Baby's First Bath

Here's little Elizabeth all snuggled up, belly-full, sleeping not knowing Mommy and Daddy were getting ready to wake her up........

....to this......

She did settle down after a few minutes, right as Daddy was done washing her. She looks rather pensive in this picture, no?

Here she after the trauma- all wrapped up in her towel. In case we had forgotten, the towel reminds us that she's a "BABY" in cute heart letters over her forehead.

Christmas

Christmas Eve- setting out cookies for Santa

Christmas Morning- before opening presents

Our Christmas Angel

The kids' castle that Grandpa built for them

one happy family

Elizabeth Mae

This is the Christmas blanket and hat the hospital gave us.

Here is a close-up of our princess.















My girls












A rose among thorns

Favorite Christmas Songs

I had to subdivide these into my own categories:

Favorite Traditional Non-Religious Song:

"Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas" by anyone

The line, "Next year all our troubles will be miles away" offers such hope :)

Favorite Non-Traditional, Non-Religious Songs:

"The Hanukkah Song" by Adam Sandlar

This one just cracks me up every time I hear it.

"Mele Kalikimaka" by anyone

I like this because it takes me someplace warm.

Favorite Non-Traditional, Religious Song:

"Mary, Did You Know?" sung by anyone

This has become one of the girls favorites too, but I have to stop them when they start singing it to each other- it becomes rather silly when they respond with, "Yes, I did know" in a falsetto voice. Also, they need to learn the real words because we end up with, "Mary, did you know your son was gonna save us?" and such like that.

Favorite Traditional, Religious Songs:

"O, Holy Night" by anyone, but especially Josh Groban

I love to belt this one out whenever I hear it. Doesn't matter that I can't carry a tune- I just belt it.

"O, Come All Ye Faithful" by any church choir/congregation

For some reason, this song always brings tears to my eyes. During the line, "Sing choirs of angels, sing in jubilation, sing all ye citizens of heaven above" I can always picture my departed grandmothers along with Brett's departed grandmother in robes just belting this song out- kind of the way I do to "O, Holy Night" :)

Anyone care to share theirs?

Some Pictures

Here is our family at Thanksgiving.

Here are the kids dressed up for the wedding:

Turkey Talk

We've had a rather quotable Thanksgiving today, so I thought I'd share my favorites....

"It's a mix of red and blue."

That was Brett's smart alec answer to Alyssa's question, "What's The Color Purple?" Of course, she was referring to the Broadway musical that was performing during the parade this morning. And daddy knew that....it's no wonder our 4 year old knows the meaning (and proper use) of the word "sarcastic".

"Am I sick?"

This was Gavin's question after Brett and I were commenting on his sideways viewing of the tv. He seems to prefer watching television out of the side of his eyes- left or right. it's rather amusing to watch, we're just starting to wonder if there is a reason for this.

"Now, it's going to hurt you."

This was Brett's comment to Eli as we were trying to give him a haircut this morning. My aunt's wedding is this weekend and his hair was sticking straight up. Brett always cuts the boys' hair, and Eli usually loves it, but this morning he decided it was hurting him and proceeded to scream at the top of his lungs. And, once you star a haircut, it's pretty impossible to just stop in the middle. Brett got frustrated with Eli's scrreamin and squirming. I mentioned quietly that that may not have been the best way to settle him down.

"Yeah, but what were you for Halloween?"

Another Gavin quote- this one is response to my uncle who was a life-long fireman telling Gavin that he used to be a fireman. Gavin was less than impressed, I guess.

"You need to pick out your wrapping paper now"

From one uncle to another aunt, after we were teasing her about her age. We were all sitting around my other aunt's house where my grandparents happen to reside. My deceased grandparents. They now reside on my aunt's entertainment center in nicely wrapped boxes- floral for my grandma and a more regal, manly stripe pattern for my grandpa.

But, my favorite quote for the day was Eli:

"Happy Thanksgiving, LaaLaa"

This was at about 7:15 this morning. What made this so delightfully amusing was that we thought he was sound asleep. He was laying on his belly, clad only his diaper, in the middle of our bed.

Overall, it was a very pleasant Thanksgiving. It began this morning with the all of us sitting around eating breakfast watching the Macy's Day parade, then heading over to Brett's parents for a turkey lunch, then out to my aunt's for visiting with my family and a little dessert. Poor Gavin crashed in the car on the way home. The girls are now in bed asleep, Eli is of course still wide awake, and Brett and I are flipping between the end of Grey's Anatomy and the Chiefs' game.

So, what does it mean when....

....the drive-thru lady looks down at you and says, " Wow! How far along are you?" To which I politely reply, slightly exasperated, "34 weeks" "MAN!" she says "That's a really big belly for 34 weeks!"

Bragging on my baby girl

I try not to post too many "Mommy brags" on my blog, but with how hard I've worked with Lauri to get her to write, I deserve this brag as much as she does- well, maybe not "as much", but close.

We are working on pronouns right now, and her grammar lesson today required her to write three sentences on a woman from the Bible using her name once and then the pronouns she and her. This is what she wrote:

God made Eve the first girl alive and the second person alive. God told her to not eat the fruit from one tree. She ate that apple from the tree and God told her to go out of the garden forever. She went out of the garden like God said.

She wrote this all by herself, without asking for any help at all. Progress!!!!

