Walkers...Used Most by Babies and Great-Grandparents!

But your great-grandparent's walkers are not as fun as this one!
Levi absolutely LOVES his walker. He is still not walking on his own, but with this walker, he just zooms around the house. He goes from the kitchen to the living room, dining room (around the table), front door and down the hall to the kitchen again...all the while giggling, smiling and laughing with delight.

Emma loves to chase him and they just laugh and giggle! Such wonderful sounds!

Levi is doing a LOT of this standing up in various places. He's taking a few steps to the couch or us lately. I think he'll be walking by the time we come out to CA in November!

A nice balancing "trick" by Emma.

Levi also loves his Pooh Bear train. Sometimes Emma rides it with him...more giggling and laughing.

A few recent shots of Owen. He did NOT want me to take a pic with his eyes open. He is a big time goof. Hmmmm, I wonder who he got that from?!

It's a little blue lizard he got at Chuck E Cheese.

~Rose

Home School Weekly Digest

Last week Owen did two days of Kindergarten! I'm letting him take his time, doing 1-3 days a week depending on him. His first unit is Ss, Sun, Jesus is the Light of the World. Each unit has 6 days of work. His fine motor skills are not well developed, so writing is challenging. After a brownie payment (bribe), he agreed to use the grip and try for 5 letter S's. He did great and was very excited to show his work to Grandma and Daddy. It's interesting, he wants his letters to be perfect and gets upset when they are not! We're working on that.

This is a math page. He traced his name and wrote the number one. He then was asked to draw one of something. He chose to draw a large rock and write a large one next to it.

One of his projects was painting a sun with alternate colors for the rays (patterns). Emma joined in on the painting.

Working hard!

Beautiful job Owen!

I got a smile :)

Another project he got to do was make raisins. We decided to use the oven instead of the sun so it would go faster. We used the dehydrate function and at the end of the day we had raisins!

They were kinda sweet, but not all that flavorful.

Hope got to do an experiment using yeast, sugar and water. We mixed yeast with warm water and added some sugar, put it in a jar and stuck the balloon over the top.

The yeast uses the sugar for food and creates carbon dioxide. This showed us how bread rises. This week she'll be making bread and play doh as we study more about bread.

It was so exciting to watch the balloon fill up. Within minutes it was pretty full.

Hope drew what was happening and noted the time. I love her drawings :)

This is Hope's first dictation page. Instead of doing it from her grammar book, I chose a passage from the book we are reading (The Courage of Sarah Noble-the story of a young girl traveling with her daddy into Indian territory to build a house for their family on land he had bought). It was a bit of a challenge for Hope, but she did a beautiful job and finished it in one sitting (I gave her the option to do it over two days). Her drawing is beautiful! This is the kind of stuff that keeps me going some days! I am blessed, challenged and humbled to be able to stay home with our kids and teach them.
I love it.

~Rose

Our Little Homeschool

Hope loves school (for the most part...lol). We have this little student desk that somehow is more fun to do work on.

Notice Owen's creation numbers (Emma's are below) on the green behind him. We just did day 7 today and after three more days in Creation Owen will dive into his first 6 day lesson (of 26) featuring one letter a lesson.

We are doing school in the basement this year which I LOVE! This is our main table to do most of our projects and work on.

Our basement doubles as a guest bedroom (we can sleep two adults nice and comfy on the twin beds). Hope and I use the bed daily for her read alouds. It's so great to cuddle and read together.

Our little storage area. The bookshelf is new ($10 on Craig's List...picked it up less than a mile from our house).

The kids still enjoy all the books we inherited from my mom. In my dream house there is a library like in Beauty and the Beast!

We made the Nina, Pinta and Santa Maria last Friday. Foil is wonderful stuff.

We floated them from Europe to the New World! We're saving them to float in the kiddie pool. The sails work great when the kids blow into them. Hope and I are learning a lot and we're only in week three. Learning is so fun!

~Rose

Owen's 5th Birthday Photos

Here they are finally. The pics from Owen's party. We had such a great day and are blessed with wonderful friends and family. I took a LOT of photos (mostly for the family who couldn't make it)...good thing I figured out how to use this Picasa album thing!



~Rose

1st Day Of School

I started school with the kiddos on Monday. We will be in CA for 3 weeks in November, so I need to get a head start (otherwise we'll be working into June and that just won't work for me!). We are doing school in the basement this year, which will be much better. I have all our supplies down there, there are toys for Levi to play with, a bed to cuddle and read on and if we want to we can leave everything out to go eat or whatever. Last year, we used the dining room because Levi was an infant and it was just easier to be in the middle of the house, but it bugged me to have that mess out all the time. We are using My Father's World Curriculum again this year. We have nothing bad to say about it...so wonderfully written and Bible centered. We are so looking forward to enjoying school this year.

Here is Owen who is starting Kindergarten. We'll do 2-4 days a week depending on what our days are like. I may take 2 years to take him through the curriculum.

Here's my beautiful Hope working on her spelling on the first day of school. Spelling is a new subject for Hope this year.

Hope's 2nd grade curriculum (Adventures) will overview US History this week. Hope learned about the Pledge Of Allegiance on Monday and we made these tasty patriotic treats. YUM!

Happy 5th Birthday Owen!

