January Update

I guess I'm a "once-every-few-months update" blogger at the moment. We've been pretty busy enjoying life and kids and projects.

I'll start the month with a few sideways pics. I need to work with them and get them oriented, but I've been holding off posting for too long because of my perfectionistic tendencies, and it's time to just go for it (so...my apologies for crooked pics. :-)

I have a favorite group of pictures of Jeremy with each of our kids from about this age. I might (in about 20 years, when I have time :-) post all of them together to compare our children as 6-9-month-olds. Of course, Ascha's not out of the stage yet, so I might take some I like even better, but so far, these are a few of my favorites. :-)

I haven't updated about the house in a long time. It's extremely liveable and Jeremy keeps plugging away at the trimwork whenever he has a spare moment. The only major interior project left is the tiling of the master bath and shower. Here is a pic of our completed dining room:

Now, on to the "kid updates." :-) Taylor is a very creative 6-year-old and when he puts his mind to something, he does an excellent job. In a recent example, he has been getting Highlights magazine for a few months (thanks, Great Grama and Great Papa! :-). After seeing the reader-submitted page, he decided he'd submit a drawing. He sat down, got right to work, and quickly presented "Rainbow in a Race." We took a picture of it, then sent it off to Highlights. Who knows whether or not they'll eventually publish it, but he got a very official letter thanking him for the submission and telling him that his art made the editors happy. That made his day.

Taylor has also been participating in a recreational wrestling program during January and February. Unfortunately, his one big meet was last Saturday but he had to miss it due to a fever. He still LOVES to wrestle Dad and Aric for fun but is a bit burned out regarding the official sport at the moment. It has been a good foundational year, though, and he understands a bit more what the sport is really about.

Taylor is doing great at school. He's come out of his shell a lot and we've been really pleased with his teacher. He gets to have individualized reading training for half an hour four days a week to keep him challenged and motivated. We are very proud of him and his love of books is such a blessing - he is never bored in the car, at the doctor's office, or anywhere else. :-)

Both boys are so sweet and loving with their baby sister. Her seventh month has been quite eventful (more on that later) and she is now extremely mobile, which provides the boys with daily challenges as she eats and tears their paper airplanes and as mommy requires all tiny toys to stay downstairs at all times. Taylor loves to hold Ascha and "help" her as much as I let him (and then some :-).

Aric loves to help out with his sister, too. Both boys need a daily dose of "holding Ascha" time and have a quota of smiles from her that must be met (Aric needs "my morning smile" and "my goodnight smile" or life just isn't right).

Speaking of Aric, he's always such a character, but I'm behind on posting some of the funny things he's said, so I need to play catch-up.

~He got an "Armor of God" knight suit from my parents for his birthday, and he insists on calling it his "Nightmare Suit."

~He was talking to Jeremy on the phone one evening and telling him about the stars he'd seen. On my end of the conversation, I heard an indignant, "I am NOT a little sus-tronomer!!"

~I've put all the board books on the bottom shelf so Ascha can look at them/eat them. :-) He found one of his "special" books in the pile and complained bitterly. When I explained that I'd put it there because it's a board book, he was very offended: "But it's not bored to ME!!!" :-)

He keeps us all in stitches with his impish ways.

Ascha has been growing and changing by leaps and bounds. She learned to crawl at the end of January and is increasingly mobile every day. For the most part she is a very smiley baby and we love seeing her personality developing more every day.

In January, both Aric and Ascha were dedicated at Daybreak Community Church. Both sets of grandparents were able to come out for this special event, which was such a blessing. The visits were a last-minute whirlwind, but we all enjoyed our time together so much.

Here we are at our favorite park on the day Lyn and Janet came into town.

The boys still LOVE Grandpa's dog "Whifford."

Here we are at the dedication. It was a very special day (and it was kinda neat for Aric to be old enough to appreciate the ceremony. He was very proud of his "special day.")

Grammy and Grumpy with kiddos:

Grandma and Grandpa with Ascha

Of course, we had a lot of fun just hanging out together for the little bit of time we had together. Grumpy always has babies stand on his hands, and they usually love it. Ascha is no exception.

Aric got to show off his skills as an archer to all the family:

Once everyone left and the hubbub subsided, Jeremy decided it was time to embark on our ambitious landscaping makeover. It will probably be a few years before we get things how we want them, but we have at least seven trees to take out, so he decided he may as well get started. He did a great job felling this tree exactly where he wanted it to go. Once it was on the ground, the boys and I went out and helped haul limbs to a chipping pile. In the matter of a few hours, the tree was felled, limbed, and sawn into firewood rounds. The next day, the boys helped him transport (by the trusty old Red Flyer wagon, of course :-) the firewood to our lean-to where it can sit and season for a few years without being in the way. It's a shame we don't have a fireplace! A few days later, Jeremy had all the limbs chipped and was talking about taking out the next tree. He's an amazing guy!

Christmas 2009 - Ascha's First Christmas

We had a great Christmas as a family of 5.

Here's a picture of the boys with their "Cuddle Buddies" - blankets that have hoods, paws, and tails. All the Christmas morning pictures look about the same, just swap out which present they're smiling about. :-)

 

Christmas Preparations and "Real" Snow

We've had almost two weeks of snow. It started out with about an inch and a half...and we were so excited we managed to build a snowman even though there wasn't much snow. Then it REALLY snowed - we had about 18 inches or so when all was said and done. I didn't get any pictures of the maximum amount, but did get some a few days in...our trees were so beautiful coated in white! We got an ice layer which made the branches quite heavy, but we only lost one scrubby tree we didn't like very well anyway. Our massive Douglas Fir lost three large branches...thankfully, that was the only real damage our out-of-its-element foliage sustained. 

