Fun filled fall frolic

Here are our two kids enjoying a fun filled fall frolic afternoon at our home. The kids really enjoy being outside when the weather permits. Lately we have had some cold rainy weather. We piled up the leaves at the end of the slide and both kids had fun sliding into the pile. We also made another pile that Hannah and Luke had fun running into the pile and hiding in the leaves. I'm glad I had the camera ready this time.

Yesterday, Luke started to realize his own name. He named off mommy, daddy, and Hannah and then said, "I'm a Lukey." It was pretty cute. It never ceases to amaze me how kids grow and develop even in their self-awareness. He would often look at pictures of himself and say "baby," but now he is started to realize that his name is "Lukey." His speech and words are becoming clearer each day. Although he often goes around saying, " 'ello" for just about everything. So it does take some time trying to figure out sometimes what he is trying to say.

Last week for Hannah's gymnastics class, she was the only one who showed up. The other two or three girls must have been out for "all beggars" night. Last Thursday was "Trick or Treat" night in the area for the kids in town. We have chosen not to really celebrate Halloween with our kids. It just isn't the same as it was 20 or 30 years ago. Neither Andrea nor I feel very comfortable with all the negative influences that have been going on with this particular day. We are also having a hard time in giving the "Evil One" a special day when it goes completely against everything we believe in. We don't mind dressing up and pretending. Hannah does that all the time. But we object to witches, demons, and other occultic costumes that we did see a lot of that night. But I see I've digressed way to much. What I really wanted to mention was that Hannah had a very special night at gymnastics by being the only one in her group to show up. She had a lot of personalized attention and even got to go out on the main floor with all the "big" girls. She got to really try a big balance beam, the trampoline, the uneven bars, etc. She was pretty tired by the end of the day, but we had a lot of fun watching her.

After gymnastics, I took the kids out to eat supper at Wendy's. Now this was a "treat" for us, because I usually come back home and make a late supper. But since it was "Trick or Treat" night in our area, we went out and still had some "treats." The kids got to see "Wendy" or at least an employee dressed like her; she was handing out some candy and toys to the kids who stopped by. Then we went to Walmart, where the kids got some more candy. So even though we didn't go out in costume or to get candy, we still had some.

On the homeschool front, Hannah has now learned sounds for: a, b, f, i, k, m, and t. We are trying to "blend" sight words with Hannah so that she can start reading soon. She really enjoys doing the workbooks and reading "Berenstain Bears." She also likes playing outside, eating ice cream, and having fun with Luke.

Well, I guess that is about all for now. We'll post more latter as thing continue to happen around here.

Other Happenings

We have been busy lately with fun and routine things. It is easy to let the blog slide but I know a lot of you look forward to keeping up to date with us this way and so I'll try to include some of the things that have been going on lately.

As you can see in the picture, Hannah got to be a magician's assistant a few weeks back at the Prairie Peddler. She had a lot of fun with that. Hannah kept making more wands appear and was running out of places to hold them. Hannah also got to make a candle with mommy at the Pedler. She really got to do a lot of things while we were there. She also got to play a dulcimer, and watch her name being carved into a piece of marble while she was holding it.

We have also made a count down paper chain for our upcoming trip to Florida. I don't think an hour goes by that it is not mentioned by someone. We are all excited about the family vacation. less than 2 months to go.

School continues to go well and we have started on phonics in the last 2 weeks. Hannah is doing well with them and will start reading first words very soon. Her favorite things to do is read the Big Book of Nature with the Bearenstein Bears and the workbook pages. She has really learned how to do some many things in such a short amount of time. We have done several science experiments and she loves to ask questions.

Unfortunately the hardest ones to answer are usually the ones we aren't expecting. She already has a good grasp about God and how sin separates us from Him and our need for forgiveness. She is always willing to pray at meals or if someone needs it. She has prayed for many of you already by name.

She continues to enjoy gymnastics. Speaking of gymnastics, Luke enjoys watching Hannah doing her gymnastics. He enjoys it so much, that today he started doing his "ta da" stretches to the sky every once in a while. It took us a while to figure out what he was doing. He is such a charmer and at the same time, such a huge whiner. It is so hard to believe that he is two!

Earlier this week, Hannah got to see a bird's eye view of the Magic Kingdom using MS Live maps program online. She is so excited to go and see Cinderella. I think both of the kids are going to really enjoy being there. Tonight, we got some new cups for Luke. I know, we can spoil the kids once in a while. Lukie was so excited to see his new cup with "Mater" as in "Tow Mater" and "Cars" aka "Lighting McQueen" from Pixar's "Cars" movie. It is one of his favorite shows to watch on TV. Thanks Granma and Papa for letting us borrow it.

Well, I guess we have finally caught up to date. We will be more earnest in trying to keep this going.

Birthday Boy

Hard to believe that LukeAaron is 2 now. as you can tell from the pictures we all had a good time celebrating at his party a few days ago. (I'm pretty proud of his cake also.)

He is definitely 2 now and acting terrible lately. He has developed this new moaning thing he does when he is upset. It is just a constant nasally moan he repeats over and over again. He has also developed an affinity for direct disobedience and has become good at standing in the corner as a result. Oh well, we certainly wouldn't change this little miracle boy for anything in the world.

Houston, we have a problem...

In a not so characteristic way, we here in the Eagle's nest have a small problem. It seems that one of our baby eaglets is trying to fly away already. Yup, in a not so friendly way, our little son, LukeAaron, has learned how to climb out of the nest! Okay, maybe I'm over exaggerating at this, but he has learned how to climb out of his crib!

Yikes!

Not only has he learned to do this, but earlier today, he got of a hold of his sister's wallies. Wallies are little pictures, or in this case flowers, bees, and ladybugs, from above his sister's bed. In the past three days, he has gotten out of his bed at least a half dozen times. When he climbs out when he's suppose to be taking a nap, he remains fairly quiet and goes about his mischievous ways. This morning, we woke up an hour early with Hannah yelling, "Lukie just climbed out of his bed." Grrrr. Momma Eagle is not a happy camper, but the good news is that Hannah took it pretty well. She wants us to replace some of the wallies with "Tinkerbell," her favorite character.

So, off we go now, looking for a crib tent for LukeAaron. Hopefully, we can find one soon to keep him from falling out and breaking something, or creating more mischief.