14 months

We went over to a friend's house to play the other day and Noah had so much fun with their two year old's toys.  It made me realize that at Christmas and his birthday he was to young and it was too cold to use these types of things so we didn't get any...but it's time to start finding some fun outdoor toys!!

 Beep, beep!

 I know who's going to help daddy mow the lawn this year!

What a face.  How is he 14 months already??

Play time!

Life with a five year old and a fourteen month old is crazy for sure, but there's a whole lot that makes me laugh throughout the day.

 Katelyn is a little entertainer.  She likes to make us laugh.

 We've been having nightly tickle fights and the kids throw themselves at us begging to be tickled.  They just giggle and giggle.  It doesn't get much better than that.

 Noah loves having Katelyn chase him around the house.  He squeals he's so excited.  He's getting pretty fast!

 They circle round and round the table.  I'm pretty sure the floor will have a permanent mark pretty soon.

 The threat of being tickled is half the fun!

 Noah devoured some mushroom pizza tonight.  Michael asked, "Can he eat mushrooms."  I said, "I guess so because he just downed an entire piece."

 So big!

 Messy pizza face.

 I love this little boy!

 Daddy's turn.

Katelyn's getting him to play some more.

I love the last half an hour or so before it's time to get the kids ready for bed.  It has become one of our favorite times of the day as a family.

Katelyn's classroom...and some other stuff

Let me start this post by saying that my pictures were all in the order that I wanted them and blogger decided to jumble them all up...

 

 This is a picture of Katelyn's homeschool class.  We have gone once a week for twelve weeks each semester.  (We just finished for this semester.)  We have chosen to homeschool using a classical model for education.  In the elementary years the children do a lot of memory work in each subject.  The premise is that these are pegs that they will later build upon.  When children are young it is very easy for them to memorize material.  They are little sponges and they love to sing silly songs and put motions to what they are learning.  As they get older they can then learn more of the context surrounding these "pegs".  This picture is of Katelyn's class doing their timeline song.  They start with creation and go to present time listing major points of history along the way.  It is amazing to hear these 5-7 year old girls go through the timeline.  I wish I had learned this when I was a kid!

 

 Noah was sick all weekend but he woke up happy and fever free this morning!  Yeah!!!!

 

 Pony ride.  :)

 

 This was Katelyn's classroom the other day.  She was writing in her nature journal.

 

 Daddy's home!!  I'm so thankful that when Michael comes home kids are thrown around and wrestled with on the floor.  He's a hands on daddy.  What a blessing!

 

 Here's a picture of Katelyn's class with their tutor.  What a great group!  We are so thankful for this community and our time with them this year as we've formed relationships with some great families.

 

 This is the page that Katelyn was working on in her nature journal.  "More signs of spring".

 

 Building, building.  This girl is always building something. (And her brother is always ripping something out of my cabinet!)

 

 Katelyn fell asleep in the car the other day and then she fell right back to sleep on Michael.  He didn't mind.  :)

 

 Katelyn was drawing the hyacinths in her journal.  :)  They smell so good.  I love hyacinths!!!

 

 It was beautiful out today and Noah was finally feeling better so we spent a lot of time outside.  We went to the park.  Came home and blew bubbles and did sidewalk chalk in the front yard.  Took a rest and then did bubbles, sidewalk chalk and golf in the backyard.  Followed by a walk around the block after dinner.  Ahhh...the weather we've all been waiting for. (Good thing I decided on Sunday that this week would be our spring break.  We only have 11 more weeks of school to do in the next 21 weeks.  I think we'll be okay.)

 

 Katelyn just brought her art stuff outside.

 

Look Papa, a hole in one.  :)

 

We're going up to Michigan on Thursday and it's supposed to be cold up there so we're going to spend all day outside tomorrow while we still can!

Happy Easter!!

Happy Easter!  He is risen!!

I love Easter.  It's my favorite time of year.  I love being part of our church year round but I especially love worship service on Easter Sunday.  We've had a very fun weekend.  Here are the highlights...

Our church had a petting zoo, lost sheep teaching and skit and an Easter egg hunt yesterday for the kids.  Katelyn was so exciting.  She has been talking about this day for weeks.  Fortunately, the weather was 60 degrees and sunny.  It was  beautiful out and all the kids had a blast.

Noah loved looking at all the animals.  He wasn't afraid of any of them.

Katelyn loves all the animals too!

I think she wanted this little pony to come home with us.

This was Noah's favorite thing to do with his Easter bucket.  Hilarious!

I can't believe Noah is big enough to ride up on daddy's shoulders.

She found the hay bale.

Oh this is exciting!

Katelyn was sitting with all the kids watching the skit about the lost sheep that the shepherd went to find.

The kids were divided by age and when the leader said go, off they went.

Michael helped Noah find a few eggs.

Katelyn was in a frenzy to find as many eggs as possible and she didn't quit until she was sure there were no more out there.

He got one!

Once he put his three little eggs in the bucket all he wanted to do was dump them back out again.  

Silly boy.

Yep, I love him.

Easter baskets for the littles.

 All ready for church on Easter morning.  Beautiful!  Katelyn picket out her hat and was so excited to get to wear it on Easter.

 Noah sits and reads books for a seriously long amount of time.  I love this!

Our beautiful girl.  Katelyn asked Jesus into her heart a couple of weeks ago and she can clearly tell you the gospel message.  In light of this, all of our bible stories and crafts were especially great this year.  Katelyn was anxious to discuss everything.

I made a ham, au gratin potatoes and asparagus tonight for dinner.  After dinner

Katelyn and I dyed Easter eggs because we still hadn't gotten to that project yet.  We had a great weekend! I'm sad to see it come to an end.

Catching up...as always

The last couple of weeks have been BUSY!  I'm not sure where the time has gone...but, here are some pictures.  

 There's nothing cuter than a little boy in a baseball cap.  :)

 We went to the park a couple of weeks ago.  The weather was beautiful.  It's not anymore.  Now it's just COLD.  Way too cold for late March.  Spring can come anytime now!

 Have I mentioned how much I love these two?

 Noah loves the swings!

 Katelyn loves the park.  

 Such a happy little guy.

 She's such a monkey.  After these past months of gymnastics she likes climbing and hanging upside down on the bars.

 Noah's walking all over and every time I see Michael walking along, holding his hand, it melts my heart.  

 He's starting to look more and more like a little boy and less like a baby.  I'm not sure how I feel about this.

 Noah was liking the slide also.

 I love this picture.  A little boy playing with mulch.  Perfect.

 Katelyn was climbing through the tube...

 and of course her little brother followed right behind. 

 Sweetness.

Here he goes.