We've all been struggling with never-ending colds (I'm not being overly-dramatic, unfortunately. Taylor's had it for over seven weeks and still isn't completely over it! The rest of us are about four weeks behind). Because we'd break into coughing fits whenever our lungs hit cold air, we didn't enjoy the snow nearly as much as we would've liked. We went out for five or ten-minute spurts here and there. Mostly, though, we enjoyed the snow through the windows and did lots of inside Christmas activities.

Here are the boys with the gingerbread men and angels they made:

...and here are the boys helping Dad crack open pecans. I needed them for baklava and was reminded by Grandma Janet that they'd enjoyed cracking nuts with her this summer. What I view as a mundane chore ended up being a really fun time for the boys (and Dad was game enough, although he's definitely not ready to declare it a favorite pastime).

...And here's the obligatory baby pic - who could resist posting those giant dimples whenever possible?

The prelude to lots of snow: Aric's turn with the shovel. After we had a lot of snow, the kids didn't want to shovel anymore for some reason. I wonder why????

Here's our little snow guy. The boys were ready to be done rolling him when he was about a foot high, but I insisted that we "finish the job!" I came outside to help during Ascha's naptime and I figured I'd better make sure he was complete before I went back in the house, or he'd never get done. (Can you tell I'm projecting my procrastinator's nature onto my kids? Poor guys...they probably would have had more fun making him slowly over a longer period of time, but at least the boys were still smiling after he was finished!)

Here he is a few days into the snow.  He looks rather shocked, eh? :-) 

Beautiful trees:

Tree Hunting in the Gifford Pinchot National Forest

These days, at least in Washington, tree hunting really does have quite a bit in common with hunting: you pay for a permit, then you must "IMMEDIATELY" tag your tree with the day, month, and year upon cutting it, and that tag must remain conspicuous the entire time the tree is in transit to your home. Mildly amusing to us Montanans (although the same system may be in place back there now... it's just a lot different than when we were growing up). 

Jeremy's figured out a new way to get out of the despised chore of having his picture taken: he takes the picture! :-)

Ascha isn't nearly so cold as she looks. It was a mild day, but I guess she wasn't too sure about this hunting business. Doesn't she have an expressive (and prominently muscled) forehead? :-)

Jeremy let each of the boys have a few whacks with the hatchet as he cleared the lower branches off the tree. It was a scary time for this mama, but no one was injured. :-) (In all fairness, they did just fine and learned during the process, so I can't really complain.)

After the tree was felled, it was time for a science project... Our tree was about 15 years old.

The victors...

...the spoils. (hot cocoa and candy canes)

Homeward Bound...

I don't know why, but this is the only picture I took of the boys decorating the tree.

This year we started a new "count." In the past, both boys have been able to jointly put on the star, but they are getting a bit too heavy (note Daddy's strained face with just one boy above his head). Taylor took a turn this year, so next year, it'll be Aric's job.

Taylor's Sixth Birthday

It's hard to believe that our Baby Tay-Tay has grown into a big six-year-old! He doesn't like cake anymore, so we made him this special peppermint ice cream cake. (Good thing he was born in December!)

He had three friends over (plus himself & Aric makes five) for a nice little party. All the boys decorated "mini-pinatas" and enjoyed a few hours of sugared-up playtime.

In the evening, Taylor opened his family gifts. This face occured when he realized Grandma and Grandpa had given him a transformer that was a tank (he'd been asking everyone for a tank and a transformer, so to have them combined was thrilling, apparently).

The afterglow:

We got him Battleship, so this is how he's spent a lot of his time off from school:

Happy Birthday, Buddy!  We love you so much and are so thankful for each year we have gotten to spend with you in our family! We look forward to many more!

November Update

November was a month of playing "catch-up." 

When we got back from Montana, the first order of business was butchering Jeremy's elk. We got it all done, and the kids even got in on the fun. They helped us label the ground burger "Ham 08." They were both very proud to be helping out (and getting to use PERMANENT markers! That's big stuff around here. :-)

I spent November figuring out how to parent three kiddos without backup from a grandma. :-) It was the first time we'd been a family of five, living in this house, for any length of time "by ourselves." Jeremy went upriver a number of times, so I definitely got initiated. Between taking Taylor to school in the morning, doing reading lessons with Aric, having lunch, doing homework with Taylor, and nursing and caring for Ascha, I've found that I don't have much of a "day" until rest time comes. Taylor informed me that his friends don't have to take a rest every day...I reminded him that lots of his mommy's rules are different from other mommies'. :-) Truth be told, it's really MOMMY who needs rest time. Being more scheduled has been a good change for me, though. I have always had a love/hate relationship with organization, lists, and scheduling. They are very good for me, but I do enjoy throwing them out the window whenever possible. I think that rebellious phase has to disappear for a while (at least until the summer), because in addition to school, Taylor's going to start wrestling 2 nights a week in January.

With all this scheduling, I've been finding time for the necessary (time with the kiddos, keeping up the house, paying the bills, and playing where we can when Jeremy is home), and leaving the less necessary (emailing and blogging) for later. (You knew the excuse was coming, didn't you? Sorry I haven't been posting...I'll try to get all caught up before Taylor heads back to school and my routine takes over again. :-)

Enough about me...let's talk about baby!

Ascha keeps growing and growing. Here's an early November shot:

She discovered her toes:

She's becoming more and more fun for every member of the family as she grows and interacts.

Check out her personality! (And the handsome big boys, too!)

I particularly love this picture because it reminds me of the many pictures of Taylor half-strangling Aric. Aric often had an expression very similar to this one. :-)