04 December 2016

November 13-December 4

Kaitlyn went to the doctor forever ago.  Actually, we all went, prompting the doctor to comment on the number of wiggly little girls in the room (5, because we had Sophia and Evalynn with us).  Only Kaitlyn had an appointment, though.  She was at the time 25 pounds and 33.5 inches tall.  She is undoubtedly bigger now.

We made "About Me" books in school and one of the pieces of information was weight.  Unfortunately for the books, we don't own a scale.  BUT, we did have (at the time) four five-pound bags of flour and some planks of wood!  I had the brilliant idea of making a balance scale and weighing Kaitlyn using sacks of flour, weighing Gretchen using Kaitlyn and flour, and weighing Olivia using Gretchen and flour.  Sadly, our planks of wood were not of the sturdy variety, and they bent rather than balancing, so our experiment was a bust.  :(  The next time we visited Grandma and Grandpa, we hopped on their actual scale.  Incidentally, Olivia is 40 pounds and Gretchen is 33.

New Kaitlyn words: See you in the morning, Grandma, Evalynn (Evah or Ella), dessert, candy, fork, I don't know, sorry, forgiven, see, yummy (nummy), pretty

Olivia has done some real, live math!  I had the girls count raisins into numbered circles and Olivia whizzed through with no trouble.  As I helped Gretchen and Sophia count recognize numbers and count raisins, I put Olivia to work using her raisins to add a page of problems that I'd written down.  She did great, and I was very excited.  :)  She's also beginning to read, when we remember to work on it.  The biggest problem is that she is very good at memorizing and/or guessing the words in the early readers, so she doesn't actually have to read to get the words right.  She sounds things out well, but still has trouble stringing the sounds together into a word that she recognizes.  And when I say she has trouble, I really mean that she can't do it at all yet.  She'll get better.

Gretchen likes to do "tricks" for us.  She holds onto the edge of the table and then stands on one foot.  She puts two hands and one foot on the ground and sticks the other foot in the air.  She braces herself between the couch and the end table, gets up on one tip-toe, and swings the other foot back and forth.  So much talent.  Her balance is getting better, especially since she started ballet.  And speaking of ballet, she also shows anyone who will watch her ballet moves that she's learned.

We hosted the midwest family thanksgiving at our house this year.  Tom, Donna, Kara, Jacob, Zach, Ted, Ruth, Carolyn, and Jacob all came.  Jacque and Will were thinking about coming, but ended up visiting Will's family instead.  I suppose that is acceptable.  I borrowed a roaster from church for the 21 pound turkey and we put both leaves in the dining room table.  The little girls had to sit at their kid-sized card table, which they did not mind at all.  We ate delicious food, played euchre and 7 Wonders, and enjoyed everyone's company.  Zach and Jacob stayed for a few more days, which was nice.

Bryan turned 30 recently.  He feels no different, although he did suffer an unfortunate losing streak in all games (quite unusual for him) for about a week.  Many jokes were made about his senility.  This does mean that my 30th birthday is quickly approaching.  My final 30 Before 30 post will go up on my birthday.

The church cookie walk happened yesterday.  We had two all-day baking days in November and several late nights this past week getting everything ready, but it's (mostly) over now.  A few more pounds of cookies are being baked to finish filling preorders, but then we're done for another year.

I volunteered to host campout in 2017, thinking when I volunteered two years ago that July 2017 was probably pretty safe, baby-wise.  Justine did some math, too, and decided she could help me.  As the time drew nearer and pregnancies failed to appear sufficiently early, we made jokes about being at camp, come babies or broken water.  It turns out that we will, indeed, be at camp come babies AND broken water.  Justine is due July 2 and I'm due July 12 (incidentally, my sister-in-law, Keshia, is due July 17).  Camp is July 25.  The good news is that camp this year is only half an hour from my house.  Also, now mom, dad, and James don't have to choose between coming to camp or to a baptism.  They can just come at the same time for both!  I'm trying to convince Justine that she wants to have her baby's baptism at the same time, and we'll kill 3 birds with one stone.  :)

Pictures and Videos:
Vimeo Videos, password BarhorstBrewed
Dancing With Daddy
Time to Dance

Kaitlyn flosses her teeth:

Posing for pictures at Grandma's:




Gretchen's picture:

Bryan turns 30:

Card club with giant cards:

Someone's into things on the counter:

Reading books with Daddy:

Movie in the bathtub:

This picture was taken at 10:30 at night after Gretchen took an afternoon nap earlier in the day:

Walking the indoor balance beam:


En garde!  Bryan battles Simeon and Kaitlyn:

Five kids and a movie:

No comments:

Post a Comment