The View From Here

Welcome to Spring!!
I am beyond thrilled to report that we have been playing outside lately.
Baseball have been thrown, chalk pictures have been drawn, the Cozy Coupe has moved back outside from it's winter home in the basement, and I have started running outside again.
The boys are back on their bikes and trikes and scooters, and Marshall and I are going to some garage sales tomorrow already.
It hasn't exactly been what I would call "warm" outside just yet, but being able to wear a light jacket and walk on dry ground is a wonderful start.

Our duck has returned and is now laying on her eggs most of the day. She has done such a great job of covering them this year, that it is very tough to see exactly how many she has already laid.

It is wonderful to see the backyard grass again. I am happy to report that there is NO snow anywhere in our yard (or neighborhood for that matter).

These beautiful white birds have been out on the lake all day today. The last of the ice on the lake melted a couple days ago. There was even a lady out in my backyard today taking pictures.

Marshall celebrated his 4th birthday a couple weeks ago. Among his gifts was his favorite book of all time: Betty Bunny Loves Chocolate Cake. We just finished reading it a couple minutes ago.



And last, but certainly not least: My newly toothless Logan.

On Monday morning, I received a call from the school nurse. She told me that she had Logan in her office and that there had been an accident at recess. She went on to tell me that Logan had been hit in the mouth with a hula hoop and that one of his teeth was knocked out.
Upon hearing the news, I was not surprised, since his tooth had been quite wiggly for quite some time. But then, she told me that the other front tooth was also quite loose and bleeding.
Marshall and I went to the school to pick up Logan and then onto the dentist to make sure the first tooth had come completely out and that the second had not been fractured.
After waiting for over 2 hours, Logan left the dentist with another tooth missing. Our dentist suggested that they pull the tooth out, since it was so wiggly and since the gums around it were so inflamed. This was my first experience with nitrous oxide (laughing gas), but Logan was a champ!
The best part about the whole experience for him was missing a day and a half of school and collecting his "tooth fairy" money from Daddy and Grandma and Grandpa :).

Sentences

Peter's new job is moving forward smoothly. There is a lot of new information for him to learn, but he is a motivated worker and will be up to speed quickly.

Our spring creatures have returned: Ducks (including the one who laid eggs by our front door the past 2 years), Geese, and Robins for now.

There is a small patch of open water on our lake.

Tonight is movie night at the big boy's school and we are going to watch Frozen for the first time.

I was up before 6 this morning to watch my neighbors kids before school, and I am not napping right now even though I could be, since Marshall's zonked out.

Our yard is a wonderful mix of white and green, but getting greener by the day.

I am getting anxious to put on my running shoes and hit the pavement soon!

Logan is working on reading his first chapter book to me.

Brady went to the Como Planetarium today for a class field trip. I've never been there so I am excited to hear how it was.

Marshall has now learned to write numbers from 0-6. He is working on drawing pictures with detail, cutting with scissors, and letter sounds.

I am looking forward to the community Easter carnival in a few weeks here in Farmington. Last year I won an Easter basket with garden supplies and a gift card, and 2 years ago Brady won a bike.

I stopped using Twitter about 4 months ago after reading some hurtful comments. I am trying to decide if I think I will return to that place or if I should just delete it.

Marshall has become obsessed with the show Caillou again. I was really hoping we were over that since I can't stand most PBS shows ;).

Peter and I haven't had a date night since August.

Track and Field starts on Tuesday. Peter is coaching Brady's team again and Logan has a friend on his team. They both practice on the same nights this year, which is wonderful.

5 more weeks of BSF and just a few more than that for Wednesday night church. I am already looking forward to a summer of open schedules and lots of free time.

Marshall finally weighs 30 lbs, while Logan is almost to 50 lbs, and Brady is a handful away from 60 lbs. Soon I won't be able to pick them up anymore.
Also, soon maybe Brady will be tall enough to stop using a booster seat in the car :).

My favorite take out food of all time is Chipotle. I swear I could eat one of those bowls every week!

I love my Target RedCard and all of the money that is saves our family. I also love Aldi.

I am so thankful for family vacations and how fortunate we have been to have already taken so many. I am already thinking about our next trip, even though we've only been back a couple weeks.

Logan lost his voice last weekend and it's still not back.

