Snow In October

On October 12 we woke up to the ground covered in snow.  When you live in South Dakota this can happen in October.  I think it is crazy and am not a fan of winter but my kids thought it was the best thing in the world.  The joy that snow brings to them does make winter a little more bearable for this mommy! 

Shane was beside himself with excitement.  He wore his jammies to bring the girls to school and before I could even get him to change his clothes he had his snow pants and boots on and was ready to get out in that snow! 

  

Do you think he looks like he is enjoying himself?

Trying to make a snowman and wishing his sisters were around to help!

Just taking a break to take it all in!

Mom, I love this stuff! 

This is what happens when it shows in October!! You still have your backyard toys out so you decide to mow the snow! What a sight!

And of course no day in the snow is complete without a snow angel!

Fall Soccer Mania

This fall the kids played soccer.  This was Emma and Shane's first soccer season.  Alexa felt like a pro and was more than willing to take her little brother and sister in the back yard for some soccer lessons before the season began.  I love the program the kids are a part of.  It is a soccer club that has "real" coaches that spends the majority of the time teaching them skills and help them understand the game.  The other thing that I love is that all the kids played on the same night at the same time.  So that meant we didn't spend multiple evenings or weekends running around to soccer games.  We had 6 weeks of soccer one night a week.  The other bonus was when the weather was cold or rainy they got to play in the dome.  

Alexa is in her element on the soccer field.  She is quick and aggressive.  She makes it look easy when she is on the field.  Her determination is going to be one of her strong attributes as she walks through life.  I can't wait to see what God does this little bundle of drive and determination.

Emma was excited to start soccer.  She was excited to have her sister take her out back and prepare her for the big season. 

Emma approached soccer in true Emma fashion.  She was first of all about the the hair and the outfit.  She loved having her bangs pulled back and thought her shorts, shoes and shin guards were pretty fashionable.  She also was all smiles and truly just enjoyed herself.  She was pretty proud of herself too when she scored her first goal.  

Shane was more than excited to start soccer too.  He felt like such a big boy now that he gets to play like his big sisters and doesn't have to sit on the sidelines.  He also thought his shoes were pretty cool.  

In Shane's program they really focused on the basic skills of soccer.  They also spent a lot of time working on coordination.  The program does a great job of making skill learning fun for the kids.  Shane learned some basic soccer skills but also learned a lot about listening to his coaches and following directions.  The first night of soccer all the kids were supposed to be by the coaches practicing dribbling.  Shane decided that he was ready to move on and get to what soccer is really about.  When we looked over he was over by the goal kicking it in the goal and yelling, "SCORE!"  Needless to say dad had to have a little chat with him about going back by his friends and coaches and work on dribbling.  

This was Shane working on bouncing the ball off his knee.  It isn't an easy task for 3 and 4 year olds.  

Shane taking a little break by the goal! 

Can't wait for more soccer fun in the years to come! 

Fall At The Lake

Wow, I can't believe that it is almost the end of the month and I am just posting about things that happened toward the beginning of the month.  The girls had a Thursday and Friday off from school at the beginning of October so we packed up to have some family time and fall fun at the lake.  It rained the whole weekend but that didn't stop us from enjoying our time together and getting a lot of time to relax.   

The kids loved spending time in the hot tub even when the rain was coming down.  

Shane was quite sad that papa took the wave runner home but soon found that a hot tub was pretty close to a pool. This was one of his canon balls! 

The kids also had fun watching this little friend gather all kinds of nuts and then scurry up the tree.

I grew up in a family that loved to play games and cards.  I think it is such a fun, easy and inexpensive activity to do as a family.  I love getting ideas for my house, crafts and fun family activities from other blogs so I thought I'd share some fun games we all enjoyed at the lake.

My kids all love to fix puzzles.  They spent some time fixing some of their favorites but this is one they enjoyed doing together. 

After the puzzle is put together they need to "seek and find" things.  It has a little notebook of things to find in the puzzle.  It has you count and also has you find certain things that start with different letters.  It was fun for them all to do together. 

I love to see my kids using their imagination and being creative.  We live in a society that our kids are surrounded with entertainment through video games, movies, computers and the list goes on.  I think it is so important to stimulate and encourage creativity early on and then be able to use their language to express it. This was a fun game where they all had cards and had to build on each others cards as they created a fun, imaginary story.  It was fun to see their language and imagination grow as the game went on.

This was definitely a family favorite.  The kids couldn't wait until it was their turn to ask questions.  It was fun to see their little minds going as they tried to figure out what kind of questions to ask to try to figure out what or who they were. 

