Family Day

    Derek left Monday to go underway for the week, so last Saturday (I know, this blog is overdue, but it's hard to blog when you're playing "single mom" to 4 kids!!) we had family day. We had big plans to head to a festival at Town Point Park, but of course we didn't make it out of the house in time; so we decided to get our bikes out and ride around in front of the house and play in the front yard. The girls thought it was so fun to go out front instead of in the back yard like usual. They loved being able to ride their bikes up and down the side walk, and that Mommy and Daddy rode their bikes too :) We had a lot of fun just getting outside with them and playing. The weather has been so nice here!

Group picture in their new
outfits from Mimi.

She's so serious when she's riding her bike

Me and Ansleigh getting ready to race

She totally beat me :)

Riding on mommy's bike

They all wanted a try

She's not very good at riding her
bike yet, so she  ran most of the time

awwwww :-D

My girls

Ice cream break!

Eli woke up and joined us, he was SO happy!

Blue Steel

L.O.V.E.

They caught a cricket

They each took a turn  holding it

She wasn't so sure, and tried to wipe it
off of her finger. lol

Picture says it all

She rode her bike and everything while this little
guy hung out on her hand. She asked me to
take her picture with him!

Then they all melted down

Time for a nap!

    After a long day of  playing in the yard we decided it would be fun to make our own pizza and get the kids involved with the cooking. They each got to make their own personal pizza and had a blast doing it. It's definitely something we will be doing again. 

notice the tongue

They made smiley face pizza

Daddy is so silly!!

Yum!!!

    It was a really fun Saturday, and a perfect way to spend the weekend before a long  week without Derek. Looking forward to him being home tomorrow!!!!

Catching up

  Last week was so busy! We had a lot of fun though. The weather here has finally cooled off and it's actually feeling  like fall, so we have been spending  a lot of time outside. Ben came over and all of the kids played in the yard.

Playing choo-choo-train

Ben decided he was going to
do the Army crawl as his part
of the train.

Ring-Around-the-Rosies

We all fall down!!

This kid loves being outside!

    We also took our weekly trip to the library for story time. We have the best preschool story time at the Oceanview library! They sing songs, read books, play with a parachute, and then do a craft every week.

He loves watching them sing and dance

Birds nests on their heads
(it went along with the story they read)

Standing all by himself!!

    We've been doing home pre-school, but this week was so crazy we didn't fit much in other than going to the library and doing a small science lesson. The girls all put potatoes in water and sat them by the window for a week and watched the roots grow, and then Daddy did a lesson on plants.

    Also, Eli is officially crawling!! He is getting into everything now! I'll write more in his monthly update blog (coming on the 8th) but here is a quick video of him crawling.

"Baby" Dedication

    Ok, I'm so far behind on my blog it's ridiculous. But last week was such a crazy week that I barely even had time to look at the computer, much less sit down and blog. So I'm going to do as many as I can to update everything. The first being our "baby" dedication. We never did one for Sophia and now we have Ansleigh, Alyssa, and Eli too; so we did more of a "kid" dedication... better late than never right? Here are the letters that we wrote to each child which have been printed out as a certificate and signed by our pastor:

Sophia,
    With this dedication, we are committing to raising you not only in the church, but in God's light; to teach you through both example and instruction. We promise to let God's commands lead our parenting, and we pray that we are able to instill the same trust and reliance in God that we have found ourselves. We pray that God will use your energetic and outgoing spirit to spread His love, and we are confident that you will grow into a beautiful woman of God. We have been so blessed to have you as our first child. You truly were a blessing directly from God, and we pray that we can return those blessings to you.

Ansleigh,
    We are making this dedication as a public commitment to raise and care for you under the guidance of the Lord and His word. We have been blessed by God to have you and Alyssa join our family, and are so excited for the opportunity to raise you two girls as children of God, growing into women of God. We pray that the Lord will use your energy and your excitement for learning to share His love with others.

Alyssa,
    This dedication is a public commitment that we will raise and care for you as God commands us to do. You and Ansleigh are such a blessing to our family, and we thank God that we have the opportunity to raise you both knowing the Lord, and lead you to become women of God. We pray that God will use your loving and nurturing spirit to show God's love to others as you grow.

Eli,
    This dedication is to commit ourselves lifelong to raising you as a man of God. We were so excited to find out that we were going to have a son, and every day brings us more joy as you grow, learning and exploring the world around you. We pray that your curious and energetic nature continues as you get older, and that you seek God's love and Christ's teachings with that same energy. We promise to raise you by God's principals, and to rely on Him for guidance, to help  you become a strong man of God. We pray that you know God's love and embrace His teachings, and that you seek to imitate Christ as you grow.


Love,
Mommy and Daddy