He's One!

Happy First Birthday Mr. G

I love everything about you

I love your laugh

I love your big brown eyes

I love how you snuggle

I love that you want to be a big boy already

I love your smile and the way your hair curls when it is wet

I am so thankful to God our Father for entrusting us with your care for one whole year now.  I pray that we'll have many, many more together.  And I pray for you daily to love Him and follow Him.  I love you with my whole heart.  

Love, Mommy

Weekly Review - Wrapping Things Up!

This week has been so fun with the beautiful weather we've been having.  We've spent a lot of time outside.  It's wonderful!
In Our Home:
Baby G has really decided to grow up!  He can now walk across our back yard without falling (maybe 10 or so steps).  Mr N likes to imitate Baby G's walk and it is quite entertaining!  He even includes the usual fall at the end.  Miss O has continued to keep us laughing with her silly jokes - especially towards her Grandpa!  Miss R is ever the studious child.  She's been reading through The Chronicles of Narnia as well as The Adventures of TinTin.  Since she did so well on her needlepoint last week, I bought her a counted cross-stitch project.  She loves it.  She likes to do it while I read to her or while she reads TinTin.  I thought it might be too difficult, but she's been doing great, figuring out the patterns and making those tiny stitches.  She lost the needle though, so sewing is on halt until we find it or buy a new one.  I have a fear of stepping on it with my bare feet.  Hopefully we find it!

In Our Homeschool:
We're really wrapping things up for the school year.  Last week Miss R completed the last page in her math book.  She was quite happy!  We're also finished with History, Health, and Science.  We still have a few Bible lessons left for next week and we'll continue with our read-alouds, and adding to our Book of Centuries.  Other than that, we are preparing for our "Open House" which we hope to do next weekend for the Grandparents - just to have a place to show what we've been working on all year.  =)
Miss O has two days left of her preschool.  She's also continued to build with word-endings this week.  I brought out an audio cd I had gotten for her, Uncle Rick's History for Preschoolers, and she really enjoyed it.  She listened in her bedroom while I was doing read-alouds with Miss R.
Mr N has been asking me to read to him a lot more lately, so I've enjoyed that.  Everything is "read it again", over and over and over.  So, this week his reading has consisted of devotions from The One Year Book of Devotions for Preschoolers (which we love so much here - we're on our second copy!), The Seven Little Postmen (because there is a train in it!), and The Little Red Caboose.  (The last two were recent rummage sale finds....money well spent!)

Learning from Real Books: 
Miss R and I have been slowly reading through The Story of My Life by Helen Keller. (We won't finish by next week, so will continue it into "second grade").  Today as we read I found out that Helen Keller had at one time accidentally plagiarized a story.  (She doesn't remember ever having read the story she evidently copied...it had been read to her and forgotten, but the language apparently stayed with her and came out in her story...too closely, so she was accused of plagiarizing.)  It was very interesting and led to a discussion about plagiarizing and honesty.

All in all, it was a good week and I am very thankful for it!

Weekly Review - in pictures

What a fun, busy week! 

So precious when they sleep!

I love how both of the boys sleep with their bottoms in the air!

Miss R composing a song on the piano...

Naptime for Mr N with his toy engine, his train sweatshirt, and his Little Red Caboose book

Miss R finished her first sewing project.

Oh, those big brown eyes!

The girls made decorations for their room.

Next sewing project complete!

Mr G can feed himself!

Weekly Review - So much to be thankful for

In Our Home: I have some precious memories to share this week.   

Baby G decided to grow up!  His first three teeth all popped through!  Two on top, and one on the bottom.  Plus, he took his first step!  He's taken one step several times now.  Each time the kids cheer for him.  He has also been playing a lot with Mr. N.  They wrestle!  I kid you not, Baby G totally body-slammed Mr N the other day.  They laughed and laughed.  I think I will go gray soon - these two love to rough and tumble, and this mama gets a little scared sometimes!  Today Mr N was making Baby G laugh by falling flat on his face and hands from a standing position.  So then Baby G gives it a try.  He got a red spot on his cheek and cried for a little bit and then of course was up and ready to do it again.  I love that they have each other to play and laugh with.
Mr N has been all about imitating his daddy.  We have an old plastic play washing machine that we got for the girls a few years back.  We keep it outside and let them play with it in the summer with water.  Well, the other day, N drags it out of the garage and tells me it's his "fire".  It took me a minute to understand what he was talking about.  Then it dawned on me - it's his "grill".  He plunked it down right where Jared puts our grill.  Then he opened the top and put rocks in to make his fire.  Coals!  He has also been busy mowing the lawn with his toy mower.  Thankfully we have two as Baby G now loves to mow too.  He can't quite walk, but he stands and pushes it back and forth. 
I have been feeling so much better and even cleaned the house today!  I think the worst of the rib is over.  Thanks to everyone who has prayed for me!

In Our Homeschool - 
Miss O has almost finished with her preschool program Little Hands to Heaven by Heart of Dakota.  I just love it!  It has helped us to create the habit of Bible time in the morning.  And it also has taught her the letter sounds.  We started Y today and next week or the week after will do Z.  She has been interested in learning to read, so this week I broke out our reading curriculum from Simply Charlotte Mason called Delightful Reading.  She is in the word-building stage, so we did word buildings with -at and -en.  She was really getting it!  It was so fun!  We had purchased some nice letter magnets at a rummage sale the other day, so we used those to create the words.  I have been nervous about teaching her to read as R taught herself so this is new ground for me.  We really had a delightful week together.
Miss O and I also read our first chapter book together - The Adventures of Poor Mrs. Quack.  She colored while I read and I loved that the child who was never that interested in reading kept saying, "Read more! Read more!"  She had fun bringing the story into her play by creating a pond out of a blue blanket and a nest out of a sleeping bag and pretending she was the various characters in the story.  It was such a special week with her!
Miss R and I tried out our new schedule of focusing on history this week.  To say it worked would be an understatement.  She finally started interacting with her history books like she does with books she reads for herself.  We read The Mystery of the Hieroglyphs and she did several extension activities for narrations.  The cutest one was when she (all on her own) decided to translate The Rainbow Fish into Hieroglyphs.  This was quite painstaking work.  I'm not sure how much she did but she worked for a long time.  When she finished, she said she was hoping someday she'd meet an Egyptian so she could share her book.  She also took her history into her play-time, playing "going to Ancient Egypt" on the swing set.  She said, "First I'm going to Chad, then Lybia, and then I'll get to Ancient Egypt."  Next week the plan is to focus on Science.
Besides history, we covered other core subjects and some fun ones.  We spent hours pouring over A Little Princess together.  I have never read this book, and it has been so special.  We still have a few chapters left to finish this weekend or next week.  Today while I read she finished up her sewing project - a picture.  I need to take a photograph to post, which I hope to do soon.
I have so much to be thankful for this week!