Everyone's latest!

This is a blog of the many things that have happened over the course of the last week. Night time is the only time I have to sit and upload pictures etc so my blog posts seem to be piling up. This one catches us up to today although we have more from today that I will share tomorrow...hopefully!

Starving boys right after they all woke up the other morning. They pulled a chair up to the island and climbed up to see what was coming. We had to start off with milk and Ovultene since I couldn't get breakfast done fast enough!

C.J.

He continues to do well in our school lessons. We are getting through the struggles of him thinking he has to do everything perfect and getting down on himself. I don't ever pressure him to do things perfectly but I do get frustrated when he can't sit still so I am learning to find ways for him to get his wiggles out! This past week we started to make some real strides in our reading. He is starting to sound out the following words: am, at, eat, me, met, mat, ram, rat, sat, see, seed, set, and seat. We read our first sentence today: See me eat. We're getting to the "big boy" pages as he calls them so he gets excited at that.

Learning to set the table from one of our school lessons.

Writing their letter "B"s in cooking oil.

At the splash pad with Grandma

Making his brothers laugh at dinner...an every night occasion!

Mark
Last week he had his first day of gym class. This was his first time to be in any sort of organized class or sport and he did wonderful. He was the only boy with two other girls in the class so the teacher spent some time re-directing him but for the most part he followed directions and he certainly had fun!

Hop, hop, hop!

So excited as he saw the room with all the equipment.

Just playing with all the outdoor gear. These overalls were CJ's last year and now we're passing them down to Mark.

Splash pad and park with Grandma

Peyton

Tuesday we noticed that he had red bumps on his rear end, feet, hands, mouth and tongue. We knew it was hand, foot and mouth so we kept him home until today. He actually passed it to Mark so they both have been confined to the house until Peyton's doctor appointment today.

We had his 15 month check up today and he is still at the 95th percentile (33 and 1/4 inches) in height and his weight has gone to the 90th (28 pounds)! Still a big boy...doctor says he's leaning out a bit but still far from average! He also got two shots today. I had CJ and Mark with me and when Peyton got his shots, CJ held his hand and I kept looking down at CJ and he looked so sad. When the nurse left the room CJ said, "I almost cried with Peyton." He was such a good big brother. While I rounded up Mark I asked CJ to help me get Peyton dressed. He put his pants on him and pulled his shirt down and when I sat Peyton up, CJ gave him a big hug!

Mr.Goofy is learning to use a spoon and a fork!

Mackenzie Faith Miller

We have not formally announced our baby girl's name until now. Since I am starting to include her updates on the blog I figured I better start calling her by her name!

I had a doctor's appointment on Friday and she is measuring right on target. On the sonogram her head was up by my belly button and legs too...her bottom was down on my left side. She should turn around 30 weeks if not before. I go back in 3 weeks and I will be 28 weeks, then I will go every 2 weeks. I can't believe its gone by this fast.

This is a canvas picture that my sister Mandy gave me! Its so pretty!

Bathroom valance and towel that mom finished. Once she has the hand towel finished we will monogram!

Comforter is finished! It all turned out so pretty. I love the vintage fabrics mixed with the animal print! Thanks Mom!

Recap of our week!

A few more additions to the nursery!

I have been told to curtail my decorating until the shower so this is the first and last thing that will go on the walls so that I can place each new item in the best spot! Ladies, I am minding! Mom finished another sewing project...the bedskirt! The bedskirt matches the curtains and the comforter will have some of the same fabrics with a few other additions! I love the ruffles!

School this week

We talked about Noah's Ark, the letter "B", number "2" (animals went 2 by 2 onto Noah's Ark), things that float (the Ark and that it saved Noah's family and the animals that were on it) and things that sink by picking out items around the house to test in a dishpan.