TV Watching

Last year, Brett and I never really watched tv. We couldn't follow a show for the life of us. This past spring we picked up Desperate Housewives and Grey's Anatomy- it was a nice end to the weekend for us to relax watching these shows. This year, with Brett being in bed by 8pm, I've joined him and started picking up some new shoes to watch, so our level of "television involvement" has increased. Plus, for some reason, it seems that during pregnancy I can't focus on reading- not a clue why- I can usually read through a couple books in a month, but I just think I don't have the energy that it requires anymore :)

So, last night, we're watching Desperate Housewives, and I am actually shocked by what happened- that doesn't happen to often- and I actually laughed out loud at a couple quotes. The one that sticks out in my mind though, is when Lynette's husband (talking about taking custody of his daughter from a previous relationship) says,

"I thought you didn't want five kids."

And Lynette quickly responds,

"I didn't want the first four either, but they're starting to grow on me."

I looked at Brett and just burst out laughing :)

By the way,the show that follows DH, Brothers and Sisters, is very good. Something about the way the the characters are written-the family dynamic- something- it is really good tv.

Not exactly the type of book club I imagined.....

but still a lot of fun.

I picture a book club as a group of people sitting around with coffee and snacks making pithy comments about wonderful classics.

Tonight, it was sitting around in a circle sharing our favorite book title, drawing a book cover with construction paper and crayons, and playing a game of "pass the book". This was Alyssa's book club that she designed for us. She planned this out all day and made up little cards for us to fill out.

We had a lot of fun sitting around for about 20 minutes going over our favorite books and showing off our drawings.

Halloween Pictures

Nothing like celebrating Halloween with your cousins :)

We have a pink Power Ranger, Robin, a blue Power Ranger, Buzz Lightyear, another blue Power Ranger (from a different season), a Mickey fireman, and a cowgirl.

The kids stayed out for quite a long time. They were frozen by the time they got home, but they all had fun. We now have a grocery paper bag over halfway full of candy. It may not sound like much, but trust me: it is.

Check out the Power Ranger poses from two and the goofy smiles from the other two:

My Boys

Tonight Gavin came busting into our room while Brett and I tried to take five minutes to talk without interruption (a very rare occurrence in our house). He came in a started singing and dancing around. I could barely keep a straight face. We finally managed to kick him out when he came twirling back in a minute later with his "beebee" covering his head. On top of that was Alyssa's American Girl top hat (a sparkly pink) and he was carrying the matching dance stick. He continued to sing and dance around our room, so by this point we gave up talking. He is such a performer its ridiculous.

Eli gets to sleep by laying in our bed at night, and he was in a particularly goofy mood while we were trying to settle him down, so I was asking him all kinds of questions. I asked him, "Are you a baby?" "No" "Are you a big boy?" "No" "What are you?" "Eli boy" He's still awake right now making monkey noises (thankfully quietly since daddy is already asleep) and licking my arm as I type. Side note: We managed to get rid of his "Paby" (pacifier) without any fuss from him. He hasn't even asked for it. Woo hoo! Hopefully, he'll forget all associations with it by the time his little sister is born in 6 1/2 weeks. (YIKES!)

There's Just Something About A Sleeping Baby....

That makes you forget you spent an hour and a half trying to get him to settle down. Eli is now sleeping soundly on my pillow, on my side of the bed. It hard enough to settle him down when he is tired, but when he gets silly, it's almost impossible. How do you look into an almost two-year old's eyes and tell him to "Be quiet, daddy's trying to get to sleep." when all he keeps saying is "I love you too!!! I love you too!!!" And then his eyes go all silly and a smile peeks out from underneath his "paby". He finaly gave in, with two of his doggies by his side. Now, to just transfer him to his bed without waking him up or breaking my back.

Our Baby Girl

Here's a picture from our 3D sonogram this morning. She is definitely a she :) She is also extremely stubborn, and would only show us her full face briefly. She prefers to nuzzle into the placenta or cover herself with her arms and even feet. This is a pretty clear shot of her face.
















This one is a little bit harder to tell, but that is actually her foot poking herself in the eye. You can see her nose and mouth right below.
















The technician was impressed with her chubby cheeks and fat rolls :) You can kind of see how she already seems to have the "nursing cheeks"

Not quite a cold winter's eve, but still...

A good night for hot chocolate. At least for the kiddos. My pregnant body has an internal temperature of about 110*, so although the windows are open (despite the rain) and that it's only 54* outside, I am sitting here sweating, while the littles enjoy their hot chocolate. Poor Eli just gets his "pabie" (that's slang for pacifier around here) dipped in the other kids' cups.

Then, we're downstairs to watch Sleeping Beauty. Why oh why would I subject myself to that after the Little Mermaid incident? Well, I don't have quite the emotional attachment to Sleeping Beauty (or, as we call her around here: Sleeping Booty)

Brett is in bed (been there since 6pm) due to an awful headache and (I'm sure) pure exhaustion. No painting tonight. I'm not quite sure why I'm giving the kids chocolate and marshmallows when I'm ready for bed myself. Maybe the kids take after their father with an immunity to caffeine. Maybe.

Watching The Little Mermaid with my children...

This movie came out when I was about 9 1/2 years old. I consider it a movie from "my childhood". A classic Disney film- the movie that brought back animated features- etc, etc.

So, I was pleased to share it with my children for the first "real" time. They've seen clips of it before, read the books (Disney versions, of course) and are very familiar with the storyline and characters. But this was the first time sitting down actually watching it. I must say, the Disney people did a great job of restoring the color to this movie- it looks fantastic!

What are my children's thoughts on this timeless classic from my childhood?

Alyssa: "How come when Ursula gets ploinked by Eric, it kills her?" Ploinked? Where on earth did she come up with that word. I prefer to say "shish-ka-bobed".

Gavin: "I'm gonna puke!!!!" complete with jumping up from laying down and grabbing his throat (for Gavin to move at all when watching tv is a big deal). This comment came during the "Kiss the Girl" scene just as Eric leans over to kiss Ariel. Sometimes, he's such a boy- those would be the times he's not dancing around singing "Popular" from WICKED or playing dolls with his sisters.

