Thomas Videos

Here's a video of Thomas growling. The kids love to get him growling. December 18



Nathan took this video of the kids goofing off one evening after dinner. The kids also love to get Thomas to jump. December 6.



Haloo, haloo! After watching Mary Poppins the kids started imitating the guy on the horse saying that when the dogs are running and then run into the bushes. I don't know exactly which part they're talking about, but that's what the kids say. I guess I'll have to watch it sometime. :) Anyway, they love trying to get Thomas to say "Haloo, haloo!" too. November 16.

Family Photo

The missionaries were over the other night and they snapped a picture of us with our camera. It's not the greatest, seeing as I hadn't planned for it, but since we rarely get a family photo even on our camera, I decided to post it. December 12.

Four Christmas Girls

These didn't turn out as good as I wanted, but we wanted a picture of us wearing our matching sweaters and skirts. December 21.

The Christmas Tree

PICKING OUT THE TREE! Even though we have cut your own farms close by, we heard the trees brought lovely spiders into your home and that Lowes was better. So on Nathan's first day off in 16 days, off we went to Lowes. The kids proclaimed the very first tree perfect and then grabbed branches off the ground and marched around the lot waving them above their heads, having a parade. So Nathan and I were on our own and enjoyed picking out the "perfect" tree. December 10.
We're new at the tree business since we usually go home for Christmas and don't get a tree, but I was impressed that Lowes trims the trunk and branches for you and wraps it up. Here Madalyn shows how easy it is for her to carry it.



DECORATING THE TREE. It was a great day. We went in the morning so that we had all day to decorate and enjoyed eating cinnamon rolls hot out of the oven while we listened to Christmas music and decorated.

December Playtime

Spencer, Alexis and Thomas were having a blast running around the house pushing their strollers one day while we were doing school. When they stopped running they put monkey tails on their baby dolls and went trick-or-treating to every doorway. I love listening to their conversations and hearing about the candy they got. Anytime they got an imaginary Baby Ruth, my favorite candy bar, they brought me one. :) December 4





Swimming anyone? I've loved Saturdays this month because we've had absolutely no plans. I love having a day off of school, but no place to go either. Nathan works and the rest of us stay home and play. This particular Saturday I sat on the couch the whole day stitching a stocking for Madalyn. I loved watching the children play and listening to their conversations. It happened to be a high of 40 and as I was snuggled in a sweatshirt and blanket, I see the kids come down the stairs in their swimsuits, off to the pool. The pool was the kitchen and they all went swimming in there for awhile, diving for pretzels. I got a kick out of how much fun they were having imaginarily swimming and thought they looked cute in their suits and shades, that I snapped a picture. December 6.


Just a silly picture of Alexis walking around with the mini Christmas tree box on her leg. December 12.

This box, which originally contained presents from my parents, has become a favorite toy. Here the girls squealed fits of giggles as they carried Thomas in it around and around the downstairs. December 17.

Thanksgiving Songs and Poems

HAPPY THANKSGIVING!!!
Here it is 4:45 pm and we're smelling the delicious smells of a turkey roasting in the oven. We plan to eat around 6. Nathan is working nights, so he's sleeping right now. We're letting him get about 6 hours of sleep before we wake him up to eat and then he'll leave for work at 7:30pm. It's been a relaxing day. We've sang songs, recited poems, decorated cookies, made a lot of food, and just hung out. During naptime I got to lay on the couch and read the December Ensign, which was the most relaxing part of my day. I also took Thomas for a walk and played with the kids outside. Although, we miss sharing the holiday with family, I've been grateful for time to think about my wondrous blessings.
Here are the videos of the songs and poems.






All of the kids and myself memorized a Thanksgiving poem, but Spencer and Kylie weren't ready to recite theirs.

It's Fall, That's All!

I know this is a little late because fall is almost over, but last week the kids were putting on a circus and listening to our favorite fall music so I had to get a video.


Actually, I had to take 3 short videos because Blogger sometimes has trouble uploading larger videos. They may be a little boring, but I decided to post them anyway.

