The zoo aftermath.

After the zoo closed, we regrouped. Actually the kids played in the grass, some of the adults rested, other adults had to walk another mile to get their cars and drive them back to where the kids were playing.

Left is Adam Pederson (5 months), right is Dathan Dade (4 months).
Seth. Iraq didn't tire him out but 17 kids did. Actually I think it was the soft grass and the shade that was the draw. (Dagon Dade looking on.)
Seth again. See? Perky not tired.
How can they have any energy left?
Mind boggling.

After the cars were packed up and the kids were packed up, we decided to grab some pizza together at a Pizza Hut located right up the street from the zoo. We did take up 1/3 of the restaurant! Eight pizzas later, we were all full and headed home. It ended up being a late night for everyone, but we all agreed it was worth it. Whew!

Finally at the zoo. (April 19th)

I say finally at the zoo because we drove around for 30 minutes just looking for a spot to park. We had to stalk a couple just coming out of the zoo! After parking and eating lunch and walking to the entrance (which was no small feat considering the distance we were from it), we finally arrived. It was hot, and silly mother put sunscreen on everybody else but herself. I ended up with a nice sunburn. Here are a few pictures from our time at the zoo.

Nicholas in front of the elephants. The peacock feathers were given away due to an unfortunate encounter between a wolf and a peacock. The peacock lost.
Outside with the elephants.
Here would be the entire Dade/Pederson/Huntington group. I won't even begin to name everyone, especially since they are not lined up in nice symmetrical rows. There were 6 adults and 17 children ranging in age from 4 months up to 15 years old. It was a blast! We had strollers and kids everywhere. Not one child was ever misplaced! The kids would be in one stroller, then they would change to another. The little ones would hold hands with someone older, whether from their own family or not. It amazes me how all of the children get along with each other. When we are all together it feels seamless, like one big family, rather than OUR family and YOUR family. It's all one to me. What a blessing to have Seth with us and the Dades with us.
I can't tell which of these bad pictures is better. I am sure my finger was blurring something.

Fun on the way to Denver. (April 19th)

Nicholas wanted to go to the Denver Zoo with the Dade family for his birthday so off we went! It was a beautiful Saturday morning when we left Hayden. We stopped in Silverthorne to meet up with the Dades, and while we waited we took a stroll by the little river. There were shores full of skipping rocks and the kids enjoyed stretching their legs a bit after the 2 hour drive. Here are a few pictures from our little stop.

Darling Ruth.
Sabrina and Ruth.
Matthew having ventured out onto a rock.
Of course, Joseph had to follow suit and climb onto a rock.
The whole clan. In the back (l-r): Larry, Ellie with Adam, Thomas, Maria in the shadows, Seth with Ruth, and Brian.

in the front (l-r): Sabrina, Matthew, Joseph, and Nicholas.

Matthew's 8th Birthday. (April 12th)

Happy 8th Birthday Matthew! We had a nice quiet birthday celebration with his favorite breakfast in the morning, and the dinner of his choice. Then we proceeded to open gifts and eat some cake and ice cream.

Ahh. This gift would be the familiar whoopee cushion. What 8-year old would be complete without a whoopee cushion? This particular gift lasted a record 5 minutes before being destroyed. Never fill them too full would be the moral of this little tale.
The flaming frisbee.Nicholas, dear sweet Nicholas, always ends up near the fire. He volunteers to light the candles, thus fueling his desire to start the fire, carry the fire and look at the fire. He is always very safe and we appreciate his willingness to help.

Video of the biography tea.

If you follow this link www.steamboatpilot.com/news/ you will see a video of our biography tea. Just scroll to the video section and click on the homeschool biography tea link. It is adorable! You can also read the article that was in the paper. The article incorrectly identified the winner of the contest as Nicholas, age 9, who came as George Washington. It was Joseph, age 6 who came as George Washington. Nicholas was Stonewall Jackson. Anyway. You are sure to enjoy the video and the article but quick now. I am not sure how long the newspaper will keep this link on their site.

Homeschool Biography Day.