I also attended my first Great Starts meeting for Frisco HIS on Thursday and learned a lot about scheduling and how to get school done with toddlers and babies. It can be done...I knew that since we had been successful so far but I learned ways to make it better. It was nice to meet some other moms who were beginning to homeschool their children-some at the kindergarten level and some who had just taken their children out of public school to homeschool. Some sweet ladies with the same goals as our family! Above all, I learned from some veterans to stay relaxed and understand that they will learn and to not become overly concerned with every single task as they will learn at their own pace. The woman who spoke to us has three boys in middle school and high school and she has a 4 year old daughter. Her sons are in the competitive football league with the homeschool league HSAA. They had 13 practices this week and I learned that they play some of the top private schools in the area. Clark was happy to hear all of this since he is familiar with the level of competitiveness in the private school setting. One of her boys' coaches played for the Cowboys and she said they are really tough on the boys to get all their home school work done in order to play. The sports leagues will continue to get better and grow as our boys reach that age if she decide to homeschool through high school. Many highschoolers end up taking college credit courses as part of their homeschool so thankfully we won't be teaching things like calculus and other subjects that this!!!

The boys' letter "B" artwork.

CJ and Mark working on their rainbows. The rainbow was to teach the boys about how God sent the rainbow after the flood so that the people would know he loved them and saved them. They turned out so pretty! I love abstract art so much that I hope they continue to use their own creativity when we do our projects. You would think that in order to make a rainbow they they would need to put each color in a nice line across the rainbow but they didn't see it that way. Some things are too pretty to ever get rid of...what will I do with all this art!

Making their letter "B" on the floor following the outline of the tape and tracing it with blocks (for "B") and with other things!

Peyton trying to help and steel the blocks off the "B"!

Yeah!! All finished!

Me with my first, sweet nephew Luke Slater Payne! He has long eyelashes, pretty plump lips and of course loves to cuddle! I love him!

Nursery News!!!

We've made some strides in the new nursery! I have literally been waking up planning this room in my mind for months now! Finally we are seeing it come alive!

So far what you see when you walk in.Chandelier with satin cheetah cover!!
Mom finished the curtains! They are just beautiful and exactly what I had pictured against the pink walls! Mom, thank you so much! Curtains upclose...

First little hat from Christie!

Top of dresser with cute little high heel jewelry/hair accessorie holder!

Front of window.

Little infant camo hat from Bass Pro...just perfect with it's camo butterfly!

Chandelier and cheetah cover! I love it!

Plaque made into a bow clip holder!

Finished antiqued crib, bedding to come!!!

Its all coming together as dreamed!

Successful First Week

We really did have an amazing week with our homeschooling venture. I feel like CJ is listening more to us and trying to mind much better than last week and I am attributing it to the time we have spent together learning. The attention that he has gotten was probably missing and instead of just trying to get by throughout the day, we are doing meaningful things. Its like we have a whole new purpose. One of the most memorable things that occurred was on Wednesday morning. I told CJ he could watch his show after breakfast and before we started our school. At 9:00 without me saying a word to him, I saw him go to the TV, turn it off and head upstairs. As he made his way upstairs he said, "Come on Mommy, lets do school!" That was incredibly surprising. Each day he asked to do more after we were finished.

We received our math and reading workbook and this will definitely add a challenge. What I have to keep in mind is that I have to help him have fun or he will get discouraged. I saw him hold his pencil correctly and he was looking at me to see if I saw him and of course I did and after I praised him he was ready to work. One other challenge has been that when he writes his name it ends up, upside down. That concerned me so I decided I would make a name badge and tape it to the table. Once he saw it, he copied it the correct way. Its these hurdles that I am trying to use creativity to work around. Without being in this position before, I know I have be on top of the issues so I can tailor the teaching the best way that helps him learn! Overall, it has been a wonderful start.

Thursday night he decided he was going to clean. He took all the things out of the pantry and swept out the pantry...I did not ask him to do this! He asked if he could have a "ticket" (he calls dollar bills tickets) after he was finished. I said "Of course, you earned it buddy!"

CJ and Mark's artwork from the first day

Artwork from today! I thought they both did really well! Notice the "J" in CJ at the bottom of the page is written facing the right direction.

Artwork from Wednesday. Notice the upside down "J". This was before the name badge.

Studying the number one and working on hand coordination with cutting...we were supposed to find a tree in a magazine but we only had daddy's deer hunting magazines so CJ asked if he could cut out a deer and then Mark saw the coyote so we cut that out for him.

Task was to find all the "A"s on the page and circle them.

Math Practice

Tonight watching a movie on their pallets...poor Peyton was already in bed. He's had some diarrhea today:(

We are so proud of our little students!!!