Fun picture

I just thought this was a fun picture of my kids and some of their friends. We had the Waites over for Sunday dinner and some of them decided to build a tower. Aaron tried to climb on top, but they didn't like that idea for some reason :) Eli (2nd row left) and Calista are the same age, and Samuel and Libby (bottom middle) are the same age. Between our two families, we have kids born the same year, opposite genders, except for 2010. Sarah is on her own. I told their mom that she needs to have twins next time to make up for lost time!!

This looks very familiar

If you spend much time at our house, or anyone else's house, you are sure to see something like this:

Jacque loves to read books to anyone that is willing to sit by her. Before I took this picture they were all cuddled around her looking at the book. I happened to distract a couple of them by bringing out the camera! Jacque is such a good reader, and its probably because she loves to read. She read her very first chapter book all by herself the other day. She was to the last chapter of a Junie B. Jones book, and asked if I wanted to read it. I told her that I would love to read it, but wouldn't she like the satisfaction of reading the book all by herself! She agreed and went back and finished the book. I am so proud of her for what a big sister she is. She is a good mommy to her little sisters and knows just what to do to make them happy. If I'm not available, Sarah will look for Jacque or Samuel when she needs help or needs a little comfort. It's fun to see all the kids bring books to Jacque and hear her read book after book to them! We went to visit Aaron's family over Thanksgiving and we weren't there long before Jacque had a few of her cousins sitting around her while she read books to them. I have the best kids ever!!

Our Christmas Tree

This is our first year getting a real tree. Samuel was really excited about it. The girls couldn't really make up their minds, which was good because they were sick on the day that Samuel and Aaron went and got the tree. I think it is a beautiful tree! The kids had fun helping decorate the tree!!! I took one picture with the family room lights on and one with them off.

Samuel turns 9!

Samuel wanted a shark cake for his birthday. I got online and found this one. He loved it.
Samuel saw this shovel back in October and wanted to get it because it is "his" size. The handle does extend to make it more his size. Now we just need to wait for the snow to come so he can use it. We had frozen fog that came through a couple of days ago, and the sidewalk/parkinglot at the church, had a skiff of frost. So Samuel took his snow shovel over there and shoveled up the snow and brought it over to our house :)

Samuel has been wanting an alarm clock for a long time. He was excited to get this. He's used it every morning, except Saturdays. I told him that Saturday was our day to sleep in so he can't use it then. This has been a great gift to me too. He set it on his dresser, which is across the room from his bed. So when it goes off, (and I can hear it down the hallway and in the kitchen just fine) he has to get out of bed to turn it off. That means he wakes up all on his own. I don't have to call his name 5 times anymore before he gets out of bed!!!! It's a win/win situation!! Sarah I guess doesn't care for it much since they share a room, but I don't let him set it too early. He gets to set it for 7:15am and that is a good time for her to wake up too.

This looked like a book that was made for Samuel. It shows you how to build a model airplane, wooden tank, boomerang and other wooden toys. The guy said he wrote it to get kids away from video games and TV. Its supposed to be simple enough for kids to make, with adult supervision of course.

Samuel has a wonderful Primary Teacher. She brought his present this morning as she dropped her son off for Seminary. What more could a 9 year old boy want than 3 big bags of candy!!!

We love our Samuel! He is such a wonderful example to everyone around. He is so kind, and cares about everyone. He tries to solve every one's problems at school. He told me one of his successes. He saw a girl that was sad, so he asked her what was wrong. She said that she and her friend were fighting. He asked why, and she told him what happened. Then he goes to her friend and talks to her. He tells her that if she just went over and said sorry, that she and her friend could play the rest of recess. So the girl listens to Samuel and apologizes to her friend. Sure enough, they forgive each other and were able to play together for the rest of the day! One day I decided to pick Samuel, Jacque and Calista up from school. They still had to walk through the park to get to the car, but it isn't that far. I guess Calista had hurt her ankle during one of her recesses, and was limping, so Samuel stopped and let her climb on his back for a piggy back ride all the way to the car. There have been other times when we're going on a walk and Ellen will be straggling behind us, and he'll bend down so she can climb on his back and he'll carry her the rest of the way home.

He loves scouts and earned his Wolf badge in 9 months. He's excited to be a Bear now so he can earn more badges.

His teachers love him at school. He is learning cursive and multiplication and loves both of them. He says that multiplication is a lot more fun than addition and subtraction.

Samuel loves to think of inventions, or ways to make things run better. He takes after his dad in this area. He comes to me regularly with new ideas on how to make a model airplane, gun, or other contraption.

He loves to play soccer and air hockey. Aaron can still beat him regularly, but he's good competition for me.

He's been reading a lot of Calvin and Hobbes lately and can't wait until we get actual snow, frost doesn't count! He also enjoys reading Garfield, Magic Treehouse, Boxcar Children, and he's enjoying Farmer Boy (we're reading that one as a family at nighttime).

I love my big, little boy! Happy Birthday to you, Samuel!!!

Our snow/frozen fog

I just thought these were pretty pictures!

The Lady With The Alligator Purse

One of my girls' favorite books is The Lady With The Alligator Purse. Jacque will read it to the girls, and she's done it so many times that I can't tell if Calista can read it, or if it is just memorized. We got to watch one of our friends today, and Ellen sat down to read him the book. After listening to her, I grabbed my camera and had her read it again. Hopefully you can hear her little voice. Don't get too impressed, because I know it is all memorization. Sorry you don't get to see the pictures while she's reading, but I couldn't get them to show up very well.

Our Pumpkins

Every year I'm excited to paint pumpkins. And this year we got to paint pumpkins from our very own garden!! Most of the pumpkins turn out like the little pumpkins in this picture, which is fine because its just another fun activity to do with your pumpkin. However this year, Samuel and Jacque got a little more creative. Jacque painted her pumpkin and did a great job making a face. Samuel let me help him paint his pumpkin (the big one). We looked at some coloring pages that I got online, and then I drew it on the pumpkin and Samuel painted it. The more I look at it, the more his pumpkin makes me feel at home. It seems that whenever a camera get pulled out at family gatherings, there is at least one person in my family, or extended family for that matter, that likes to make a similar face :p I hope everyone had a Happy Halloween!!