This is from 2014 folks (sorry for any confusion!). I am still determined to catch up, as this is the only way I have of chronicling our family!
When things were really tough with Lizzy right after she was born and Kevin was gone tuna fishing for a couple months (home for a few nights here and there), he kept promising me that he'd be home a ton after the season was over and I held onto that thought to get me through the hard times. Well, I guess it helped me to get through the toughest time, but plans changed and he never got that time off that was promised! :oP The state started a new program to try to round up the derelict crab gear floating in the ocean, and Kevin got a special permit to "fish" for crab pots and keep what he found. Since each crab pot costs around $200 used, this was something he could not pass up. Previously, we'd leased crab pots and the owners took a percentage of our profits. This year Kevin wanted to have his own pots, but 500 pots costs a lot of money! This program helped Kevin to amass his own gear, plus he was able to find a couple of good deals on some used pots to add to it. The picture below is one of the several loads of pots that my dad and Kevin went up to Bremerton to buy and take out to Westport. I always think it's funny when stuff like this gets parked across the street from our house, as I find myself wondering what the neighbors think being that we live in the middle of a neighborhood far from the ocean! Ha! :)
In addition to finding pots in the ocean, Kevin and his crew were then very busy getting all that gear repaired and in working order for the upcoming season. But still, I was given hope that Kevin would have time for us at least at the end of December....and then that got changed too when the start of crab season was moved to the start of the year rather than late January as it had been in years past. :oP Frustrating. He did take Christmas Day off, but almost every other day in December he had to work. I teased him sometimes that Lizzy didn't even know who he was....which made it extra funny that her first word was "Dada!"
In early December, we took my mom the the Victorian Country Christmas in Puyallup. It was lots of fun, but definitely a good amount of work too with all the kids too (especially with Lizzy's continued breastfeeding problems - it made going anywhere extra difficult! By this point, she'd had the surgery and had improved a lot, but we continued to have some bumps for quite awhile longer). That was our first time going, and I'm glad we went but it's definitely not something we'll be doing every year. They did have a cool musical Christmas production in the evening that everyone enjoyed. The kids' favorite parts were the free train and carousel rides, plus watching candles being made.
The cat continues to become more and more friendly with the kids - sometimes even sitting on JAKE's lap much to our surprise as Jake is the one most likely to bother the cat!
Lizzy enjoyed the safari mobile a lot just like the other kids did too. I can't remember if I mentioned the drawing Abby made that we hung on the wall for Lizzy - she loved looking at that more than the mobile at times. This picture shows how Lizzy would often grab onto the sides of the changing table - she's got a strong grip too!
Kevin collects the coupons for Harbor Freight Tools and sometimes he lets Jake cut them out for him. :)
Lizzy went through a phase where she enjoyed playing with the "play gym," as we call it. At the beginning, she just enjoyed looking at the toys, but soon she started batting them around. She especially enjoyed it when the kids were playing near her. She didn't like it as well as the other kids did (she likes to be held....A LOT), but it was nice to get a few minutes of free-time for me here and there.
For the past couple years, I have tried to encourage Ben to try writing. It took him forever to even warm up to coloring and being that he's very strong-willed, this was an area where I thought it would be a good idea to follow his lead (as long as it didn't take him too long to come around!). :) Every few weeks or so, I would ask if he wanted to practice writing his name or do a writing worksheet, but he always declined. He literally had only written one or two letters EVER, when one day he and Abby were wrapping Christmas presents and he walked into the room holding this envelope that reads, "TO DADDY FROM BEN." I was overjoyed and amazed! Abby said she wrote the letters on a different paper and then he copied them by sight......when he'd never even written them before!! Since Lizzy was such a difficult newborn, I'd put off starting kindergarten with him (and because he wasn't ready to write), but I was quite excited to start in January and, sure enough, he adapted quite well and was finally willing to hold a pencil and practice writing. This is just another reason I am so thankful for homeschooling - we can go at our own pace! I can't imagine how it might have gone if Ben had gone to traditional school in September and not been ready to write - it's possible it could have been a huge issue for him and given him a very negative start to his education.
The kids were as cute as ever at the annual Sunday School Christmas program - all of them sang quite well this year!
Much to Kevin's embarrassment, I asked someone to take our family pictures in the back lawn area at church. :)
 |
| Add caption |
Ben won his second coloring contest and was sooooo pleased! He did a spectacular job in my opinion! So proud of this boy!
We enjoyed our annual visit from my friend from high school, Michelle. This year I had some crafts and activities set up at the kitchen table to help things go more smoothly - between the two of us there are starting to be a lot of kids for my little house! :)
The next two pictures are from a photoshoot when we went out to Kevin's parents' for the Marks Family Christmas.
Kevin was storing some of his crab pots at his parents' and they made a fun backdrop for a picture!
The kids always sit at the eating bar on stools at Ocean-Beach Grandpa and Grandma's when we have the big family gatherings. They think it's pretty cool. :)
Don't know what I'd do with out this girl. She is such a big helper and loves her little sister sooo much! Here she is helping me by holding Lizzy while she plays with a new logic game she got for Christmas.
We went to a light display in downtown Olympia this year for the first time. It is just one house, but they have it set up so you can walk through their yard on pathways - so cool!
We also made it to see the huge tree at the Capitol building, since we missed it the previous year.
No comments:
Post a Comment