The McDonald Family

Friday, January 25, 2013

Field Trip to Cabela's

We enjoy making our children's favorite dinner on their birthday and treating them to a family outing of their choice. We were quite surprised when Gracie requested a field trip to Cabela's for her special date. We are pretty sure that she had influence from 2 very persuasive brothers. But in the end, it proved to be a great time for Miss Birthday Girl as well as her sweet brothers!

The store is filled with stuffed animals.. real ones which were hunted and stuffed. It is a sportsman paradise since they sell all things for hunting and fishing.. for folks like us it's a free aquarium experience. The free escalator and elevator rides are great too!

One of the employees, finding out that it was Gracie's birthday allowed us to feed the fish!

Both the elevator and the escalator were very worrisome for Grace at first. But it was a great opportunity for her to work through it. Like I mentioned in her birthday post, she is doing so much better in regard to motions, sounds and smells. Last year she would have lost it to ride in a glass elevator. Great job Gracie! We love you!

Down the escalator..

Now she's liking it! No, we are not going to go up and down

for the rest of the night Gracie! :)

Cabela's aquarium

Ashley and Grace visit with the friendly sturgeon!

Grant sizes him up too

The African Scene

Scary!

Mandy's favorite, an elephant!

When it was all said and done, the water fountain was Grace's

favorite part of the Cabela's visit

'Wait for me Gray-Gee!'

Monday, January 21, 2013

Grandpa Mark and Grandma Barb Pay Us a Visit!

We were so happy to host my (Kelly's) dad and mom for a visit! They were going to travel up to Seattle to see some of Barb's family and so stopped by to have dinner and give our family sweet Christmas gifts. The kids enjoyed opening their warm sweaters and games! We had such a nice dinner and a special time of visiting.. We are so grateful that they were able to come! :)

Reading to the children..

What are you guys looking at? :)

Life is never boring with my dad around!

♥♥♥Thank you Grandpa and Grandma for visiting us!!!! We LOOOOOVE You! ♥♥♥

Sunday, January 20, 2013

A Special Girl Turns 5

The Amazing Grace Elizabeth Turns 5!!!!

This year our sweet special girl has grown so much! Not only in height but in her development. She is doing really well in her communication and has developed a greater tolerance for things which used to really overstimulate her. She can tell us when she is overwhelmed..which helps us to divert potential melt downs. Most days finds our sweet girl happy and content. Such a joy after so many years of struggle and anxiety both on her part and on ours! :) SO many things have contributed to her improvement. Much prayer, diet changes and parenting changes. Also, our current rental has a piano which she sits at (for hours if we let her) where she sounds out songs, sometimes at the first try. She has unbelievable musical talent.. It seems that playing the piano really has a very calming affect on her. It is amazing to watch. She has become such a joy to the family and quite the little 'mother' to Laura. She is learning to read and enjoys being read to. She is very spiritually sensitive and loves to talk about Jesus.. It is very common for her to be the first family member to go to the Lord in prayer for a needy soul. She enjoys reading her new sign language flash cards and playing with the new PLAN dollhouse that her good friends the Sebens gave to us. It is so fun to see her learning and developing.. We are tremendously blessed to be her parents!

Waiting patiently for the yummy gluten-free lemon birthday bundt cake that sister Amanda made :)

Sister Laura waits patiently too!

Awww! How cute is that?

Tickled Pink!

Best Friends

The boys saved up to purchase her a pink fishing pole! She was so excited!

Birthday Hugs!

Thursday, January 3, 2013

Winter Moments :)

We have so much fun here at our home! Sometimes I wish I had a 'normal' life.. where we buy or rent a house and live forever.. never move.. consistency.. but then I remember that God has not called us all to the same thing. He has called each of us to follow Him. And to each family, to each single person that will most likely look very different.

Our family lives in what we fondly like to call 'organized chaos'. We kinda have a schedule but we are just as likely to throw it out as we are to actually follow it! We put our devotions and schoolwork as priorities for sure. Anything beyond that is simply a bonus! You know like meals, housework.. I realized long ago that being a wife and mother and homeschooling are of themselves full time work. I better make those the priorities and anything that I get done beyond that was just icing on the top! Now that the big girls and boys are older it is definitely easier to get things done. BUT we also have so much fun doing things together, projects, studying the Word, visiting others, that an official schedule just does not happen. So, if you happen to stop by to see what is 'happening at the homestead' you may find us all diligently working on chores and projects.. with a clean house, nice pot of soup simmering on the stove.. OR you may find utter mayhem as mom tries to put the zipper in her dress for the 7th time, Gracie giving her baby a bath in the toilet, and Grant unwinding his 678 feet of fishing line throughout the house, trying to find the knot.. then you'll know it is an UNSCHEDULED type of day!