Ellie's 9th Birthday

 My little artist (and oldest girl) turned 9 last month. She loves being with and being just like her momma. One of her favorite Christmas presents this year was her purse and wallet just like mine. She carries it everywhere!

As a fun treat for her birthday, Paul and I took her to get pictures taken. We do annual pictures in the fall for each of the kids, so the main picture I was looking for was one with Paul and I.  She is super sentimental, so I figured she would love to have a picture of "just her" with mom and dad. Something to treasure. With Asher being born in August, I have done lousy with replentishing our winter clothes. It's been more of a "make-do with what you have" and "I don't care how you look, as long as you're dressed" kind of season. Paul, Ellie and I had each dressed in the only coordinating colors we had... black and grey. Pretty drab. So while we were waiting to be called for pictures, Ellie and I ran a few stores down and grabbed a bright pink shirt with earrings and a headband to match.

Afterward we took her for a birthday dinner at TGIFriday's. It's pretty rare for us to go out with only one of the kids, so this was quite a treat. Before we headed home, we picked up a birthday balloon and stopped at Dairy Queen for a cherry dipped cone. :)

I enjoy Ellie. She loves to talk one-on-one with me and especially loves attention from her daddy. She eats it up when he walks by and tickles her or hugs her. Ellie tends to speak softly and think deep. She has lots going on in her head that doesn't always come out through her mouth. She has always had a tendency to be motherly toward animals and not so much toward babies (or not as much as her younger sister). That seems to be changing. She is becoming more of a momma to her baby brother Asher than she had with Selah a couple years ago.

Ellie definitely has siblings that she "gets along with" better than others, but... we're working on that. We've had some good conversations (many times about annoying boy stuff and how it goes away if there's no reaction to it.) She also desperately wants to be considered a big kid. The height difference between Noah and Ellie is quite a bit, so it's easy to forget that they really aren't that far apart, age wise (about 20 months). She tends to get  stuck into the "little kids" group with her younger sister, and Noah usually gets bumped up into the "big kids" group with his 2 older brothers. Giving her more mature responsibility this year will be a focus of mine for her, along with some purposeful mother-daughter time (which I am looking forward to!). I am excited about the young lady that she is growing into and can see her heart is soft toward what God has for her. What a blessing she is to me.

Ellie and her oldest, awesome brother, Caleb

Caleb's shaving lesson

It's pretty awesome to watch my kids grow and mature.  I am really enjoying it, ahem, *most* of the time.  I have been gently teasing Caleb about the random whiskers on his face and warning him that he's "going to have to start shaving pretty soon..."  Well, it's time, so Paul had the privilege of giving his first shaving lesson.

I guess it looks like Caleb is shaving without all the foamy stuff, but his face is actually slicked up with  our homemade shaving-soap-in-a-mug.  He put it on the old fashioned way with a shaving brush like this...  

Caleb zipped through his lesson with dad giving pointers about how to steer the razor around the curves (and mom taking pictures, of course).  

Here you have them, my clean shaven guys!

For each of my kids, growing up and working through the steps to adulthood is something that they are looking forward to. Learning to shave is one more of the "growing up" boxes that they get to check off. And needless to say, Paul's first shaving lesson went off without a hitch (or, shall we say... without a nick).

Asher Dedication

Asher's dedication

Our little guy was dedicated in church Sunday, March 2. He is just over 6 months old. We once again realize that each of our kids are only ours on loan and are making the commitment to honor the Lord in raising little Asher. We asked both of the Grandpas to pray a blessing over him.  What an incredible thing it is to have two Grandpas that love God and are investing their hearts in their grandkids lives.  I love the multi-generational thing.  A legacy that is truely worthwhile.

Grandpa Harold (Asher's grabbing for the mic)

Grandpa Les (Asher fought for the mic through the prayer)

Pastor Jim prayed the blessing that Jacob gave his son, Asher, in the Old Testament, and he also prayed that God would "oil" the workings of our family.

Summer school- part 1

Ahhhhh, summer!  Even though school is "officially" not in session, as most homeschooling moms know, we never really stop teaching... and the kids don't put their brains on hold for the summer.  We get to do more of the "fun" teaching when we're not so focused on "book learning".  Yesterday was just one example...

After my midwife appointment (which is an hour away), we decided to make a day of it and went to Matthesien State Park near Utica, Il.  They have paths along a creek down in some Dells, and since it was in the 90's, (and I am 8 1/2 months pregnant), I figured it would be cooler and the kids could play in the water.  It felt so good...

The kids spent most of their time building a dam.  They searched for rocks and sticks in the water, and arranged them as to the best blockage of the small stream that leads from one pool of water to the next.  Then they filled in the crevices with sand and mud.  Although they couldn't get the water to completely stop, I did notice that the pool of water on the upper side had risen an inch or two.  Well done, kids!

While the bigger kids worked on perfecting their dam, the younger ones enjoyed playing in the cool water, tried their best to catch the minnows swimming around the edges, and found a little, tiny baby frog.  I don't remember ever seeing a frog that small.  I thought it looked like a big bug, until I looked closer...

After a couple hours of fun in the water, we hiked back up the hundreds of stairs (literally) to get to the car.  Although my calves are going to hate me tomorrow, all in all, it was a day well taught...  ;)

Caleb's 13th Birthday

I know I say this often, but, Wow... where does the time go?  Caleb is now officially a "teen"!  I know, crazy, right? 

 

Normally we have simple birthday parties with family, but we had decided that on each of the kid's 13th birthdays, we would make it a big deal.  They could have a "friends" party and decide what "fun thing" they want to do.  Caleb wanted to have a backyard campout and play airsoft.  Airsoft guns are like BB guns, but the BB's are plastic so, although they sting and can produce welts when they hit, they are not life threatening. It's similar to paintball, I guess, but cheaper and doesn't splat paint all over. 

Grandma and Grandpa Larson had just bought him an airsoft rifle for his birthday. He was excited to give it some good use at the party.

 

Caleb, his brothers and Elijah Baffa

Paul and Nathan, ready for the party

The guys and dads.  Most were decked out in cammo for the "airsoft wars".  They all set up tents in the front yard for the campout.  Though it was a "no girls allowed outside" party, they were all happy to come in for a huge pancake and sausage breakfast in the morning.  Funny, now that I think about it, there were very few bathroom users... inside, anyhow... One of the benefits of being a guy, I guess.  Since it was Labor Day weekend, we invited the rest of the families to join us for a Labor Day cookout around noon.  It ended up being a big, fun party and I'm sure it made his "coming of age" 13th birthday pretty memorable.

On his actual birthday, he got to pick what we had for breakfast, lunch and dinner.  I thought he was kidding when he said what he wanted for breakfast... chocolate chip pancakes, bagel with cream cheese, scrambled eggs and sausage links...  Normally, he's not THAT big of an eater, but he ate it all!  Practically licked the plate clean.  From what other experienced moms have told me, I'm guessing that it's only a small taste of what's to come...