What a fabulous idea this was! It was actually the brain child of a young homeschooled boy, and his mother organized this day with the local library. The idea was this. Each homeschooled child that wanted to participate would read a biography and come (in character if desired) and share what they learned. We have been working on costumes and biography reports for a week and a half now and I know that our children had a blast! I discovered that I can sew and that I am creative and that my mother has a wealth of knowledge on things I sort of new of, but it blew my mind all of the technical terms she knew for everything! Thanks, Mom!!

The library brought in a judge to judge the costumes and another boy that came as Abraham Lincoln got third prize, our Jane Austen received second prize and our George Washington took the top prize for costume! What a delight it was for them to get all dressed up and give a report in front of everyone. They all agreed that it was fun and not terrifying. I am amazed at how cool they all looked, as opposed to me at their age who would have been shaking in my boots. Here are the pictures taken at the house minutes before departure.

Ellie as Jane Austen.
Thank you, Mom, for the beautiful dress. It turned heads. Thank you also to Natalie Chaney who did the fabulous up-do for the event. We couldn't have done it without you!

Thank you also to Mimi for her valuable information, gathered at the Jane Austen museum in Bath, England. What a treasure!
Thomas as William Wallace.

Thank you to Evan for letting him borrow the authentic replica sword.

Brian as Flemish pirate John Crabbe.
Thank you to Courtney for all of your help in locating information on this obscure naval engineer/pirate. Thank you to the Dade family for the head gear and for Marlene and Charlotte (bless their hearts) for delivering it to us from an hour away! You have all truly blessed us with your willingness to help in our time of need.

Maria as Laura Ingalls Wilder.
It was very informative to hear about Laura's life as she got older. I only recall information from the TV series, which is quite different from the book. Maria did a fabulous job of reporting the factual information pertaining to her life.

Nicholas as Thomas Jonathan "Stonewall" Jackson.
Thanks to Mom for the hat (what was the technical name for it, again?)and to Travis for the leather gloves. Nicholas made his own beard which took quite some time. He has decided to reengineer the elastic around the ears for it was quite painful. He is one smart kid! He also learned how to use the hot glue gun during this project. Watch out world!

Matthew as author G. A. Henty.

Matthew loves reading and has begun to read the Henty novels. What a great choice! The beard that we made for G. A. Henty was much wider than the previous beard. He did a great job in reading his report through all of that hair. Great job, Matthew.

Joseph as George Washington.

Joseph and I read 20 pages of material on George Washington and when it was time to give his report, I wasn't sure which facts would make it into the report. It was very informative! The usual information such as General of the American Army, First President of the United States didn't make it. He did talk about how he surveyed Lord Fairfax's 100 miles of property, which Joseph referred to as "his yard". It was a great report. Thanks Mom for ideas on the ruffles!

Sabrina as Hadassah (who became Queen Esther).
We came up with this outfit this morning as she kept changing her mind about her character. I think it ended up being Hadassah because Sabrina likes saying that name. She does it with flare elongating the last syllable (Ha dass aaaaaaaaaaaaah). What a drama queen!

Ruth as Queen Elizabeth, queen of England.

As we only had a princess costume that was borrowed from her sister Sabrina, by default Ruth had to be a queen or princess. We decided that Queen Elizabeth, the queen of England would be great. She had to stand up on the table and tell everybody who she was. She was so patient and well mannered as she sat and listened to each child talk about their characters. Several people reported that she has queenly mannerisms. (I think they meant that she likes to be waited on.)

Adam as Joseph Montferrant.

Who? you may be asking yourself. Well, we had the little outfit which we have always called his lumberjack outfit, complete with the sheepskin lined lumberjack hat. It just worked for him to go dressed as a famous lumberjack. All that was left was to find one. So I asked Thomas to find one and he did. He googled "famous lumberjack" and came up with Joseph Montferrant. He lived in Canada in the 1800s. We had to have an outfit for the baby!
Group picture of all participants. It was great fun and we hope they do it again, just not anytime soon. Whew! Thank you again to all that helped donate items for the costumes.

The morning sounds at our house.

