HAPPY CHRISTMAS!

News coming soon! :o)

Wow - 6 months old!

Amazingly, our super sweet Samuel is six months old today! He celebrated the day by having a rotten cold with a bit of a cough (definately better in the day and upright though than he has been for the previous couple of nights), but also by having his Mummy a bit more than he has over the past few days (Young Women in Excellence was last night so the hard work is all done for just a short while), and by having a bit more of a family day as we celebrated Thanksgiving - a day late! :o)

It was more of a relaxed day than it would have been yesterday. We still didn't get as much time as I'd hoped we would - no surprise there as there is always something - today it was half of the family waking up ill, and the two oldest in the family (you guess who!) waking up very tired again after two little boys being awake and crying through the night. Well, by lunch time we were able to have our devotional, read a lovely thanksgiving book together, and get a fair way with each child making a Christmas decoration of their choosing - all similar, with personal variations. Then when I put some white fairy lights up in the living room and dining room just for fun (I wanted to last night, but just went to bed like a good girl), suddenly all of the children were amazed, excited, and all in a VERY Christmassy mood. Impromptu dancing, singing and playing of Christmas carols on the piano and a Christmas CD! Wow - what an impact! So they played while Michael and I got our dinner ready and cleared up from all the crafty things we'd been up to. Here are a couple of pictures to share from there on in...



Samuel especially loved the roasted butternut squash,



... and also the chicken he pinched off my plate while I wasn't looking (actually I was picking up some food he'd dropped on the floor)



He is enjoying a few different tastes of food at the moment - pineapple, parsnip, squash, brocolli, green beans, pitta bread, etc. He is leading the way with starting on solids, and so for about a week now has been 'eating' a few things. He hasn't actually got to the stage of eating yet - just chasing around a bowl or the table, holding, squishing, chomping, tasting, moving the food around a bit in his mouth, then back out it comes - the actual swallowing is next to develop, so when he's ready ... For now, he's enjoying being a slightly messy part of family meals though. :o)

Samuel was playing happily with his feet this evening, before a nappy change, and I find it so enjoyable to watch him do that, that I tried to take a photo. First sight of the camera always means stop what you're doing though! Well, I liked the pictures anyway. Do you see those lovely blue eyes he still has? The last one is a bit too dark, but he looked so funny. His tongue was working over-time, like it does at meal times.





We thoroughly enjoyed our very unplanned but pleasant celebration of Thanksgiving today. Unintentionally planning Young Women in Excellence for the day of thanksgiving left it as just happening on its own. I wouldn't change that though - YW in Excellence was a lovely evening, and I am thankful for it and for my counsellors and the young women who did a fantastic job. :o) It was not such a rainy day today, but dry and sunny in some parts of the day, and a walk in the woods would have been lovely if everyone had been well enough. Rebekah was too ill with a cold to go outside as she just needed to keep warm, but just seeing the sun was a pleasant change.

Did you notice the corn smiley faces on our dinner plates? Everyone had a lot to be thankful for, and kept asking for more pieces of corn to put on the heart plate after using up the eight I'd given to everyone. The plate was half full when we were done. A very joyful evening. It feels nice to be grateful, not least for a wonderful little boy in our lives called Samuel.

Happy Thanksgiving!

BOO!!

Well we've been hiding for ages it seems. Not deliberately, just extremely busy. There's no real available time to put things on here normally anyway, but less than normal. As I said to Michael's Mum recently, I haven't been able to justify spending the bit of time needed to add to this recently, but at the same time, I've realised again how unsettling it is not to be doing it. Much like when I don't manage to write in my journal for ages (I suppose it's a little bit of a family journal for us, but also the best kind of communication we are able to have with family and friends. I have 5 people I am trying to write e-mails or regular letters to, and have been trying to for a couple of months at least, but there's never a moment to do it it would seem. So I figure that doing something here will probably help me feel better, share at least some fairly recent photos with all of you, and I'll be communicating with somebody again (if anyone looks that is!) and recording something too, even if it isn't in my journal. :o)

Another problem I've had for most of Samuel's short life now, is our camera not working. It won't stay charged even for one photo most of the time, and despite needing to invest some time to investigate why exactly that is (is it the battery charger, batteries or camera failing?), and it being important to me to have some good photos of him and everybody else in the family as they grow, the right time never presents itself. Luckily Michael and I each have a mobile phone now, with camera, albeit not very good ones, so that is where all pictures are being taken right now and have been for at least a couple of months. So the pictures are pretty grainy, but they're all we have. I hope you enjoy them anyway.

