Tuesday, November 3, 2009

Fall Is Here!!!

Well, fall has arrived and we've been busy. I know, I know, it's been forever since we posted. We are now pretty addicted to facebook, so we haven't been very good about keeping up with our blog. We have really enjoyed the last couple of months. Stephen's dad and mom came up at the beginning of September for Labor Day weekend. We enjoyed our usual dining, dominos, shopping and fun. It was Stephen's mom's birthday and it was great to celebrate it with her. Of course, we didn't get any photos. Some day we'll all remember to take some pics! Thanks mom and dad for coming to visit.
A few weeks later my mom came to visit and we got to go to the State Fair of Texas. We all had a blast, especially Hope.

Stephen and Hope got to carve their first pumpkin the other day. Stephen had never carved a pumpkin before, and Hope really enjoyed watching while making a mess with the pumpkin innards! She freaked out when we turned out the lights and lit the Jack-o-lantern.

Our church had its Harvest Fest on the Wednesday before Halloween. Stephen was in charge of it and it was a pretty big deal. We moved everything outside this year and rented a construction pole light to light the parking lot. Hope got to play games, bounce in the bounce house, ride the hay ride and collect candy from all the trunk-or-treaters while dressed as a pink leopard. We hear those are endangered and only indigenous to Howe, Texas :).


Our latest, and very exciting news is that we found out that our baby is a BOY! I'm a little overwhelmed by the thought of raising a boy since I only know about girls, but we are thrilled to have a healthy baby and to continue the Wilhite line. Thank you Lord for being so good!





























Friday, September 11, 2009

Food for thought...

Found this and thought it was VERY interesting. Proper education is a subject that is very near and dear to my heart. I think this certainly says a lot about our current educational system and how little we are expecting from our kids nowadays...


8th Grade Final Exam: Salina , KS - 1895


Grammar (Time, one hour)

1. Give nine rules for the use of capital letters.
2. Name the parts of speech and define those that have no modifications.
3. Define verse, stanza and paragraph
4. What are the principal parts of a verb? Give principal parts of "lie,""play," and "run."
5. Define case; illustrate each case.
6 What is punctuation? Give rules for principal marks of punctuation.
7 - 10. Write a composition of about 150 words and show therein that you understand the practical use of the rules of grammar.


Arithmetic (Time,1 hour 15 minutes)

1. Name and define the Fundamental Rules of Arithmetic.
2. A wagon box is 2 ft. deep, 10 feet long, and 3 ft. wide. How many bushels of wheat will it hold?3. If a load of wheat weighs 3,942 lbs., what is it worth at 50cts/bushel, deducting 1,050 lbs. for tare?
4. District No 33 has a valuation of $35,000. What is the necessary levy to carry on a school seven months at $50 per month, and have $104 for incidentals?
5. Find the cost of 6,720 lbs. coal at $6.00 per ton..
6. Find the interest of $512.60 for 8 months and 18 days at 7 percent.
7. What is the cost of 40 boards 12 inches wide and 16 ft. long at $20 per metre?
8. Find bank discount on $300 for 90 days (no grace) at 10 percent.
9. What is the cost of a square farm at $15 per acre, the distance of which is 640 rods?
10. Write a Bank Check, a Promissory Note, and a Receipt.

U.S. History (Time, 45 minutes)

1. Give the epochs into which U.S. History is divided
2. Give an account of the discovery of America by Columbus.
3. Relate the causes and results of the Revolutionary War.
4. Show the territorial growth of the United States .
5. Tell what you can of the history of Kansas .
6. Describe three of the most prominent battles of the Rebellion.
7. Who were the following: Morse, Whitney, Fulton , Bell , Lincoln , Penn, and Howe?
8. Name events connected with the following dates: 1607, 1620, 1800, 1849, 1865.


Orthography (Time, one hour) [Do we even know what this is??]

1. What is meant by the following: alphabet, phonetic, orthography, etymology, syllabication
2. What are elementary sounds? How classified?
3. What are the following, and give examples of each: trigraph, subvocals, diphthong, cognate letters, linguals
4. Give four substitutes for caret 'u.' (HUH?)
5. Give two rules for spelling words with final 'e.' Name two exceptions under each rule.
6. Give two uses of silent letters in spelling. Illustrate each.
7. Define the following prefixes and use in connection with a word: bi, dis, mis, pre, semi, post, non, inter, mono, sup.
8. Mark diacriticall y and divide into syllables the following, and name the sign that indicates the sound: card, ball, mercy, sir, odd, cell, rise, blood, fare, last.
9. Use the following correctly in sentences: cite, site, sight, fane, fain, feign, vane , vain, vein, raze, raise, rays.
10. Write 10 words frequently mispronounced and indicate pronunciation by use of diacritical marks and by syllabication.


