Our Family Journal: December (except for Christmas)

we love December at our house! here are some reasons why this past month was great that have nothing really to do with Christmas:
(p.s. i wish my phone took better pictures. it is just so handy, but it makes me use my camera less and so many of these are low quality because of it =o[ )

Kent and I went on TWO dates to celebrate our ninth anniversary =o]

the first one i planned, and was to see our friend play with her band at a place called "hip kitty and fondue". it was a great show and we had never had fondue together so that was cool too.

the second one planned by kent was to see the second hobbit. it was fun to be out together, but we both agreed that the movie wasn't all that great. we will hold on until the next one =o] it was ironic because for our last anniversary date when we were in Illinois we went and saw the first hobbit. talk about bookending the year, right?

kent surprised me with a beautiful jewelery set which i totally wasn't expecting! (it almost made me feel bad about only writing him a love letter as i have always done.)

our special friend and used-to-be-neighbor Abe took the kids and i out to lunch at chuckie cheese. none of us had been there before and the kids had a great time because Abe's grand-kids are all in Pakistan and so he spoils them rotten every time he sees us =o]

natalie continues to love her schooling. it really is such a blessing for our family to have this opportunity! i asked her what she misses about traditional public school and she said she misses seeing her friends everyday, and going to the school library. so apparently we need to be more diligent with our playdates and going to the city library!

here she is with an art project using clay to "carve" a lion like the Babylonians did on their ziggurats, with cuneiform underneath =o]

natalie LOVES science! right now we are doing a meteorology unit and she and caleb are soaking it up! this is a homemade weather vein, one of six instruments we constructed for her to chart the weather for 12 days. it was actually pretty cool, even if it was a TON of work!

the fieldtrip for this month was ice skating. one of my friends babysat jenna and caleb so i could take natalie. she was excited but also nervous since i wouldn't be able to skate with her while holding seth.

one of the instructors tried to help her but there were like 50 other kids there and he couldn't just stay with her the whole time. so after her clinging to the edge unless someone was holding her hand they finally busted out...

the toddler helper!

and away she went haha! she was glad to be there, but also glad to go home =o] we love her.

i tried to look for a picture of just caleb but i couldn't find one. i realized it is because he is all about being a brother right now! from sun up to sun down he is with his siblings and he loves them to pieces! (sometimes natalie even tells him she "needs some privacy" lol) he and jenna have been playing together a lot more actually. and caleb is always the first one there if seth starts crying, giving suggestions of what he possibly could need. he is going to be one rockstar dad! we love him.

oh my jenna. this girl is something else =o] yes she learned to climb up the back wall.

yes she plays dress up daily

including the shoes of course

she is learning to blow her own nose and has used the potty chair two times successfully (and attempted 200 hundred other times- sometimes unsupervised the little sneaky snake!)

she is pretty much perfect(ly insane!) we love her.

and then there is seth who is growing in body and mind in leaps and bounds! he is a looker and a thinker for sure. but he also has no problem letting us know when he wants something. if the trend continues from our other children... oh my we are in for a wild ride!