Family Life

Austin

Austin's favorite song right now is, "I've Got a Feeling" by the Black Eyed Peas. This cracks me up because I think its hilarious that a 1st grader loves the Black Eyed Peas. I really like this song too so I can't blame him. I picked him up from school and the song was on and he busted out singing the chorus. He knew every word. "This my favorite song, mom!"

Thursday night Austin, Emma Lynn and I went over to the Albert's house around 9 pm. The kids watched "Monster vs. Aliens" while Becca and I talked. We didn't leave till after midnight. We all had a great time visiting, they are great friends. On the way over Austin says, "Mom, I know what sex is." Whoa! Just what you want to hear come out of your 1st grader's mouth. But I am grateful for the teaching opportunity that followed because I was able to explain that sex is special and only for people who are married. He was attentive. I am so grateful that he wasn't afraid to talk to me and that I could explain what we believe about the matter. I hate that my 6 year old was exposed to this already. I won't lie, things like this make me think about home school! We will keep strengthening our family with weekly FHE, daily prayer and scripture study, lots of love and hopefully the lines of communication will stay open. I'm hoping for more sex talks (teaching opportunities) in the future...

Emma Lynn

In the week and a half that Emma Lynn has been 5 she has been more hyper and more excitable than the first years of her life combined. It's strange to hear the words, "You need to calm down, take a deep breath, breathe out, relax." come out of my mouth. These are words I say to Austin on a weekly basis but never Emma Lynn. It should be an interesting year. :)

Emma Lynn is such a wonderful helper to me. I would be lost without her in preschool. I can go to bed earlier now because I know Emma Lynn will help me with some of the prep work that use to keep me up all night last year. What a blessing she is! Washing dishes and sweeping without being asked, what a dream! Thank You! She is making it impossible for me to send her to school next year.

She is reading and it's an exciting world for her. Her sight words continue to improve, she has a quick mind. Austin challenged Emma with his spelling words this week. She spelled them all out loud (which I think is harder than writing them out) and got them all right.

She used her birthday money this week. One of her friends was in the store with her trying to get her to buy all kinds of cute, different things but she found a nice easel (chalkboard, white board and roll of paper combo). Once she saw it there was nothing else that could tempt her. She asked Kurt about 28 times to put it together for her last night :) and breezed through chores this morning in order to create all day. I love her passion.



Spencer

Thursday afternoon we drove over to Fruitland for Spencer to try gymnastics. He was a little unsure and didn't want to join the class. He did everything the class did but not with them. I would really like him to have something of his own to be proud and excited about. And I'd like him to have another teacher who isn't his mother! We'll see how next week goes...

But Spencer is doing really well with preschool. He listens well to me and follows instructions. He hasn't had a hard time switching roles from mom to teacher. Like his siblings he is excited and proud of his school work and homework. It has been a great setting for me to see how much he knows. At home he is always the "funny one." And he rarely gives a straight answer so I was unsure of how much he actually knew. But at school he is anxious to be apart of the group and readily shares the information he knows. I didn't give him enough credit! We are currently working on writing his name.


The "new" computer in the preschool room got set up this week. They love it!

Ruth

Ruth is pretty sure she rules the preschool room. She is right there a part of everything in Spencer's class. Going to school at 19 months, crazy! She's just hanging out with mom (and keeping up with the big kids.)

We are currently weaning her from her bottle. I have tried twice before but she just screamed and screamed so I always gave it back (I wanted to SLEEP!) But she has a large rash caused by the bottle and she is 19 months old for crying out loud! It's been a little over 24 hours since we are bottle free and I really think this is the real deal!


Taken last Sunday (Dress from Russia [it was Emma's.]) She was running away from me. Note the cute pigtails and the last bottle picture...

Most days I realize how blessed I am with my family life. What a good life!