New Tooth, New Word, Busy Baby! {Mia}

Mia has been a busy busy baby this week.  On Tuesday my Facebook status compared her to the naughty kitty in the book Cookie's Week because every time I turned around she'd made another mess.

She'd upturned a 1/2 full humidifier tank, dug through a trash and more.  Every time I turned around she was busily into something or doing something more daring that I wished she would.
She tested the playroom boundary by sitting as close to the edge of the area rug as possible...

...and pulled on the towels to open the oven door (it wasn't on but the towels still got taken down and the gate is going up to keep her out when I'm not in there).

The week continued in fashion on Wednesday morning when she fell off the bed and gave herself a terrible instant bruise.

The head crash obviously didn't make her any less daring on her puppy.

I ruthlessly tried to tame her.  Or at least keep up with her.  I even used the power of television which is a rare rare thing for a baby in our home.  (Someone please tell me 20 minutes of Baby Signing Time won't damage her growing brain?)

Today she sprouted up with a new tooth! (#7)...

If you can ignore the messy food face, the tooth is to the right of her middle set on the bottom as you are looking at her.  It's just barely there but it's through!

 Ever tried to get a picture of a new short tooth on a busy, messy, silly little girl?

Besides the new tooth, little mini decided to bless Daddy with a new word tonight!

He's been asking her regularly to say Dada for about three months.  Tonight at supper when he asked she just looked straight at him and said it...with a grin...an ornery one.  

She's becoming a fast crawler and pulling up to everything.  I finally went and got out the walking push toy for her.  Surprisingly she was very timid with it (for now) but is enjoying playing with it with the wheels locked.

Have I told you how much we love and enjoy this cookie and how much spice she is bringing to our lives?

Outdoor Recess

It's 40-50* in JANUARY!  While it's confusing and unreal, we sure are enjoying the time outdoors to drive away the winter blues!

Today I told the big kids to get ready for recess and, quick as a wink, Ameliya went to the door...

...as if she was saying, "me too, Mama, me too!!"

She loved being one of the big kids on her bike on the sidewalk!

She even scooched around a little!

The big kids humored baby sis and played out front with her before going to the back yard.  

I swept the mud off that sidewalk more times than I can count before giving up.  Mud was a small price to pay for happy kids!!

YES!

We have been exposed to sickness again (and again and again and again) and are being as proactive as possible each time.  Yesterday Xavier started whining and said his head hurt and had a tickly cough.  While it's quite likely it's the weather that's continually changing (50* this week in January!), we gave him Emergen-C, his daily dose of Elderberry and then I wanted him to take some olive leaf.  Olive leaf has been great to kick sickness for us all winter and I truly think it's helped keep us well when taken as a preventative.  I usually open up the capsules and put them into applesauce or something for the kids to eat.  I won't lie - it's pretty gross.  This morning Xavier just really didn't want to eat it.  So we offered him the capsules and a glass of milk. 

And...he did it!

He walked a little taller after he swallowed those!  So proud!

Sunday Field Trip at the Farm

My folks have some new "toys" at their house so the children had a "field trip" of sorts after Sunday lunch yesterday.

The camper is very nice and Mom and Dad are looking forward to using it in Sturgis this summer.  Xavier is hoping to squeeze his own camping trip in, too!  He inspected every nook, cranny and cabinet and has his top bunk picked out in the toy hauler room.  Natalee is very satisfied with the bottom bunk!

The new tractor was also a ton of fun to check out!  Xavier is enthralled with the spinning seat so it can be driven two directions.  

 

The tractor is already muddy from scooping out the silage pit!

It was a beautiful day to be outside playing!

Co-op Kick-off

Friday morning brought two VERY excited scholars to our house as it was kick-off for our spring semester of co-op classes. 

Natalee is in ballet (and I'm teaching - yee hee!), and Xavier is doing Lego club.  I LOVE that their classes are at the same time so after the hour and a half we all go home together.

 

Mike and I are also teaching a monthly Art Appreciation class.  Saturday we taught Pablo Picasso and, focusing on his blue period, we taught a lesson in color mixing.  We used a base color and taught them to add white to make a tint, black to make a shade, and other colors to mix into new colors.  The children had a really good time.  I was especially proud of the little boy who used his white and black to make gray.  Xavier never did get around to painting an actual picture as he was too focused on mixing colors.  Every few minutes he would exclaim "hey, come look at what ____ and ____ make when you mix them together!!"

 

We so love homeschooling our children, but it is very fun to get together with other like-minded families and let the children learn in a group once in awhile!  We feel very blessed to have both options!

Southern Gospel!

On Saturday night an old friend of Mike and I's came into town to do a concert for our church.  We know B.J. from way back in our old NYR days - he always brought life to the group when he camped with us!  And music...beautiful music!

Ameliya loved the music and the big kids have been listening to B.J.'s CD at naps and bed for the last two nights.

What a fun night - so blessed to see how B.J. has grown in his passion and to hear what Christ is doing in his life!

9 Month Pictures {Ameliya}

Ameliya turned 9 months on 12-29-14 and I've been waiting for so glorious sun to come through our big dining room windows to snap a few pictures of her.  Finally, the last few days we've seen some glorious sun, so today we took a half hour and made some memories...

 

 Her blue eyes are so shiny.

She's sitting in Daddy's rocking chair.  She loved rocking it!  So much that I could barely get her to sit or stand for any pictures.

 Oh, she's just precious.

 Six shiny teeth!

She loves her Kira dolly so much!  Kira was on the floor when we started pictures and she couldn't be distracted from her so she ended up in quite a few shots.