Snakes.. YUCK!!!

J and L were doing a chore recently and J saw what he thought was their plastic dollar store snake on the ground beside the house.. till it MOVED!!! Apparently he took it rather badly. Papa said he was one step away from losing it. I guess he takes after his mother.. but that is another story for umm.... never!!  Snakes and I, harmless or not, do NOT mix. I don't even like the plastic kind. ANYWAY Papa caught it and calmed J down and then brought it into MY house to show the girls. 

Taking a good look.

 Neither of the girls seemed to mind it too much but I have a feeling that was because Papa was hanging on to it. They all pet it and Papa gave them a 'snake talk' which I didn't really listen too. We have no poisonous snakes here, thank goodness,  but I think it's the biggest gardener snake I've ever seen. Not that I'm ever looking for them, I'm sure there are bigger ones around.  They released it into the woods by the front of our property and thankfully we've not seen it since. 

Another Life Changing Moment!

Papa and I have been in Canada for 8 years now after moving from Wa. state. Papa had to live in Canada for over 5 years before he could apply for and become a citizen. He applied.. did all the pictures and paperwork and waited. Then they sent him a book to study for his Canadian Citizenship Test which he read over a few times and both of us, and some of the kids, learned some things about this country that we didn't know before. After waiting a bit more he got a letter letting him know the time and place of the test. He read the book over again, just in case, and went to take the test. It was 20 easy questions. 

The ceremony was at Huble Homestead in The 'City' and on Canada's 144 birthday.  This picture was taken in one of the few non raining moments of the morning!! There were 28 people taking the pledge from 13 different countries. I wish it hadn't been so crazy or I might have been able to remember more of them.. Poland and Hungary were two and of course the USA. 

 Here is a picture of Papa... pretty much the only one I got. It started to rain right after this and POURED rain for most of the ceremony. After they said the pledge in the pouring rain they did send us all inside an old barn to finish up! By then we were all soaked. Several people mentioned that it was a unforgettable ceremony. There were several families that were taking the pledge together at the same time! 

And a very nice lady took this rather terrible picture of us all after the ceremony! Our 2nd family picture in under a month!! I wanted to get a picture of Papa and the dressed in red Mountie who started and finished the ceremony.. but he refused so we took this one in front of the flags instead. Oh and PAPA refused.. the Mountie was there for that reason :) 

Happy Canada Day!! 

Oh and we've decided to visit Huble Homestead again really soon.. hopefully on a non raining day. Pretty neat place from the little we saw of it. http://www.hublehomestead.ca/  Check it out :) 

Baby J walking Movie :)

Baby J is really walking around these days :) I took this video the other day so I could share it with you out of towners.  Today he perfected stepping off and on to the carpet which had so far eluded his skill. He is very proud of himself and walks around with a huge grin on his face. If he's close to something he tries to RUN to it. Won't be long and he'll be running laps up and down the driveway to wear off some energy with the rest of the crew!

A Lovely Day And A New Family Picture :)

 A friend of ours recently got married. It was a LOVELY western wedding :) We totally enjoyed celebrating with them at their beautiful place. They used flowers in season from the area around them and later on one of the bridesmaids gave Little R and E her bunch!! They stayed in a vase in the kitchen for over a week. Both E and R LOVED the wedding and played "wedding' for over a week afterwards.. Taking turns being Rita, the bride!! Later on at the dance they got to dance with Rita and they LOVED it. Defining moment in their young lives I think. The boys stayed off the dance floor most emphatically though J did watch from the side lines.

The wedding Party :) The 1st Married Kiss :) 

Clayton carried Rita up the aisle after the wedding. It was a beautiful touching wedding. Unfortunately I did not get many pictures as our computer crashed the week before and I had no place to put the pictures that were already on the camera, which of course was full!! 

But Mrs. B took this picture of the 7 of us between the wedding and reception. We were quite dressed up, for us and it was about time for a family picture. This is the 1st picture of the 7 of us we've gotten so far!! Thanks B!! 

And It Is a........

First some back ground :) 

Papa and I dealt with infertility for 3 years before we conceived our 1st born. We were a bit in awe the whole pregnancy and we both STRONGLY felt that our 1st born would be a boy. If I recall correctly we did not even talk about girls names, just boys names :) At our ultrasound the tech confirmed it for us. We were indeed having a little boy. And so we did. When we got pregnant on our own (With J we were on a herbal mixture when he was conceived.) when J was just 6 months old we were absolutely TRILLED.. I thought pink. Papa said blue! When the tech told us.. 'there is something there' we both came away with different ideas as to what that 'something' was. Papa was right and L joined the family. When we got pregnant again when L was 9 months old Papa told me 'this one is a girl' and he was right. When E was 7 months old and I got pregnant again Papa told me that it was another girl. By this time I was starting to believe him.With all the others I went back and forth never really believing him until the ultrasound. Never quite bringing my self to TOTALLY trust his instincts. BUT with Baby J he also told me. It's a boy and was right again!! Seriously!! I started to believe he really knew what he was talking about. So when he told me that this baby was also a boy I started hacking out names..with Papa it really is hacking. I believed him 100%. We had a few weird things happen the 1st few months and both of us were sort of confused by them. For example I had to quit drinking coffee because I could not keep my self hydrated enough so stop being sick. I also passed several kidney stones. These things had happened with both of the girls and I started to have the odd thought that maybe this time he was wrong.  The week before the ultrasound we finally got a bunch of names and Papa all in one place and sifted through them so that the day before the ultrasound we finally had a first name and several potential middle names. It is hard work naming a baby!! 

