We LOVE School

This morning Josiah was up early, before 5:30. To keep him busy I let him start his school work for the day. He is always begging to do school - even on Saturdays and Sundays. Soon Abby woke up and joined him, and Beth wanted to be part of it, too. I wanted to keep them busy and quiet while I read my Bible. It worked for a little while. They were too cute. I had to take their pictures. How many kids want to do school the first thing after they wake up?!? All the schools around us are on Christmas break, but I can't convince them to take a long break. Plus the weather is not good for playing outside. Who wants four kids under five running around the house all day? My yard is muddy, and the sky looks like it could rain again. School work gives them something to fill up some of their time indoors. We also been baking cookies, and playing learning games.

Ultrasound results...

There is one baby not twins, and looks like a girl. The kids are sad. They wanted a boy. The due date has been moved to the middle of March. Could be a birthday present for one of the others. All looks good for going ahead with the plans for a home birth.

Birthdays and ages

My kids enjoy discussing birthdays and how old they are. I often hear questions like, "If I am six (or seven, eight...) how old will Josiah and Beth be?" It is a good way to practice adding or subtracting by twos. The other day Robert asked Josiah, “How old are you going to be on your next birthday?” Josiah held up 4 fingers, and Robert replied, “That’s right. How old do you want to be?” Josiah quickly answered, “69”.

Baby update

Wednesday I had an appointment with my midwife. I am at 20 weeks and things are going well. I did measure quite a bit bigger than what I should be. This has raised the question again of "Is it twins?" I have an ultra sound scheduled in a few weeks that will settle that question. I would welcome another set of twins, but it would make it difficult to have a home birth. One thing I really want to avoid is a c-section.
I am a bit short on sleep. Getting up in the middle of the night with kids will do that. So it is off to bed for me. Good night all.

Sweet pictures

Church was a little long, and they had no nap. They were too cute sleeping side by side.

My princesses!!

Beth's hair is finally long enough to put piggy tails in it. Her hair is very light and fine compared to the others. Even though it is cold here she still runs around bare foot. I can't keep socks on her!

Pretending

My kids love to pretend. I don't know many who don't. I took these photos of them pretending to have church. Robert preached, Josiah led the singing, and Abby sang a special song she made up for the occasion.

Gardening

I have enjoyed our garden. I do every year. It gives me an excuse to get out of the house, enjoy playing in the dirt, and get some vitamin D from the sun. It also is great to feed my family with the home grown, organic, fresh produce from my own garden. I miss it over the winter. If I could find a way to have a green house without spending a lot of money, I would do it. I expanded my gardening area and had even more this year.
The kids got involved as usual. They love playing in the dirt, and the youngest usually eats some of the dirt, too. They each had their favorite vegetables they wanted to plant. Abby's favorite is peas, while Robert likes carrots. Josiah is still learning about what grows and what doesn't, so he asked to plant spam this year. Now I did plant the potatoes which combined with spam makes a favorite dish for Navajos.
We tried some new things this year. Broccoli worked great, but cauliflower did nothing. I also tried the wall-o-water this year and really liked the results. The night temperatures really drop here and makes it hard to start plants. The wall-o-water helped even out the temperature fluctuations and we enjoyed some beautiful tomatoes and jalapeno much earlier than usual. Here are some of our gardening photos.Josiah is very proud of his tomato plant, which is bigger than him!We planted broccoli, cauliflower, peas, onions, beets, potatoes, corn, tomatoes, green chillies, jalapenos, bell peppers, cantaloupe, watermelon, and cucumbers.