Meaningful work

The other night during the witching hour, things were really falling apart.  People were bored and there was lots of crying, fighting and misdirected activity.  In a moment of desperation, I recruited some kitchen helpers to use a device that turned out to be new and exciting to them: the cherry pitter!  Thankfully, all the boys wanted in on this job!  There was instant co-operation and taking turns!  It turns out this is a miracle device.

 

I also recently discovered that Jake is old enough to cut soft foods with a knife.  Give a boy a small sharp knife, appropriate supervision and some safety rules… he feels like BIG STUFF!  They do this in Montessori classrooms regularly, so I should have thought of this sooner.  He made a salad almost all on his own. 

It’s a…

As all 2 of my blog readers know, there is another little Pereira on the way.  Here we are in the ultrasound waiting room yesterday.  It has become a family tradition for us all to go see the new baby together. Historically, daddy is wrestling with a squirmy toddler the whole time while the older ones look on in fascination.  This time was no exception!  Mommy’s rules:  Be quiet and be still!  And there might be a treat afterwards if you’re good.  Thankfully, little baby #5 is growing well and looks healthy so far.  At the very end of the study, it was revealed, much to mommy’s surprise….

 

 

 

 

 

 

I had planed to offload a lot of clothes at a consignment sale next week, but now it looks like we will need to hang on to them for a bit longer.  We are so thankful for this healthy little boy.  Each time I see a fetal ultrasound I am so in awe of God’s creativity and power in his perfect design. 

The newest little Pereira

Jason’s brother and sister in law have recently completed the long process of adopting a little girl from China.  We joined the big party at the airport last Thursday to welcome little Belle Qing Pereira to her new home.  She has been loved on heavily by her 4 older siblings and has made a great adjustment to her new home so far.  Our boys are in love with their new little cousin.  She is the same age as Abby so that will be fun for them as they get older.

Enjoying getting to know her Papaw- he has a special way with babies!

Sweet Abby

Happy 4th!

We attended the Pegram 4th of July parade again this year.  Its fun that the boys are now old enough to remember these events from last year and look forward with great anticipation to doing them again.

We had Papaw and Ellie over for dinner and watched the neighbors set off their fireworks.  The boys could not wait for it to get dark, and we had a few small fireworks of our own.  Its scary how much they LOVE fireworks!  Careful!!!

I love how Jake’s face says it all in this picture!

Fun time with our cousins

 

Two of our nieces from Cincinnati came to visit while their older sister was recovering from surgery.  We had the best time taking them to the zoo and playing in the river by our house.  The raft was definitely the most popular activity of the weekend!  The boys were so excited the whole time they were here, by the end of the visit they were all more exhausted than we have ever seen before.  There was an awful lot of showing off and physical play among themselves, I guess just trying to impress their cousins.  The girls were so sweet and well behaved, but our boys were a handful!

The best daddy EVER

Our four almost five children are so blessed!  We love you!

Fun summer activity.

We borrowed this raft from some neighbors and took it out on the river across the street from our house.  The boys had the BEST time.  They only stayed in the raft for about 30 seconds, then the real fun was to swim in the river and push the raft around.  The river is quite shallow in many areas so they could touch bottom.  We explored a little tributary that runs through some farmland across the river from our house, which felt like a little adventure. 

Brothers

Finally walking!!!

Abby is our latest walker at 16 1/2 months.  She is so proud of herself, and we are so happy to see her toddling around on 2 feet.  This makes going outside so much more fun for all of us.  Go Abby!

Mommy & Abby

 

    

1977

     

2011

Little Rednecks in Training

Papaw and Ellie were very gracious to buy each boy a present for Jake’s birthday.  This is what Jake chose as his special gift.

Happy Birthday to Jake!

 

Jake made this cake as a special activity with Grandma Ellie

Lego party with friends- our first “big kid” party!

Lego car race track.

Bunk beds

Just for fun we thought we would try moving all 3 boys into the same bedroom.  Jake and Ben were thrilled at the idea of bunking their beds.  Little Sam was very excited to be sharing a room with his older brothers.  He was so excited in fact, that he was talking, getting out of bed and “using the bathroom” repeatedly, despite many corrective measures, until after 9 pm each night.  And the excitement continued when he woke everyone up each morning around 6 am or even earlier.  All of this excitement was a bit too much for the rest of us, so after a 2 week trial we have moved happy, excited Sam back into his own room for now.