Jonny loves his walker!

Jonny got an early Christmas gift from Grandma & Grandpa! It looks like he just might like it :)

Helpful Sister

Quinny loves being a big sister and helping her baby brother whenever possible!

Kids' Christmas Lists

Dav helped Dodo and Quinny by writing out their Christmas lists. It was pretty cute listening to them talk about what they want :)

Haircut!

Dodo finally got a haircut! A little teasing by his sister today, who was telling him he looked like a girl, made him pretty adamant about wanting to go through with the haircut :) He looks so handsome with his new hairstyle!

7 months old!

Jonny is already 7 months old and as sweet as can be!

The Height of the Ridiculous

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Dav finished memorizing another poem from level 2 of "Linguistic Development Through Poetry Memorization." It is called "The Height of the Ridiculous" by Oliver Wendell Holmes.

Weekly Highlights: Tea Parties, Settlers, and more!

It's been a long time since I've done weekly updates, but I thought I'd just post some of our  highlights of the past week! 

The boys are playing with their knights and homemade castle.  Empty cardboard boxes are sure to be made into something around here!

My little helper, Dodo, always willing to help in the kitchen!

My tough little ninjas!

Grandma surprised us with a new car seat and stroller for the baby (how awesome!) and Quinny has been testing them out :)  I told her that these are for when her baby brother arrives and she said, "No, Quinny baby!" while pointing to herself.

She loves the new stroller!

We played our first game of Settlers of Catan with Davin and it was so much fun!  Not surprisingly, he caught on right away and he is a little obsessed with the game now.  I unwittingly won the game that night, but I don't feel too bad about it since it'll be one of the few times I win against this kid!  Our second game was tonight and he annihilated Mommy and Daddy..haha.  

Such a fun, addicting game!

Davin working on his Bible Study book: God's Great Covenant, Old Testament 1.  He was learning about the patriarchs and said, "Mama, do you think they got the word 'patriarch' from the Latin word 'patria'?"  I am constantly amazed at how Latin relates to everything else we are studying!  By the way, 'patria' means 'fatherland' in Latin and we also get 'paternal' and 'patriot' from it.  I am so happy that Latin is his favorite subject, as I am thrilled to be learning it along with him :)

Davin's Bible study book.

Here's Quinny painting for the first time with the do-a-dot sponge paint markers.  She loved it!

The do-a-dot markers.

I had a nice little afternoon tea time with the boys on Friday, and they just loved drinking out of the fancy china!  Davin and I had Russian Tea, while Dorian opted for grape juice.  We listened to Felix Mendelssohn's Songs Without Words, looked at a painting by Edouard Manet called The Railway, and talked about manners a little bit.  

Our picture study book.

This is a picture that Dorian colored from Little Annie's Art Book of Etiquette & Good Manners.  It's a sweet little book :)

After our tea time, Davin did an art project to go along with learning about Manet.  It was a still-life painting using melted crayons as the paint.  It was supposed to resemble the Impressionist style.  I did the project as well and let me just say that his turned out much better! 

Davin's finished painting.

The leftover melted crayon hardened into these cute little crayon discs.

Fun art projects to go along with learning about great artists.

And here is our sweet girl, having a little tea party by herself (don't worry, we also have tea parties all together!)  She just loves pouring the water from the teapot to various cups and back again.  When she spills she says, "Uh oh, made a mess!" and fetches a towel to wipe it up.  It's pretty cute :)

Morning Devotions with the Children

In the morning after breakfast, the children and I stay at the table or sit on the couch for a short time of devotions together. It's a nice way to start the morning, by hiding God's Word in our hearts!  We're currently reading Big Thoughts for Little People by Kenneth Taylor.  This book has such sweet illustrations and with so many details to hold their attention. It is in "A, B, C" format, so for example, the first page has :

"A is for Asking.  We ask when we pray.  God's happy to answer and help us each day."

Then there is a paragraph to read that discusses what is happening in the picture, some questions to answer, and a Bible verse to learn.  We have the older edition, pictured below, and I think it is so much sweeter than the new edition!

After our little devotion, we sing a hymn from Hymns for a Kid's Heart, volume 1, by Bobbie Wolgemuth and Joni Eareckson Tada.  I just love this series!  Though Dori (age 3) and Quinn (almost 2) are not learning all the words, they still know the tune and a few words as we repeat them often enough.  There's nothing sweeter than hearing my little ones sing, "Holy, holy, holy!" Davin (age 7) loves to sing with me and we work together to memorize the hymns one verse per day and also reviewing what we've learned so far.  The included CD is very well done and we enjoy listening to it any time of the day!

Our Blessing

Our 4th blessing (and 3rd boy!) is due in just over two months.  Every time I look at this picture from my latest ultrasound it just takes my breath away.  We can't wait to meet you, sweet boy!

"I praise you, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made. Wonderful are your works; my soul knows it very well." (Psalm 139:14)

Cheerio Bird Feeder

The kids made a Cheerio bird feeder a few days ago to hang out on the tree in our front yard.  We just love watching birds from our living room, but we have had some bad luck with squirrels destroying our bird feeders!  This delicate little project fared no better, but the kids had fun making it!  All they did was string Cheerios onto pipe cleaners and then formed them into linking circles.  

Here's Quinnlyn feeding some Cheerios to Davin.  She strung a few Cheerios on the pipe cleaner, but decided that eating them was much more enjoyable :)

Davin obviously has the longest attention span to complete this project (even though it only took a few minutes!) 

The finished project:

My Helper

I'm thankful today for my sweet boy who loves to help out (especially with cooking!) 

Modest Monday

As a frequent reader of "The Modest Mom" blog, I was inspired by her new "Modest Monday" series and decided to post a picture of an outfit I've worn this week.  I'm a few days late in posting, but I'll try to keep up with this :)

I'm currently 28 weeks pregnant with baby #4, a boy!  I don't wear skirts every day, but I do love them and usually wear them several days a week.  The skirt in this picture is one I just made last week, from a pattern that can be found here.  I used a light-blue, cotton, old baby blanket of my first-born son for the maternity panel, which made me a little emotional bringing back all those memories :)  I was quite busy sewing last week, as I made two maternity skirts!  I'm wearing black leggings under the skirt for some extra warmth, and the grey boots certainly aren't the cutest and most stylish, but I've worn them so much this winter because they are so warm and comfortable!  The shirt is from Motherhood Maternity, and I was pleasantly surprised to find some shirts there that aren't low-cut :)  So there you are!  I don't feel very "cute" this pregnancy, as I started out weighing considerably more than with my last one, but I still try not to look frumpy even when I feel that way.  Some days that's easier said than done, and I pull out my comfy velour pants, though :)