Thursday, October 17, 2013

Our Week: October 11th - October 17th

Here are a few snapshots from our week:

My Birthday:
We celebrated my birthday last Sunday because we had our couples Bible Study on Tuesday night (my actual birthday).  However, Summer was SO excited that it was my birthday on Tuesday that we decided to play it up ;).  (She gets REALLY excited about birthdays)  So, I let her decide what special treat we should have to celebrate my birthday and we went to Target and she got to "pick out" cupcakes for my birthday.  She even stuck a candle in and sang to me--too cute!

Going to get a treat for Mommy

This one!

Since it was Tuesday, we went to library story time.  We also picked out new books to bring home.  While Summer and I were picking out books, Colton and his buddy Ian were doing the "motor vehicle" puzzle together.



We went out to lunch with some friends after story time, and it went quite smoothly having all the 3 year old sisters and 1 year old brothers sit at the same table!


Paul's family always sings their "traditional" birthday song each birthday, and they sent me this fun multimedia presentation video of them singing "The monkey birthday song".  Definitely talented!





I had a lot of fun getting to celebrate with my mom on Thursday -- we went out for lunch and had a great time catching up :).

I felt so special and loved by family and friends!  I think my favorite part was watching Summer get SO excited about it being my birthday!

Sibling Stuff

One of my favorite parts of the week is watching Summer and Colton enjoy playing together so much!  They are really doing a great job sharing, taking turns, and enjoying each others' company.  Summer is so good about helping Colton do things he can't do by himself, teaching him things, and comforting him if he is sad/frustrated.  Colton loves watching his big sister and tries to do everything she does, say everything she says, and act how she acts.  Here are a few snapshots of the two of them together from the past two weeks....

Squirting glass cleaner onto paper towels to help mommy clean

Definitely more finger prints after cleaning the mirror than before, but pretty cute helpers :-)

Dressing up in mommy and daddy's clothes

Playing in the sandbox
Here is a video Grandma captured of them playing Ring-Around-the-Rosy


 Learning

It is amazing how everything the kids do, they are learning, and how the smallest games and activities create fun learning tools!

We are continuing to work with Colton on colors (right now everything is "boo" (Blue)) and trying to coming up with learning activities that are full of action!  So we pulled out a Twister mat I got at a consignment sale last year and used it as a tool to practice colors for Colton and the directions "left and right" with Summer.  Here is a little video of them playing Twister with some dancing thrown in for fun :-).  This will definitely be an activity we will repeat in the coming cold winter months...it passed a good 45 minutes on a rainy afternoon in no time!




 One of the books Summer got from the library this week was called The Great Graph Contest , and after reading it spawned our math lesson for the week.  Together we created a fruit loop graph. I created the graph paper, but Summer did the rest--and LOVED it.  Here are a few pictures of our project as well as a little video of her learning how to "read" the graph.

First Summer looked to see what colors of fruit loops were in her bowl, and found matching crayons to make a key at the bottom of the graph.

Then she glued fruit loops onto the paper according to color, one in each box.

Her final graph looked like this.
 Here is a video of her learning how to "read" her graph.




We also practiced her "S" a bit more in the salt tray.

Practicing tracing Mommy's "S"

That's all the pictures I have of this week!  Off to bed! :-)



Colton 18 months

On Tuesday we had Colton's 18 month check-up.  It was his first time on the big kid scale!!  No shots at this appointment made us all happy, and Colton was pretty excited about his "choo choo train" sticker :-).

Reading books while we wait

Big Sister

Look at me on the big kid scale!

I weigh 27 lbs (85% ) and am 33.5 inches tall (83%)
I'm not sure where he get's his height from ;) but it is good that he is a healthy boy!  It was Colton's first appointment with no tears and he giggled when the doctor was pressing on his tummy! 

