Happy Valentine's Day

We celebrated Valentine's Day a day late this year. We had a fun time at our co-op party eating lots of sweet treats and exchanging valentines. (Oh yeh, we actually learned some today too.)

The moms and kids prepared some yummy treats! (Those are our sugar cookies that Hannah put the ring of HOMEMADE icing around the edge.)

Most the moms and kids.

Corinne and Emma took in all the excitement of their first Valentine party.

Look at us, Aunt Heather! We like our heart outfits. Thanks for sending them for our birthday.

Hannah and Brock's class looking at all their valentines.

Still in the Ancient World

We're halfway through Unit 3 with our co-op and I realized that I never posted any photos from Unit 2. We didn't have a Unit Celebration due to the holidays. However, the kids made lots of fun crafts and projects during the unit. Here are some photos to show you what they did.

Hannah is dressed in her warrior costume and Greek sandals. (She wasn't a happy camper while taking these photos. She's typically smiling:)

An upclose look at Hannah's projects...Chinese flag, soldier for Trojan horse, Mayan mask (Mom placed upside down by mistake for photo), harp and tambourine, Greek sandal, kite, weaving, and tile (see the "H"?)

Brock wearing his warrior costume and Greek sandals

An upclose look at Brock's projects...weaving, Mayan mask (upside down again), Greek sandals, tambourine, tile (see the "B"?), kite, soldier for Trojan horse and Chinese flag

We're having a wonderful time this year in co-op using our Tapestry of Grace curriculum. Hannah and Brock are in the same class and they have two wonderful teachers. The kids are learning so much! I'll try to do better of posting photos with their projects each week.

Our Fish Story

It all started in December when Aunt Debbie emailed and told us to pick some books off her website for the kids Christmas gifts. Two books they chose were about dogs and cats. I (Mom) did not pay attention to the exact content of the books. What could be so bad about books about dogs and cats?

Fast forward to the middle of January when the books arrived. The box was opened. All the books were removed and the kids started reading. Well, the dog book was about how to care for your pet dog. The cat book was about how to care for your pet cat. Once reading both books cover to cover, Hannah started asking for a pet dog. (Cats are out of the question. Allergies!) Now this is coming from a girl who has been known to scream when a dog is within 50 feet of her. The answer was a simple and "don't argue with me" NO!

Well, a few evenings later Dad was putting everyone to bed. While talking to Hannah at her bedside about her basketball game the next day, a deal was made. If Hannah scored 4 goals at her game, we would go IMMEDIATELY after the game to get her a goldfish. (In all the other games, one goal was her record.)

Yep, you guessed it! Not only did she score 4 goals, but she did it in the first half! Her fourth goal went in as the buzzer sounded for half-time.

After the game off we went to find a goldfish. Seeing that we didn't want to make a huge investment in an aquarium setup, we compromised with a Beta Fish (aka Japanese Fighter Fish). So meet the newest addition to our family...Goalie!

Catching up...and the twins are 3 now

Okay, I'm wwwwaaaaayyyyyyy behind with the events of our family so I'll catch up with photos.

Hannah is having a great time playing Upwards basketball.

Emma's 3 year old breakfast...coffee cake!

Corinne's 3 year old breakfast...coffee cake!

Our knight guarding Freeland castle.

Emma making door hangers with her princess friends.

Corinne making door hangers with her princess (and one prince) friends.

Opening all our gifts.

Hannah and Genevieve watching the opening of gifts.

Princesses Corinne and Emma

Corinne's royal dining table

Emma's royal dining table

Emma preparing to blow out her candle. Big breath and BLOW!

Yummy, yummy cake!

Corinne with her cake.

Oh yeh, this is good!

So if you haven't figured it out by now, the twins had a Princess Party this year. They had a good time.

There's lots more news but I have to get the photos uploaded so I'll stop for now. Check back soon for our "fish story".

Another Trip to the Museum

January is flying by! Laura stopped by Friday while we were at co-op to see the kids. After a short visit, she went to Raleigh to "nanny" the daughter of some friends of ours. Yesterday she and Genevieve came over for the day. She came with Christmas gifts for all our kids. Lots of new books and toys to enjoy!

Today Laura and Genevieve met us at the NC Life and Science Museum. What a fun and busy day we had! Here are just a few photos from the day's activities.

Brock and Emma building blocks. Brock is knocking down his tower.

Laura, Genevieve and Emma with Hannah in background. Don't know the boy.

Corinne making bubbles.

