More teaching...and a Student teacher

Josie has a student teacher named Tessa. She is in her early stages of teaching Karley colors!

School Time....

Karley should be ready for 1st grade by the time she starts school with ALL the instruction she gets from home from her siblings! The kids LOVE to play school, as I stated before. They remind me of myself because I always liked playing school with my siblings. It is also fun to here how they instruct because you can hear their own teachers coming out of them, the good and the bad! Karley has been very cooperative through all the of the instruction. Emma and Josie are the teachers and Connor the principal. Of course, the get in their teacher character they need to be wearing my shoes and jewelry!!

Library time...

Art class: Emma teaching colors and telling Karley where and what to draw.

Activity time... teaching to find matching parts to make a creation.

It's a Girl!!!!

Her name is Tessa! Josie and Emma were playing doctor the other day... (dress up clothes really get their imagination rolling). I think their imagination and experience from visiting Mom and Dad and Aunts and Uncles in the hospital helped with all the details they included during this Doctor play! When I got downstairs, the baby was already born.. so I got the after birth shots!!

Josie holding her new baby girl. (She is wearing a real hospital outfit for kids and a hair net.)

Her bed was made with WHITE blankets and she had a couple of pillows to make her comfortable.

Doctor Emma did a great job of taking care of Josie and the baby!

Doctor Emma checking the baby out to make sure she is healthy!

Doctor Emma holding new baby Tessa!

The hospital room... baby cradle, rocking chair, hospital bed and bathroom in the back!

Doctor Emma making a name card to put on the crib so everyone can see her name.

Later they switched roles and Emma had a baby boy named John!

All Moms and babies are doing well!

Creek Stomping

Last Saturday was another beautiful October day and so we headed down to Belken Lane to stomp around in the creek! Connor, Emma, Josie,Karley,Elly, Max,Sam, Carter, Pierce, Brielle and John got the chance to get their feet wet! They all got their boots on and started on their adventure!

The girls enjoying a walk up and down the creek from the low water to high water! Yes, at times they had to stop to dump the water out of their boots!

The highlight for the boys was taking a net and trying to catch crawdads, fish, frogs, etc. Yes, they were successful! Karley and Brielle were checking out what they found!

Connor taking a dip in the water!

Josie and Karley heading back to the van! Josie with one boot on and one off and Karley in her socks since the water just got dumped out of their boots.

The kids just LOVE going down their to play, get wet and to see what they can find!

Digging for Potatoes...

Last Wednesday Becky and I took the kids out to the farm for the morning since it was a beautiful day out. After playing outside, checking in with the kittens, calves and chickens, we loaded up in the gator to head over to Matt's house to dig up his potatoes. The kids had a great time finding all sizes of potatoes and even some worms to play with! We came back with a bucket full of potatoes! Everyone got to bring some home along with some fresh chicken eggs. What a day!

Karley, John, Brielle, Willa and John waiting for Grandma.

Walking to the garden to find the potatoes

Digging up the potatoes... each kid got a chance to help dig up the potatoes

Picking up the potatoes to put into the bucket.. we found all sizes and shapes

Getting ready to head back to the farm with potatoes in HAND and a bucket full!

Horse Lover

Karley has really become a horse lover. When Grandma and Grandpa first got the ponies she really only liked to pet them. Now that Patches has a saddle on and Karley rode a couple of times with her siblings and cousins, she LOVES to ride by herself. She does a great job of holding!

Lincoln and Karley

1st Piano lesson

Connor, Emma and Josie take piano lessons from my mom. Connor and Emma have been taking them for over a year and Josie just started this year. All enjoy taking lessons from Grandma. This past Friday Karley thought that she wanted to start taking lessons. I told the kids that they had piano today when they got home from school and Karley said, " Me too!" Mom came and gave the other kids their lessons and after she was finished, mom and I were talking and Karley walks up to Grandma and says, " My turn for piano lessons." So they went back to the piano and mom started teaching her the black keys. Karley thought she was a big girl!!

On-line bedtime stories..

Our friend, Heather, shared an online story site where the author or guest readers read a story while showing the pictures from the book. The kids have really enjoyed listening to them. There were only a few that they have read before or that we have. They sometimes listen to some of these stories before bed instead of me reading to them.

First Hair Cut..

Terry got a new hair clipper set and Connor was the first one to give himself a hair cut with the new scissors in it. He did a little trimming to the front of his hair. Later, Terry took the clippers to shave Connor's hair shorter and his own. Terry is becoming his own barber now!

Karley and Amy

Karley was enjoying a beautiful Fall day on the farm by taking a walk to find Amy (the dog).

Running back to Mom after seeing Amy!

Family Picture

Family Picture with Grandma Emma!

Emma and Emma

Emma was named after Grandma Emma and she thinks that is pretty cool! Out of all the grandchildren and great- grandchildren she is the only Emma Josephine! Emma is always praying for Grandma Emma! During this visit Grandma gave Emma a little gold necklace. Emma really treasures this and had to wear it to school the next day!

Play time at Great- Grandma Emma's

During our visit with Grandma Emma, the kids went downstairs to play. As you see there isn't much down there, but they had a BLAST! Connor practiced with pool game with Karley's help once in awhile. Emma and Joise entertained themselves with the pretend bird and it's cage. They remembered the bird from last time being there and couldn't wait to play with it. Grandma's basement hasn't changed much if any since I was little! I remember playing with the pin- ball machine, pool table, the chairs, etc.

Great Grandma Emma

Tessa had the chance to meet her Great Grandma Emma B. last Sunday! Tessa is Grandma's #104 great -grandchild!! They both dressed in blue that day! We had an enjoyable visit with her.

Going on a journey...

The girls LOVE to dress just play! They play very well together and they have quite the imagination! Give them a couple of items and you never know what they will come up with. I like just watching and listening to them play. This day they were taking a journey outside they had their bags packed with toys, books and food!! They took about 20 minute walk outside!

EDYFL Football

Connor is playing football this fall for the East Dubuque Youth League. He likes to play defense (corner back).

He is number #16 and Terry is the coach and enjoys it just as much!

Bubble Bath....

The kids are enjoying giving Tessa bath! They all like to take their turn on washing her hair! She really enjoys her bath!

Peanut Butter

Karley LOVES peanut butter like her parents!! The other day she had the peanut butter jar out and was sitting eating it like you see below. She loves to eat a peanut butter and jelly sandwich when she sees Terry eating one. Luckily the jar was almost empty so she just finished it off!