Geography (Time, one hour)

1 What is climate? Upon what does climate depend?
2.. How do you account for the extremes of climate in Kansas?
3. Of what use are rivers? Of what use is the ocean?
4. Describe the mountains of North America .
5. Name and describe the following: Monrovia , Odessa , Denver , Manitoba , Hecla , Yukon , St. Helena, Juan Fernandez, Aspinwall and Orinoco .
6. Name and locate the principal trade centers of the U.S.
7. Name all the republics of Europe and give the capital of each.
8. Why is the Atlantic Coast colder than the Pacific in the same latitude?
9. Describe the process by which the water of the ocean returns to the sources of rivers.
10. Describe the movements of the earth. Give the inclination of the earth.

Notice that the exam took FIVE HOURS to complete.

Gives the saying "he only had an 8th grade education" a whole new meaning, doesn't it? Also shows you how poor our education system has become and, NO! I don't have the answers.

Saturday, August 1, 2009

Our sweet little girl...

I can't even begin to describe how sweet life has been having Hope for a daughter. We are so blessed after what we have been through to have her. Yes, she frustrates me sometimes, yes she throws the bigest temper tantrums you have ever seen in your life, but she is such a blessing to us. I am continually thanking God for her and am just amazed daily at how He is molding her and making her into a young lady.

Here are some of the things that Hope has been doing lately:

*Hope can sing almost any song she hears. She's totally like her Daddy in that way. She hears it and she just knows it. Her current favorite songs to sing are: Jesus Loves Me, ABC's, and any Disney song that she hears. Music soothes her in a way nothing else can. She will be throwing the hugest temper tantrum and I'll start singing and she'll calm down immediately and start singing along with me.

*To go along with the above statement, she is OBSESSED with anything Disney right now. She has a Disney book that has almost all of the Disney stories in it and she can look at that thing for HOURS, just talking to herself and singing the songs that go along with the story. It's quite amazing and funny to watch!

*She is a TOTAL diva. Now we knew this the moment she came out of course, but I'm afraid the diva-ness has only just begun to rear it's ugly head. She yells "NO!" at us countless times per day, doesn't listen, and throws massive temper tantrums. She has a mind of her own! She always adds the words "right now" to the end of anything she's asking us to do. For example, "Daddy, want cookie right now," or "Mommy, go swing right now;" funny but baffling at the same time. We've got to reign the ordering us around in soon, we realize. She does get disciplined for all of this, of course. We are not about to let her get away with the bad behavior, but I do fear that this is only the beginning of what we will see to come.

*She is soooo moody. She can go from all-out crying, screaming, throwing a fit to all-out laughing in about 5 seconds flat, maybe less than that. Oh I fear the teenage years...

*She is nowhere NEAR close to potty training. She is going to be one of those that has to just decide she is ready. If we even mention the potty she runs away yelling, "No potty! No potty!" So yeah, I think we will be changing her diapers still for a little while longer.

*She loves to torture the cat. She chases him around the house pulling his tail, sitting on him, stepping on him, trying to pick him up, and just yelling, "No, Hobbes, no no!!" at him over and over again. Why? I don't know, but she seems to think it's hilarious. Luckily he is very patient with her, and we are doing our best to protect him and teach her how to be gentle with him.

*She is incredibly loving and nurturing (most of the time ;). She's always giving us hugs and kisses and wanting to sit and just cuddle with us. She loves to take care of her baby dolls- brushing their hair, putting shoes on them, putting diapers on them, etc. She's such a little mommy.

*She loves to be outside and especially loves to be in the water. She would run around outside in the sprinkler all day and night if we let her.

*She hates art or any kind of crafts. She'd rather eat the crayons. Guess who she got that from...?

*She's a great eater and a great sleeper, and always has been for the most part. Right now she sleeps 12-13 hours at night and then takes a 2 hour nap in the afternoon. Praise the Lord!