Here's a few from our "Not Back to School Picnic" just over two months ago (you could call it a celebration of "home" education), including one of Samuel the first time I put him in a swing. He was delighted, and giggled so much, but I never can catch that in a photo. I hope I'll manage to remember it without. :o)







More of Samuel in a swing, this time after going to a home-ed sports group. There's a park nearby, and as we rarely make it to playgrounds here with none properly nearby, and with Peter sitting through games of football, basketball and tennis but being too young to join in with everyone else, we make a stop at the park afterwards so he gets to play too. Rachel and Hannah, are of course playing at being a horse and jockey in the one of all four girls at that park. Somehow Peter never made it into a picture, but that's probably becasue he doesn't stay still long enough to get one of him (it's not always for want of trying!)






Swings again!! Peter was trapped twice in this park though, so you can see him too! Sarah was working out what trees were growing within the playground here, and doing a tally of how many of each kind there were. While she was busy studying the trees, Rebekah, Peter and Samuel had a lovely time playing in a park again! In fact, after such a long break from going to any playgrounds, and then quite a few in not such a long time, Peter is most days now telling me which park he wants to go to. He has the funniest 3-year old ways of describing them to me though, and I invariably can't quite work it out! We notice such different things at each place, me being 30 years older than him, that our descriptions don't usually match up too well, and it really does take some investigative work to understand!







Here's a dressed up little Samuel. Rachel was holding Samuel while Michael and I were both unable to, and when we looked again, she had him all dressed up, and he was totally happy with it too. :o) That was about a month ago. Yet again, he has grown through the next size of clothes, and those don't fit him anymore. At nearly 6 months old now, he's wearing 9-12 month clothes. He's a big, heavy baby, but so beautiful with it. :o)



Here's a cuddle with Rebekah. Rebekah is still going through a highly panicky/fearful stage and being with Samuel is one of the things that calms her just beautifully. She loves him dearly. One other great thing is a homeopathic remedy, and sometimes having her feet rubbed with massage oil helps too. I did a homeopathy course one morning a week for three weeks in October, which has started me off with being able to use homeopathic remedies at home without seeing a homeopath. There is a homeopath that has a clinic at our local Children's Centre every other week at the moment, so we are able to see her for some things, but first aid / acute things we're able to do at home with great success. It's been a real blessing for us.



To finish, a few fun sleeping pictures of Samuel. He is such a fun boy. He loves to feed, and play - always reaching out for things, and of course EVERYTHING goes in his mouth. He likes to sit or stand up with help, and most of all be carried, but wherever he is he rarely keeps still. Peter loves him a lot and loves to come and find him in our bed each morning, and spend sometime there with him wherever possible before the day really starts. Samuel hasn't been very happy the last few days - extra clingy and needy, crying more and not being settled at all at night (if Mummy's not there it's time to scream and scream until she is!) I think it's probably the teething going up a level, so hopefully will calm back down again soon. Here are those sleepy pictures:

Two months ago (at 3 1/2 months old)...



One month ago (at 4 1/2 months old) - playing sleeping lions... :o)




There is so much for quite a while now that hasn't even been made mention of on here. Things like our holiday, a special visit to the temple, a craft stall we ran in the summer, or anything else that we've been up to really!

We've also been having an extended clear out and move around. Five out of eight of us now sleep in a different place in the house! We've been weaving, tangling up our fingers, reading, going places, studying (that's Michael), doing church things, and generally living life. We also had a sweet new cousin/niece join our family, as my brother and his wife recently had a little girl called Elodie join their family. When I manage to, I'll add bits here and there, so keep looking. :o)

Our last week or so

This was found on outside of the the younger childrens' bedroom window as they were getting dressed yesterday morning. Please ignore the filthy window you can also see a little too well!



It's probably the same as the one in the last post that they found on the sandpit. We were wondering how it had managed to jump so high, as it was on the 1st floor (2nd floor for Americans I think?), but we think it may be a Katydid. It seems as well as jumping, that they also have wings and will fly away from danger. That would make it more possible I would think.

There are a lot of these around too - MOSTLY in the garden.



