Barn, Birthdays and Pumpkins

We started building a pole barn at the beginning of September. Here is what it looks like so far. We hope to get it finished by winter. We had lots of help from friends and we hired a few nephews to do the roof. James plans on finishing the rest himself.

On September 17th Jedaiah turned two. James and Josh were on their trip, we celebrated without them. We celebrated with the rest of the family on Joshua's birthday. He is a fun little guy. I think he will be a leader someday. He likes to tell people what to do and he doesn't put up with his siblings when they try to take advantage of him. We are working on potty training him some and he's doing okay so far. He goes on the potty inbetween diaper changes. Speaking of diapers, I have decided to switch to cloth diapers. I got some really nice ones that fit from birth to 35 pounds, so both Jedaiah and Jesse are wearing them at night. They are so easy to work with and they hardly leak at all. I wish I made the switch a long time ago. I would have saved quite a bit of money.

Here's Josh on his birthday present on his birthday. We gave him a much needed new bed and he got a comforter/sheet set from his MawMaw and PawPaw. We celebrated this past Friday night his 11th birthday. He is bigger and stronger than Jonathan who is over two years older than him. He also wants to do everything Jonathan does. Now that Jonathan is in the youth he gets to do some cool things and that creates some tentions. Josh still has his strong willed moments, but overall he is a great kid!

We went to the pumpkin patch yesterday. Jonathan isn't in the picture because we left him home by himself. He went with the youth in the evening instead. We gave him the choice and he chose them over us, bummer. Oh well, I guess it was bound to happen.

I am almost seven months pregnant now. Ten weeks to go until the due date. I am feeling pretty good. I'm starting to get a little more tired, but I don't need to take naps most days. I'm still doing gardening. I've got green beans coming in, popcorn and peppers. I also have some tomatoes, but not many. School is taking up most of my time, so I don't get to get out in the garden too often.

September

Jonathan turned 13 at the end of August. His favorite thing is anything sports. He loves playing sports and loves keeping up with professional sports. He bought his own ipod touch this past summer and uses it to keep up on what's going on in the sports world. He even has an app that enables him to watch live games on his ipod. James and Jonathan have been keeping up with the Cardinals in the playoffs this past week. Since we don't have cable, it is the only way they can watch the game. Jonathan can be a big help to me around home. It is nice to be able to leave him home to babysit when I want to.

In September, one of the countries we studied was Mexico. Here the kids enjoyed their piniata that they had made. It was pretty strong and they all got a wack at it a couple times. I even got to take a swing at it. I forgot who finally broke it open. Jedaiah was expecially excited about the candy. He loves candy!

Later in September, James and Josh went on a pre-adolescent backpacking trip up to Michigan. They went to Isle Royale National Park. They fished and paddled in a rubber kayak. They didn't catching any fish, but they had a great time together. Josh is very inquisitive and we thought we better inform him of some things sooner than later.

Towards the end of September we studied Brazil and South America. Here the kids are proudly displaying a mural we all worked together to make. It came out pretty good.

The new curriculum is working great. The kids are enjoying it and so am I.