First Day of School 2011!

Today was the first day of school for 5th grade and 3rd grade! 

These girls are the apple of their teacher's eye!!

Their teacher loves them dearly and she is thrilled to be with them for another year!!

We are using curriculum from My Father's World, and this year we'll be studying Creation to the Greeks.

 Our assignment this week is to study the beginning of our world, using the first chapter of Genesis as our text.

Here they are working on their creation worksheet for their history notebook.
I found Haydn's Creation at our local library for them to listen to while they worked on their creation worksheet.

We also began working on our timeline. I used fishing line with Command hooks and we'll use paperclips to hang pictures on the timeline. I'm hoping this works...we'll see! Today we added Genesis 1:1 in Hebrew to our timeline.

We also added Christ coming back to earth at the end of our timeline with question marks since we don't know when that will be. You'll see why I like to send the girls to art classes when you see my work below.

That would be Jesus Christ (the red triangle) on a horse, in the clouds :) I may not be able to teach art, but I just love being able to teach the girls history using the Bible as our frame of reference!

For history we'll also be using:
Victor Journey Through the Bible
Streams of Civilizations, Vol 1
Celebrating Biblical Feasts

For science we have:
Genesis For Kids
Dinousaurs of Eden
Archimedes and the Door of Science
Pyramids

We use Horizons math

We also will study Latin with Latina Christiana I

For art we have God and the History of Art

Looks like we'll have a full and wonderful year of study ahead!



Weekend Update

• This week we were busy freezing veggies! We froze corn, green peppers and onions. We are always thankful for our frozen veggies in the middle of winter! 
• We finished getting ready for school!! I'll post more on that later!
• This week is the Midland County fair! Our girls are not taking anything in this year because I missed the registration deadline. They were disappointed, but they have been very understanding! Hopefully we will be back on track next summer! I'm beginning to think even going to the fair may be more than we can handle this year, but I know they would never go for that!! So, I will put my big girl pants on, buy a frozen cheesecake on a stick, and walk through every animal barn there is. Twice. Or maybe even three times. They really love those animals!
• Yesterday we had a relaxing Saturday at home together. In the afternoon, Ryan went to take a nap and I went in to talk to him for a minute. He loves when I try to talk to him during his nap :) It wasn't long and Emma came in, jumped in bed and started telling us about a game she plays with Moriah and some friends. In the game Moriah is Aunt Bertha. Emma was laughing and doing an impression of Moriah as Aunt Bertha for us. All of the laughter brought Moriah into the room who then gave us the real Aunt Bertha. The laughing continued and in came Aiden, who was supposed to be taking a nap of his own. He came climbing into bed and said, "Can I bisit (visit) with you guys?" I laughed, looked at Ryan and said, "Sorry about the nap!" It's little moments like these that are a treasure! We just enjoy being a family, and being together. Ryan did eventually get his nap, and so did Aiden. Right next to his daddy.
• The kids were playing rock band yesterday. Not on the Wii, we don't have that game, yet. They were just singing along with the ipod. I walked in the room to find Aiden dancing and singing into a microphone made out of brightly colored pegs connected together. Moriah was singing into her railroad track microphone and Emma was air guitaring. And the song they were rocking out too?  My Life is in You Lord. Yep, that brought a smile to my face! And some laughter too!

Some of our favorite recent quotes:

At the gas station Ryan asked, "Do you want it on credit or debit?"  Before I could answer Aiden yells from the back, "I want Pepper Dr!"  (Dr. Pepper!)

The girls had a friend over recently and they were talking about music and singers. Moriah asked, "Who do you like to listen to?" And without giving her a chance to respond Moriah went on to say, "I like John Denver."

After hearing the above statement Ryan looked at me and said, "My heart is so happy right now!"

The Weekend Update

• There's not too much new to report on medical conditions. Ryan has a long day of evaluation this week at a center for cognitive rehab. Thankfully this will be in Midland! My shoulder issues are still there, but as I have mentioned before the Dr. thinks it's nerve damage that is not showing up in an MRI. He thinks it will heal, but it may take 18-24months.
•  We have been getting ready for the new school year. We'd like to get an early start since we will likely have to take some time off for Ryan's other surgery.
• The girls have been busy this weekend writing a children's book! Moriah is going to write the story, and Emma is going to take the pictures to use in the book. They told me they are going to dedicate their book to their sweet little cousins! This morning they asked me if they need to mail the story to a publisher or if we need to take it in.
• The girls have recently taken an art class in Midland which has encouraged a new interest in art. After the last class we were at Michael's buying charcoal and oil pastels!
• Someone this week asked Emma if she had taken any fun vacations this summer. She replied, "Well, if you count Flint. We've been there lots this summer!" She must've already forgotten about our trip to IL!