The Good and The Bad

As with all seasons of life, there are good times and bad times, happy moments and sad moments.
Since I haven't given many updates lately, I thought I would lay it out this way: the good and the bad.


The Good:

- Health has returned to our family--Hooray!
- We are back to BSF and Wednesday night church this week.
- We have fresh snow on the ground for the kids to play in.
- January is already 1/2 over (my least favorite month).
- Brady is playing basketball. He has practice on Thursdays and games on Saturdays, if you ever       wanted to come down and watch.
- Brady, Logan, and Marshall are all taking swimming lessons on Saturday mornings.
- Brady is in his final class for swimming lessons and will hopefully pass the first time.
- Brady will be participating in his school's Science Fair next month.
- Our van finally took a trip through the car wash!
- There are some small signs that Brady may finally be getting a front tooth.
- Logan can read Berenstain Bears books all by himself now.
- There was a bald eagle in our backyard on Christmas (everyone that was here got to see it).
- I am finally wearing my new purple sweater and it's super awesome!
- Marshall is 2 letters away from completing his lower case letters. We'll soon be starting math.


The Bad:

- The deer haven't been visiting our backyard much this year.
- It's the middle of winter.
- Our public library is undergoing renovations and is currently located on the second floor of the Farmington City Hall (it's not fun to haul a huge bag of books up and down 2 flights of stairs).
- I am still wearing 2 pairs of socks to keep my feet warm.
- Chocolate is still not an acceptable lunch.
- I signed up to work an extra shift this month.
- I hardly ever see my neighbors, since we're always hiding out in our houses this time of year.
- Peter was laid off at work on January 6.

Since the loss of Peter's job is obviously the biggest thing on either of my lists, I wanted to expand on it a tiny bit more.
Peter found out back in November that there were going to be some major layoffs at his company, but he was confident at the time that his job was secure. A few weeks after that, and many rumors later, he began to feel less sure of the security of his job.
By the time December came, he felt certain that his position would be eliminated and transferred to the new company, from India, who was taking over. At this time, many of Peter's dearest coworkers were quickly leaving the company to find new jobs elsewhere. During the second week of December, the rumors were verified and Peter knew for certain that he would be losing his job soon.
On January 6, the official letters were sent out--"this is really happening".
This is what we know:
Peter will continue to have a job with Thomson Reuters until March 7, if he chooses to stay.
He is eligible to receive severance pay until July.
Peter has already spoken with one company about potential job opportunities, and he has been given many leads as to where to apply and who is hiring from close friends and past coworkers.
I feel confident that this is a part of God's plan for our family and I am certain that He will lead Peter to the right job at the right time---BUT, it's still a little stressful.

Peter has done an amazing job of supporting our family financially and I have no doubts that he will continue to do so.
We'd love some prayers or words of encouragement, if you'd like to pass them along.
These next few months will be challenging and possibly life changing for our family.
I'll keep you posted as we head down this path.

Kid Updates: Marshall

Last but certainly not least. I've given updates on my older boys and today I'd like to share a little of what Marshall has been up to as well.

Being the youngest child, Marshall gets a few special treatments every once in awhile. For instance, he gets to have special one-on-one time with Mommy everyday while his brothers are at school, he is doted on by nearly every kid in the neighborhood, just for being cute, and he is the only child in our house with his own bedroom--lucky kid.

Marshall is more quiet and reserved than the other boys, needing an extra hug before saying goodbye or an extra kiss after a boo-boo. He's also a little more petite than the others, weighing only 28 lbs and wearing mostly size 2T clothes and 7 shoes. Marshall is also a little clown, following in big brother Logan's shoes.

At Home...

