Tuesday, December 30, 2008

Let's Get Caught Up!

Well, as you can see it has been quite some time since I have sat down and updated our blog. A lot has happened in these past few months and I will attempt to fill you in a little bit. Sorry if the format on this post is a bit choppy--I am having trouble getting it to look the way I want it to and I don't want to send more time on it. The information is there, just ignore the format!
September:
We started our Carter homeschool with a very nice teacher-student ratio. I began teaching Isaiah (now 6). He is in Kindergarten. This has been a very exciting experience so far. Lots of learning going on for all of us, including the younger two brothers. Elijah is continuing to go to Sycamore Tree Preschool two days a week.

October:
Hunting/Birthday Season:
We celebrated Elijah's 4th birthday on October 7th with his chosen dinner of cold cereal. He thought it was great and picked out the cereal he wanted from the store. It was a big treat because it was not on sale and I did not have a coupon for it. For those of you who know how I do grocery shopping, you know this was a big treat! We topped this healthy dinner off with Elijah's chosen cake--a blue
kitty.
Justin went over to Eastern Washington for his annual deer hunting trip. The Lord blessed him with a doe again this year and we are so thankful for the meat in the freezer.
Then we had another birthday--this time it was the combined birthday party for Isaiah and Elijah with their friends. Since their birthdays are only two weeks apart and so many of their friends are siblings, we decided to do one combined party this year. We went together with a bunch of our family to buy the boys a Wii. This has been a very fun present for the whole family. The party was so much fun with a scavengar hunt and marshmallow guns as the treasure at the end of the hunt. We had a great time shooting marshmallows all over the back yard and deck.
We also had one last birthday party to celebrate with just us. Isaiah's actual birthday was October 21st and we once again had a dinner of cold cereal. Hopefully this does not become a birthday tradition, but it does make dinner preparations pretty simple for me. Isaiah chose a Ben 10 cake.
Our annual trip to Hunter Farms this year was a lot of fun. The pumpkins in the patch were all green because of the cold spring/summer we had. They had to truck pumpkins in from Eastern Washington to place in the fields!

We topped off the month with 3 Jedi Warriors for Halloween. Although I am not too keen on a bunch of candy coming into our house, and we don't celebrate ghosts/goblins/etc., my boys love to dress up and pretend. I made three cream colored fleece tunics and we found some materials in their dressup bin to use for belts and pants and there you have my 3 Jedi warriors. We took them to the mall in Silverdale to do a little trick or treating. It was actually a lot of fun.

November:
Soccer season ended. I helped coach Isaiah's team this year which was a lot of fun. It is amazing to see how much 5 and 6 year olds can improve from the beginning of the season to the end.

We headed over to Prosser to celebrate Thanksgiving. For Thanksgiving Day we went up to Justin's mom's in Roosevelt and shared a nice afternoon/evening with that side of the family. My sister, Rachel, and her family were also at my parents' house for the holiday weekend, so it was fun for the cousins to hang out and to spend time all together.

December:
I spent any extra time I could find working on Christmas projects. I set an ambitious agenda of Christmas projects that I wanted to do this year for gifts. I made two quilts, 2 fleece tie blankets, 8 other fleece blankets, 3 hooded capes, and 3 sets of jammies. I actually got it all done and it was so fun to see everyone open their gifts. It had been a while since I had done much sewing and I remembered how much I enjoy it. I am planning on making each of the boys a quilt for their bed this winter/spring so that when Micah is in his big boy bed sharing a room with his brothers they will all have matching quilts on their beds.

We have thoroughly enjoyed all of the snow that we received in the crazy snowstorms of 2008. Lots of sledding and playing in the snow. Justin loves to drive in it and thankfully is a good driver so we were able to get around without much trouble. The biggest trouble we had was getting up or down our steep driveway. It is a bit tricky, but Justin thinks it is great fun. I just close my eyes and hold on! Come to think of it, that seems to be my philosophy for so many parts of my life! :)

We again headed to Prosser for the holiday. Both of my brothers are home for Christmas break from college in California. My sister is the only one missing as she and her family are in Mexico for Christmas.
We spent Christmas Eve and Christmas Day shuffling all over the place, but it is a lot of fun. We always celebrate our "Carter Christmas" prior to heading over the mountains so we already have some special private time with just our family. Once the actual holiday hits we know that it will be crazy for a few days. After the actual day(s) of Christmas, we enjoy several days of not much to do except to play with all the new toys!

2009

Only God knows what the new year will bring. We have an opportunity to go on a missions trip to Togo in Africa. Please pray for us as we make decisions regarding our participation in this trip. Micah will turn 2 in March. He is such a special blessing to our family and I am so thankful for each day we have with him. It is hard to imagine what our lives would be like without his mischeviousness to keep us on our toes.

I will make a concerted effort to keep this blog updated more often that I have over these past few months. I pray that all your families are healthy and growing. Thanks for loving my family.
Katie

4 comments:

Ali said...

I think this is the most awesome blog post I've ever read! The words, the pictures, everything is great. I can tell you're a fantastic Mom, Katie. I hope your family has a wonderful 2009! God Bless!

Sara and Ethan said...

Wow...nice job on the blog Katie, I love the jedi warriors and dinners consisting of cold cereal! I need to come hang out with these boys...we have a lot in common.

The Grady Five said...

Katie,
How awesome that you guys have the opportunity to go to Africa - when will you go?

Katie Carter said...

Tina (Athena),
The tentative dates are June 19-July 6th. At first I didn't know if I would go also, or if Justin would go by himself. After much prayer, we are both going to move forward with the process of raising support. I am pretty excited and humbled by the opportunity!