Leia's New Hobby

This fall Leia and I have been taking a quilting class with a few other moms and daughters. It has been lots of fun and Leia loves it. The first project is a table runner. Leia's is a fall themed table runner and mine is for Christmas.

Here she is sewing away. She is a natural seamstress. I am so impressed with how well she has done.
Here she is with her table runner without the binding on.

The finished product! This picture is with her sewing teacher. She is a wonderful, Godly woman who has blessed us so much by these lessons.

Time with Papa

On our end of summer trip home, we spent as much time as possible with my dad. My dad is living in a nursing home, which is very painful for me to even type. At first he went there just to get stronger to go home, but he will probably never make it back to his home. It is rather difficult to visit someone in a nursing home for any length of time when you have small children along. We wanted to do things that would be a change for my dad and let the kids have some time with him. He does not like the food there, so we brought him meals when we could also.

This day we brought him lunch and had a picnic with him outside in the patio area in some shade. Yoda always wanted to help push Papa. He couldn't do it without help, but he always wanted to be the pusher.

The church that I grew up in and that my dad attended until his recent health problems built a new building and moved in to it after my dad got sick. He had never been there, so he and I took a bus to he could get a tour of the new facility. I took a picture of him on the bus, but forgot to take any pictures once we were there! He was so pleased to get to see the building that he had prayed for and supported for so long. He wasn't so thrilled with my taking his picture on the bus, though!

There is a room at the nursing home that has some couches, a table and a bird display. We spent a lot of time of our visit there. The little kids loved the birds and there was the table where they could color. Here is a picture with all the kids and Papa before we had to return to our home.

Of course there has to be a silly picture, and my dad is always happy to oblige with making faces.

It is very hard to see my dad so weak and living in a nursing home, but I am so grateful for the time I got to spend with him and for my kids to have more time with him as well.

Fun with Friends

On our end of summer trip back to our former city, we had lots of fun with some of our favourite friends. I didn't take enough pictures, but here are a few of the ones I did take.

This is Leia's favorite friend back home. She had a sleep over with us and the kids were all watching a movie together. Notice my girls can't take their eyes off the movie, even for a picture!

This little guy is Padme's buddy. They were playing with blocks in his yard. He is the 5th child in their family, just like Padme is in ours.

More playing with blocks

Yoda liked those blocks.

Padme goofing off

This is Yoda's future buddy. Right now they aren't the best of friends. They are both the 6th child in their families, and mostly they tattle on each other. Yoda calls him "Baby" and he calls Yoda "That Guy". It is funny to hear them tattle on each other. We are confident they will get to be good buddies as they get older, just like the rest of their siblings.

Next time I need to do a better job of taking pictures. I didn't get any with Luke and his friends and the oldest two boys mostly worked, so I didn't get any pictures of them either.

Our Future= Goats

We have started to go through a tremendous amount of milk recently. It is not good for my grocery budget! There has always been a ban on drinking milk at our house (due to allergies), but the kids love it and were sneaking it. So, I decided to lift the ban and see how it went. No problems with allergies, but the milk is flying through the house. What to do.

I have this friend who has milk goats. She volunteered to give our Keeper's of the Faith group a demonstration of the milking and she made some cheese for us, too. Our whole family came to the demonstration to see if everyone would even like the milk and if the kids were up for the challenge of keeping and milking goats. Everyone loved the milk (except me, and I don't like cow milk either) and the kids are excited about the prospect of goats.

What really sold me on the idea is that my friend gets about 1 gallon of milk a day. And she pays less to keep her goats than she does to keep her dogs. And the kids think they are getting pets out of the deal, also. We need to do some rearranging of our fence and build some shelters and fences before we can actually get a goat or two, but it is in our future plans. And then there should be some chickens for eggs in the future as well. I guess we are want to be homesteaders or something! And Leia is still praying for a horse.

A few pictures of our future goat milkers in action.

Luke gave it a try, but my picture of him didn't turn out so well. The older boys didn't want to try the milking, but they sure loved the milk. My friend told me that goats are like "Odd dogs." We are still laughing at that description!

Firestation Trip

Luke, Padme and I went to our local fire station recently for a field trip with some friends. The older kids had been to the fire station before, but this was Padme's first time. She was very excited. She got to try on the fireman's gear and it looked so comical because she is so little in it.
Luke trying out the fire truck.

Padme loved it all.

Our fireman guide showing us the the Jaws of Life equipment. Luke loved all the big saws and tools.

Padme and her buddy with the fireman in all his gear.

This was the fourth or fifth time we have been to a fire station and I am always so impressed at the firemen's kindness and patience with the children. Truly public servants we are blessed to have protecting us. We will have to go back again when Yoda is a bit older and Leia can come along, too.

Bunny Love

We have some friends who invited us over to see their baby bunnies. My little kids love animals, and the bunnies were a big hit! Of course, they were ready to bring them all home. Good thing we were on vacation and bringing a bunny 500 miles in the car was not a possibility!

Padme especially loved to hold them once she figured out how to do it without getting scratched.

Yoda liked the bunnies, but was very concerned the entire time. He didn't want them to get away, and he wanted someone to help him. He did not want the bunnies to be taken away, just to have help with them.

Leia really loves animals and will love on anything. She is very sweet and motherly with animals.

Best Yard Sale Find of the Summer!

RIght before we left for our vacation, Hubby bought the kids a treat for next summer at a friend's yardsale. When we returned, it was warm enough one day to set up and the kids were thrilled. Except for Yoda, who did not like it at all, although he did like wearing his sister's goggles!

Padme ready to play in the water!

Here she goes!

Leia also had a blast!

Maybe next summer Yoda will be ready to play with them.