Lauri: "Ursula has huge bo*bs!" She had to repeat this numerous times, and once even added, "They're bigger than my head!!!" That's my little princess.

The kids seemed to loose interest by the very end, although they all wanted to know if Ariel was going to come out of the water naked. Ugh. Brett and I ended up having to tell them to be quiet just so we could enjoy the final scene.

They all asked to watch it again soon- it a Hoedl childhood obsession- watch a movie once, then proceed to watch it as many times as possible in the next two weeks. I think next time we put it on, I'll skip it- maybe Brett and I can watch it in peace and quiet one night :)

Back to Blogging...

It's been a crazy month (!) since I've last blogged. Our Disney World vacation was awesome- I'll try and post some pictures this week, but our computer is taking too long to process things these days.

We are redoing the kids' rooms in preparation for the new baby- so our house is in chaos.

Brett started an early morning job requiring him to get up at 3am five days a week.

Lots to do and we are on an official countdown of 10 weeks from today until our newest family member arrives!!!!!!

I'll blog more later- a couple funny stories to share. :)

Sappy Mommy Post

Brett and I are constantly asked, "How do you.....???" As in, "How do you deal with four kids?" "How do you homeschool with four kids?" "How do you get any quiet time?" "How do you handle it all????" "How do you keep things organized?" "How do you not forget about things?"

These questions are always interesting to me. Mostly because, like most parents, you don't think about the "how", you just do it. Sure, every once in awhile, when I'm around people who aren't used to kids, or are maybe just used to 1 or 2, I'll think about what it must be like to not be used to our chaos. But for the most part, we just do it. Then we go to sleep, wake up, and do it again.

Brett has a friend with one child- a 3 year old daughter. I've only met her once, but she seems like a pretty normal 3 year old girl. Sweet, not too much trouble. They have a 7 year old nephew staying with them for a couple weeks, and Brett's friend text messaged him last night: "I have a new respect for you and Wendy. I don't know how you do it with four." Brett looked at me and said, "I don't even know how to respond to that."

We've never had the opportunity to settle in to a routine. By the time we feel like things have worked themselves into a groove, we've added a new member of the family. I can already feel our groove being set right now, and it just makes me laugh. What? I'm getting all the schoolwork done I planned and then some? I'm keeping the house (somewhat) clean? We're having time to spend together as a family? Oh yeah, this is all happening because in three months we'll have another child.

Don't get me wrong, I don't want it any other way. I honestly couldn't imagine it any other way. Our life is just that- OUR life. It sometimes amazes me that Brett and I are responsible for bringing these four absolutely amazing people into the world. And we're going to have one more.....

Weirdness Continued...

I haven't forgotten about my youngest child. He is definitely weird, too. Sometimes I think there are too many moments to blog about.

After 4 kids, you wouldn't think too many childish things would be new to us. But, Eli has found a way to be unique (besides his blue eyes). He refers to himsef constantly as "ELI!" Everything he says is "ELI go!" "ELI book!" "ELI shower!" And he emphasizes so much on his name that you think he's going to pop. ELI!!!! He also loves to repeat whatever the kids say, so when I sarcastically asked the kids yesterday if they were ready to go do work, and they all sincerely answered, "YES!" (another weird moment ;) He was right there screaming with them. This does have its benefits. On our way home from our first co-op this week, where I taught all 3 hours- leaving Eli in a separate room, I asked the kids, "Who had fun this afternoon?" All four of them responded with a resounding "ME!!!!" Of course, Eli's was a, "ME! ELI!"

And, on another aspect of our "weirdness", it is a race now in the house to see who can memorize all the songs in "WICKED" first. Yes, the musical is three years old, but it's only a week old to the Hoedl family. Hey, it's a step up from "High School Musical" :)

Eli has discovered....

peanut butter.

Yes, we know the "ruls" about not starting peanut butter unti at least two years old.

BUT

His diet was beginning to consist of chicken nuggests, yogurt, and fruit snacks. Literally. That is all he would eat. So, we decided to introduce a new staple. He loves it. He is eating peanut butter on Ritz crackers right now for lunch, and he has peanut butter all over his mouth....kinda like a goatie.

And his other new "discovery": cereal with milk. Specifically, Honey Nut Cheerios.

He's got a wet paper towel right now, trying to figure out how to get the peanut butter off of his fingers.

Good luck, buddy.

Don't Be Afraid....

To leave a comment or two :)

Comment lines are open for everyone- no need to register!

My Weird Children: Part Three

Believe it or not, I don't have to make these stories up. I guess enough odd stuff happens when you have four kids. This story is straight to the computer I'm-stopping-cleaning-the-kitchen-to-come-blog-because-I-can't-stop-laughing. Lest anyone think I'm a prude, the following words are blanked out so no one can find this story looking for less than appropriate web sites.

Gavin is standing next to me as I get him a popsicle out of the freezer. He is doing what some might call the "peepee" dance. "Do you need to pee?" I ask him.

"Nope" he replies.

"Is your p*nis bothering you?"

"No"

"What are you grabbing yourself?"

"I'm just enjoying my p*nis"

I am *so* not prepared to be a mother of a little boy..............

Funny Email Subject Line of the Day

I have an email account that I use mainly for signing up on other websites, for promotions, etc. I always get some weird spam, but today I got an email who's subject line made me laugh:

"Ever wish you were home more often with your kids..."

My Weird Children: Part Two

Lauri loves spelling tests. I don't know why, but she just does. She gets so excited when its Pretest or Posttest day. We were on her first review lesson today, and I thought I'd go ahead a quiz her over all of her words- all 75 of them. When I passed this idea of mine on to her, her face lit up with joy.