*She can recognize lots of different shapes, numbers, and letters. Colors are harder for her. I think it's just such an abstract concept that it's going to take a little while longer.

*She picks up on any little word that we say and echoes it. Yeah...that's been interesting, let me tell you...

*She is incredibly slow to get her teeth. She is in a lot of pain b/c they're just taking so long to come in, but she's learning to deal with the pain I think. Some days are better than others for her. She's currently trying to get her bottom canines and only has one set of molars, along with her front ones, so it's going to be awhile.

*We love her so much and thank God every day for the little miracle we have running around our house and screaming her head off!

Here are some recent pics from this summer...Hope you enjoy!


At my mom's lake house...

Swimming in the lake with her Grandma. She wouldn't stand up pr walk on her own in the water and only wanted us to hold her and entertain her. Yet another example of Hope the Diva....



On the way to church in the outfit Aunt Suzann and Uncle Barrett sent. Thanks ya'll!!



Playing in the sprinkler that my mom got her for her birthday. She LOVES it!















Pics from Children's Camp...
She got this dress from Uncle Collin and Aunt Janelle for her birthday! Thanks again guys!
























Friday, July 17, 2009

Father's Day...

Ok so I know it's like a month late, but it just wouldn't be very characteristic of me if it were on time, now would it?! Hope adores her daddy so much and I, of course, could not love him more. He is such an excellent father and husband and I really thank God for him.
So, here is what Hope and I did for Stephen for Father's Day. I took pictures of her out in our backyard holding wooden letters D, A, and Y, and a heart. She was SO not into it and by the end we were both sweating, grumpy and I had a huge migraine, but they turned out SO well! I had a friend edit the pictures for me and then I developed each one to put in a 6-slot horizontal frame. I was so pleased and Hope and I were both really excited to give it to him. He loved it! Here are the individual pictures and then all the pictures together as they look in the frame.




And here is the completed project. Sorry it's small. I can't get it any bigger, but you get the point, right?
The second thing I did was made a montage (posted below) for him on One True Media. It took forever to do, but it was so worth it. He loved it and watches it every day. The song is "King of the World," by Point of Grace. Just click on the picture below and it will open a new browser and the video will just start. Hope you all like it as much as we do!

Friday, July 3, 2009

Visits


We have been blessed to enjoy some much-welcome company over the last two weekends. Gaelan and Courtney Frazier, some good friends of ours from college, came up to see us a couple of weekends ago and brought their 3 year old son, Matthew. We had a blast with them playing the Wii, eating out and just visiting. Hope had a mini birthday party the Saturday that we arrived and we all enjoyed pizza and a Curious George birthday cake. Hope is really into Curious George, Elmo, and now Disney movies. We try to limit her tv watching because she would watch it all day if she could. One of the gifts she got for her birthday is a water table. She is obsessed with it and could play with it all day long. She soaks herself from head to toe everytime she plays with it.
We took Gaelan, Courtney and Matthew to a place in Sherman called the Splash Pad. It's just a little park where kids can run around and get wet. Matthew, Gaelan and Stephen seemed to enjoy it, but I'm not so sure Hope liked it much. We loved our time with the Fraziers. Thank you guys so much for coming up to visit! Here are some pics from that weekend...




Last weekend Stephen's parents came up to see us. They are on vacation and wanted to spend a few days with us before going on their Caribbean cruise. We, of course, had a wonderful time with them. We enjoyed eating out, playing dominoes, watching tv, shopping and visiting. We took them to a place in Allen where there are some nice stores and a river that winds its way through the shopping area. There are some statues that Hope loves to play on. We thought we'd get some pictures with her and Grammy and Grandpa ("Papa"). We love you mom and dad! Thanks for coming to visit.


Going to camp...

We are in the process of getting ready to take 30 3rd-6th graders to children's camp in Glen Rose. We leave Sunday and get back Thursday. Please pray for safe travel and a safe week in general. Also, please pray for the kids that God would open their minds and hearts to hear His word. Pray also for the sponsors that we would know how to witness to the kids and how to care for them, etc. I am not staying in the cabins. Hope and I are staying in our own separate room b/c there is NO way she will sleep with 15 girls in the room! But we are looking forward to it and are excited to see God do amazing things in the lives of these kids!

So, if you wonder where we are next week, we are at a camp in the middle of nowhere with 30 preteens...I hope there's medical care...;)