Logan and Daddy

We are all happy to have Matthew back after being gone for several days! He went to Seattle over the weekend to attend a worship conference with 10 others from our church. They had a wonderful time, learned a lot, got to meet some of the singers/song writers who have written many of the well known worship songs we sing, and attended some great concerts each night! I'll post more on that later when we get some pictures from other people. He didn't bring a camera. Then he was home one day before leaving again to Metlakatla to finish a tiling job with his dad! They didn't finish in time to get the last flight home, so they had to stay overnight. Thankfully they made it home this morning in between snow squalls!

Logan has been having a hard time with daddy being gone, so today they worked on a project together, putting down non skid stuff on our stairs. Logan really loves helping daddy, and often talks about the things they've done together. Of course he's very happy about the snow too! (Even though it's wet and slushy!)

Gingerbread

Today we made gingerbread men and ducks. It was fun. The kids ended up eating most of their frosting and sprinkles, of course!

I was having them say "frosting" for the picture, but Meadow said "raisin" instead. As you can see, that doesn't make the right kind of smile!

Here are mine! They had yummy cinnamon icing.

Oh so very 2!

Ever since sweet little Brennen turned 2, he has made sure he fulfills his obligation to be "terrible"! I can't look away for even 3 seconds without him getting into some kind of mischief! Pouring water everywhere, drinking soap, splashing in the toilet, and coloring himself and furniture with markers (which he always finds when I think they're put away) are some of his daily rituals. Somebody please help me! Well, here's what he did today: he tried to feed the fish all by himself, and dumped the entire can of fish food into the aquarium! I found him by a very red tank saying "too much!"

I took a picture thinking maybe someday I will see it as funny. Not today. Then, after I got the fish out and started siphoning out the water, he was trying to grab the bowl the fish were in and almost pulled it off the counter!

Now here's a funny picture! I know, I'm a bad mom to let my little guy out in the wet and cold with no pants on, but he got himself all ready to go out with Meadow and Logan. He just forgot one little detail! It was cute. He's in his new "choo choo" underwear!
Then we had a nice little picnic in the rain. (with pants on!)

Mommy's Slaves -just kidding

This week I made a chore chart, and put these kids to work! So far, it works well and they're excited to do their jobs and get a sticker toward a prize! The jobs on the chart are get dressed (by themselves), jobs on their job wheel (below), Quick Clean- clean up as much as you can in one room while a song plays, and make bed.

These are the job wheels. Each day they have 2 jobs. They turn their wheel to the next pictures, which I will trade around between kids each week. Some of the jobs look hard, but I just want them to do a little, to learn how, and get used to doing chores! We'll see how long it lasts! Hopefully this will keep working well!

Today our church is having a Harvest Party! I made a Tweety Bird cake for the cake walk. Meadow chose this one from a cake decorating catalog. I'm glad she chose this instead of one of the wedding cakes! It didn't turn out too professional looking, but it was fun. I've really had the urge to decorate cakes lately, for some reason.

I had to include Ashlen here, who loudly screeched like a pterodactyl throughout the cake decorating process! She is growing up so fast! She sits up really well now, can feed herself cracker pieces, and is almost crawling. She slides herself all over! She's a sweety, but also can out-scream and out-cry anyone! She's SO LOUD, especially when I'm getting dinner ready and at night!

Little Musicians

Yesterday at church we had a wonderful, unexpected surprise! A lady asked if we needed a piano, and GAVE us this full size electric piano! She's had it stored in her garage for 5 years, and nobody has wanted it. This is something we have been really wanting for the kids, (and me!) and we have been looking into them, but they were way more than we could afford. Meadow is interested in learning music, and wants to play piano (pianyo, as she calls it) so I am excited to start teaching her! We are thankful for how God provides!! Today we got a pretty lamp to go on it! Meadow and Logan are playing a duet.

Today some sample pieces of the new platform for the church came in. (It's finally getting replaced after many years of good use!) Matthew brought them home to test them out before taking them to the church. Here's some future worship band members- Brennen on drums, Logan on guitar and lead vocals, (he was singing a very sweet song: "Jesus is in Hea-ven, Jesus is in Hea-ven...") and Meadow doing a mixture of sign language, singing, and dancing! It was lovely! Ashlen was joining in too with shrieks, AHHAAHHs, and cries. She's laying on the floor in the background. I don't quite know what part of the worship team she is!

Anyway, they determined the stage worked quite well!

Big Boy Brennen

Now that he's two, Brennen has been really trying to be a big boy. Yesterday when we were leaving, he climbed into the van and closed the door. I found him sitting in one of the older kids booster seats with the seat belt across him (not buckled) and a big, proud smile on his face! He tries to use the bathroom by himself too, and does pretty well...except for one gross little incident...but I'll spare you from the details. Also, every night he climbs into Logan or Meadow's bed, really wanting a "big boy bed", so we took the side off his crib. He's very happy about it, but is learning the difficult lesson of staying in bed!Here's the newest member of our family, Ovino, the albino plecostomus (a sucker fish that eats algae off the sides of the aquarium). Our tank was completely green, so he was very needed! In the background you can see one of Meadow's jellyfish. We got those at the same time. They float around in the current. She thinks they are real, but kind of knows they're not. Her eyes welled up with tears as she asked, "Are they just toys? Are they not real?" It was very sad! I couldn't tell her they weren't alive. I just said they were just like real ones, but they don't eat. Logan says, "They're just pretend."

New Fold Meeting

We will be starting a new Fold group next week at our house for families with young kids! Pastor Dave has asked Matthew to lead it. (Fold meetings are small group meetings that our church does that meet in homes.) We will meet early for dinner, then the kids will go next door to Krista and Stephanie's house! Our first meeting will be on Oct.22nd, a Thursday, which would also make it easier (than a Sunday) to get babysitters if parents prefer that. Matthew has started a blog "Family Fold" about it for people to check for information and updates. Here is the link, which is also in the sidebar: http://www.familyfold.blogspot.com/

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I just added a little more info to the family fold blog.