I'm Trying to Be Back - Installment One

I won't actually say I'm back, because that would mean that I am going to be consistent about posting. Life gets crazy around here...I don't think I can make a promise like that. :) But I'm TRYING to be back. First of all, let me congratulation my friend Heather and her family on their new arrival! Welcome, Abigail Evangeline! Don't say we didn't warn you about the name. :)

Secondly, now that September is halfway done, I am ready to catch up on summer. :) We had a wonderful summer here. It was just what a summer ought to be - relaxing and fun with a bit of busy thrown in to keep from getting bored. We took part in our library's reading program, the kids went to VBS, we went to the lake a couple of times, and we took a couple of trips. Instead of blabbing on about, though, here are some pictures (edited to add: Okay, this is going to be a big job to get caught up. The first post will just include pictures of Daniel's trip to Chincoteague with the two older girls. It was at the end of May and kicked off the summer.)

The girls met some of the ponies next to the inn where they stayed. Their inn was right next to the bridge to Assateague, so they biked to the beach the next day.

First glimpse of the Assateague ponies. This was pretty much Shiloh's dream vacation. Cora went along because it was vacation, but then became enamored and had a fabulous time herself.

Cheesy smiles. Sisterly love. They're so cute.
Preparing to bike to the Assateague beach from the hotel. They worked up a sweat, so they were ready to swim. (It was still a little cold, though, so they had to go back and swim in the heated indoor pool at the inn - it was rough.)

On the way to Assateague.Enjoying the beach.Biking back. Cora and Shiloh get pony rides! Cora and Shiloh went to a pony show at the Chincoteague Pony Center featuring some of Misty's descendants.

Shiloh either wants to be a rancher or a prairie girl when she grows up. :)

Um...hello?

I don't know what to say after so long an absence. There really isn't a reason for it, except lack of motivation and reading fiction. Have I told you that I forget about life if I read fiction? Plus, I've been taking a nap pretty much every afternoon, so that cuts out 1 hour of productive time right there (although I would argue that a nap IS productive time).

Anyhoo, we're back, but only briefly, since tomorrow we're going on break again. I WILL be back after that with all the summer doings, settling-in news, and latest pictures. I just wanted to let you know we were still alive. I'll leave you with a family picture my mother-in-law took when she was here for a visit last week. Check out the boys' mohawks and the way Adah is holding her dress out so delicately. She does like to pose. :)

Love,

Casey

p.s. Who else agrees with me that we need some color on these walls? Anyone want to come help paint, since the fence took up all our painting money?

Girls' Piano Recital

This picture shows most of our piano teacher's students Friday night after the recital. Once again, Shiloh did not want to do it and came through with flying colors anyway. Each time it strengthens her to overcome her fears, and she is really humbling to watch as she prays to be calm. Cora is a natural performer and doesn't mind playing for 6 or 60 people. Oh, I wish I had had her ability in high school! I told them the embarrassing story of signing up for a speech class because I knew I'd be going to West Point and I wanted to learn to speak better in public. Well, I totally broke down during my first speech and started crying. IN HIGH SCHOOL. Yeah. That earned me some major cool points. Thankfully, that NEVER happened at West Point. Phew. I'm glad Shiloh is learning how to stand up in front of people now! The quality on these videos is not great since it came from our camera instead of a video camera, and there was a rather active baby behind Daniel. :) Enjoy our lovely girls! Cora is playing "Home on the Range" in the first one. She's a little far from the piano because she forgot to adjust the bench. :) Shiloh and Cora are playing "How Much is that Doggie in the Window" in the second - a duet which led to some...interesting practice sessions. :) The staccato chords played together are the "barks." Shiloh is playing my favorite piece, "Sky Blue." I love its dreamy quality. You miss hearing all of the notes with the poor sound quality, but come visit and she'll play it for you! :)

A Visit from the Texans

Last weekend we hosted Daniel's sister and her family. They were on a whirlwind tour of the East Coast, driving from San Antonio and spending a month on the road and with family. They are a brave family. :) Natalie and Cecelia got to sleep in the girls' room with them, so we had a houseful of girls! We got to meet our new niece, Analise, who was born on Abigail's birthday this year. Analise had great cheeks, and she was a very content baby. We never had one of those. :)

Do you see a trend here? Wherever there is a baby, there is Cora holding the baby. :)Umm...when did Cora grow up this much? Doesn't she look lovely? Daniel took the picture and then brought it to me; he was all sad and nostalgic.

