SNOW Much Fun!

We celebrated an early Christmas at my parents' home in Cassel. My sister, brother-in-law, and three nephews were there as well as my grandparents. After eating an AMAZING brunch and opening presents (both families received Wiis!), we went out for some fun in the snow. And fun we had! My amazing dad pulled the kids on innertubes behind the four-wheeler. Boy, did that bring back fond memories from my childhood! My sister and I kept looking at each other saying, "This is the best Christmas ever!" So...even though we have not experienced snow in our neck of the woods, we could travel to see it in theirs. MERRY CHRISTMAS!

Our Christmas Letter

'Twas the Night Before Christmas 2008
California Harper Clan Edition

'Twas the Night Before Christmas and we can’t believe it is already here
Time has flown by as we approach another year.

We look back on this past year with thankfulness in our hearts
God has directed our paths and has been with us through every part.

Early in the year we began checking out our options for schooling
And He led us to the thought to home school with the boys drooling!

This brought with it many what-if kind of questions
But God answered every one with absolutely clear direction.

We enrolled at CORE Butte Charter School with much joy
And learned that there was SO much to become involved in…oh boy!

So after a fun summer of Six Flags, the ocean, and riding of bikes
We began our school year and found that it was something we did like!

Zane and Andrew can choose what to start with and how to end
While Brianne is learning much too…loving the time we do spend.

While daddy is at work, this mommy juggles the studies, her taxi, and the house
But she couldn’t be happier and more in love with her spouse.

While the boys are enjoying fourth and second grades
They are enjoying MANY activities and the new friends they have made.

Andrew played baseball and is picking up the guitar,
While Zane has found drama and is turning into a star.

Brianne enjoys dancing, coloring, singing, and playing
And with her kind heart, for other people she is always praying.

Michael and I celebrated three terrific years
With a trip to San Francisco with our bikes going through MANY different gears!

And then last month my grandparents moved here
What a blessing they are to our family having them so near.

This Christmas we find ourselves sitting back and grinning
We have had so many blessings that our heads are spinning!

God continues to be faithful, for our needs He provides
We pray that this Christmas you find comfort in His arms open wide.

MERRY CHRISTMAS!

Christmas is Around the Corner!

Boy do I love Christmas! Everything about it...the music...the decorations...the gift purchasing and wrapping...the anticipation...and the celebration of the birth of our Savior! It is almost a magical time of year...that is more special when you share it with your children. You should have seen (and heard) my sweeties as we decorated today.

Our Alvin and the Chipmunks Christmas CD played in the background as we opened our tub of Christmas Tree decorations. It is tradition to unpack all of the carefully wrapped and boxed ornaments and lay them out on the table. We always have little discussions about when and where certain ornaments were purchased. Then each of us grabs our favorite ornament to place on the Christmas tree first. Sweet little B placed all of her ornaments in the same section at the bottom of the tree (she had three on one branch)! Too cute. Z and A took special care to place their ornaments just so. It was priceless. It is always so exciting to place the star on the top and then plug in the white lights. They oohed and ahhed very dramatically. Daddy quickly followed suit and set up the train! The boys brought out the train whistle and they played conductor for a while. Daddy was the hero of the afternoon. :)

Next it was time for the Nativity scenes. My wonderful husband purchased the Willow Tree Nativity scene for me a few Christmases back. I LOVE it. But my precious A made his own Nativity set last year in my classroom. It was made out of blocks and adorned with faces placed with a Sharpie pen. You should have seen the look on his face as he set this very special decoration out. He took very special care of baby Jesus as he set everything out on the table in our entryway. PERFECT! Z proudly placed the angel that he made last year on our dining table. She is just so pretty.

To finish the festive day, the kids curled up to watch Polar Express and topped it off with yummy Hot Chocolate (the special kind with a chocolate mint candy cane and marshmallows of course)! What a special day! I have the greatest job in the world!

A Wonderful Thanksgiving

Thanksgiving is always a wonderful time of year...yummy food...family around your table... But I just can't get over how much work it is to prepare (and clean up) when it only takes around 20 minutes to gobble up the tasty treats! :) But we do it anyway with joy in our hearts!

Since the boys were going to be with their mom for Thanksgiving this year, they wanted to be a part of our celebration. So...we worked on a little craft together to grace the center of our Thanksgiving dinner table. The following pictures will give you a little idea of the process and the outcome! They were very much a part of our Thanksgiving dinner.

Now that we have stuffed ourselves with the yummy food, we decided to ride our bikes to church this morning. We couldn't believe the amazingly warm weather on this last day of November. It is hard to believe that tomorrow will be December 1st! My husband has quite a set-up on his bike which enabled us to also stop off at the grocery store after church. We were able to fit a week's worth of groceries on his bike (except for the eggs that were carefully placed in my basket). We had to stop at grandma and grandpa's on our way home so that we could document this amazing feat! M was so proud! :)

So we now gear up for the Christmas season (my favorite)...there will be more about that in my next post!

