Pictures of the Day, week 4

Monday, January 24, 2011

It's called a Pester Program. I brought this idea home from the Hearts at Home workshop. The speaker was Cheryl Eliason and her organization is FamilyTools. We have one child who tends to pester the others. But you can't create a pester program without having a pestering chart for everyone to make it fair. Here's how it works. You pester, you get a warning first. If it continues, then you start doing chores. Anyway, we'll see how it works.

Tuesday, January 25, 2011

Home haircuts! One of the best and easiest ways to save money. We bought a hair cut kit when we were first married and I've been cutting Seth's hair ever since. And now I cut the kids' hair, too. Here we're cutting hair in the bathroom, but I much prefer to cut hair outside! It's so nice to have the boys actually sit for their hair cuts. Cutting their hair when they were 2 and 3 was a nightmare. They were petrified of the clippers and scissors. We tried some really desperate ways to get their hair cut during those years, and most will remain family secrets :)

Wednesday, January 26, 2011

Week 3 of swim lessons! And it's a success for Eden. She got in the water and wanted to swim with Kim. The boys are really doing well with their swimming skills.

Thursday, January 27, 2011

Seth's day in court! He was a witness to an event over four years ago and it was just now going to trial. I came to court with him for moral support. He was on the witness stand for about 45 minutes and now he's done, or at least we hope so.


Friday, January 28, 2011

This is about the good, the bad and the UGLY of our lives. We are constantly sweeping the kitchen floor. All the more reason, according to Seth, to get a grated floor.

"No kids, this is not trail mix!"

"And don't step in my pile until I have it swept up!"


Saturday, January 2011

Friday night and Saturday found Seth and I at the Iowa Young Farmer Conference sponsored by Farm Bureau. This was a great time to get away, just the two of us, all expenses paid! The speakers were great, as was the food. We met some new people and learned a lot of new ideas to take home and help our farming operation. Jolene Brown was a featured speaker throughout the conference. She focused on blazing a new trail for agriculture and focused on what can be done to keep families farming together. The other great speaker was Dr. David M. Kohl from Virginia Tech. He talked about "Going from Good to Great" and he had a lot of good information.

Oh, and another great bonus was the iPod nano we won during one of the games! We also came home with some pretty good freebies from John Deere for the kids.

While we were gone, our kids were with Seth's sister and then with Seth's parents. And from what I've heard, they had a great time!

Sunday, January 30, 2011

The kids' bedtime listening material. We love listening to Focus on the Family's Adventures in Odyssey. We listen at bedtime and in the van. But this is a newer one we got for Christmas and really like. It's the Bible Eyewitness series. Anyway, check it out if you're not familiar with it. We really like it! And it's become a part of our bedtime routine and our traveling time. One of my favorite Odyssey stories (on a diffent set than the one pictured) is the true story behind the hymn "It Is Well With My Soul." Very good! We love what this series teaches the kids and they love listening to them.

Saturday happenings

As I eluded to in my previous post, it was Saturday and the kids wanted to do a craft. I'd just seen a yarn heart craft in my Family Fun magazine and all it required was homemade glue and yarn. Perfect! We made our own glue with cornstarch and water, heated it up until it made a paste. While I was doing that, the kids were cutting strips of yarn.

The idea is to coat the yarn in the glue, and then put it in the shape of a heart and let it dry. We used our heart shaped candy pan. The kids got nice and messy, but at least it washed off easy and was edible if you so chose to lick your fingers.

The finished products. Just waiting for them to dry. And then you can hang them up for some Valentine decorations. Emmet's is the brown and red; Eden's is the green; Ephraim's is the green and brown; And Eliza's is the purple and red one.

Also on Satuday, Eden wanted her nails painted. They got lots of new colors for Christmas! I was painting their nails when Emmet came and wanted to help. At least this meant that he was being nice to the girls.

Emmet giving Eliza a toenail paint job.

And painting Eden's nails!

Picture of the Day, Week #3

Here are my pictures from January 17 to January 23!

Monday, January 17

Monday was a holiday for me. I had planned to send the boys to school, the girls to Grandma's house and I was going to go shopping! But, the weather intervened. None of us went anywhere. I brought up the idea of rearranging the kids' room and they were all for it. And they had some great ideas for the new arrangement, too. But moving Ephraim's bunk bed from one side of the room to the other . . . turning it around . . .was a pretty big job for just me and the boys!

Tuesday, January 18

This is what I usually see when I check the chickens in the evening. Three eggs from my three laying hens. Pretty good!

Wednesday, January 19

The shopping bags from my previously postponed shopping trip. I only get to the outlet mall about once a year, but it's worth it to buy new clothes at clearance prices. And I got a few things for me, which hasn't really happened since the girls were born. I got several shirts for Ephraim to wear next winter. Nothing for Emmet, unfortunately.

Thursday, January 20

Yummy! Cast Iron Skillet Cookies. We fell in love with cast iron skillet cookies after a trip to Los Angeles in 2009. We shared this dessert with Seth's brother and cousin Kristin at a restaurant--a skillet cookie topped with ice cream and hot fudge. Since then, I've acquired two smaller cast iron skillets and make chocolate chip or butterscotch chip cookies. It's not long before they've all been consumed!

