Cookies with Mom

 I don't make cookies very often
But Kate mentioned never having cookies and never helping me make them!
Can you say, "Mommy guilt"
So we got all of the ingredients around and made a small batch of chocolate chip cookies ... small, so I wouldn't eat 2 dozen cookies!!

 Everyone took turns helping
We practiced measuring and not spilling the eggs on the floor

 The licking of the beater was their favorite part!!
Sharing the beater was a little challenging :)

3 days later they are all gone but we sure did enjoy them. 

Oh ... Baby!

Weeks: 14, 21, 22, 25, 27 & 36!
It's crazy to look at these pictures! I don't actually feel as big as I look. I'm feeling great for 36+ weeks pregnant. I'm thankful that after a rough start this pregnancy has turned out to be "easy." I'm looking forward to the day that I get to hold my sweet baby girl but I'm so enjoying the last few days/weeks of feeling her dance around.

Read Aloud Fun

One of my goals this year {re: school} was to really, in large amounts, increase the amount of reading time that I do with the kids. We are classical educators {as in the schooling of the girls is language-focused - learning is accomplished through words, written and spoken, rather than through images.} As our kindergarten year began I was miserably sick with sweet Ziggy. It makes me feel like our best schooling has been done since January. Recently I discovered a blog that encourages reading aloud. It offers reading lists & encouragement to read to these kids of mine!

So here is our February reading List:
1. Charlotte's Web (audio book - totally counts)
2. Hank the Super Dog (also audio book - we spend a lot of time in the van)
3. Our current audio book is Little Women
4. The Box Car Children & the Mystery Lighthouse
5. At bedtime I'm reading Reed 1 chapter of The Dangerous Journey to Emerald Island
6. At bedtime I'm reading the girls one chapter of The Long Winter
7. We are also about half way through reading Ramona the Pest

 

This list also doesn't include our Bible study or the picture books that we read, that list is slightly, crazy long. My goal with those books is 3-5 a day. These books focus on our Classical Conversations memory work ... recently they have also focused on Reed's preschool learning.

I feel like we've made huge strides in the amount of reading we are doing. Once the kiddos adjust to the increase in reading we will be adding the classics, books with a little more "meat." For now, we are just working on listening with good manners & also working on some comprehension skills. It's been fun to get my nose in books with these kiddos!

Flashback Friday

 Seriously time ... you could stop moving so fast!
Look at my babies
{spring/summer 2009}

 

Valentines Party

 Prepping their Valentine's boxes!

Our homeschool co-op hosted the annual Valentine's party on Sunday at our local roller skating rink! Our girls were so excited to spend extra time with their friends (Kate actually knew more people than me! She's social like that :))

 

 Poor Jeremy wouldn't let me put on roller skates so he was busy trying to help every kiddo balance!
Reed spent most of his time falling & then gave up to "play" video games
Kate was having more fun just talking with people
& Emma kept her skates on the entire 2 hours and was doing really well, especially on the carpet :) by the time we left.

 Passing out her Valentines

 

It was a fun Sunday
With new friends, pizza, skates & lots of tumbles

Back to Gymnastics

 We're pretty fortunate to have joined the homeschool co-op that we did {when we moved to Claremore, last summer}
This group has amazing opportunities for the kids ... one of which is a gymnastics class offered at a discounted rate!
Seriously, both girls can attend for basically nothing ... I'm grateful.

 Kate needs a little structure & she needs to work big muscles
This is the perfect place for her
{she's learning how to do a cartwheel in these pictures}

 Emma loved every minute of the hour class ... never holding still, hence the blurry pictures :)

School Around Here

 We're busy wrapping up our official school year! Isn't that lovely?? Considering we start in July it is only fair that we're almost "done"
We have 6 weeks left of Classical Conversations which is fabulous since Jeremy received a promotion and will be working days now {!!! I'm so proud of him!!!} and I will be taking both "big" girls, Reed & the baby for the last 3 to 4 weeks of CC ... frankly, that sounds um ...  rough!

 We will be finishing our math program before Ziggy is born! So after our lessons are finished we will be playing math games, practicing with our Math-U-See blocks and reviewing our writing/reading of numbers.

 {Jeremy& Kate reading in the "tent"}
Our reading won't stop! The girls are on a roll and reading/writing/spelling is a huge part of our day {a post on our reading coming soon}! I know that even with a new baby we should be able to sit on the couch & read lots of books. I'm keeping our goals simple for the end of March & April but reading cannot stop now!

This little dude has told me he's ready to read so I'm going to follow his lead. I'm prepping his preschool plans, thinking these plans might keep him still for 20 minutes a day! I can't ignore his desire to learn, especially since he sees his sisters doing school work every day, we're going to run with it! "Letters of the Week" will be making a comeback. 