As I sit here wondering what to write to all of you, (I like to imagine that my audience is VERY large) I am listening to the morning noises that are pretty typical for us. There is the clicky-clack of one of our two dryers, most likely from someone's overall buckles. One of our daughters is singing in the bathroom, the dog is barking in the garage, a timer is going off in the kitchen letting us all know that breakfast is but moments away. The fan and the shower are going in one of the bathrooms, our neighbor is outside moving some snow from his driveway and of course, the clicky-clack of the typewriter as I work. Above all of that noise, my 3rd daughter (Sabrina) can be heard talking to her sister. That tiny little girl has a HUGE voice. From the moment she learned to talk, she has been conversing with everyone that gets close to her, and some that aren't so close. She is tiny, but I pray that the Lord would use her mighty voice to accomplish great things.

On another note, my high school is having an all-school reunion in honor of its 30 years in existence. This has caused me to wonder what everyone has been up to since graduation. It has now been 17 years for me and I still keep in touch with some of the people I graduated with. Memories of high school came flooding back and as I shared some with my children, all they could do was laugh in horror/amazement. I even dug out my yearbooks to really reminisce about the "good ol' days". The general consensus among the children was "Mom, you look weird." Oh well. It was the nineties. I think we all looked weird. I have been pondering returning to Bismarck for this reunion. It would be enlightening to see everyone again and I am sure great fun would be had by all. If there are any old classmates out there in cyber-space, let me know if you plan on going.

A few pics of the boys.

Little Adam is now four months old! His brother, Nicholas, wanted to take this picture with a very oversized cowboy hat on him. I think the hat fits his cheeks, though. Don't you? He looks a bit like a squirrel storing nuts in his cheeks. As his mother, I can say that they are incredibly kissable. If you live far away and haven't had the privilege of kissing his cheeks, you are truly missing out.
I mean really. Have you seen bigger cheeks? He is so smiley and he puts up with all of the kissing and rubbing that we can dish out. Ruth loves to put her hands on both sides of his face and kiss him until she is good and done. What a sweet little guy.
Here are the next 3 youngest boys, Matthew, Joseph and Nicholas. Strange to think that when we moved here to Colorado, Nicholas was 3, Matthew was 1 and Joseph was but a thought in the mind of God. Now they are 9, 7 and 6. It is fun to watch them throw the ball, kick the ball, ride their bikes up and down the street, take the dog for a walk, make human pyramids, etc. I am thankful that they have each other as companions, friends and confidantes.
Joseph lost his first tooth and is wiggling a few others. The first space has almost been filled with a new tooth. Sabrina thinks that her teeth are loose now, too, but as she is only 4 years old, it doesn't seem likely. I think rather that she is in a hurry to be a big kid.

Do you ever have one of those days?

The title says it all. Comment if you want.
Lord Bless,
~Amy

Potty training update...

Well, day one of our "let her run naked" experiment proved to be what everyone said it would be...spent cleaning up little potty accidents. Five to be exact. Day two we only cleaned up two. We are now on day three and are looking forward to perhaps none?

I need some advice from anyone of you willing to give it. What do you do at night for those children who NEED to go to bed with some water? It makes the little one want to tinkle in the middle of the night, but she has always needed water at night. *sigh* Do we have to train her to get up in the night to go? I don't recall having this exact problem with any other children, not to say that we didn't, just that I don't remember. Thanks for any words of wisdom.

Long time no post.

I have realized that I may never be a consistent blogger. As desperate as I may try, I seem to find that weeks go by with no new posts. Case in point, it has been 17 days since I last posted! It doesn't seem that long to me, but it has been that long. Sheesh.

As a quick recap of everything we have done in the past two weeks, I can say the words "clean & organize". We are still going through the remaining boxes of "stuff" we have accumulated. We are almost done organizing the boxes that have been brought over to the new house. Vanity of vanity, says the writer of Ecclesiastes. Cleaning and organizing truly is a vanity. By that I mean that we never really come to the end of it. Does anyone ever truly finish their laundry? finish the vacuuming and dusting? finishing washing the dishes? I don't think I will ever come to the end of organizing this house, even if we do finish sorting through boxes. With each trip to the store there are new things to put away and make room for. God has so richly blessed us that we have to organize all that we have. What a glorious thought! Imagine those people that have two or three things, rather than a house full. (Sometimes I think that would make my life easier.) Thank you Lord for the material things that You have blessed us so richly with. May we use all that You have given us for Your glory and may we seek to humbly serve You with all of the blessings You bestow upon us.

