A Really Fun Week

Last week we had the opportunity to host a missionary family for the week. They are church pastors in Trujillo, Peru and have been home in Louisiana for the past 10 months (to have a baby). They came to town last week for the annual General Assembly conference for our church denomination. We had a great time getting to know them and our kids loved making new friends. After the first night, their two oldest kids had slumber parties upstairs with our kids every night and cried when they left. It was a little busy having 8 kids in the house all week, but totally worth it. One of the reasons we bought the house we live in is because we wanted to be able to host missionaries and guests, and I'm so glad we have the ability to do that.

You can check out more info about them at www.perumission.org and www.stuing.blogspot.com

 Here are our big kids' memories from the week:

Catherine: This was a really fun week with them here. We loved it. It was hard to say goodbye. I love playing with Satomi, Sam, and Ezra. I hope they come and visit us again. And I love this picture. I loved when she slept in my room, played Barbies with me, and loved seeing her and Anna dress up like princesses. 

Will: I liked playing with Sam, shooting the bow and arrow and I didn't want them to leave.

Anna: I didn't want them to leave. I had fun with them. It was hard to say goodbye to them. I had fun with her sleeping in my room, playing Barbies and dress up with her. 

and please note--this is what happens when you take two crawling babies outside. they crawl in opposite directions!!

Teeth teeth everywhere!

It seems like every day we have some kind of teeth activity going on here! 

Will lost his first tooth this morning! It wasn't wiggly at all until yesterday when he accidentally bit down on a Popsicle stick really hard and it made it very loose. This morning we pulled it right out! He was pretty excited!! 

Catherine has lost 3 teeth in the past 3 weeks! She likes to take self-portraits afterwards. She is definitely in the snaggle-tooth stage. Her mouth is so small that I'm not sure where all these big teeth are going to go! 

Unfortunately the tooth fairy occasionally forgets or is delayed in her visits to Catherine!  Oops! But I think Catherine understands now that the tooth fairy is often busy and tired and not perfect :)

And sweet Elizabeth has 4 teeth coming in at the same time! Two top and two bottom, for a total of 8! She's been a little grumpy and clingy because of them and I will be glad when they're all the way in. She's been teething and chewing on everything, including Will's bow and arrow. Don't worry-- it's not sharp! Just a suction cup! 

B

If I can just make sure all these people brush all of these teeth every day we should be doing ok!

Kitchen helpers

I have two very eager kitchen helpers these days!!

I've never been one to put child locks on the cabinets but these two are making me reconsider. The cabinet doors are currently being held together by rubber bands and that seems to have slowed them down.

They're a mess---really cute, but still a mess!

Trying new things

New things we are trying this summer- 

Tennis and gymnastics! 

Morning Bible reading

I am enjoying summer mornings of having a more relaxed breakfast (well, as relaxed as it can be with five kids). It gives us some extra time to incorporate some morning Bible reading into our routine. To be honest, I have intentions of this year round, but it usually doesn't happen on school mornings when we are  running behind, packing lunches, and getting everyone ready. 

I am currently using a little book that I really like. It's in a series called Big Thoughts for Little Thinkers. This one is about Scripture. There are also books on the trinity, the gospel, and the mission that I would like to get and read eventually. 

Each page has a couple of sentences that concisely explain an aspect of scripture. For example, today's reading was about how the Old Testament points to Jesus. At the bottom of each page are 3 or 4 scripture references. There are usually Old Testament and New Testament references. I like that they don't print out the verses because it is giving the kids good practice to find books in the Bible and look the verses up themselves. 

The book isn't necessarily intended to be used as a daily devotional. You can easily read the book just like you would a story book as well. But I'm enjoying just taking one page each day for our summer breakfasts.  

Playing in the creek

With all the rain we have had lately, the creek is a favorite place to play, especially when friends come over. 

Eleven Months

James and Elizabeth are 11 months old! I can't believe we are already getting ready for their birthday!

This June is so much more enjoyable than last June, when we were all waiting on a daily basis for them to arrive. They are so much fun right now!

I especially love watching their interactions with each other. Now that Elizabeth is on the go too, they really are almost always together. I find them together in the kitchen, in the shower, by the door, in the closet. One day, Elizabeth had crawled around the corner from James and started playing with something. She started babbling on and on, then leaned her head back around the corner to babble some more to him, and he promptly babbled back and crawled over to see what she was playing with. It was very obvious that they were communicating with each other.

In their whole entire life, I think they have maybe spent 6 hours separated from one another. 

That's kind of crazy!

They are definitely into everything and can quickly pull every toy out of the closet, dishes out of the cabinet, pull magazines off the table, books off the bookshelves. I usually spend the first 15-20 mins of each of their nap times just picking up things and putting them back where they belong. Sometimes it looks like a baby toy explosion happened!

Elizabeth has become very attached to her pink bunny "lovey". She loves to hold it and snuggle it and play with the tag on it. She usually immediately puts her 2 fingers in her mouth to suck when she has it. But when she's on the go, she'll just tote it around in her mouth! James is a thumb sucker, but he only does it when we put him in his crib. We've never had a baby be a thumb sucker before, and although it may be a hard habit to break later, it is really cute right now! especially since it is one of the only signs he ever shows of slowing down!!

It's almost birthday time, sweet babies!!