November | 2012 | For my children

Sweet Abigail!

Abigail had a celebration for her fourth birthday on Sunday. We celebrated with a Little Golden Book theme of the Poky Little Puppy and The Shy Little Kitten. As she said, a puppy/kitty party.

I can’t believe you are four!

She absolutely loved the cake. The pictures match the characters of the puppy and kitty perfectly.

You were so excited to see the decorations of balloons, streamers, and books when you woke.
We have this tradition that daddy and I decorate when we put all babies to bed. We cover the tables, add some decorative bling, and stage balloons throughout parts of the house. The morning excitement of seeing our modest creation, lights each of your eyes like lanterns, as you shuffle through balloons scattered throughout the floor!

The really sweet thing about Abigail is she always expresses her appreciation. She thanked us out of the blue for decorating, the puppy and the kitty being on the cake, and for “making her special!”

Daddy is holding a small picture of you on your first birthday. My how you have grown!

Making a wish with Jackson and Elijah!

Love the gifts! You received books, puzzles, clothes, two pairs of boots, two dolls, and money.

Adding to her Calico Critter collection, a bunny family.

Your favorite from Papaw and Nana, your first big girl bike. A basket for your animals in the front and a carrier in the back for your baby.

It didn't take you long to understand the brakes and gain confidence. Slow down is all you hear from your mommy!

A happy brother with a new truck

Waiting their turn for a ride on the new bike!

Happy new baby sissy with a new pink phone

Making music for their birthday girl sister!

A VERY happy mommy and daddy! The story of your birth is a wonderful memory for us. Your daddy took me to the emergency room on Thanksgiving morning. As he pointed at my about to explode belly, he said he needed a doctor because I had swallowed a turkey! You joyfully joined our family at the same time many families were sitting down to enjoy their Thanksgiving Feast! You were precious!

Happy Birthday Sweet Baby Girl! You are AMAZING! Thank you for making our family so special!

November 27, 2012
Categories: Memories, Moments of Joy, Photos . . Author: Julie M Hall . Comments: Leave a comment

Being Thankful

I am so grateful for this family, their love, their health, and the incredible joy they daily bring!

We read many books about blessings, pilgrims, and the feast. This book has been a favorite here for a long time, but they especially have enjoyed the connection between the turkeys in the book and crafts we have done recently. The book is titled “Gobble, Gobble Crash, a Barnyard Counting Bash” by Julie Stiegemeyer. The words are an easy to read rhyme with colorful sweet pictures of all of the farm animals, and it has a repetitive flow that each of them enjoyed chanting throughout the story.
It begins as, “Fireflies danced in the dark summer sky, and crickets in the garden played their music in reply. The farm was very quiet as the night replaced the day, while ONE lonely mare nibbled softly on some hay.” It continues counting to ten with cows, cats, lambs, geese, chickens, mice, goats, pigs, and robins. Each of the mother animals are annoyed at the Gobble, Gobble, Crash noise the turkeys make as “Mama Hen grew angry, and she scolded loud and quick, Turkeys, can’t you calm yourselves, think of my SIX chicks!” It isn’t until the animals hear the farmer scream out the window about the gobbling turkey mess proclaiming, “I’m gonna have a turkey feast,” that all the animals together decided to save the turkeys hiding each of them among the barnyard families. The story finishes by counting backwards from ten as the farmer thinks he’s dreaming and the barnyard bash is enjoyed by all of the critters for the rest of the night!

We made these sweet turkey treats to go along with the flapping wild turkeys in the story and had chocolate icing everywhere!

Isabela was happy to hold her treat that Jackson and Abigail made her.

This was Jayden’s project from school. She had to disguise a turkey so that it wouldn’t be eaten for Thanksgiving! She started with the outline of the turkey and had to come up with the rest.

Way to go! She won first place!

ONE of Nana’s yummy turkeys for the feast!

Another chance to light candles for the Thanksgiving/Birthday Girl!

And, another chance to blow out trick candles!

Relaxing on this holiday.

Playing on the slide.

Eating lettuce from the garden.

I can’t decide who is the silliest.

Thankful to be together!

Silly Isabela….

November 25, 2012
Categories: Literature Favorites, Moments of Joy . . Author: Julie M Hall . Comments: Leave a comment

Fun in the Lanes

We had a chance to be a part of a special fun birthday celebration for cousin Jaydie at the Bowling Alley.

Jayden turned eight on Thursday! I can’t believe how fast this girl has grown. I remember the day she became the first baby to join our world, the piece of life that completely changed our family for the better! She was such a sweet baby and fun toddler. Today she is an amazing student full of spirited energy, loving, creative, and helpful. Your family appreciates your zest for life and your wonderful smile!

Jackson and Abigail wanted to skip the pizza so they could try bowling. To my surprise, they were flexible about taking off their shoes and putting on the shoes required to bowl.

Once she sat it down and pushed the ball, every time her arms would go over her head. She would leave them in the air until the ball reached the pins. So funny!

Jackson loved to hear is pins knock over. He now says he’s the best bowler in the family.