The day of the ultrasound arrived and I drove the kids the grandma's house and the started the hour long drive to the 'city' to meet Papa for the ultrasound. Papa forgot when he was suppose to meet me but managed to remember JUST in time to drive us downtown to the offices. We got there on time (for once!) and had the same tech as we've had several times before. It was pretty neat to see our baby on the screen and the tech made sure she did all she needed to do before finally checking to see if Papa was right. She checked 4 times.. from different angles, even allowing me to go empty my bladder so the baby would move around so she could get a few more angles.. but Papa and I, having seen quite a few ultrasounds, already knew. We waited for her to tell us.. me secretly smiling and Papa with a bit of shock... She checked and re checked... and sure enough!! 

IT WAS A GIRL!!!! 

We were both surprised!!  We laughed about Papa being wrong but neither of us were disappointed. Boy or girl we are excited to be adding to our family :) 

We have a tradition of going out to lunch after an ultrasound and naming the baby. Papa would not even talk about girls names before the ultrasound so I thought this one was going to be a challenge. It was amazing! We actually had our girls name before our appys came!! Not just the 1st name,which is one of our original names from before we had children, but all 3 of her names. 

Papa is still a bit in shock that he got it wrong. He's not unhappy we are having a girl just confused as to why he read it wrong. He has been trying to figure it out ever since! LoL. It probably doesn't help his concentration when I burst into giggles for no apparent reason several times an hour. The 1st few times I did it he asked me what I was giggling about.. now he just ignores me with a little smile on his face. He really doesn't mind being wrong. He did tell me that next time he's going to reserve the right to tell people before he really knows for sure. I told him either way he still has to tell me! He also told me that for the 1st time he actually did have a few days where he wondered if he was wrong. 

So this November we'll add another sweet little bundle wrapped in pink to our household. The girls really thought it was a girl and are both super excited to be getting a little sister. We surprised them by buying a pink sleeper and hat and bringing them to grandma's house in a bag so they could open it up and figure it out. It took E a bit but then she started screaming.. "IT IS A GIRL. I WAS RIGHT!!!" 

Oh and we do tell the 1st name of the baby before they are born so if your interested write me a comment or email me :) The middle names we keep as a surprise until the birth so you'll have to wait a bit to find them out. 

J's Reading Fluency Score :)

I'm SO proud of him I could just BURST!!! :) 

We got an email from J's teacher yesterday with the results of his reading fluency test he did last week. He did amazing. According to his teacher most grade one students at the end of the year average + or - 10 around 53. So between 43 and 63cwpm (correct words per minute). 

So I was very happy to see that J got 73 cwpm!!! And 100% accuracy!!! All that reading on the computer, to the other kids and to himself is REALLY paying off!!! Right now he's reading "Farmer Boy" by Laura Ingalls Wilder and just loving it. 

The thing that keeps hitting me over and over is that I TAUGHT HIM TO READ!!! I sight read.. I don't/didn't know my phonics until I taught them to J!! He reads phonetically  better then I do!! Yet with our ACE ABC reading program he learned to read and I learned to read better :) Just goes to show.. we can do things bigger then ourselves.. With HIS help!! 

"I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me!! Philippians 4:13.

Baby J Is Stepping Out!!!

11 month old Baby J took his first steps yesterday!! He wasn't happy with just one so he took TWO!!! YAY!!! He got VERY excited when we all cheered and could hardly contain himself to take any more after that.. though he did get a few hurried steps in. Later that night he did it several more times gaining confidence with every step. If he keeps this up he'll be our second earlier walker.. L still has him beat as he walked/ran at 9 months!! J, E and R all walked the week or two after their 1st birthdays!!

R doing pushups

Little Miss R (age 3) doing push ups. The kids have been BIG into push ups, sit ups, jumping jacks and stretching lately. J and L do it for the muscles and E and R because J and L are doing it :) They try to do some of each almost every night before bed. I'll have to take some pictures one of these nights. 

Mr. B doing Push Ups.....

with 3 kids on his back : ) J weighs about 60 lbs, L is 40 lbs and E is 30lbs. He did say that next time he wouldn't put J right on his rear... apparently he was a tad heavy... I THINK that Mr. B did 20 push ups with these 3 on his back

DOWN!! 

And UP!!! 

He did about 10?? with these 3 on his back. R is only 23lbs.. so it was much easier. 

Mr. B doing sit ups. J and E are waiting their turn and holding the chair down so that he can brace himself. Baby J is looking on.

I have one of  R doing push ups and of Mr. B doing sit ups covered in kids but it won't let me download them right now. Hey well what do you know.. opened a new window and then it would let me download R doing her push ups.

Cooking Mushrooms..

Last summer our neighbor guy Mike taught the boys how to find a certain kind of eatable mushrooms. He showed them where to look and also how to cook them. Well so far the boys have found 14!! They picked them, cleaned them, cut them up and cooked them before eating them :) YUMM!!!!

Taking turns cutting them up before frying them. 

Ready to eat!!! Great stuff boys!!