Let's face it, most of Marshall's life takes place at home, so this is a great place to start.
Marshall is an excellent sleeper (always has been), sleeping from 8:30pm-8:15am every single day, and napping, like clockwork, from 1:15pm-3:45pm. Both of these sleeping events take place in his super cool race car bed, a wonderful Craigslist find.
Once awake, Marshall likes to eat his breakfast, and then watch TV. His show of choice right now is Little Bear, and if I allow him 2 shows, then he'll usually choose either Dora or Super Why.
When TV time is over, Marshall usually chooses something to play with. Current toys of choice right now include: wooden blocks, small toy cars, Mickey Mouse play figures, train tracks, or the play kitchen--it just depends where we are in the house.
He also loves playing board games with me! Our favorites right now are Candy Land, Color Bingo, Memory, Don't Spill the Beans, and Hiss. He also likes playing a dice rolling game with his brothers called Zombie Dice.
Marshall LOVES books! We go to the library about every 2 weeks to check out a new stack of books. I let Marshall choose whichever books he would like and then I usually grab 2-3 that I think would be good too--I like to keep him in charge as much as I can, though. We read the books at various times throughout the day, but always before nap time.
Favorite foods include: carrots, apples, pizza, and chicken noodle soup.
Marshall is also a big fan of being outside, playing with a ball, driving in a cozy coupe, and especially riding his trike (he still has no interest in his bike at all). He loves collecting as many wood chips as he can find, chasing grasshoppers, swimming in the little pool, drawing with sidewalk chalk, and bubbles.
Oh, and let's not forget about Marshall's love for playdoh, paint, and magnets...


At School....

Marshall will not start preschool until next fall, but we've started to do our own mini version, to prepare him for some of the things he'll need to know next year.
We have our "school" session at home every morning--Marshall calls it "letters" and he asks for it first thing every morning.
I am teaching him capital letters right now--how they look, how they sound, words that start with that sound, and how to write them. We are on letter M right now and Marshall is doing a fantastic job!
We start by finding our magnet letter that matches the letter of the day we are on. Then, we color a picture of the letter, answer a question about it, find the flashcard for it, and then find the  corresponding picture cards that have objects that start with that letter. After that, we trace the letter on a dry erase page and then print it with a pencil on paper. Next, we move upstairs to the computer and play a little game about the letter of the day and then move to the tablet to do a letter tracing activity. It sounds like this would take forever, but really, we only spend about 15 minutes a day on it. This week Marshall was able to print "HALL", which is the second half of his name! I remember teaching Brady and Logan to write their names at 3 1/2 as well, so it's fun to see Marshall following the trend.
Other learning activities that we do together are puzzles. We mostly work on 24 piece ones, but we've done a few larger ones as well. Marshall just learned how to identify which pieces are edge pieces and which go in the middle. Maybe someday he'll learn that the edge part of the piece needs to go on the outside :).
We also started a little work with scissors, but since he's not very strong yet, he has trouble opening and closing them to cut.
Coloring, painting, and drawing are other fun activities that are also great for learning and building fine motor skills. Marshall loves to draw Mickey Mouse on the magna doodle, especially during long car trips!


In Sports...

This will be a short one, since Marshall doesn't play any sports. He did take a gymnastics class last year, which he really loved, though. The reasons I chose not to sign him up again this year were cost and him not wanting to separate from me (we did the mommy and me class last year). Maybe in the spring he would want to try again.
Marshall will be taking his first swimming lesson this winter! He'll start in the parent/child class with Daddy. He loves the water, so I think he'll really like swimming lessons, as long as the water stays out of his face.


In Video Games...

This will also be a short section, since Marshall doesn't play many video games.
Marshy likes to watch his brothers and his Daddy play Minecraft, although he hasn't had a chance to do so in a very long time. He also enjoys playing Mario Kart from time to time with Logan and Brady, and we have an educational Mickey Mouse game on the computer that he's tried out twice and really enjoyed.
Like his big brothers, Marshall also has a Nexus 7 tablet, which he uses for tracing letters during "school".  He plays educational games on the tablet for approximately 15 minutes a week--that's it!
The games he has are Monkey Preschool, memory and matching games, Doctor Panda games, a piano music game, puzzles, and books.
I love the learning that takes place on the computer and tablet (and even TV for that matter), but all of that screen time is extremely limited in our house, for all kids. I push my kids to play outside or in the basement nearly all of the time, because that is what is best for them.


In God's Word...

Little Marshall is having his heart filled with God's word several times a week now. Sunday mornings are Sunday School time, in a classroom with other 3-4 years old. Marshall always brings home his Sunday School papers and tells us what he learned.
Wednesday mornings are BSF days, where Marshall has a small class of kids his age, including cousin Addy. The teachers at BSF are amazing in how they teach the stories and verses, pray over the children, and help them with art projects and games in the big gym. This is a time that Marshall really looks forward to, and I have seen so much growth in him, in how he says goodbye quickly to me and moves right in with his teachers.
We have now also added Wednesday nights at church into our schedule and it seems to be working out great for everyone! Marshall is in a class with a teacher he knows well from church, he has a special orange t-shirt he wears, and he will even be learning memory verses now.
I am so thankful for our church and for the opportunities we have to bring our kids to a place where they can build friendships with other Christian kids and grow in the knowledge of Jesus and the Bible.
Marshall has now also started to sing along with many of the songs from KTIS as we are driving down the road--such a blessing to hear his little voice sing praise to God!

