December 2012!

The kids had a lot of fun making a gingerbread house again. It has become a tradition. I was very happy to find a kit that had candy that Shirley is not allergic too as well as the frosting. He was able to participate and was thrilled. Now that he is older he sure is sad when he can not join in on something. After Christmas they all enjoyed picking of the candy and eating it.

We received a little bit of snow a couple of days before winter break. It was enough to delay school for two hours. The kids had a lot of fun playing in it. (This is how dark it still is outside at 7 o'clock in the morning).

We had a church Christmas party. The kids had a blast. The favorite for Jem and Rilla (Shirley couldn't join in as he is allergic to the cookies and some frostings). Rilla was very elaborate in her decorating.

Santa even came. Shirley and Rilla loved that. Jem went and saw Santa but I think Walter felt like he was too old to.All the kids really enjoying church gatherings as they can play with the other kids. James even enjoyed it, as long as I didn't leave his sight. He doesn't really like being around lots of people and stays close to me and heaven forbid if someone tries to touch him or pick him up. That is not ok in his book.

James turns One!

Our little James turned one years old last month. He sure is a joy in our lives. He is dearly loved by his siblings. He is walking already. He is our earliest walker. For his birthday we had dinner, ate cake, and he opened his two presents. So far he doesn't appear to have any food allergies for which I am very grateful for. He is however very selective about who can touch him, hold him, etc. It is Gil, me, and Walter. He doesn't want anyone else, stranger or someone he is familiar with, to touch him. He throws a huge fit if they do. It sure makes it hard to have a babysitter. When we do, Walter has to do everything for him. Hopefully he will outgrow this.

Rilla's 6th Birthday!

Rilla turned 6 years old last month. I let her have a party. She was so excited to have girls over. Eight out of the nine we invited came, so Annie was thrilled. I enjoyed hosting a girl's party. We decorated cupcakes, played with ponies, made beaded necklaces, had a scavenger hunt, etc. It really was a lot of fun. I even made a Barbie Cake.

Our New House!

We moved in May to Ft. Lewis Washington. We were very excited for the move since we are now so much closer to family (3-6 hours away). I also like it here because I grew up in the northwest and am used to the evergreen trees. Before we moved I spent several months looking for a home to buy. I finally found our current home and we were able to close on it in May before we even got here. We wanted trees and a larger yard (at least 1/2 and acre) but couldn't find one that also had the open kitchen layout that I also really wanted. My husband wanted a newer home (so as not to worry about expensive repairs that an older home might have). I finally checked out every new home development in the area and finally found a small one that is surrounded by trees (most of the time all the trees are cut down). We lucked out that it had a house at the back of the development in a culdesac that was just being finished. So we got a new house with trees behind it and we can see trees out all of our windows. It aslo has a great open layout with an amazing kitchen with breakfast bar. Here are a couple of pictures of the neighborhood.

Here are pictures of the side of the house and back yard.

My husband planted huckleberry and blueberry bushes along the fence.

Here are the four tomato plants I planted. They are doing really well.

I built a little fort at the back out of tarp We had to compromise on yard size, but now that I will only have a little yard to take care of while Gil is deployed, I don't mind so much. We have the woods that we like to go for hikes in and the culdesac for the kids to play, plus a playground is going to be built across the street. Here are pictures of the views from our windows:

Here is our entry way:

Here is our living room, kitchen, and dining room:

Here is our half bath downstairs. It is off limits to the kids.

Here is Jem's and Shirley's bedroom. We decided to buy them a double bed since both like sleeping next to someone and would climb into our bed almost every night. Now they almost never climb in bed with us. It is also nice having the double bed for when family come to visit.

Here is our bonus room upstairs. It acts as a playroom, office and gameroom. I am homeschooling Walter this year and we use this room for that. I still need to do some organizing in this room.

Here is Walter's and James' room.

Here is Rilla's room. I told her she could pick out her own curtains. Luckily, she picked ones out that I liked.

Here is our bedroom and master bathroom:

It has a nice tiled double shower, but no master bathtub. I would have preferred a tub. We also have a den that we will be making into library. We aslo have a three car garage which is nice so we can still have stuff in there and park both cars in it. We are hopinng to be here a long time.