Christmas Day 2010

School Update

First Snowfall in Madison

Learning What's Important

I have much to do today. We need to catch up with school, go grocery shopping, do laundry, and the list goes on. I was trying to get off to an early start today when we look out and see SNOW! Granted it is coming down pretty light, but this is what the kids have been waiting for since we moved to Madison. My first inclination is to make them stay in so we can get the long "to do" list done. But... I am trying to learn what is important in life is sometimes the way God breaks into my life with
those small unexpected opportunities so this is how we started our day off instead :)

Learning About Volcanos

A Day at the Park

The kids were more excited about picking up sticks...  Go figure.

Emeryisms

I love how little kids learn to develop the use of pronouns. Emery has a couple classic lines:

- "Me want not raisins!"

- "She shut she door on sheself"

I makes me sad to think that he is going to grow out of these soon! We choose to maintain some of these just for the sake of nostalgia.

Raking on a 70 Degree Day in November!

These kids will do what it takes. Broom, butterfly net, whatever it takes to get the job done!

Trick or Treating!

Autumn, Taylor and Emery were a Chinese Dragon for Halloween.  It was quite the hit in the neighborhood.  Big love to Kim for making such a great costume for them!  Emery was not much help carrying it around but I was impressed by the fact that Taylor and Autumn teamed up quite well on it and carried it the whole way!  I thought they might bail out on it after a few houses but they stuck with it.  Great job guys!

We got to go with our friends the Hagedorns and had a great time.

Trick of Treating with The Justice

One of our friends from church used to work for one of the Supreme Court Justice's of the State of Wisconsin. So we got to go trick or treating up at the Capitol last Friday and meet him. He is a great guy and we have a really fun time.

Pumpkin Carving 2010

Mya Turns Two!

Jenga - The Movie

Movie Trailer - Homeschool Greek Olympics

A Day at the Children's Museum

Helping Hands

So this fall, I finally took the plunge this year and made a chore chart for the kids. We just made it part of our daily routine. Actually, I've tried this before, but it never really stuck before. This time around, it has been very helpful for our family and the kids are very enthusiastic helpers.
We have morning chores (basically just getting ready),they help fold and put away laundry, Taylor is in charge of caring for Sandy (our newest family addition), and he and Autumn have a rotating schedule for setting & clearing the table, vacuuming our rug, and feeding Molly. Emery is in charge of helping and Mya for playing nicely :). I also included cleaning the bathrooms (still working on this one) and chores that they can do to earn money, like picking up Molly poo, pulling weeds, etc. Having the kids "help" with things around the house takes longer at first and means that sometimes things aren't done at the same standard that I would do them, but in the end it is part of training them up in the way they should go. It gives me the opportunity to not only teach them valuable skills but also train their character and teach them about serving others.

First Twist

Here is my first attempt at twists for Mya's hair. Sorry for the pictures; I had a moving target. I have much to learn, but am getting better :) She looks so adorable in her braids and twists, but I still love to see all her corkscrew curls!

More Chicago pics

Girls' Trip to Chicago

My mom, sister, and I all hit milestone birthdays (well mainly my mom and sister, but I'm at a 5 yr increment as well :)) this year so we decided instead of getting each other presents, we would plan a trip together. We haven't done this since I was in college and we went to Florida together so it was also a good excuse for getting away together. We all met in Madison and then left the kids with Zach (don't feel too bad for him, Kristi brought her girls, whom my kids adore, to help for the weekend. They had a blast and so did we. We drove to Chicago, first making a stop at Ikea (my only request for the weekend:)) for a very fruitful shopping trip. It took us about 4 1/2 hrs to get to our downtown hotel instead of 2 1/2 but since we had no plans, we tried to just chalk it up to more time together. We had a great weekend of sightseeing, eating, walking, shopping, and even a chocolate tour (very fun and if you know any of us, you'll know a great fit for us).

Great Kid pics from family reunion