Happy Birthday to All!

October is a month full of family birthdays for us!  We've already been to Mason's 2nd birthday party and at least Dad made it to Alex's 11th birthday party, both of which overlapped with 2 other birthday parties - Kenedie's 10th and Lexie's 1st.  Wow!  And that was just cousins on Dad's side of the family!

Mom's youngest niece turned 17 this week!  I shared our video & pictures to her on facebook.  Check out her very creative birthday party!

Saturday was Aunt Sissy's birthday!  I forgot to load her videos yesterday, but did send well wishes to her on her busy day.  Wish I could have been there with you!

And Elizabeth wanted to do her own video.  The writing she put on the card was also completely her own doing - I wasn't even watching what she was doing!

And today we will celebrate Grandpa's birthday with a birthday lunch at Aunt Wee's house.  Then just one more - tomorrow is Aunt Erin's birthday.

SO... for the last 2 weeks of October, I'd like to wish a very

HAPPY BIRTHDAY

to

Mason,

Alex,

Kenedie,

Lexie,

Jordann,

Aunt Sissy,

Grandpa,

and 

Aunt Erin

!!!!!!!!

I made dishwasher soap!

And Rebekah found it.

She can now reach about 6 inches onto the kitchen counters.  Nothing is safe.  I found her with a whole loaf of bread in the living room this morning.

I took her to her 18-month check-up this week and in the last 3 months, she has gained 4 pounds and grown 4.5 inches taller!!!  She likes to sit on Sarah and Sarah doesn't like it.  Rebekah is also jealous when anyone else sits in my lap... that will be interesting when Sarah arrives in December, won't it?

Back to the dishwasher soap - it's really not anything made.  It's just a heaping tablespoon of baking soda and a heaping table spoon of Borax into the dry soap dispenser.  Then white vinegar in the rinse chamber.  Works great with our hard water and I get no residue or spots!  (If you have soft water, it might not take that much of each.)

Mesopotamia

We finished our study on Ancient Mesopotamian History.  I have no idea why he glued the title on like that.

Inside the folder is our information sheets, vocabulary, and a Mesopotamian man,

information about the invention of sail boats, ziggurats, and the hanging gardens.

The boat moves along the river on a craft stick and

the ziggurat pops up.

Each lesson has a postcard to fill out with something you've learned to send to someone.  He dictated to me and chose to send this one to Kalaya.  He was impressed by the chain pump of the Hanging Gardens.

Tiny Talk Tuesday

He's not really tiny any more, but he is precious!  While sitting at the table, eating snack -

David:  Mom, do you know what I would never do?

Mom: What?

David: I would never worship or praise an idol.

Mom: Well, that's good to know!

While playing with his legos in his room while I was changing the sheets -

David: Mom, I sure wish that Elizabeth would ask Jesus into her heart.

Mom: Well, I do to, but remember you were 6 when you did.  I was 6 also.  She's only 3.  But we can be praying for her.

David: OK... then he put down his legos!! and prayed, In Jesus' name, I pray that Elizabeth would ask Jesus into her heart.  Amen.

Yes, he is precious!

Party Time!

The weekend of Halloween is already busy and there's really not a whole lot you can go to that offers all natural treats, the kids & I decided to throw our own little Halloween Bash this year.  There's the spread - I made pizza, popcorn balls, pumpkin muffins, MawMaw made some yummy brownies, and we had little bags of pretzels and all-natural, organic suckers.  And I do not think my children were deprived in any way by not having Twix or Reeces.

David chose not to wear his costume.  He would have been hot.  His costume (in theory) is a Mars Mission Astronaut.  It's a Lego thing.

 

Elizabeth is a Butterfly Princess.

She informed me today that she needs antennae.

 Rebekah was just cute in a little orange striped, black cat shirt.

 The Kids

(minus Mason who arrived later)

 Isn't that the cutest little skeleton you've ever seen?

We had a pinata filled with Halloween pencils, Halloween note pads, spider rings, pumpkin erasers, balls, Halloween straws, more suckers, fake vampire teeth, fake tattoos... and I think that pinata was made out of concrete!

 The Butterfly Princess just barely wacked it.

 Grandpa targeted the opening in the back.

Always the strategic one...

 Cinderella enjoyed beating the thing!

