Joy of Love Day 2

Today's assignment "How They Look". I have to admit that I had a hard time with this one. I'm not sure if I just wasn't feeling in the photography mood or that I couldn't figure out exactly how to capture the "How They Look" look. I think I captured some pretty classic looks of this beautiful young woman.

Joy of Love Day 1

I'm taking a free online photography class this month. Today's lesson is to capture your loved ones doing things they do.

Arleigh was actually chewing a bone in the original photograph, but I love how I caught him licking his chops.

On this COLD (-40 wind chill) day, the boys spent some time playing their iXLs, which they love to do.

Kala helped me capture this photo of me typing on the computer.

Kala has a love for reading that is out of this world!!

Sunset and Forts

Here was the view from our back porch on Thursday evening.

Here are my two super heros in their fort yesterday. We love our Gorilla Blocks!! And the two little dinosaurs there were, according to Caeden, having their 8th birthday party. I guess Arleigh thought they were tasty because he kept stealing them.

Poor Caeden actually fell asleep in his class at church today. He's been lying on the couch or sleeping all day. I pray this day of rest will allow his body to heal itself.
And I really don't want to forget this one: Isaac says Caeden goes to Caedengarden instead of kindergarten. Super cute!!

Amazing Girl

This is one amazing little girl, only she's not so little anymore. I wish I could've been more like her at 11. She's made a commitment to read through the Bible cover to cover this year. Wow! She regularly shares with others at Project 4:12 verses that mean things to her. It's unbelievable the amount of help she gives me with her brothers. She even made enchiladas all by herself for dinner last night. Thanks, Kala, for being who you are!!

Last Week

I seem to have lots of days that are full of stuff going on, but if you asked me what I couldn't say for sure. That's kind of what the last week has felt like for me. I'm not making any headway on the huge mound of laundry, I haven't been doing any crafty stuff, but we have been having lots of playtime.

The boys had a chance to get outside just before it snowed one day.

I made potato soup in homemade bread bowls on a cold, snowy day.

We've continued to play lots of games.

 

We celebrated Arleigh's 1st birthday. Caeden insisted, and the dog did not have a cupcake :)

We watched roofers put shingles on the roof and listened to the roof being replaced. It really wasn't all that loud.

And my cowboy spacemen went to outer space and talked through a tube.

It's been a fun, emotionally tough week. I fasted, prayed, and listened yesterday. Thank you, God, for all the fun we've been having. That makes all the tough stuff so much easier to handle.

Potato Sculptures

About a month ago, Derek was helping me in the kitchen by peeling potatoes.

He is great about helping with things in the kitchen. He is also very creative. We had some potatoes that were on the verge of going bad, so he decided the let the kids make potato sculptures with them. Genius! He cut some smaller pieces, got out the toothpicks, and let them have at it. They had so much fun and are learning to be such creative children by doing things like this. I really enjoyed watching and listening to them work away. Kala made a mouse. Isaac worked very hard making lots of things. Caeden made a spaceship, among several other things. Fun, fun, fun.

A New Year

So a new year begs for new goals. One major goal I have for this year is to spend more quality time with my family doing fun things that we love to do. We love to play games and haven't done that much the past year. For Christmas we got several new great games and have enjoyed playing them. Today we played Tic Tac Ku, which is a more strategic play on Tic Tac To.

We also took some time to do projects that we received as Christmas presents. Caeden has been having a ton of fun doing these sticker mosaics. Kala made a jump rope out of rubber bands. Cool.

We played Just Dance II many times, and it's a hilarious workout everytime. I don't think any family member is funnier than another; we all have a great time with it!