Bonfires

Nate and his brother Paul have been "chopping" down trees like crazy around here.  I need to take some pictures and then I'll do a post.  They've cleared out quite a number of trees behind our house, with the plan of eventually creating a fenced yard for our kids.

Anyway, we've had a number of non-rainy days this month (I wish I could say sunny but they've mostly been cloudy).  We've taken advantage of them with as much outside time as possible, including bonfires many evenings.  (I wish I had a picture of the pile of branches we had before Nate rented a wood chipper!)  We even roasted  hot dogs a couple of times, much to the delight of my children.  :)

Though our house and property need so much work, we're very thankful to live where we do!

A view of our new retaining wall, which Nate built this fall.

Looking for the moon, I think...

Cowgirl

Nate's mom gave Judson this giant spring horse for his birthday.  It was a very nice gift, though SO BIG for our house.  Thankfully it's been getting a lot of use lately.  The hat lives on the horse's head until Cooper's ready to ride.  When she's done, she attempts to put it back on the horse.  :)

For the record.

Four years ago today, I found out I was pregnant.  I have been pregnant and/or nursing ever since (there was about a three month overlap).  Judson stopped nursing the day he turned sixteen months and never really looked back.  Cooper has no interest in being done.  :)  I think she might be weaned by now if it wasn't for the fact that she's been sick much of the past six weeks.  But maybe not.  She only nurses once in the morning, so it's really not a big deal.  I'd love for her to decide she's done on her own, because I don't really want to decide for her.  (Since she was sick for so long, I got really lazy about letting her have her binky whenever she wanted it, which was ALL. THE. TIME.  The first day of only letting her have it to sleep was NOT fun.  I'd rather avoid this with weaning. :)

Okay, that's all, except to say we're SO thankful to the Lord for the past four years and where He's taken us.  :)

Writing

Judson's not really into crafts.  Once in awhile, he'll get excited about painting or coloring.  For about three minutes.  It's fine.  I have high hopes for Cooper.  :)

Anyway, he has been excited about his "school books" lately, which are just preschool workbooks.  We skip over any writing pages, but he loves the matching, circling bigger or smaller objects or opposites and so on.  Not too surprisingly, he's really good at it.  Most recently, he's been really into mazes.  His ability to draw lines inside the "paths" is really improving, as well as his circling of objects.

I honestly haven't tried to have him write anything at all.  I can't even get him to hold a writing utensil remotely correctly.  Last weekend, one of our neighbors, a teacher, brought an easel over for our kids.  One side is dry erase and the other is a chalkboard.  We brought the sidewalk chalk inside and Judson's been LOVING it.  All of the letters you see in the following pictures were written completely by him.  A couple of them we showed him how to do once.  It totally blows me away that he can do this without any practice.  It does have something to do with the fat chalk, however, because I tried to have him write "J" on his Valentines and with a pen or pencil, and it was impossible for him to do.  Regardless, I'm really excited!  :)

The other day, Nate said, "Judson, let's work on writing your name."  Judson replied, "No, let's write Antarctica."  :)  (They didn't...he got sidetracked.)

J

S

P

J-U-D-S-O-N

(Sideways)C-O-O-P-E-R

All the grandkids together

The kids and I spent Sunday night in Vancouver.  (My dad and Morgan were both out of town, so it was just the ladies and the kiddos.)  Cooper was intrigued by Rowland and Judson paid more attention to him than I anticipated.  He even wanted to hold him.  (Well, originally, he said Rowland would be too heavy, but then Nate told him he weighed less than some of the bowling balls Judson insisted on lifting... :)

I got lots of baby time during naptime and after the kids were in bed, so I was a very happy camper.  Rowland is such a sweet little guy, and he clearly loves his auntie.  :)

Decorating sugar cookies.  You can just put sprinkles right on the dough before baking.  It saves a step and makes cookie-baking with toddlers more bearable.  :)

Finally he's down at my level!

 

I love those four little heads all crowded together!

Aaand, he's done.  :)

MELT. MY. HEART.

Bowling

We didn't have any plans on Saturday night (not that we often do), and Nate mentioned bowling.  Judson immediately got really excited and that was that.  We were going bowling.  (Judson had never bowled before, except on the Wii.)

Both Nate's brothers came along and we had a very fun evening (Bridgett and Kristin were out of town).  We had unlimited bowling for two hours and Judson never lost interest.  Not only did he not lose interest, but he was on Cloud 9 the entire time.  It was so much fun!

He really improved, too.  He got a 49 the first game, 56 the second, and had 32 in the first four frames of the third game (including a spare).  By the end of our time, he was bowling for all of us and loving every second.

And sweet Cooper just happily wandered around our little area.  Nate definitely gets credit for a fun idea.  None of these pictures are great, but it must be documented.  :)

Amazingly, no fingers were smashed all night.

Baby Lily

Friday was supposed to be pretty nice around here, so we planned a last-minute zoo trip.  (As in, I called my mom up at 7:50 and asked her what her plans for the day were.  We were so glad she didn't have any!)  An added bonus was that Macy got to come along.

Not only did we get to enjoy being outside and even a little sun (gasp!), but we finally got to see the new baby elephant, Lily.  She was awfully cute and still very tiny (well, comparatively).  :)

As usual, we had a great time being together.  I know I say this a lot, but Macy and Judson are just crazy about each other.  We are so blessed to get to spend so much time with my family.

Running around after our picnic

Cooper would intentionally get her hands all grassy so she could wipe them on Grammie.  She thought she was pretty funny.

I know.  She's too much.  :)

Probably the best picture we have of these three kiddos together.  (And a really great one of my mom, too!)  Don't mind Judson.  He hadn't seen sun in a VERY long time.  :)

Watching some little birds while the big kids ran around and actually let Cooper have Grammie to herself for a few minutes.

These two were awfully thrilled with the goat brushes.

This one was getting tired and not really into the goats.