New Adventures

Okay, so it's been a while since I've posted, and I'm not even posting pics of our own family. With Dan's blessing, and even his heartfelt encouragement, I've been making the voyage into amateur photography. It's exciting and fun, and I have a LONG way to go, but I am hoping at the very least to capture some memories for ourselves and for some other families.

These are our precious friends, The Joneses. We've been so blessed to get to know them. Their boys are such good friends to our boys, and their youngest little beauty, Josie, is an absolute princess. She is such a little treat! So here are some pictures I've done for them recently. I'm a little nervous about posting my work for the first time, but here goes nothin. Thank goodness I had some great subjects to work with!

You can imagine how much fun I had with all this pink and tulle!

Brent was so sweet. He came to get some smiles out of his baby sister
and just couldn't resist a little lovin'!

Peek-A-Boo!

Silas, Stormy, and Josie watched the big boys run wild.

Angry Birds. Happy Kids.

I have to give props to my dear friend, Mariah for these shots. Her silhouettes were my inspiration for these. Stormy and Josie were perfect models for my little experiment. Stormy caught my vision right away, and "rocked the shot" (to quote Chantel).

School Time

We are all loving our new school room.

Weather, Days of the week, and Monthly Calendar. We velcro the new date each morning, and I made some special pieces (this month it's a picture of our friend Joan, who's coming to visit this weekend). We learn Sign Language and Spanish counting during this time.

We found a corner desk so I can sit with the boys during table time.

We love our new shelves.

Memory verses. We have a new verse each week. (The two stickers are the stickers the boys get once they've memorized the verses.)

The first storage cabinet (which we outgrew in a matter of weeks) displays our Virtue cards.

I'm still trying to find a proper Christian Flag. Dan just gave me a catalog of Flags, so I should be able to get one up there soon. For now, a printout works for us.

New Developments

We've been extra busy around here, I wish I could write more, but I have a bunch of laundry to fold before school starts this morning. Here are some pics I've been wanting to post. They're all out of order, but you get the point:

Young Warriors Christian Academy

The boys are starting at a new school next week; the previous one wasn't working out. They will now be attending Young Warriors Christian Academy. There's only one teacher at the school and she loves the children as if they were her own...because they are. I am so glad all my babies will be home with me full time again. I'm already loving the lesson planning and brainstorming I've been able to do; what an honor to teach my babies! The boys have already been learning pledges at their current school, and we are taking this opportunity to add one more to the list.

"I pledge allegiance to the Christian Flag, and to the Savior for whose Kingdom it stands: One Savior, crucified, risen, and coming again with life and liberty to all who believe."

"I pledge allegiance to the Bible, God's Holy Word. I will make it a lamp unto my feet and a light unto my path, and will hide its words in my heart that I might not sin against God."

"I pledge allegiance to the Ripley Family, and to the Lord above. Where Mom & Dad direct me, I will follow and obey. I promise to honor God and Family, for the Lord ordained it this way."

"I pledge allegiance to the Flag of the United States of America, and to the republic for which it stands, one nation, under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all."

I will post pictures once our classroom is put together...my goal is to have it finished before Thanksgiving, so I can put up the Christmas decorations around our school stuff.

Back & Forth

Mommy dilemma: so I'm back to teaching a two year old about sticking with his choices. Vince and I were making a PB&J sandwich and I asked Anthony if he wanted one. He said, "No." I said, "are you SURE you don't want a PB&J sandwich?" So he finished his crackers, saw Vince eating his sandwich, and decided he wanted one. The tough guy in me says "NO" but the mushy mommy in me wants to give him one. I think I'll just make him wait a while and give him another chance to have a sandwich later. I welcome suggestions from moms & dads who have been there!