Happy Valentine's Day - 5 Years Ago

Five years ago today we brought home our first born son, Braedon, from the hospital. He was born on February 10th. I had a C-Section and frankly was scared to death to leave the hospital with a baby. I was having trouble nursing and in a lot of pain so when the doctor said we could stay another day we did. When we were getting ready to go home I didn't even realize it was Valentine's Day because of new baby fog. I am so thankful to have this special memory of Valentine's day!
This picture is from Christmas and I am sad to say it is the best, most recent photo I have of him. Note to self: I really need to take more pictures.

Braedon's Party

We celebrated Braedon's 5th birthday this weekend. We decided kind of last minute that we would have a party. I left it up to hubby since he had a L-O-N-G week at work. He said, "Let's Party!" So, partying is what we did on the one evening free in between 4 evenings of hubby having to work.

Here is the birthday boy with a somewhat bashful look on his face as everyone is singing Happy Birthday day to him.

We had pizza, salad, fruit, cupcakes and ice cream (that I forgot to get out of the freezer until it was too late). Besides the normal singing, cake and presents the kids just played. After the crowd calmed a little we fired up the Xbox so the kids and adults could both play!
We handed out these party favors as our guests left:

Our hearts are overjoyed that so many people came out to celebrate with us.

Braedon Pre-School

-Before Five In A Row
My Big Green Pocketbook
Yellow Ball
I used printable activities from homeschool share.
I was talking with a friend about Before Five In A Row the other day and realized my love for the book. I don't know if I didn't have the right foundation or what but I have never been very interested in reading. It was more of a necessity so I never really "studied" books nor was I able to see all of the imagination within the pages. For example, when I first read Goodnight Moon to my kids, my first thought was 'this book is boring'. Then, I read Before Five In A Row. I had a whole different perspective when reading Goodnight Moon and seriously thought 'Wow, this book is awesome'! We have had more fun with the books and activities from BFIAR then anything else we have done.
As we move forward, I am going to work in printables from Homeschool Creations to go along with our BFIAR books. I will check homeschool share to supplement, as well. Our next book is Caps for Sale.
-Mini unit study-Fire Engine Man by Andrea Zimmerman & David Clemesha
This consisted of reading the book and a Fireman preschool pack from Homeschool Creations. It would have been made complete with a trip to the fire station but I am so not that organized yet! -Read and Write the Room from 1+1+1=1, Braedon loved doing this and asked to do it over and over again. I hid the pictures around the room so it was sort of a hide and go seek game, which he loves. He was very motivated to trace the words after finding them.
-Aquarium-We took a family trip to the aquarium and it was super fun. It went along great with the book Yellow Ball since it is about a ball in the ocean.
-Family Time, Bible, and Character Training
I use the mapbook that Braedon gets from Lil' K each Sunday morning to reinforce the lesson he learned at church. I am thinking of building our own Family Time lessons around either the mapbook or whatever character trait we are working on. I was pulling from several different resources so we covered several different things over the past few weeks.
Family time-Just like the air, God is always there, this was one of the kid's favorites since it involved a balloon. It also spawned weeks of blowing up balloons just to let them go and watch them fly around.
Family time-Watching unchecked sin grow bigger and bigger also using a balloon
Lil' K-Creation
Lil' K-Good Samaritan
Joyful Heart Character-Orderly, we also worked on putting letters in alphabet order, next up: Attentive
-Beginning math skills workbook (from Target for $1)
-Preschool in a Bag-We have been working on these for short periods of time throughout the day.
-Computer time-Braedon plays educational games on the computer for a short period of time on most days.

(UN)Forgetful Friday

We had a Family Time lesson on consequences. The following week when we were having another family time lesson we were reviewing what we talked about the week before. When we asked Braedon if he remembered what we learned last week, he said, "when I disobey, complain, or argue, I get a concentrate."

Kaley twirling around...so sweet, beautiful, and carefree.

Braedon and Conner bonding with the help of the Wii...Kaley intently watching.

Even though Braedon is becoming such a big boy, he is still content and fully entertained to do this...sometimes.

Garrett snuggling with my dad:

Braedon riding his bike in the living room. He says, "Stop, red light." Then, he looked up as if he was waiting for the light to change and said, "Go, green light" and started riding again. Love that his imaginative play is increasing!

Kaley has quite the imagination too. In the car she started squeeling a little bit so my ears perked up just to make sure she was alright. I looked in the mirror and saw her looking up and acting like she was grabbing something and saying, "no balloon, no don't fly away."(but there was no balloon)

Garrett has been (affectionately) nicknamed "Meatball, Chunkzilla, and Meatloaf." The funniest is Meatloaf because daddy will sometimes break out singing "and I would do anything for love..." when Garrett enters the room, which never fails to make us chuckle.

I love watching Kaley pretend play too. She pretend plays with all of her "friends" (stuffed animals). She puts them to bed, reads to them, sleeps with them, swings them in the baby swing, sits them in the chair next to the dinner table when we are sitting at dinner. I also love to see her pretend play in the play kitchen. She will put something into the microwave and press the buttons. She puts her hands behind her back and sways back and forth for a minute. Then, she opens up the microwave and takes out whatever she was "cooking".

