6wks in Review - Part Two: Arkansas

After our week stay in NV, we went back to TX for two days before going to Arkansas with the Geers for a family wedding.

While in Texas we visited Grandma and Grandpa Aboul-Ela
Jenny and Ella met up with all of us in Arkansas. Here are the 4 Geer Cousins on the hillside before the wedding. It was a joyous occasion witnessing two devoted Christians committing their lives to one another. The part of the ceremony that put tears in all of our eyes was when both sets of parents, the bride, and groom prayed on stage holding hands in a circle while a song finished playing. On the same hillside we enjoyed fireworks on the 3rd of July.Scott caught a frog and Adeline thoroughly enjoyed holding it and showing it off.Great Grandma & Grandpa Geer

6wks in Review - Part One: Nevada

To my faithful followers in Battle Mountain, NV - please forgive me for taking so long to update!

We had a wonderful last six weeks with friends and family. The trip started off with 3 days in TX (picture above represents those 3 days. Cousin Colten is in the middle) before heading to see friends in Elko & Battle Mountain, NV.

What a refreshing trip with Christian brothers and sisters! This was our first visit back to our home in the States in 3 years.

We stayed in the home of Joanna & Clay Hutnyak with their three blessings while in Elko. What an encouragement it was to stay in the home of a mom with a gentle spirit! We thoroughly

enjoyed our time with all of our friends in Elko, but unfortunately I wasn't good about getting out the camera.

We made it up to the Lamoille Canyon and the Hutnyak family is pictured below.

Our church family is in Battle Mountain, NV at Grace Orthodox Presbyterian Church. Again, what an encouraging time! We stayed with Ken & Judy Cox (Judy pictured below) and fellowshipped, fellowshipped, and then fellowshipped some more! We were among brothers and sisters who truly represent "as iron sharpens iron." Matthias was baptized while we were in BM.
Our dear brother Jeff Wheeler and Rev Christ Post.

Art, Snails, Mud, & Pacifiers

Adeline began working on drawing farm animals this week with a book a friend recommended - Draw, Write, Now. She's having lots of fun with it, but I would recommend purchasing tracing paper. The book encourages writing about your picture as well. There are 6 steps to learn how to draw each figure.
The church youth came over on Saturday night and I talked to the girls about their bodies and making decisions as women and Scott talked to the boys about courtship.
Matthias sucking on his paci.
Matthias eating his paci! This is his new and regular trick.
Adeline with a very small snail. She even lets the big ones crawl on her! This past Monday Adeline woke up in a very pleasant mood and while she and I were sitting at the breakfast table she asked, "Mommy, is God waiting on us to pray." It was a very nice start to our day for her to willingly pray with me. As she left the table I called out, "Hey, will you..." She replied, "Mommy, my name isn't hey. That's what I say to Darton when he's a horse." What a sweet moment!
Darton "working" with his boots after rain water collected in the sandbox.
We went to a children's performance of Disney's Aristocats. It was fun. However my male 3 year old son's one comment about the show...."The white cats didn't have on panties." SERIOUSLY!?! [they really did a good job wearing an appropriate layer under the skintight white costume]

Matthias should be crawling soon, but maybe it will be another 2mths. He's up on his knees way before my other two even thought about it. His second tooth is coming in which is a good two months before my first two even got their first!

We leave for the States on Saturday and will visit Texas, Nevada, & Arkansas over the next month.

Don't have a title for this one...

Here we are in June and in counting down until our trip to Texas and Nevada! We haven't been back to NV since we moved to the DR, so we are very excited about this trip.

Last Saturday I am proud to say that my husband, who knew less Spanish than me when we moved here, gave a complete presentation to the church youth group in Spanish! Bravo! I'll be giving my testimony and words of encouragment to the girls next Saturday and we'll see how much I will use the translator. Needless to say, I'm getting by, but not near as fluent as I should be. But, sigh, I'd rather be with my children than in Spanish class.

