10 on 10

Snapshots from our day {March 10, 2015}

Early morning workout - I do 25 minutes on the elliptical and about 20 minutes of weights. I have never taken a picture at the end of my workout - it was a challenge. If I stopped moving the machine paused and when I took the picture while still moving it was blurry. Ahh! Trust me though, my speed was much faster during the workout than what is pictured! LOL

Jacob was really busy today but was able to come home for a few minutes between schools. All the kids piled on him to snuggle a little bit. Levi didn't want his picture taken and Jacob's coffee cup is hiding Asher's face. :) 

Mama's tea blend brewing.

Reading time.

Me and my little bread baking helper.

I think I need a larger bowl to let the dough rise in. HA

3 loaves and 2 pans of cinnamon rolls - plenty for us and some to share.

New homemade play dough is a great rainy day activity!

Sweet 16 month old Ava.

This entire pregnancy I have been craving a grilled cheese sandwich (with pickles and onions) but since I rarely eat bread (I can only eat spelt flour) I haven't had one. Well, since I made bread today, I caved and had a sandwich. It was SOOO good!!!

Snow days.

Last week we got snow for the first time this season! The kids were so excited to watch it come down and get to play in it! Lily and Levi had the best time playing in it, but Asher and Ava preferred to stay inside. 

Early in the week Asher had a bar stool fall over and smash his toe, so he pretty much spent the whole week on the couch. He enjoyed hot chocolate though! :) 

We got about 10.5 inches when it was all finish! This picture was taken at 9pm - I love how light it is outside at night when there is snow on the ground. Jacob and I went for a walk after we got the kids to bed. 

The next morning Jacob wanted to brave driving out to my parent's farm so we could participate in sledding and snowboarding behind the 4-wheeler. I'm not that much of an adventurer, but I didn't want to be left home alone with the kids. Ha!

The roads were pretty rough in some places, but the two big mountains that you have to go up/go down on the way had been scraped, so that was good. We got a little stuck going into my parent's driveway, but when Jacob backed up and took a "running" start we made it. 

Levi enjoyed getting a clump of snow and slowly eating it. 

Levi and Uncle Joshua ready for a sled ride.

Lily and Uncle Joshua having fun on the sled!

Jacob took his snowboard and while he was waiting on a rope to hold on to, he took a quick ride holding on to the sled. Ha

My mom invited us to stay for lunch and I enjoyed getting to help her cook it while Asher and Ava played inside and the others were outside burning off energy.

This week we had a couple of days of ice. Ugh! I'm not a fan of ice...but thankfully we didn't lose power! I am ready for spring now! :)

Coming soon!

We are thrilled to be adding another precious blessing to our family this fall!! 

10 on 10

It's the 10th!! Here's my 10 pictures on Tuesday, the 10th of February :)

Up early to go to the gym. (If I jump out of bed at 5:13 I can get ready and to the gym by 5:30 to meet my dad. :)

I finished this amazing, wonderful book today.

We finally found a winner waffle recipe after almost 7 years of marriage. 

Drawing/coloring time. (Lily drew herself and copied the Bible verse she learned on Sunday night. "Jesus said I am the bread of..." She is still working on spacing between words and getting b and d properly written. Haha!)

Our sweet 15 month old girl.

Grapefruit snack. Yum!

Naptime/resttime is an essential part of our day. The big kids were listening to an audiobook.

I love all the sweet pictures hanging on our wall. 

In this season of life I am so, so thankful for my dishwasher!

Finishing out this "stay at home" (no makeup and ponytail) day by answering emails, listening to an online class, and waiting for my sweet husband to get home!

Catching Up: Christmas activities

Lily has been taking piano/music lessons from one of Jacob's violin student's mom. We trade lessons and it's worked out great for Jacob to teach the daughter in one room and Lily to have her lesson in another. Lily's been learning composers, rhythm, theory, fun songs and games. She loves it! She had her first recital right before Christmas. There were 4 or 5 other kids her age/level and they performed two songs in the recital. Lily did great and didn't have any stage fright. I was preparing myself for her to get nervous because I HATED recitals when I was taking piano lessons, but she was just excited and didn't act nervous at all!

The last storytime at the library before Christmas break. My kids love going to storytime every Monday morning! The teacher is so great to keep their attention and do really fun things.

Singing to elderly friends and family. We missed going singing last Christmas because Ava was just a month old and it was freezing cold. The kids had such a good time this Christmas! They know lots of the Christmas carols so they joined in singing. So precious!

Our kid's co-op Christmas party. We do a twice a month co-op with some other families at church. We do a different theme each time - not super structured because our kids are still young. Myra's mother-in-love came with salt dough ornaments and helped each child paint a couple ornaments each. 

We also acted out the Christmas Story! We were missing some children because of other obligations, so some of the kids were shepherds and wise men. :)

There is this awesome trail of Christmas trees in a nearby city where you can walk through for free. All the trees are decorated with a different theme. We went one evening after Christmas and really enjoyed it. There were some really creative decorations!

Right by the trail of Christmas tree is an outdoor ice skating rink. The kids had never been skating before, but they wanted to try. Asher tried for about 2 minutes and then cried until we took his skates off and let him sit on the side and watch the others. I didn't skate, so I kept Asher and Ava on the side. Jacob, Lily and Levi had a blast! L&L pushed the green push thingys and they whizzed around the rink. There is a homeschool ice skating day each month at an indoor rink closer to where we live, so we are thinking of trying that since they had so much fun.

Sweet Levi!

Blurry Lily going the wrong direction on the rink. Haha.

We had so much fun making memories over Christmas. I'm thankful for everyday I get to spend with my family. 

Catching Up: The Nutcracker

I'm going to be doing a few catch up posts from Christmas. I want to have the pictures and memories saved here, so bear with me :)

Lily got to go to The Nutcracker performance with Grammie and Aunt Elizabeth again this year (I think it's going to be a yearly tradition - at least Lily hopes so!). 

It was a school performance so there weren't designated seats, but Lily was really happy that they got to sit on the front row! 

Lily with Jacob playing in the orchestra pit. During the intermission, Jacob took Lily down to the pit to see what it was like. She thought that was pretty neat! One of the other musicians commented to Jacob after the performance about how mesmerized Lily was the whole time - sitting on the edge of her seat watching every move. :)

Sweet girl and her Daddy!