Keeping Busy

Some snapshots of school this week & last. Sweet Pea also started her Apologia CD-Rom. She loves it! I'm very pleased with this as it not only makes things easier for me but it motivates her to complete her science assignments. Definitely worth every penny. I didn't get shots of Biology or the many baking projects the kids completed. They made muffins, cupcakes, cake & cookies. Sweet Pea also made dinner for us many times this week. But here is proof that we ARE doing school! LOL! =)

Bugs works on some puzzles while I do math & Explode the Code with Boo & Elvis.



Explode the Code.........he is motivated to finish Book 3 and move on to Book 4. Love this program!



I wrote lesson plans for Sweet Pea in between helping Boo & Elvis. I found she works best if I give her specific assignments and specific days.

Coloring Time!

We started reading & discussing The Light & The Glory. While I read & we talked the kids colored pictures I had printed off the Internet. Hopefully our scanner will be working soon & I can use the pics from the Light & Glory coloring book.

Bugs joined in for a few minutes at least. =)

One of their completed pics.

I had to crop it as I forgot they had written their names on the front of their papers. I was impressed on all that they remembered from our discussion & reading even the next day.

Bugs wanted to show his off too.

Math Time

Our counting blocks are still packed away somewhere. But the beauty of it is that we can use pretty much anything to count, right? We grabbed some matchbox cars and were back in business!

Elvis used these cars to do some abstract math. He really got it seeing the numbers come to life.

He did almost all of it on his own. I was impressed! I think he is ready for some tougher math but I don't want to skip the in between parts. We'll just work a little faster to catch up from the time we took off for our move & illnesses.

The three younger kids went to AWANA again this week & Sweet Pea went to youth group. They were all so excited when they returned home. Boo & Bugs had successfully recited their memory verses to their teachers. I was proud of both of them. This is the first time Bugs has ever done anything like that! Elvis had lost his paper so he didn't have his verse memorized. His teacher was very understanding as this was only his 2nd time there. He did however have a blast during game time. Sweet Pea came home all pumped up from the message her youth pastor had preached. She has a real heart to win those she loves to Christ. She even made her own t-shirt last week and it declares, "Will you fight for Christ with me?" I love seeing her heart on fire for the Lord. The kids are all having a great time in their Sunday school, AWANA & youth group classes.

Friday Fill-In

1. Enough with the wishful thinking & waiting. I'm moving on!

2. Politics sometimes causes me to be conflicted.

3. I've been craving sleep, ice cream, curly fries, baby back ribs, steak, a glass of wine & a vacation. How's that for a list? =)

4. My children's antics make me laugh.

5. I wish I could go to see Nana & Uncle Bryce next week.

6. Planning our spring vegetable & flower gardens has been on my mind lately.

7. And as for the weekend, tonight I'm looking forward to Dave coming home & staying home for 2 days in a row, tomorrow my plans include going to the lab for my glucose test (yuck!),the library, taking down the Christmas tree, working on the house & being with my family and Sunday, I want to try to make it to Sunday school, pick up a surprise for Sweet Pea & watch Prince Caspian with the fam!

Naptime

All cuddly with Blankie, Nannie Blankie, Puppy & Bailey.

Changes

I hope you understand as I journal a bit....................


When I look back at the past few months so much has happened! It struck me just yesterday how this pregnancy has flown by so far. The first couple of months were slow as I was quite sick, afraid of miscarriage and struggling with some broken relationships..............but from then on "Whoosh!" it has flown. I am now past the halfway point and enjoying my 3rd trimester. I am definitely in the waddling stage of things & have quite the tummy. I was laughing at myself Sunday night as I tried in vain to keep up with the gentleman at church who was leading us down the hallway to the dinner. He was going at a fast clip and I tried to keep up but my body just couldn't do it. LOL! Thankfully Sweet Pea stayed behind with me to make sure I didn't get lost.

Some other things I've noticed are that I'm filling up really fast, I can't stand very long at all, I am extremely tired, everything gives me heartburn, I'm still getting sick most mornings, I have to change positions often to be comfortable & I am huge! Today while I was cutting the boys hair I was again reminded of how little time I can spend on my feet. I only made it through Elvis' haircut & then halfway through Bugsy's before I absolutely had to sit down. The best is that Baby's movements are getting stronger. Lately I swear it's by the day. There are times I swear this Baby is determined to find a way OUT! The thumps & kicking are quite hard now and sometimes will even make me gasp out loud. I wouldn't say that they always hurt but they are certainly noticed & cause reaction. I do love being pregnant. It is such a treasured time.

Dave & I finally had some time this past Sunday to sit down and contemplate names. We haven't settled on one yet - heck we don't even have a top 5! Lol! - but we have a long list of possibilities. And we've even agreed on some of them. Hee, hee!

We're still working on clearing out the nursery. It has been a storage room since we moved in but as the clock ticks down we need to get organized. It's slow going as Dave has been working late every night on a new project at work & I can't lift or even push the boxes around. (Pelvis pain) Monday night we worked together & the girls joined us. This worked great as I could sort items & shelve things and the girls could put things away in different parts of the house. There is no closet in the Baby's room so we are figuring out ways to store items more neatly than usual. For the few clothes that need to be hung I think we will use part of the boys' closet or part of ours. I can hardly wait to get to the point where we can set everything up and decorate. What fun that will be!

