A Very Good Day

Hello, all! (three of you :) )
Today was the day of Shiloh and Cora's piano festival, and Daniel was here for it! Since he has missed the last two piano recitals (one due to a deployment, and one due to our new Haitian sensations who were not ready for outside babysitters) it was so special that he could be here for this one. The piano festival was not a recital but rather an event where the girls would play two memorized pieces for two judges. The judges would give them an evaluation and some advice for improvement. They were in a room with other students and parents, though, so they did play in front of other people. I really loved hearing both girls practice their pieces for this event, but I especially enjoyed Shiloh's piece, "Sky Blue." It is a dreamy, beautiful piece, and it's the hardest she's done so far with all the hand movement and the pedal. Daniel reported back soon after they finished with "they did an AMAZING job! Both of them!" He was so proud he was about to burst. The main reason we were so thrilled with them, though, was not that they had done so well, but because they had been so diligent in their practicing. They both worked HARD on their pieces and wanted to do a good job. Shiloh was NERVOUS and worried. She would rather pull out her fingernails than play in front of anyone, but we felt that it was a good opportunity for her to learn to overcome struggles. Our teacher doesn't take part in the festival every year, so we decided we would do it this year because we wouldn't have the opportunity next year. Each child can either receive a superior, an excellent, a well done, a good, a fair, or a poor rating. Well, our teacher called this evening.
"Casey, I have to tell you that both girls must have really wowed the judges. They both gave the girls double superiors." Then I about burst with pride!! I will stop with the annoying bragging on my children, but this was a BIG DEAL around here. :) I seriously thought that if Shiloh made it through the festival without crying that I would consider it a success. And Cora had rushed through her pieces consistently in all previous group practices. She worked and worked with her metronome this week. I was prepared to have the "we all make mistakes even if we tried really hard, and I'm so proud of you for giving it your best shot" talk. How much better it was to tell them how much others could see their hard work! How awesome it was to hear that their piano teacher prayed for them this morning. How awesome it was to hear that Shiloh had brought her worries and cares and nervousness before the Lord for Him to calm her heart before she performed. Oh, I am one happy mama tonight. I so wish I could share a video with you, but I completely FORGOT to tell Daniel to bring it in the busyness of the morning (it was hair day for Adah). Bummer! I talked to them both afterward, and they were bubbly with happiness and relief. Daddy took them out to lunch, so that might have been part of the bubbly-ness. :)

I'll leave you with two recent stories from the boys (who often get neglected on the blog in favor of the hilarious Miss Abigail).
Nathaniel:
I went to wake him up the other morning, and he was still VERY sleepy. I was helping him off with his jammies when he said sleepily, "Mommy, I four now?" and he held up four fingers. I said, "You want to know if you're four years old today?"
"Yesh."
"No, you're still two today."
"Oh," he said, disappointedly. Apparently he thought two years had passed since he went to sleep the night before. :)

Jackson:
I was throwing him on the bed at naptime the other day, and the throws were getting progressively higher as he shrieked with laughter. I did a really good throw, and he bounced over onto his side after he bounced on his back.
"Look, Mommy!" he screamed, "I'm a monster truck rolling!"

Videos

The other video I tried to upload didn't work, so this is it for the ice-skating outing. I also have this for your viewing pleasure:

I'd like to thank the Charlie Brown Christmas video for attempting to teach my children how to dance (or how NOT to dance, as the case may be). Watch Jackson again. He could be one of the characters from the video.

Birthday Season

Well, Daniel is off to Germany and England for a "work" trip, so I am filling the long evening hours by catching up on some projects. I haven't posted pictures in awhile, so I thought I'd do that this evening with a cup of apple cinnamon tea (I'm willing away a sore throat).
Abigail finally lost a tooth! It's actually pretty early compared to the other kiddos, but since Adah came home with two teeth already out, Abigail has been in agony waiting FOREVER for a tooth to come out. About two weeks ago, she told me it was hurting during dinner. I touched it and realized it was hanging by a thread?! How did she not notice this before? We actually had to tell her before to STOP trying to take her teeth out when Adah lost her two top teeth. :) She lost the second bottom one the very next night as well.