I am so proud of Marshall! Not for his academic success or his adorable looks, but for the sweet boy that he is and for the Godly man that I am praying he will become.

"It's only for a moment you are mine to hold
The plans that heaven has for you
Will all too soon unfold
So many different prayers I'll pray
For all that you might do
But most of all I'll want to know
You're walking in the truth
And If I never told you
I want you to know
As I watch you grow

I pray that God would fill your heart with dreams
And that faith gives you the courage
To dare to do great things
I'm here for you whatever this life brings
So let my love give you roots
And help you find your wings"

 

-Mark Harris

Kid Updates: Logan

This is my update post of Logan and what's been going on with him lately.

Logan is my outgoing and silly boy. He can always put a smile on my face. He is also my most intense child, often testing my patience. I can't imagine life without him in it, though.

At Home....

Since starting full day school this year, Logan spends less time at home than he did last year. When he's home, though, you'll often find Logan playing with his bus collection, train tracks, wooden blocks, or cars. Logan gets along very well with his little brother Marshall, but seems to have more conflict with Brady. Logan is also a big fan of playing outside--riding his bike or scooter, driving in the cozy coupes with Marshall, or sledding in the winter.
Logan is also a big fan of friends. He will play with absolutely anyone who is willing to play, but mostly chooses his friends Gavin, Rico, and Everett, when playing near home. Other friends are Bailey and Brooklyn (who used to live next door). They are twins who get along very well with Logan and often come over to play.


At School....

Logan LOVES school! He loves to ride the bus, eat lunch at school, make new friends, and especially recess time. Logan is also a very smart learner, just like his big brother. He is an above average reader and above average at math as well. It amazes me to think that just a year ago he could only read a handful of words, and now, at just over 6 years old, he can read hundreds of words and sound out words that he's not familiar with. Logan and I work on his reading at home, and I am always so proud of him when listening to him figure it all out--and he's proud too!
Logan struggles with his fine motor skills--handwriting, scissor skills, coloring, etc. This year I have noticed a huge improvement in this area, though, and I have also watched him slow down as he writes and colors, in order to neaten up his work. I love how he has the ability to make it nice, even if it doesn't always come out that way.
We were a little sad at the start of the school year, when we realized that Logan didn't know anyone in his class. Well, I should have known better than to worry, because within 2 days, he had about 4 new friends and was already asking me to take him to their houses to play.
My favorite part of each day is waiting, with Marshall, for the school bus to come, and then watching Logan come bouncing out, throwing his backpack about and talking faster than I can comprehend about his day at school--it's priceless.


In Sports...

I'll have to say that Logan isn't the biggest sports fan of the family. With that said, however, he has played a variety of sports starting with t-ball, then basketball, swimming, and track and field. T-ball quickly became boring, so we dropped that this year. During the summer, Logan attended a basketball camp. I'm not sure if he loved it or not, so I guess we'll find out in a few weeks if he decides he wants to play again or not--I like to leave decisions about sports up to the kids, and not up to Peter and I. Swimming lessons are a must for us, so even though I know it's not his favorite, I will require him to pass at least a couple more levels before we stop--and luckily he doesn't mind it that bad, he's just not a fan of water in his face :).
Track and field was the sport that Logan has most enjoyed. If you've ever seen the classic picture of him with the baton, you'll know what I mean. That will definitely be on our sports agenda for the spring.
Logan also enjoys watching his big brother play football, and while he watches, he's been working on perfecting his punting skills with Marshall.


In Video Games....

