Art Camp

Rebecah participated in an Art Camp through the school in March.  It was one day a week for 4 weeks. She had so much fun participating.  Each week the kids drew picture using a different medium.  Rebecah would come home and practice each picture recreating what she had learned at school.

Fox landscape--oil pastels.  Raining shamrocks--paint.

Penguin Reflection Scene--colored pencils

Birds on a Branch--watercolor pencils

Eden--6 Months.

Eden is now 6 months old.  The time is flying by and I just wish she could stay little a little while longer!  At her 6 month well baby appointment she was 14 lbs 3 oz and 25 3/4 inches long.

Edie is a perfect, sweet girl!  She still don't roll over, but she is mastering sitting alone.  She enjoys tummy time so much she is content to look around without rolling over!  She had a few "close calls" this month where I thought she might roll over, but didn't.

Edie sleeps through the night 95% of the time.  A few times I have sent Joseph in to her in the night.  I know if I go in she'll want to eat so I do what's best for all of us and send in Joseph.  Edie will cry like her heart is breaking, but after Joseph holds her for a few minutes she'll go back to sleep.

Just after Edie turned 5 months she started to enjoy bath time.  She now kicks her legs in the water and are happy as long as the water isn't cold.

Sweet girl sitting on the couch!

Aunt Chandra crocheted a baby afghan for her.  I love it!!  Edie now sleeps with it during the day.  She likes to stick your fingers through the holes.  I love that Chandra made this for Eden and me....it's something I don't do so I really appreciated her sharing her talent with me! 

All of my girls have worn this dress!  I love it.  

   

Here are Annika (6 months) and Rebecah (4 months) wearing the dress.

Waking up from a nap in Chan's afghan!

Here she is hanging out on Kimball's bed.

Big girl on my bed!

We love this perfect girl so much.  She truly is living up to her name....delight!

St. Patrick's Day 2017

St. Patrick's Day didn't exactly sneak up on me this year, but it wasn't on my mental radar either.  The night before I realized I hadn't bought any Leprechaun gold so after a church meeting I had to stop at the store on my way home for some "gold".  We usually use Rolos but this year I went with Hershey Nuggets and the kids didn't mind.

For dinner I wasn't excited about spending  a lot of money on corned beef so I just made Irish soda bread and we had spinach burgers to go along with the bread.  For dessert I made a pistachio cake with a pistachio pudding frosting.  It was better than some of the other green desserts we have had over the years.




Lincoln and Annika didn't want to wear any green so they didn't.  I did grab a picture of every else in green at the tail end of the day.

I know the picture frames are really outdated but there's only so much time in the day!

Critz Farms

Last weekend we visited a local farm for a tour of their maple syrup factory.  The tour was fairly small and just in one room, but it was fun to hear about the process that the sap undergoes to become maple syrup. There were little samples of syrup and maple flavored popcorn.  You could also pay for an all you can eat breakfast, but we opted to eat breakfast at home.  (I knew I couldn't eat my weight in pancakes, eggs, and bacon to make it work the $12 per adult and I didn't want to pay $6 for Lincoln and Annika when they might not eat anything or only a few bites.)  I think this was my first experience with real maple syrup and it is good.  The big kids thought it just tasted like honey, but there was a distinct maple flavor to it.  I learned that the color of the syrup depends on the weather the day it is tapped and boiled.  A darker, richer, syrup is produced when the temperature rises or falls a lot during the day.  When the temperature is mostly stationary and on the cold side the syrup tends to be a light amber color.

We also took a ride to the sugar bush grove so we could see the maple trees.  It was interesting to see the trees with the tubing coming out of them and how it is all collected with the help of gravity.  I just thought the entire process was fascinating.  The wagon ride was cold, but it allowed us to snuggle together.  Lincoln especially enjoyed watching the tractor pull our wagon.

The blue line is the easiest to see, but there were white/clear lines, too.

All snuggled together.  It's so hard to get everyone looking at once!! 

Eden--5 Months

Eden turned 5 months old yesterday!  She is such a joy in our family.  Everyone loves her.  She continues to be mellow and content.  She is so mellow that she hasn't rolled over yet and doesn't really care to try.  She is starting to sit for a few seconds at a time.  She weighs about 14 lbs and is roughly 24.25 inches.  