Cousin Elijah was pretty good too. I think they just liked seeing if they could carry the heavy balls.

Nana and Jayden having fun in the photo booth!

November 23, 2012
Categories: Uncategorized . . Author: Julie M Hall . Comments: Leave a comment

Busy Learning, Busy Living

Life is busy here with these three. They never stop moving, learning, or laughing.

Isabela has decided she wants to be like Jackson and Abigail and vacuum the floor. Sounds perfect to me, especially if she adds the fuzzy slippers, enthusiasm, and smile.

While playing outside one morning a blimp flew over the house..They were thrilled to watch it rise over the hill and glide above our house. By the time I was able to get inside for the camera I was unable to get a close up perfect shot.

I am so proud of this girl! Finally she has written all twenty six upper case letters A-Z!

A true milestone for Abigail before her fourth birthday!
Jackson was worried why I didn’t require her to put the letters on a line or to make her keep it more organized!

Jackson’s week was filled with checking out Christmas toys, asking tons of questions, playing off a boy’s energy, and completing much work.

He was really excited to realize he was at 900!

We took a week off from our math book to practice fact families. Last week it was the only concept that stumped him on his test. Luxury of homeschooling, we were able to slow down until he completely understood. Now we are both happy!

I had to add this copy of a reading lesson. These words he enjoyed and felt BIG completing. I showed him a time or so and amazingly he was able to read almost all of them feeling like he accomplished something really different because of the size of the words.

These are examples of the sentence breaks he practices every other reading lesson.

Another 100 in Spelling this week. The interesting thing about this lesson was I moved two of last weeks words, Tuesday and Wednesday, to this week. He flew with his regular list of words and five of the days of the week-last week and then ran out of steam with Tuesday/Wednesday…so we added it here and he was successful.

We finally finished packing our Samaritan’s Purse Operation Christmas Child boxes.

We had a lot of fun searching the stores with special goodies for these boxes.

Three boxes, one for a boy, two for a girl, and hopefully a good lesson in life about giving! We paid our donation online. In doing this, we will hopefully receive an email notification of what part of the world our boxes travel to. Sounds like a great opportunity for a geography lesson in the future!

Sitting in a baby doll stroller and loving being pushed around by her big sissy! Isabela enjoys sitting on our lap in the floor. This week was the first time she actually said, “sit down!” They are growing way too fast!

Finally, this week we learned that a shadow was created when an object blocks out the sun’s light. We had fun having a sunny day, shadow play at different times throughout the day watching our shadow change locations depending on where the sun was.

November 17, 2012
Categories: Abigail's Work, Isabela's Work, Jackson's Work . . Author: Julie M Hall . Comments: Leave a comment

Warmer Days of November! 11/3/12

Once Halloween passed we have been busy living life and enjoying all that is offered!

More memories enjoying a warm autumn day at Dollywood.

Our first family favorite when we enter the park is to ride on the saddled horses!

Although Isabela has ridden this ride many times before, today was the first day she actually was strapped safely on the horse and rode alone. She LOVED the up and down motion and to be riding beside her brother and sister like a big girl.

They were able to get close and touch the real horses from one of the demonstrations. The mother horse was twenty one and her baby was five months old. Jackson enjoys these trivia facts.

The one thing they wanted from the moment we parked were the big icee’s and the huge tub of popcorn.

They were satisfied! A successful trip because of the little things.

Daddy and Abigail on the flying elephants.

Abigail and I were able to finally talk Jackson into joining us on the teacups. He did enjoy the ride.

Sweetness enjoying the day with her daddy.

I could never tire of seeing these two hold hands from behind mostly because I know as time passes this will be one thing that will pass as well. However, I do wish I would have captured the view in front. The double stroller is loaded down. Today was the one day we let them also enjoy playing MANY games. The stroller has one sleeping baby, a Tennessee basketball, a Gators football, a cow, a pink pig, a huge stuffed dog as large as Isabela, a snake, a blow up dolphin, and a red shark! We looked funny exiting the park with our load!

Thumbs up for a family fun day!

November 15, 2012
Categories: Excursions, Memories, Photos . . Author: Julie M Hall . Comments: Leave a comment

We Loved Halloween! 11/1/12

What a fantastic day full of wonderful memories!

These three were excited from the moment they woke!

Cloudy and cold on the days before, once the sun came out on this day, they were over the pumpkin with happiness.

Happy to capture some pre-dress up moments with my bright eyed three!

A pig and a dinosaur, an unlikely combo!

The pig has the Dino by the tail!

Pink puppy Isabela

Daddy and Isabela enjoying treating in downtown Dandridge. Prior picture of Abigail, so confident with her curly tail, wand, crown, and wings. Love her enthusiasm!

Finally, he gets it! He actually had joy in approaching people and receiving their treats. He enjoyed the costume, walking with his sisters, and feeling good about talking to others.

It didn’t take Isabela long to see how the process of putting your bag up equals someone putting in a treat! We were really excited at her enjoyment as well as how she looked at every person that treated her!