I never know whether to put captions at the top of pictures or the bottom. Which makes more sense to you? Anyway, the above picture is Shiloh's pitiful attempt at a slush snowman. :) Last week we got Tuesday off from piano lessons and co-op because the roads were so bad from the slush and ice. Shiloh figured if there was "snow," she ought to create a snowman. I like his pipe. Notice the scarf that she knitted herself in her co-op needlework and crafts class. :) She made a much more believable snowman today when we actually had snow (but did NOT get out of piano and co-op). Daniel has the camera, though, so she couldn't take a picture of him. He has Nathaniel's Elmer Fudd hat with the ear flaps on. :)

We're in the midst of birthday season here with two down and one to go. :) Shiloh turned TEN at the end of January, Abigail turned six a little over a week later, and Nathaniel will turn three at the end of this month. I know everyone says this, but I just cannot believe that it's been ten years since we welcomed our little teeny Shiloh - 4lbs. 15oz. - into the world. I look forward to seeing what God has in store for her, but it's a little sad to think that we're already this far along in our time with her in our home. What happened to the two year old toddler? Oy vey.

In brighter news, Abigail also had a new cousin JUST born on her birthday!! Congratulations Sara and Joey!! (From November 11th to February 26th, I think there are 10 birthdays for Daniel's mom to keep up with - sorry, Paula, for our part in that! :) ).
Shiloh's birthday weekend began with going out to dinner with Daddy on Friday. She chose Ruby Tuesday's, where she can get a salad. She loves huge salads. She also likes steak, but she chose a cheeseburger this time. They went to Barnes and Noble afterward, where she got lots of books on Queen Elizabeth I, her current obsession.

On Saturday, we had her celebration. Cake is not her favorite treat, so she requested apple pie with ice cream. Yum! She wanted to invite a family from church (with their four girls) and one of her friends from her needlework class. This particular friend is so very sweet, and I really enjoy having her over. Have you noticed that the theme for the weekend is red? :) Shiloh asked that we keep up the Christmas balls that were hanging from the chandelier so that she could decorate around them. :) I miss them now that we've taken them down. It looks bare in there.
Later that night, I took Adah, Abigail, Jackson, and Nathaniel to another birthday party that Adah and Abigail were invited to while Daniel took Shiloh and Cora ice skating. Shiloh has only been ice skating once, at the Columbus Zoo a long time ago. Cora has never been ice skating. They did a fabulous job, and they had such a good time! They were exhausted that night, and their bellies hurt the next day from tensing them the whole time. I made Daniel promise he would NOT get out on the ice because of his ankle and shoulder, so he just shivered and tried to take pictures that weren't blurry. I have a video that I will post on the next entry.

A little over a week later, we were back at the festivities for Abba-dabba-doodle's birthday. We celebrated at home with her requested dinner - tacos and celery with cream cheese (?) and then cake and ice cream. She had red velvet cake with mint chocolate chip ice cream (what??). You can see from the pictures below that the effect with the red and green was quite...Christmasy. Or weird...whichever. Shiloh decorated her crown with different birds, and she chose a pastel garden theme for the decorations. It is so interesting to me to see each child's likes/dislikes/passions/interests. How privileged I am to be a mom and see them developing into these wonderful people! Daniel gave Abigail the choice of going out to dinner on Monday or going out to breakfast on Tuesday morning before he left for the airport. She responded, "If I go to Dunkin Donuts, can I get TWO doughnuts?" Daniel said yes. She squealed. Then she tilted her head, turned those big blue eyes on him and said, "Can I get coffee, too?" He said yes. She squealed again and said, "Then Dunkin Donuts. Definitely." :) You can see the evidence at the end of the pictures that Daddy did indeed get coffee for her, and then left for Europe for me to deal with the aftermath. :) Just kidding - it was decaf (obviously) and it was about half coffee and half cream. Let's just say it wasn't the most nutritious breakfast.

I think she looks a bit scary in the picture above. I'm not sure why she's smiling like that. Deranged excitement? She hadn't had coffee yet, so it's not that.

She had to take a REALLY deep breath to blow out that one candle.

Abigail with her doll in its party outfit.See the red velvet cake with mint chocolate chip ice cream? Weird, I tell you.

This is what we woke up to this morning. Beautiful!! Now it's practically gone, though.
And there's Abigail with her coffee. She got full pretty quickly, but she liked nursing it like Mommy does during a hard morning. :)

And here are two stories with which to sign off:

The first one comes from Abigail, of course. We were driving along and saw a man running with an iPod strapped to his arm. Adah asked what it was, so I explained. Abigail commented, "I think if I ran with an iPod, I would just dance the whole time. Then what would be the point of running?" I think that's a logical conclusion.

The second comes from Cora. I looked over to the notes she was taking during the sermon last Sunday, which was from the book of Mark. I read, "Jesus was surrounded by a crowd and was liked to be crushed by them." Liked to be crushed?? That is hilarious to me. It's clearly Southernese, but as much as we are Southerners in our hearts, we don't talk like that at home. Where did she learn this?? And where did she learn how to use it correctly?

