Family Fun

This past weekend Dan's sister and her husband came to visit. We had such a nice time hanging out. We hit a few parks, played games, went shopping, and saw Suessical the Musical.

We went to one of our local metroparks that is set up as a working farm. Our kids love the farm. We love the animals and the running space.

 We love cows. She is so cute!

 The kiddos with their Aunt and Uncle

 Horses are trying to get shade

 Hoping this doesn't break any child labor laws

 Trying the stilts

 They see me rollin'

 Cuteness exploring

 Ornery

 windmill

Oh feel the love! It was fun to get outside and just spend some time with family. Love these kids, and love the fun we had with their Aunt and Uncle.

School picks

This year will be very interesting with school. I will have a toddler again. That always proves to have extra challenges. I am excited that she is good at sitting for short periods of time and focusing. So we will hopefully have activities to keep her busy so we can move through our other work.

This year each boy has his own curriculum. It will be a challenge teaching each on his own work, but it will be a fun challenge. Isaac is doing K12 again this year. In some ways I love this curriculum. It allows him to work independently for some subjects which is super helpful. It is a lot of work  for him though. There are a lot of workbooks, and assessments. The down side of a complete curriculum is you have to take the good with the bad. For Isaac the good has won out, and we will keep going this year.

For Bubba this year I am picking and choosing a modge podge of different materials. We will be using My Father's World First Grade for the base of our curriculum. Then we will be supplementing quite a few things. For phonics we are using Explode the code,  reading we are using pathway readers and workbooks, Kumon workbooks for math and reading. I have Math U See for our math program.  I have First Language Lessons for the Well Trained Mind for our Language Arts. We are going to be listening to the Story of the World audio book for History.  For science we will be using Things Outdoors and Science with Water.

Preschool will be fun because I have two preschoolers. Both of them are pretty good at sitting and doing "work". There will be lots of coloring sheets, stickers, lacers, games, and calendar time.

We will be enjoying circle time together as a group. We will do our calendar, weather, counting, ABCs, devotions, and story. Then we will split for seat work and math. After lunch my littles will rest and we will do our Bible, History, Science, Art, and Language Arts.

We will be doing a co-op again this year. We are looking forward to it. We plan to do several field trips, soccer, basketball, AWANA,  and some fun other extra curricular. So that is our basic plan for the year. I am really excited for this school year.

Beauty

This little girl has stolen my heart. I knew I'd love her. I have fallen head over heels since the moment we laid eyes on her picture. We met her and she was just precious. We brought her home, and she just fit here.

But something I didn't expect happened. I knew I'd love her. I knew it would be fun. I prayed for her to attach to us quickly. I prayed that she would adjust to the crazy that is our home. I prayed she would get along with her brothers. I prayed that she would feel secure and loved.

God heard our prayers. He answered them, and went beyond. He took this orphan who was alone, and gave her to us. The little girl in the pictures barely smiled. The little girl we met was unsure, emotionless, and sullen. The little girl we brought home was scared, anxious, and didn't want to be with us. In a matter of days a transformation happened. This little girl was not just mine by law or by name, but she is MINE. She is my daughter. She is opinionated and spunky. She is cuddly and crazy. She loves to wear dresses and wrestle. She sword fights wearing beads and a tiara. This sweet girl has blessed our whole family.

I am amazed at how good God is. He knew exactly who was supposed to be in our family. I could not have picked a more perfect child for us. Her brothers are quick to protect her, patient with her, and love to help her. She is a daddy's girl to her core. He walks in the door and she lights up. She is my little helper and beauty consultant. She helps me all day by singing the clean up song while the boys pick up, licking the clean silverware and giving it to me out of the dishwasher, throwing the boys shoes at them as a friendly reminder not to leave them in the living room. She is also so helpful with my fashion. It is very important that I wear jewelry at all times. Also she is always happy to help brush my hair. Such a great helper! I love it.

She is loud and crazy. She is quite the gymnast. She drinks milk like it is going out of style. She sings all day long. Her favorite food is meat. She already loves cartoons. She likes to go bye bye. She will actually sit and play with all these table toys I have been so excited about for so long that my boys thought were torture. She is so much fun.

Honestly, I figured there would be all kinds of hurdles. There are tantrums, but they are mild. There is screaming, but usually it is because she is happy. There are moments of pure crazy, but we do have four kids. The beauty in all of this is the joy this gorgeous girl brings. She has only been home for eight weeks, and I don't know how our family functioned with out her. She finishes us out beautifully. She is completely ours, and we are so blessed.