"How many words?"

"75"

(Insert wide grin here)

"I'm going to need two pieces of paper for that!!!!"

She went on to only miss 4 out of 75.

My Weird Children: Part One

We can start with my oldest, darling daughter: Alyssa

She was on he way up from playing dress up in the basement when I accosted her with, "Hey, Alyssa! I have a special job for you!!!"
Usually this is meant with groans, but so far she was receptive. "What?" she asked cautiously

"Peeling potatoes!"

How might you expect a "normal" 8 year old to respond to this? Running the other direction? Tears and screams of protest? Nope, not my girl.

"YES!!!" she shouted and immediately went to find the bag of potatoes and the peeler. :)

Lauri's Work

Yea! Blogger finally worked for me! I'm not sure how easy this will be to read, but this is Lauri's history narration from Monday. :) I think I need to set my scanner settings darker.

Week 4

Week four is off to a good start. I learned that we can survive a week with a doctor's appointment, a birthday, and preparations for a birthday party. We managed to finish everything I wanted to once again!!!

The most exciting news of the day is that Pete's Pond is back up!!!! We spent many hours last year listening to the squawk of birds and watching patiently for a giraffe or warthog to visit the pond. Most of the time its just gazelles and various birds, but it's still neat to have a "window" to the other side of the world. Yea!!!

I'm trying to upload some of the girls' work, but blogger is being dumb, so I'll try again later.....

You Know It's The Day After A Birthday When....

....the kids all sleep in because we didn't get home from dinner until 10pm

....you let the kids all play at the train table for an hour after breakfast because they're all getting along with no fights

....you only get the basics-math, grammar, spelling- done today (making up for not taking off his actual birthday)

....you were tempted to eat leftover cookie cake for breakfast :)

You Know It's a Birthday When....

....You actually wake the birthday boy up when he's finally sleeping in because daddy has surprises before he leaves for work

....Breakfast: Donuts

....Lunch: Pizza

....Dinner: A restaurant

Happy 4th Birthday Gavin!!!

The Tie Is Broken...

And the girls win!

The kids were *very* excited to learn that they are getting a baby sister. Now they are obsessed with names. Brett and I are kind of stuck on names, so we are open to any and all suggestions.

Boys vs. Girls

Here are my boys:

And here are my girls:

In less than 4 hours until we find out which side is going to win :)

Starting Week Three...

And so far we've been very successful. I thought I might take the opportunity to share what curriculums we are using this year. A lot of what we use is based on recomendations from The Well Trained Mind: A Guide to Classical Education at Home by Jesse Wise and Susan Wise Bauer.

Gavin started his first real year of school this year. He is working on a PreK/early Kindergarten level. He is working in Rod & Staff Preschool ABC Series, Phonics Pathways, Handwriting Without Tears (currently in the orange book, but we'll probably repeat it), Go For the Code, and various other materials pulled from websites and books. He is still enthusiastic about his work which is encouraging.

The girls are using the same curriculums just at different levels, so I'll list them together (Lauri/Alyssa):

Spelling :Spelling Workout (level B/level F)

Grammar: Rod & Staff (grade 2/finishing grade 3-soon to be starting on grade 4)

Math: Singapore Math (2A/4A)

History: Story of the World Vol 2 (we are about halfway done with this)

Science: We are doing a review with materials and assignments I have pulled together myself. We are quickly going through types of animals, the human body, and earth science before we start on early Chemistry.

Latin: We are joining a newly formed Latin co-op using Minimus Latin. This will start mid-September.

This pretty much covers it. We are also going to be loosely studying American History this year. I'll try and post some of the kids' work, but I'm not sure how the scans will show up on this site.

Oh Say Can You Sing

We are working on our heritage Award for Campfire this year. It requires the girls to learn all about our country. Things like: who the current president is, what the original 13 colonies were, be able to recite the Pledge. They also are supposed to learn the words to the Star Spangled Banner. We practiced it a couple times with our poster this morning, and then we moved on to learning the meaning of the Pledge. Eli didn't want us to stop singing. He grabbed the poster and started screaming. He sat there and made us sing two more times before he was satisfied.


I know this picture looks staged, but it's mainly because Eli says "cheese" every time he sees a camera.

Book Report

I've read a couple good books recently, and I thought I'd share. Two of them happen to be children's books.

Bridge to Terabithia by Katherine Paterson: Somehow I missed this book as a child. I read it the other day because I have heard such good things about it, and I want Alyssa to read it this year. I am trying to do more prereading of her material. This was an amazing book, but incredibly sad. I finished it a little after midnight one night, and I proceeded to bawl my eyes out. Maybe part hormones, but mostly incredible writing.

The Miraculous Journey of Edward Tulane by Kate Decamillo: I read this right after Alyssa did. It only took me a little over an hour. It reads like a wonderful fairy tale and has a moral equivilant to an Aesop fable. It is such a beautiful book. It describes love in a most unusal way. I'm planning on reading this to Lauri and Gavin this week.

Christ the Lord: Out of Egypt by Anne Rice:Brett read this awhile back, and he kept bugging me to pick it up. I did, and I managed to finish it in about three days. You definately have to read this as fiction, but it is still amazingly spiritual. Rice's writing flows well, and it is encaptivating to enter into a child Jesus' thoughts.

I need to decide which book I'm going to pick up next. I'm debating between prereading The City of Ember (by Jeanne Duprau) for Alyssa's September book club or Master and Commander by Patrick O'Brian. I may just go ahead and start both. Since they're so incredibly different, I can't imagine that I'll have any trouble keeping them separate :)

Side note on movies: Brett and I watched Rumor Has It last night with Kevin Costner and Jennifer Aniston. A rather odd plot, but we enjoyed it. Shirley MacLaine was hilarious. It was a fun way to spend a Saturday night. Tonight we're watching Flight of the Navigator. Somehow, I missed this as a child (it came out in 1986), but luckily I'm married to the king of 80s juvinile SciFi movies. Pretty funny that I don't remember this movie, especially since its set where I actually lived in 1986. The girls are really enjoying it, but poor Gavin fell asleep about 20 minutes into it.