Ooh, and I forgot this one:

Jackson came running up to me the other day. He had been playing up in his room, and he was all out of breath. "Mommy! Mommy! There's a big ole bug crawling on my bed, and it's FREAKIN' ME OUT! Please KILL it!" Again, where did he learn how to use this correctly, and is this really something I want him saying? It was a big ole bug, by the way, and I don't even want to think about where it came from, or whether it has friends.

Sleep well, and don't let the bed bugs bite.

I'm Back

Hello, all! It's been a long blog break - I couldn't believe it when I saw when I last posted. Things have been busy here with getting back into the routine of school and life. Frankly, I'm scared of taking any more pictures because then I'll have to organize them. :) But we have the birthday season kickoff tomorrow, so I'll be back with pictures from Shiloh's, Abigail's, and Nathaniel's birthdays. Until then, here's a picture of the whole family taken at Dunkin Donuts when Opa came to visit last week. Sorry about the sun glare!

Love,

Casey

It's Really Christmas!

Except that it's not in these first photos because I forgot to put up photos from Jamie's wedding on November 15th. :) So here are a few of our lovely evening. The captions are above each photo:

This first picture is the "kids' section," It was originally supposed to be an outdoor wedding and when the weather went sour, we were a bit squeezed in the beautiful refurbished mansion. No one seemed to know what to do or where to sit. Two ladies took charge (are you kidding? of course I was one of them) to sit the kids down so they would be able to see and so that they would be out of the way. They ended up having front row seats for the procession of the wedding party, so it worked out well.

Don't they look CUTE??

This is Shiloh dancing with Luke. I REALLY like Luke. He is a polite, happy, handsome boy who willingly gave up his seat to Adah so that she could sit with the girls in the dining room at their house. His mama is teaching him well.

Shiloh danced the night away, and Nathaniel got in on the action. That Nathaniel is a handsome young man as well. He really liked his tie.

Hey, now there's a handsome man! My man, dancing with my girl. What could be better? We stuck around longer than we planned in order to hear another slow tune because Adah REALLY wanted to dance with Daniel. He even took his shoes off in public to dance. (The mansion staff announced that if we wanted to dance we had to take our shoes off. We thought they were kidding. They weren't. See the guy behind Daniel with WHITE socks on? :) It's okay, though, because it was Jamie's dad and he had been wearing cowboy boots.)

Abigail was making up some...innovative...dance moves. They were all very sad to leave the reception. :) Looking at this picture makes me hum, "I could have danced all night...I could have danced all night..." (My Fair Lady)

This is Jackson. Jackson's face is saying, "Please take me home. I will smile for you, but I really want to go home. Now."

This might be my favorite picture from the trip. Jackson bunked in the boys' room when we stayed with a family. He started off in a bunkbed. I'm not sure how he ended up on the floor or why Joe is mauling him in his sleep, but we found them like this when we went to bed that night.

AND NOW FOR THE CHRISTMAS PHOTOS! ALL FIVE OF THEM! I was having too much fun Christmas Day to take many pictures, and now I'm sad about it. I don't even have a picture of the tree all decorated. I'll try to get one with the kids like we did last year before we take the tree down. But here's the story I promised:

Early Christmas morning Daniel awoke to a noise and thought it was Roscoe chewing on some candy (the kids' stockings were out in the hallway). The noise stopped, but he got up anyway to go into the bathroom. Our bathroom wall adjoins the girls' room, (Shiloh loves those 5:30 showers she hears every morning) and he heard banging in there. He told them through the wall to go back to sleep, but he heard more noises. He went to their room to investigate, and then I heard him laughing and saying, "CASEY! You've got to see THIS!" Then he opens our door and in come the children...Shiloh and Cora dressed identically (they were supposed to be reindeer) and pulling a plastic storage bin to which they've been tied with ribbon. Abigail and Adah prance in dressed identically with homemade elf hats on. JACKSON is inside the bin dressed as Santa Claus with our stockings in the bin behind him, and he's saying "HO HO HO, Merry Christmas!" I started making a choking/laughing sound and said, "How did you think of this? When did you do this? What's going on?" Shiloh said they'd been planning it since THANKSGIVING, and they had gotten up at 6:00 to get everything ready. They stored everything in a bin in the garage, and she had snuck down that morning to get the bin. They fashioned a beard, hair, and cuffs from quilt batting, and put Jackson in a pair of red tights and his wellies. And WE HAD NO IDEA they were planning this. It's impressive...and yet a little scary that we got no wind of this scheme for over a month. Jackson said at one time that he was going to be Santa at Christmas, but I had no idea he was serious. We were highly impressed with our children's ingenuity, and it was a great start to the day!

