Joseph Jr. - 9 Months Old

Our big little boy is growing like crazy.

He is on the move.....crawling around like crazy and pulling himself up on furniture.

A few times over the last couple of days, he was taken a couple of steps while pushing a toy. I have tried to get it on video, but every time he sees me with the camera, he sits down and starts crawling over to me.  

 

He loves the bathtub and thinks his sisters are very funny.

 

His skin is looking pretty good. He has a couple of breakouts on his shoulders right now. I think it is from the coffee I have been trying to drink again.....or the crackers I have let him have a few times over the last week or so (he hasn't had any wheat up until now and I also had not been eating wheat).

He slept in the crib for the first time last night.....only for the first half of the night. When he woke up to eat around 1 am, I put him in the pack-in-play in our room for the rest of the night.....which was good because he was up 2 more times to eat before I got up at 6 am. 

He is basically down to just one nap a day and he has been napping in the crib for the last week. He will sometimes take a short little cat nap in the morning too but not always. 

Mama is still his favorite and if I'm anywhere in the room no one else will do. LuAnn watched all the kids one night last month.....the first time I had left Joseph anywhere for more than a couple of hours. He was not too happy about it and would not take a bottle, but grandma did finally get him to go to sleep.

God bless!

Charlie

Charlie and I started 'preschool' in the last couple of weeks. It is going well......very relaxed.

She has surprised me and likes to sit down with worksheets. And she is quite funny because she doesn't think we are doing school unless we are sitting at the table. You should have heard me try and explain how I was turning bread baking into a math lesson. She basically told me I was wrong and that wasn't school.

We are hoping to start including weekly story time at the library this week. I would love to get to the library every week and story time might just make it happen.

She can write her name as long as you write it first so that she has something to look at and knows what a good chunk of the letters are.

God bless!

Cori

This girl and her curls just melt my heart.

Our often quiet middle child is starting to assert herself.

As in.....slamming doors, throwing toys and having tantrums.

She also loves her siblings and is often trying to pick up her brother. It's quite funny because he weighs about as much as she does.

Ohhh that cute little undie covered butt.....

I've pretty much given up on potty training right now. She is very inconsistent and I am sick of doing laundry. We will try again in a month or so.

Joe found her like this around 5pm last Sunday night. It had been a long day with Joseph's Dedication at church and day of playing with her cousins.

God bless!

Friday on the Farm

Through our sweet neighbors, The L's and their wonderful girls that babysit for us, we found out about Friday on the Farm.

The Housmans are the nicest people around and it has been a pleasure getting to know them better this summer.

My girls love to make the trip to Dassel every Friday. I'm pretty sure Charlie would move in there if they would have her. It's never a quick trip for a little produce, but more like a adventure to the rural zoo.

They have a wonderful market building where they sell homegrown organic produce, fresh eggs and milk and lots of yummy baked goods. In recent weeks, they have been pressing fresh apple cider while we have been there.

After we make our purchases, we head off towards the barns to see the goats, sheep, kittens, bunnies, and chickens.

They are always willing to answer questions and let you peek inside their lives and doings. Charlie loved it when she got to go and check out 'the playhouse'. And I was thoroughly intrigued to get a look inside their outdoor root cellar.

Charlie, Cori and their friend Grace

Mike Housman and helpers pressing fresh apple cider

Market Building

Only one meltdown...not too bad.

She was scared of the chickens.

Grace helped collect all the eggs

Fresh cider

And yes, Charlie did dress herself.

Lucy the goat

God bless!

Potty training.....

.....country style.

God bless!

Multitude Monday

Endless blessings here.....

816. Charlie sooooo excited about starting "school" tomorrow.....
817. .....Mama excited too

818. Buckets of tomatoes from our garden
819. Buckets of green beans too
820. Potatoes all dug up.....
821. .....Hubby's help with the potato digging and weed pulling

822. Dirty kids.....very dirty kids
823. All 3 of them in the bathtub together.....splashing around
824. Sloppy wet bathroom floor
825. Two mornings in a row of uninterupted quiet time with The Word
826. Cute little morning interuptions who snuggle in and join me

827. Grilled burgers over an open fire and friday night bonfires
828. Visiting with friends we haven't seen in awhile

829. Fall nights and open windows
830. Changing seasons, new schedules, new projects, new adventures

Have a blessed week!