Fair 2013

Our family recently went to the annual fall fair in our area.

 

 The kids were so excited getting ready for the soap carving contest! :o)

 

                                   Myles busy at work.

 

Malachi

 

Mariah

 

McKenzie and Madeline entered some sewing, knitting and canning this year.  They both got some ribbons including a couple of first place ribbons!

 

Cute little goat!

 

The "Tree of Life"

 

                                                                 Happy Fall!

Children.....

One of the neat things about having children is to see their unique personalities.  Myles is a very independent little fellow.  I think it is important to find the meaning of a name before we name our babies.  When we picked out his name we looked at two different spellings of it.  "Miles" means merciful and "Myles" means soldier.  We liked the idea of a strong name like "Myles Truth".  He is certainly living up to his name!

 He is a sweet, sweet little boy.  He is probably our most affectionate child.  He loves to cuddle and give hugs and kisses.  He adores his baby brother and is sometimes smothering with the love he gives him.  However, even with all of this "sweetness",  he is head strong little boy!

 

 I think the hardest thing with Myles is that he is very independent and has no fear.  He has wandered off where he wasn't supposed to "following the dog" on more than one occasion.

 

 This evening was one of the worst though.  Marc put Myles to bed and I headed to the grocery store.  We have been out of town and we were out of just about everything.  When I got home I found out that Marc had gone back upstairs to put Malachi to bed and caught Myles coming in the window.  He left his flashlight and hat out on the roof!  I was literally shaking while I put our groceries away!

 

 Needless to say, the windows upstairs will all stay shut and locked the rest of the fall.

 

 These hay bales are a lot higher than they look in these pictures.  This shows his personality! :o)

 

                                   Madeline and Myles look the most alike.

 

                                      McKenzie and her "look alike".

                              
Goofy Mariah and her little "look alike". :o)  I think it is neat that each of the girls have a little brother that looks like them.  Mariah looks a little bit like Matthew too.

When we settled down after the roof scare tonight Marc said he knows that the Lord is going to do mighty things through Myles' life one day.  I believe He will........ if he survives his childhood! :o)

You might be a redneck........

if you have an ottoman on your playground. :o)

 I decided a couple of weeks ago that I couldn't stand this ottoman any longer.  I told Matt to take it to the curb.  Mariah begged me to let her have it for the playground area.  She loves to play "pioneer" outside and she "needed" it for her house. I swallowed my pride and told her she could play with it for a few days.

 

                                                   I love this girl!

 Her little brothers are good sports to play house with her (most of the time.)

 Yes, that is Macheus sitting there in a stroller.  She thinks he belongs to her! :o)

 

We have had a pretty mild summer this year.  I have heard people speculate that we will have a cold winter. I hope they are wrong!

 

For now, we are soaking up these beautiful days!

Pears...

We have been blessed with pears, pears and more pears this year!  We (well, mostly McKenzie) have canned pear sauce (tons!), pear preserves, pear pie filling,  and pear jelly.  We have had pear pie, pear crisp, pear bread and have even thrown them in our smoothies. We are sick of pears! :o)

This picture cracked me up.  Malachi had to pick a tree, have his picture taken with it and write about it each season.  He was really thrilled to have his picture taken with it. :o)

Thursday evening ramblings..........

Grading a certain 5th grader's math lesson.  "This one don't make since?!?!?!"  I think we might need to concentrate on grammar. :o)

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Marc was reading to Malachi before bedtime tonight.   I overheard..........."Daddy, does God have a wife?"

 

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Is there any easy way to swap out clothes between seasons?  I hate that job!  We have gotten a good handle on our attic and cleaned out a ton, but it is such a big job!  My little boys are horrible during the "trying on" part.  I have taken two big trash bags full of clothes to donate.  I probably have more that could go!  Shoes are another thing..........  We have shoes on our back porch and in our laundry room.  I am always looking for ways to simplify and neaten things up.  When you multiply everything by nine people it is a lot!

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These little guys get up so early!  They were reading one of Myles' Thomas The Tank Engine books before daylight one day. :)  (Notice the trains in each hand. :)

Looking at this lovely chair reminds me that I need to research slip covers.  This is a chair that went with one of our old living rooms sets.  We kept the chair to use in our classroom/office.  It is comfortable but not much to look at.  I will have to share where the ottoman is on another post!

Goodnight!

Eight Months.............

This little cutie turned eight months old today!

 He is back to his happy self since those two little teeth popped through. 

 He is crawling everywhere and pulling up on everything.  The fun has begun! :)  All little things have to be put up now and that is hard with two little boys that like to play Legos!

 We put baby gates up at the playroom and he plays really well in there.  There are usually big  brothers that come in to entertain him and big sisters that rescue him when he has had enough. :)

 He loves to be outside on the porch or taking walks.

 I haven't started him on any solids yet.    Obviously by the size of his thighs he isn't hurting!  Breastfeeding is so easy, I just haven't taken the time to start feeding him.  I plan on doing that soon because he intently watches us eat. :)

Eight months of sweetness!

Saying goodbye to grandpa..... for now

We have had the care of my dad over the spring and summer.  He recently left to go stay with my sister for a while.  As much as I needed a break from the extra load, we were sad to see him go.  I am so thankful for the memories we made with him and that he got to watch Macheus change so much over the past five months. I am also very glad that my sister and I can share the responsibility.  I know a lot of people don't have that. My dad can be a handful sometimes, but he is a very sweet grandpa.  Losing my mom has made me realize how fast life can change and that I need to cherish this time with him.