Learning to Read

Tonight after dinner, Nolan asked if we could work on his spelling words. I started writing words and he began sounding them out. He read many words!!! He then started using the letter magnets to read words on the refrigerator. Silas started spelling words for him and Nolan did really well. Won't be long and he will be reading books to us! I love it!!!

Dad's Day

Steve is such a good dad! On Saturday, while I shopped with my mom, Shannon, Shirley, Melissa, and Shelley, he had the kids for the whole day. And he made the day so much fun. They went out to Dunkin Donuts and to run errands in town. Then he took them shopping for supplies and a deer blind, and took them hunting. He sent lots of pictures, and I could tell that everyone, even Dad, was having fun! Here are some of the pictures he sent:

Sibling love

Tonight, while we were tucking the kids in bed, Chaille was trying to kiss Nolan. It was such a sweet encounter and we giggled so much. Speaking of Chaille, she is going through a phase right now where she LOVES wearing Nolan's pajamas. And his under-roos! We are choosing to embrace this because we find it adorable. And, Nolan doesn't seem to care.

I just love our family. And I love the fact that these kids have each other. I pray they always remain friends as they grow up and change.

Here are some pics of Chaille trying to kids Nolan and Nolan pretending to not want to be kissed! When it was all said and done he kissed her back (and said he needed to get them back because she had stolen them all and he needed some for mom and dad!)

A Fathers love

These children know what it is to be loved by their father:

Date night with mom

Last night I took the kids to Pizza Hut for supper. Steve was hunting and Avery and Silas had earned Book-it certificates for free pizzas, so I chose to take them on a "date" for the evening. They had spent 3 1/2 hours cleaning prior to that, so I kind of owed them a reward! Lol. Here were my dates:

Grandpa's Re-Election

Last night we stayed out very late to attend Grandpa Randy's re-election gathering. We were all so excited to get the word that he was officially back in office for another two years! He has done an incredible job representing the people that he was elected to serve. We are so proud to be part of the family who supports him as he serves!

Fire Station Visit

It may seem silly, but our children haven't been to the fire stations very much since Steve went into the training office nearly 4 years ago. So, Sunday we went up and visited "uncle" Troy at station #5. The kids loved playing around in the bays and climbing onto the engine.

A new ride

For more than a year now, we have been watching for an Excursion to drive. We had a list of features that we wanted and a price range in mind. We found one a long time ago that met the list requirements and drove to see it in Plainfield... To see it drive off the lot as we pulled in!

Steve found one this week in Greenfield, at our preferred dealership. It had all of the options we wanted: 3/4 ton chassis, 4 wheel drive, leather, DVD, split second row seats, Eddie Bauer package, and it fell in the price range we were looking for. We test drove it yesterday on our way to football, and went back and bought it in the afternoon.

The best part was that we had a price in mind to ask them down to. But Steve, in talking with the salesmen and the financing officer, found out that they had several mutual friends. We were offered a discount that was $2,000 less than what we hoped to talk them down to and almost $4000 less than the list price. We felt that God was finally saying this is the time!

We didn't trade in anything for the vehicle, this will just be an extra vehicle and something that Steve can drive besides his department truck.

Here is the new to us Excursion:

Football season is over

Today Avery's all star team lost their tournament game against New Palestine 0-7. It was a fun season and Avery was bummed that it was over. It was getting pretty chilly to watch, though, and we are thankful that our evening and weekends are going to be freed up for a little while. We have been quite busy for so long now!

Here are some pics from this morning. We are about to head to the auto dealership and I'll blog about that later.
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Mustache day

The kids had mustache day at school yesterday. Nolan didn't have school, so his mustache was from the ice cream! :0)