Category: Uncategorized (Page 33 of 201)

The other night Tim and I were laughing at how different our life would be without Levi.  He was our “bonus baby”, as I like to call him.  We thought we were a complete family after having Madison, but God knew we needed ONE more.  And, like the saying goes, we can’t imagine life without him now.

I’m so thankful for the dynamic that having 4 kids gives.  Chloe has embraced being the big sister so well and she is learning the art of playing with kids of all ages.  And I just love how much Levi likes playing with her too.  It’s fun to watch Levi transform out of the toddler and into a little kid.

Now that Tim has transitioned to his off-season the everyday routine has gotten a little easier.  Levi is definitely screaming less now that there are two parents around to nip that behavior.  Everyone seems a little happier and settled now.  It’s all good.

We had a fantastic Thanksgiving weekend:

• Enjoyed Thanksgiving Day (and a yummy meal) at Baker’s house
• Talked with my Mom on the phone on Thanksgiving
• Went Black Friday shopping with Chloe, Maddie and Jennifer.  We only got a couple of things, but it was fun.
• Set up our Christmas decorations (minus the tree) while watching White Christmas.  The kids are getting more and more helpful with setting up the decorations–it takes half the time it used to!  We’re waiting on the Christmas tree because I think we’re going to put it in the waiting room again this year.
• Went on a Date with Tim to dinner and a movie on Saturday!!  We went to see the new Fantastic Beasts (Harry Potter) movie.  It was excellent.
• Played Chinese Checkers with Chloe and Josiah while eating root beer floats.
• Had our church gang over on Sunday–before the game, since it didn’t start until 7:30–for an early supper and basically just to hang out.

I love this picture that Tara captured of me talking to Levi.  He was very resistant to wanting to stand for the pictures, so I was trying to talk to him.  It’s so hard to get candid pictures of myself in pictures since I’m normally the one behind the camera.  So, once in a while it’s fun to come across a gem like this.  I love it.

The kids only have school two days this week–whoo hoo!  I can’t believe it’s already Thanksgiving week… my, how the time flies.  I can’t guarantee that I’ll remember to hop back on here later this week, but maybe I’ll quick pre-post some pictures to pop up on those days.  Pictures are always fun, right?

I seem to have caught a little cold bug that has settled itself into my throat.  Basically I feel fine but I can’t talk. I suppose I should be thankful for that fact that I don’t really have any other symptoms.  However, as a Mom and a teacher, not being able to talk makes my life a bit more difficult.  I’ll be doing a bit more whispering, since I am still able to do that.  I must just be more susceptible to losing my voice because I can remember this happening quite a few times in my life.

In random other news:  We are finishing up our Thankful jar this week.  The kids have been so great about it.  Even Maddie has been participating this year (her answers are pretty funny… and repetitive). I changed it up this year so instead of writing each person’s thankful thing on a tiny slip of paper each night, everyone has their own large sheet of paper that we each write our own.  It’s soooooo nice now that Josiah can write all on his own and can participate.  I write mine and Maddie’s and everyone else write their own…  And Levi just watches.  😉 I can’t remember if I’ve posted our full list on here before, but I think I will.  We’re going to read through them all on Thanksgiving Day.

We have a Maud Hart Lovelace All-Star in this house!  Yup!  Chloe has officially finished and passed all the tests for the 10 MHL nominated books!  TEN BOOKS!!!  And she finished them before Thanksgiving even!

Let me tell you, we have made huge leaps and bounds in her reading this year.  She went from dragging her feet to willingly sitting down with a book.  Major progress.  Here are the 10 books.  I’m still way behind her… she passed me up about a month ago and hasn’t looked back.  Ha!

And here is a short video she took of herself talking about the MHL contest.  We are so happy!

Well, it’s that time of year again, folks.  Tim is transitioning into his off-season.  He’s still working a little, but he’s able to be home by 3:00 to take the kids when I start teaching.  I really appreciate having the nannies, but I also am so thankful to be able to transition to life without extra people in the house.  The kids don’t try and push the boundaries when Tim is in charge, there is less chaos while I’m teaching, I don’t have to have the house as clean, and if I forget to make supper Tim can whip something up for us.  It’s great.

It really plummeted in temps here right after Halloween.  We had a nice mild evening Trick-or-Treating, but then right after it got COLD and then snowed and hasn’t really been above freezing all that much since then.  A day or two here and there, but mostly just cold.  On Monday morning when I walked the kids to the bus stop, the temp was 7 degrees with a wind chill of -1 degrees.  That’s cold for November 12th!

Tim surprised me with my Christmas present early!

And I was TOTALLY surprised. I went away for the afternoon to watch Abby perform in a Honor’s Band concert and came home to this….

I was flabbergasted!  Now, don’t get me wrong, we really needed a new one. But I was bound and determined to just make it work. Most of the time it would cook at 25 degrees lower than you see on the display… but then sometimes it would cook 50 degrees lower… and then sometimes it would randomly cook at 50 degrees higher. It made cooking a bit of Russian roulette. I had constantly be checking the oven while it was cooking and adjust as needed. I’m delighted at the prospect that when I set a temperature, it will actually stay at that temp! Exciting!

Of course, I also feel terribly guilty to have such a nice stove. But apparently he’s been stashing away money for several months now to save up and he got it on a crazy sale. So, that helps my feelings of guilt a little. Plus…. it’s just SO PRETTY!

Bring on the Holidays foods to cook!!!