it's all fun and games

love notes

i left the white board in the upstairs hallway. ive been writing mostly verses for the kids to read. joey also uses it to write letters. anyways. i was putting joey to bed and found this question on the board from ellie...she asked " do you love me?" so i replied. then she replied back. i love her!

ive noticed a jump in her wanting to read, speall and write notes. she was given a book for christmas with a neat pen, stamps and stickers. (thanks aunty!) and she carries it around with her. she calls it her "homework book" and is often found writing away in it. ill keep the book when shes done with it to save for when shes older. too cute!

we left the house after the big, bad storm that hit on wed. the storm was pathetic. we got about 4". boo! but i did get my storm chips and enjoyed myself. i really do want a HUGE storm to hit! bring it on winter!

anyways, we left the house to return very over due books. chris joined us. and i enjoyed watching the kids play
thanks for the socks ursi! these are my most fav pair. LOVE them!

reading books to each other

on the way out we found the man who takes and sets up the christmas decorations. so we spent some time watching him. it was kinda neat to see

we are such home schoolers. ha

nothing like a sucker and a movie before bed on a cold day, complete with the remote. she has the power. ha

i passed baby doll on the way to the kitchen. looks like she ate her supper. ha

we did school this week! 2 days! i introduced 2 new subjects to nate and 1 to ellie. it went REALLY well!!! joey even sat in on all of ellies lessons. im looking forward to the new yr and all it will bring

i was praying and asking god to give me a word or direction for school/life with the kids and this verse shouted at me

Be on guard. Stand firm in the faith. Be courageous. Be strong. and do everything in love. 1 cor 16:13

this is the verse for us. ive been really focusing on the last part this past fall "do everything in love" the kids and i have had so many opportunities to practice this...with each other, with strangers and every day situations.

i have also decided to include bible time every day with the kids. bec of the age gap with the girls and nate, im doing a smaller bible chat with the girls. we just read a story and talk about it, etc...nate is able to handle more mature chat. its neat to see him really coming into his own. he has so many questions and i encourage him to ask and we always go to the word for answers. the other day he really felt low and sad, questioning his existence and every thing seems pointless. so i told him to go read the book of ecclesiastics. he did and came out yelling "POINTLESS! ITS ALL POINTLESS" lol. he got the point and we had a great chat about it

joey funny- she picked up her bible and told me she was going to read her bible to me. she sat on the couch and said "jesus said that he he will make ellies tummy all better" and he did.

thats just a quick peek into us. how are you? 3 comments

Posted by mel at 11:14 AM

some time last week

with nate in hali, i took the girls to mcdees to play while we drank coffee. chris is sporting his "pablo escabar" look. i told him the shirt MUST be demoted to the shop. hello 1996 is calling you...ha about an hr into our coffee date chrs looks at me and says " i have nothing else to talk to you about" i think he was making a dig at my evening before....i went for coffee with my friend....for 4.5 HRS. ha. i left at 4 and came home for 9:15....we sat and had coffee for almost 5 hrs and talked the whole time. hahaha chris cant handle an hr.

little joey working on her school. she now asks for me to do school with her. i just let her scribble but man, shes really catching onto it. look at her u's!

found this under our door. chris is back in the family!!! hahaha

we left for hali fri night to spend new yrs. the girls on the road. my heart. i love that they are so close

the BEST dressing ever, shawn made us this cracker/goat cheese/dressing combo with this. oh my word. im going out to buy it! SO good

chris got into shawns guns

i think he looks bad @ss

saturday we went to ikea. we had to drag our little hop a long along with us. ha. my sis had stomach surgery and spent the wkend recovering....when she wasnt out with me. we were able to sneak away to the mall, had coffee (LOVE that she came to the dark side and drinks java now!) and went to a movie. so fun having a sister friend

but she totally over did it and is going to spend this week in bed! sorry sis to bump your recovery! 0 comments

