Micah being Micah

This is a video Justin took of Micah at dinner a few weeks back.  He is such a ham.  Justin has taught him to show his muscles and show which direction the beach is (like a muscle man showing off his muscles to the babes on the beach).  It is hard to believe that Micah will be two on Sunday.  He is such a little miracle and blessing from God!

Snow in March?!

So, we wake up on Sunday morning and look our our window to get the weather report (this is generally more accurate than those fellas on TV) and realize that we have 4 inches of snow on the ground and it is coming down HARD!  I love the snow no matter when it comes, so I did a little snow dance in front of the window and called for the boys to let them know there was snow.  You can tell we have had a lot of snowy days this winter because their response was a half-hearted "I know" when given my exciting report about the weather.  I took a few pictures on our way to church.  I was just amazed at the amount of snow coming down so fast.

This is near our house on Glenwood Rd.  Notice the amount of snow on the hood of the Excursion.  By the way, Justin was excited for the snow if only for the excuse to drive the Excursion to church instead of the Volvo.  Boys and their trucks, gotta love it.

This is right on the water in Gorst.  We couldn't believe that it was snowing so hard even right on the water.

About midway on our drive to church.  Still had not seen a snow plow at this point.  It was interesting that we saw only one car off the road, I think people are finally getting used to driving in the snow considering how much we have had this year.

 This is looking out at the church parking lot.  You can kind of see that it is still snowing.  I was trying to capture how large the snowflakes were.  It was such a wet snow that the flakes were bigger than I have seen in a long time, if ever.

Homeschooling!

I have really been enjoying homeschooling Isaiah this year. There are definitely challenges, and my house is not as clean as I would prefer, but when I get a glimpse of how much he is learning and see the learning process taking place-I am so thankful to be a part of the process. His reading has taken off much faster than I ever anticipated. We go to the library once a week to check out new books. We are loving the library, as there is no way I could afford his reading habit without it. Well, for that matter, I could not support my own reading habit without the library! Currently he is in to reading Magic Tree House books and is on number #22. He will sit down and read one in one sitting!

Last month his language curriculum wanted him to write a letter. It gave us the perfect opportunity to write a Thank You Letter to Grandma for the $5 she sent for Valentine's Day. I am very proud of the hard work he put in to it and how much he has improved his handwriting since the beginning of the year when he could not form most of his letters at all.

As I am writing this, he is in his room, laying on the floor, reading Pilgrim's Progress for the 4th time. He just told me he does not want to do school today. I love that he does not see reading as school. It takes some effort to motivate him in other areas of our school day, so I am thankful to not have to work to get him to read.

Africa!

I had updated my status on Facebook to indicate a trip to Africa this summer and received a few responses asking about it, so I thought I would take the opportunity to share what this trip to Africa is all about.

Justin and I will be going with a group of 7 others from our church this summer to a small country in Western Africa called Togo. We will be in the northern part of Togo that is pretty close to the Sahara Desert. It is bordered on the North by Burkina Faso. We will be working with a missionary that our church supports. Two years ago a team from our church went to southern Togo and built a church building with this same missionary. He and his wife then relocated to the northern part of the country to start a new missionary base to work with the people in this area that are mostly muslim. They are going to be establishing a hospital, which is what they had done previously in the southern part of Togo. We will probably be helping with a latrine system, as there is very poor latrine conditions in this area and much disease is spread from human waste.

Justin and I will leave on June 26th and come back on July 12th. This is a very long time for me to think about leaving the boys, but my parents have graciously agreed to watch them for us. We would all appreciate your prayers as we prepare for this trip as well as while we are in country.

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

Anniversary #9--At the Mariner's Game!

We went to a Mariner's game this year as a combination Anniversary/Justin's 30th Birthday. I got tickets in the Diamond Club section, which is the first 8 rows behind home plate. Included in the tickets was dinner before the game as well as snacks and drinks during the game. It was a once in a lifetime experience to be so close to the field that you could actually recognize the players by there faces, not just by the big screen in center field announcing who is up to bat. And, to top it all off, the Mariner's won!

On the ferry over to Seattle.

Beautiful Mt. Ranier in the distance. It was a gorgeous day.

Before the game view from our seats.

Looking into the Mariner's dugout.

Self-Portrait of us in our seats.

Crow Butte Vacation 2008

This is the third year that we have taken our vacation at Crow Butte Park on the Columbia River in Central Washington. We spent two wonderful weeks there with the Hill Family. Elijah went in the tube by himself for the first time on this vacation, Micah took a ride with me on the tube (he saw everyone else going and made it very clear that he wanted a turn also), and Isaiah tried skiing! We explained to Isaiah that the skis were longer than he is tall and that they were a bit too big for him, but he was determined to give it a shot. I was so proud of him for trying.

Here is Isaiah hanging out on the beach looking so cool with the goggles on!

Playing in the sand. Micah looks like a little beach bum.

I love this picture of Elijah digging in the sand.

This was Elijah's first time on the tube by himself. He was willing to go because he had the goggles on to keep the water from spraying in his eyes. I think he looks like a little aviator!

Micah's first time on the tube. He almost fell asleep during the ride.

Justin was able to get up on the wakeboard and had a lot of fun on it. You can see that the water was pretty nice on this day. We had a few days of bad wind, but we also got a few days of beautiful water and sun.

Isaiah's Skiing Sequence

1. Paul helping Isaiah with the skis.

2. Isaiah just starting to be pulled in the water.

3. Look at the deterimination. His tips are still up...

4. ...and now he's a torpedo.

When I asked him what happened, he told me that he was trying to turn like Mr. Paul did (on a slalom ski) and when he tried to turn his feet came out of the skis. I told him that maybe he should just work on going straight for now and we can work on the turns later!