I love it when my children get to celebrate. What is even better is celebrating with them! We had one of those weeks this last week. What fun!

It began with Elective Celebration at the Christian school where the boys are each taking a class. A participated in a class called Boogy Boot Camp. He sure did have a good time! The video above is of his dance premier on stage - it is a little on the long side, but too cute to pass up. He really enjoyed getting up there to show us what he learned. Throughout the class he would refuse to show me what he was learning...he didn't want to ruin the surprise. Z participated in a class called 4-H Sampler Platter. In this class he learned to cook (tortillas are still my favorite - we had them last night!), sew, and work with leather. In the picture he is posing with the kitty that he made during the sewing portion. Too cute!

Little B's celebration came in the way of a birthday! Yes, our little girl is 3 (or "free" according to her). :) She had a super Sesame Street birthday. So much fun and SO cute! One of her presents was to attend the Elmo Live performance coming up soon...she (and her brothers) are very excited to see Elmo and his pals on stage! She also has moved into a BIG girl bed...we were blessed to get a bedroom set from a friend. It came with everything a girl could need (and much, much more)! Her dresser is a large music box. Every drawer plays a different song! (Fortunately, mommy can turn this feature off.) :) Little B is in heaven! I had to include some pictures of her new bedroom too.

My sweet husband and I are so blessed to be surrounded by children that bring so much joy into our lives! My cup overflows...

Happy Veteran's Day!

Homeschooling offers so many opportunities for learning! On our assignment sheet this week, I wrote, "Surprise Field Trip" for today. The suspense just about KILLED them. "Please give us a hint," they would plead. I was strong and did not give in to their persistence. :)

Today at 11 a.m. we had a meeting on the carpet. We began discussing what Veteran's Day means. What is a Veteran? and many other questions. We learned that Americans used to observe a moment of silence at 11 a.m. on November 11th. Fascinating! So...we held our own moment of silence and prayed for the Veterans. We then were off to our field trip. We first stopped by my grandparent's to pick up Grandma. She wanted to go along for the ride. Next, we headed to cemetery in downtown Chico. The boys have been asking to go to the "graveyard" for quite some time. Curiosity of the unknown I guess.

We spent quite a while admiring the gravestones. Wondering about the lives of the people buried there, figuring out how old the people were when they passed away, and marvelling at the beauty of it all. The boys HAD to bring along notebooks so that they could take notes and draw pictures. They had a blast! I just enjoyed watching them learn.

I wish that I had pictures of this amazing learning experience...maybe next time.

Fun with Feathers and Brothers

Fun, fun, fun! Isn't it funny how our children can have fun with the silliest things? Little B found this feather and thought that it would be funny to have a "moostache". She played with that feather for the longest time! I just had to get a few pictures. :)

Her other favorite toy is her brothers! These three play, and play, and play! My heart is filled with so much joy as I hear their laughter throughout the house. That is what makes a house a home. So, here is a silly video of the three of them up to one of their playtime activities. Can we count this as P.E.?

Happy Harvest

I love to look around and see the amazing beauty of leaves changing colors. In this wonderful town where we live, we are blessed with many trees...therefore many vibrant colors as the leaves are changing...gorgeous.

I wanted to include some fun fall pictures in this post. This time of year, we are reminded to think of all of the blessings that God has given us and to give Him thanks! So, I thought that I would start a list...it would take me FAR too long to list all of my blessings, so I will just name a few:

1. A wonderful family.

2. An anniversary...B's adoption was finalized one year ago on October 29th.

3. A very creative husband. He served at the high school all-nighter on October 31st and decided to make a Rice Krispy Treat, Twinkie, and Cupcake Cake and SUSHI! (Look carefully at the sushi.) :)

4. Grandparents that live VERY close now (1 min. and 50 sec. away by bike).

5. Amazing friends.

6. A home to live in...maybe not always perfectly cleaned, but filled with LOVE.

7. Family Fun (at the pumpkin patch)!

8. Dishes to do...that means that we had a yummy dinner.

9. Laundry to do...that means that we had clothes to wear.

10. Messes to clean up...that means that I have three amazing children to take care of.

11. Phone calls to answer...that means that I have loving friends and family that want to talk to me!

12. Covers to share...that means that I have a loving husband to share a bed with!

Hopefully you are taking time to think about all that YOU are thankful for too! May God bless you as you do so!

Ever Have a Day Like This?

Sometimes there are days where you would like to just crawl back under the covers, close your eyes, and start ALL over again. Today was one of those days.

Our morning began with a tragic accident in the kitchen involving a plastic jar of peanut butter and a glass jar of RED pasta sauce. Unfortunately, the plastic jar did not fall on the floor. I wish that I would have taken a picture of the incredible mess that it made. I didn't know that glass and pasta sauce could travel that far! One jar of pasta sauce and a roll of paper towels later...

