three that were still on the loose and get them back in the coop. Then they took some extra wire and added it to the top of the coop. Since then - no escapes. The chickens aren't too happy about the end of their freedom... but it sort of their doing. :-) And besides, our friends told us that if they run around, when they begin laying eggs they'll lay them everywhere.



And here's Clara doing some work too! She is busily using some wire on her trike.



Well, yesterday something momentous happened! Our friends were over for Bible study and Stephen had taken some of the guys out to see the chickens. One of our friends suddenly noticed an egg lying on the ground! So, they went looking and what should they find but 7 eggs total! Happy day! We were pretty excited!!! Guess we might not be getting rid of them quite yet! :-)

And here is Clara, showing our first 7 eggs!



And this post is significant for another reason... it is our 500th post!

Mr. Fix-It

After bath time, about a week ago, Momma got a bit carried away with the outfit! :-)





The picture of relaxation! :-)

Hair cuts!

Clara and I hadn't had a hair trim in a quite some time... so a few nights ago, Stephen, brave soul that he is, cut both of our hair. Here's a few shots from Clara's session. She did a good job and was quite cooperative.

Tummy Time Togetherness

Clara enjoyed the experience much more then her little brother!

Mommy Moments

So, I had some "Mommy Goals" for this week. I wanted to do some regular "school" time with Clara every day... not much, just 10 minutes or so, working on colors, numbers and letters. I OFTEN feel that I don't spend enough concentrated time with her. So school time should give us concentrated time that is both fun and educational for her and maybe provide more interest for Mom then looking at "Honey Rabbit" for the umpteenth time. :-) That little brain is like a sponge and is learning a mile a minute... might as well give her more stuff to learn. I was able to get the library end of last week and pick up some books on colors and counting... she LOVES books and magazines... to use as part of "school" time.

The other goal was to start potty training! She's getting old enough and I think it may be a pretty good time to give it a shot. We have a potty chair and she's sat on it now and then, but only ever "done anything" a couple times... mostly she just sits for a bit and that's it. So, to get the idea of actually using the toilet for something other then a seat, I'm using an idea I got from a friend. Her daughter goes to day care and they take the kids to the bathroom about every two hours, whether or not they think they need it. I'm thinking to just start having her spend some time on there every two hours or so and see how it goes. We started this morning, and so far we've had three sessions, two of them being successful! To keep her there long enough, I spend most of the time with her, looking at books, letting her have a snack while I put on make-up, and talking about the different colors on her necklace. Part of the time has been working on colors and numbers... so for now, we're combining potty training with "school" time! You can pray that I'll have the patience to lovingly stick to it. It becomes a pretty big time investment, sitting there waiting for her to go (as all you potty training experts out there know), but it gives her that concentrated time with Mommy that I don't feel I've been doing enough of... so that's good!

And in fact, both of the success times where thanks to her! I had been ready to quit for those sessions and been asking if she wanted to be done and get down. No, she wanted to stay and read more books. So we did, and was I ever glad! Way to go Clara!

Before I wrap up these "Mommy Moments", let me just quickly share a couple link to articles I've appreciated recently.

This first one is about cherishing the time, even when things aren't working out like we had originally hoped! Can I ever relate!

And this second one has to do with trusting our LORD Jesus as a little child trusts their parents, and also is a good reminder that we are teaching our children all day long... even when we don't realize it!

Seein' The Sites

Here are a few fun pictures from a couple of our site seeing days with Josh... we were able to get out and about and see several places, which was great!




Off to show Uncle Josh around:






Josh left today and has already been missed! Come again soon, Josh!!!

Uncle Josh Is Back!

You'd be smiling too! :-)


After a visit down south to see Mark and Sherry, Josh is back up here for a few days with us, before heading on home. Already, some fun times have been had!






Observing the craziness!


While down south, Josh shot Mark and Sherry's engagement pictures, and he showed us a slide show of their top favorites (he'd shot over 500 total!)! And WOW! They. Are. Beautiful. I was very impressed! He did an excellent job and is becoming an outstanding photographer! Way to go Bro!