Christmas fun

Graham's Christmas program

Graham had his Christmas program today. He did a great job saying his verse and singing his songs. He is pictured with his friend Conner. His brother and sister had a good time as well!

Halloween

Halloween this year consisted of Luke the hunter, Graham as King Peter, Eli as Thomas, and Madison as a turtle!

We enjoyed time with our neighborhood in a friends garage, as it was raining. Then off to our babysitters house, where the kids hD a great time. Next stop was some friends who live in a spread out neighborhood. Since the youngest 2 decided to fall asleep in the car, joe and I traded for who got to go out of the car in the pouring down rain to knock on doors! Luke and Graham wanted to know why this group of 15 girls kept following them! We ended up at my bosses house where we had brownies and pumpkin bread! A fun time and now everyone has enough candy to feed the daddy candy monster, or the Madison M &M monster for a good while!

Pumpkins

Grandma and grandpa Meier got the kids these faces. So the kids decorated the pumpkins today and we had a contest for the funniest pumpkin. They all came out pretty funny! Madison enjoyed watching her big brothers!

Playing in the snow

It snowed Thursday morning. Enough for me to realize I had to find my kids coats, gloves, and mittens! We are now ready for winter!

Enjoying a great find!

Eli and Madison spent the evening enjoying a garage sale find!

Courage Graham

We spent the weekend at a family wedding. This meant being at a hotel and spending time in the pool. This summer we have gone to the local pool or a friends house a time or two and both Luke and Eli were very comfortable going in the water with floaties. Graham however seemed almost paralyzed when in the water. Clutching onto me for deer life and just terrified to be left alone. I would keep trying to prying him off me but he would literally drown as he would just freeze up and not even try to swim. So he would swallow water and that would be the end of it. So this weekend my goal was to swim as much as possible to get him used to the water.

Joe was in the wedding so taking 4 kids to the pool seemed quiet crazy, but we did it Friday when we got there and it was fine. I couldn't get graham totally comfortable in the water as I was holding Madison also, but it was a start. Saturday morning joe and grandpa Nash were both there for help. So I took graham and tries to pry him off me and again he just became paralyzed and frozen in the water. We went in the hot tub and they wanted Togo back in the other pool and I mentioned that I needed to find courage to go back in as I knew it would be cold. So we talked about courage. Then I said he needed to ask God to give him courage to try to swim.

So after talking about it we moved to the big pool and I jumped in. Then I talked "courage graham" into joining me. He did and I got him swimming by holding him by his floaties from behind and then letting go as he was kicking away. As soon as he realized he wasn't being held he just froze and started to panic. We did this 2-3 times and he would panic but I kept talking about courage graham can do this. I would lift him out of the water to the side each time. So I am swimming or doing something with the other kids and graham says, "courage graham is ready". I say ok. So I get him in and let him go and he swims a little bit! Then he does it again and again and ends up going 10 times up and back! It was great to see his face light up as he realized he could do it, and that he had courage! He kept saying "courage graham is on the move". Such a good feeling to see him conquer his fear!

Next up no floaties! But that will have to be another time!


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Meri blouse

Aunt Erin lives in Papua New Guinea. The dress of the ladies over there is to wear a Meri blouse for special occasions. Since the boys all passed around a PNG flag outfit Erin bought this for Madison. It is still a little big on her, but she still looks cute in it!

Madison weeding!

Happy birthday DAD

Wednesday is my dad's birthday. So we traveled to Bradford for a day and had a great time celebrating! We had Tasta pizza, played at the playground, had a great chicken dinner, the. Cupcakes and Ice cream! We had tired kids who fell asleep shortly after we started home! It was a long day, but a good day. We were glad we got to celebrate together!

Pictures of Madison

Karate kids

About 4 weeks ago we signed Luke and Graham up for a free karate class. They both really enjoyed it so we have continued with the lessons. Parents are not allowed to stay and watch, but we do get to see the last 5 minutes as we pick them up. They have enjoyed the class but often say they can't share their karate moves as they don't want Daddy to learn them! They want to be able to beat him up! It has been wonderful to see their little faces light up as they were first awarded their first stripe. Then their second and a star for respect. Today they got their final strip and the officially head bands for their graduation to orange belts! Thursday of next week they will be yellow belts. It has been great to see them learning and to be happy and proud of what they are doing! I know nothing about taekwondo, but I guess we can allergen together! I have toward how to sew on Velcro patches for their uniforms!

Proud of my boys!

My walls are complete!!

When we first moved in I started 3 walls with pictures on them. Each child has found their spot on the wall at age 3 months and 1 year. It was very nice to be able to finish off my walls tonight with Madison's pictures! So happy she is 1!

Madison turns 1!

Madison came into our arms a year ago. It has been fun to have a little girl and to see the differences between her and the boys. She was delighted to get blocks, toddler crayons, an Elmo doll and a baby doll. She promptly gave Elmo and the baby doll kisses. Then she started to use her walker and take her first steps with a walker as she pushes it all over the house. She had a great celebration with a cake designed by her brothers and decorated by them as well!

Fishing

Happy 4th of July

We went to the local Harrisville Day Parade. It was complete with core trucks, police cars, army vehicles, and just a couple tractors (50). We had a good time with friends hanging out and enjoyed the food afterwards!

The beach

We traveled to Ocean City, NJ for the past week. We enjoyed going with family- aunt Erin, aunt Cindy, aunt Ann and uncle Dave, along with cousins Andrew, Dan, and James.

It was the first time at the beach for all of the kids, and the first Atlantic Ocean experience for Joe. We enjoyed days at the beach with sandcastles, burying people, attempting boogie boarding, jumping waves, and finding crabs!

We often went back after a nap for more fun. We enjoyed the playground close by as well. We also went on a pirate cruise to find pirate treasure and defeat stinky Pete! We enjoyed a night of Manco & Manco pizza followed by Kohr bros custard! So much that we went back for a second night!

The boys were ready to come home and Eli kept asking to go home to "fennsylvania". Luke and graham bought hermit crabs and Eli got a Brobie backpack.

While holding the hermit crab graham started to scream. The hermit crab had pinched his finger and wouldn't let go. Luckily we had read the instructions and put his finger under warm water and the crab let go!

Nash family photo shoot

A little peak of our family photo shoot.


http://step1removelenscap.blogspot.com/2013/06/nash-family-of-six.html


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Potty training #3

Eli for probably the last month has sometimes been telling us when he has to go #2 and we would sit on the potty and sometimes be successful but it was more often than not, he had already gone in his diaper and we missed it. He would tell us when he was wet, but never to go potty.

After getting thru some busy weeks I thought this weekend was pretty quiet And I would have time to potty train him. So on Wednesday I started in the morning with underwear. He had one accident and the. Went once before I had to leave for work. He had 2 more accidents that day, but since that time he has been dry-day and night. Telling us he has to go potty even when outside or at church!

So this has been my easiest potty training to date and I did nothing! We have been rewarding him with m&m's when he goes but will go to the store for his potty training toy on Tuesday. He is also very excited to get to go fishing with Daddy on the boat!

Sleeping quarters

I was getting ready for bed and heard snoring. I looked behind me and saw not one but two animals sleeping in the linen closet! At least they like each other!

1st picture in the paper!