Hmmmmm as you can see mom was on vacation at the lake and the faces didn't get washed after dinner! OOPS!

Shane was so cute.  Every time he would lean over to Eric and say, "Daddy what should I say next!"  Daddy helped him think of questions to ask! 

We had a couple wonderful, lazy fall days at the lake.  Can't wait to head back! 

My Big Brown Eyed Girl

Tonight as I was tucking Alexa into bed.  She looked at me with her big brown eyes and had tears in them.  I said, "Alexa, what is wrong sweety!"  She said, "Mommy I want to pray and ask Jesus in my heart tonight!"  As I talked through it with her and asked her if she knew what that meant or if she had done it before she said, "Well kind of but I didn't really understand it or know what I was doing then."  She said, "I think I was too little!"  She said the sweetest prayer as she asked Jesus to forgive her sins and for him to come into her heart! She had a huge smile on her face.  She said, "Will you tell daddy!"

I ran downstairs to tell Eric and he ran upstairs to talk to her.  As he crawled up in her top bunk with her she said, "Daddy, I knew you would come so I made room for you!"  How sweet is that!

It was such a sweet moment that I wanted to document it for years to come! I pray that she will grasp what it truly means to have Jesus Christ as her Savior and Lord of her life.  I also pray that she will always know that her mommy and daddy are here for her just like tonight she knew her daddy would come for her.  

A Conversation With My Sweet Boy

I had to jump on the computer today to record the conversation Shane and I had on the way home from preschool.

Shane: Mom, I need to go to the store. 

Me: Why do you need to go to the store Shane?

Shane: I need to go get a BABE so I can marry her! 

I had to hold back a giggle.  Eric calls me babe in our everyday conversations so whenever Shane plays house he is the dad and one of the girls is his babe.  I knew what he meant but it sounded like he just wanted to head to the store to pick out a real babe! 

Me: Shane you are too little to get married! 

Shane: I know mom! I need to go to the car fix-up place first.

Me: Why do you need to go there?

Shane: I need to go get a car when I am a dad so I can go to the married place to get a babe to get married with. 

Me: Oh Shane you will be a good daddy someday but right now you just need to worry about being my little boy! 

Shane: Ok mommy!

Oh Shane I love how your little mind works.  There are so many days you make me smile.  I know these days are fleeting so today I am taking time to treasure our sweet conversations.

Shane Back In The Kitchen

We came home from the Apple Orchard with 3 1/2 bushel bags of apples.  Let me give you a hint if you are looking for some nice cheap apples for applesauce.  You can get windfall apples which are apples off the ground.  A 1/2 Bushel bag is only $4.  You get a lot of apples for $4.  You can find really nice apples on the ground especially after the wind blows in South Dakota. 

Shane and I spent 5 hours in the kitchen cutting up apples, cooking them down and then running them through the tomato press to make applesauce.  

Shane was a busy boy.  He cranked out almost all the apple sauce by himself.  He sure got the hang of how it all worked. I can't believe his little arm didn't get tired.

Yummy ... look at all the applesauce that is now in our freezer for the winter.  If you look in our freezer you would think that all we eat is pasta and pizza  sauce and apple sauce.  I know our hard work will pay off and taste yummy this winter.  Notice we did 2 kinds of applesauce.  One turned out really pink.  The girls thought the pink applesauce was pretty neat! The apples were so sweet we didn't even need to add any sugar. 

I once again enjoyed my day with Shane in the kitchen.  He is going to make a wife pretty happy someday with all this cooking experience!

A Trip To The Apple Orchard

The kids love going to the Apple Orchard.  We usually head out as a family in the fall and typically I end up there a couple times because  there usually ends up to be one or two field trips a year to the Apple Orchard as well. I love it that the kids excitement and wonder never wears off. 

The treat this year was the pony rides.  The kids thought the ponies were so cute and were more than excited to hop on for a ride.

 

A quick stop for a photo before we head out to the orchard.

The kids love riding on the back of the tractor to the orchard.  They are ready to go!

We went to work gathering apples! 

We wanted to make a lot of applesauce so we filled up 3 half bushel bags.

How many apples can I gather at a time?

MMMMM ... that looks like a good one to eat!

I think I can reach it!

Emma enjoyed her apple on the way back from the orchard.  We finished our visit at the Apple Orchard like we always do.  We enjoyed some yummy apple turnovers, apple pie and a caramel apple.  Can't wait until next year!