Creative Kids

Once again, I've taken an unscheduled hiatus from blogging. The power cord to our laptop has died. I've ordered one and it should be here Monday. Somehow, the old one gave me enough juice to charge the computer today. So here we go!

Earlier in the week, Luke came home from school and wanted to play outside and be super heroes. On one of the kid websites, they have a place where you can enter some information and discover your superpowers. He did it as school and wanted to find out the girls' powers. So he got on the computer, found them out and they all made their costumes sitting at the kitchen table and then went outside. It was so cute!

Luke helping Hope with her costume

Sara showing off her best superhero pose!

Super Luke!

We're almost done with the backyard! Yea! I have been so grateful to my Daddy for helping us to get it together. He made us a deck box to hold the waterslide and bouncy house. And it's great for serving food! We went tonight and got flowers for the hanging baskets and it's almost done! We get to break it in for Hope's birthday party on Tuesday!

Lance has been working a LOT this week and weekend. I haven't seen him at all hardly. The kids are missing him and so am I. I'm ready for a break so we can get away together as a family, but it will be a little while longer before that can happen. So the kids and I are spending a lot of time outside. They are loving it. We bought some sand for the sandbox tonight, too, and I'm sure I'll be asking myself why in the world I did that in a few days! Cleaning sand out of the kids hair before they come in the house ought to be fun! Ha! But they will have a lot of fun playing in it.

Luke has 4 more days of school. I think I'm more ready for him to get out than he is! He has been really sweet lately and I'm ready for him to be home during the day. We have a lot planned this summer: swimming lessons, science camp for Luke, dance camp for the girls, VBS, library, and POOL! I feel like I lost last summer since I was pregnant with Emma and miserable, so I'm ready to make up for it this summer!

Summer's Almost Here!

Luke still has 7 more days of school left; then it will be summer in the Faddis house! I can't wait! With the days so long now and the kids enjoying playing outside so late, I'm so ready to not have worry about bedtimes. I am so grateful to my Daddy for helping us get the backyard fixed up. It has been so nice for the kids to be able to go outside and not be covered in mud when they come back in. And they are having so much fun playing on the playground. Usually when Lance gets home, he heads to the backdoor to say hi to the kids.

Here are some before and after pics of the backyard.

It's hard to tell in this one, but that's all dirt and holes next to the house.

Looking out the backdoor at the same side of the house.

The finished product. The little plants in the front are the girls' pepper plants. You can see Jack's pen in the back.

Now we're just waiting for the grass to grow over the dirt that we used to fill the pot holes.

Horses!

We spent today at our land. Lance and Luke went out earlier than the girls and me. We took out a picnic lunch and then spent some time riding. Luke's birthday is coming up in a couple of weeks. We got him a horse for his 5th birthday, but it got a brain fungus and we had to have him put down last year. It was a sad day. So we surprised him with a new horse today for his birthday. His reaction was funny. Lance had the camera ready to capture his expression and when I told him that the new horse was his horse, he frowned. Then he got a little upset. He said that he still wanted to ride Black (another horse we have). Then he said he wanted a boy horse. (his new one is a mare) Lance and I just laughed! When I explained to him that he could ride in the rodeo on this horse, he said, "by myself?" I told him yes and that's all it took for him to get excited! Ha!

Luke and his new horse

We also have new baby! My horse had her baby this week. He is adorable! The kids are loving him.

The newest addition

Momma and baby


Hope riding

Sara all grins

Right in the middle of riding, a thundershower hit. And hit hard! We threw the kids in the car and got soaked getting everything put up!

Lance and my sopping wet!

End of The Year Activities

It's been a busy past couple of days with all our end of the year activities for Sara and Luke. Last night was Sara's "graduation" from MDO. Most of the kids in her class will be going to kindergarten next year. The 3 year old class sang some songs and Sara's class sang songs and the one's who are going to kindergarten wore cap and gowns and got "diplomas". Sara and the other ones got to walk across the stage and get a diploma, too. It was pretty cute. Next year, Hope's class will sing and Sara will be wearing a cap and gown. It's going to be fun!

Singing her songs

The graduate with her diploma

Sara and another little boy in the class started the program off leading everyone in the Pledge of Allegiance. She cracks me up because she gets shy when asked to perform. That girl doesn't know how to be quiet, but if you put her up in front of people, she freezes and just grins. It's so cute!

Then today was field day at Luke's school. It was so much fun. Luke has been blessed with a great teacher this year who "gets" him and is so wonderful to him. And she has fun with the kids. She did all the activities with the kids and we all had a blast!

water relay

that water was cold!

