Naomi - Month 8

As I go back through my pictures for Naomi's monthly updates, I'm discovering that I'm not taking many these days.  I guess it's true that the youngest always gets jipped when it comes to the number of pictures taken.... I'll work on that!

She is getting very mobile these days and gets really mad when she gets herself into a place she can't get out of. 

I guess the love of Star Wars is in the blood.

 Naomi is such a joy, and seems to love having her brother and sister home and at her beck and call.  I've mentioned that she's going to be spoiled, haven't I?  She is so social, and loves to hand out smiles.

Shootout at the Samuelson Corral

David was getting out what he needed for his upcoming exercise, and he decided to put his fully loaded (45 lb) vest on Tristan, along with his kevlar. 

This tough guy even walked across the room with it on. 

Then David hooked him up with a double gun rig which he immediately filled with his pistols and got his shotgun for backup.

Then a shootout erupted. 

Taking cover! 

Then Tristan changed sides and Naomi headed for cover.

Whew!  She's out of the line of fire.

Tristan cleared the kitchen and gave the okay to proceed. 

(Grace is hiding behind the door in my craft room)

I just love these impromptu wars!

Bowling Alley Field Trip

Our homeschool co-op group had a field trip to the bowling alley on Friday.  I think I was more excited about it than the kids were.  I had never seen how everything worked, and thought it would be cool to see the machinery in action.

 

 

The back of the pin setter. 

After seeing how it all worked, we got to have a little fun playing too.

Our New Adventure

As you may know, I have started homeschooling the kids.  We have had to deal with several issues with the school this year, and after much prayer and careful consideration, David and I decided that it would be best to pull the kids and start our adventure of homeschooling. 
It truly is interesting to see how the Lord works:  Grace had a fabulous teacher for the first quarter of this school year.  She was in a 2nd/3rd grade split class, and was attending her gifted education class 4 days a week.  Unfortunately they had to do away with her class because they had to shuffle students around due to a lack of teachers.  I prayed that God would put her where she would do the best, with the provision of please, please, please don't put her in that class, and that's where she ended up... and after 3 weeks of movies in the classroom and not seeing any work come home or being able to tell me what she did in school, the homeschool option began looking better and better to us.  So, you see, God did place her where she would thrive, it just took us a while to get the message. :) 

Tristan had a fabulous teacher, and I really had mixed emotions about pulling him - mainly because of the "firsts" he would be missing out on - but we decided that if we were pulling one kid, we would pull both of them.  I do believe it was the right decision anyway because he was having a difficult time focusing in school because he was in a pretty rowdy class and his teacher just doesn't have the support she needs to be able to handle those kids and be able to teach.

A few of our books and our schedule.  And the required large cup of coffee for the teacher!

We fill our day with the three R's, science, history, and fun stuff like science experiments!

Using magnets.

And in our free time they can do whatever they want!

This day they were painting some of their wooden things. 

Grace is painting a cupboard for her doll house.

It's been about a month, and though we still have our days where we struggle, I think everyone is happy with what we are doing.  The kids still go to "specials" (Music, Art, PE, and Korean culture) every day for 45 minutes with their old classes, so they get a little bit of a break from school work and each other, and get to see their friends too.  Though we really had our reservations about beginning this adventure, especially smack dab in the middle of the school year, it has been a good thing for us.  We have a tremendous amount of support here as "all my friends are doing it"  (okay, not all, but most), and two of them even let us borrow enough of their curriculum to get us going for a good 10 weeks!  Our stuff has since come in, and I'm so excited to get into all the books!  And I love it that the kids actually ask to do different aspects of the school day!  We're currently reading Charlotte's Web and Tristan will bring me the book daily (even weekends) so we can read, and they get excited when it's time to do history or science.  But, the most wonderful thing about this is the fact that I get to spend more time with my kiddos - finding out what they're interested in the most, and I don't have to fight with them to get them to do homework after school (when they've already spent 6 1/2  hours in the classroom and don't want to do anymore work) so we can get to whatever afterschool activity happens to fall on that day.  When we are done with school that day, we are done - hooray!! 

Just For Fun

Here's a few pictures of the fun we've been having lately, since not much noteworthy has been going on.  We've been:

Hunting,

building,

playing in the dark,

Glow sticks in the tub are so much fun!

wearing crazy hats for AWANA,

and playing dress up.

Dedicated to the Lord

We have a fabulous group of families here that meet every Thursday night for Bible study.  Peter Adams, our leader, is a pastor who is in the Army working towards his Chaplaincy.  David and I have been discussing having Naomi baptized or dedicated for quite some time, but we couldn't decide the who, what, where, or when of it all.  Since we now are Baptists, we knew that baptism in our church was out of the question, since Baptists don't practice infant baptism.  We understand that, but still had mixed emotions about not having Naomi baptized, simply because Grace and Tristan were baptized.  We eventually decided that it didn't really matter if there was water involved or not, we were still committing ourselves to raising Naomi as God directs, to teach her about Him and prayerfully seek Him in all things.  Peter baptized several members of our Bible study at Chapel a couple weeks ago, so David and I decided that we would ask him if he would do a baby dedication, and he gladly obliged.  We decided that we would do it at our Bible study because we feel that they are truly our "church" family here. 

Most of our group 

This little princess somehow knew this was her moment. 

I received a rose which symbolizes the nurturing required to raise a child of God.

Something that starts small, but blooms into something beautiful with proper care. 

David received a stone which symbolizes strength.

He is to provide a firm foundation and be her rock in times of trial. 

These grins are courtesy of Kayden who was playing peek-a-boo with her.

Naomi received a Bible with an inscription that reads: "This book will lead you through life or life will lead you away from this book.  May it always be the former and never the latter. 

Psalm 37:23 'The steps of a man are established by the LORD, and He delights in his way.'" 

Naomi Mae Samuelson, dedicated to the Lord, February 9, 2012 

Of course I had to make a cake for the occasion!

Mom gave me a Cricut Cake for Christmas, and I was finally able to try it out. It cuts out designs and letters from fondant, sugar sheets and gum paste. I can tell it's gonna be a lot of fun to play with!

Happy Valentine's Day!

From our house to yours.

And I couldn't resist this one - I made these pants last night and think they turned out really cute.

I couldn't think of how to keep her upright other than "propping" her against the wall.  She really didn't like it, and I don't have any idea why...