The next exciting event took place while the boys were working on school work. I had gone to check on little B who was coloring with her Crayola Color Wonder markers (markers that ONLY color in her special coloring books). She was quite enjoying herself so I left her to her coloring. Minutes (or maybe what seemed like minutes) later she came walking out COVERED in black markings. What in the world? I wanted to giggle because she looked like she had been attacked by a permanent marker...no couldn't be. I tentatively followed her to her room to find out that not only had she been attacked, but so had her bedroom. Oh my goodness... Here are a few pictures to show you what I witnessed:

Yes...that is MARKS-A-LOT marker on her wall, on the floor, on her dresser, bed, door, toy box, piano, doll house, Magna-Doodle (which she calls her Yankee Doodle), doll...need I say more? So, I called my sister, "What do I do with permanent marker?" Fortunately, the Magic Eraser is magic! It worked (for the most part) on many of the marks, but not all...daddy was not very happy when he got home. So, if you have more permanent marker advice, we would LOVE to hear it!

Then later this evening, we had SO much fun singing at the dinner table and making each other laugh. I thought that you might like to witness the lighter side of our day too! Little B and daddy were singing "My God is So Big" together. Yes, God is bigger than permanent marker.

Dutch Brothers Or Bust

When you purchase a coffee at Dutch Brothers and pay with your debit card, they always ask, "Would you like your receipt?"

So...the other day I realized that maybe I have purchased one too many coffees at Dutch Brothers because upon pulling up to the window, my beautiful almost three year old said, "Mommy, do you want your receipt?"

Busy September

This month is almost gone! Where did it go? Our weekends have been full...a yard sale, a birthday party, a soccer game, an anniversary celebration, and helping friends move! Oh! That is where it went! :)

Our boys were THRILLED to have their own lemonade stand at our yard sale. They took their job very seriously. With daddy's business help, they figured out how much they would need to spend to buy their supplies and how much they would need to make to break even. They were so blessed by many at the yard sale that just gave them donations! Z thought that this was a great way to make a few extra dollars. Little B even got in on the action. While the boys were taking a break, she would ask everyone that approached, "Would you like some nemonade?" Who can resist an almost three year old? B would put her earnings into her pocket...too cute.

My wonderful husband and I just celebrated three years of marriage. We headed south to San Francisco for a few days in the city. We experienced riding the BART, a cable car, and our BIKES! Our first day was primarily spent at Pier 39. We had so much fun just wandering and spending time together.

On our second day we planned to go on a 21 mile bike tour around the city...starting at Pier 39 (yes, we took our bikes on the BART to get there), up to a fort, along the bay, UP to Golden Gate Bridge, across the Golden Gate Bridge, through Presidio Park, down (and up) some city streets, to Golden Gate Park (beautiful)...somewhere around here is where we took a wrong turn...or maybe three or four. :) More hills to climb until we FINALLY found our way back on track. But not before we tried to board a bus to get us to the BART station only to find out that M's bike was too long to fit on the bike rack. Oh well! It just added to the adventure (ok...I can say that now, but while we were adventuring I was not too excited). Anyway...35 miles later we made it to a BART station and then pedaled back to our hotel just before sunset. We only have a few scrapes, bruises, and pictures to prove our ride! :) M says that I will definitely be able to ride the 60 mile Flat Flower this next year in Chico. Please notice that it is FLAT! :)

Our anniversary trip was amazing. We were so glad to get back home though...to our bed...to our quiet neighborhood...and to our children! Is it possible for kids to grow in three days? I couldn't believe how grown up they all looked! Oh to be home again...

Homeschooling Update

I am blown away by this blessing called homeschooling. We are so thrilled that God has brought us to this place. It is wonderful to be able to spend all day with my children...do not get me wrong...we are not just sitting at home ALL day! I want to give you a little glimpse into our days...are you ready? :)

Mondays - school work until lunch then Z has a drama class at the center for two hours


Tuesdays - school work until lunch (or so) and then electives at the local Christian school


Wednesdays - classes at the center (everything from cooking to science) from 9-12 then back home for a little bit of school work


Thursdays - a repeat of Tuesdays


Fridays - school work until lunch (or so) and home for the rest of the day!

The three amigos are enjoying a yummy snack during recess

It might sound a little crazy, but we are LOVING it! Little B is adapting well...what an answer to prayer. The boys are in heaven - they love to be able to decide which subject area to tackle first. They have so many options and are loving to make their own choices and go at their own speed. I just love to see the smiles on their faces each day.

I had to include a few pictures of something that Z was working on today. At his elective class he learned how to make tortillas. We were blessed to have some for dinner tonight. Here are a few pictures of the process and the outcome. They were YUMMY! The chef was so proud. So was his mommy.