Aiden is 3!

Aiden, my cute little boy, you're 3 now!

For your special day we had a few friends over for a pool party,

and we had birthday snow cones at Aunt Angie's.

What a blessing you are to all of us! We love you so much and

we are thankful for the fun gift that God gave us in you!

You absolutely adore your sisters and you try to copy everything they do!

They are rather fond of you too!

They spend time reading to you, playing with you and building forts for you!

Some of your favorite things right now are:

Color-- red (pronounced wed :)

Book--My First Big Book of Trucks

Toy--Dump Truck, Lightening McQueen

Playing "tack" with daddy

cold hot dogs...yes, cold!!

You tell me that when you grow up you will drive a police car.

Your daddy and I would be proud to have our son driving a police car,

but we'd really like for that police car to be in a very small town somewhere. In the U.P. perhaps?

And apparently you are wanting to start practicing for driving that police car with my van!

Recently when someone came in and asked if we could move the van you said, "Just give me the keys mom, I can do it!" I may be a bit old-fashioned, but I think 3 is just way too young to be asking for keys to the car!!

Although you are only 3 you have recently proven just how smart you really are! The other night after being tucked in bed way past your bedtime, you came out into the kitchen. Dad and I were there visiting with his cousins, Nate and Sarah. You gave dad a glance, but walked past him. As you came up to me you hugged me and said, "Mommy, I love you." That sweet proclamation of love was immediately followed by a request for some food! Nate laughed and said, "You just convinced me you are the smartest 3 yr old around!"

The girls went to nature camp and learned a song about Tarzan and Jane. You have been singing about Tarzan's tan and Jane's pain ever since and cracking us up with your Tarzan and Jane voices!

This summer your sisters played softball. You must've been watching closely as we cheered for them when they were up to bat. The other day as I watched you from the kitchen window, you put a ball on the tee, picked up your bat, bent your knees, closed your eyes, and said, "Aiden! Aiden! Aiden!" Then you gave a big swing, hit the ball and yelled, "Yay Aiden!"

One of my favorite things you do is when just the two of us are together. You give me a smile and say, "Mommy, it's just me and you, just you and me!"

Then you wrap those little arms around my neck and give me a big squeeze!

We love you Aiden and we are thankful God has chosen us to be your mom and dad!
We pray that you will be a man that will glorify the Lord in all you do.

 May you have a desire to know Him and His Word, and may you serve Him all the days of your life!

We love you, son!
Mom and Dad

A Visit With Family and Friends

On our recent trip home we spent a few days in St. Louis and then we stayed with my mom for a few days. We had the chance to visit with some of our family and friends. It was our first time seeing most of them since the accident. I have been looking forward to hugging them for so long now! I guess there's something about a near death experience that makes a person want to just hug those people that are dear to them!



We celebrated mom's birthday with pizza and ice cream cake! She had all of her daughters there, all of her grandkids, a few of her nephews and their families, and some close friends.

We also celebrated a birthday for this cute little boy!

We had some friends over for some birthday fun in the sun!



There was lots of time for loving on our cousins,

Thanks Uncle Scott for the yummy treat at Eckert's!

And the sisters had lunch together.....



Notice anything different?? Yep, that would be my friend Jenn and her son Evan!! They recently moved to Kentucky, which isn't too far from my mom's, so they came up for a few days! Which was really great until she devised a plan to boot me out and be the "new" sister!! Looks like her plan is working perfectly!

We were rather spoiled this trip! Uncle Mike took us our for a lunch date! Doesn't he have some adorable lunch date ladies?

Some of my friends from college were able to get together for a little reunion of our own. Of course I don't have a group shot of all the moms, but I do have one of all our kids....well, we're missing 3 of them!

These two boys look like they could get into some trouble together!

Their mommies were college roomates!

We are very blessed to have such wonderful family and friends! We know that God has put each one of you in our lives for a purpose. Thank you for spending time with us and for loving on us while we were there! Making a trip down was a much needed part of our healing process, and I thank you for your prayers and encouragement as we went! We love you and we can't wait to see you again!