Great news!

Yesterday the boys both had appointments with the pediatric ophthalmologist.

William's eyes are perfect!!!!

Robert's prescription actually stayed the same AND he only has to patch for 2 HOURS a day!!!

Let me tell you, it makes me so happy I feel like singing!

William also had his MRI earlier this week. He did great. I am so blessed that these boys are such good patients. We should hear results next week.

Now on to Robert's surgery. This may sound crazy, but he is excited about it. I guess that means we did a good job last time of making it as enjoyable as possible for him. I wonder if this hospital has therapy dogs...

Christmas day

Of course Christmas Eve the kids set up Santa watch and this year becasue we had a different tree in a different spot it extended much further. I was so excited that the girls were still willing to do this with the boys even though they have figured out...well you get the idea.



Christmas morning everyone humored me and let me take a picture BEFORE opening presents. Cruel, I tell you, just cruel. It helped that they had their pillow pets from Grandma and Grandpa Petersen.

Anna and Robert both got new bikes from the big guy and Alahna got a power wing scooter. Which meant that Robert got Alahna's old scooter and William got Robert's old bike and scooter! We love hand-me downs...even at Christmas!

and yes, he is still in his pj's. He really likes them.

The girls had fun trying out their new lap desks from Grandma and Grandpa Force. (We got several homeschool items this year and I was so happy that the kids were excited about them!)

Robert was wiped out at the end of the day. He fell asleep halfway through his breathing treatment, with his pillow pet, of course.

And for those dedicated enough to still be reading this... you get to see the whole fam in our pj's, and the only picture I have of David's beard!

Sugar cookies with friends

A very Merry Christmas

We hope everyone's Christmas was as wonderful as ours! We had so much fun spending the day together playing with new toys and eating way to much sugar! William was much more interested in the hot chocolate and doughnuts than presents and had us all cracking up as he would start to open a present then stop midway to go get a drink of hot cocoa. It's pretty obvious where his priorities are!

Pictures from Christmas day will be coming soon. Until then.....

Breakfast with Santa

The whole gang....wearing their homemade PJ's!

What was the name of that toy...???

Oh yeah! I remember!

I want a teddy bear.

 

 

 

 

Getting loose

I asked William to hold my hand as we walked through the parking lot on the way into the doctor's office this morning.

He looked up at me with his big beautiful blue eyes and said, "but, I promise I won't get loose."

And then after we crossed the parking lot, "see, I didn't get loosed and I didn't get hit by any cars!"

I guess even my baby is getting too big to hold mommy's hand all the time. 

Best buds

This is William and his best bud, Grayson. They have loads of fun together!

I wish I had a video because they had quite the song going on!

Pajama pants!

This year we decided to make out own pajama pants instead of purchasing them. It has been a fun adventure and both the girls and I are getting more comfortable with the sewing machine! Pictures of the finished products will be coming soon!

Anna cutting out pieces from her scrap fabric to embellish her t-shirt with.

Alahna sewing her pants.

Apple Wreaths

We got this idea form The Friend magazine.  Easy, fun, and delicious! 

Geminid Meteor Shower

77

That is the total number of shooting stars Anna, Alahna and I (and David for a brief time.) saw early, early this morning. (We're talking 2am kinda early!) It was spectacular. The only thing that could have made it better would have been being somewhere with less light pollution.

We snuggled under some blankets in our little backyard, sang Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star (in Latin of course), giggled, talked about God, sang some more, giggled some more, and then finished the experience off by drinking a cup of Stephen's Hot Cocoa while writing in our journals.

It was a night, or morning, I will never forget and I hope my favorite girls in the world won't either!

The date is set

Robert will be having surgery on January 25, 2011. It will be very similar to the last one, almost 2 years ago.

Not exactly the way we were hoping to start the new year.

Columns

When we first started learning about Greek architecture we talked about the columns that they used and did this experiment to see how strong a column is. The best columns we had were toilet paper rolls so that's what we went with.

