Picking Apples

I used to say that fall was my very favorite season. It still is in many ways. I hate to say good-bye to the simplicity of summer shorts and flip flops and the daylight that lasts from early morning until way late at night, but I love the cool crisp mornings, the colorful mums, the pumpkins and straw bales lining front porches, the changing leaves, and the apples. Oh how I love the apples! We have a couple of orchards not too far from us and this year was the first year that one of them offered U-Pick. I had visions of us picking baskets of apples in every variety and it being an entire morning's activity. But it turned out that you could pay $10 for a 1/2 peck bag and get a $2 credit for the store. And there were only two varieties of apples available for picking. So, we paid for two bags and headed out to pick. The apples were huge, so it didn't take long to fill our two bags. Despite the picking being over almost as soon as we started, the boys had a great time, and we got some cute pictures. We bought  two other types of apples from the store and have been in apple heaven every since. If an apple a day keeps the doctor away, we will be set for the year. Ha!

A Year of Catch Up

Not that anyone is reading this anymore, but wow, I can't believe I've let almost a whole year go by without posting. Life is so busy sometimes and I'm just not taking the time to record it like I want to. But looking back over this little blog reminds me that I love seeing all the memories it has kept for us. Unfortunately, I have to actually write them for the blog to keep them.

So here we go. The past year in a nutshell. Ben played outdoor soccer for the first time and had a blast! I got a fun inspiration from Pinterest and stuck Elijah in a pumpkin for some fun pictures. We traveled to KS to visit our friends Brian and Katie. We traveled to Ohio to visit Matt's sister and her husband and kids. We had our first Christmas with two kiddos. So. Much. Fun.! We endured yet another winter in Indiana that made me wonder why on earth we moved back here from Texas. We celebrated one year of life for Elijah. He is a total delight in our family and we are so blessed! We were excited to have a week and a half escape from the yuck of winter when we traveled to Florida for Matt's work and a family vacation. We spent Easter with my sister and her family in Fort Wayne. We finally started doing some things to our yard to make it feel more like home. Tons of mulch, four trees, and some new bushes and landscaping. We finished up homeschooling Ben for kindergarten. It was a tough year, but he learned to read some short words and sentences.We prayed and prayed and finally decided to send Ben to school for first grade. We enjoyed a rather cool summer with a short anniversary getaway from Matt and me, strawberry picking, Celebrating six wonderfully blessed years of Ben's life, blueberry picking, trips to the farmer's market, lots of family walks, a couple of hikes, a day trip to St. Louis, a trip to Holiday World with most of my siblings, fun in the backyard kiddie pool and the sandbox, and a visit from my brother Will. School started five weeks ago and Ben has adjusted slowly. He's doing well now and his reading is improving quickly. And while he still wishes work were optional, he's catching on and doing much better. It's been strange being home with just Elijah, but we are falling into routine and it's been really good.

There is no way I can play catch up with pictures from the last year, but I have to post a few from the highlight moments. 

Ben was excited about soccer!

 My little pumpkin

 Sweet brothers

 Happy First Birthday!

 Sanibel Island

 Easter 2013

 Happy little mess maker

 Homeschool - butterfly unit

 Backyard pool fun

These boys could live in the sandbox

 

 First day of First Grade!

School Funnies

I have so much catching up to do and way too many pictures to go through for posts, but today I just had to post a little tidbit from our day of homeschooling. Ben and I started a unit on nests this week and we were talking about how birds take care of their babies. Our Bible lesson was about God taking care of us. So one of the verses we read was Psalm 91:14-15. After reading it to Ben, I began explaining how he could call out to God whenever he was afraid or in trouble and God would answer him and keep him safe. He has a pretty intense fear of dogs, so I told him he could remember these verses whenever he was around a dog. Ben looked at me for a minute and I thought he was about to comment on the verse or concepts we were learning, but instead he says "Mommy, why does gas come out of me?" Followed by "Will we have gas in heaven?" And that's the mind of a five year old boy for you!

Sitting Up

 Love this smile!

So far Elijah is making things a little easier for me in terms of his motivation to move. He rolls around and turns in a circle, but for the most part, still stays in one place when I set him down. A couple of weeks ago, I thought he was not really even close to sitting on his own, but we tried working on it for a few days and in no time, he was sitting all by himself. He loves to sit and play and can now sit for five or ten minutes before he topples.

