Jack is 8 Months

 

Last week Jack was 8 months old!!! (and I took these pictures on that day- I'm just way behind!) 

 

Jack is still a little ray of sunshine! He has such a sweet smile and so many facial expressions! It is fun to see his personality starting to grow.

He loves to play. He follows his brother and sister around when he can keep up, and loves to play in the bedrooms with all the toys. I let all the kids play alone together sometimes in their rooms, and they have lots of fun.

Gus and Jack are still best buddies. Gus tries to wrestle with Jack all the time which I have to keep an eye on! I can't wait until Jack can hold his own- they will have so much fun.

Maddie loves Jack too, but she doesn't like it when he touches her or her blanket or her cup :)

Last time we weighed Jack he was 18 lbs, so I'm sure he is close to 20 now. He has been growing a lot!

He enjoys eating, although he still doesn't have any teeth. I can't wait until they come in because he will be so happy when he can eat what everyone else is eating.

He isn't sleeping through the night yet, but I think that's mostly my fault. He still sleeps in a pack-n-play in our room, so letting him cry it out doesn't sound very pleasant to us. But he is going for longer stretches most nights.

Jack - you are such a handsome boy! We all love you so much and are so thankful you are a part of our family.

Love for you always,

Mommy

I'm an Aunt again!!

I'm finally getting a moment to blog!

This last weekend I got to meet my new niece!!! I was so excited when I found out my sister was going to have a girl- someone to share all of Maddie's cute clothes with! Of course it's not all about the clothes. :) I'm just so thankful for a healthy baby and mommy.

I also got to meet my parents' new dog- Biscuit! I love puppies!

All the girls went and did a little shopping one morning while we were there. We hadn't all been out shopping in a very long time- it's always fun to shop with my mom and sister!

We went out to dinner with my sister and her husband with no kids. Yay for a date :)

Gus and Maddie had so much fun playing with their cousin. This makes me even more excited to have another cousin to add to the family.

Gus is always in heaven when he get to visit and do "cowboy" stuff and help Big Daddy with the cows.

My grandparents came down to visit too. We had a fire outside one evening and cooked smores with the kids for the first time.

All the girls!!

It was a quick trip, but it was worth it as always.

Homeschool Preschool Day 1

Today was a big day at our house. I planned for it for weeks. We started our homeschool preschool! 

Back last Fall I did a little with Gus, but I was pregnant with Jack. I never was able to get things together in the Spring to do anything. 

I'll share what I have started doing with the kids right now. I may find I need to change something after we have done this a while, and I'll try to do occasional updates.

I got a fun chore chart. Gus was ready to do things this morning that he saw on it. It has pictures, and he came and told me he had brushed his teeth although that was for him to do before bed. He caught on pretty quick. :)

Children love a schedule. Ours is not super strict or much different than what we usually do. But with this the kids know what to expect. Today was our first day using this schedule. Most things didn't not take as long as I thought, so we were ahead pretty much all day. It is having a basis that is important. We started school about 9:15 because we were ready.

1) I bought a curriculum called Hands On Homeschooling last Fall. I bought the one for 3 yr olds, so I'm still using it now. I wanted something that was very scheduled to start. Now that I've looked at it and had more time to think about it, I am not doing everything that it lists to do, and I'm adding some other things. 


2) I started the day having us sit down and sing. Doesn't that sound so picture perfect?!?! And how it actually went was Maddie was crying. I got her juice and she was lying in the floor with her blanket and juice. It's all about being flexible :)

3) I have a calendar, and we are learning the months of the year, days of the week, and about weather. I found a cute weather song on Pinterest to sing to think about what the weather was like for the day. Then I had the kids look outside and see what the weather was.



4) I saw this book at Mardel, and I felt like it would be perfect for us. The curriculum just had one story per week. I wanted to make sure Gus and Maddie knew all the Bible stories everyone knows. And this worked out perfectly this morning. We read the story, and then they started coloring and I turned on the song. As I told them the story for the day, I tried to think of ways for them to remember the story. (hand signs, rhymes) I repeated them over and over, and I plan to review each day what we already have read. Although Maddie is still little, she did great coloring, and I know she'll pick up on parts of the stories as we go.



5) The curriculum has a verse to learn each month. This month I am doing the recommended one. I found a print out of the verse to put up on our board. Then I say it over and over with the kids. Gus has learned all the verses we have done in the past really well.

6) We then work on writing. Today it was just drawing lines. But in a week or so we will start working on the alphabet.

7) Some days we will have other activities/crafts. Today we didn't.

8) After finishing, the kids have a snack. I then sat on the couch with a stack of books to read. Maddie made it through a few and then was playing while Gus and I read. They love to read. And it's wonderful for them. Honestly, I do not like reading outloud. But I know how important it is for them so I do it anyway :)

I am just hoping and praying I can be consistent with all of this for the kids. Do you do anything with your kids? Please share because I'm always looking for ideas!