The Simple Things

"A" and I went to the thrift store today and found this old type hammer toy. I bought it for CG pretty sure she would love it. She did and so did the other littles! I got some cute clips of them playing with this together this afternoon!! Glad I have this on video for my memory bank.

Beautiful Gift

This is a gift my G brought to me on Friday after taking the trash out he found this on the bush. He has appreciated flowers since he was a LITTLE boy (reminds me of his Grandpa J). Anyway, he put it in water and brought it to me. Very Sweet. Thankful for him and the cheerfulness he brings to our home.

G is a serious student of history especially military history. He loves to tell me what he learns and has expanded my knowledge from his stories! He told me yesterday after telling me more stories that he noticed the successful military men were the ones who were kind, humble, or those with character was the jist  . . as compared to and he named men I have never heard of in military history that were full of arrogance. The Bible should be our most important text book but history also teaches a lot and I am glad he pays attention to the lessons of history.

He and I were laughing the other day because in one of his classes from Veritas Press (we love Veritas Press classes) the teacher was lecturing about friendships in a certain literary classic. Anyway, he told the story about he and his two kids and they were all play sword fighting. His daughter was the "good guy" and he and his son were the "bad guys". All of a sudden the teacher's 6 year old son turned on him and started fighting against him! He asked his son why since they were on the same team and his son's reply was "bad guys don't have friends!" So true!! We got a good laugh from that!!!

Monticello

 The day after Thanksgiving we went up to Monticello to see Thomas Jefferson's home.

We REALLY enjoyed this trip. It was a BEAUTIFUL day and very interesting history. 

We LOVE history!!!
R's favorite room was a room with big windows and a desk that Jefferson would sit at and would write letters. He spent about 4 to 5 hours a day in that room. He was an extraordinary individual with writing the Declaration of Independance at age 33!!!

Beautiful day with great memories. We were concerned about the little ones making it through the tour at the end of a long day but prayer was answered and they made it. I kept taking B to the windows during the tour and telling her to look for rabbits!:-)

 Thomas Jefferson decided what he wanted on his grave stone. Interestingly, he did not have mentioned that he was President at one point!

 The garden was absolutely BEAUTIFUL due to the setting. Monticello is on top of a hill and it is so beautiful to look around the garden and see down on the surrounding area. The only garden that I have seen that rivaled this one in beauty is Beatrix Potter's garden in the Lake District in England. The Lake District is as close to what I have seen to heaven on earth. But this too was so beautiful.

 We did have to wait a LONG time for our tour but the kids had fun playing around and seeing the surrounding area.

Sword fighting between brothers.

Our Thanksgiving

 The above 2 pictures were taken on the day before Thanksgiving as we were having

our school Thanksgiving party. We read "Squanto" by Eric Metaxes, watched "Charlie Brown's Thanksgiving" which we loved, and watched a history DVD on the first Thanksgiving by a children's history production. Leading up to this day we read "Voyage to Freedom" by David Gay which we have now read at least 4 times! We read some pieces out of Bradford's "Of Plymouth Plantation". It was extremely inspirational to read from chapter 9 and a little past about the Pilgrim's response to hardship and sickness. How they cared for there own and those that persecuted them.

 Thanksgiving day was relaxed and wonderful. Just what we needed!!!

We took some of the littles (Big sister wanted to come too) to the playground and

they had a grand time on a perfect weather day!!

 Big sister to the rescue

 Adventurous B

 Above is our Thanksgiving meal which Daddy made rib roast, mashed potatoes and gravy, and I made our traditional Cranberry Fluff Salad.

Even though this year has truly been a year of hardship we have much to thank our Heavenly Father for that the list could go on and on.

We had Kiya and Reebah which for our meal showed up as

an indian and a pilgrim for our special meal!!!

Battle of Fredricksburg

The house behind the kids is the home of Mary Washington College's president. It overlooks the battlefield. The kids are sitting on the ORIGINAL wall of the battle which we did NOT realize until after the picture the was taken and we saw a sign that the wall was not to be touched. That was a big oops:-(

 Same house with absolutely BEAUTIFUL grounds!!

 Reading a battlefield history sign.

 The little kids enjoyed shuffling through the leaves.

I wish I could have captured the beauty of this Battle of Fredricksburg cemetary but the light was so low I really couldn't capture it. It was the most beautiful cemetery I have ever been too. The story of this battle is horrid with I believe somewhere around 13,ooo perishing. The Confederates were up on the hill and it really was a slaughter for the Union. During this battle "Burnsides" wanted to ride out with his men and in essence let himself get shot because he knew he had made a mistake and his men were slaughtered. Other officers prevailed upon him not to go. More sad stories but I will not relay all here. The Civil War was a necessary but horrid time in our nations history.

"A" turns 12 (November 5th)

 It is very hard to believe that "A" is now 12 years old!! All of a sudden my life seems to be speeding up and I see my oldest kiddos growing up. "A" almost 2 years ago now went through a very tough surgery that I have been told is one of the 2 most painful surgeries there are. She was having a birth defect corrected. That surgery was very rough not only for her but for her mommy. I will NEVER forget when she was waking up from the surgery in EXTREME pain and scared about her breathing and helping her through that first night. Something I never want to relive but I wouldn't change it in the world that I could be there for her and remind her of her Heavenly Father's care. I know that experience is all part of her Heavenly Father's plan for her and her ministry for Him.

"A"is a very humble girl that never draws attention to her accomplishments. I am so thankful for her. She is truly a gem from above.

 R got her a speaker for her ipad from the $5 store and she loved that!

 Big brother G gave her a HUGE package of NERDS 

for which she was very happy with.

We got her leather teepee boots which are basically a moccasin.

"A" loves indian items. We also got her a necklace that says "radiant" and 

the place that sold it said that it was to remind people that all that look to Him (God)

will live radiantly. I thought that would be a great reminder.

She really enjoyed her birthday which basically was celebrated 3 days. Thursday of her birthday her Jr. High girls Bible study in the neighborhood celebrated with brownies and ice cream, Friday our family celebrated, Saturday Daddy took her out for a steak dinner. She loved it all!

Baptism of R and C

This was an exciting day for our family. Our church had a BIG service outside at a local park. R and C had weeks before decided that they wanted to be baptized and we were thrilled about that. Baptism has nothing to do with salvation but what it does show is a desire to identify with Christ and a desire to follow in obedience to Christ's words after salvation.

We REALLY appreciate our pastor and his preaching.

Swim Meet

 This was R's first meet ever which was a great learning experience. G won first in 50 Free and was happy about that. The kids are getting better and better at swimming. "A" was not apart of this meet as she had piano festival to play at on Saturday and I forget that she could have participated on Friday. Oh, well another time. If you watch the above videos YES, I do cheer for my kiddos. R told me I could cheer for G (knowing how I cheer) then he said "Well, if you want to you can cheer for me" Ha! He wanted Mommy cheering!:-)

J wanted to sing to his sisters last night . . .

Usually big Sis sing to the little girls before bed but last night J wanted to sing and he did a GREAT job and the girls LOVED it!:-)

The Littles Keeping Themselves Active