Colton at 18 months
-super smiley, happy, giggly,
-obedient almost all the time (except right before naps)
 -cuddly after naps,
-always moving,
-loves cars, trucks, wheels, balls, books about cars, trucks
-loves his big sister like crazy and wants to be just like her
-is great at his "please and thank you" manners
-great independent player
-"beautiful eyelashes" is almost always the first comment I hear from strangers!
-loves his blue monkey blankie, Baby Deer, and carting around his "water" cup
-The most amazing little boy blessing in the world!

WE LOVE YOU, Colton Buddy!

Retreat and Daddy/Kiddo Weekend


Women's Retreat
This past weekend I went with our church on our women's retreat along with 60 other amazing women!  It was sooooooo good.  We stayed at Camp Victory about an hour south of our house  I carpooled down with the ladies from our couples' Bible study and it was super fun chatting with all of them.

Highlights:
1) We were totally pampered with lots of sweet touches....surprise handwritten notes from our husbands, verses and chocolate on our pillows, being prayed for by name as soon as we signed up for the retreat, amazing small group leaders, a basket of nail polish during free time, crafts, snacks and goodies galore, etc.

2) Outdoor fun: A few of my favorite "camp" things were getting to go on a gorgeous hike, rock climbing, and ziplining...

lookout from end of  hike

There were several ways to get to the top of the zip line, my favorite was rock climbing up the left side of the wall in this picture.

Ready to zipline!

3) Amazing speaker and worship: The TRUE highlight of the weekend was really being overwhelmed by how REAL God is and how he is working.  The theme for the weekend's speaker was "Knowing [God] and Being Known [by Him]" and Rachel, from our church, was the speaker.  She was fabulous at engaging us, teaching us, relating to us, encouraging us, and inspiring us, and she also arranged for quite a few of the women of the church to share their stories, struggles, and how God is faithful through it all.  I was absolutely blown away by the faith of these women and really privileged to be talking with them and learning from them.  So many amazing women! 

4) Time alone with God with no deadlines or responsibilities: So many times when I am reading my Bible or praying, I am half watching the clock to see when my tutoring student will come, when I should get Summer from her quiet time, or how much time I "can" spend before I need to do necessary chores, etc.  Here, there were NO deadlines, NO responsibilities, and NO reason to watch the clock.  I could spend uninterrupted time learning from God's word, journaling, and praying for God to mold me more into who he wants me to be.  I studied a lot in Matthew 5, the Beatitudes, and was really struck by how far I am from where I want to be.  I definitely came home with a renewed passion for God and truly wanting to live out my faith and it has totally continued into my week.  This week I have better understood the Beatitude: "Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they will be filled."  (Matthew 5:6)

Meanwhile, Last Weekend on the Home-Front

Paul did an amazing job of holding down the fort while I was away.  He and the kiddos had a BLAST and it was so fun for me to hear him say how much fun he had with them!  He texted me a lot of pictures and videos of the fun they were up to back home....

On Friday night...
Colton and Daddy "fished"



Summer and Daddy played Candyland
 The kiddos sent mommy a goodnight video during bath time...




On Saturday...

Lucky kiddos got French Toast on Saturday morning

Both kids love "dipping" their french toast in the syrup

Heading to Target to Birthday shop for mommy :)

Highlight: Pet Store!  (Paul was a bit worried about his girl-hair-doing skills without me around, but he did a pretty good job with this ponytail....!)

Fall Dress-Up Party at a local business area
I love that Paul caught Summer's recent favorite thing to do during her quiet time on video...She loves to "read" her "Big Bible" (The Big Picture Story Bible) while listening to the audio recording CDs that came with it (it dings when you are supposed to turn the page).  There is one disc for the Old Testament and one for the New Testament, and she has literally listened to the whole Bible, cover to cover, multiple times in the last few weeks.  My favorite part is when she asks me questions about certain parts when I go to get her up from her quiet time.  Anyway, here is little video Paul took of her in her quiet time listening to her Bible without her knowing it.




It was a great weekend but I was SUPER excited to see my kiddos and amazing hubby again!  When I got home on Sunday, we went out to dinner at Olive Garden for an early celebration of my birthday, and the kids gave me the CUTEST card they homemade for me :) 

The Boys

The Girls