This is Jackson/Santa, and the look on his face seems to say, "I cannot believe I let them put me in tights."Ah - there's a smile. He's a pretty cute Santa.Cora the reindeer, Santa, and Adah the elf.The mischievious crew:
(I believe Nathaniel was not included because he would not be cooperative in any way in a complicated endeavor such as this. Maybe a year or ten and he can participate. :) )The whole crew later that day. Abigail came close to needing a nap since she was awakened at 6:00 to get ready. She almost backed out but pulled through for the team. We are so blessed by our children. They are certainly entertaining!

That's ALL, folks. I am signing off for the year 2008. I am officially caught up on picture organizing (I swear I won't procrastinate again, I swear I won't procrastinate again...) and now I need to go let my carpal tunnel heal. Thanks for coming along for the ride of the first complete year as a family of EIGHT. It has been a busy, fun, challenging, sometimes exhausting, but always blessed year. I am looking forward to what God has for the Houseworths in 2009!

God Bless!

Abigail Emma - ever blog-worthy

Yes, Abigail strikes again.

We listened this past Christmas season to one of the local radio stations playing Christmas music non-stop since Thanksgiving, and all the kids got to know quite a few songs (including Jackson, who I suspect listened to the radio instead of napping). Abigail started singing a few bars of "Baby, It's Cold Outside" because it was one of her favorites. She was singing the men's part about wanting the girl to stay because of the weather when she stopped and said sagely,

"He just wanted to smooch on her some more."

Oh, Abigail. So wise.

p.s. Christmas pictures and a wonderful story about Christmas SOON! :)

It's Christmas!

Okay, not in these pictures. But here are the Thanksgiving pictures, posted before Christmas. I have now achieved one of my goals for our school break. :) We had a wonderful time with our friends Jamie and new-husband-Jonathan (see next post below) from NC and our friends from church, the Rufeners. The Rufeners have an adorable little boy, Louie, who has such round cheeks that you might feel compelled to squish them. Cora got to feed him, and she did a great job. This kid is going to make a lot of money babysitting someday. We had a wonderful time of food and fellowship!
(BTW, the dressing-up was not my idea. They LOVE to dress up, and they decided to use their church headcoverings to accent the outfits. Jamie made the Indian headdresses, Abigail got stuck with a Bavarian dress, and Adah got stuck with a prairie dress - they thought it was close enough to count. :) )

Cora providing entertainment:

Shiloh also providing entertainment and using it an excuse to play Christmas tunes:

Jonathan tries to figure out something hard like "Jingle Bells." All kidding aside, he's a very talented pianist, and we loved hearing his playing during the time they were here.
Lis is making her magic in the kitchen. She brought all kids of Christmas cookies for us to snack on as well - thanks, Lis!

Okay, who looks like they're helping here and who doesn't look like they're doing anything? :)Daniel and Jonathan had to wrestle the turkey together to get it cut since Daniel was only 9 days post-surgery. And I do mean wrestle since it was a 25-pound turkey.

Daniel read Psalm 100 and then an excerpt from "Plymouth Plantation" to begin our Thanksgiving feast.

Shiloh set our table again - with placecards. Seriously, I could hire her out for parties. Notice my lovely china? If anyone has a set of china that they would like to donate, please contact me. I would love to set a pretty table. (I don't think the sippy cups help, though.)Shiloh helps Nathaniel to his chair. Nathaniel was VERY pleased with the mound of mashed potatoes on his plate. This time I didn't make him cry by mixing the vegetables in with the potatoes. He was SO sad when I did that with peas one time. I thought it would help him eat the peas, but really...he was distraught. It's like it ruined the whole meal for him. Poor guy.

Jamie captured an Abbadabbadoodle smile.

Shiloh looks like she could work at Colonial Williamsburg.

Here are Adah and Abigail by the "snack table" that held cheese and crackers, pistachios, and M&Ms. Since I was busy in the kitchen, I have no idea how much they actually ate that day. Jamie got all of these pictures. They're also having some wassail, which I tried for the first time from Shiloh and Cora's history unit book. It was yummy!

Adah is happy! She claims she was an Indian "because of my bwown skin," but she dressed like a Prairie Girl. We're a little eclectic with our history.

Cora feeding Louie. He is so cute, especially when we see him on Sunday and he is wearing his "Sunday" socks with the day of the week printed on the bottom. Jackson is a fierce Indian (Native American, whatever...)

