A City Life For Me

A couple of weeks ago we had a tea party – and everyone was invited.  Even the twins.  The bigs kids drank two cups of tea each – English style with milk and sugar, of course!  The littles got water in the toy tea set and they thought it was fantastic! Nehemiah says “cheeeeese!” for pictures now! He’s gonna make a good husband one day! Good to the last drop, right Nehemiah? Elaine…and somehow I didn’t get one of Nolan?!?!

Last Thursday we embarked on an adventure.  I told you a little bit about it here .  We made it to the airport in good time.  There was no line to check our bags at the curb, so we gave the guy a little tip and avoided the long line inside.  It made it so much more smooth and easy – no juggling baby, stroller, toddler, and 4 suitcases.  Totally worth the tip, and so glad I had some cash on me! We found ourselves sitting in a very hot, crowded waiting room because another flight was delayed.  It was only 10:30 a.m., but we were starved so we broke out the PBJ sandwiches I had packed.  I was in a row with Elaine and Nolan, and I started out with Liberty in my lap.  Ben thought Nehemiah was smelly, so he traded babies with me.  He then took my iPhone and enjoyed the free TV – featuring MLB!  He had a nice quiet ride.  My side of the plane…not so much! Right off the bat, Nolan took his snack bag of Cheez-Its.  He crunched them u...

Nolan has been kinda indifferent to the twins since they joined our family.  He has wanted to hold one occasionally, or help out with bath time if Elaine is helping.  But mostly he just wants to play and do his own thing.  The other day I had some work to do in the kids’ bedroom so I brought the babies in on the rug.  I left for a moment to get something, and when I came back I found Nolan entertaining the babies. It’s a lot of pictures, but it was so funny to me.  He got right in their faces explaining something with his pointer finger.  Usually that finger gets in my face to ask, “Happy?” after a potty success.  It’s his communication style right now!  Most of what he said was just babble, but the twins listened intently.  I guess they speak the same language! Since then he has wanted to hold them, hold their hands, and share his toys with the babies.  He says “Mah” for Nehemiah – sort of a slurred version of “Miah” a...

When Elaine was about 18 months old, I printed off some uber basic memory verses to teach her.  They were short, partial verses like, “Be ye kind” or “God is love.”  I put an icon or picture on each verse to help her learn by association and understand the verses better.  I think we had 8 or 10 verses to learn.  She did very well, and now I am using those verses with Nolan. But this summer Elaine was encouraged several times to learn longer verses.  She got to participate in our Summer Adventure Club at church, and she learned a verse each night (trying to win the grand prize for her age group).  I was impressed with how easily she learned the verses.  Then she learned all of Romans 6:23 for a friend’s VBS program.  She then quoted it to Grandma, Pastor, and her Sunday School teacher too.  And now each Sunday she wants to go to Sunday School and know her verse. For a while I have wanted to do ABC memory verses.  But all of the ones I...

Today Grampa Hamilton drove down to meet Liberty & Nehemiah.  Elaine and Nolan have filled their bean jar , so we decided to make today celebration day.  They chose to ride the “horsey’s” (aka Jane’s Carousel ).  Grampa went with us and we let the kids have several rides. Liberty & Nehemiah enjoyed the experience! On the way back we stopped by Grimaldi’s to see if there was a long line.  There wasn’t!  We think that people didn’t want to risk standing in line in the rain, since it was raining off & on all day.  We opted to go ahead and dine in.  That was some delicious pizza!  Grampa got in a few more cuddles with the kiddos before driving home. Ben with Grampa, Liberty, & Nehemiah I tried to get a picture of all four kiddos with Grampa, but Elaine & Nolan didn’t like that idea, and they kept squirming.  Oh well!

Today I’m guest posting over at the Imperfect Homemaker about a craft I made with the kids a couple of weeks ago.  Head over here to check it out!

Something I often seen and wanted to do, but never accomplished, is to make the kids some busy books or quiet books.  Our church lets the kids stay in the nursery until their 4th birthday, and then they go to other classes.  So…I haven’t really needed it to keep them quiet in church yet. With twins coming, I know I will often be unable to play, read, and entertain Nolan & Elaine as they have been used to.  I will also be often busy nursing the new babies.  A friend {also expecting} recently shared a Velcro quiet book she made for her little girl.  She was kind enough to share some pages with me.  This saved me a lot of work!  I also printed off several games and paper doll activities from a website she recommended. We are trying to learn other letters besides “E” for Elaine’s name, so I was very happy that Cindy had thought to include a page like this in her book! This was a game, but it is good for Elaine to sort by type, and Nola...

Thanks to Pinterest and other creative Mommy blogs, I’m getting really good at “stealing” ideas to help me with my own kiddos.  Here are two things that we recently implemented which my kids love. :: A Motivator…a.k.a. The Bean Jar I read about this on My Home Tableau .  The idea is to motivate, recognize, and reward your kids for doing what is right.  So many times we focus on what they are not doing, on their disobedience.  It can get discouraging – for them as well as for me.  So rewarding my kids for doing what they are supposed to do – like sharing, picking up their toys, obeying right away, etc. helps me to focus on the positive. The great thing about a bean jar is that the rewards don’t cost a ton of money.   Each time I want to recognize what the kids did right, they get to add a bean to the jar.  When the jar is full, we will make a fun family outing.  Elaine wants to go ride the carousel and have ice cream, so that’s probably wha...

I saw this idea on Pinterest.  The link ended up being bad, but I could tell what to do from the picture.  I’m very tired and worn out today, so I thought this would be an easy project to keep the kiddos occupied. It is supposed to teach fine motor skills.  Elaine is all about crafts right now, and learning letters, so she had a blast. Nolan started off well…but got bored quickly.  I had anticipated this, so I only gave him one big “N” to work on, instead of his whole name. This is how Nolan ended up…    

We have been praying for and searching for a set of bunk beds.  We need the extra space in the kids’ room in order to fit in the twins.  We found a set of metal bunk beds on Craigslist for under $200.  They were supposed to come with new mattresses, but ended up being misrepresented in that.  We threw one mattress away, and kept the other.  So…we had to spend more than intended in order to get a second mattress.  Hopefully they will last and turn out to be a good bargain anyway.  And maybe Ben will have time to build the next set himself… We have looked at bunk beds several times in the store.  The kids climb right up and seem excited.  But…I was nervous about transitioning Nolan to a big bed, especially straight into a twin bed instead of a toddler bed.  Elaine was two and a half before we thought she was ready.  Nolan isn’t yet two.  However, I wanted to do it before the babies arrive. Last night we were short one mattres...