This is a COOL exhibit! See the camera in the glass container on the left? You can zoom in on a caterpillar eating a leaf and you can HEAR it eating the leaf. If you look at the screen, Brock had a great view on it.

So now I know of at least 4 kids (no, 5, but Genevieve isn't here) who are sleeping soundly now. Tomorrow we'll get back to Solomon, Rehoboam, Jeroboam, Elijah and Elisha. Oh, we can't forget Ahab and Jezebel. But for today science was the topic and it was a fun one!

Hannah's Big Weekend

Hannah leaving for Alexa's sleepover birthday party.

Prayer before start of Upwards basketball game.

Taking a rest with Mrs. Coach Williams and Cierra. She has been friends with Cierra since we moved to NC. They played soccer together their first year also when they were 4 years old.

Taking the ball down the court for her team, the Lady Wildcats.

Good game!

Hannah had a good time at Alexa's birthday party last night. They stayed up well past midnight so she was dragging a little by this afternoon when it was time to play basketball. They played dress-up, had a fashion show, got their nails done, decorated pillow cases, ate and then ate some more, and had lots of fun together. I think there were six girls Hannah's age plus two or three "big" girls (Alexa's big sister and her friend) plus parents and grandparents. She's ready to go to another sleepover so I guess she didn't miss us too much!:)

The basketball game was fun today. Her team scored one goal. It will be interesting to see how much they learn the next 7 weeks. Every team member gets a "star" to put on her uniform after the game. There are different colored stars for different things like best defense, best offense, best attitude, etc. Hannah got the white star for Best Christ-like Attitude. We are very proud of Hannah!

Emma's Christmas Carol

Emma can be heard these days walking around the house singing...

"No waaaaaay in a manger no cwib fah-wa bed..."

We've tried to correct the words, but she just doesn't get it. And it's so cute we just don't try very hard to fix it right now:)

Brock cracks up our church!

Last Sunday, Brock and Hannah were in "big" church with us. During the sermon, our pastor was referring to Romans 7:18-19 that talks about how when we try to do the right things, we sometimes end up doing the wrong thing.

Our pastor said something like, " you know, it's like you beat up yourself for something you did and you were sorry for it? .... maybe you were angry and lost your temper, maybe you used profanity and said you would never do it again....maybe you took a drink of alcohol and said you would never do it again.... any of you ever done that?

Brock was sitting in my lap and just when our pastor made this point and asked that question, Brock was stretching and let out a big "Yeeeeeeeeeeeeaaaaaaaah!" Needless to say, people surrounding us for several rows heard it and all starting laughing, some out loud and others you could see trying to hold it in. Leave it to Brock to have impeccable timing!

Another Season - Sleepovers

Well, our little girl is moving into another season of life this week. She was invited to her first "sleepover". She was excited then a little undecided about spending the night. As soon as she found out Doggie could go with her, she was fine! So Friday night our little girl won't be home with the rest of us.....

Funny thing is that I was 7 years old when I went to my first sleepover (we called them slumber parties). Mom took me to K-Mart and bought me a Raggedy Ann and Andy sleeping bag. I still have it! Thankfully, Hannah has her own sleeping bag so I don't have to share it although I would if I had to.

It's Raining!

It's raining!

The rain gauge is showing a little over 3 inches and it hasn't quite stopped yet. The kids keep asking, "Is it raining over the lake?"

Praise God for the rain! Continue praying for more because we are still extremely far behind in waterfall and are close to very strict water restrictions if we don't get more soon.

Christmas Day 2007

Morning came in a usual way...until I walked up the stairs and said, "Merry Christmas everyone!" Corinne said, "What do we do now?" Such sweet innocence and excitement all at the same time. We all hurried downstairs to Dad fixing pancakes for breakfast. No one dilly-dallied for that meal! Then it was time to open gifts...

There were more gifts under the tree when they woke up than when they had gone to bed the night before so there was even more excitement. Brent started handing out gifts and the paper started flying...in a somewhat orderly fashion. There were lots of surprises from the grandparents, aunts, uncles and cousins.

The day slipped by rather quietly and calmly (unlike the previous day, thankfully) and Mom worked on dinner off and on all day. The kids played ALL DAY with their new toys. When we sat down to our turkey dinner, Dad asked Hannah what her favorite thing of the day was. She started laughing then said, "We're still in our pajamas! We don't have to change clothes when we go to bed tonight!" That made everyone laugh! (Note: kids were still in pj's; parents had managed to get dressed for the day:)

We spent some time remembering all God's blessings and talking about the GREATEST GIFT, JESUS. May the GREATEST GIFT be part of your celebration every day of every year!

