the April 8th, 2004 edition...
Hi! I hope this finds everyone well and happy.
There really isn't anything new here... well, kind of, I guess :)
The weather here in Pennsylvania keeps alternating between winter and
spring. I suppose we'll get to spring sooner or later.
Yesterday was a wonderful spring day. Today is a cold rainy
day. Hopefully this weekend will be a spring weekend, with nice
weather for Emilie's 4th birthday party. The house is nearer to
an unpacked state... with the basement and Mom and Dad's rooms being
the worst as far as boxes go, and the kids' rooms, kitchen, and front
room looking great and like we've lived here forever. I still
need to put up posters and miscellaneous pictures to make it really
feel more like "home". We're enjoying our days outside, and still
have fun inside in our basement fun/school/media room, with our other
rooms having the books and quieter toys. (oh, and beds, couches,
bookshelves... clothes, all that stuff)
Tom is busy with work, but still finds time for family (since that's
what it's all about, after all). What is really cool is that one
of his stores is only 10 miles from here. The kids get a thrill
out of going shopping and seeing Dad working! You can also find
him helping Nathanael try walking, talking legos or computer games with
Michael and Benjamin, or reading Princess stories to Emilie. He
also cooks, cleans (once in a while) and even does laundry at
times. (he's taken!) We're both in our branch choir and
this coming Easter Sunday, we're giving talks about the Atonement and
the Resurrection. I am still attempting to help out at
Parenthoodplace.com boards and chat, keeping up with a 1st/2nd grader,
a Kindergartener and a Preschooler (all with the same teacher,
unbelievably hehe) (ok, I know you all know we homeschool), and a
pre-walker. We all learn together and have a blast. I am
trying to be better at keeping our website up to date, and as spring is
coming we will also work on outdoor upkeep, our usual garden, and we
will probably be trying our hand at carpentry and building a stair
railing.
Michael is 7 years old, and is enthralled with Star Wars, Star Wars
legos, and learning anything about Star Wars or Legos. He writes
Star Wars stories, reads Star Wars books, checks out Star Wars
websites, and sometimes even watches Star Wars movies. (along
with enacting new Star Wars themes in our home) He loves building
anything out of legos or Duplos (then Nathanael can help). He
also likes reading Harry Potter with Mom. Generally, he likes
reading and loves reading to his brothers and sister. Michael has
been enjoying Pennsylvania, our new house, new branch, new friends, but
still misses the friends he left behind. He is excited about
turning 8 being baptized this year, trips we will be taking, and new
places to go.
He is a big help with whatever Mom asks him to do. His site is here.
Benjamin, 5 years old, also has an interest in Star Wars, which is
followed closely by his continued fascination with superheroes.
He wants to learn how to read and is well on his way. He is
mainly working on Kindergarten level concepts, but also tries out some
of our 1st grade computer games and does quite well. He loves
helping out in the kitchen with meals, but, like Michael, does what is
asked of him usually without complaint. Benjamin is in the same Primary
class as Michael and does very well in Primary, showing Emilie how to
act as well. He is now on the top of the bunk bed, can ride a
bike (with training wheels) and is growing taller every day.
Benjamin also loves legos and Duplos, helping Emilie with her dolls,
and is still wonderful with Nathanael, helping, playing, cheering up,
anything. He is a great big brother. His site is here.
Emilie turns 4 this weekend, and hopefully we are having a party with a
few of our new friends. She loves Princesses, pink, Primary,
computer games, dress up, dressing up herself, dressing dolls, and
helping Mom. She is never happier than when she is feeling like
she is a great help in the kitchen or cleaning up our house. She
still has red curly hair and is very happy when she looks pretty.
We just finished updating her site here. She is growing
taller every day! She knows all her ABCs and a lot of numbers,
and wants to be big and read words like Michael and Benjamin. She
loves her bookshelf right next to her bed and I find her giggling over
a book when she should be sleeping. When she wakes up in the
morning, there is usually a pile of books IN her bed.
(sigh) She loves beanie babies and her favorites are her old
friend KeeKee, with new ones Little Lamb and Carnation, a cat.
Her Aunt Ariana gave her those.
Nathanael just turned ONE in March. We put his cake and family
party pics on a separate page, if you haven't seen them click here. He sure liked
his cake! He is getting so big. We turned around his car
seat (which is what you are supposed to IF a child is both over 20 lbs
and over a year) so he faces frontwards. He is not sure what he
thinks of that. This is the first of our children that has hit 20
lbs at a year! He is also very tall- he can reach things the
other children only dreamed of at a year. He can climb on
chairs, the rocking chairs, uses small chairs to get onto bigger ones,
climbs the ladder to the bunkbeds, gets on Emilie's bed, climbs on
boxes, goes for the stairs as quickly as possible, and gets on the
stool in the kids' bathroom to see what's in the sink. Anything
new catches his attention, and the big thing this week that he noticed
is the Happy Birthday banner in the kitchen that he points to every
meal time. He doesn't say much yet but can say Mama, Dada, Gaga,
Baba and Hhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhheeeeeeeeeeyyyyyyyyyyy. Nathanael is a
very musical child and sings, directs (yes, I'm serious, he waves his
arms around just like the choir director whenever music is playing,
people are singing OR he wants us to sing to him.) and hums and
dances. He is also is a very observant little boy, with our
favorite occurence this week being when he looked around as we were
praying and folded his arms, peeking back up to see if he was doing it
right. (Tom and I happened to see this).
His site is here.
We have a lot of room and live closer to a big town now, so please feel
welcome to come visit. Just give us a heads up!
We are about 3 1/2 hours from Washington DC (our temple now), an hour
and a half (maybe) from Pittsburgh, 2 hours from Palmyra, New York, and
of course between 5 minutes and 4 hours away from anything in
Pennsylvania. We are planning a trip to Illinois and
Missouri in May, for a wedding reception and to see some church sites,
and then a trip in July to the Hill Cumorah Pagaent in New York, and
other sites around PA and OH.
Please visit or email or call! We're all here!
HUGS
Thank you all for your love and support.
Tabitha, Tom, Michael, Benjamin, Emilie, and
Nathanael
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