Proud Momma Day

Today has been one of those days that just makes my heart happy to be a momma. It was MDO for the girls and I went to PT and ran a couple of errands. Emma and I came home and I started to clean up the kitchen. She was getting fussy in the living room so I put her in front of our new screen door and she sat there for 45 minutes watching Jack play. It was so cute! She is so adorable! (and a side note: she is sitting up on her own now! I heard her fussing in the living room and she was on her belly. The next time I looked she was sitting up playing! And my Daddy and Lance both said they've seen the same thing the past couple of days. None of us have actually seen her do it, but I'll get a pic when I catch her!)

She was enthralled

Then my Daddy took me to lunch. After we picked up the girls and had naptime, Luke got home from school. When he got to the door, I took his backpack and looked for his behavior chart. Green card! Woo Hoo! Way to go Luke. He's been getting greens pretty much solid for a month now. And his library book was in his backpack. "The Old Farmer's Almanac for Kids" A little back story: during all our landscaping of the backyard, Lance bought 3 pepper plants for the girls to take care of and a tomato plant for Luke to take care of. So when I asked him why he picked that book today, he said, "I wanted to read about gardening." I was so proud of him. Then he asked if he could go water his tomato plant. He can't wait for it to produce some tomatoes. He told me that whenever they are playing in the backyard and want a snack, they can just pick a tomato! He's so adorable.

Luke reading his book before bed

This afternoon, the kids were playing in the backyard. They were having a blast! Jack has figured out how to climb the ladder of the playground. Lance made our playground a couple of years ago and made a big deck area the kids call "the fort." So Sara got Jack to come up the ladder and she and Hope were having a tea party with Jack. It was hysterical!

The Fort Tea Party

And we rounded out the day with dinner on the patio. The kids loved it. We haven't been able to eat out there with the yard in the shape it's been in. So we are looking forward to being able to do it this summer!

Great Neighbors

Sunshine. What is that?!?! We've had rainy weather for almost 3 weeks and today the sun was shining! Yea! We went to church this morning then out to lunch. Then home for naps and after that we were outside. We have spent a lot more time in the front yard this year. The kids are able to ride their bikes, play with sidewalk chalk and play with the kids in the neighborhood. We have 2 sets of neighbors that have become good friends over the past few years. It is such a blessing to have neighbors that you like and do things with. And hopefully we will have a new set of neighbors directly across the street from us soon. The kids and I were out the other day and they were at the house with an inspector. We talked after they inspector left and if everything goes through, they should be closing middle of June. Luke is excited. They have 6 kids between them, but 3 of them live with them. The 2 oldest boys are 8 and almost 6. So Luke will have 2 boys his age right across the street to play with.

It is so much fun to see my kids be their own people. Today our friends across from us had their niece over. She is Luke's age, but she and Sara were playing together in our front yard and then they went over to Brad and Sabrina's backyard to play. They played for an hour together and wanted to do it again. It's so cute to watch my children interact with other kids and adults and see them becoming their own person. What a joy and privilege and awesome responsibility!

All About Emma

Baby Emma. God's little surprise! We were soooo done at 3, but God had other plans. There is no doubt He had her for our family and I can't wait to see her grow up and see who she is going to become.

She is THE sweetest baby. I like to think that God knew that if He was going to surprise me with #4, He was going to have to give me an easy baby and He did. She is the most laid back little thing. She never cries. The only time she does is if she's poopy or tired. And she smiles all the time! She has the absolute cutest grin. Her whole face lights up when she smiles.

She loves to play with the kids. She screams with joy when one of them walks into the room. It's so precious. I love to see that she loves them even as little as she is.

Everyone comments on what a sweet and cute baby she is. The nursery workers at our church love having her. It is such a blessing when they ask about her if she's been sick or tell me when I drop her off that they are excited that she's there. (I'm sure they love having one who doesn't ever cry!)

She is starting to become more independent and makes her will known. She has started really trying to crawl. She gets her legs up and moves them, but she can't figure out to pick her head up and leave her hands down! It's the funniest sight. She scoots her head along the floor for a few inches and then gives up. She'll get it pretty soon and then it's look out!

And she is cracking me up with her yelling! She has discovered her voice and she's not afraid to use it! I have been pretty laxed about working sign language with her. I have used a few signs with the other kids to make it easier on them so they don't get so frustrated trying to communicate. I need to start working with her more. She seemed to understand "more" tonight. And that's a big one to be able to use. I think she'll catch on pretty quickly.

I can't believe she's going to be 9 months in 4 more days! She'll be 1 in 3 months! It's amazing how time flies.

She my fourthborn, surprise of all surprises, sweet, innocent, happy, laidback, precious Emma Noelle.