I'll be honest...Logan LOVES video games and he'd play them most of the day if he could, but unfortunately for him, he can't, because I would never allow that.
Logan spends approximately 30 minutes on 3 days of the week playing games. His favorite games are Minecraft, Cube World (very similar to Minecraft's Lego style), Mario Kart, and Skylanders. All of these games are very kid-friendly, and they are games that he can play with his friends as well. Video game time at our house is not automatically given and cannot be earned as a reward for good behavior. Video game time is given when Peter and I feel it is right, and it is always closely monitored by us.
Logan also owns a Nexus 7 tablet (similar to a Kindle Fire), although it was in for repair all summer and we just now got it back. The tablet was a gift and is primarily used for educational games, movies, and during travel. Tablet time is included under video game time.
At school, Logan, along with the rest of the school has been issued an iPad for in-school use only. I really like the idea of allowing children to become familiar with technology (just like we used computers occasionally in school when I was his age), but I wouldn't want looking at the screen to take away from time spent with his teacher. Fortunately for me, when I asked Logan this weekend about the iPad, he informed me that they haven't used them at all yet this year. I am hoping that will change, but just as Brady uses it very sparingly, I'm sure it will be the same with Logan.


In God's Word...

For this one, I could probably just copy and paste this section from my update post on Brady.
Logan is a big fan of Sunday School and he loves the fact that he is in class with Brady during this time. There is a "big question of the week" that we help him to answer each week and then he gets to choose a reward for getting it done--he loves this part best!
On Monday nights, you'll find Logan at BSF with Daddy and Brady. This is his 3rd year of BSF, but his first year at the school-age group. He now has a take home page that I get to help him with. We read through the passages of scripture together and then I help him to choose the correct answers. Each week there is a memory verse as well. Last week was the first memory verse, and I was absolutely amazed at how quickly he was able to learn it. There are not many things that make me more proud of my son than to hear him recite scripture from memory.
Wednesday night at church has always been something that Peter and I wanted our boys to be a part of and this year we are making it happen for them. Logan is in a class at church called Team Kid. He will be learning more about God's word in this class and learning even more scripture verses.
Although Logan has not been ready to fully understand what it means to ask Jesus into his heart, I know he is heading in the right path. We listen to KTIS together often, and just the other night he told me about how the songs on the radio make his heart so happy :).

Logan looks a lot like his Grandpa Steve ("regular Grandpa"). As I pray for Logan each day, I ask God to help him grow into a man as great as my Dad, a man who walks with the Lord, and who loves his family more than anything.

"Be strong in the Lord and
Never give up hope
You're gonna do great things
I already know
God's got his hand on you so
Don't live life in fear
Forgive and forget
But don't forget why you're here
Take you're time and pray
These are the words I would say "

 

-Sidewalk Prophets

Kid Updates: Brady

It's been awhile since I updated what's been going on with my kids. Since Brady is the oldest, I'll start with him.

Brady takes his role as oldest child very seriously. He is an excellent rule-follower and rule-enforcer
He has become very gentle, sweet, and obedient at school and with Peter and I. With his brothers, though, this is not always the case :).

At Home....

Brady is not home as much as he was this summer now that school has started. With the time he does have, though, he loves to draw and write, make his own books and card games, play football against himself in the basement, and read. He is currently reading The Boxcar Children, which he checked out from the school library. This summer he read 5 chapter books from The Magic Tree House collection.
You can also find Brady watching the Vikings on Sunday afternoons, making up hide-and-seek types of games to play with his brothers, playing his favorite board game, Ticket To Ride, or playing Scrolls, a card game on the computer.


At School....

Although we haven't been to conferences just yet, I can already tell you that Brady is well behaved at school. He loves phy ed, art, recess, and especially math. He will be starting a special group soon called GEL, which is an accelerated math group. Brady is also learning to write in cursive, which he thinks is pretty cool.
We are so proud of Brady's progress at school--both academically and socially. Brady has really grown in his maturity and relationships since starting school 3 years ago. He has had opportunities to meet boys and girls from a variety of cultures, income statuses, and family lifestyles. I believe each of these friendships will help to form the person he will become.
We were thrilled to learn that Brady's best friend Dylan would be in his class again this year, and although Brady and Dylan get along well and are good examples for each other, Brady has made another close friend this year. Today, after school, Brady's new friend Jake is having him over to play for awhile. Jake is a boy with disabilities, a boy who has a special helper at school with him all day, and a boy who does not have a lot of friends. Brady loves Jake and I can see that he is showing God's love to him too. Everyday when he comes home from school, I ask him how the day went, who he played with at recess, ate lunch with, etc, and everyday he tells me all about Jake and what they did together.
These are the moments when I know that Brady is exactly where God wants him to be---in Farmington, at this house we are renting, and at Akin Road Elementary school.
Brady is giving himself to Jake, but getting so much more in return from Jake. I can guarantee this will not be a friendship that he'll ever forget!