We love her smile and her laugh.  Lincoln is playing with her more and I love to see them laughing together.  It actually melts my heart to watch them.  She sleeps through the night most of the time.  She hasn't started solid food yet.  We aren't in a big hurry.  I want to keep her a baby for as long as I can.  She is a dream come true!  I am easing her into a sleeping schedule on the days we are home and she is doing really well.  She likes to turn her face into a blanket or hood so I always wrap her in something big and fluffy so she can bury her face.

Here are some--a lot--of pictures of her.  I can't narrow down my favorite pictures.  I probably take more pictures of her than I ever took with any of my other babies.  It's just so easy to snap pictures of her with my phone. 

We'll start with pictures of Eden with Joseph and me.  They aren't great of Joseph and me, but they'll work:

Here are her bigger jammies.  They seem so huge, but the other sleeper was getting too small.

 Here she is telling me a little story.  I love her soft, fuzzy hair!

Stroller ride and more smiles!

Playing with Lincoln in the tent.  I think Edie looks like me in the last picture.  I think Edie looks the most like me of any of the kids.

One silly thing that I do that I just need to document is that I sing to her in the mornings.  When she sleeps through the night I greet her in the morning with the "Good morning" song from Singing in the Rain.  My sisters and I loved that movie growing up.  I change the words just a little to fit Edie sleeping:  "Good morning! Good morning!  You've slept the whole night through, good morning, good morning to you!   Good morning! Good morning! You are a perfect girl, good morning, good morning to you!"  I sing it so much that I catch Rebecah, Lincoln and Annika singing the song to Edie, too!  It's little moments like this that bring an extra smile to my face!!

White Out Weekend

On February 18th we took a trip up North to visit Clifton-Fine in the Adirondack region of New York.  Each year they host a winter festival called "White Out Weekend".  People here tend to get a little tired of the snow by February so I love how this little community holds a winter festival to celebrate Winter and to do something fun to make it through until April.  (We probably haven't lived here long enough to really get tired of Winter so February hasn't beaten us down too much.  This year was really mild so the snow didn't weigh too heavily on our minds.)

We drove about 2 hours to get to this little community to enjoy some of the free activities.  There was a train set up in the "old school house" with coloring, a train table and free popcorn and hot chocolate.

The train display is in the back.

At the public school there were various booths set up with crafts for kids.  Some of them were educational and some were just for fun. There was also a little zoo show with some animals.  I saw a porcupine for the first time in my life.  There was also a roach/beetle of some kind (I didn't get close enough to find out), a snake, and a turkey vulture.  

It was a really mild day with temps in the 40s and 50s.  No coats needed!  Since the day was so warm the curling events were canceled.  We were really disappointed because we wanted to see curling in person.  Outside at the school there were dogs giving sled rides.  If I were any smaller I would have gotten in line!  I want a dogsled ride!  Kimball and Rebecah experienced it for me though.

They get a lot more snow up North!!

Princess Rebecah taking a ride!

Kimball's turn!

Our last stop was the fire station.  They had trucks to explore and a little obstacle course for the kids.  They had to drag a fire suit, throw a safety rope, whack a piece of wood with a mallet, drag some hose, and shoot a football off a cone with a small fire hose.  The big kids AND little kids enjoyed this. 

Annika whacking the wood while Lincoln pulls the fire suit!  

It was actually pretty heavy!

Lincoln was THRILLED to be able to shoot the football with the water!!

Kimball and Rebecah exploring the truck.

Kimball throwing the safety rope.

Everyone had a great time and we hope to find another winter festival next year.

Skiing

Joseph and Kimball took up skiing this year.  Joseph had been itching to learn since we moved here and this year he decided to learn and take Kimball along.  Can I just say that skiing is an expensive hobby?  I'm glad the "boys" can go out and spend the day together, but I did suggest they limit their ski adventures to once a month this year.  (It's a good thing I don't have any expensive hobbies!)  They both really enjoy it though.  Joseph was a little disappointed that the weather wasn't more cooperative this year and the opportunities for skiing were more limited.  We have had about 100 inches of snow which is a lot for most of the country, but it was really a warm winter so the snow we had didn't stick around long.  The ski season is probably over for the year, but Joseph and Kimball are already planning their adventures for next year.

The view from the top of one of the runs.

 

Ready for some powder!