Cliffs of the Neuse State Park

One of the benefits I love about homeschooling is that when we want to take a field trip, we can pick the day with the best weather. We've had a cold fall, so when I saw the forecast for a beautiful 78 degree day, I jumped at the chance for a fall outing. This was the first week in November while Nathan was in Philadelphia for a nephrology conference, so it was perfect. I really wanted to see the fall foilage and decided on one of North Carolina's beautiful state parks about an hour away. We were about the only ones there (it was a weekday) and enjoyed the museum as well as several gorgeous hikes and a picnic lunch. I love being out in nature and away from life. It was so peaceful and relaxing.


They're listening to how the Neuse River came to be.

Ultrasound News

Today was a very exciting day! I had an 8 am appointment for an ultrasound because that's what time Nathan was getting off his night shift. With homeschooling we are very spoiled to not have to be out of the house early in the morning, so it was exciting and different to be up and out the door at such an early hour. The kids laid out their clothes last night and made up bags of cereal to take. We got up and dressed quickly and met Nathan at the doctor's office at 8:00. The kids could NOT wait to find out if it was a boy or a girl. Kylie in particular has wanted to know because she's anxiously wanting to buy baby girl clothes in every store we're in, especially Once Upon A Child. :) She keeps saying, "If it's a girl we're going to have to spoil her." On the other hand, we thought a boy would be nice to have it even at 3 and 3 so that we could have a boys room and a girls room.

So the result is......... IT'S A GIRL!!!!

We are very excited. The official due date is April 27, although she'll probably be a week late like the others. :)

After the ultrasound we went out to eat at Denny's, which we haven't done since we went with our friends in Texas. The kids kept talking about that time and what they had all gotten. Good memories. :) We went today to build more memories because it was such a fun family morning with us all going to see what the baby is and then getting to eat out afterward. In the afternoon we had the excitement of the first snow flurries of the season. Snow is very rare here, so that was a treat.





Too bad it's a little blurry. The kids were so excited to be eating at a restaurant, a rare occurance. They all got grand slams and ate every bite.

Trick-or-Treat!

At some of our neighbor's houses Nathan made us do the Five Little Monkey rhyme, acting it out a bit. I was embarassed; they loved it. It was hard to get around the neighborhood doing that every few houses and talking. Our neighbors are very friendly and wanted to catch up on all the news. I love that about North Carolina. We still managed to get a lot of candy and had a great evening.

Madalyn with the bag she helped make.

Halloween Night

The picture isn't great, but here's our traditional (since we've had an oven--2 years now) dinner in a pumpkin Halloween dinner. It turned out great!

Now we're ready to go out trick or treating. It's hard to see us, but the kids wanted the little pumpkins on the railing to be in the picture. There are almost 20 on the front porch railing, 15 on the back deck, and 20 more still growing on the vine. As for our costumes, the kids are the 5 little monkeys, I'm the Mama monkey who calls the doctor, and Nathan is the doctor, of course! From back here it looks like we're bears, but up close you could tell we were monkeys, especially with the bananas on Thomas' and Spencer's costumes.

Uh-Oh Again!!

When the girls and I came back into the living room after we finished cleaning up the broken bowl and grapes, this was how we found Thomas. Normally I wouldn't have cared if he dumped out the bag of crayons, it was just funny after he had already made a mess in the kitchen. He normally doesn't get into much, so this was a record for him! He was certainly enjoying this mess more than the first one. :)

Uh-Oh!

We were doing schoolwork on the couch and only heard the crash. It didn't even sound like anything broke. We looked over and saw Thomas just standing there with a sober look on his face. He stayed rooted for a long time, starring at his mess. He didn't talk, point, or hardly blink. It was so odd of him to be so still and silent, and the look so cute, that I had to grab the camera to make a great "guilty" page for the scrapbook.

We figure he was either carrying this bowl of grapes and dropped it, or he could have possibly thrown it on purpose, since he likes to pick up the pumpkins and chuck them as hard as he can (2 feet). He's stronger than he looks!

Our Five Little Punkins

Kids With Their Masterpieces

The title says it all. Here are pictures of the kids with their finished product. (Thomas is holding the pumpkin we'll use for dinner. He pretended to carve it with the little poker all night, imitating the kids. He was so cute!)

