Do you see what I see?

If you were Baby Raar or Baby 'Unkin, what would you see?

Boys and girls with big smiles ...

Chalk pictures by artist extraordinaire ...
Story time with Daddy ...

Special projects for special people ...

Creative play ...

And plenty of cuddles with the "little" guy ...

It is worth commemorating ...

that this is my 400th post.

Just thought you'd want to know.

:o)

School Days

It's hard to believe, but school has begun again! :o) Last week we met teachers at the respective Open Houses, ...

And got all our new school supplies carefully tucked away, ready for a bright and early start on the first day ... thanks for the beautiful coat rack, Uncle Pat!! It works perfectly for all of our bookbags!

Special pics for a special day ...

Hannah's first day of K5 ...

Peter's first day of 'K3' ...

And Matthew along for the ride ...

Although we may homeschool someday, for this year it seems best for Mommy to continue working part-time. Everybody's settling into the school routine very well and we praise the Lord for a good first week!

A Big Boy

Happy four months, Matthew!

At four months, Matthew weighs 17 lbs 9 ounces (91.58 percentile) and is 28-1/4 inches long (99.8 percentile). He's a BIG boy! :o)

He's become quite interested in books--eating them being rather a favorite activity. ;o)

He's definitely happier on his tummy these days!
And his smiles are as big as ever ...

We love you, Matthew, and can't imagine life without you!

Updates

Well, it's one of those "catch up" posts again, but that's all right ... at least we're "catching up!" :o)

Matthew is growing like a weed! Haven't weighed him recently, but at 15 weeks, 6-month clothes are about to be packed away. He's such a sweetie! He has a smile to melt your heart, and he's becoming much more interested in toys and "playing."

We need to give him more opportunities for "tummy time." He does fantastic sitting up in his Bumbo seat or exersaucer, but isn't quite as strong yet at pushing up on his tummy.

Lots of drool and lots of funny faces these days!We're still trying to find the right combination of lotions, etc., to help his dry skin. His scalp especially is quite dry and he tends to rub it vigorously, so we keep "mittens" (AKA "socks") on his hands when he's sleeping or just "sitting." Thankfully it hasn't deterred his cheerful spirit! :o)

We're having fun exploring new textures together!

Hannah and Peter are still best buds ...

and partners in crime! ;o) Umm, is that what the sandbox lid is for???

Hannah was privileged to hand out bubbles at one of her Sunday School teacher's wedding recently.

And she's as into crafts as ever! We've also been working through the book Teach Your Child to Read in 100 Easy Lessons. It's been GREAT! I only wish we had started it about a year ago. She's been "reading" lots of words for quite a while (couple years?), but it was sight reading--she'd memorize words and was able to pick them out wherever she saw them. If she didn't know it by sight, she'd guess based on the first letter. This book is helping me teach her how to sound words out. It's really exciting! :o) Classic comment though: "My head knows the sounds, but sometimes my mouth gets confused."

She continues to be a big helper with Matthew, and recently made a quite perceptive observation: "Matthew likes me more than his paci, and he likes feeding more than me." :o)

This particular afternoon, she pawned an old cooking magazine off of me so she could do a craft. As she was working on it, she commented, "I love glue and paper." Yes, Hannah, we've all figured that out by now! :o)Here's her masterpiece--all of her favorite food pictures:

Peter has grown and matured a lot in the last couple months. He is talking. He's counting. He's helping and obeying.

We finally crossed the PT hurdle! Praise the Lord!!!! :o) When all's said and done, he was actually faster and easier than Hannah, but he still gave his Mommy some rather stressful days.

Being outside with Daddy, using tools, cutting down trees ... these are all of his favorite things. The afternoon that Hannah did her collage, Peter claimed the emptied box from a package we'd received so that he could use his drill:

And was quite pleased to get real wood from Daddy later that evening ...

HUGE praise! We found a set of solid wood bunk beds for $200 on Craig's List!! They're unfinished, so we'll be able to stain them to match the kids' dresser. What a blessing!

We heard a loud crack in one of our recent summer storms ... the next day we noticed one of our neighbor's trees leaning at quite the angle over our driveway. Peter was very glad to assist Daddy in using the tractor to pull it down! :o)

Mommy supervised ... ;o)

Thanks again for loaning us your tractor, Grandpa! We've used it lots and lots!

And that's about where things are at for now ... many many blessings in the midst of some unmentioned challenges ... we're learning much!

:::

"In every thing give thanks: for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus concerning you."

1 Thess. 5:18

:o)