It's Been a While

 It has been a while since I have posted about the family so I decided it was time to do a quick update on all of us. (In no particular order.)

Eli
Is a happy and rapidly growing boy. He is happiest when he is eating. The other day I let him sit in a "big" chair and he just danced for joy the whole time he was eating...which is why he really needs to sit in a chair with a strap in it. He can usually out eat most of the family. Especially with our whole wheat pancakes, potatoes or oatmeal. He even likes sea weed. Who would have imagined that?

He also has a pretty big vocabulary and says new words every day. Some of his most common words right now are top (stop), nack (snack), pin (spin-that is how he likes to dance with me.), gin gin (again, again--more spin dancing), ball, doggy, meow(when he sees a cat), mon (come on), pay (play), eat, sorry, hug, pancake (I can't remember how he says that one), bread. He can also say mama, dada, Bya (Brya), Ally, Ayla (Shayla) and Millie (our next door grandma.)  

Eli is definitely changing our girly world. With him around even cows are growling and ferocious. I think it is great how he can growl so many of the things he says and still sound happy.

He also is obsessed with brushing his teeth and prefers the toothpaste that the girls refer to as "the spicy toothpaste" and have never wanted to use. Every morning the first things he (tries) to do after breakfast is run to the bathroom to get his tooth brush.

We do love good hygiene!

This is Brya and Ally on their first day of school. Brya is a very mature 3rd grader with lots of school experience to share with her sister. Brya has been enjoying school and making lots of new friends. She has become an excellent reader and loves jump roping, hula hooping and the children's choir that her and Ally are participating in.


Ally started first grade and it has been a bitter sweet experience for her. I think first grade is hard for a lot of kids getting used to going to school all day. I remember Brya having a lot of the same struggles. Ally is doing amazing though and she is a thoughtful and hard working girl. She will often surprise us with cleaning up everything that she can see that needs to be cleaned. She is also great at asking questions and solving problems.

The girl's just join a children's choir in September and they have been loving it. Here is a video to their very first choir performance. It is a song called "Kusimama" and they sang it as guests at the local high school choir concert with some of the high school students.

Shayla is as cute as can be and makes everyone fall in love with her over and over again with her sweet disposition, big blue eyes and her adorable dimples that Grandpa Sylvester gave her.

She just started preschool in a little co-op that I joined with some other mothers in the area and she is a little shy about it even though she is excited to go every time. It is a lot of new people for her to meet with out the comfort of her big sisters so it has been a growing experience for her.


One of Shayla's skills right now is making up wonderful stories about mean tigers that are her friend and scary monsters that try and eat her but  are also really nice. If she gets you in the bathroom when she is in story telling mode we have to just take a seat and enjoy the story because there is no leaving unless the house is on fire. Some day we miss those stories. As for now we just try and forget a little while about all the craziness around us and enjoy them.

Josh (a.k.a. Daddy) just got back a few weeks ago from a "hunting gone hiking" excursion in Alaska with his two older brothers. They didn't get the hunting action in that they were hoping for but he had a great time anyway. They got to dine on several gasoline flavored meals and even enjoyed an entertaining and terrifying show of Nick charging a herd of musk oxen and their young. We are so very glad Uncle Nick has scores of angels watching over him and keeping him alive.

This picture I made Josh take with him holding up his old hunting boots that he was having a hard time getting rid of. He just purchased a new pair and I took the picture to help him let go of the dirty old things and move on with his new boots.

We miss our garden already. I just had to put up some pictures to remember those glorious summer days of greenness. It was so wonderful!

Tasha is me and I have really been enjoying teaching a whole-foods cooking class that I finally got brave enough to start. It has been a lot of fun and I love all the good company and yummy food that the class provides. If you want to see what we have been doing I started a blog with my recipes and info from the class called highwaytowholesome.com.  

I have also been enjoying as many precious moments with my kids as I can and loving the relationship that my husband and I have been building for the last 9 years. (In two more days it will be exactly nine years!)

That is all for now. I have many other things I need to post but they will have to wait for another day.