November/December 2015 Update

WALKING BEAR

Audrey now is walking all the time.  She keeps me busy cleaning now that she can get into things and carry them all over the house.

Dressed for the cold weather.

Rocking with her big sister at piano lessons.

Audrey thought she was pretty cool in Maddy's sunglasses.

Snuggling mom after immunizations.

Audrey now likes to climb into the rocking chair and sign BOOK when she wants me to read to her.  Sometimes she will even say, "Read book."

Playing at the park.

Rocking with Abby.

You can tell Audrey is pretty excited about Christmas, thus the gate around the tree.

FUN WITH THE KIDS

The kids helped me plan a surprise Harry Potter party for their cousin Christian.

Here are the kids making potions with Professor Snape.

The kids learned how to shoot rubber bands at each other, but Jared insisted on eye-protection.  

COOKING BEAR

We had a day of cooking homeschool on the day before Thanksgiving.  Audrey of course wanted to help.

We had to move her kitchen into the dining room.

We love our little chef.

THANKSGIVING

A gratitude tree that the kids made in homeschool.

The feast!  Luckily the Cranney's were on board with our vegetarian Thanksgiving plans.

The kids were proud to eat the food that they had helped prepare.

When I asked Nathan and Christian what they were most thankful for this year, they both said, "Cousins!"  They do have a lot of fun playing together.

Audrey loved the meal and actually polished off this whole plate.

The girls thought it was neat that they got to eat at the adult table.

CAMEL FARM

We visited a camel farm with the kids' homeschool co-op.  Audrey kept looking at the camels and calling them dogs.

Abby was the first to ride.  She rode a dromedary camel named Richard.

Nathan rode Richard too.

Maddy riding a bactrian camel from China.

PLAYING AT THE FARM

Another reason we homeschool: public schools won't let kids climb trees

PIANO RECITAL

The girls had a Christmas piano recital.  Here they are with their teacher, Linda Houlding.  It is amazing to see how much progress they've made since they began lessons with her.

FAMILY PICTURE ATTEMPTS

The girls

Audrey doesn't like Nathan getting too close to mommy.

Here she is whacking Nathan with her head.

She did better once we gave her a bell, but notice Maddy's very large, weird looking hand.

Audrey kept pulling and playing with Nathan's hair.

Nathan decided to let us know he had had it.

We decided that laying in the grass would at least force most of us to look up at the camera at the same time.

  Family picture craziness!

KID FUN

The girls did a great FHE lesson for us about the Lehi's dream.  Nathan felt left out so we had him prepare a FHE lesson about one of his favorite Book of Mormon stories--Samulel the Lamanite.  He made a cool visual aid for the lesson out of LEGOs.

Abby has been very busy with sewing and crafts this Christmas season.  In addition to cards and a dozen snowflakes, she has taken up sewing with felt.  She made some cute miniature stockings for her and Maddy's dolls, as well as one for Nathan's stuffed animals.  Abby also designed and made this little kitty puppet to give to Audrey.

 MAYBORN CHRISTMAS PARTY

Visiting Santa.

Maddy was shy and told Santa she wanted whatever Abby wants.

Nathan asked for LEGO Ewok Attack.

Audrey just asked for Mommy.

With the kids by the tree.

They put on a live puppet show that they kids really enjoyed.

The kids were excited to go on a horse-drawn carriage ride through the historic village.

Audrey's favorite part was probably the mini rocking chair.

They had a lot of fun crafts for the kids, such as making their own candles the old-fashioned way.