Adeline loves giving tea parties and I've been trying to break out an English accent for her. She and Darton just crack up laughing at me. Last week there really was a true tea in my home for an English girlfriend expecting her first child this summer. The hostesses of the party created the fun hat Adeline had on her head. All the guests has one to wear. We also made tuts at the tea and Adeline is wearing the one I made for her. I need to go buy more material to make it fuller.
Notice all her stuffed animals at her tea party. She loves serving us cookies. Matthias is 6months. He is sitting up and is getting his first tooth. He started eating aguacate (avacado) tonight and this is his second night in his own room. He's still trying to wake up 2 or 3 times a night, so hopefully being in his own room will fix that problem. In two weeks however, he'll be back in my room as wel stay with family and friends for 4 weeks. Maybe he'll get the hang of sleeping through the night in the next two weeks and won't regress once we are on vacation.

Dominicans think I am crazy for feeding him avacado at six months instead of habichuelas (beans). I was told last week at church that at 2 months babies are fed cereal through a bottle and then by 5 months they are eating everything (including meat) after it's put in the blender. Seriously?! I've learned how to say politely, "What you do in your country is not what we do in ours."

Adeline finishes up another year in all-Spanish school next week. Darton will join her for the same two days next year and the other 2 or 3 we will be more dedicated to a true schooling schedule in the home (namely with phonics and math). She started asking this week how to write specific words to put on her paper. I call out the sound(s) of the letter (as opposed to the name of the letter) and then she writes it. She also started drawing flowers in the last two week. Here we are coloring the Red River that Moses and the Israelites crossed. After they painted, we tore off the masking tape to have a "path" through the river. (taken from Little Hands to Heaven)

Darton and I sat down 3 days last week with a shapes workbook. He LOVED it and insisted that he get to drink a cup of coffee while doing his work!

On Monday Darton took a chunk out of Adeline's back when he bit her in anger. All you moms out there can imagine how furious I was. I'm praying for wisdom to know what to say in those moments instead of reacting in rage. Scott came home that night for dinner and with wisdom from above (seriously) he was able to talk to Darton about his actions. He reminded the kids of a National Geographic show they had watched recently with animals eating other animals (yes, they wanted to watch it while I had to close my eyes!). Scott told the kids that God made us and the animals, but God made us in His image which makes us different from the animals. Therefore, we don't eat each other like the animlas do. My mouth dropped open. I can easily spit out "Be kind to one another" Eph 4:32 when training the kids on how to treat each other, but Scott took the training to the next level which I think penatrated to their hearts. Praise God for a godly husband!

Much Needed Update

We enjoyed my cousin Morgan here for a week and are greatly missing having family in the house. I'm pretty sure she got a good dose of "I'm quite happy not having kids just yet" medicine ;). She's only been married 4 months. I don't have any good pictures of her visit on my camera, but here is one of her and Adeline from her wedding. Our gordito having fun in the tub. He desparately wants out of his seat and into the water!Adeline's Mother's Day celebration at her school. Not the best of pictures...and yes, they are swimming in their underware!

Circle of Blessing

Children, obey your parents in the Lord for this is right. Honor your father and mother which is the first commandment with promise. That it may be well with you and that you may live long on the earth. Ephesians 6:1-4

I enjoy using the advice out of Tedd Tripp's Shepherding a Child's Heart. We recently saw a fruit of our labors when Adeline drew a self-initiated drawing of the Circle of Blessings. This is the idea:

In Ephesians 6:1-3, God has drawn a circle of great blessings. Children are to live within the circle of submission to parental authority. Submission to parents means honoring and obeying. Within that circle things will go well and they will enjoy long lives (p131).

Although Scott and I poked fun about trying to use it in our training/shepherding (i.e. "you want to be in the circle don't you"), it has proven to be a great image for the kids' minds when we are conveying why they need to obey mommy and daddy.

Local Beach

Since our friends moved up to the North Coast a year ago, we hadn't been back to a beach only 30 minutes out of the city. The North Coast beach isn't little kid friendly with the wind and waves, so although Adeline has been swimming by herself for 9 months, this was her first swim in the ocean by herself. It was also Matthias's first dip in the Caribbean.

My cousin Morgan arrives on Wednesday to bring me to relief! I now understand why it's important to live near family when you have a "quiver full of them."