J+M+J
Ever since we have been telling Joseph there is a baby in Mom’s tummy, he has been a little confused. The other day, he pointed to his belly button and told me that it was his “Baby belly.” He also told me an amazing story, to complicated to repeat, about the baby being lost. He concluded his fantastic tale by declaring, “The baby okay now.” It is not rare that I wonder just what is going on inside his little head, and what gives him these ideas.
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This is a shirt that Joseph got for Christmas from Grandma and Grandpa on Mom’s side. The picture says it all!
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This afternoon, the Johnathan, Alex and Joseph were enjoying their Christmas gifts. Joseph and Alex each received a package of eight juice boxes.
Here they are displaying the flavors they were given.
Johnathan put together these little wooden toys and painted them himself. He also made that orange lego recycling truck.
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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.
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J+M+J
Oh, I forgot Joseph’s other word he says: Snowballing. When it snows, he proclaims at the top of his lungs, “It’s snow-balling!”
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Joseph has many words in his vocabulary which are made up of two words. For example, shoes-on. It is extremely hard to refrain from laughing when he asks for his “shoes-on off,” or says, “put my shoes-on on.”
At dinner time, Joseph is always polite when he asks for milk, because milk-please is another of his glued together words. He says, “Mom, I want milk-please please.”
I recently discovered another of his unique phrases when I asked him what he was doing. He responded, “I taking a bath-tub.” I burst out laughing, wondering how long it would be before he discovers that these expressions are two separate words.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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Mom was leaving to take Maria and Landon to ballet and tap. Joseph was protesting strongly, as usual. Mom walked out the door, and he began to cry. Exhausted, I pleaded with him, “Don’t cry, be happy, please.’ Joseph looked up with a puzzled look on his face. I had used a new phrase and he just had to try it out. With the reason he had been crying gone from his mind, he asked slowly, “Be-e-e, ha-a-appy-e-e?” I smiled, thinking to myself, I will use this trick more often.
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The shirt says it all!
Clover has found somewhere to nest. She flew to Mom’s head herself with her newly grown-in flight feathers.
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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!
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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.
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