Week in review

Despite the very cold temperatures and heavy snow falls we are just as busy as ever!

 

Lilly had a friend over to play.

There was a quick break in the snow and I immediately got out my spray paint! :)

I finished painting the doors upstairs.

BEFORE:

 

 AFTER:

(we removed the other hallway door)

We visited one of the colleges in town.

They invited homeschooling families to come and talk to the international students.

What a great opportunity it was for us to practice our conversational skills and learn about other cultures!  They had never heard of homeschooling before we came!!

Lilly decided to make her face match her dress!

Just a regular day.

We went roller skating with our homeschool co op. 

(So nice to go in the middle of the day when everyone else is in school!)

Ben's fan club sat on the sidelines for another basketball game.

There he is! #2



 

We celebrated a birthday with a friend!

We had friends over for dinner and Lilly was thankful to have someone who was willing to play "getting married" with her! 

The things I love.

Henry losing another tooth and then really losing the tooth somewhere in the basement!! 

Yikes, for whoever finds it!!!  

 

Every night, after I put Lilly to bed, she colors and cuts and slips little drawings under my door. 

Ben just jumped right in to help make dinner.
(He is making donuts for Lilly's family night.)

Ben is playing basketball at our local YMCA.

He had a great first game and is enjoying playing on a team with his good friend.
Sweaty!!

Celebrating  Pete's birthday.

Big hugs for those homemade gifts!!

 



mailbox

 

My sweet little nephew turned 3 this week!!  

We all love him so much!!!  

All he has to do is say, "Please?" and he can get just about anything from his Aunt Amy!!

 

It was really hard to know what to get him! 

All the plastic toys at the store don't seem too fun!

So I scouted the internet and made a mailbox out of cardboard for him.

Complete with a mailbag. :)

 

I also made an envelope for each person in our family.  

Grandma, Grandpa, Uncle, Aunt & Cousins all had mail coming to them!!

 

(He spent the night passing them out to each person.  So cute!)

Nothing spectacular but fun for a 3 year old!

Happy Birthday Sweet Boy!!!

The Christmas Present

 

Our kids are very blessed with awesome presents from Grandparents and Aunts & Uncles

at Christmas time!  

So we bought the kids only a couple of gifts and gave them a trip in place of the what we would have spent on gifts.

We chose simple but fun.

A hotel (with a pool and hot tub) and a Children's Museum.

 

The kids excitement over the little things (like a blow dryer in the bathroom) made it so much fun!

 

 

Lounging by the pool. 

Dinner in front of the TV!!

Pool time till 10pm!!

Time with BUMBLEBEE!!

 

Terra Cotta Warriors!!

Indy Racing!!

We had so much fun together!! 

What a blessing to enjoy time with our kids.

Really, they fought all. day. long. the day before we left so I was a bit worried about spending a straight 48 hours with them all!! :)  Thankfully, the excitement was overwhelming and they forgot what is normally so annoying about each other!! :)

Finishing up our VERY MERRY CHRISTMAS!!!! 

Homemade presents

This year there were just a few homemade gifts:

 

Ben made this Jesus out of clay for Grandma.

 

For the family gift for Pete's family, I made these dog pillows.

 

The fabric is a man's shirt. I made an outline of the dogs and cut it out of fleece.

(the back)

 

And towels with symbols from the area of Ohio they are from.

I also created other towels for friends and a few in the family.

 

 

My sister is setting up a sewing/craft room at her new house.

I made these giant buttons to go on her wall. (I printed the picture out).

 

Lilly sewed pillowcases for her brothers and Daddy.

She picked out the fabric for each of them and did most of the sewing by herself.

(She picked heart fabric for her Daddy so that while he sleeps on it, he will remember she loves him. Sweet!)

The big boys worked hard on gifts for their sister. 
 
Peter made a desk and benche for Lilly's American Girl. 

 

 He also made colored pencils in a canister.
I love this! He cut the top off of a kabob stick and used a sharpie to color it!

 

Ben made a mailbox for the doll. 

 
When Lilly opened it, she squeezed Ben so tight and said,
 "You are the best brother in the whole world!"

Our Henry is an active boy.  It is good to always have a paper and pen available.
I made him this notebook to take to church.

It was the right amount of homemade gifts this year.  Enough to be fun, but not too overwhelming!

 

A Very Frederick Christmas

We had one little bit of Christmas left!

 

Aunt Tammie and Henry enjoying Henry's new 2nd cousin!

Henry looked at the baby's little feet and said,

"Wow, he doesn't have any mud on them!"

Guess shoes are a wonder if they don't have mud!! :)

Every year Pete's mom hides a pickle ornament in the tree and whoever finds it gets a special prize!

 

 For the 3rd year in a row Peter found it!

And each year we all get to pick an ornament off the tree before we leave.

Ben picked this pear.

Very special because his Grandma picked that exact ornament from her mom's tree many years ago.

Great Uncle Pete!

After all the Christmas presents this year, we now all have matching AKRON gear!



(Pete is from Akron.)

It was a VERY MERRY Christmas!!

The New Year

We had a great time on New Year's Eve.

We enjoyed spending time with great friends.

We played games.

They have 4 children just like we do and they all match up in age.

It is so fun to play games with them now!

 

We had a cake to ring in 2014,

 

complete with the "good luck marble" hidden in it. 



These cute girls are two peas in a pod!

Just a couple weeks apart in age!

The greatest part of the night was when the dads/husbands surprised us all by presenting a prayer that they are going to pray for each child and for us moms/wives.  It was awesome!! 

I think it is the first time I have ever cried on New Year's Eve!! :)

So special to ring in the new year with a blessing/prayer from such a wonderful husband/father!!

Looking forward to all the Lord has planned for us in 2014!!