For news since our last update, we bought a house! We talked to our landlords and they very nicely let us out of our lease early so we could purchase our own home a few blocks away, hehe. We are still in the same ward, closer to some friends and further away from others, and in a great neighborhood. Plus it is OURS!
Tom started July with a huge project... he tore all the carpet out of the house (we had 100%, bathroom and kitchen too, carpeting in the house we moved out of...) and refinished the hardwood floors. I still have a vacuum, but it is no longer used to vacuum carpeting.
Please email for pics if you have not seen the beautiful job he did yet. Or pictures of the house :) Or more details in general about our whole experience.
It is nice knowing we will live here long enough for it to be worth it to own our own home. Of course, we will grow out of it soon but have plans to either buy larger or build on in 4-6 years depending on what happens between now and then. At that time we will have one, two or three teens (when Michael is 16 Emilie will be nearly 13), and at least one more child (the one I'm carrying now, if not more!) and while we love this house, we will need a little more room! However, by that time we will also be 100% out of debt (other than the house) and able to make that choice better prepared.
I am just busy with the same old same old, homeschooling, being a wife and mom, Primary calling, and trying to keep up with the kids. Oh, and unpack. Sigh. Tom is still Ward Mission Leader (he has two baptisms the same weekend as Benjamin's!) and his work is also going well. As I type this he is in Gettysburg, PA for work. He doesn't travel much but at least it is for a good reason when he does.
Michael is almost 10 years old. His page is here. He is interested in
everything, with a love of writing stories and in his journal. He is
learning cursive and lots of other things that he is enjoying with
homeschooling. He is a Bear Scout now, but anxious to become a Webelos
Scout in November. I think he's glad Benjamin will be going with him to
Scouts now. He is a good example, most of the time. He is doing
mostly 4th grade work though science jumps all over the place with his talents.
They are excited to sell Popcorn for the next month (watch out!) and go to
"Spook-o-ree", a kind of one day Day Camp for Cub Scouts. We are also
getting ready to start the Braum's and Pizza Hut reading programs. He
loves to read still, and a new favorite is getting letters from many pen pals,
especially his friend Kayla in Colorado. They write nearly a letter a
week.
Benjamin is less than 2 weeks away from turning 8. His page is here.
His baptism will be October 7th at 7 pm. Please let us know if you can
make it, if you need a place to stay, or what plans you have. We'd love
for you to be here. I think he is mostly excited about becoming a Cub
Scout and going to scouts with Michael. I have his uniform all ready, and
he will actually start wearing it this Saturday as we start selling Popcorn for
their Pack. (please call or email if interested! We will be calling
you, otherwise, hehehe) He is in 2nd grade and doing very well with the
materials we have for him homeschooling. His reading is great, his math
skills are growing stronger daily, and he is such a help to me when he wants to
be. I will update his page when we get his 8 year old pictures taken.
He also loves writing and receiving letters, and his writing is improving
weekly. We still need to get him his birthday scriptures, but have not
been able to as yet.
Emilie is 6 1/2 years old. Her
page is here. She is busy
learning how to read. She is mostly doing 1st grade work and actually
loves her math work. She also loves writing letters but prefers to draw
pictures. She is still all girl, pink, princess, ballet, you name it. We
missed registration for ballet this year but we'll see what we can do next
spring. The classes are limited and there are just so many 6-7 year old
girls that want to do ballet... she might try soccer with the boys, instead.
She is hoping and praying for a baby sister, and for once, we have no idea and
this very well could be a baby girl. We told her we could paint her room
PINK if the baby is a girl, no problem there at all... but it would have to be
half blue or other pastels if the baby is a boy. She had her first dance
recital in May and loved every minute of it. We have videos of it
uploaded, but I will update with links. Or email me if I forget :)
Nathanael is 3 1/2 years old now. His page is here. He knows all his ABC's,
numbers, can count to 100, will tell you if a color is aquamarine or marigold,
plus all the "normal" colors, tells me when we see octagons as well as other
shapes, tells the doctor she is going to use an otoscope to look in his ear
(yesterday with his ear infection) and loves to talk, and tell you things over,
and over, and over again. He loves Blue's Clues, Magic School Bus, Cyber
Chase on PBS (with his older siblings) and playing with Samuel too. He
corrects Samuel and quizzes him on things he thinks Samuel should know.
Poor Samuel isn't sure what to think but loves being applauded by Nathanael.
Nathanael is sleeping on a bunk bed with the big boys now, on a bottom bunk.
When Samuel is big enough he will get the other bottom bunk and Benjamin will
move to a top bunk. Nathanael loves Nursery but I think he will do very
well in Primary next January in Sunbeams.
Samuel is 20 months old now. His page is here. (I need to update it) He is a busy, busy little boy. He runs all over our house, pretends to "swim" on our hardwood floors, talks his own language but is starting to be understood. He shares a room with Emilie for the moment. He knows all his body parts that he can point to, nearly, can say "Mill" for milk, "war" for his water bottle, says No very well, and Mom's with the rest of them. He is also a very shy child. Just last Sunday he saw a couple that sometimes watches the kids (we really appreciate them! that's how we house hunted!). He turned around and ran, but not before hiding behind me, whispering NO NO NO and shaking his head. He's not much on people other than his family. He can also say Ball, car, uhoh, out, bird, duck, blocks, box, and me. (and lots of other words) He signs more and sometimes please but isn't interested in learning more like Nathanael was. He can make sounds for airplanes, pigs, cows, monkeys, dinosaurs, lions and other various animals. He has sort of nicknames for the older kids but I haven't sorted them all out yet... He tries to identify letters with Nathanael, but all he can manage so far are O's and E's. Sometimes I's. He also tries to count. He loves to color in his high chair while we work on homeschooling.
Baby 7 is making him/herself known and felt daily. The page is here. I just updated it today with all the latest. He/she does not really have names yet, we're open to suggestions. While we have some ideas, maybe there are some we haven't thought of yet. This is our first child we've had to come up with boy and girl names for. While we did not know ahead of time with Michael, I knew he was a boy for other reasons, and the rest we have found out through ultrasound, whether confirmed by the experts or not. This ultrasound was just not definitive either way. The baby will actually be born as the same hospital and delivered by the same doctor as Samuel, while we've delivered two at the same hospital before, Ben's doctor was not in time for his birth... Our ward will have 8 babies born in 3-4 months... this baby will be number 4 for the ward. Exciting! This is not normal... as before this fall, Samuel was one of the most recent babies born here, lol.
The "new" pictures site is here, but I
am not sure when I will update it. I'm trying! It should be in the
next few days.
I hope everyone else is doing well too!
Have a great day!
Please come visit us! The only time we really need a warning is during
November. Call, write, or email. HUGS!
Tabitha, Tom, and family
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