In Sports...

Brady has played many sports over the years. Most recently, he's been involved in track and field, basketball, and football.
We are currently in the middle of his 2nd year of flag football, and Brady is on a team made up of 3rd-6th graders.
In past sports, for the younger kids, sports are played without really keeping score or declaring a winner or loser--all kids get trophies and are made to feel important. That was great then, but it's so much more fun now!
Brady has finally gotten to the point where his games are "real". There are refs, positions, and points. Last week Brady's team won the game in the final play, with a touchdown scored by a 6th grader. Brady, one of the smallest kids out there, had a chance to run the ball 3 times, getting a 1st down for his team once. He is competitive and loves to win, just like his Daddy :).


In Video Games...

Ok, I know this section doesn't really fit in with the others, but I wanted to touch on it anyways. Brady loves technology and learning and I love that he loves it too! What I don't love is when kids sit glued to TV screens, computer monitors, or other electronic devices.
Brady goes to a school where each kid has been issued an iPad. I think this is SO awesome and an amazing learning tool. I also think it is awesome that the kids have very limited time spent using them, and that they stay at the school and don't come home--according to Brady, it's about 10-15 minutes in a day, spent doing math problems or reading books.
At home, video game time is extremely limited and always has been. Brady is typically allowed to play video games 3-4/7 days of the week, for 30-45 minutes. The games he enjoys are Minecraft (basically computer Legos), Scrolls (a strategic card game), or sports games--nothing violent, of course, and all approved by his video-game-loving and child-protecting Daddy.
Brady also owns a Nexus 7 tablet (similar to a Kindle Fire). We did not make this purchase, but we are in love with the product. There are lots of educational and fun games, books, and tools for him to use (during his allowed video game time), and it comes in super handy on all of our road trips too.
I would rather see my kids interacting and learning from a game than just staring mindlessly at a TV show,


In God's Word...

Brady, Logan, and Marshall attend Sunday School on Sunday mornings. They learn stories and songs about God there. It is great, but we wanted to take it a step farther....
So, our whole family has been involved in BSF for the past 3 years. This year we are studying the book of Matthew. Peter takes Brady and Logan to the men's and school age children group on Monday nights. Marshall and I go on Wednesday mornings to the woman's and little kids group. One night a week, I sit down with Brady and Logan and we do their BSF homework as a team. It is a great way to dig deeper into God's word as a family. Brady and Logan also have memory verses, which they do an excellent job of memorizing each week!
But again, we wanted to take it a step further....after all, you can NEVER have too much God in your life, right?
So, we started Wednesday night clubs at our church last night, for the first time. Brady is in a group called G-Force, which consists of kids in 3rd grade to 5th grade, and he already knows a lot of them from church. He had a great time last night and is already looking forward to going back.
Peter and I both believe that youth groups will become essential to shaping the Christian walks of our boys, and if we don't start now, then when?
Brady has also become more aware of which kids in his class walk with God and which ones may not. I love that he is taking notice of this, and we were able to have a conversation the other night about if he thought that other kids could see Jesus in him. Valuable lessons learned at public school...

Brady is basically a miniature version of his Daddy, and I love him for that.
He is a very special child to me and I pray everyday that I am making the best possible decisions for him and for his life.
Brady asked Jesus to come into his heart when he was 5, and nothing makes me more proud as a mom than watching him live that out in his life each day.

Lord, I want to be just like You
'Cause he wants to be just like me
I want to be a holy example
For his innocent eyes to see

Help me be a living Bible, Lord
That my little boy can read
I want to be just like You
'Cause he wants to be like me

It's Been Awhile

It's been awhile since I last blogged.
I've been really busy and haven't had much to blog about.

Before I dive back into the blogging world, I'd like to share a little about what we've been up to in the past month and a half.

Sports:
Brady and Logan are both involved in Track and Field right now and they are loving it! Peter is even coaching Brady's team. I'd like to say thank you to all of you who have come down to watch them run--they really like having fans :).
Marshall is also taking a gymnastics class right now, on Monday mornings, which he is SO excited about!
This summer Brady and Logan will each be attending a week long basketball camp. They will also be taking swim lessons later in the summer.
I think that is it for sports for now, so here are some pictures.