I think Jonathan might have been reading the weather report here to put Abigail to sleep. He's a pilot and a weather nerd, so he checks out the weather obsessively. :) He could also have been reading Calvin and Hobbes, which we keep in the kids/guest bathroom. :)
Abigail knows a good thing when she sees it, and she claimed Jonathan's lap whenever he sat down. She's a charmer!

Can you tell I'm on a break from school? :) I'm on a roll now! The kids are sleeping in, so I'm not neglecting them. I will feed them breakfast, I promise. Next up are pictures from the NGIC Christmas luncheon. We've never done the "Santa thing," and we didn't really intend to on that day. We were told that Santa would come around during the luncheon handing out gifts to the kids. We didn't see him, so we went out to the lobby where we were accosted by people dressed as elves asking us if we wanted gifts for our kids. They have to have a picture with Santa to get the gifts. So...first ever picture with Santa. Hey - don't judge us for our materialism. It was for the kids! For the kids! :) Shiloh doesn't really care for anyone/anything dressed up (think clowns, Chick-Fil-A cow, that Chuck E. Cheese stuffed thing from the underworld, etc.) and it was funny that she was relieved that his beard was real. Cora liked the fact that he wasn't wearing glasses (??) and Adah pronounced him to be "vewy puffy! he's so puffy, Mommy!" within earshot. That's his real puff, by the way. Nathaniel was an absolute HAM when he got on his lap. He snuggled right in and patted his belly. I asked him if he was taking a nap with Santa and he promptly said, "yes," and closed his eyes on Santa's chest. The photographer was snapping away, and I do believe Nathaniel will be on next year's slideshow for his cheeseball show. Later when I was relating the story to friends from church, Nathaniel proclaimed, "I'm ham! I'm ham!" He is SO smart, and he's picking up new phrases daily. I'm so proud that "I'm ham" is one of them. :)

This is the tank sitting at the entrance to NGIC. Jackson REALLY wanted his picture taken next to it. So here are the boys with their toy(s).

And now I'm caught up! Just in time to get 75 Christmas photos tomorrow! :) Have a wonderful Christmas Eve and Christmas, everybody!

Love,

Casey

Not So Funny Now

Late-breaking news...
Apparently Abigail's discerning powers in the prayer realm were more on target than we thought - she just got the person wrong. Our former pastor didn't have rabies, but a good friend from the same congregation probably does. She was bitten by a stray cat on Sunday, started receiving rabies shots on Monday and was admitted to the hospital today because the bite has progressed into an infection. She's getting high doses of antibiotics to get rid of the infection. This is her first Christmas as a married woman, she'll most likely be in the hospital for Christmas, and her birthday is Christmas day! Yeah, not so funny now. We're praying for you, Jamie!
Love,
Casey

And one more thing...

...may I just say that it was 14 degrees when I got up this morning?

FOUR.TEEN.

Wah.

Catching Up

Ha! That title was just a joke. :) I am working on it, though, people. I got up with Daniel this morning in order to work on organizing my pictures even though I'm technically on vacation. That's some serious dedication. :)

So here are a few photos from Cora's and Adah's birthday. So far they think it's cool that they get to share a birthday party. That might change in future years. :) The first few photos are the fancy ones when they got to go out to dinner with Daddy. They loved using my scarves to look ladylike. Can I just say that my girls are stunning? I really couldn't stop taking pictures of them, as you can see. But more importantly...they are my most tender-hearted girls toward their younger siblings. Adah has a soft spot for Jackson, and Cora has a soft spot for Nathaniel. She likes to put his lotion on after bathtime and get him in his PJs (I do NOT take advantage of this fact, trust me. :) ). Adah likes it when Jackson snuggles with her in her bed, and she likes to read to him. How cute!

I'm off to make some pancakes and get ready for a big day of baking!

Love,

Casey

Shiloh made the birthday hats AND decorated the dining room. She's pretty handy! :)

Random pic of Nathaniel - he was just looking cute.

Cora stuck with the butterfly theme again this year, but I put two butterflies on it this time. Way to change things up, Mommy. :)

Adah requested a coconut cake, which had a Cool Whip/coconut frosting. I could not work my decorating magic on that surface, so she had to make do with "Happy Birthday" letters. The cake made up for it. It was a major hit. For a girl who likes sweets, a cake filled with a mixture of cream of coconut and sweetened condensed milk was perfect. It got sweeter as it sat in the fridge over the next few days because the mixture completely soaked into the cake. She has already asked for it again next year. We had another family over for the cake and ice cream (for fun and to get rid of some of the cake!).

Next up: Thanksgiving photos! Right before Christmas! We're moving at lightning speed now!