Hello Friends and Family!
I'm grateful for this platform to keep in touch with our close friends and family. That being said, if you ever want to stop receiving my email updates, please let me know. I won't be offended!
It seems like this Spring is streaking by and I know it won't be long until we are right in the middle of summer. The boys are loving being outside more and I'm glad to see them enjoying the great outdoors!
Here's a little of what we've been up to lately...
The sandbox for Owen's birthday is being used daily. Thankfully, the amount of sand that makes it into the house hasn't been as bad as I had anticipated. Although, I still empty out and entire pocketful of sand every now and then while doing laundry.
Two "before and after" pictures of a project we tackled since our last update...
I love how it turned out! The living room feels much more homey. :)
We are slowly working on plotting out and planting a garden this year. It's hard to find a good time on an average day to work in the garden, since it needs to be over Liza's nap and I'm usually needing my nap around that time too. So, we are doing it on a just-for-fun basis and making baby steps of progress here and there. It's really cool to see Blake and Seth starting to be more of a help and to see them enjoying various work projects. I'm looking forward to them tasting the fruits of their labors!
So cute to see their faces beam when I tell them "Look at those muscles growing!"
She is very calm and loves to be held like a baby.
Did I mention she is REALLY big?!?
Going for a walk around the yard. The boys have since gotten somewhat bored with walking her around (as she doesn't go very far very quickly probably due to the fact that she's a bit on the chubby side), so we tied her leash to a small ball that she can pull around the yard. Just enough to slow her down and also making it easy to keep an eye on her. Redneck anyone? :)
Speaking of Liza...she is an outdoor lover! She gets rather upset with Mommy when it's time to come inside. We've been practicing our walking around the yard which means me holding her hands as she walks. We usually get about 5 steps in before she spots a dandelion flower and drops to the ground to pick it up. She adores flower. Usually, she likes to tear them into little pieces and nibble on the petals.
First time on a swing!
Here's a few pictures from Easter...
Uncle Luke
The boys memorized the Easter story from Luke. It was more like "re-memorized" as we had learned it a couple years ago. It's been interesting for me to see more research coming out showing the value of memorization at young ages. Among other things, it helps them become better learners later on and helps them become better writers by mimicking the writing styles in the quality literature.
A typical pre-bed time scene.
Softball season has started up again!
Liza got a new dress from my Grandparents, Moms and Pops in California. It's she delightful?
The boys' co-op classes, Archway, ended last week and Blake concluded his classes with a little piano recital. Micah had to be out of town that day, so we held a special family recital for him so Daddy could be there.
Daddy was the Master of Ceremonies
Blake played a total of seven songs and hardly made any mistakes. He really enjoyed himself too!
It's that time of year again!
Just a LITTLE excited about fresh strawberries on our pancakes!
Funnies...
Owen was wrestling with the boys and pretending to have been "killed" in the battle. As he lay there with his eyes closed, he said, "My button is off"
During bedtime prayer Owen offers up this little gem..."Jesus, please help the movie not to turn off and help Daddy to not get lost when he's at work." Precious....
Owen got a little tired of helping with weeding the flower bed one day and when asked if he was going to continue working he said, "I'm full of working"
In other news... Scott has made it safely to Florida and is beginning his training in Information Technology for the next six months. He is looking forward to starting this next phase of his journey with the Navy.
Jonathan has almost finished one out of four months of his deployment in Northern Iraq. He said he's doing well and is in a safe place (or that's what he tells me at least) and that the coolness factor of what he is getting to do now has gone from a "4 to a 9" compared to his previous job. The boys enjoy sending him letters and we get a kick out of seeing how many pounds of goodies we can squeeze into the flat-rate postal boxes. ;)
Hope you all are doing well!
Love,
The Foxes