Friday, January 21

Ahh! Gotta love a deal! Hy-Vee had Crest toothpaste for $.99 on Friday for 12 hours only. I was in town anyway, and armed with my coupons . . I got $2.59 toothpaste for under $.40. It was on sale for $.99 and then I had some $.75 and $.50 off coupons. Sure, it was a limit of two, but there was no limit on how many times you exited and re-entered the store!

Saturday, January 22

It was a cold, wintery Saturday when I heard the words that some moms dread . . ."Can we do a craft." I don't dread those words at all, if I've got an idea for a craft, which I usually do thanks to my Family Fun magazine. I had just seen this cute idea in the February issue, so we gathered our supplies and got to work. I'll have another post about this project!

Sunday, January 23

What's this? Well, here lately, the kids have been having trouble laying down and closing their eyes. I mean, really, what's so hard about that? A lot, apparently. So, I've staked out my corner in front of their door. Sort of like a warden, I guess. It sure cuts down on their "dinking around." After one night of just sitting there, I thought "I could be doing something a bit more productive while I sit." So, I grabbed my Bible, my devotionals and a book. Now I'm getting two things done at once . . . one to benefit me (devotions) and the other to benefit the kids (getting to sleep on time) although they're not fully convinced of this.

Cold Days . . . Warm Memories

Saturday, the 15th found us at Seth's parents and we took in some serious sledding. The weather was a bit nippy but we bundled up! Here we are ready to start the fun!


Everyone hanging on?

You didn't have to tell Eliza what to do when it comes to sledding down the hill. Does the ramp look a little familiar? It's the same ramp we used for our giant waterslide this summer. Grandpa "watered" it the day before so we had a pretty slick track leading down to the frozen pond.

Our snow queen!

Going back up the hill with Eliza.

Emmet, having a great time!

Doing laps around the pond.

And then Mark and John joined us!

Ephraim going down the hill!

And Eliza.

And Eden.

Eliza was a trooper when it came to carrying her sled back up the hill.

Mark on the snowboard behind the tube.

Seth taking the tube down the hill. I did that several times and it was quite fun!

The boys trying to skate.

I have many more pictures, but this is enough to give you an idea of what we did and how much fun we had. If you bundle up and plan to be outside for an hour or less, it really wasn't too bad.

Ferguson Christmas/Birthday/Baby Shower

We wrapped up our Christmas celebrations on Sunday with a Christmas/Birthday and Baby Shower all in one.


E x 4 and this time it's not all my kids.
Eliza has a captive audience with Elijah, Elliot and Ezra.


Cousins and 2nd cousins playing.

Seeing double! Yes, times 3.

On the left: Karl, Addison & Eden (not so happy)

On the right: Kurt, Evelyn & Eliza.

Of the three children from Grandpa Ferguson, there's a set of twins in each family.

Happy 88th Birthday to Grandpa Ferguson!

Emmet and Elijah playing Connect 4.

Scrabble!

Eden just loved having so many babies around. First she watched the baby twins and then she found Adalli to "mother".

There's always plenty of cousins for the kids to play with on the Ferguson side! We finished the family gathering with a baby shower for the new twins.

Picture of the Day, #2

Our pictures from January 8 to January 16:

Saturday, January 8

What's a family to do when it's COLD outside? Fix puzzles, of course. And lots of them. The boys are starting to work on 100 piece puzzles, so that's a bit more exciting than the 24 piece puzzles that the girls are doing. Eliza is quite the puzzle fixer! Eden would rather sit and watch. Emmet likes a little help with his puzzles but Ephraim can do great on his own. Yes, puzzles are a good winter activity.

Sunday, January 9

She just wouldn't go to sleep in her bed! She kept coming out of her room and not really needing anything, she just knew that mom and dad were still awake and she wanted to be awake, too. But, it's 10pm darling! Time for bed!

Monday, January 10
Silly Eliza! The kids were downstairs playing and Eliza rediscovered a goofy pair of glasses! Now do you believe me that there's never a dull moment in our house?

Tuesday, January 11

Ooops. This is what happens when Ford Taurus meets garage door. I thought I would do the right thing and drive Seth's mom's car up to the door so it'd be close and warm when she was ready to leave after watching the kids for the day. Well, the brakes froze up and we didn't stop. The door caved in! The boys thought it was pretty funny. Thankfully, Seth soon had it back in working condition.

Wednesday, January 12

Our first day of swim lessons! My cousin Kim is teaching the kids a few swimming skills this winter. Another great way to break up the winter! The boys and Eliza were super excited. Eden, on the other hand, not so much. But there's always next week.

Thursday, January 13

There's always one in the room who doesn't want to go to sleep. On this night, it was Emmet.

Friday, January 14

Looks like she's pretty good at improvising. And yes, I took the battery away.

Saturday, January 15

We were just starting to get used to having the Christmas tree in the living room, but it was finally time to take it down.

Sunday, January 16

Seeing double? Yes, times 3. On the left: Karl, Addison & Eden

On the right: Kurt, Evelyn & Eliza

Two sets of fraternal twins and Addison and Evelyn are identical.

This was a get together with Seth's mom's family.

Three sets of twins. Aunt Janet said that Grandma Frances always wanted to have twins . . .

And for those two people who are actually paying attention and thinking that I included two Saturdays and Sundays in this post . . . you are correct. But from here on out, my Picture of the Day posts will be Monday through Sunday. So, now I'm on the right track for that.