 And David took out quite a few of his frustrations!

And I ended up just shaking all the stuff out on the ground for the kids.

Now we can use it again next year!!  hahaah...

 We also played a couple of games - a pumpkin treasure hunt and

Pin the Nose on the Pumpkin.

Our non-partial judge 

declared that David's nose was closest to the target!

Visiting around the table.
Grown-ups always end up around the food.
The kids were in the playhouse!

 I asked MawMaw to bring her brownies

 rather thin so that I could cut them with cookie cutters.

Don't they look cute!?

The kids both declared it to be a fun time, and that was the whole point.  So our first Halloween party was a success!  Maybe next year we'll have a hay ride, too!

Tiny Talk: Prayers for my niece

Every night when David says his bedtime prayers, he includes, "And help Aunt Erin's baby to be healthy."  David loves family and he loves babies.  He loves his little cousin who's almost 2 and he loves our unborn baby and his unborn cousin.

So, I thought I'd ask everyone to join David in praying for his unborn cousin.  Her name will be Chasity and she is being chosen.  Her parents have been given an out and told that it would be ok if they chose not to keep her.  But today she was chosen.  She is wanted.

I don't understand all the details of her condition, but one lung has improved since the first sonogram.  The other lung is still compressed by her heart, which is in the wrong position.  She is given a better than 50% chance of survival now.  And today they chose to go with that.

She will probably require NICU services and maybe surgeries, but she was given the chance.  Pray for her.  Pray for her parents.  Pray for David to see his prayers answered - for another baby for him to love.

Tiny Talk Tuesday Returns

Rebekah was starting to fall asleep on the floor as I changed her diaper before nap time yesterday.  David ran over & excitedly proclaimed:  
Bekah-boo is soooo cute!!!  She's as cute as 101 babies stacked on top of each other!

He thinks all babies are absolutely adorable and has even said that the one inside Mama's tummy is cute!

Vacation Thankfulness

 Well, I tried to load a few pictures from our vacation.  Blogger has messed them up every time I load them.  And I'm too annoyed to try to figure out what's wrong and how to correct it.  This is the only one that loaded correctly.

 The little people found stuff to get into all week!

Annoyed, pregnant, tired, swollen... maybe I'll get the rest of the pictures on Flickr in the next few days.  Let me just say it was wonderful to spend a few days with my best friend and see our kids playing together and beating up on each other like they were all siblings.

Deep breath... My sister is starting her Countdown to Thanksgiving this year on Canadian Thanksgiving, which is today!  I'm gonna tie in my things I'm thankful for this year with the 1000 Gifts I started also, so to tie it all together:

11)  I am thankful that I have a friend I can count on, who loves me and my family like we are her family, who lets us crash their week, who rubs my feet and buys shrimp for us to cook while we're there!

October ONE

Today we took a field trip to the Homeschool Day at a local farm turned pumpkin patch!  What a great way to start October! (Rebekah has a melted marshmallow in her hand!)

 

One...on the playground.

 Two... in the photo op.

 

Three... chowing down on the marshmallows!

 They had a few really huge pumpkins on display.

 The kids jumped on the big air pillow,

 roasted marshmallows, 

 enjoyed a hay ride, 

climbed the 3-story tree house

 

 (all the way to the top!),

 loved the slides,

 

 took lots of pictures,

and saw lots of beautiful pumpkins!

 Yea for October!

Random 1000 Gifts

8)  My new School Shelf!  My niece, Lauren, helped me do the first coat of paint.  Elizabeth helped finish paint it last night.  Now I can get all of our school books off the dining table, and put the markers & such up high enough to be out of Rebekah's reach!

I know that's bad lighting, but you get the gist.  Here's my favorite vignette on the shelf:

I got that mug for free at the big Mardel sale this summer.  The rock is one that David picked up in the Brazos.  And that reminds me that I need to take this year's school photos!


9)  My BOTW (Bargain of the Week):

A new, metal lunch box for Elizabeth, scored at Target for $1.21 because I was in the right place at the right time and asked the right person for the price!

10)  Peep is growing... and peeping.

He will be 3-weeks old on Saturday.  I say "he" because he sure acts cocky.  And there's a reason why cocky means cocky.

Read more about My 1000 Gifts.