Dressing up for a Birthday Celebration

Here we all are in your holiday finest ready for Christmas Eve service. The candle light service was beautiful and we had a good time celebrating Jesus' birthday.

Happy Birthday Hannah

I don't know exactly how it happened but Hannah turned 7 today. She certainly is a beautiful grown up girl. We had a great time celebrating with family today. We are very proud of her and the blessing she is to our family.

A Wonderful Christmas Time

The same as most people in the country, we are celebrating Christmas. Hannah and Luke had a great time helping with the tree and ornaments. They also had a lot of fun with the train.
















Of course the real meaning of Christmas does not escape the children. They are very much aware of Christ's birthday and even though the are small, they are beginning to understand why this birthday is so important. Hannah has had many questions about why Jesus came to live among us. One of the most special reasons God came down to us is to experience the same life we do. Even though he lived a perfect life, he went through the same suffering, temptations and sorrows we go through in life. Having a friend and Savior that can relate to my life brings comfort and joy.

We pray the real meaning of Christmas will take hold of your heart this Christmas.

Catching up...

Unfortunately, we are not only a little behind but also a little out of order. Before that wonderful trip to Kalahari, school started back up. Hannah is in 1st grade this year and although the bulk of her schooling is at home, she is taking 3 classes at the Christian school. This picture shows her first day of school and she is going off to music class. She loves the music, art and Spanish classes that she is taking at the school. She is also doing well at home with her other subjects. Luke started pre-school this year at home. In his 'first day of school' picture he is at the Christian school also. After we drop Hannah off for class, Luke and I have school time for him. He is really enjoying it. He also loves to get in on Hannah's science projects. So far we have learned a lot about magnets and had a lot of fun playing with them.

To go even farther back, Hannah is standing by one of her summer projects, Sunflowers. She thoroughly enjoyed watching them grow and follow after the sun everyday. As you can see, she grew them big. Too bad all the birds ate the seeds before we could.
We also all shared in a big veggie garden this year. We had a bumper crop and canned lots of homemade spaghetti sauce. It was nice to use all of our own vegetables for it. The kids felt very proud of their accomplishments. It is hard to believe they are growing so fast. I think they grew faster than the garden. They are bright and fun, smart and loving. I could not be more thankful for them!

Bringing up Hannah

Hannah will soon be 7 and boy is she changing into her own beautiful little girl. She is beginning to take more care with her appearance and has been growing out her hair so we can braid and curl it. She loves her classes at the Christian school and even loves her classes at home most days. She is bright and smart.
Hannah continues to have a vivid imagination and regularly tells of her adventures with Peter, Tinkerbell and the pirates. She likes to help Luke a lot, even when he doesn't want help.
Hannah also thinks very deeply about certain subjects, asking some very hard questions. She doesn't stop asking until she fully understands either. Sometimes she challenges me by asking questions about God, Jesus and heaven. This week she began to question how God is one and yet three. How do you explain the trinity to a 7 year old? I love her assurance in her faith.
Three cheers for Hannah!

Luke is growing

Last month Luke celebrated his 4th birthday. It is very hard for me to understand where the years have gone to. I remember very well when he was so small. I am thankful for his good health and wonderful personality. He is the sunshine in my days.

Already Luke can write his name and loves to get involved with Hannah's science lessons. He likes to build and create, as well as destroy things. He continues to be energetic and charming. Luke loves his gymnastics classes and is getting very good at flipping over the bar and somersaulting over the vault. It is a good way to focus his energy.

A special stay at Kalahari in Sandusky, OH

Earlier this week, our family took a little mini-vacation to the largest Indoor water park in the USA. Yes, it really is that big with a ton of things to do. They have sections for kids of all ages and abilities. The wave pool was a lot of fun and both kids enjoyed that a lot. The slides were a lot of fun in the various areas. Hannah really enjoyed going down them with at least one parent or the other in tow. There are at least three hot tub areas, two of which are of the indoor/outdoor variety, a lazy river, some basketball courts, and a lot of other things as well.

Ask Mama Eagle sometime about taking the "Toilet Bowl Plunge" backwards! Hannah loved it, mama? Not so much.
Luke's favorite activity was playing "putty putty golf". He really had fun just hitting and guiding the ball all over the place. Never mind keeping track of his hits, it was all about having fun! Not only was there the water park inside, but they also have one outside as well. If you need a break from the water, there was a nine-hole putt putt golf course, a full-sized game room, an indoor play area for kids under 54", plus a mini-zoo with a variety of animals including some kangaroos, camels, goats, and other African animals. More about that and pictures later.