Church:
Our whole family is wrapping up with BSF for the season. It was a great study of Genesis this year for all of us. This was the last year that Logan will come with me on Wednesday mornings to the woman's group. Next fall he'll be going with his Daddy and Brady on Mondays.
Vacation Bible School at our church starts the week of June 24. I know my boys are excited to go, and I've been praying a little about some friends that we could invite along.

School:
The school year is quickly coming to an end, with the last day on June 4. Both boys continue to do well in school and both are sad about it ending so soon. Logan's class will be putting on a music program this Friday afternoon, and Brady's class has one next Thursday--it never gets old seeing them sing with their classes :). Brady's class is going to the Children's Theatre on Friday and Logan has a field trip to the MN Zoo in the end of May (I even get to come along for that one).

Summer:
As always, we are anxiously awaiting the official return of summer to MN.
Yesterday was very helpful with the near 100 degree temps--we even got the pool out.
Picnics are already in full force, parks have been visited, walks have been taken, and I am back to my morning runs--just a few more weeks until school is out so I can have my boys with me everyday and enjoy the freedom to do what we want--all the time!!
Also, we will be heading out on a family vacation in June to Myrtle Beach, SC, to celebrate 10 years of marriage and an 8th and a 6th birthday as well.

Duck:
I'm not sure if you remember me talking about the duck that nested by our front door last year or not, but she came back this year. Last year was not so successful for her. She laid about 7 eggs, but a mean crow came and took them all while she was out one day.
This year she came back and things went much better. This year our duck sat on her nest all day (except when she went out to eat in the evenings). She was also much less afraid of us--we were able to walk right up to her and we all talked to her everyday.
One day while she was out for dinner, we were able to get a good picture of her 12 eggs.
Then, last weekend, 11 of the 12 eggs hatched and the baby ducks were born. Apparently baby ducks dry off and head straight for the water after being born, so I don't have a picture to share.

This is a picture of the duck--look in the upper left.

The Past Few Weeks

Just because I haven't blogged in awhile doesn't mean I don't have fun pictures to share. It also doesn't mean that I have a lot of time for words, so I'll share the pictures and you can see for yourself what we've been up to.



 

Logan and Marshall opened up their own auto repair shop.



Homemade cardboard house in the basement.



"Wacky Wednesday" at school.

Helping Mom make soup on a day off school.

I think Marshall's shirt says it all.



Early 60th birthday celebration for Dad at Osaka.

 



Super excited about birthday cake with Grandpa!





Happy Birthday Grandpa!

 

Welcome

Welcome to the new blog. I hope you got here with no problems.

Since I haven't blogged in so long, there are lots and lots of pictures that I could choose to share with you today. Instead, I think I will leave a few random thoughts about what we've been up to and maybe a picture or two at the end.

This blog is a place where I share my family and life with you (or at least the parts that I choose to share :).
So here's what I've got for today.....

Life is good. We are happy and healthy and very blessed.
Peter started running again, and he is hoping to run the Ragnar Relay again this August, like he did 3 years ago. This time he would be running with some men and women from our church.
Marshall is back on board with potty training, after a couple month break (things were quickly going south back then). This time is different, and we're not stopping until he's got it down!
Brady and Logan started back up at swimming lessons this past weekend. Logan is now in the Beginner 2 class and Brady is in the Intermediate 1 class. Both boys jumped off the diving board last week :).
All 5 of us are still a part of BSF. I thought Genesis was going to be a very dry study this year, but boy was I wrong. I have found so much encouragement this week through the story of Abraham.

I feel like our life is moving at a great pace. We are not too busy these days and I don't feel like we are involved in more activities than we can sanely handle.
We have church on Sunday, Brady and Daddy go to BSF on Monday night, Logan, Marshall, and Mommy go to BSF on Wednesday morning, and Brady and Logan have swimming lessons on Saturday morning---and that's it! We have lots of time for homework, reading, playing in the basement, and watching movies--it's nice.

Coming up....
Brady will start basketball again next month, but only for 1 hour on Saturday mornings before swimming lessons. Also, both Brady and Logan are interested in joining track and field this spring.

On a side note:
I currently watch 2 different shows on TV. One of them is having its season finale next week. I am looking to find another show that I might be interested in (preferably something I can watch on Netflix, so I can start from the beginning). Let me know if you think of anything that might interest me. Thanks.

Here are the promised pictures.