First we started with one unsupported column with no reinforcement. We were able to stack a few books on it before it tipped, but it never collapsed.

Then we moved on to one column reinforced with some support. The results were only slightly better.

Then we moved on to six columns. This is when things got fun! 

We ran out of books, ones that I was willing to bring outside anyway, before anything happened. 

So we moved on to people! With no problems!

Alahna was a little nervous. Somehow I didn't get a picture of Anna, but she was definitely not nervous, but made us nervous as she was dancing on top of our little structure.

Then I got on, then Alahna handed me William, then She handed me Robert (no picture of that either) and our structure hadn't budged.  Then for our final test Anna and I stood on it together. We lost out balance and  tipped the thing over, but the columns never collapsed as we thought they would!

We also brought out the scale and weighed everything and did some math with it, but I don't remember the numbers and don't feel like finding them in my notebook. So use you imagination.

All in all it was a fun day for our little school!

Cal Earth

Our latest field trip was to a place called Cal Earth. And I have to admit I was a little leery about this one. I was worried that they would be overselling the whole"green" thing, which frankly drives me batty, but it was amazing and what these people are doing is truly a magnificent thing.

 

They are using nothing but earth, water, sand bags and barbed wire (and 10% cement in CA to meet regulations) to make homes in 22 countries throughout the world. They have been tested and were so earthquake safe that they broke the machines used to test buildings.  And while the ones the kids are standing in front of here are more like huts than homes, we saw some that were amazing; kitchens, bathrooms, garage, the works. One was bigger than our house. The smaller ones can be built in a day and they are incredibly inexpensive to make.  If I remember right, the largest one only cost 5grand and my family could live in it very comfortably. My children were asking if we could move in! (I wish I had taken a picture of it!)

This is how it is done. They take long sand bags and fill them with a mud mixture then tamp it down until it is hard. Lay barbed wire over the top and then another bag. Then when the building is complete it can be covered with a mixture of earth and water to give it a smooth finish. 

This is the inside of one of the buildings left without the finish to show how it is done. It's like a giant coil pot! 

The children were allowed to climb all over them afterward and let me tell you they thought that was the coolest thing ever. "You mean we can climb on the buildings?"

This one was a different approach to making the homes, but just as strong. They told us that you could extend it as far as you wanted but it can only be a certain width before it starts to lose it's strength.

They also made a dome out of brick and it is very similar to the Pantheon in Rome with the oculus and everything, on a much smaller scale of course, and brick... but you get the idea.

Before we left the children built an arch. It was a little harder than they thought and didn't stay up for more than a second, but it was still fun!

It was so much fun to see some of the things we have been learning about, domes, arches, etc, put to a practical and worthwhile use!

A sweet tradition

Christmas when I was a kid was synonymous with graham cracker houses. I don't ever remember a Christmas at home without them. Some years we made dozens and then delivered them to friends and neighbors. It was one of my favorite Christmas traditions, yet this is only the second or third time I have done them with my kids and it was only because Grandma came with all the goodies in tow!

It was so much fun that we just might do it again next year...maybe....if I'm in the mood...and I have the time...and... well, you get the idea. 

Fun with math

While we were on our Thanksgiving break we had several learning experiences. We tried Greek food, visited Caesars Palace in Vegas and found examples of Greek and Roman art, and my favorite was the abacus presentation with Grandpa Petersen. He is a treasure of knowledge and I am so glad that he his willing to share some of that with my children!

painting pots

We have been learning about Greek and Roman art and architecture and the kids wanted to paint their own pots.  We have also been playing with a lot of clay, but my hands are always too messy to take any pictures! I will try to get some when we have finished products!

A white Thanksgiving

We went to visit family for Thanksgiving and were lucky enough to see some snow! It was beautiful... and I was happy that we were just visiting! HA!HA! I like my warm weather!

The kids had fun playing in the fluffy cold stuff and Robert loved helping Grandpa shovel. He is a very hard worker when he wants to be!