Snow

 January is ending. We enjoyed time out in the snow, Jeremiah is enjoying playing Upward Basketball. Even little Joel wants to sign up to play. On Mondays, we do our school in the morning and spend the afternoon cleaning the house. All kids have chores, even the littlest one. For the weather outside is -3, we are staying warm indoors and hopeful for warmer temperatures as spring draws near.

January Recap

 I'm doing a January recap this week. In January, our theme for school is snow month. One snowy night when we were snowed in, we decided to build an indoor Snowman and have judging for the best 1 and different categories for Creative Snowman. We also watched Frosty the Snowman that night and also built snowman out of marshmallows.

Penguin Walk

 Last Friday we went to the zoo for the traditional penguin walk. If it is below 50 degrees on Fridays and Mondays they walk the Penguins in a parade to the Children's Zoo. They got to follow the waddling penguins.

God Hears...

Yesterday,  I lost my diamond.  I was at co-op at church and realized that my diamond on my wedding ring was gone at lunchtime.  Needless to say, I learned a lot about the Body of Christ as children, teens and adults combed the whole church to look for my diamond.  I felt so humbled that many people would help look for it!  We searched and searched, sweet friends looked through my purse and bags and I am so thankful!  I thought it was gone.  I had to make a dessert and bread in the morning for our small group and we wondered if the diamond could have gotten in the things I was making.  Thankfully, around 9pm- Michael took a flashlight and went around the kitchen floor and found the diamond on the floor under the floor rug near the sink.  Praise be to God!  He answers and helped us find the diamond!  We rejoiced with the kids and found it a neat demonstration to our kids of God hears us- He doesn't always do what we want but He always hears our deepest cry out to Him!  Praise be to God! 

December pics and Joel 18 months

Little Joel is 18 months now and while he learn to walk around 17 months so a little over two months ago, he is off and running. He particularly loves his new light-up sneakers that my parents got him for Christmas. We are working on him saying please and oftentimes he says please and we have to follow him to see what he wants. His vocabulary is limited right now but he makes up for it in his enthusiasm and cheerful greeting. Joel will often yell a big high as soon as we walk in the door and it's just so good at greeting. He loves to say hi and bye and his favorite object right now is balls. He loves to throw balls and roll them to his siblings. In short, he is all boy. He's growing up so fast and just in the last couple weeks really loves to bring a book to you and back into you to read it so you will hold him on his lap. He loves all kinds of animals especially cats and dogs and makes a funny little Tarzan cry when he sees a furry fellow. That is Joel in a nutshell at 18 months. Don't leave him in a room too long by himself as he loves to be where the action is.

York Christmas

Our trip to York Pennsylvania this year was a blessing to us there had unexpected challenges. We were able to go to Washington DC for a day and see some of the museums that are free down there. The kids loved Museum of Natural History and the Aaron space as well as the Botanical Gardens. The day after we went down there Jeremiah got sick with a stomach flu and then Michael and Lydia soon followed. We were able to spend time with family but had to cancel a lot of outside plans. We were able to do a few things and got to spend time with my brother's fiance and go bridesmaid dress shopping as well. Thankful that the Lord is with us even during our crazy weeks and when plans seem like they are not our plans.

Christmas 2018

Jeremiah is 7, Lydia is 5, Josiah is 3 and Joel is 1.

Christmas Day

Christmas Day 2018, we had a relaxing morning at home and in all the Christmas Eve dinner preparation oh, I forgot to cook a breakfast. Thankfully Michael cooked us some waffles for breakfast and we had a relaxing morning and then went over to the Lions house for dinner and spend some time stopping and caroling at a friend's house on the way. The kids were super excited for Christmas this year and in the morning the energy was off the charts.

Fun pics from York

Lydia got to go dress shopping with the ladies, a perk you get when you are the only little girl in the family.