Family – Page 10 – All That is Gold

Epiphany

Tuesday, January 6, 2009 by Sarah Leave a Comment

J+M+J

My nativity scene set-up is completed today, Epiphany, which commemorates the arrival of the magi in Bethlehem. This nativity was a Christmas gift from Grandma and Grandpa on Mom’s side.

This was also the day we opened up presents from Mom and Dad. We didn’t do it on Christmas because with our trip to Florida and the sickness that struck immediately when we got back, Mom had no time for shopping. We have thought about opening gifts on Epiphany for a couple years, since that was the day Jesus received his gifts of gold, frankincense and myrrh, but we had never done it.

Dad handed out the first presents to the four boys. They were small, identical square boxes about two and a half inches on every side. Dad built suspense by making the boys count to seventeen in a painfully slow manner before they could open them. After the number ten, Alexander tried to say seventeen at the beginning of each number. “Sev- eleven, sev-twelve, sev-thirteen,” etc. etc.

Finally, the boys reached seventeen, but not before sixteen and a half, sixteen and three quarters, and sixteen and seven eights. When seventeen was reached, the boys tore into the wrapping paper and opened the box inside. Alexander declared, “Springies!”
“Slinkies,” I corrected him.
“Oh, I knew that,” he mumbled.

Dad has a fondness for slinkies. I remember him showing me how they worked when he found one at his friend’s house a long time ago.

It wasn’t long before Dad and the boys had the slinkies lined up on the stairs for a race. Unfortunately, our stairs are too wide for slinkies, so the race was abandoned and attention was turned to the other gifts.

The first present I opened was a calendar. Dad made me guess what was inside the wrapping paper, but the size and fact I get one every year gave it away. I got it right on the first guess.

This calendar has some beautiful pictures inside.

Maria and I each got one of these sun catcher kits. She got butterflies and I got a parrot.

This is a cross stitch pattern. I can’t wait to get started.

This is a pair of sun conures. They are not pets, they are two year old breeder birds. I got one for Christmas and I bought the other bird. Aren’t they the most beautiful thing in the world?

Well, that’s all for now. I will post more later as I get going on the cross stitch and sun catchers.

A+M+D+G

How to Fit Six Children into One Bed

Friday, December 26, 2008 by Sarah Leave a Comment

J+M+J

Joseph and I were playing one morning on my bed, when he told me he was tired. So we got under the blankets and laid down, pretending to sleep. Just then, Maria walked into the room and decided to climb on board the bed. One by one, the rest of the children followed, Landon, John Paul, and then last but not least, Alexander. It was a miracle that everyone stayed still long enough to photograph.

A+M+D+G

Hello

Friday, December 19, 2008 by Sarah Leave a Comment

J+M+J

Hello, it has been a while! I am going to start posting some pictures from the trip we took with Grandma and Grandpa Frederes. There are so many pictures I won’t possibly be able to post them all, so I will begin a series of post with those pictures I think the most worth looking at. I shall start with some pictures of our family in the airport and arriving in Florida.

When we arrived at the resort, Grandma and Grandpa met us and helped us take our luggage to our rooms.

A+M+D+G

Winter Comes to Sioux Falls

Friday, November 7, 2008 by Sarah 1 Comment

J+M+J

Last night, the first snowfall covered everything in a thin layer of snow, transforming the appearance of the landscape. The reaction that John, Alexander, and Joseph have to the snow in the yard is amusing. For example, Joseph has been perpetually opening the front door to grab a handful of snow and look at and occasionally, eat. Also, when I went to get some frozen blueberries to eat earlier, I was discovered that John and Alex, who had been making snowballs galore, were also saving them inside the freezer.

Though I will come to hate winter later, for now I welcome the beauty of the snow. Just two and a half weeks ago, our yard was decorated by little flaming red trees, now it is dressed in white.

Now that it has snowed, I get to bring out one of my favorite pairs of earrings.

A+M+D+G

Halloween

Monday, November 3, 2008 by Sarah 2 Comments

J+M+J

It is the tradition in our family to go to the St. Margaret’s Homeschool Group all saints eve party, but this year, it was cancelled, so at the last minute we decided to go trick or treating for the first tim in our lives. Joseph and I had costumes from the store, but Landon, Maria, John and Alex were wearing homemade costumes.

Joseph is dressed as the High King Peter from the Chronicles of Narnia. (I love the books and the movies so I told Mom to get that costume for him. Isn’t he cute?)

Maria and I put together this bride costume.

Johnathan made this costume out of boxes all by himself. Later Mom puts tin foil on his costume.

I am dressed as a Japanese geisha.

Alex is Davy Crockett, king of the wild frontier.

Landon made this Obi-wan Kenobi costume.

