Chan the Man

With already being outnumbered 3 to 2 by our progeny, we figured that being doubled up by them was a challenge that we were willing to face. Playing “zone defense” is a tactic that we are getting accustomed to. I must confess that my vision of the perfect family was a package deal of two of each kind, and maybe throw in the pet parakeet, gerbil, or potbelly pig. Our plans are never perfect, and fortunately God rarely gives us what we ask. A pattern appears to be developing here; Boys. Our little lady, has her big-little man, middle man, and now little man.

Little man, also known as Chandler Levi, Chan the Man, Baby, Chanlee, or Chad is a cute skinny kid with pretty good sleeping patterns, a poochey lower lip and a contagious smile. The perfect addition to a young but robust family. The little guy already has very distinct traits. He enjoys his contact with other humans. Kisses from mom, belly rubs from dad, and even puts up with a lot from his sister and brothers. The youngster will even take some pain like a champ if he feels like it is genuine love being overly displayed to him from someone that was in his stockings less than two years ago. He does however seem to play favorites. His sister has a knack for getting the biggest smiles from him, and seems to best calm his nerves when they get frayed. The biggest brother even prizes the opportunities that he gets to hold or even carry the little guy to the waiting open arms of a parent (while the other typically follows in very close proximity).

Yes, our home is rather lively, and no we don’t have a lot of free time to do much. Adding this additional beaming smile to the mix, is definitely a blessing that we will hold on to. Chandler Levi’s name as a direct English and Hebrew translation is a candle maker that brings unity. It is difficult to understand how an infant’s mind functions, but amazingly he already seems to be living up to his meaning. His little smile lights up the world of his family around him, and taking care of yet another little soul again reminds us of our own helplessness, and dependence on God unifying us with this basic yet essential fact of life. Live long and light up the world, Chandler. We love you little guy.

~Daniel

His Little Corner of the World

With 10 days to go... give or take, Chandler Levi's little corner of the world is ready for him. So are his biggest brother and big sister. Ian seems as excited as his limited knowledge of the happenings allows him. Last night he gave the cutest Oos and smiles over Baby Chandler's space, proudly showing it to Daddy too. 

"I love Mommy when she lets us do school"

On Saturday: "Mommy we forgot to do school" or "Mommy can we do school today?" Sunday evening: "Mommy thank you for doing school tomorrow!" "I love Mommy when she lets us do school" This mama heart melts at each of these... just hope we can keep this joy and love for school. 

I wish I could put in to words how much I am enjoying it too! I love the cuddle time reading together, the joy on my kiddos faces as we play games and learn, the fun they have with crafts or journaling and watching the stories come to life for them through different activities. Ian even loves being involved at times, Racing to the table with the kids to do his "school work" too and "hollering" at Mama if he thinks she has for gotten to give him his "work". 

Developing the Early Learner

Auditory active: "Was the sound the same or different?" 

Seeing what it might have been like for Jacob 

to sleep on a stone when fleeing Esau.

Making a "cave" after reading "Tiger Tries to Cheat"

Making brownies for a neighbor to go with our verse

for the week... "God loves a cheerful giver"

Doing school work

 Nature walk and nature collages

Counting active

Nothing to do with school, just my Terrific Three :)

The Name of Our Fourth Child and Third Son is...

After much deliberation we have decided to name our fourth child and third son

Chandler Levi Falkenstine

The meaning of the name Chandler is the old English word for Candlemaker. The meaning connotes one who brings light. Levi is the Hebrew name meaning united one. Levi, who was the third son of Jacob, and patriarch of the holy priesthood line connotes bringing unity between God and man.

The verse that we have chosen for our son comes from I John 1:7, “But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus his Son cleanses us from all sin.”

We ask the Lord to use this life to unite many souls to Him, and walk in and bring light to a troubled world.

As his first and last name contain a combined 19 letters, we expect that his name may become truncated into a nickname! While we may leave it up to him or the market to decide what it is, we have one already pre-arranged, but will need to get a good look at him first to see who he is!

~Daniel

Baby #4

So, yesterday on our fifth Anniversary we found out who Baby #4 is! Today, the kids opened bags of candy with the color to represent their new sibling...

Oh, sorry ;-) here you go....

Our sweet third little boy! He didn't really want to show his little profile though, so we don't have a really great one; but I still had to show off our cute little guy. :)

Jenae's Birthday and Tea Party

Our baby girl turned three on Thursday, we had a fun little day celebrating and then today Mama, Mimi and Grandmommy took Jenae out for tea at a little Tea Room. She loved it and I think felt celebrated.

Homeschooling

So, last week we started school and today we finished our 2nd week of school! To a lot of people the timing may seem odd to start, but for many reasons this timing was perfect for our little family. After some research and prayer, Daniel and I felt Sonlight was a good fit for us right now and our books arrived last Wednesday. The kids were so excited!!! One of the things I love about Sonlight for us right now is they have it completely scheduled out for you, if you chose to use their schedule. This enabled us to start school that very after noon. Much to the delight of my little scholars! 

 

The kids are loving it so far and I think Mama is having almost as much fun as them. We even had a baking session to go with one of our stories, in which Little Man even got to help. 

I am so thankful and blessed to get to homeschool these little blessing!

Birthdays.... Three months late

Ok, so I know I am 3 months late in posting these, but I can't not post them!!! 
Ian had his very 1st birthday in November and I feel terrible it has taken me so long to post anything from it! I can only say that the last few months we have just been trying to survive... this pregnancy has been a lot rough on me physically then the others. That being said I am just going to post (hopefully for you enjoyment) a bunch of pictures from Ian's birthday, Shelden's birthday and the boys birthday party all in this one post. After all, they were all within a week and a half of each other and it will make this Mama feel better to have posted. I know it is silly, but since I have always done a birthday post for the kids I have felt awful for being so long in posting this. So here you go...