Our little man Owen turned 5 today. Where has the time gone? I laid in bed with him tonight and told him the story of his birth.

I remember Desi had a bunch of Jr. Highers to take to summer camp the day I was due. The church we were at was going to give him a cell phone that he would have so I could reach him. I wasn't too excited about it, so I took things into my own hands...and drank caster oil mixed with Coke. I'll spare you the details, but a few hours later I was in hard labor and early Sunday morning I was on my way to the hospital (in hard labor). Sparing you even more details, Owen was born about an hour after getting to the hospital (naturally-which is REALLY PAINFUL).

I recalled to Owen how excited daddy and I were to meet him and how healthy and wonderful he was. Many people came to visit him and his big sister Hope could not get enough of him. I told him how God wanted him in our family and how special he is and that God has a wonderful and exciting plan for his life. I asked for a big hug and kiss. I was denied the kiss. For the past 6 months or so, he does not want kisses (he's a germ-a-phobe...scared of germs). This is why I kiss Levi about a 100 times a day! After I got up, he complained that I heated up his mattress, so I offered that he use my bed for a little bit till his mattress got cool again. He's still in my bed. We had a great party for him today with friends, family and neighbors. He got a lot of nice gifts...mostly car stuff which is his favorite. Thanks to all who came and all who sent gifts. We are blessed. Here are a few pics from back in the day.
Owen at 2.5 months old.

Hope 2, Owen 5.5 months.

Owen 1 year old.

Owen last month with his sisters on a camping trip with our church.

Happy Birthday Owen! You are a kind, sensitive and generous boy. God has gifted you with many words, a wonderful story telling ability, and a joyful zest for life. You love playing with Hot Wheels cars, watching movies, playing computer games (which you are very skilled at), camping, playing outside, and playing with your swords. You are a good brother who protects your sisters and watches out for his baby brother. You really love playing with Emma and get really silly with her sometimes. I look forward to seeing you mature over the next year and am excited to start teaching you Kindergarten soon! I love you and am blessed to be your momma!

~Rose
Pictures from the party will be posted soon!

Thing One and Thing Two

We had a little photo shoot a few days ago.

These are two of the biggest goof-balls that ever lived!

Their new nick name- Thing One & Thing Two is from Cat In The Hat by Dr. Seuss (if you are new to our planet) and perfectly describes these two if left alone for too long. They are so cute to watch when they get into a goofy mood though!

~Rose

Man Camping

Well, here are the camping pics as promised. Micah got these pics to me last night and I just LOVE them! The boyz had a great time. They hiked into an amazing spot right near a stream. Owen ate nothing but chips, marshmallows and chocolate. He fell asleep pretty early and was the last one awake. He told me following the stream to where it came out of the ground was his favorite part. He also told me who did #2's and who didn't. They all came home dirty and tired and ready to do it again. I am so glad Owen had a good time and did well- I think all boys need to spend quality time with their daddies. Owen did call me when he got home (I was at the store) and said, "Mommy, I missed you." Yeah, way to melt my heart buddy!

The men: Micah, Jason (my bro), Josh & Luke, Desi & Owen

The first of many dad/son camping trips!



~Rose

The Sword

I was at Target last week with Owen and Emma. I saw this sword for $1.99 and just had to get it for him. It has a sheath that attaches to his belt. He's worn it all week and it's just so dang cute! As I type, Owen and his daddy-o are camping with my brother Jason, Micah, Josh and his son Luke. I pray that the little guys do well (I think the'll have the time of their lives) without their mama's :) It's a total guy camping trip. They had no reservations, so they went to a free and open area where they have to be like 100 yards from any roads or other campers. No running water, no plumbing, ect... I call this real man camping. I'd prefer running water and a covered toilet! Micah took his camera so hopefully we'll get some good shots to share with you soon!
~Rose

PESKY

About a week & a half ago I had the kids all day and took them to the park and brought dinner home for them. We had a great time and I sent Owen & Emma up to get their jammies on for bed. Well, they were too quiet, but I was feeding Levi so as soon as I was done I went up to check on them and this is what I found!


I thank God, because I didn't lose it or scream or yell at all! I stay remarkably calm and had them help me clean it all up. I told them they would help me buy new soap and shampoo and that this was wrong and if it happend again they would be in BIG trouble if you know what I mean! Emma and Owen feed off of each other and get into these reallly goofy moods where I have to keep a close watch on them or I just know they'll do things like that again. At least I know the signs to look for!
~Rose

P.S. Pray for me...Friday and Saturday I had a couple relationship experiences that turned out to be shocking, hurtful and depressing. I don't want to stay hurt, but love despite my feelings. I want to seek to take every thought captive and focus on Jesus and His will for me. Thank you my friends!

Emma and Owen

I know I have just posted a ton today, but I have to catch up before vacation! Here are a few recent pics of my little Emmaline that I just love...I think she's the most photogenic (is that spelled right?) child that I have (for the time being that is).




Owen's big wheel bike has been "loved" so much that it's starting to fall apart. We were wondering if we could order a replacement front wheel since that's the part that is breaking. We were at Costco last week and saw this beefy big wheel for only $40 and bought it for Owen. It's HUGE and will take him a bit to get used to. It has a hand break and is nice and sturdy...all four kids like it and will get tons of use from it.

The box is almost as fun as the new bike!

~Rose