Happy Friday

 There is nothing like seeing a sweet baby's smile and hear her laughter.  I am one blessed woman to get to experience that four times.

Here are my Wild Kratts practicing their pose!

What if......?

Fall Fun

I am kind of sad that October is gone.  It's my favorite month by far, but we had a blast.  Besides two surgeries, it was great.  We had two garage sale Saturdays.  The boys got up early and sold their goodies.  They are great salesmen.  We got rid of a lot of stuff and made some Christmas money.

 

 Karissa fell asleep in her daddy's arms after a long day.

 

 We had fun with school too.  

Here's Clark reading Sleepy Beauty to Karissa.  He thought that she would enjoy it!

We went trick-or-treating with friends. 

Karissa was a lady bug. Clark and Joel are the Wild Kratts. Levi is a penguin.

 Here's Levi after having free reign of the candy and Cheetos on Halloween night.
He was a little wild!

Well good-bye October and hello November. 

Fall Pictures: Take One!

Oh how I wish I was a real photographer, but alas we do our best with what we have.

Here is our attempt at some fall family pictures this afternoon in our back yard. 

I think some of them turned out pretty good. 

I love Karissa's look--  ANGRY! Seeing this picture, I realized I really do have my hands full!

 

 

 

I love this one of Clark! He has such a sweet spirit.

Three amigos! Lord, let them always love one another and live in unity!

Sleeping Beauty

Karissa slept in this morning till 10:30!  I went to check on her at some point, and I found her all cuddled up in Grandma's knitted blanket which we call a "nee nee".  Her left hand had a tight grip on her blanket.  Thanks, Grandma, for all the "nee nees" that keep my kids warms, cozy, and comforted through the night.  Your love surrounds them each time they sleep!

Pumpkins and a 3 Month Old

 I LOVE OCTOBER.  Pumpkins, long sleeves, leaves, beautiful colors everywhere are some of our favorite things of the season!! 

Here's our pumpkins for this year.  All these pumpkins actually grew in our yard during the summer!  We had exactly six that survived, so we made a character for each person of our family.  Michael is the pirate.  I'm a cat.  Clark is a sword master (his own creation).  Joel is ninja.  Levi is a bat.  Karissa Hope is an owl.

 Karissa Hope is three months old today!  And she is still doing great.

 She sure does love her brothers!

 Here's all four and the best shot I could get today. :-)

This is for you, Grandma....a close up of those sweet baby cheeks.  Hang on and you can kiss them all you want next month.

Two Surgies in Six Days--Done!

 My poor babies have horrible baby teeth.  When Clark was three, our dentist told me that he was lacking a layer of enamel on his teeth.  Joel also has that trait.  Despite flossing every night and other almost religious dental care, Joel needed to have all of his molars capped.  The dentist recommended this to prevent future decay, and she recommended doing it at TC Thompson children's hospital.

After flipping out a little bit, and much prayer, we decided that for Joel's sake, that was the best option for him.  So on October 8, little Joel "went under".

I have to say it was a smooth and wonderful experience for child and parents alike!

We started out in a private room with a curtain.  The nurse came in to give him his goofy juice.  It was so funny to watch him make the letter X with his body and smile big ole smiles.  He tried to exercise, but he kept falling over to the side.  He was happy. 

Then they took him back and gave him some laughing gas.  After that they put in the iv, and he was out for the surgery.  Everything went good with the procedure.  He did bump his breathing tube, so his nose bled for a while after, but he only thought it was a runny nose.

A silly goofy smile after the goofy juice

He was proud of his sticker and cool shiny medical bracelet

Joel wanted to remove his IV himself.  He found the blood and needle very interesting.  He wanted to see the hole and hold his own compress to stop the bleeding.  He's one tough guy!

Here are his Superman teeth--germs can't get these babies!

 The next day his throat and nose were sore from the breathing tube, and his teeth hurt if he ate hard foods.  So he mostly ate yogurt.  He played great and was in a good mood.  He doesn't remember anything scary or painful.  Hooray!!



I didn't want to leave out Michael.  Here's a picture of his cast from his surgery on Thursday.  

Here's Karissa's MAJOR blow out while Michael was in surgery.  I thought it was impressive.  She and I both needed a bath after. :-)

Karissa Is Two Months Old

We took Karissa Hope to the doctor for her two month old check up, and she is doing great!
She is 13 pounds and 2 ounces which puts her in the 50th %, and she was 24.25 inches which is in the 95th %.  She got her three shots in the legs, and you could see it in her eyes that her heart was broken.

I have to brag a little, but she slept from 9:00pm to 8:30am last night!!  She is a great sleeper at two months old. 

Trail Life USA

 

We have entered a new world....after school activities!  We have been holding off for years now with all the options of soccer, AWANA, scouts, etc.  But we have made the leap on to the TRAIL with Trail Life USA!

We have been praying about what to involve ourselves with.  Time is precious and even a good thing can be a distraction from the best of things.  But we are pretty excited about this new faith based organization that models itself after the Boy Scouts.    

Our "troop" is made of all home school boys.  And Michael, Clark, and Joel both will get to participate!  Clark and Michael made water rockets at the last meeting. 

  Clark was the youngest, but he's neck and neck with them.

I tried to blur out the other boys to protect their privacy.  That's why this photo look blurry.  

www.traillifeusa.com

 

The Beginning of Another Year!

Home schooling is in full swing around here.  We do home school year around, but we have officially started the 2013-2013 year!  This year Clark and Joel will be in "school" which we have called Adventure Academy for Boys.  I guess I'll have to drop the "for Boys" now that Karissa is here.

It's going really great considering we just had a baby.  Clark has really turned a corner with school.  He is very motivated and catches on quick.  Joel is doing great with his pre-reading skills.  Levi is learning to play independently.  Karissa is usually nearby in her bouncy seat, or I'm carrying her in her sling.

 BRING ON FIRST GRADE!!!

Super Clark is ready to tackle reading, math, science, and whatever else comes his way!

His super powers included knowing all of his math addition facts, reading, spelling, and writing nonfiction texts or fiction stories.

 

 Powerful Joel is attacking a prek 4/Kindergarten curriculum this year. 

 He is ready to learn and ready to keep up with his older brother!

His super powers included putting all 26 letters in ABC order, knowing all of his letter sounds, and counting to 100 (with help).

Amazing Levi is learning colors, letters, numbers, and how to create havoc while his brothers work.

His super powers are "reading" books for hours and counting to 20 sometimes, and calling every color RED!

 

This is our super cool light saber that we found at a garage sale last week.  

I slowed down my camera and took some cool moving shots.  The boys love the cool effect!

 It has nothing to do with school.  :-)

My 1 Month Old Angel

My little angel is as sweet as pie!  And she is now one month old.

I am so thankful for this little darling.  

 The past four weeks have been stressful, but her little smiles and coos have been our little sunshine during all the stormy days.

Oh, she weighs 10 pounds, 10 ounces which is in the 80% and a gain of almost three pounds!
And she's grown an inch!!!

And thank you, Murphys, for the super adorable dress.