Hannah was annoyed by a big one yesterday a little too close to the house for comfort, and splashed its web while watering the plants. Later in the day we watched it repair its web. It was wonderful to watch! It first made an absolutely perfect framework, then worked around it, quite fast, a piece at a time, pulling out more strands with its back legs and hooking them onto the framework as it went around. The spacing of all of the new strands was perfect too - just beautiful work!

Here are some blocks Michael cut from a plank of wood and we all sanded down. Then the children stained them a rainbow of colours. They had red, yellow, green and blue stain to work with. I'd like to have us rub them with beeswax or something sometime soon before we start playing with them.



We have been doing a lot of sorting things out with the aim of simplifying. It is an exhausting but joyful thing. We took an outdoor break earlier last week when we weren't getting on with things so easily. A bit of time and space to play catch (mostly Michael and me!), fly a kite (if look closely you can see how high Hannah is flying that kite, and three of the other children in the background running up the hill),



run,



play horses,



climb,



and (a favourite past-time for Peter) eat fruit.



Peter has been enjoying experimenting with various things lately. Wheat scattered over the kitchen, a carton of oat milk poured into Michael cheese sauce that was ready to eat, and smearing Savlon (antiseptic cream) on the piano, wood floor, skin and trousers. Rebekah enjoyed helping him out with that one last night during family home evening! They were sat quietly behind my legs as I sat on the piano stool. I thought they were playing with white paper, not white cream! Their hands and feet were covered with it, and all around them too. There have been some other things too, but I forget what they were now (my post-baby memory still in action)! These are in the last few days. Isn't it fun being 3 and wanting to learn? :o) Here he is having a little less messy 'messy play'- with water in the sink. :o)



I got out a new size of pyjamas for Peter and Samuel on the same day, and they enjoyed a very happy cuddle in them. They both look so comfy now their clothes fit again!





Samuel is getting well into 6-9 month clothes now. He added in a squeal to his happy communications a week or so ago, typically when he is giggling, but also just talking. One evening he was in a lot of discomfort though - trapped wind we think - and that squeal came in very handy in a screaming type of way too!

This little outfit was given to us by a kind member of our ward here. It is 6-9 months and fits him perfectly. He is 3 1/2 months old now. He felt so soft and lovely in it though - so baby-like!



That might sound funny to say, as he is a baby, but most of his clothes are just little clothes, not baby clothes, and he just seemed like a proper baby again for that day. So soft and cuddly, and comfortable for him. :o) I'd love more baby clothes to be like that.




Samuel is getting good at lifting his head to look around. It seems so much more enjoyable than looking up.



He also had a little go in the baby bouncer in the last week, which the children thought was very funny, and he seemed to enjoy too. He had been SO wriggly, and seemed to just want to move, so I thought I'd let him have a bit more freedom to move on his own. I think that walking reflex probably kept his feet going. The children certainly thought it was funny as he kept pivoting around on one leg. Samuel calmed right down too.

The every day lives of our children

I was looking through our photos and found all sorts of other ones of the children from the last couple of weeks, some that Michael or I have taken and some that they very clearly have taken themselves. It would be a shame not to take a look at some of them here. So here's a little selection. Hope you enjoy seeing them 'in action'.

Here's the friendly bug that the children found on the sand pit in our back garden. They were fascinated.



Peter running races - round and round and round. He's pretty fast now. Michael and I have to run to keep up when he runs, which we didn't used to have to do. I suppose he is three now though.



Peter covering up the newest potato plants as they grew. He was always first to spot that they needed covering, and off to get his "digging thing" from the shed - not quite got the name of that one down yet. :o)




Michael sat Samuel down on the car mat while everyone else was playing together for a while. He seemed especially fascinated by what Peter was doing, as he often is.





Ceri and Samuel.



Michael having some time with Samuel.



"What are they doing over there?"



Rachel and Peter were having a beanbag fight! Peter throws hard and fast, and Rachel wasn't going to let him get away with it - she was having too much fun - so he hid!




Talking together.



Giggles. :o)



Time to rest now.




Not of the children, but grown by them - I like the flowers.



A sand wedding cake.



Putting on their latest theatrical performance.




Samuel at 12 weeks old,



and with his big sister Sarah.



Taking a look at some playmates,




and laughing at the best one of all - Daddy.



Eating a very yummy bee!



Seems to be a pony jumping competition.



Samuel listening to Daddy singing



while his sisters play a game of magic horses and unicorns,



all from a very comfy seat.