Handing out gifts...

A Word Whammer - this looks like fun!

Walkie-talkies! And see H's new boots! She wore those all day also.

Dad got Mom some footed pj's!

End of the day...still playing with Polly Pocket...and still in pj's!

For those who care...the Christmas cactus bloomed Christmas morning with TWO blooms open!

Christmas Eve

Our morning began with me (Sabrina) waking to hearing kids over the monitor saying, "Mommy, I need you!" I went upstairs to find wet sheets...anyway, they were up early! The next thing I knew I was taking Hannah to the doctor for a week-old cough that only occurs at night. Diagnosis was just "dripping" at night so we headed to Wal-Mart for some Benadryl. On the home front, Brent had taken the other 3 to the grocery store for ice cream (incentive for going to sleep at night and not crying for Emma) and who knows what else they did. Somehow I managed to get the laundry done even though I was gone most the morning (although the last load will stay in the dryer until I fold them).

Everyone seemed to be tired and grumpy from waking so early so after lunch the 3 younger ones were put in bed. Corinne was the only one to sleep but at least the other 2 were away from their siblings and not arguing (yes, I know it's hard to believe but our children do argue occasionally!:) Brent took Hannah and Brock to play at a park after Brock had rested an hour. By the time the twins got up it was time to get ready for church. We took some photos before walking out the door. Here are a few of my favorites...

We have so many photos of their heads together. They love to hug like this.

The Freeland Girls

Counter clockwise: Hannah (7), Brock (5), Emma and Corinne (2 1/2)

Taken by Hannah

Taken by Brock

We went to church, came home for dinner, put on pj's (the kids), and went driving around to look at Christmas lights in our neighborhood.

And now the kids are sleeping and all I have left to do is to get the turkey ready for baking tomorrow.

For those who care to zoom in on the Christmas cactus on our piano, it's BLOOMING MORE THAN ONE BLOOM THIS YEAR!

Merry CHRISTmas!!

The Last Rose of the Year

We were outside last week in shorts and t-shirts when the kids noticed a rose blooming at the very top (over 6 ft tall) of our rose bush. That one lone rose was begging to be cut and enjoyed on our dinner table. I thought it was funny that we had a rose next to a Christmas candle. (Recognize the vase, Betsy? 18 years, over 8 moves, and it's still in one piece!)

So here it is...the last rose of the year. It's cold now and we'll have to wait until spring to have more roses on the table.

Now...let's all hum along with Susan Ashton..."a rose by any name is still a rose."

Hannah's Sunday Night at KidStuf

If you've been reading our blog you know that KidStuf is a regular event in our family. Most Sunday nights (except for the summertime and holidays) you'll find all 6 of us at KidStuf. (If you don't know what I'm talking about, go to the Archive and read the post for December 20, 2006.) Well, tonight was an exciting night for Hannah...

She had completed her GodTime card each week and had her Virtue Card punched for all 4 weeks in November. All the girls who had completed their Virtue Cards were called on stage at the end of KidStuf. They all received a 1/2 pound chocolate bar. Then a card was drawn to do the grand prize game...and Hannah was the girl! The game was to throw a ping pong ball into a bucket. There were 4 buckets in a row and she stood at the end of the row. She hit 2 of the 4 buckets so she received two more prizes. She was ssssoooooooooo excited!

I didn't have my camera with me so I don't have any photos to post but just think of Hannah with a big smile on her sweet face...that's how she looked when she walked off the stage to sit down with us. We sure do love our Hannah! :)

Youngsville Christmas Parade 2007

Hannah with her Upwards Basketball team - the Lady Wildcats.

I asked Corinne what her favorite part of the parade was..."CANDY!"... as she stuffs it in the pockets of her jeans.

Emma waving at the fire trucks. It was very loud! Notice the missing mitten for easier candy retrieval off the ground.

Brock with Ethan, Helen and Corinne (and Mom) enjoying the parade. He had plenty of candy stuffed in his pockets too! :)

Dad was at the parade but for the first time in our marriage, he was taking all the photos instead of Mom. Hummm, we finally have photos of Mom at a family outing.

We know you all are so sad you missed the Youngsville Christmas Parade 2007. That is why I didn't put the photos of the marching band and the rescue vehicles. It would be too much for you to bear.

Let the Christmas season begin!