Shiloh wanted to get a picture of how cute Analise's legs were. I agreed that they were pretty cute and gave her the camera.

Cecelia needed a warm lap to snuggle, and Uncle Daniel was happy to oblige!

The girls are investigating things on our walk to Kohr Bros. Frozen Custard shop. I am really going to miss being able to walk .7 of a mile to get some frozen custard!

Jackson was VERY, VERY taken with Analise, and he walked the entire way there and back holding Analise's hand. He also took it upon himself to entertain her at all times and put her pacifier back in when she needed it. It was adorable.

Look at those cute cousins holding hands! Adah was a good protector for Cecelia, holding tightly to her hand and helping her along. She is a such a sweetie. Cecelia made her giggle from her silliness and laughter.

Here's Jackson with his "charge."
Nathaniel wanted to hold her on his lap, too. I think his hold is more like a full Nelson (half Nelson?). Jackson was hovering, not sure if this was okay.

All the cousins on Sunday night ready for bed. They are patient to put up with us.

We had a more posed shot, but I snapped this one when Sara said something funny and the kids cracked up. They so enjoyed one another's company, and I'm sad they live so far away!!!

What a blessing it was to worship with them and have family worship together in the evenings. We had such a wonderful time with them, and we made some great memories with the kids.

Visit to Williamsburg

Hello!
How is everyone? We are enjoying some beautiful weather here in VA - cool mornings and sunny, warm afternoons. It's a nice break from the rain!
I'm catching up on photos after I organized the schoolroom/dining room and prepared it for all the new curricula arriving. Here are a few pictures from our trip to Williamsburg at the end of April to meet with friends from Colorado Springs (from a LONG time ago!).
Explanations are underneath.

Adah read and read and read to Lydia and Addie while we were there. Lydia and Addie belong to my friend Brittany, who now has three adorable girls. She knew Daniel and me before Shiloh was even a twinkle in our eyes.

And here is Cora with her third adorable girl, whose name is Margaret. They call her Daisy, though. :) If there are babies to be held, Cora is volunteering for the job.
Here I am with Brittany and Cyndi. Cyndi is the quintessential hostess, and I believe she owns enough china to feed about 60 people. She instantly makes me feel at home.
Cyndi and Lanning!!! These are two people that God used in a mighty way to help us during the struggling days of our early marriage. They are AWESOME.
This face has nothing to do with Williamsburg. :) This is the face that I get during school sometimes. Fun, huh? :) I had just taken her hair out of twists, and I wanted to get a picture of her crazy hair. She is giving me the "attitude" look.

Next post is pictures from our visit with Daniel's sister and her crew. We had a full house, and we loved it!

Love, Casey

Hurrah!

We finished up school on Friday, had a BUSY day Saturday with shopping and partying and picking out paint colors, hosted friends on Sunday, and had our walk-through today. Phew! The house looks fabulous, and we are eager to see if the quotes that come back for painting and the fence are do-able for our budget. I would really like to stop taking Roscoe out on the leash every time he has to go (not that I do it every time - Shiloh would like to stop as well! :) ).