Here is John being outfitted in tin foil by Mom.

This is my candy pile after coming home from our trick or treating. Much of the candy was things that will give me a headache so I ended up giving most of it away.

Maria had more candy than any body.

Landon’s candy.

A+M+D+G

Sleepy Head

Thursday, October 9, 2008 by Sarah Leave a Comment

J+M+J

This boy falls asleep fast, and then sleeps hard.

A+M+D+G

Pictures from John’s Birthday

Thursday, September 4, 2008 by Sarah 2 Comments

J+M+J

John Paul turned seven August 30th. This is the cake I made for him.

One of John’s gifts was a stuffed monkey. He made a jungle gym for it outside out of scraps of wood from things that Dad has built.

A+M+D+G

Corn Season

Friday, August 29, 2008 by Sarah 2 Comments

J+M+J

It’s that time of the year again. Corn time is very welcome at our house, both by the eaters of corn, and the peelers of corn.

Joseph made himself very useful in peeling corn, as long as we could keep him from eating the corn after he peels it. :)

Joseph is working his best to get the last piece of corn husk off.

Alex loved this new game. He was very concerned that other people were peeling corn to fast and there wouldn’t be enough for him to peel.

Many hands make light work!

A+M+D+G

Flight School

Friday, August 8, 2008 by Sarah 2 Comments

J+M+J

Penelope’s flight feathers are in, and she likes to use them. She will fly to places that are up high for a good view, or she will fly to Clover’s cage to play with Clover’s toys and eat Clover’s food. Dad and I thought it would be fun to teach my bird to use her wings on command and fly to me. I am working on this with her, and Penelope is cooperating nicely. She will fly back and forth from Landon or Dad to me and back again. It is fun to train her to do tricks, and I am sure she benefits from the exercise. This picture is the closest Mom could get to Penelope in the air.

A+M+D+G

Stinky Sight

Thursday, August 7, 2008 by Sarah 2 Comments

J+M+J

It was dark outside because it was late at night. The little kids had left their bikes outside, so Landon and I went to put them away. When we were almost finished, I noticed something moving in the neighbors yard a few houses down the street.. I thought at first it was a cat, then I noticed the black and white stripes, bushy tail, and unmistakable waddling walk. I knew it was a skunk. I ran inside to get Mom and Dad to come see, on my way in telling Landon that I saw a skunk. Landon was scared out of his skin, and he ran in faster than me to get away from the skunk. When we got back with Mom and Dad, the skunk was nowhere to be seen. It probably wanted to get out of the open and headed for some bushes. Having seen one skunk in the neighborhood, I wonder how many other skunks patrol the streets at night.

A+M+D+G

Model Airplane Update

Saturday, July 26, 2008 by Sarah 1 Comment

J+M+J

DONE!

A+M+D+G

Happy Fourth of July

Saturday, July 5, 2008 by Sarah 1 Comment

J+M+J

Happy Birthday America!

This Fourth of July, our family went to Dad’s parent’s farm to shoot off fire works. It was a good show, and though I can never capture the brilliance of fireworks, I did get a few good pictures.

Bad picture, cute subject.

We had water balloons to play with. I got completely drenched. Everybody was aiming for our grandpa. Landon eventually got him, but every time I threw a balloon at him, they rolled off his back. I needed to throw harder.

A+M+D+G

Alexander’s Cup

Monday, June 30, 2008 by Sarah Leave a Comment

J+M+J

This is what the little children do when we put lids on their cups so they can’t spill.

What is the most funny about this leak is that it happened at a little chinese restaurant where we are notorious for spilling. Every time we go there someone spills some water.

A+M+D+G

The Zoo

Saturday, June 28, 2008 by Sarah Leave a Comment

J+M+J

We went to the zoo last Saturday. It was extremely fun and interesting, for the zoo had added many new animals including peacocks, meerkats, and bats.

These peacocks are lovely, aren’t they?

This snow leopard decided to check Dad out.

This tiger doesn’t look very fearsome.

Joseph found some bird poop on the fence.

He accused this bird of doing it:

Now we were in the African Savannah.

These meerkats are the foraging team.

This meerkat has been assigned the job of keeping watch for predators.

This is the regal trumpeter swan.

The camel was chewing his cud.

King vultures are grotesque looking.

The mother gibbon is nursing her baby. Can you see it?

What good posture they have!

The mother gibbon is baring her teeth at the other gibbon for getting too close to her baby.

This swan does the same things Clover and Penelope do.

They have a really nice merry-go-round at the zoo. I helped Joseph

I can remember a few years ago, this baby rhino was nursing.

This is a huge stuffed walrus in the museum.

These are stuffed wolves. They did have live wolves in the zoo, but all the pictures turned out blurry. There were even pups.

A+M+D+G