On a separate note, we are trying a new method for potty training. We are letting our two year old run buck-naked through the house! (I must say that there is mild anxiety on the part of my husband who just built this gorgeous new house, mostly because of the brand new carpet!) I have heard good things from every person that has tried this before. They say it is the quickest way to get the potty training done. With our PT already in week 2, I am ready for it to be done. I will post our success or failure using this method when such a thing can be determined.

Hidden Jewels

Malachi 3:17, "And they shall be mine, saith the Lord of hosts, in that day when I make up my jewels."

Every saint is a jewel of God. I am convicted by God to look at people (and also my children) in this light. Often we cannot see the jewel as it hides behind the rough exterior. All we see is unsightly hard rock, but God wants us to look beyond what we see on the surface.

We sometimes hear the phrase, "He's a rough diamond." This means that the person is pretty rough on the outside but inside they have a heart of gold. We need to be reminded that there is a diamond, or perhaps a sapphire, an emerald, an opal, a ruby or an amethyst in each person. The jewel in every person is different. Each jewel will reveal different colors and lights of God's character. But we cannot see the beauty shining from the jewel until it has been cut and polished. And what a painful process this is. Much cutting has to be done o reveal the many-faceted hues and beauty of the gem. The cutting goes on and on. And when it is finished, the polishing starts. It hurts

I know God has to do so much more cutting and polishing with me. May we let Him do His work and cut away all the roughness and hardness. May we also have patience with all God's saints, even those who are still rough and uncut.

May God give us patience with our children. God has given us the task of being a lapidary (a cutter and polisher of gems). It is the lapidary's art to reveal the gem. Sometimes we may feel it is a hopeless job. But we must never give up hope. There is a jewel in every child of God. There is a precious jewel in every one of our children that waits to be revealed. We must see it by faith. We must pray it into being. May God give us vision, patience and understanding as we fulfill this great task. It does not happen over night. It is painstaking and time-consuming.

The above paragraphs were taken from an Above Rubies digest written by Nancy Campbell. What a blessing to me this morning! It helped me see the disciplining and discipling of my children in a new light. When children are young they need a lot of their sinful attitudes and selfish behaviors "cut away". When they are a bit older, they need their parents to "polish" them. What a glorious way to look at our commands in Scripture to raise up our children! To be lapidaries to them! Lord, thank you for blessing me with these words this morning. May I always look at Your children that You have entrusted to me as jewels. Help me to cut and polish them so they are ready for Your service.

Adam Eliot, February 26, 2008

Most of our babies have been bald, and Adam is no exception. He has a beautiful cue ball head. He is pictured here with Thomas, our oldest son who is 15 years old. They are great friends. Adam weighs about 14# 9 1/2 ozs. give or take an ounce.

We have been going through the garage at the other house and yesterday we looked at miscellaneous pictures. I was amazed at how similar my kids look! I can see it with some of the kids, but not with all of them, until I look at older pictures of my kids. Wow!

Gorgeous beams!

Larry worked on this beam work for about a month, give or take a week, in January. I am sure he could tell you the technicalities of the job, but for now you will all have to settle for just looking at the beautiful pictures.


I find this work extremely beautiful and I appreciate it so much more knowing just how long it takes and how labor intensive it is. Many nights my very fit husband came home with aches from having lifted so many heavy beams that day.

Joseph's 6th Birthday on Jan 22, 2008

I can't believe I am posting these pictures over a month late. I am embarrassed that I am such a procrastinator. Regardless, here are the pics from Joseph's 6th Birthday.

The look of delight stems from the gift being the movie Happy Feet. Joseph adores penguins.
A new deck of playing cards brings immense joy to the life of a 6 year old.
The fire bearer is our son, Nicholas, our very own pyro-"maniac". He is a responsible fire-lover and is your man if you ever need a candle lit. I believe his love of fire is genetic and comes from his father. There are many stories that could be told.
"Thank you Lord for this cupcake and sugar that I am about to receive."