Here's a funny story from the last day of school. Abigail and Adah had their last grammar test on Friday, and part of the test involved alphabetizing. Abigail was eager to be done because it was after lunch and she wanted to play. She was hurrying through her work and shouted to me while I was folding laundry:
Abigail(panicked voice): "Mommy! There's no "F" in the alphabet! How am I supposed to put the "F" words in order if there's no "F" in the alphabet???"
I stayed silent and just waited for her brain to return. Two seconds later she said, quietly, "Oh. Never mind, Mommy."
Perhaps we'll do some review of alphabetizing this summer. :)

Bird Watchers in the Making

I was on the treadmill this afternoon and the kids were outside rollerblading and scootering (maybe not a word?). Shiloh and Cora rollerbladed to the cul-de-sac up the street and came flying back yelling, "Mommy, we saw a PILEATED WOODPECKER!" :) I didn't know what a pileated woodpecker was until a few months ago; they've got quite a headstart on me. Then Cora turns to go inside, saying, "I think Lewis and Clark would have drawn him. I need to go get my nature journal!" I love those quirky kids.

In Which Jackson is Funny

Jackson and I were discussing the fox that seems to have taken up residence somewhere in the close vicinity of our backyard. She caught a squirrel hanging out at our birdfeeder a couple of days ago! Anyway, we were discussing what the fox eats versus what we eat.

Jackson: The fox eats squirrels. We don't eat squirrels, do we, Mommy?
Me: Well, Daddy has eaten squirrel before.
Jackson: WHAT?!?! (shakes his head ruefully) That's just crazy talk.

I Am Cool Now With My Links...

...except that now as I'm composing my posts, the pictures are not downloading into the text as pictures but as html code. I would have to figure out where each picture started and where it ended to add captions. I can't mess with this now! I have curricula to order and laundry to fold! Not to mention the fact that I have coupons to find online, because it's my new obsession. I could have a problem, but it's just saving money, right?
Anyway, please do notice the fixed link in my tea party post, however. Thank you, Julie! Daniel could have told me how to do it, and he's a little embarrassed that he has such an incompetent computer user for a wife but I figure if he wants to take over, fine. :)
So hello, all! How have you been? We're in our last two weeks of school, so we have had some pretty busy days lately. Our house is on schedule to be finished on May 9th, we'll have the walk-through on the 11th, and we'll close on June 1st. And, folks, that's right around the corner! Here's a little of what's been going on in April. As I mentioned before, I can't do captions. So here's a brief overview. We headed to Ohio for Spring Break, where it did indeed snow. It just justified in my mind that we'd made the right choice by moving away. :) The first pictures are of two sweet families from our old church in Columbus. The first family took us in on Sunday and fed our crew homemade spaghetti and meatballs. We hung out at their house all day, and I'm pretty sure it took them a day or two to recover. Hello, G Family! Remember you signed the release to agree to be on the blog! :) The second family is the Tullys, and you can see all their craziness here: See how awesome I am with the links now We met up with them again later in the week at the Creation Museum where I don't think we stopped talking for about 7 hours straight. The Museum was totally worth the price, especially since the G family let us use their guest passes. :) I am a good moocher. For Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday, we hung out with my dad and stepmother. We went to the Air and Space Museum on Monday, because that's a must-do if you're in the Dayton area. It just happened to be homeschool day! :) Jackson was impressed with the bombers. I don't think the girls were as impressed. We went swimming at an indoor pool on Tuesday (because, as I believe I mentioned, it SNOWED). The water was a little chilly for those in the family with 0% body fat - Abigail and Nathaniel. They bailed out early, and I went out with them because I'm just a wimp. On Wednesday we went to Carillon Park, which is a historical park about the history of the area. The kids really liked the one room schoolhouse and the transportation exhibit that had trains and trolleys. And here's a link to Carillon just because I can: Are you annoyed with the links yet? In between outings, we hung out at the house where Grandpa taught the girls how to play Yahtzee, Grandma showed them the robin who built a nest on their garage window, and the boys got to watch Cars with Grandpa. A good time was had by all, but I think that Grandma and Grandpa were amazed by how much food the Houseworths consume en masse. It's a little frightening if you're not used to it. Wednesday night I got to relive some old glory days by going to my stepbrother's daughter's track meet. It was chilly, but Grandma traveled prepared - she had hot chocolate mix and boiling hot water - and quilts. On Thursday, we headed down to Florence, Kentucky to go to the Creation Museum. You know what's coming now: The missing link Honestly, I crack myself up. We had a fabulous time there, and it was well worth the side excursion. The hotel was a little iffy, but we managed to leave with all our belongings intact. We stopped by the Kentucky Horse Park because it was right on the way home, but we couldn't even meander around without paying the entry fee. We didn't have time to do it justice, so we'll have to plan better next time. Nobody got carsick, we listened to Jonathan Park CDs on the way, and we had a great time as a family. That's what I call a good spring break. (I could call it great if it hadn't snowed. I'm not letting that go.)
Now I better get this big post published so I can go order some curricula. I also have to download more pictures from our trip to Williamsburg this past Monday. Wait a minute - do we actually have school lessons around here? Ha. Just kidding, there, Virginia authorities.
Oh - forgot the last two pictures. Aren't those dogwoods in our front yard beautiful?? Shiloh took the pictures to send to our missionary friends in Albania. She's a Southern girl, and we thought she might miss her some dogwood trees. I'm pretty sure they don't have dogwoods there, because, you know, it SNOWS in April. (really, I'll let it go sometime soon)
Love to all-
Casey
p.s. ELEVEN days and counting into hardcore potty training. Only three accidents. Candy is a powerful motivator, my friends.

