Paige's Video

Paige asked to use the camera tonight to take a video of the boys. It is sweet to watch, she tries to be so mothering to them. Anyway, the video turned out cute. I left the ending because it was cute that she didn't know how to stop it and you can here the happiness in her voice; "Daddy, I got one, I got a video!!!"

Paige's First Video from Julie Tull on Vimeo.

Sweet moments...

You know, there are moments that I wish my kids would go to school, where I could clean the house by myself and think by myself and just be by myself without anyone making messes all over the place or anyone hanging off of my various body parts. But most days, I see the good in having them home with me. I love our unhurried lifestyle and love that the kids are best friends who create games, puppet shows, art and everything else together. I love finding the boys cuddled up on a bed or chair, with Paige reading stories to them. Sometimes I catch Paige and Jonah out of their beds at night, with Paige reading to him or teaching him how to write words or letters on their Magna Doodle. Of course, I pretend that I don't see it. Why would I want to stop my children from learning and bonding? And since we don't have to go anywhere in the morning, staying up a little late is no big deal.
Today, Paige was reading to Jack out of his Bible story book. He sat so quietly and then after she was finished, he paged through his Bible for at least a half hour, looking at the words and pictures. I didn't get a video of Paige reading, as I was cleaning up the kitchen after lunch (and enjoying it, since it was so quiet in the house! Remember, Paige was reading...), but I got a little video of Jack talking about and closing his Bible. I think he is pretty understandable in this video. I think his only words are "Bible," "no," "Jesus," and "done".

I love these moments, these days, that are filled with unhurried learning and fun and togetherness. I often wish the kids could stay this young forever, but then there are the moments where I wish they'd just grow up... Thankfully I don't feel this way very often!

Stitches

Jonah fell this morning as he was climbing onto a bar stool. Jonah was probably climbing as fast as he could, as he has only two speeds: super-fast and super-slow. I think he hit his lower lip on a caddy we have the art supplies in on the kitchen counter. He bit the inside of his lip, but the outside got pretty sliced open.

Well, as you already know from the title, Jonah got stitches. 5 of them! All without getting numbed. I don't know why the doctor didn't numb him, but Jonah was so brave and calm. He laid on the patient bed and let the doctor and assistant do what they needed to do. I am so proud of him! Did I tell you he was BRAVE? And the doctor kept remarking on how wonderful a patient he was and that he wished all of his patients were like that. What a good boy we have! And the other two kiddos were silent almost. Jack sat quietly on my lap and Paige sat next to us, paying attention to what was going on with Jonah quietly. I am so thankful that the kids chose today to be so obedient and sweet. Tomorrow could be different...

Here is our brave boy modeling his 5 stitches.

Camping fun!

We went camping last weekend (Labor Day weekend) at Battleground Lake State Park. It was a beautiful place! Nice trails, nice warm lake water (heated by underground lava tubes, I believe) and we had a beautiful and private campsite 1/3 of a mile from the parking area and the bathroom that the kids were not afraid of (Outhouses are NOT their thing. But then again, who really likes to use an outhouse?). Lots of walking! We had a wonderful 1st evening there. The weather was perfect. The sky was clear and the air was pretty warm. We ate hot dogs (Jack's favorite) that we roasted on the campfire and made s'mores. Yum! Then the kids all went peacefully to sleep. We did too, pretty much...

In the middle of the night, it started to RAIN. Not just little drops, but a torrential downpour. When we got up in the morning, there were puddles everywhere! Water was flowing in streams down the trails. You pretty much couldn't walk without stepping into a puddle. And, as Mike would say, we had a small lake in our tent. We were pretty determined to stick it out at first, but when the rain continued like this through to the afternoon, we decided to pack up. We had to finish our camping trip at home.

Cute and happy kids eating pancakes and hot chocolate Saturday morning. Mike put up a tarp over the picnic table, so we could at least eat without the rain pounding on us!

Mike is holding a soaked and dirty Jack. He fell face-down into a mud puddle or two...

See, he's completely soaked. And he is wearing his spare jacket already (and a completely different outfit than he started out in) around 11am.

Paige, playing in a beloved mud puddle at our campsite.

Even though we decided we were done and were soaked to the core, we just couldn't leave without finding at least one geocache! Paige found this one!

This was the grittiest, wettest, messiest adventure yet! We did have fun and the kids LOVED the rain! But we knew that they wouldn't if we stayed. If we would have stayed, we would have been almost constantly wet and cold for the next two days. I was We want our kids to LOVE camping and want to do it again.

Camping at home-

We made s'mores, using the grill for the marshmallows.

Paige and Jonah slept in Mike's two person tent in the family room.

And we went adventuring! On Sunday, we took the kids to Snoqualmie Falls, where we again got completely SOAKED! The kids loved the hike down to the falls. Jack even hiked the whole way down, not missing a puddle to jump in. He walked at least half way back. Jack is such a trooper! All of our kids are, actually. It is so fun to go adventuring with them!



And Monday, we went geocaching! Again, it was WET! We found 4 geocaches!

Good fun, messy times... I don't know how many loads of laundry I have done in the past few days. Too many... But it's worth it!