Taking Matters Into My Own Hands

After being harassed all week by a black and orange spider that made its home in our office window, the battle is done. I emerged victorious. It wasn't bothering me so much when it kept its home in the windowsill, but once it tried to expand its horizons to hanging down the ceiling right by our desk, I knew it had to end. This was no simple house spider. It would freak out everytime the kids would play the keyboard- sticking out one of its legs like it was going to attack. When it was hanging down the ceiling, it doubled it size.

So, with a bottle of 409, I attacked it in mid-air. About a half a bottle later, it began to weaken and gathered enough courage to take a strike at it with my shoe. Aaaah, sweet victory.

What is it about spiderwebs that once your skin touches even the tiniest bit of one, you are then condemned to feel as if spiders are crawling all over you for the rest of the day. Ick. The price I must pay, right?

Why I let my kids arrange a "sleepover" on a school night....

....they cleaned up all the little toys and trash off the floor to make room for their mattresses

....they have voluntarily put themselves to bed at 6:56 (with a special treat of a vcr tape on our portable tv)

....the three of them agreed to the set-up (and the movie!!!) without the slightest hint of an arguement

....all three of them will be sharing this room soon enough, so let it stay special while it can :)

"How do you spell.....???"

I hear this often throughout the day, "How do you spell...mammal?" "How do you spell heaven?" I hear this probably twenty times a day.

BUT....

"HOW DO YOU SPELL......HOW DO YOU SPELL SPAIN?"

is what Brett and I heard last night as we were settling down for bed. Seems poor Lauri was having some type of dream (nightmare?) about writing something on Spain. Which is odd for two reasons: she keeps telling me how much she loves to write reports and we barely even mentioned Spain yesterday except for a quick note on where it was on our Middle Ages map. Then again, dreams aren't supposed to make sense :) As someone who has the craziest dreams while pregnant, I should know that better than others.

Whoo Hoo! Whoo Hoo Hoo!

Yes, that's the Vonage theme. It's often a celebratory song in our house.

Today its because we got a new stove. We went to THE MART last night, and it was delivered today. Brett just walked in, so now I get to try it out with french fries and potatoes. Yum.

That's our exciting news for the day, so once again.....

WHOO HOO! WHOO HOO HOO!

The Second Day

The first day went well. The second day also went well. We've accomplished everything I've planned and then some :)

Attitudes are a little bit crabbier on the second day for all of us- although my body seems to be adjusting to waking up early, my mind last night was not remembering to go to sleep early.

Gavin is still enthusiastic about "doing school". I've been impressed with Lauri's handwriting and her enthusiasm for writing papers. Alyssa is getting back in the swing of things. She loves the new keyboard we got and practices on that whenever she gets a chance. I need to find her a teacher, I have no musical skills.

Brett is enjoying his new job. He seems to be adjusting fine. I am looking forward to hearing how today went, since yesterday was a lot of orientation.

So far, so good.

The First Day

Today is the first day of Brett's new job.

Today is our first day "back to school".

Today is Gavin's first day of "doing real school".

Today is our first day without digital cable (or cable of any sort).

Today is the first day in a long time that I arose at 6:15am.

Seeing as it's 7:30, the kids are dressed and fed and anxious to do school, we're off to a pretty good start.

Dinnertime Dramatics

Eli is now 18mos old, and he acts mroe and more like a 2 year old these days. We were sitting at dinner last night, and he was eating his food until he saw his big brother eating a Rice Krispy Treat. He threw a fit pointing at the treat and screaming towards towards Gavin. Brett told him "No, you have to eat your food" and then the waterworks came. He stuck out his bottomw lip and began to sob. He threw his hand up on his forehead. Then he froze like that not crying anymore with his eyes closed. We all just burst out laughing. He kept peering out of his eyes to see if we were watching him. Then, Gavin being the way-too-sweet big brother that he is, walked over and gave him the rest of his treat. Brett said, "Gavin, don't you like it?" Gavin replied, "Yes, I love it, but I want Eli to have the rest of mine." The second Eli put it in his mouth, his tears disappeared and he smiled huge :)

~It's The Most Wonderful Time of the Year~

It's the last week of July!!!!!

For me I've double-whammied myself into a lovely predicament. The Jedi Training Academy will be opening for its 5th official year of school next Monday. WOW!!!! That's hard to believe that we've done four full years of homeschooling. Time really flies by. Traditionally, the last week of July is always something special around here because its VBS. 400 kids come to our church every year for three hours in the morning to learn about Jesus, sing, play games, make crafts, and drive me crazy :)

So what does this lovely equation of school starting + VBS = ? Complete exhaustion and mental chaos. We've had to be out of the house earlier than I was waking up last week. Then I spend three hours hoarding kids around from area to area. We get home in time for lunch and then I collapse....... into lesson planning. I've been preparing lesson plans all week (almost done). I am trying to be much better prepared this year. I already know of some major detours during our schooling (trip to Disney, relative's wedding, and oh yeah- a 5th child), so I'm trying to factor all of this in. I've been typing so much (yet here I am blogging) that I think I'm developing carpal Tunnel.

The fun part of trying to prepare your children's education on such little stamina and brain power is the little mistakes you make. Luckily I've caught some before printing anything out, but I'm sure around October I'll be finding typo I didn't catch this week.

