Happy Birthday Josiah!

Josiah is 8! from patty hull on Vimeo.

Dear 'Siah,
What a fun day we've had, celebrating your 8th birthday!  We can't hardly believe it was 8 years ago we first held you in our arms, overjoyed at your healthy arrival.  Ever since that day you have continued to be such a JOY to us!  Your smile and laughter is uniquely yours… and so very contagious!

We are so very proud of you.  Each day you grow we pray your heart remains open to the Lord's love and His leading in your life.  

Happy Birthday son!

Real man's work

Boy's afternoon:

took chain saw on our farm and cut down big tree

Trip to Lowe's for hammer and safety gear

Lessons in serious hammering! 

Glimpse of Summer

Summer seems to have come and gone on a breeze...

School has started again and life has taken on the old familiar routine.  

I don't want to forget the events and fun days of our summer this year.

Happy 6th Birthday Josiah!

Dear Josiah,

You look older today all of a sudden now that you are 6! We have some good memories of this past year. Going to the beach, the cabin and spending time with family. You have learned so much this year too! You are reading and counting to 100. We are so proud of you! Abby and Levi love you too and are blessed to have you for a big brother.

Happy Birthday sweetie!

Love,
Dad and Mom

Kindergarten!

We started Kindergarten with Josiah recently at home!  It's been fun, interesting, challenging and an adjustment for everyone.  Since we are truly beginners at homeschooling we went with a complete curriculum (Sonlight) that provides everything we need for the year.  And I mean everything!  Down to the paper clips and clay used for the science projects.  This is very helpful for me, since I'm not creative at all.

This is week #5 for us and we've already made some mistakes, gotten behind and made a few tweaks to the schedule in order to make it work for us.  I'm convinced it will take at least a year before I'm comfortable with how things go during the day.  I'm enjoying the time with Josiah, watching him learn and seeing him get excited about new concepts, and reading good stories.  But, don't get me wrong.  We've had our tearful days and bad attitudes... and I do mean WE!

It's fun getting Dad involved when he gets home too.  J loves for Daddy to read to him and help him with his math book.  Daddy is just better at things after a long day with Mommy.  :)

It's been interesting peppering J's lessons between Abby's 7 weekly appointments.  He's not able to do any of his work unsupervised, so we are all learning together.  Patience truly is a virtue I'm in desperate need of these days!  My need for the Lord is incredibly tangible and I'm reminded of His promises every morning.

creating letters with wooden shapes- "Handwriting Without Tears"

Math!

Josiah Reading!

(pause ipod at bottom of page)

letters to Abby

A few weeks ago Abby went to Sensory camp at UCP.  We really missed her here at home, and after the week was over Josiah wrote her a letter:

"Dear Abby, this is from Josiah.  I love you very much and I missed you while you were at camp.  And then I love you as much as the sun is high.

I’m glad I got to go to camp with you today Abby."

He has been "writing" us letters lately that are both hilarious and sweet.  I'll try to post more of them as they come.  One that he brought us the other day had a picture of "grumpy mommy" among the rest of the family, all smiling.  Hmmm.  I guess I need to work on that.

Conversation in the car--

Josiah:  "Abby needs to feel my legs when we get home."

me:  "Why's that honey?"

J:  "Because they are covered in ant bites and she would like to feel that.  She might think it's a braille book!"

How thoughtful!  Five year olds are so funny.

5 year old