Zip Line Fun

 They still can't get enough of this zip line! They see if the person on the zipline can go faster than the person racing on foot!

 They fall mid-way through the line and think it's the absolute best.

They bounce off trees & run back to do it all again :)
It's a pretty fabulous thing to have a zipline. It even makes their Daddy want to build one for himself!

Our Valentines Re-Cap

 This is what the kids woke up to on Valentine's morning {we celebrated on the 13th due to CC on the 14th}
There were treats from boths sets of grandparents and they knew that Momma & Daddy were taking them somewhere fun but had no idea where.

 She {kate} LOVED the shoes and she really, REALLY wanted to bring them home!

 I blame my horrible, horrible score (beating Emmaline by 1 pin) on bowling around Ziggy

 They danced, partied, jumped for joy as their balls rolled down the alley & they had plenty of time since the average ball took 32 seconds to reach the pins.

Reed is ready to go "bowling balling" again! And I'm ready to redeem my score against Emma ... I blame the baby bump and the bumpers!! 

Painting Like the Professionals

 Painting like Michelangelo
on their backs like he did while painting the Sistine Chapel

 Emma started out crying because it was so weird and Kate's first response was "WHAT IN THE WORLD"
but they got the hang of it and had a fabulous time & then came home and told Daddy all about it :)
And all 3 of them had to pretend to paint the chapel.

We enjoy Classical Conversations for many reasons but doing extra fun art projects is a huge bonus!
{above is the masterpiece that our class created!}

Guilt Free

It's hard to see but what you're looking at is the top of Ziggy's head! It's a big healthy head!
I have always had guilt that I ended up with a c-section with Emma ... I mean women have been giving birth for thousands of years and I couldn't. Most likely unrealistic guilt.

Anyway, my doctor and I had talked about having a V-BAC but then she scheduled me for an ultrasound earlier this week.
Upon inspecting Ziggy's sweet little head we had a heart to heart ... I knew it wasn't good when she said WOW!! after the first head measurement :) then she asked, "does your husband have a big head?" and "do you remember how big your last baby's head was?"
Um, no, but I remember it got stuck & came out with a nice bruise on it!!

So, with kindness she reminded me that having a c-section does not mean failure. Choosing a c-section is what most likely will be best for this delivery, for MY baby and her big head that will grace us in 5 weeks!
I could try for a natural deliver but that most likely would end up in another emergency-ish, c-section like Emma! And I was exhausted after 14 hours of labor and then major surgery. I've been guaranteed that I will not feel as miserable this time and that I might actually remember the day that Ziggy joins us, unlike the day that Emmaline joined us ... I don't remember that day AT ALL!
So, I'm giving up the guilt. I'm thankful that "modern" medicine can get her here safely and I'm going to look forward to holding my sweet girl {and then introducing her to her sweet siblings who are pretty sure she's coming out of my belly button}
No guilt, just a joyful day in March!!

Wordless Wednesday

Because really, what words would I use to describe this picture??

The "BUMP" Update

How far along:

33 weeks ... only 6 weeks to go because of my scheduled c-section at 39 weeks. I cannot believe that this pregnancy is almost done.

Total weight gain:

I have gained 12 pounds with this sweet girl and frankly it all feels like her. I keep telling Jeremy that she's going to be born at 16lbs! I think I feel this way because she's SO high and I can't breathe or tie my shoes or empty the washing maching without interesting poses!

Sleep:

Now that everyone is healthy {minus me} I'm back to sleeping 8-10 hours a night! It's fabulous. I know that sleep is quickly coming to an end so I'm not going to feel guilty about it.



Food cravings:

• Cereal:
• Oranges:
• Anything Jeremy makes: I'm pretty sick of cooking and if our budget wasn't an issue we would eat out for all three meals, 7 days a week but that would be over $600/week to feed our growing family.

Symptoms:

• Heartburn: I’m wondering if baby girl is going to have hair like a monkey because I’ve had some serious heartburn issues the last week or so. And there’s nothing in particular triggering it. Just heartburn.
• Nesting: Yep, this again

Gender:

A sweet baby girl who I think has a name ... at least I'm 89.26526686723% sure she does!!

What I’m looking forward to:

• My mom & then Jeremy's mom visiting!  So selfishly looking forward to that time.
• Our baby shower. My Bible Study friends are throwing us a baby shower & the theme ... diapers & casseroles! Because that is about all we need for this baby diapers and quick food when I fly solo three weeks after delivery.
• Family Pictures!!: We're getting family pictures/maternity pictures taken in a few weeks and I'm super excited. I never had these done with Emma's pregnancy. I'm praying ... PRAYING we capture a few precious moments.
• Seeing her cute face: I can only imagine her looking like Emmaline so I'm excited to see if she looks different, maybe she'll have blue eyes & red hair :)

What I miss:

Nothing of significance this week…but breathing normally would be awesome