other blogging.

I'm doing some blogging on the Women of St. Raphael blog, which you are welcome to read. The children are featured!

Lent Countdown and Intention Chain
http://womenofstraphael.blogspot.com/2013/02/lent-countdown-and-intention-chain.html

Lenten Meal: Bean Cakes
http://womenofstraphael.blogspot.com/2013/02/lenten-meal-bean-cakes.html

enjoy! 

Life is fun and learning

an amazing thing is happening at our house...

our kids are growing!

Clark is learning so much, and has become such a ... boy... a child... 

he's not a baby anymore

he's not a toddler

and sure, he's a preschooler, but he's.... learning so much!  

He can trace letters and write words when he does it. 

He can read the words

Clark

Iris

Mommy

Daddy

Buzz

Fly

Chapter

Stop

Dog

Cat

Yes

No

The kids LOVE it when Tom gets home from work. They climb all over him, and he doesn't disappoint. He picks them up, throws them around, lets Clark (and often BOTH) sit on his feet as he walks around the house.

They are constantly looking for physical challenges like climbing, balancing, hopping, jumping, hopping, and twirling (is that a challenge?) 

except, I don't like jumping off at the end! 

Being the best parents in the world, we let them jump on the bed - and climb on the head board - and often into the window frame to jump off of it onto the bed. 

One day, these monkeys will be bumping their heads, but so far, they've been pretty injury-free. 

Here's some more climbing. 

And on icky days, trapped indoors...

we learn in other ways. 

I recently went outside of my comfort zone and made a sensory bin. 

Its rice, and there are things hidden in the rice...

you can see a pile of hidden treasures in the middle bottom of the picture. 

They scooped, poured, and moved the rice around for hours one snowy afternoon. 

it is a wild ride... this parenting.. but these kids are simply awesome.  

Advent.

Here are some photos from our Advent so far.

We finally bought the same advent wreath that I had when I was a kid. It has images on it about the salvation history of Jesus. I love it, and the kids do too.

We went to a party and took photos by their tree ( white lights) we set up our own tree (the colored lights)

The kids have been playing with the manger toys, and we've lit a few fires.

We will be staying in MD for Christmas. We are looking forward to Clark's Christmas concert at school next week. He's been practicing a lot. He really loves music and singing!

We made cookies.

It is a sad news day, so we stayed busy all afternoon making cookies. It's was our first year making Christmas cookies. We made red and green sugar cookies, and peanut butter cookies, and pnb cookies with Rolos in them. They are all very yummy.

The kids weren't convinced that these drop cookies couldn't be formed, so they experimented with cookie cutters learning finally that .... No.... It can't be done.

Once there was a tree

And that tree got sick and had to be removed. 

The tree and the men and their equipment. 1 cherry picker, 1 giant hook truck, and a tree eater, and a big truck for the tree crumbs. 

He's smoking AND cutting the tree with a gasoline powered chainsaw.

He liked the audience! 

and here's the big tree trunk grabber truck!

you can see the dark, diseased tree part on the right. 

After the men left, I cleaned up the stump. 

and we honored it. 

by sitting on it and making it feel useful 

and then the stump grinder truck came. 

and the tree was gone. 

The best alarm clock

I heard Clark's foot steps on the stairs - softly creeping up to the top. The baby gate swung open as he passed through it and closed with a soft thunk. He waited now, choosing his prey. Sometimes it was us, sometimes it was Iris. (our rooms are opposite each others on the landing). Then I heard the barnyard door of our room softly creek open and tiny little feet pad across the room. They stopped at my side of the bed, but I was still mostly asleep and non-responsive. The feet abandoned me and padded around the foot of the bed to Tom's side. I heard some whispering and then the creak of the bed springs as a body was added.  A minute later I felt his fuzzy head nestling in the crook of my arm.

A few minutes later, the bed creaked again as Tom got up. I heard the shower run - then the soft moan of the baby waking.  Doors opening, doors closing. Tom's feet coming over to the bed.  Clark scoots over to let Iris in.  My eyes are still closed while Iris nurses, all of us still mostly asleep.  Clark's tender voice says, "our sweet baby, she's a little sweetie, just like a little baby sweetie." I can feel him patting her head.  Then his weight added to ours and I heard his kisses above her ear.  Iris says, "ma ma" and we roll over so she can nurse on the other side.

My eyes open for a second and I say, "good morning, Clark".  Now Iris is on his far side, so he climbs on my shoulder so he can look at her.  She only nurses for a second more as Clark hands her a sippy cup of milk - his from last night.  She takes the cup of milk and drinks heartily.  Clark starts blowing zerberts on my arm.  Iris rolls up until she is sitting.  She wants to play too. Clark blows on my shoulder. Iris blows on my belly.  I open my eyes and smile. 

Clark tells his first joke

I was talking about how we needed to dress warm because it was chilly outside.
He said, "Its Chilli outside, there must be beans in it"

I laughed and laughed, it was so unexpected.
Good for him.