School

This week marks the official start of school for us this year. I actually did some with Ben last week, but this is the first week we've had a regular schedule. So far, it's been going pretty well and he seems to be listening and learning. The first two weeks of our curriculum are really a lot of review from things he learned in Pre-K, so we've doubled up some days. So our curriculum is broken up into units and this first unit is a bit longer and covers creation. Today's assignment was to go on a walk and look for things God had made and things man had made. After we kind of ran out of different things to point out, we started talking about different foods, buildings, and other things God made. I mentioned the Grand Canyon and asked if God made it, or if man made it. Ben was adamant that it was made by men. I finally gave up arguing with him and told him we'd just have to go see it some day. He asked if we got to shoot bombs when we went. I thought that was a little odd, but explained that we would probably never be shooting bombs. He said "well that what are we going to do with it if we don't shoot bombs?" Suddenly it became clear to me why he had been so adamant that the Grand Canyon was man made. He thought it was a grand canon.

Benjamin Funnies

It's been a while since I've posted any of these. I wish I was better about recording them because I think I could make a whole book.

-Saturday morning was Ben's first practice for soccer this fall. We were filling water bottles before heading out the door and this was our conversation:
Ben asked: Will there be vampires at soccer?
Me, a bit puzzled by the question: No, there won't be vampires.
Ben: Oh, those are only at football games.
Me: Oh, do you mean umpires?
Ben: Yeah, umpires

So, yeah, we are a bit confused about our sports, but we'll get there. And yes, I did explain that umpires were in baseball.


-Sunday afternoon we went to lunch with my family after church. Ben was, well, lets just say, very spirited throughout the meal. I seem to have suddenly become allergic to being outside and was feeling fuzzy headed and extremely tired. So by the time we left, all I wanted to do was crawl in bed and sleep. Ben was asking question after question on the way home and after answering a few, I finally said "Ben, can you please just not talk right now. Mommy's really tired." To which he replied "But I have to talk, that's how I breathe." Matt and I looked at each other and he said "Wow, that explains so much!" Ha!



-And then there was Sunday night. Ben was in our room with Matt.

Ben: Daddy, your bed looks really comfortable. Maybe someday I'll have a comfortable bed.
Matt: I think your bed is pretty comfortable too.
Ben: It's cold. Your bed is more comfortable because mommy is in it.

So essentially he was saying that someday he'll have a comfortable bed because someday he'll get married and have someone to sleep in bed with. :-)

My Five Year Old

It's hard to believe, but my oldest little man turned FIVE this summer! It really is true that if you blink (and even if you don't) they grow up crazy fast!

This year was Ben's first friend party and it was so much fun! I was super nervous because well, lets just say Pinterest has taken parties to a whole new level and I couldn't compete. But once I decided that kids were still kids and that they would have fun doing simple games and activities, I had fun with it and Ben had a great time with his friends. We've decided that friend parties will not happen every year, just to keep them special, but after this year, I feel much less nervous about future parties.

In addition to his friend party, we also celebrated with Matt's parents and my parents. It's so fun to be able to do that! Ben got some super fun toys and Matt and his dad built Ben an awesome sandbox in the backyard. The house often feels like a beach, but the sandbox has been a huge hit!

So, as a five year old, Ben is constantly amazing us with how much of life he takes in. He loves reading books and being read to. We read all of the Ramona/Henry/Beezus series by Beverly Cleary this summer, and also listened to numerous books on tape. I love that he is getting into chapter books now. I love a good story, so it's fun to introduce him to some of my favorites from growing up.

And by far the most exciting event of the summer was on June 24th when Ben accepted Christ as his Savior. For months before that, Ben had been asking some pretty deep questions about heaven, Jesus, sin, and hell. He had told us a few times that he wanted to be a Christian, but Matt and I questioned whether he was really understanding it, so we waited. But that night, we were reading about Pharaoh and his army being covered by the sea and Ben asked if Pharaoh got to go to heaven. When I told him that no, he didn't, Ben had a ton of questions that finally led to him asking me if he could ask Jesus to forgive him of his sins and commit his life to Him. My prayer for my boys has been that they would come to an understanding of their need for Christ at a young age and that they would have a strong faith for the rest of their lives. What a joy to see the first part of that prayer being answered. 

 Ben requested a monster truck Spiderman party. So we had a monster truck cake and Spiderman cups and then made super hero capes. (which I missed getting in a picture)

 One of the gifts Ben received was a slip and slide. So fun!!

 Ben insisted on everyone wearing their party hat like unicorns for his party with our families. Love this kid!

 Fun presents