Help Me

How do I rename a link so that I don't look like the inexperienced computer hack that I am? I want my links to look cool and have awesome names instead of some unintellligible string of stuff. Please help.

Quick Link

Hey y'all-
I have a big post coming up from our trip to Ohio for Spring Break. This is not that post. :) For now, here's a link to a picture in a local newspaper from our Tax Day Tea Party.
Tax Day Tea Party Houseworths

Go to the 5th picture in the slideshow.
Now who's that good-lookin' family there?? Why, it's the Houseworths! :)
Love,
Casey

Rainy Thursday

Hey, all-
In my attempt to post more often, you will have to hear more boring stuff. :)
Here's what's going on here:
The pre-drywall meeting went well at the house today. I didn't attend because Shiloh has come down with a fever (Murphy's Law with children and preparing to go on trips). Poor Shiloh is resting in my bed, and I actually had to make the scones last night for ladies' Bible study since she started feeling under the weather last night. The scones were not as good as Shiloh's. Too chewy.

Nathaniel has begun the potty training process. I'm not going whole-hog yet since we're leaving to go on the trip and I don't want to stop every fifteen minutes. He's doing his solid business in the toilet all the time though, and I am VERY, VERY, VERY, VERY happy about that. This is the only area where I've seen a significant developmental delay; he just hasn't been ready up to this point. I think training might be a loooong process because that boy is a peeing machine (sorry, too much information).

I got a fabulous deal on Land's End dresses which are $9.99 right now for the long sleeved ones. Just thought I'd give a heads-up to those thrifty people out there.

I'm listening to sounds of the wonder twins playing school (because, of course, when you're on a break from schooling for the morning, you should naturally play school). They're also trying to teach Nathaniel how to make the letter "t". I think it's not working. "Try again, Nathaniel. You can do it this time." "Um, not like that, Nathaniel. Try again on this line." :)

I finally made Daniel watch "Facing the Giants" with me for our date night on Tuesday. He now understands why it was a little difficult to run on the treadmill while watching it the first time, what with all the crying and struggling to breathe. :) He liked it, too, but he didn't do the ugly-faced cry.

Here's a Jackson story to end this boring post. He was having trouble on his math facts sheet with the "plus twos" facts. I was asking him, "Do you remember what we do when we have an even number and we add two?" His response, "I know it's in my head; I just can't find it!" That will be my standard response to anything I can't remember now: "It's in my head; I just can't find it!" :)

I'm off to make some lunch. I'm thinking soup since it's gray and misty here. And to think we're preparing to go to Ohio where it might SNOW on Tuesday. SNOW! That's crazy talk.
Love,
Casey