Typo #1- Typing up the word worksheet as worksh*t quite a few times on Alyssa's Grammar Lesson Plan.

Typo #2- Typing "Learn Proper Use of Communism" as a lesson title for Lauri's "Use Proper Use of Commas" Grammar lesson plan.

Spoken Mistake- Of course, when I told Brett last night that I thought I was developing corpral Tunnel.

How long till the weekend??????????

Almost

All week I've been looking forward to coming here to post, "THE SCHOOL ROOM IS CLEANED UP AND CLEANED OUT!!!!" Well, the best I can do is say, "The school room is at an acceptable level of disarray."

We've been working all week on packing up old workbooks, throwing out ones we don't need anymore and getting rid of all those broken crayons, dried out markers, etc. My book cabinet (where the kids keep their stuff) now has a feeling of order . Sure, the Little People are still strewn about the floor right next to some Backyardigans books (courtesy of Eli of course), but the little counting/color bears that I've been stepping on all week have finally found a home.

I've actually started scheduling and have picked a first day of school. It is a lot earlier than last year, but I seem to be hearing "I'm bored" and "I have nothing to do a lot more", so I decided an early start is a good idea. Plus, I'm sure once Thanksgiving hits our school year will be a wash until after New Years. Well, depending on when Baby #5 shows up, it could be Valentine's Day.

Saying Goodbye

We came home from our lovely 4th of July vacation to a sad discovery- our hamster of almost 11 months had died. We had given him plenty of water and food (we'd left him this long before), so we're not really sure what happened. This hamster was a gift to Gavin for his birthday last August. Nobody asked for him, we weren't ready to care for a pet, but we did anyway. Gavin was less than thrilled with him at first, bu he grew on all of us. Lauri and Eli really loved him the most. Eli would just sit and watch him run around his cage shouting, "PeeWee! PeeWee!"

We weren't quite sure how the kids would take it, but we didn't want to postpone telling them. We told Gavin first. He burst into tears. He is our extreme emotional child. When we bought hermit crabs that bored the kids and only lived a month, he bawled for days. Everytime he'd pass the empty case int the garage, he'd start crying again. We told the girls and they took a little logner to come to tears, but soon we were all crying (save Eli and Brett).

We managed to cheer the kids up with ice cream.

They are now asking for new pets, but Brett and I have put a hold on any pet shopping until the end of the summer. Whatever we do get, IF we get something, will once again live in a cage/tank of some sort and not require too much effort. After the bawling fest on the couch that night, I have no desire to have another pet ever, but I'm sure I'll lose out in the end.

Harry Potter, Yoda, Mommy Bad Luck, and a Peach

Harry Potter Hide-N-Seek
What does it mean that there are now six Harry Potter books released, and we own each one? Well, last night it meant that as we searched for Book One, we found Book 5 on top of the refrigerator, Books Two and Three actually on the shelf, Book Four downstairs in the tv room, and Book 6 in the bathroom. But Book One? It was a mad hunt for about 10 minutes, before I finally said, "Didn't you leave it in Dad's car?" "Oh yeeaaahhh" was the reply, and the book was quickly found.

Why was there a mad hunt for Harry Potter Book One? Well, Mom here finally decided to join the pack and read the books. Good summer fare, right? And why were the books scattered through the house? That's thanks to our lovely eldest daughter who is habitual re-reader. She will read her books over and over and over again. She grabs one flips it open to her favorite spot and then, of course, leaves it where she may.

The wisdom of Yoda?
We have a talking Yoda who will answer your yes or no questions. Alyssa was messing around with him yesterday. Question One: "Will I have fun today?" "The answer you seek is: Yes" Question Two: "Will I get a rabbit or puppy?" "The force is strong on this one: No" Question Three: "Will I have a baby sister?" "Not even I can answer that one"

I had to smile :)

Bad Luck Streak Over!
Lauri started softball this summer. Not my favorite sport, but she seemed to enjoy it. Some of the games were dreadfully long, but Brett or I were always there cheering her on. Of course, the games where I wasn't able to make it, Lauri hit s couple RBIs and made it to home base. The games I attended she had a couple foul tips, but no actual hits. We decided that I was bad luck.

Well, all that changed last night at her last game :) She had two great hits and made it to third base both times. She also made a couple good runs for the ball and throws. It was a good final game :)

Peachy Keen
Lauri has been reading James and the Giant Peach for a couple weeks now. It is her main summer book that I want her to finish. Every day it is a struggle to get her to read aloud to me. She complains that she doesn't like the book, and is focused on playing outside with the neighbor girls.

This morning she had a really long chapter to make it through before going outside to play. She came and sat down next to me and started reading aloud. She made it through two pages with very minimal mistakes, and at an appropriate pace. She continued on to finish the other six pages without so much as a fuss. She even stopped a couple times real quick to comment on the characters. When she finished the chapter, she said, "I love this book! It's really funny!"

Finally.

Style Challenged

Here are the pictures of my new yellow bedroom :) I am trying to decide if the comforter that I picked out matches the wall color. Any thoughts?????

Back To Posting

After a couple months break- I'm back on blogging. Here is what I've been busy with the past couple of months

Here's baby "Tie" as in tie-breaker. Not sure if the boys or the girls will win this (FINAL) round. S/he was so cute. The second s/he came on screen s/he was waving to us. You can see his little hand right above his belly. S/he was showing off for us. Considering that s/he is only about two inches longs, this is pretty incredible. Even this being our fifth time around it doesn't cease to amaze me.