But the best part was learning to ride the waves! Check out the video below. They have a special pool that you can ride a wave board. The water is so intense, but so is the fun. The first time I saw this a few months ago, I wasn't so sure I wanted to do it. But with very few people at Kalahari while we were there, I thought it was a great opportunity to take advantage of. Even Hannah got in on it and had a blast. Ask her about the best part of being at Kalahari and this is what she is going to talk about.

Painting Hannah's room

 
 

Well, some of you may have heard that Hannah's room was getting a face lift. This is the first of a couple of blogs with pictures to show the kids busy painting the room. We did this in two days. We started Friday night getting her room ready, and then Saturday, after mommy got up from such a late night of working, we got her room painted in just a few hours. Her rrom is now a nice shade of pink. We will take a few more pictures once her room is finished.

First day of Gymnastics and Summer Life

A few weeks ago Luke started Gymnastics classes. He has been excited about this for a long time as he has watched his sister for 2 years in gymnastics. His teacher's name is Mr. Mo and he is an incredible tumbler. He has a very good personality to work with little boys. As you can see from the pictures, Luke swings on the bars and jumps on the trampoline. He is also learning push-ups, sit-ups, tumbling and vault.

Hannah is also back to gymnastics and moved up a level this year. It has been a busy and enjoyable summer for all of us. John enjoyed a wonderful time at his teacher meetings getting to know all of the other distance learning teachers he had never met. He is already gearing up for more Latin and computer students in the fall. The kids have gone to VBS and have spent time playing with cousins and friends. I am trying to slowly get things in order for another year of homeschooling. This year I will have two in school and must be a little more organized and scheduled. It will be fun though.

Even More Vacation Pictures

To get in and out of the park, we had to take this ferry across a very swift running river. It was fun but a little nerve racking.

Hannah in the cave

"To much hiking Mom and Dad!"

Catching lightning bugs to use as night lights

More Vacation Pictures

Feeding the duck that visited our site

Digging for Dinosaur bones

Riding the dino

Vacation Fun

Recently we vacationed in Kentucky and Tennessee. As you can see from the pictures the kids had a lot of fun. We were chased by big dinosaurs at Dinosaur World. We went 250 feet below ground to explore the largest cave in the world. Luke fell in love with Miss Haley the ranger as she picked him to help lead the whole group through the cave. (And she let him wear her hat). What a Day! We rode on a train to old mining camps, hiked mountains, rode on a ferry, feed ducks, saw many wild turkey, ate s'mores and caught lightning bugs. Memories like this make a childhood and are priceless.
In the Cave
Miss Haley
On the Train

Nature Lessons

This spring we were able to show Hannah and Luke a little about how birds come into the world. In a bush on the corner of our house we had a Robin build a nest. We were able to observe the eggs, the little hatch lings as they grew and the baby birds leaving the nest. Everyday was an adventure to see how the birds were doing. The kids learned a lot about patience and nature. Especially that you cannot touch the nest or the mother may abandon the eggs. I think the kids also began to grasp the miracle of life that God gives us.

Happy Mother's Day May 10 2009

This morning at church, LukeAaron and all the other kids from the Creation Cove sang some special songs for all the mom's in the services. I took this video from my digital camera. It was pretty funny. Luke for a while seemed to be the only one with any kind of energy. But as the clip continues, you will see Luke isn't the only ham in the group. One young man in a Red Shirt started to realize where the microphone was and was not afraid to use it. Enjoy the clip today and for all the mother's out there, Thanks! Especially for my wife, one of the bestest mother's I know! (She must get it from her own mom.)

Eating S'mores by the fire...

Even here in little A-town we sometimes start a campfire for the express purpose of eating some S'mores. Earlier tonight we sat down to enjoy one of these fires. We are so looking forward to going camping this year with the kids. We have already set aside one week in June to camp near Mamouth Cave, KY and then will mosey on over to Tennessee for the second half of the week. So this is a warm up for the main event. I'm holding out for at least one campfire a week just to keep up our firebuilding skills. After all, it has been an entire winter since we have had a fire outdoors.