Posted by mel at 3:45 PM

new yrs

i didnt have my phone on me so i didnt take pics of the weekend. but we spent new yrs with my sis. the kids played, put on shows, had their own fire works, ate yummy food, watched tv and i relaxed. to the point of wishing i brought some school work with me to work on....oh well

dont worry! its just joey bear

hahaha LOVE it. i came to bed to find this. ellie tucked her doll in

we also got to watch charlie play. she played 4 games in 2 days and scored a few goals! you go girl!

her cheering squad

poor, hungry girl. where is her food. joey is thrilled to have hers. shawn made us lasagna for supper sat night. gotta say it was the best ive had. really good job shawn and it was AWESOME to go to a movie and come home to supper already for me! THANK YOU!!!

the other side of the table

we left for home on monday. it was such a great holiday season. quiet, restful and enjoyable.
im hoping to carry that into the new yr...lets see about that! 0 comments

Posted by mel at 3:45 PM

home!

i put on an adventure in odyssey cd (the drop box, so good!) poured out the lego and attempted to prep some school yesterday. i knew that the frst day back to home after a vaca is usually cray cray and i was right. i gave up trying to do anything school related and cleaned up the tree/front room instead. im hoping to start school on thursday...anyways the kids do love the lego and have spent a good chunk of time playing with it. we ended up putting it on a blanket for easy clean up...im seriously tempted to buy one of those draw string bags to store/clean/play on for lego

i did how ever make the most amazing turkey/veggie/what ever i have in the fridge soup! theres nothing like a hot, home made soup on a cold winter day...even better when you make a HUGE pot for left overs and you dont have to cook supper 2 days in a row. SCORE. ha

JOEY!

this morning i asked nate to help me with the dish washer and all 3 came over to help....help make a mess and put water all over the floor. ha. but i said nothing but "great job you guys!" in a yr ill have 3 more "mom slaves"= "go get me this" ha

this afternoon my friend took n and e over to her house to play, so its just me and this girl. so fun to have her to myself

she made this all by herself. took her about 30 mins. then wrote on the top "this is for mommy and joey"

ursi! the hat lives on!

love this turkey

such a card

and this is why i vacuum 100 times a day. i just put the vacuum away and came over to make a coffee to look down and see this.....sigh. ha

we are bracing for a storm thats due to hit tomorrow night. i hope we get a snow storm! i want the chance to stay home and just chill....catch up on school and life after the holidays! and i have my storm chips! 2 comments

Posted by mel at 3:45 PM

the quiet before christmas. ha

i found this interesting as i shopped for groceries last thurs night. alone. grocery shopping ALONE= divine. i cherish the opportunity. ha....one world halal meat anyone?

last fri ellie was talking about how frogs eat bugs with their tongues. then she says "here ill show you, ill draw you a diagram" and she's totally an eigenheer!

today while failing to exchange nana's scarf at the store joey ran to a rack of sunglasses where she puts them on (upside down) and says "im awesome. im awesome" ha

making art on a cold afternoon in the sun

together making art. so cold out!

ellie took a little nap with daddy on friday waiting for nana and papa to arrive to start our christmas

chris then opens his eyes and says "i have to pee" ive been there, so many times....how long can i hold it cause when i get up the kid will wake up! haha

i got my new planner the other day. i thought id blog my old one. about 2.5 yrs ago i started to keep a quick journal. i record everything. at first it was to help me be more "analytical" and see if i can find a pattern to certain triggers. like stress, sleeplessness, cranky, hormonal etc...i color code most everything and after about 6 months i could see a pattern! then i started adding other things and doing a quick daily log...i love it. it takes me about 2 mins to do at night and has helped me out so much. ESP when chris says "we never have "us" time" wink, wink...oh really? out comes the planner and i show him! ha! anyways, i got a new planner for this yr and im excited to see what patterns i can find!...i blocked 1/2 the page were i wrote stuff out, thats a bit too personal for the blog. ha