Oh, by the way, the sonogram gave us a due date of December 26th- lovely :)

Our New Neighbors

Here are our new neighbors

They are kind of hard to see all nestled in there- this picture was taken when there was only three, now we are up to ten. Here's an outside shot of their new abode~

Yep, that's our grill. Our grill we won't be using at all this Spring due to our new neighbors. I watched them slowly move in, piece by piece not thinking much of it- then BOOM- eggs. The nest is pretty elaborate. Brett and I wouldn't dream of wrecking it- at least not until the baby birds have flown the nest :)

Here's are other addition to our backyard.

And that's Brett hiding an egg by the rim, not trying to take a cheap shot :) We have really enjoyed the hoop a lot already. It was great yesterday for our Easter get together- we played a fun game of three-on-three.

Sidenote: Don't EVER play basketball barefoot on concrete, my feet are still killing me!

Suffering Suffragettes

If you've ever seen Jay Leno's "Jaywalking" then you know that people can say/do the stupidest things in front of a camera. Here's a clip that supports this- (just fyi- this site has some inappropriate clips on it, but this clip is completely clean)

http://www.break.com/index/suffrage.html

I'm not one to brag on my kids a lot- but I watched this clip with Alyssa. After the first two girls, I paused it and Alyssa if she knew what suffrage was- She said, "I read that book about the suffragettes. They were the ones who got women to vote. " Then she burst out laughing at the remainder of clip- figuring how these girls were signing to give up their right to vote.

Those Pics I Promised

Here's the birthday girl~

Here's Gavin not so happy. Our food took quite awhile, and the atmosphere's neatness wore off

quickly. He said, "(insert mad voice) I'm hungry! Where's my food? (insert silly voice) What did I order again?" He has absolutely no patience. Brett and I joke that he's like that lady on the commercial who orders a latte and then and soon as the guy turns around to make it says, "Where's my latte?"

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All is better here after his belly was filled with pizza, pasta, chips and of course cookie cake.

Blogging a birthday

Yesterday was Lauri's 6th birthday. We started the morning with donuts (of course). She insisted that they have the day off of school, so our morning began cleaning out her closet. She was excited to go through old winter clothes and left over summer clothes, to make room for the tub of clothes we just got out of storage.

We finished that and had some free time before lunch, so I asked her what she wanted to do. She is not as into tv as the other kids, so I was surprised when she said she wanted to watch a movie. Okay, I say, which one?

Titanic.

She has become very interested in the Titanic recently after Alyssa had her own little burst of interest. She has been pouring over books that show pictures and drawings of the Titanic and its' sinking. So, I put it on, and we watched the first hour. I tried to explain how the story of the characters isn't real, but a lot of the stuff that happens is real. I think she got it- sort of.

After lunch, we went to the YMCA for a tumbling class and to swim. When we returned, we finished watching the movie (skipping over some less than appropriate scenes).

We had dinner last night at the Rainforest Cafe at Oak Park Mall- after going to make a chick at Build a Bear. Lots of fun :)

I'll post some pictures later-

For all my homeschooling friends....

Go and read the post titled "It all begins with me", about halfway down the page, on a blog I frequent- Mental Multivitamin.

Homesick

Last weekend, the middle kiddos went down to the Lake with Grammy. They've done this before, and they always have a great time. This time was no different except one thing. They called more times this weekend then ever before. Gavin has repeatedly told me, "I missed you when I was at the Lake, Mommy". He's said this before, but now he has a name for it. "I'm sick." he keeps telling me. "What's wrong?" I ask. "I'm homesick." I then remind him that he
can't be homesick when he's at home.

Last night was the kicker though.

Saturday night Grammy had 3 extra kiddos at the Lake house for a sleepover, including Gavin's best little buddy- his almost 3 year old cousin (A). He said last night, "I hope A's not sick." I said, "I don't think she is. Why?" "Because she spent the night at the Lake house with me, and I was homesick. I hope she isn't homesick too." I tried to explain to him that being homesick isn't contagious.

The mind of a 3 1/2 year old.

Just for DeeDee

Since I've been personally requested to update my blog, I guess I should get back on. No real reason for not posting in the past couple weeks except for busyness. We had a minor catastrophe last week when Gavin lost Beebee for a week. We searched the house up and down, in and out. Finally, Sat night, he came up to my work with Grammy and bought a new one. Of course, when cleaning up her room Tuesday Alyssa found it. Stuffed inside a tiny little doll backpack.

I thought for sure he would abandon the new beebee, but now he has "The Beebee Brothers". He carries them both around and sleeps with both of them. He constantly reminds me that they are both boys.

Eli has really started talking more. Anytime someone walks into a room, they get a double handed wave and "Hi hi hi hi hi". Same if someone leaves "Bye bye bye bye bye". It's pretty cute.

I went for a health assesment on Tuesday. They weighed me, took my body fat levels, tested my heart, flexibility. Let's just say I have a great heart :) Everything else needs some work. I knew that already, but this gave me some more motivation.

I'll try to post a picture of Gav with his Beebee Brothers later, and I still need to get our school and office pics up.

How do YOU celebrate???

And no, I'm not talking about Ash Wednesday. Yes, we do celebrate Ash Wednesday, complete with the Imposition of Ashes. Yes, it is a very special day marking the beginning of Lent- a season when we celebrate our Lord's triumph over death.

But- today is not only Ash Wednesday. It is also National Pig's Day. Every March 1st. When we discovered this last Fall, preparations were already being made. A list was drawn up, "What To Do On Pig's Day". While I don't think we'll get to all of it (I'm not real keen on the idea of a mud fight), we did start out with the appropriate Pig's Day Breakfast. That's a pig made out of a donut and donut holes.


During breakfast, we had a wonderful Latin lesson- Pig Latin, that is. We've got a stack of pig books to read and we may even make some pig crafts in a little bit. And of course, to finish off the night, Pig in a Blanket for dinner.


