First of January Photo Dump

Anya turns 15!!!

 

Happy Birthday, Anya!!! My 4th daughter and 6th child is now 15! I was pregnant with Anya when I started this blog. Of course a lot has changed in that decade and a half. We had two really big moves and 7 more babies. But Anya has always been a little light through it all. 

Anya's current loves in her life are the same as Rachel's. She loves the Manga series, "Promised Neverland" and she loves homemade hot cocoa. 

For her birthday, Anya asked for ice cream cake roll and pizza burgers.  Ice cream cake roll has been a family favorite for almost a decade. I had to learn to make one that suited our tastes. Pizza burgers are something the kids made up during their lego role play game. Someone's characters started selling pizza burgers. They're hamburgers that have two slices of pizza exchanged for the bun. And they're surprisingly good. 

Anya is currently my very best homeschool student. She does all of her work in a timely manner and she never complains and I think she is actually learning things. She also leaves all of the drama to Joseph and Rachel and never cries or fights about having to do school. 

Anya is a really good writer. I love reading her sentences that she writes with her vocabulary words. They're often a paragraph because she has more than one sentence to say. 

Anya and Rachel have developed a really close relationship over the last two years. I love that they have each other. I love that all except for my caboose, my kids came in pairs. 

Anyway, Happy birthday to Anya. Your  beautiful and kind, intelligent and good!

Cute Eliza

 

I asked Eliza if she could say "Eliza" and she immediately went and got her baby doll and showed it to me. 

Conversation with Sam

 

I was picking up the toys not too long after I kicked the kids off from computer games. Sam came over and began picking up with me. He asked if he could do a chore to earn more computer time. I told him that if I gave out too much computer time that Dad would get mad and simply ground everyone. Sam understood that and continued to help me pick up and separate the toys. He then said, "I am good at this." Then he again asked if he could do a chore for computer time. I talked to him about how he needs to learn to do things that are not computer games. I suggested reading books, playing with his toys, playing games with his siblings, etc. Sam piped in and said, "I play games. Can I earn time for computer?"

I then decided that I needed to give him more specific ideas, and I said, "You can be the dad and Susan can be the mom and you could play house together."

Sam replied, "I think I better build with blocks."

Anya as a Little Girl

 My sister in law, Rosanne, sent some cute pictures of Anya from years ago on Anya's 15th birthday. Here they are. 

Park Day

 

Gideon Tales

 

Last Night Gideon came to me for help getting dressed. 
I said, "No, you can get yourself dressed. You are a big boy."
He said, "I am Batman!"
I replied, "Do you really think that Batman needs help getting dressed."
Gideon said, "I am Baby Batman!"

Tonight, Gideon wanted to help make dinner. I told him no because he was too little and could not do it. I said that he should at least be able to get himself dressed if he wants to be able to help make dinner. Gideon stood up on the counter and took off his underwear. I stopped that and told him that we all wanted those parts of his body covered up. Then Gideon got off the counter and said, "Mom, watch me. Mom, watch me." He then proceeded to take his clothes off and put them back on perfectly. He then said, "See, I am a big boy," so I let him help with dinner and with making cookies. 

We got a really good deal on a large area carpet ($25) to put in the main area of the living room because the floor is wearing out and I would like to extend the life of it. It happens to be a nice thick shag carpet and we have never had those. But the little kids are loving it. After Gideon had dumped out all of his toy kitchen toys and played with them, he wanted a clean and nice carpet again, so he informed me that the house was messy again and it was time to clean it up.