Sam turned one and Rachel will be 7 on Friday...

Here are some pictures of some of the wonderful artwork from last week!
Rachel knows how much I love the fall leaves and could not wait to show me her own fall leaves! She ran into the house and pulled this out of her backpack so excitedly! Click to enlarge so you can see her pretty leaves!
Rachel told me a story for about fifteen minutes about this picture of her compass. There are fish, the water, a box that a bird is trapped in...

red & blue make purple...I love it!

This is a story about ice cream Jakob had to write. As you can see Jakob has only been to Cold Stone Creamery. I think they should pay us for free advertising :-)!

OK, so I have to brag how incredibly sweet my kids are! All the time they are doing the sweetest, kindest things for each other that make me so proud! For example, anytime they have money they will tell me they want to buy...fill in the blank...for...fill in name of sibling. I NEVER did that as a child! They take their own quarters and buy each other candy from the little machines. They will take their own allowance and buy the other certain things they know the other wants! If I would have had allowance I would not have done that! And then when they are playing fantasy world and talk about what they would do if they had a million dollars they always say that they would give Mom and Dad x amount of money and they name each sibling and give them money too! And I am not talking small percentages of the million...they are very generous! They are so NOT selfish! Paul and I must be do something right? Yeah for us!

So, a few MONTHS ago our neighbors were having a yard sale. Jakob comes running inside. Runs up the stairs. Comes down the stairs with his wallet. I of course am very curious, "What are you doing?" He replies, "Mom, there is a stuffed puppy I want to get Rachel for her birthday and a bag of homemade cookies for Ben and me." (Rachel was at a friend's house or I am sure he would have shared the cookies and he knows how much Rachel LOVES puppies and could never have enough of them). I was kinda worried though what shape a stuffed animal would be in from a yard sale. I have been to yard sales and usually the stuffed animals are pretty gross! However, I was pleasantly surprised to see that it was a brand new, extremely soft puppy...the girl is a teenager and obviously never touched it :-). I just hugged Jakob so tightly and told him how proud I was of him to use HIS allowance on his sister's birthday present! He did this last year as well! I will share pics at another time. So, he promptly hid the puppy in a nice spot under Ben's bed, way in the back behind storage containers. I don't know how Jakob crawled under there! He has been anxiously awaiting her birthday to arrive these past few months holding onto the secret has been driving him crazy! Last week when Rachel went to a friend's house he says, "Mom, now would be a good time to wrap her present." So, I gave him a bag and tissue paper. He wrapped it up. Added in a dollar!!! And wrote the sweetest note!!! ALL of this HIS idea!!! You know just because he doesn't say the words to Rachel, "I love you." He said it in the way he gave this present! I am so proud! He could not stand it any longer and wanted to give it to her early...her birthday is this Friday, 3 October.

Look at Jakob's face...he is so happy for Rachel to open her present.

"To Rachel From Jakob To The Best Little Sister A Boy Could Have!"

How sweet is that!?!

A big thank you hug!

A big hug for "Cuddles"

Look, money!!!

Then Sam and Rachel got birthday cards in the mail from Daddy... "Thank you Daddy!"

Sam's birthday was Saturday...yes, Ben had to get stitches on Sam's birthday! We are going to celebrate while my Dad is here so he can see Sam make a mess with the cake! But, we did let him go ahead and open his present from Grandma and Grandpa Darling.

Everyone helping Sam. "What could be in there?"
"Yeah, look at these cute clothes, Mom."

Rachel is doing a slumber party next week. But she wanted to go ahead and open her present from Grandma and Grandpa Darling as well.

Thank you Grandma and Grandpa for the cute clothes and beautiful doll.

I can not believe that Samuel is now one! I will do something special with pictures after I get the new computer. And, Rachel will be 7 on Friday...my how time flies!!!! She is no longer my "little girl!"

See all the pictures in the 25 Sept. album. http://picasaweb.google.com/momtomyfour