Family Day

Today was Family Day in BC. On Family Day we have a tradition of washing each other's feet. Juju was very excited to wash Peter's feet this year.

And she washed mine too...

Ella washed Dadda's...

Then we headed down to Crescent Beach. All of the girls needed to take their purses.

And we were all very excited when we realized that this was Peter's first time seeing the Ocean. Ella told him "it goes all the way to Hawaii, Pete."

The girls loved throwing rocks into the ocean.

And to end the day we watched "Charlotte's Web."

E, J, and K loved the movie. We have read the book 3 times and this was our 2nd time watching the movie. It is such a beautiful story.

Karis was disappointed at one part in the movie. Her favorite part of the book is when Avery finds a frog. When that scene in the movie did not include the frog - she looked at me in disgust and said "there was no frog. Where is the frog?"

Happy Family Day!

Last weekend our family took the sky train down to Missions Fest. Our kids loved the ride!

We are so thankful that our landlords share their yard with us. When it is dry we spend a lot of time climbing trees, playing soccer, swinging, and running around.

Peter got a new highchair from Ikea. Sometimes when Juju and Karis aren't feeding their babies, Peter gets to sit in it.

Happy 5 months to our handsome little boy! Dadda and I agree that it would be impossible for you to be any cuter.

A Visit from the Smiths!

At the end of January Uncle, Auntie Jaynie, and Lydia came for a visit. It was so special for us to meet our little niece / cousin. She is an incredible answer to prayer. Our hearts felt so full spending time with the 3 of them. 

Lydia is such a sweet baby. She is a healthy little girl and loves her milk! She also was a very good sport about having some extra moms around :)

Thanks so much for the visit!!

The cousins :)

The girls were lining up to feed Lydia her bottle.

Peter and Lydia had some cute interactions. It will be so fun to see them grow up together.

We went for a rainy day walk at the Houston trail.

And spent lots of time snuggling our sweet niece.

Karis is thinking "where's my baby?"

I just love this last picture. We had such a fun visit.

Thanks for the pictures, Uncle!

Peter's first solid food!

This week we started Peter on solid food. His first meal was mashed carrots!

Our technique of introducing solids has evolved from our first baby to our fourth. When we first fed Ella solids, we gave her rice cereal from my just washed finger. Poor Peter gets a spoon shoved into his mouth by Ella. 

I also like Karis' interpretation of what he must be thinking "he said I don't want to be in my highchair."

Dress Up

Karis loves to wear this traditional Uyghur dress.

Ella dressed up as Queen Esther for her community class last week. It was Hero Day.

Not related to dress-up. But Juliette loves to play Chutes and Ladders with Peter. She often lets him win :)

Journaling

Our girls have taken to "journaling" during rest and read. They also love to write us notes. The other day as I sat down to do my journaling, there was a note from Ella saying "the Word of God is living and active sharper than any two edged sword." 

The Cricket in Times Square

We just finished reading "The Cricket in Times Square". It is a beautiful story and reminded us a lot of Charlotte's Web. During our reading we learned about New York, what a subway is, and crickets!

The girls love to play with Wikki stix while I'm reading. It's amazing how they can create scenes and listen attentively all at the same time. Juliette sometimes seems to be in a complete other world while I read. But then Spencer gets home at the end of the day, and she will tell him exactly what happened in the story while he was gone.

And the girls have opened their own book store. I have been shopping there a lot lately. I usually bring Karis and Peter to this book store. The ladies working at the store are amazing. They have a great variety of books, offer stickers to children, and usually give more change than you actually paid them. 

The philosophy behind their hours went like this:

"We can't open at 7am, because we are still in pajamas and have bad breath. Let's open at 8. And we need a good sleep to run our store - so let's close at 6pm."

Settled. Sign made.

In other news - Juliette finished her 100 reading lessons. We celebrated with Blizzards! Or "blisters" as she calls them ;)