Pumpkin Carving Time!

Gotta love GI rotation!! Wednesday Nathan came home at 4:30pm. The kids were playing happily outside so we talked and made dinner together. I've loved having him around this month! We ate just before 5:30 and by 6:00 we were ready to start carving pumpkins. I ended up saving mine for dinner in a pumpkin, but the kids all carved theirs and Nathan helped Alexis. The evening went smoothly and I was even a little bored standing around watching everyone. I think this was the first year nobody needed my help. So I ended up working on a fleece blanket I was making for Thomas and got it all finished just in time for a chilly 28 degree night. :)

Alexis and Thomas Outside

Alexis and Thomas were enjoying a leisurely Saturday afternoon outside in between a busy Saturday of activites. The older 3 kids were playing too before they got summoned to play at a friend's house down the street. So I went outside to watch the little ones and enjoyed watching their blissful splashing and playing. It looks so fun to be a toddler. :)

Starring Alexis in the Big Bad Wolf

Very randomly Alexis started reciting "The Three Little Pigs" while I had the camera rolling, so I decided to post it. I might expect her to break out in song at any moment, but not recite the 3 Little Pigs, since we don't even have that book, so I thought it was funny.

Pumpkin Patch

I love living right down the street from a real pumpkin patch! A older farmer and his wife grow the pumpkins and sell them cheap. The pumpkins are only $1-3 depending on their size. We got 2 huge ones for the porch steps, 6 regular-sized ones so that we can all carve our own, and 4 gourds that the kids really wanted to play with, all for $19. Since our house is on a corner, we put some on the front steps and some on the side steps and our house looks decked out for Halloween. Speaking of decks, we put all the tiny ones we've been growing in our garden all along the deck railing and also on the porch railing. It looks great! The big ones we grew with the kids' names on them are all about rotten, so that's too bad. But we're still growing lots of mini ones, which is fun.

Garbage Kids

Well, some people may think this is gross, but after the garbage man came and got our garbage, the kids couldn't resist playing in it. Actually, it all started when we were pulling weeds and throwing our dying tomato plants (which were 6' tall) into a full garbage can and Spencer suggested getting in and stomping it down. Then they all wanted to and that's when the first picture was taken. (Yes, they smashed the garbage way down:)) Then the next day when the can was empty, they had the brilliant idea of playing in it and somehow amused themselves for quite awhile. When Nathan came home they closed the lid, hiding in there and wanted him to search the yard looking for them. Somehow he guessed right away; I guess because it wasn't in its usual place. Don't worry, our garbage can is actually really clean.

Spencer's 5th Birthday

October 7, 2008

Spencer is now 5 years old! In the morning we went to the library and the grocery store,where he wanted to get the fixins to have BLT's for dinner. We did a half day of school after that and then during naptime the 3 older kids played while I worked on drawing a map of Winterville and Greenville on a 4' x 6' piece of canvas. I drew roads, houses, stores, and other places we frequent like the dentist, church, etc. This was to drive his Matchbox cars on. Nathan got home at 4 and helped me work on it, although we didn't get it quite finished. We ate dinner, opened presents (which included the mat and a lot of new cars), then let the kids play on the mat while Kylie went to Activity Days. When she got home we ate funfetti brownies and ice cream. Spencer was really happy with his presents and his whole day. I'll have to get a picture of he mat on here soon.

Kylie's Baptism Day

Kylie got baptized the day after her birthday, September 18th, 2008 at 6:30pm. She was so grateful that Mama and Papa and Aunt Lori got to be there for her special day. She was all smiles the whole evening. I love attending youth baptisms and I couldn't believe it was actually our turn! I was touched by all the people who came despite it being a Thursday night. Everything went great and it was truly a special night.

Kylie Turns Eight!

The long awaited birthday is finally here! Kylie was so excited that my parents and little sister got to come for her birthday and baptism. She turned 8 on Sept. 17 and spent the day playing with family. That night we had her favorite dinner, spaghetti and homemade rolls. Then we opened presents and ate cake and ice cream.