Weekend at the lake

Eliana Six

Happy sixth birthday to our sweet, happy, clever sunshine. We're so thankful that God gave us you!

Leading

Something that Ambrose and Anastasia like to do together is walk around the house while holding hands. Ambrose leads and Anastasia follows. 

That Ambrose is a bit of a hand holding junkie!

Just hanging out

Lilah and Ambrose were sitting like this yesterday morning. They weren't doing anything else. Just sitting, holding hands and looking out the window. How sweet. 

Eliana's Cinderella

By Eliana, 5 yrs

Four in the tub

This is what bath time looks like at our house these days. 

Anastasia on an airplane

She was such a trooper on our trip to Australia. Jet lag got her when we arrived and she was ready to play between 11pm and 3am the first three nights! 

Lilah's Family

Lilah was so happy with our family that she drew today. 

Here are our dogs, Rosy and Ashy with their right coloured collars. 

Ambrose and Anastasia. 

Lilah, Eliana and Mama. 

And Daddy 

Your drawings are beautiful, thoughtful and detailed, Lilah. I especially love the different hairstyles and toes!

First time in a trolley

Anastasia's first time sitting in a trolley was at 11 months while we were in Australia. 

She enjoyed the ride!

Ambrose colouring in

I love the way Ambrose colours in these days!

Goodbye zero

The day before her first birthday. 

Ambrose awakening

Here's proof that Ambrose is out of the cot and onto a mattress. He looks lonely down there, but don't worry, Nate has already whipped up a toddler bed for this mattress using all 2 x 4's that came with our crate. I'll put a photo up once it's been painted. 

This is Ambrose's I-just-woke-up-and-I'm-not-going-to-smile-for-you-mama look.

And this is two minutes later when I said "Don't you smile, Ambrose!" Works (almost) every time!

Anastasia pulling up

Our little baby is pulling up, and feeling very happy with herself about it! She was half doing it at 7 or 8 months on us and the girls small chairs, but now she is doing it every chance she gets!

Isn't that big cloth nappy bum so sweet? (and that's a good hubby doing language practice in the background). 

Ambrose at two and a half

Ambrose makes life so fun. He's now potty trained (Whoopee!) and as of yesterday, is out of the crib. He is saying new words every day and he talks to us very seriously about a lot of things. He laughs along with us when we all crack up at the table, although I think he is only now getting the jokes :) He loves to jump, go for walks to our neighbours, go in the car for drives, color in, and look at books. His favorite song for a while was "Miss Polly" and he would ask me to sing it over 15 times. His new favorite song is "Jesus, what a beautiful name" and he requests it every night and before each nap. 

Ambrose loves to play outside and can climb the fort Daddy made and go down the slippery dip on his own. He watches everything we do and copies all that his big sisters say and do. He loves to kick the ball, and he kicks it like a champ, but doesn't like to share it, so kicking the ball back and forth with Ambrose isn't so fun as of yet. One day… 

We love you buddy. You are bursting forth with such wonderful boyish character. You are a breath of fresh air in our home!

Eliana at five and a half years old

Eliana is a beautiful five year old. She loves her brother and sisters, loves her home and loves to be active. She is always looking for a tree to climb, something to draw on, a stick to play with, some grass to pick, anything to explore!

Homeschooling is going well. She's halfway through kindergarten and loving it. She seems to be a natural at Math, she quickly understands new concepts. She loves to create stories for me to copy down and she really enjoys reading the science books together. She is now starting to get the hang of reading. There is something special about seeing your child read her first sentence, and then seeing her sound out other words she sees throughout the day on books, milk cartons and t-shirts. 

The other day I asked Eliana what she likes about living in Africa and she responded visiting friends and that we get to teach people about Jesus. When I asked her what she doesn't like about living in Africa she responded, "I like everything!". What a grace of the Lord. We're so thankful for you, our sweet Eliana.

Anastasia catch up

There a few things I haven't mentioned along the way… Anastasia's first sit up bath at 6 months

Anastasia rocking back and forth on hands and knees at 6 months

Anastasia going from hands and knees to sitting up at 6 months:

Anastasia cute alert. What a Happy Baby!

Happy 4th Birthday, Lilah!

It's hard to believe that my little baby is four. She is a passionate, fun, clever and hilarious child. We love you little Lilah.

By the way, that's a cool necklace Eliana made for your birthday.

Little monkeys

What else is there to do while Mum goes shopping?

Look-a-likes

Lilah and Anastasia could be twins, if there wasn't such a size difference :) How beautiful!

A mind of its own

Our little missy moo has five teeth now. And no… I don't put curlers in her hair. It just has a mind of its own!

Growing teeth

While Eliana is losing teeth at five years old, Anastasia is growing teeth at five months old. Eliana's first two teeth to grow where the middle bottom two, and the first two teeth to loose where the same ones. Now Anastasia's bottom teeth are coming up. Goodbye sweet gummy smile phase. Onto cheeky tooth phase.

Loosing teeth

Eliana lost her first tooth a couple of weeks ago. Then her second bottom tooth out came out this week. Five years old! Understandably, losing the first one was a little traumatic for our beautiful eldest. She accidentally swallowed it. I can now guess why the tooth fairy was invented. The promise of money can certainly ease the trauma of having your tooth come out! Eliana was very careful when her second tooth became loose. She carefully ate each bite of pasta until that tooth was in her hands :)

Photo shoot

Why is it a mother will take one hundred and three photos of her baby in one sitting, and not be able to delete any of them? Every expression is precious.

love her crazy tsunami hair!

Crazy hair

Anastasia wins the award for most amount of feeds in her first week of life (read, every hour!) and the most amount of hair. She even achieved pig tails at 4 months old. Boy do we love it!

Introducing Anastasia

Welcome to the blog my little darling. You have been a bundle of joy from the moment we met you. You are a mix of all of your siblings, happy, funny, rascally, passionate, wild, sweet.

We are so glad God gave us you, my baby.

Heading Progression

It's time to update the heading. It's taken me a while because we liken our internet pace to pulling teeth (though I'm thankful for internet in the bush of Africa :). I've also been hesitant to change it because I so love the last heading and was sad to see it go. But the beauty of a blog is that I can save and share memories. So, below you will see how the kid's blog has been titled over the years. Now to upload the new one with our little star, Anastasia!

By the way, here is a link to the site that taught me how to use Picassa collage to do a blog heading for free. It's a clear, detailed tutorial with pictures.