A little catching up

Life is good. The kids are growing like weeds. Trevor is 14 (and a half--less than six months till he starts driving!), William is 13, Samuel is 11, Zack turned 5 a couple days ago, and Peter is 2 (the terrible kind).

Trevor's creativity is unquenchable. He draws and takes pictures in all his free time. Well, that's not true--he also researches trees. And then he draws them and photographs them. Aside from authoring field guides, I'm not sure what he can make of these talents? Any ideas anyone?

Trevor still does karate, and is closing in on his brown belt.

Both Trevor and William are on our homeschool robotics team. They have been keeping very busy with all their meetings. Trevor is on the marketing team (helped design the team T-Shirt, and is working on the display booth and media) and William is on the build team (crafting the robot in 3-D in a computer program). They are loving it. Their first competition is in 2 weeks!

William still loves reading. Between books, he loves making origami. He is really quite talented. He makes things very carefully and can make about anything he can find instructions for. Dragons are his favorite.

Samuel is still his sweet, quiet self. He loves playing with the little kids. He is super patient with Peter, and genuinely enjoys playing make-believe with Zack. They have roamed all over the galaxy together, and survived many apoplectic battles. He has also grown into quite the responsible helper. He gets his chores done speedily and cheerfully, and often without reminding.

Zack can most often be found sitting in front of a computer screen (school programs first--he's learning to read--and computer games last), or playing with Samuel (or Peter, or Tim, or Trevor). He has many other interests, but much prefers to do things WITH people.

Peter. Peter is adorable. And loud. He loves to talk...but it's like a foreign language. My current favorite is "chocolate". It comes out as "yot-it". And he calls himself "Peedo". And so: "Yot-it! Yot-it Peedo! In mouff! Yot-it! MOM!" Etc. All day. He loves to play with Sam. He loves to chase Zack. He wants so much to be big.

Now that I have caught up from the last year, I feel like I can share some pictures.

Some of Trevor's photos:

Zack at the playground.

Peter got out all cups and made this arrangement on the floor. I think it was a fort or something. He can and got me and led me by the hand to the kitchen to show me. I was thrilled...he usually entertains himself by shredding up napkins, or making some other sort of mess.

Tim and I took the little boys on a date to the mall. They LOVED it. Peter rode the lion on the carousel. He's in love with lions.

And Zack rode the dragon. Its name is Frodo.

Here's Zack's attempt to take photos of foliage, just like Trevor does. Not as easy as it looks, I guess :)

Trying to take a picture of a cool leaf bug in a jar. Very fun for Peter.

Looked out the window and saw Zack out gathering eggs. He's taken to carrying them in his shirt. I love it.

This is Zack and "Beaky"...but he calls her "Sweetheart".

Samuel doing his thing, and Peter doing his.

Oh my. It was clean-off-the-roof-day last Saturday. So glad we have helpers.

Samuel repotted his succulents last weekend. He does a great job taking care of his plants.

Trevor also worked on his plants. He planted one in the yard (I'm not sure a day goes by that he doesn't ask me Can we get a {this or that} for the yard? (Think, palm tree, or tory pine, or ginkgo tree...)

Went on a field trip this week to a pumpkin patch. Such a fun day.

Zack with a camel.

Peedo with a Beebee Taow (Peter with a baby cow)

Peter and Zack both did a pony ride. They loved it.

There was a cool jumping pillow that 4 of the kids played on. Some of us felt too old to jump.

Zack really liked these photo ops. We took several pictures.

Played in a corn bin.

Rode the Cow Train.

Looked for pumpkins.

Found some.

And found some pinecones. :)

Here's one of Trevor's recent drawings.

We went to Adventure Land the night before Zack's birthday. Played arcade games and mini golf. He loved it.

Birthday Donuts!!!!!

Opening presents...

Last one...Found Trevor drawing at about 11:30 last night. Had to get it off his chest :)

XOXOX
Jill

5 Boys, 1 Bedroom

After many requests by the kids, and after much musing and planning by the grown-ups, we have moved all the boys into a shared bedroom.

I think this may be my favorite home project we've completed. Not only do I like the way it turned out, but I also LOVE the camaraderie that it reflects in the kids. As I sit and rock Peter before naps, I like to remember how God has blessed our family with brother-love.

Of course the kids still bicker and sometimes even fight, but they CHOSE to share a room! Wow! After all the prayers that God would place a deep love in their hearts for each other, this is a precious and clear answer.

I don't know how long it would have taken us to pull off this project without my parents. Last time they were here, Dad spent his whole trip working on the beds. The boys helped a pretty good bit--sanding and varnishing the boards. I found my ideas for the beds on pinterest HERE and my paint colors HERE (I used Gray Owl for the walls, and Amherst Gray for the bookcase.) ((Not that from these crappy pictures anyone would ever say, "Hey! I love that! I wish I knew what color that was?" It's more like: At least this way I have some record of the colors for moi.))

Are you wondering where their clothes go? Yes, we have all 5 boys' clothes in one closet. I love it.

And this is where I change Peter. I love it, too. :)

I don't quite have this all "decorated" yet (actually, the only room in the house that is completely decorated is a cubby hole of a half bath that my mom helped me with). But I do like the way the paint turned out.

We let each kid pick their own colors for their sliding cabinet doors. Trevor chose blue and grey, Zack was very, very, very happy with the red and blue. I hope Peter likes it, too, once he's old enough to leave the crib and share the double bed with Zack! William picked blue and orange (benjamin moore citrus orange) and Samuel went with grey and orange. I think they turned out so cool.

Lastly, here's some bedroom-makeover-in-progress pictures. I'm just going to throw them out there for you to enjoy.:) (Yes, there's lots of pictures of Zack here. He's been my right hand man--always eager to help.