Can you believe we only have a little over 2.5 months left until we meet this Little One? That stuns me every time I think of it! And I absolutely LOVE reading the weekly updates of how our sweet baby is growing & developing. It never ceases to amaze me what a miracle this truly is. Thank you, Lord.

Fresh Start for Boo Bear

I had been asking Boo to finish unpacking & organizing her room for weeks. On New Year's Day I decided she needed a little help as she'd take about 2 steps forward and 3 backwards. We worked organizing what she had already unpacked & unpacking the 2 large boxes she had left. We did a ton of sorting and threw away 2 full black garbage bags of trash. Whew! By the time we finished everything had a place to belong, her bed was clear and cozy for sleeping & her closet did a complete transformation.

Elvis wanted to hang out with us so he played a game of marbles while we worked.

This photo is sideways b/c I forgot we had to edit it on her camera before uploading. It gives you an idea of the knee deep mess we sorted through.

Daddy joined us after awhile and was a big help.

Daddy bought & assembled some new shelves for her room. We organized them putting her most precious treasures at the very top so they would stay out of Bugsy's reach.

Another plus in cleaning is now we can actually see the top of her dresser!



A place for her CD's, music player & books.

Her desk looks great & it gives her a space of her own to study & draw.

Now she can open her closet without everything falling down on her. Lol.

She really loves having her own room & space.

And now even more so that it is organized!

Bathtime for Pixie

Pixie was smelling like a litter box. Poor thing. It wasn't really his fault. Sweet Pea decided to give him a bath to help him out. He looked so darn cute all wet and wrapped up in his pink towel!

What a patient kitty!

All wet

Smelling good!

That look says it all.

Washing up.

Soon he was snuggling in my lap fast asleep.

Welcome 2009!

Boy, it's taken me forever to get these photos uploaded & posted! Either I fell asleep at the computer, the Internet server was down or I was just plain too tired or too busy. Yikes!

We had a fun New Year's celebration. As has been our tradition for the past several years we had a home celebration. We love this and it works very well for us especially since we still have little ones. Plus as you probably guessed by now we much prefer the relaxing, family fun verses crowds & big time events. Anywhoo, we had another little buffet. The rule is the kids can pretty much eat as much as they want, when they want. We don't have a meal but rather graze through the evening. We also bring out the board games, card games & puzzles. Sometimes we watch a movie too. This year we had a new game to play thanks to the fabulous sales. It was a classic charades but made for kids. It was a big hit! Even Bugs loved acting out the words with help from Daddy.

Our Feast

Shrimp, celery, carrots, 2 different cheeses, crackers, quesidillas (homemade!), kielbasa, mozzarella puffs, chips, BBQ wings, & something else I can't remember. Oh, and Hawaiian Punch, Root Beer, Cran-Raspberry Juice & water to drink.

GAMES!


Charades begin!

A dog chasing her tail. =)

Acting out a game of checkers.

Daddy helps Bugsy.

Karate!

Driving?

Sweet Pea's team watches her closely.

How do I do that?

The star!

Of course he had to take time to shake his groove thing. Lol!

Having fun!

Daddy was a ham!

Boo did very well once she warmed up.

Love it!

Next was a board game. Daddy played with the youngest 3 while S.P. & I played a round of Battleship.

Then Boo & Elvis moved onto Candy Land.

Daddy & Bugs played their own version of Chinese Checkers.

Daddy & Sweet Pea started to play Jenga but then Bugs wanted to play. His version is to knock all the blocks down to win. LOL!

Boo wanted to play Battleship with Mommy so we jumped in.

A family favorite........TWISTER!

Me & my boy.

Mommy sat out this year & just took pictures. And of course LAUGHED & LAUGHED!

Starting to get twisted.

Tied in knots.

We were going to watch a movie but determined it was too late in the evening. Everyone was wearing down. I remembered that we had received our CBD order in the mail earlier that day & thought this might be the perfect time to open it up. The kids heartily agreed.

I had ordered their special books late this year but it worked out really well after all. Now we had something special to open up on New Year's! I had also ordered a couple of family devotionals and some fun extras that were on clearance.

For Family Reading Time

Elvis had mentioned a time or two that he would like to see this movie. When I saw the book the movie was based on for under $5 on the CBD website I thought it would be a fantastic family keepsake for our home library. It is a hardback copy too! P.S. So far we are loving it!

Elvis' "special book" for his collection.

Sweet Pea's special book turned out to be backordered. It is a devotional just for her. It arrived the following week. Yay! She was happy with her new atlas for school & CD. The CD was a splurge at 49 cents. *wink*

Boo Bear's devotional DID arrive and she also received a CD. She listened to hers for a week straight!

Bugs was really into his new book. It is filled with all kinds of trucks, cars, trains, planes, etc!

This ended up being a really nice way to wind down the evening.

Cudding with Sassy.

Daddy read us all a few chapters from our new book "Despereaux" & a family devotional.

We decided to call it an early night and celebrated the New Year back in Eastern Time (Massachusettes time) instead of Tennessee time. We found a channel broadcasting the ball dropping in Times Square. Here are Dave & 3 of the 4 welcoming in the New Year.

Dancing to the music on t.v. as 2009 begins!

After that it was bedtime for all. Welcome 2009!