Here she is reading a book to a porcelain bear that doubles as a doorstop for our bathroom door. She was supposed to be in the bathroom brushing her teeth and after a couple of minutes I went in and found this.

Every morning the kids need to have a conversation about where Daddy is. So, it is normal that within the first 5 minutes of being awake they ask, "where's Daddy?" I say, "Daddy is working." We go back and forth a few times just to make sure the answer is the same each time (I guess). Then, Kaley inserts her favorite phrase, "But, why?" This morning, Braedon spoke up and said, "Daddy goes to work so he can buy money."
Kaley is about as cute as she can be helping me wash windows.

Garrett is much less irritated about being on the floor now that he can crawl and get around whereever he needs to go. Yay, Garrett!

Kaley has been successfully using the potty with only one accident for about a month now...I forgot to keep track. She is still in a pull-up overnight but stays dry during her naptime. Yay, Kaley!

It took Braedon a little while to break out of his shell but he finally has. Instead of being in his own world at church now he plays with other kids. He plays with the other kids at play places too. He is also very verbal now. Some teachers that were wondering why they couldn't get him to talk are amazed now that he wants to tell them everything.

A very blessed visit by my parents. A party to celebrate Garrett's, mom's, Dad's birthdays which are on consequtive days. Lots of bodies in my house = a warm heart for me!


Followed by a very blessed visit by Andrew's mom, aka Mom2 or Hamma...
There is always so much more I want to include in these posts but until next time...Enjoy the precious moments with our little people. Praise God for the wonderful gift of children!

Courageous (movie review)

We had the opportunity to see a pre-screening of the movie Courageous at our church a couple of months ago. It is jam packed with action, drama, and diverse story lines. More importantly, it is challenging and sends messages that our world desperately needs to here. That being said,

GO SEE IT AND TAKE EVERYONE YOU KNOW!

The movie hits theaters on September 30, 2011.

And, check out the nifty poster on my sidebar. If you are a blogger go grab one and promote the movie on your blog too.

Garrett - One Year!

Our precious third born son turned a year old on August 5. Praise God for his little life after my majorly complicated pregnancy. When I read the third bullet point of the diagnosis information of vasa previa, I can't help but get a chill down my spine and be that much more thankful for him. Despite the pregnancy and delivering him 6 weeks early, Baby Garrett is doing great!

This past month has included lots of transitions for him. He is crawling, YAY! He still is not very motivated to do it much but he can do it when he wants too. Even before he was crawling, he figured out how to scoot himself across the living room floor to the shelf that holds some puzzles, books, and a few toys and proceeded to scatter everything around. He switched from a bottle to a sippy cup with no problem. He also switched from formula to milk with no problem. He cut his second tooth (now he has both bottom front teeth). He is in the process of transitioning to one nap a day as opposed to two. He babbles and laughs a LOT. It is really funny to be around him just to watch him talk and laugh. He has pretty severe stranger anxiety. It makes me feel kind of bad when someone he doesn't know tries to talk to him and he screams like they just pinched him or something. He has quite a bit of separation anxiety too. I feel kind of bad for him when I walk around the corner (out of sight) and he screams his head off. Other than that, he is really fun and fairly laid back. His stats from his checkup are: 23.5lbs and 31in. Such a big boy!

We had a little party for his birthday. We were very blessed to have my mom, dad, and nephew, Conner, visiting from Indiana. My dad's birthday is August 6 and my mom's is August 7 so we had a celebration for everyone on Saturday. We had barbecue pork, corn on the cob, beans, cake, and ice cream. We had a pinata for the older kids (filled with granola bars, granola, raisins, fruit roll-ups, and blow pops...yes I caved and got one kind of candy). And, Baby Garrett got a few presents that included a v-tech drive and discover toy, school bus toy, puzzles, books, and a ball.

Garrett gnawed on his first corn on the cob:

And, he took down his first cupcake much like a wood chipper takes down a piece of wood:


Previous monthly posts: I can't believe it has been a year already.
11 months
10 months
9 months
8 months
7 months
6 months
5 months
4 months
3 months
2 months
1 month

Real Food - Confessions

I just now realized (yeah I am a little slow) that I forgot to mention something in my last update. I never want to give off the impression that we've got this figured out or that we never cheat, because we don't and we do. Confession time: We eat fast food a couple of times a week sometimes. It is a way for us to get the kids out of the house and play and get out of cooking dinner. Our favorites are Chick-Fil-A, McDonald's, and Burger King. Sometimes I don't like it and wish we never went out to eat. But, the fact is that we do and it does make things easier on me when we do and the kids really enjoy it. This food thing is a major work in progress with us. Possibly at some point I will plan well enough to have "real food" to-go meals and we can just go picnic somewhere instead of buying fast food. But until then, it is what it is.

While I am on this confession kick let me also tell you that we go out for ice cream once or twice a month. We are having cupcakes and store bought ice cream to celebrate Garrett's first birthday this weekend. We are even getting a pinata for the older kids and I *might* put a little bit of candy in it. One of my major weaknesses is potato chips so I buy those sometimes.

If we are out with other people or at someone's house and we are offered something that doesn't *fit* we eat it anyway. We by no means are food snobs. We are just trying to eat healthier, less processed foods the majority of the time and making small changes a step at a time.

I sincerely apologize that I didn't fess up to these realities in my last post.