My little bookworm

Hannah is my little book worm. This girl LOVES to look at books and "read" books. She can littlerally sit for hours and be entertained by a pile of books. She is like both her daddy and her mommy that way :) I love that she enjoys books and I am looking forward to the day when she is able to read on her own! What a wonderful world will be opened up to her when she is able to read....I can't wait!

Gabe and the spoon

Lately Gabe had become mr. independent when it comes to his meals. Most of the time he does NOT want to be fed, but wants to do it himself. He is starting to learn how to use a spoon and it is soo funny :) I snapped a couple of pictures the other day so you could all enjoy the cuteness :)

Good try buddy, but you have got the wrong end :)


Such focus!

Open wide!!

Success! :)

My kids...from far away :)

One of my favorite things about our house is that we have a really nice back yard. We have wonderful neighbors on three sides, and in the back of the house there is a huge field behind our yard. We have several tall trees that provide fantastic shade and are perfect for little girls and boys to play under on sunny summer days.


Sometimes when we go outside to play I like to let the kids do their own thing. I sit on the deck and supervise, but I think it is fun to see what they like to do when I am not actively playing with them. Yesterday I snuck out with the camera to take some pictures when they weren't looking. (I didn't have my zoom lense on the camera, so that is why they look so far away.)


Gabe had trotted off to sit under one of the big trees and was busy throwing rocks and sticks and crumpling leaves, when his big sister decided to join him :)






Then she decided to smother him..

Then they caught my laughing :)


Silly kidders :)

Hannah at Indian Bear

Hannah is my little fish. She loves the water and loves to swim. At Indian Bear, even when we were in the pond, she was not afraid at all...she would swim away from Nick and wanted him to take her out to the raft in the middle of the pond. She wasn't even bothered by the fish in the pond (I am a bit traumatized by them :)) No fear for this little girl!

Gabe at Indian Bear

Every year Nick's side of the family does four day weekend at a lodge close to where we live. It is a really nice place with a big air-conditioned lodge that we all stay in, and a nice pond for fishing and swimming in :) It can be a bit crazy at times, there are 38 of us now, but it is also lots of fun! Here are some pictures of Gabe from the weekend!

Being cute wearing daddy's hat :)
Pweeeeese pick me up mommy!!!
Seriously mom, I cannot beleive you have that camera in my face AGAIN!

First Day of School

Something that Nick and I have been talking about/praying about/thinking about over the past 6 months to year is how we want our kids to be educated. Hannah is going to be four and September (YIKES!!) and the inevitable school decision is right around the corner. A lot of Hannah's buddies are going to be starting pre-school this year, and while we know that pre-school is not something that is right for our family, Hannah has show a lot of interest in learning and has on several occasions over the summer asked me to teach her to read. :) Nick and I are both avid readers, so this made me really excited :) So after much talking/thinking/praying we have decided to home school for pre-school. I am really really excited about it, and Hannah is too! :)

I did a good bit of research over the past month or so and we settled on using the Sonlight P4/5 cirriculum. I really liked the emphasis on reading, as well as the emphasis on other cultures. I spent a couple of day looking on home school re-sale board, ebay, and half.com, and was able to piece together the cirriculum for about half of what it costs to buy it from Sonlight. (Besides being an avid reader, I am also quite cheap...hee hee :)) Hannah was so excited to get her books in the mail! Every time one would come, she would would say it was the best book ever :)


Here is a picture of our school book shelf :)

Today was our first day, and we worked on the letter F. We also practiced writing our name, read about baby animals, starting learning about seasons and months, and practiced our bible verse for the week. I had a ton of fun, and I am pretty sure Hannah did too :)