Sidenote: Fell asleep after folding laundry last night at 6:30. So, we did not finish the basement. Soon. Soon.

Basement Remodeling...

We are *almost* done with our basement. The walls are painted, the carpet is laid, the furniture is in. We just need to stock the bookshelves, hang the posters, and keep organizing the toys. I am very excited at the way it all turning out! Hopefully I'll have pictures to post by tomorrow!!!

A journey of 50 lbs begins with....

6!

We joined the YMCA 2 1/2 weeks ago. I was reluctant to get on the scale the first time because I wasn't quite sure where I was at. Then I figured out that I need to lose 50 pounds to be at a healthy weight. I got back on the scale on Wednesday, and I discovered that I've lost 6 pounds!!! I am very excited about this. I haven't been on any strict diet- I have paid a bit more attention to what I'm eating, but I know this is mainly due to getting off my butt and exercising.

For what we pay at the Y, we are definitely getting our money's worth. They have classes for the girls every day, and twice a week they have a tumbling class that Lauri and Gavin can attend. It's been great for everyone in the family- except Eli. He's still adjusting to the nursery. He doesn't cry a lot, he's just very clingy to whoever is in there. I'm hoping this will get better over time. That's my only complaint about the place (but I understand where they're coming from)- kids 3 and over are in a separate room from those 2 and under. So, poor Eli is all by himself.

I am so encouraged by my progress. I know that it will take some time for those other 44 pounds, but I truly believe they will be gone!

Not your usual trip to the Lake

When we visit the Lake, we usually go tubing, walking, etc. Fun in the sun.

This is what we got when we visited Beaver Lake this past weekend.

The kids had a blast sledding down the driveway, despite the fact that it was not even 30*.

Daddy was mainly catching them as they got to the bottom. Sometimes they would smack right into the house. They just about the Suburban more than a handful of times. We were lucky, though, they never once went past our grasp. Good thing too, since this is where they would of ended up.

And no trip to the lake would be complete without a visit from a random dog.

"Are you going to read this book?"

"Cause I'm going to tell you about it anyways"

This was Brett last night, wanting to share about the current book he's reading Christ the Lord: Out of Egypt. I always tease him about ruining books for me. He likes to share interesting facts or quotes from whatever he's reading.

Truthfully though, I like when he points something out to me before I get to it. Then, when I get to that part in the book, I think of him :)

Happy Valentine's Day

Boys will be boys

We had our Campfire meeting at our house this afternoon. Luckily, we were blessed with wonderful weather, so when all activities were finished, the kids were able to go out and play. There was about 10 kids, but they were all playing nicely, so we were only checking up on them occasionally.

I went out to take my turn to peek at the kids, and I saw Gavin facing the fence. I couldn't tell if he was looking at someone else or if he was upset about something. I asked him what he was doing, and he answered, "I'm peeing!"

I got him to come inside right away, and I sent him to his room. I sat down to talk with him about why we don't urinate not only in front of others, but especially in our backyard. I said, "Do you want the other kids to see you pee?" and he promptly replied, "But they were laughing!" Yes, he definitely has the makings of a class clown.

Childish

"Lots of students can eat lunch in a childish."

This was the sentence Lauri composed in her current Explode the Code. The correct word was "dining hall" not "childish", and I was surprised at her answer. I had her read it aloud to me. Here's what she said, "Lots of students can eat lunch in a childish. You know, child-dish."

I just had to laugh.

Oh, by the way,

guess my Mommy instincts were wrong. Went to see the doctor on Friday and he said that "The second ear I looked in was redder than the first, so I guess it is an ear infection" Didn't really convince me, but we've been giving the antibiotics anyways. He does seem more himself today. He's actually eaten 2 yogurts. Hopefully he'll sleep better tonight.

Went on a date last night...

with myself. Brett had poker night at our house, one set of grandparents had the oldest three at the movies, and the other set kept the baby for a couple hours. I went and had a nice, quiet dinner at Panera Bread, then went over to Borders to browse. I ended up getting a sampling of Martin Luther's writings. Then, I headed across the street to Half-Price Books and found two books on Latin- The Complete Idiot's Guide to Learning Latin and The Big Gold Book of Latin Verbs. I'm hoping these will help our Latin studies which have come to a sort of standstill for a while now.

This is NOT the look of my baby today

Instead, his eyes are glasy, his chheks red, and his demeanor almost pathetic.
He's been running a slight fever all daydue to teething (so my mommy instincts tell me). He's been in either my arms. Alyssa's arms or his bed all day. No floor time, no playtime. I'm praying that he'll be better tomorrow. It's so sad to see my usually into-everything toddler just flop his head down on my chest.

Another Picture

Trying out a new way of loading pictures-

This was taken at a family wedding last October. The girls were the flower girls and Gavin was the ring bearer.

Trip to the zoo

This was our most recent trip to the zoo. We decided to take off last Tuesday afternoon. The weather was about 60 degrees. We recieved zoo passes for Christmas (thanks mom and dad!), so we can go whenever we feel like it. Most of the zoo was closed for either renovations or due to the fact that it was January and it's not supposed to be 60 degrees, but we had a great time anyway. We took our time and ended up spending 2 hours there! It's kind of hard to see in this picture, but they had the crayons out where you could face paint with them. And yes, they are all wearing their matching JEDI t-shirts. I was actually wearing one too, but no one was there to take my picture :)


Poor kid didn't realize you had to put a quarter in to be able to see.




Eli loved his first trip to the zoo.





We had a great time. We packed our own snack of freshly popped popcorn (with a real popper- no microwave!), brought our own water bottles, and just took time to relax and play. It was a great reminder for me of why we chose this lifestyle- being able to learn outside the class, building relationships between our children, and just enjoying ourselves.